First

I have been thinking about starting a personal website for a few years.

I follow a curated set of writers, thinkers and makers via their RSS feeds and email newsletters rather than conventional social media, and these writers who I admire often encourage people to write their own blogs, send newsletters and create personal websites.

I wanted a space which I can own, build and customise myself over time, rather than relying a subscription service with limited customisability, or a major social media platform which no customisability or ownership. The tradeoff is that it will take time to learn how to build a decent looking site, which takes time away from writing, but it’s something I would like to try.

Sia Karamalegos said in her 2021 article Build that blog already:

Your blog isn't the goddess Athena. It's not going to pop fully formed and all grown up out of your head. You aren't Zeus. Stop procrastinating, and build your minimally-viable-blog today. Yes, today!

So I'm just going to start this personal website experiment and see where it takes me!