Building a Personal Website

Three years ago, I decided to start my own personal website, and used a hosting service to get it up and running. I purchased my own domain, and signed up for 3 years of hosting.  To build my website, I used WordPress, since the hosting company supported it through their service.  Wow, talk about a rabbit's hole of options and incredible time suck!  I bought several WordPress themes, and also bought a subscription to use a bunch of other ones.  The options were truly limitless, and, honestly, a bit overwhelming!

Fast-forward to a couple of years later, and suddenly I was facing the end of my 3 year web hosting term, not having actively used my site very much over the last couple of years and letting it get very stale due to a crazy work load at a new job, moving into a new house, raising two young kids, etc.

I considered my options, and got an invite to try out Google Domains Beta.  I jumped ship and transferred my domain registrar, which is only $12/year and includes a free Privacy Registration.  Already I was saving almost $20/year.  Next up, what hosting and publishing service should I use?

I did some research, and landed on Weebly for hosting and their website creation site.  So far, I've been very impressed.  I've been able to set up and maintain my newly refreshed website pretty easily, and have really enjoyed working on the platform.  It provides me with enough content, themes and options to keep me satisfied.  I'm learning something new every day, and I look forward to enhancing my website even more in the future.

This all got me thinking:  I wonder how many people have their own websites, and if they do, what service do they use to publish it?  I put together a quick poll to find out.  I'm sure I didn't include all possible options, and it is by no means scientific, but I'm curious, do you have your own website?  If so, what service do you use?  Please feel free to discuss your publishing method (pros/cons) in a comment below.