If you’re willing to spend $10 a year, you can buy www.YourName.com from a provider like NameCheap.com or GoDaddy. 

Otherwise, for free you would have something like YourName.weebly.com, which is okay, not great.
(Like this site at the moment, AdamINeedAWebsite.weebly.com)

Take this site, for instance (AdamGreenberg.com). I've built it completely for free with Weebly. 
(No, they're not paying me to say that.)

It’s actually hosted at AdamGreenberg.weebly.com. I pay $10 a year to lose the weebly extension, and I get anyEmailAddressBlahBlahBlah@AdamGreenberg.com included free.

Shameless plug: Register your new URL withGoDaddy using the code “WOWAdamG” and get 10% off that $10 domain name. (Full transparency, yes, they will give me $10 for recommending you. Just don’t buy any of the additional offers they’ll throw at you during checkout.) 

BUT WAIT. Yes, I’ll help you make your new free site, free.

I’m happy to do it.

Said that too?

In this 2 part series, I’ll reinforce why you need a website and how inexpensive, easy to make, and maybe even fun it really is.

$Free.99 or, at most, $10 a year and no ads, anyone? 

At some point, we've all now asked ourselves, "Should I make a website?" 

If you haven't opened your windows and heard it barreling toward us already, let me join in on the bullet-train chorus in answer to that:

YES.

Even by asking this question, you're probably already aware that as the Internet continues, it will surely be in your best interest to curate some sort of online presence. 

Most of us already do this in some capacity. In the very least, you'll want to manage what's returned about you in a 0.48 second Google search of your name.

Yes. You should absolutely have, at least, a very simple website.

Particularly, if you consider yourself even a semi-creative person. 

And still, even if you don't.

It doesn't have to share much. Your website can be one-page with just an email address to get in touch.

Another option is a simple hub that links to your most important professional profiles. Curate those too.

If you’re looking for a job, post your résumé. 
And even if you’re not.

A non-static home for that lone icon of your professional brand, your résumé online is dynamic. Change it as often as you like. No typos there. No need to re-print 11 times.

The kicker is search, being able to be found.

Of course, you can opt to tell no one about it and use the site only for its included and more professionally branded email address. 

YourFirstName@YourLastName.com looks so much better on a résumé than anything@gmail.com. (And forget @aol or @hotmail. Come on people.) Moreover, this is not a new email account to manage, but simply free forwarding to whatever email you already use. It just looks better.

Or you can tell everyone.

So if nothing else, that 0.48 second Google search will reassure your would-be employer that you're not still living in 1998. 

Control that search.

But don’t stop at de-tagging negative Facebook posts (stupid drinking photos, anyone?). 
Go further, share the good things. 

We already do this on Facebook. 

Do it on your website.

Curate a portfolio of your professional accomplishments, archive your grandma's photos from the Old World, blog about your new kid, your hobby for building model airplanes - whatever it is, a blog will help develop your writing voice. Not for fame, fortune, or anyone else necessarily; for yourself.

Keep in mind:

Having a professional or even personal website shows you have a degree of awareness and an understanding of the Internet world we live in. 

Just be smart about what you share.

Your name is your brand. 
(A poem about your name.)

Don't ignore its potential in the world of online real estate.

Because a URL is real-estate in the Internet. You may not know what you want to host now, but you’d be wise to control YourName.com. Particularly if you’re young and might consider having some kind of public presence in the future.

Of course, you can go to the other extreme and share as much as I do here. Pictures of a flag I've traveled the world with, anyone? ... Bueller.

My $0.02 is don't be afraid to share some of your personality. You are a real person.

The best URLs are YourName.com, orYourLastName.com (giving you (or your relatives too) the ultimate FirstName@LastName.comemail address). Something short and clever directly related to your career’s work also makes a good URL … sometimes. But a name like that might not be relevant for long; your projects will change. Your name most likely won’t.

Is yours available?

On Friday, I’ll address this question in Part 2.

And you know the short answer:
No. Absolutely not.

(And I'll freely help you make one, for free.)

BONUS: Lastly, my buddy Thomas Frank over at CollegeInfoGeek.com has a wonderful guide on the essential components of a great personal website.

So what's your URL? What do you already post or what are you going to put on your new website? Disagree? Share below. Thanks for reading.

Do you have a good cause that can use some web assistance? Let me know.

Don't need my help? Weebly.com is a fantastic and free way to do it yourself. Enjoy.