Anyone working as a freelancer these days should have a personal website that includes biographical information and links to your current work. While posting your profile on sites like HubPages, Facebook, or Linkdin is useful, a personal website provides a way for you to control what is known about you on the Internet. 

With Apple’s iWeb application, you can construct a personal website in less than a couple of hours and then update site as your freelance work expands and changes. 

Here are some tips for creating your personal website using iWeb.

1. Purchase a domain address for your personal name. Domain services like Godaddy.com are very affordable. You address can include a .com affix to it, but you might save a little money and just get a .info domain addres, for the main purpose is to provide information about you; you’re not presenting yourself as a company or organization. 

Once you get your personal domain name, set it up to forward to your personal iWeb site. The default web addresses that you get through your MobileMe server account are typically long and are not useful for sharing with people. So by using domain forwarding, people will have an easier time typing your personal URL and accessing your site.

2. Open iWeb and choose a theme that reflects your personality. Less cluttered themes work best for those seeking information about you. 

3. You might want to use the About Me page of a iWeb theme as your homepage. It should of course include your resumé or a simple bio about what you do. The important thing is that your bio be brief but informative—about three paragraphs. A page should also include a nicely done or professional headshot of yourself, which helps visitors to your connect with you personally.

3. With iWeb ’09,  Apple included some very useful tools for customizing webpage pages. One tool that will be useful if you’re a Hub writer or write consistently for any other site is the RSS Feed tool found under View>Show Media. You can drag this tool to your About Me page or any other page on your site and paste an RSS feed to your published articles, photographs, or other archived web content. By including this feed, you don’t have to constantly open iWeb to post your currently published articles.

YouTube 

Another useful gadget in the Media tool box is for your posted YouTube videos. You might consider doing a short video in which you talk directly to your visitors, providing more information about yourself and your services. Again, this production should be as professional as possible. 

Blog

iWeb also includes a blogging feature which you can use to keep your readers updated about your work. However, I’ve found that because you must open up iWeb in order to add blog post/pages, it can be a little time consuming. There’s no web-based editing client for your iWeb site, so you might consider if it’s worth your time to haul out iWeb in order to maintain a blog.

Downloads

You can also include documents or other file downloads on your site. You will need to export the files you want to make available for download to your iDisk Public folder, then set up a link to those individual files. The link setup is in the Inspector panel of iWeb.