Many years ago when I made my first personal website, I coded it all from scratch. I did this for several years actually. But eventually I gave in and decided it was in my best interest to use a content management system. I didn't want to be spending loads of time on my personal site, I wanted something that looked nice where I could easily get photos of the kids out to the family.
The first thing I did was make a
phpBB forum, and modify to be a personal page. I was really big on phpBB at the time, and this was before the blogging explosion. I made a different post for each event and people could reply if they had comments. It worked OK but it wasn't ideal.
Now-a-days I use WordPress with Gallery2. I have the wordpress plugin that lets me put my photos directly into a post from Gallery2, and I have the iPhoto plugin that allows me to upload directly to my website from my photo program. All and all very painless.
I've also tried messing around with Joomla. I've seen some pretty nice sites made with it, but it hasn't really grown on me yet!
Please share your story with our readers, and let us know what software you love for your personal site, or maybe what didn't work out for you. Tell your story and read others!
