New to Web Development? Run Your Own Website

Published on February 27, 2025, filed under Development (RSS feed for all categories).

One day in April 2012, I was in a somewhat cheesy situation: I had been in New York City for a Google office visit, it was night time, and I got into a taxi to bring me to John F. Kennedy International Airport.

The taxi driver and I were making small talk. He told me he thought about getting into tech, web development specifically—your and my field—, and asked about my advice.

My answer?

“Set up your own website.”

I’m not sure how wise I really was in 2012, but I like to repeat and underscore this advice.

Running your own website is useful for everyone in our field, for many reasons (my own horn, sure, though have a look!).

Almost no matter how inconsequential and insignificant the website, everything you do instantly has more credibility.

What’s interesting for anyone new to the field is how attractive the cost/benefit ratios are:

Anything you do to register, host, design, build, fill, and maintain the site will give you massive experience gains (cf. Pareto Principle, a great learning strategy).

At the same time, these gains are all linked, meaning you get a first overall picture of the website development lifecycle (WDLC).

With the implied training, the resulting portfolio, the manifest credibility, the unlocked options for reputation management, the values exhibited, running your own website is incredibly useful, especially for a web professional.

I do not have another cheesy story to end this with, but a professional observation: In the hundreds of CVs that I’ve seen in my career, only a fraction of web professionals, 1 in 50 perhaps, provided their own website. That’s fine—but it has always made those who have one stand out even more. No matter the website.

Coincidentally, fittingly, the other month Nora Reed published their manifesto, You Should Have a Website. There must be something to the advice!

About Me

I’m Jens (long: Jens Oliver Meiert), and I’m a web developer, manager, and author. I’ve worked as a technical lead and engineering manager for small and large enterprises, I’m an occasional contributor to web standards (like HTML, CSS, WCAG), and I write and review books for O’Reilly and Frontend Dogma.

I love trying things, not only in web development and engineering management, but also in other areas like philosophy. Here on meiert.com I share some of my experiences and views. (I value you being critical, interpreting charitably, and giving feedback.)