Free Websites: Membership sites and websites give different benefits. Nearly every career professional I know has a profile on at least one membership site. Some of these professionals have their profile on several sites. They put their names on the list among hundreds of millions of other professionals and businesses.
Membership sites are terrific to build your career and promote your business. However, these sites have limitations on the types of material and the size of the post you can make.
Websites are more dynamic than profiles on membership sites. There are over forty free web publishing platforms that include free web hosting. None of these web-publishing platforms is any more complicated than using a personal computer.
Here are some instances where I have published on free web platforms.
- Tumblr.com (http://jaywren.tumblr.com)
- Blogger (http://jaywrencpgcareers.blogspot.com)
- Blogger (http://jaywren.blogspot.com)
- WordPress (http://jaywren.wordpress.com)
- Medium.com (https://medium.com/@jaywren)
WordPress free web publishing platform remains the leading choice among web publishers. However, since Yahoo bought Tumblr.com, Tumblr has rocketed to the top in terms of the platforms of interest. Here are the rankings based on Google Trends for December 2013
| Tumblr.com | 46 |
| Wordpress.com | 29 |
| Blogger.com | 25 |
| Weebly.com | 15 |
| Medium.com | 2 |
I love Tumblr.com for four reasons.
- The theme I use, “The Minimalist,” is so clean and professional.
- Tumblr.com provides links with my self-hosted website so that all of my new posts also appear on Tumblr.com.
- There are a lot of my favorite bloggers and major publications that use Tumblr.com. I get their feeds when I sign into my Tumblr.com account.
- People who use Tumblr.com are a different audience from the people on the other places I post content. I get a great new audience.
If you have decided to build a career or business website, there is no need to pressure yourself to make your website huge. Some website content is little more than the name of a company or person and the contact information. However, these sites still come up in search engine results.
Allow yourself more freedom in your topic choice than you would in a letter or a resume. One of the reasons for using websites is to get more freedom to publish more about yourself or your company. Here are some subjects to help you get some ideas for what you might publish on your free website.
- Your resume
- Pictures of your business or your work.
- Samples of your work
- All the things that would make your resume too long
- New skills you are learning
- New services and products from your company
- Your new job when you get one
- New clients or customers you have signed
- Nice things about people and companies who have helped you
- Detailed discussions of volunteer work that would help you get a job or charities that your company supports
- A list of the clients or products you have managed and the successes you have had with each one
As you write more articles, search engines will list your website more often. You or your company will create more impressions for the public to see as you add pages to your website.
Although you focus on material that will promote your career and your interest, you can write articles about any subject. Matt Mullenweg, co-founder of WordPress, is probably the most famous blog writer in the world. This year (2013), “Forbes” and “Time” listed Mullenweg as one of the most influential people under age 30. On his personal website, Mullenweg writes about the his digital and investment businesses and the tech sector, but he also writes about music, photography, and other interests.
Choose the website platform that works for you. Just remember that there are over forty completely free platforms on the Internet. You can use these website to build your business and your career by simply putting a website online.