I finally set up my own website (www.johnappstranslation.com, for those who are interested). This is something that I've been meaning to do for quite a while now and it is finally done. Overall, I'm reasonably happy with it, though I do keep tweaking details here and there. I went with my own name because I couldn't think of anything else I was really happy with and it's unlikely to change any time soon. It's only been up a couple of days but I've been getting a half dozen or so unique hits a day without me doing anything to promote it: a good start, I think.
To design the website and decide what pages I wanted to have, I just went to the JAT directory and looked at other people's websites. I picked the bits that I liked or thought were appropriate to me and used that as a template. I already had some ideas but this helped to solidify them and I found some ideas that I just hadn't thought of (such as providing a link to the AUSIT code of ethics and some of the questions in the FAQ). There are still a couple of points that I want to work on. In particular, I like the idea of having terms and conditions on the website and I want a Japanese version (although that may take a little longer since I don't want to embarrass myself with a website in poor Japanese).
I've linked the website to my LinkedIn account but not to this blog or twitter because I'm aiming at different audiences with them. This blog (and by extension twitter, which I mostly use to advertise when I have a new post) is mostly written with other translators in mind and may not be of interest to potential clients. I'm still tossing up whether or not I will have a blog on the website itself. Apparently, that's the type of thing that Google likes and it improves your search ranking. I suppose it might even be interesting to some people. However, I'm still not sure what I would write about (although at least my target audience is decided) and we can all see how well I kept the update schedule on this blog.
I have some ideas on what I need to do next for the website (such as the aforementioned terms & conditions and a Japanese version and somehow boosting my search engine rankings) but I would love to hear some feedback. So, please tell me what you like or don't like and why.
