Professional homepages of most academics tend to fit a common theme: they’re rather static and rarely up to date; they look ancient and can be confusing to navigate. Although sometimes I wonder if researchers purposefully create their sites to fit “industry norms,” the most likely explanation is simple: Professors just don’t have the time to keep up with personal sites! They’re too tied up with the work that’s central to their profession. If only personal site building was any easier…
Personal branding page creators
Enter two web services I really enjoy: Flavors.me and About.me. These sites make it breathtakingly simple to sign up, create, and perfect a personal website that really makes an impact. I’ve been a paid user of Flavors.me for a while now, and have been really pleased with how easy it’s been to create a site with impact. Here’s a screenshot of my current site:
My Flavors.me homepage.
A view of the Flavors.me editor.
As you can see, it’s dead simple to put the things that matter up front and center: your vita and publications, some biographical information, and maybe a link to your lab website or some of your other social media properties. The site editors are super easy to work with, too; see the other image for a shot of the what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) editor which will make it really easy to add that new Science pub to your CV.
Which should you use?
Okay, so maybe I’ve sold you on one of these great site editors. Which one should you pick? Well, the founders of these sites themselves have said that Flavors.me is a splash page for dynamic self-expression, whereas About.me is intended to be more of a business card of sorts. I don’t know how much I agree with these assessments, though. For what it’s worth, About.me is AOL-owned and supports fewer services out of the box — but has some more advanced visitor tracking features. Flavors.me seems a little more visually attractive, supports more services, and offers a $20/yr premium plan if you really like the service. It might be worth playing around with both to see what you like; I’m embarrassed to say that’s what this author has done. You might find that the “about.me” domain is more attractive, but do note that Flavors.me makes it easy to use a custom URL instead of the flavors.me domain.
Give one a try!
This is only a basic overview of personal branding page creators, but maybe we’ve inspired you to look into one of them to create your academic persona a new home. Definitely go out and try an option if one tickles your fancy, and feel free to chime in in the comments if you find one that works for you or have any questions about these tools. Thanks for reading!
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