I created a new website… again
My latest personal/profile/portfolio (whatever you want to call it) website was at devjm.com. I liked this URL (still do, actually) because it’s short and sweet. Only five characters long, not counting the “.com”, and it conveys all I need. I’m a developer “dev” and my initials “JM”.
I got to thinking, though. Rather than my URL conveying that I’m a developer and including my initials, I’d rather the URL be my name. You know, I might not be a developer forever (no plans of stopping anytime soon!)… but either way, using my name seems like a better option. I would have done this when I first created my own website, but since I first looked for jasonmitchell.com, it was already taken. So, I went with the 2nd best option (for it being a personal site) — a “.me” domain, because it’s me 😉. My new personal website is at jasonmitchell.io now.
I’ve created a handful of different personal websites over the years (and just websites in general). I’ve also used many different platforms to create them: self-hosted Wordpress, Wordpress.com, Squarespace, writing my own HTML/CSS… and more?
This was another reason I wanted to create a new site — I work at GoDaddy now. I’ve always purchased every domain I’ve ever had through GoDaddy, but I’ve never used their website builder… until now. I could have just transferred the records for devjm.com (which is built with Squarespace) to point back to GoDaddy’s website builder and build that site with it, but there were still the other reasons of wanting to use my name as the domain.
As far as the difference with building a website through Squarespace and GoDaddy’s website builder, I won’t really get into the comparison. They’re both nice and each have their own pros and cons from what I’ve seen. I also still have a little more setting up to do with my new site.
Oh, and a side note or disclaimer, just in case — all opinions or views are my own and don’t represent my employer (or whatever legal disclaimer makes sure everyone knows anything I say is not speaking on behalf of GoDaddy). Hopefully that won’t be needed, but you know, CYA!
15 May 2021 update:
I’ve ended up moving jasonmitchell.me over to Squarespace. Before you yell at me “but you work at GoDaddy!”, let me explain… I still like GoDaddy (and work there on the iOS app). I still have all my domains purchased through there, as well. The reasons it made sense to use Squarespace for my new site are:
- I recently paid my annual renewal for my Squarespace site, whereas I was still on the month trial for GoDaddy’s site builder
- I could combine devjm.com and jasonmitchell.me to essentially be the same site (try it out, go to devjm.com — even with any extensions, like “/contact” — it’ll take you to jasonmitchell.me on the correct page)… This isn’t possible if the sites are hosted through different companies (not easily, at least)
- With that, I just went through and made updates to my old, now new site (I think it looks nice… let me know what you think!)
- There were also some customization options I couldn’t do otherwise (i.e. social links for anything, more control over layout/design, and some more)
- SEO is included in the base plan
- Basic analytics are included and set up without extra intervention (I’d like to see how few people visit my site, haha!)
So, there you go. I still like and would recommend both GoDaddy’s website builder (and Squarespace’s too) and I’m still working there… but in my specific case, it made sense to keep my site hosted at Squarespace — for now, at least!
15 May 2022 update:
And what do ya know?! I moved it again… exactly one year later.
Why? Squarespace was renewing, so I re-evaluated and decided to move to GoDaddy now.
I do still work there. That—along with the nice website builder—it just makes sense.