Hey guys, you may have seen a video I did a while ago
about putting together a design portfolio and today I want to
talk to you about why I think having web site could be really useful
for people in other careers as well. This video is in collaboration
with Wix which is a service that allows you to create free websites
And I got the idea for it when they got in touch with me about sponsoring a video on my channel and
I took a look at their site
and there's a line on it that says "we believe everyone deserves to
have their own stunning website" and that got me thinking that not only does everyone deserve
to have their own website but it could be really helpful for your career
as well. Even if you career isn't one like design where a website is expected of you
These days you online presence is super important and you have to realize that
your employer may Google you just to see what information is
out there about you and wouldn't it be best if what comes up
is a site that you've created with the information that you want to give them
rather than like your blog from when your teenager or
something your friend has tagged you in or something like that. As nerdy as it is to
say your personal brand is really important and I think everyone should have
a website that they can use as like hub for their online presence
with all their social media connected, a blurb about yourself, that sort of thing
Maybe treat it like an online business card or resume
you could also use it as the place to keep links to any projects you've done
and I'm trying to keep this really general but say for example
you're a writer and you don't have a blog yourself but you've contributed writing to
other websites, having links to them on your website could be a great place to
keep all that information together and
as a little point for anyone looking at it to go and find work that you've done
I asked on twitter what professions you guys are in or going into once you finish
studying so that I can give you a few more examples of how a website could be helpful
Rebecca said that she is a preschool teacher so for her I could imagine
a website with a nice big picture of her, possibly in a classroom
a little blurb about herself and her work experience and possibly even some
testimonials from the parents of the kids in her class
talking about her awesome teaching abilities
Nat is a swimming and Zumba instructor and for her I could image a site with lots of
action photos
Again some testimonials from people in her classes could be cool and it would be really great to use
the site as a base for all the information on where she's teaching and when
Basically having your own website is just gonna make you look super professional
and it might even give you the upper hand on other people who are applying for the
same job as you
Just treat it as your home base and think about what sort of information you'd like
potential employers to know about you and that's what you should put on there
Even if your profession isn't one that
really lends itself to having anything more than an online resume
I think that's still really useful to have. The thing that's often a barrier for
people when it comes to creating their own site is not knowing how to code it or
design it and I think too often people don't try because of that, because they think
that it just won't be good enough no matter what they do. You should check out Wix
because it's a free service and their goal is to make it really easy for you to get a
website up and running. There's lots of templates to choose from and they're
all really easy to customize so you don't actually need to know anything about building a site
to be able to use it. There's lots of options to show portfolio type work, maybe if you're in the
creative industries that could be
really useful or just have a one pager about yourself like I mentioned in my
blog design advice
video I think with templates it's best to stick with plain one and customize it
using your own
colours and imagery. there's loads of editing options on Wix but I would advise
that just because you can edit everything a lot doesn't mean you should
The templates are pretty robust so you shouldn't need to make more than a few
tweaks to get something that you really happy with. It's really easy to find
templates based on the type
site you wanna make but don't feel like you have to stick to that. For example I
think that this web design portfolio
theme really lends itself to nice big images and text
even if you're not showing off web designs and this interior design portfolio
has really nice clean basic
layout to start with. I've made this site for my sister using that theme as
an example of something really simple you could do to tell people about who you are
and what you do
and there's a link in the description box if you feel like checking that site out for yourself
it's really common in the creative industries have a website to talk about
yourself and show your work but
outside of that industry and I don't think it's that common and I think it should be a thing
I think everyone should have their own little space online but I'd love to hear your
thoughts on that
what do you think about it website? what profession are you in and how do think a website could
suit that? leave them down below in the comments and we can have a chat about it
Give this video thumbs up if you liked it make sure you hit that
subscribe button if you'd like to hear more from me and I'll see you next week. Bye!