Websites/Blogs/Place holder sites

[CultureOfIdeas]

So with the remaining time before classes start up again, I've been looking for little things to work on a) to pass the time and to keep the excitement-momentum while finishing up some work on a manuscript....One thing I've been thinking about is grad students having their own sites/blogs - strikes me that a number of people have blogs on this site, but I'm somewhat nervous about putting anything related to my work/my opinion/social issues on the internet in that sort of setting. I know a lot of people have placeholder type sites too where essentially all that is up is a small CV, maybe some pictures of the lab, pubs list if applicable. Still others have more elaborate sites outlining specifics of their research. I'm leaning towards putting up a site with some short biographical info and maybe a pubs list, just to give me something to do. Any thoughts?

[rogue]

I think that's a good idea, especially if you register your own domain, so it'll be the first thing that comes up when people search for you. It's good to cultivate the right kind of online presence, because sooner or later, people will look for you.

Since I've done a lot of freelance work, I've had a site (my name dot com) for a while with my CV and a portfolio. I think I'll probably switch it over to something more appropriate for academia soon, though I haven't yet had any brilliant ideas about the aesthetic part of the redesign.

Also, I'd put an invisible tracker on it, so you know where your hits are coming from (your campus, other schools, orgs hosting conferences to which you've submitted work, etc.). StatCounter has a good (free) one. I like being able to see which pages of my site clients/potential clients have looked at (and yeah, also the occasional stalkery ex).

[UnlikelyGrad]

So with the remaining time before classes start up again, I've been looking for little things to work on a) to pass the time and to keep the excitement-momentum while finishing up some work on a manuscript....One thing I've been thinking about is grad students having their own sites/blogs - strikes me that a number of people have blogs on this site, but I'm somewhat nervous about putting anything related to my work/my opinion/social issues on the internet in that sort of setting. I know a lot of people have placeholder type sites too where essentially all that is up is a small CV, maybe some pictures of the lab, pubs list if applicable. Still others have more elaborate sites outlining specifics of their research. I'm leaning towards putting up a site with some short biographical info and maybe a pubs list, just to give me something to do. Any thoughts?

Before I started applying, I thought that it would be a good thing for people who googled me (if they did so, anyway) to see an overwhelmingly positive site linked to my name. So I put up a small website that was almost like a pictorial resume--"this is what makes me, me." There were blurbs of text, but it was rather picture heavy. So, for example:

"I've been homeschooling my kids for the last 15 years. Here I am with my friend Steve (also a chemist) demonstrating how combustion changes materials." [That was the day we used a butane torch on sugar, steel wool, and a bunch of other stuff.]

"One of my favorite activities is serving as an instructor for the city CERT program. Here I am giving my lecture on light search and rescue...here I'm helping a student learn how to splint an arm...here I'm using a big lever to lift a 2.5 ton block."

"I love to hike. Here are some pics from a backpacking trip where I took a bunch of teenage girls from my church on their first overnight hike."

It was all overwhelmingly positive stuff--the sorts of things that would make people say, "Hey, UnlikelyGrad is a neat person."

[timuralp]

A common thing to do is to make a page on your school space. Some students make their pages elsewhere. The school space benefit is that it is clearly the "official" page, at least for the time being, and people can easily track you down. I need to update mine... now you reminded me of more small tasks to do

[A. sesquipedale]

Does anyone who has a blog/website that got into graduate school know if it had any effect on their acceptance (e.g., maybe someone commented on it at your program)?

[socialcomm]

I created a blog (but comments are turned off so it's purely informational) after I was accepted. I have the blog set up as a website so I didn't have to purchase a domain but could still put up some information about me. This isn't mine, but I used it as a template for what I ended up setting up: lorikidolopez.wordpress.com. The downside is that you don't get the yourname.com.

Once I have something to add (pubs etc) I'll link my page on my school's website to my blog site. And ultimately, I may move it to an actual website.