# How and why I built this website > [!abstract] summary > Building a personal website is just that, it's personal. I have recently made the switch from Squarespace to Obsidian Publish. Below, I describe why I made the switch, explain the functionality of Obsidian, and share resources that helped me get started After hosting my website on squarespace for 6 yrs, I moved on to [Obsidian](https://obsidian.md/), a more writing-friendly & flexible platform. I want my website to be a dynamic place where I can share all kinds of content. I loved my squarespace website and recieved so many comments and questions about it over the years. Part of me is sad to see it go because it represents a real period of growth and personal development in my life and career. The other part of me is happy to be here in this new platform prioritizing writing and content sharing. My squarespace website was beautiful and functional.... but it was static. If I wanted to add new content, I had to go directly to squarespace and make edits from there. I quickly ran out of pages on my site, and had to delete pages to make space for new ideas. I have a lot of ideas, and after a while, my content was spread out all over the place. My essays were on Medium, my research updates on squarespace, my art portfolio on Instagram, student resources as random pdfs, and my teaching materials never really made it online because I didn't have enough space for them. After being frustrated with having to delete pages to add new pages for a while, I decided to look for other options. Around the same time, I got an email that squarespace was increasing their prices, so that motivated me even further. Given all this, I switched to Obsidian for my personal website for two main reasons: 1. I wanted to be able to share content of all kinds, and I maxed out the number of pages on my squarespace site long ago 2. I wanted to make it easier to publish writing directly to my site I'll be honest, switching over to Obsidian was a bit of a process, especially wrangling my custom domain. Now that it's all set up, it is SO easy to go from writing to publishing on my site. I love the ease of sharing and having everything in one place. Obsidian itself is free to use, but the ability to publish to the web is a paid add-on service. They do have a [student and educator discount](https://help.obsidian.md/Licenses+%26+Payment/Education+and+non-profit+discount). ### How Obsidian works and why it's useful Obsidian works entirely in markdown files within a folder file structure on your computer. This is a different philosophy from other note and information management platforms (like Notion) that require you to store your content on their web servers. Obsidian is essentially a browser or interface for your markdown files. You can use code to customize just about everything, or keep it simple and just use it as a place to store your notes. I won't got down the full rabbit hole of Obsidian features here (in part because I am still learning), but I do want to give you a sense of why this is particularly useful for me in the context of my website. Personal websites for scientists can be really useful as a portfolio of our work. But how many times have you been to a scientist or faculty member website only to find that it is out of date? The publications may not be recent, opportunities may have lapsed, and news updates may not always get updated. I struggled with this SO MUCH. I wanted to have an up to date website, but because my website was *separate* from the rest of my files and workflow, updating my website by definition became a separate task. As a result, it often didn't get done. Let's take my [[CV]], for example. I never used to share my CV on my website because I'd have to update it separately on the website platform. Now, the CV you see on my site is the same document I export when I share my CV offline. That means, I only update my CV in one place and anytime I make an update, it will be reflected on my website. This is a game changer for me. I can share my work without having the "sharing" part be a separate step or additional exercise. I simply write it here in Obsidian, decide I want to share it, click a button, and there it goes out to the world. Making revisions and updates is just as simple. I am still exploring the full utility of this system, but essentially I can take any note from my Obsidian vault and share it immediately. Everything, all in one place! ### Resources that helped me build out my Obsidian vault and website I could not have done this without the help of other people's experiences and the content they have shared on their own platforms. Here is a list of resources that helped me get started: - [Nicole van der Hoeven](https://nicolevanderhoeven.com/)'s [blog](https://nicolevanderhoeven.com/blog/) and [youtube channel](https://www.youtube.com/c/NicolevanderHoeven) on all things Obsidian and note taking - Examples of Zotero / Obsidian integrations that helped me develop my reading room workflow - [Mariana Montes blog post](https://www.marianamontes.me/post/obsidian-and-zotero/), *Obsidian and Zotero* - [Leonardo Castorina medium post](https://betterhumans.pub/obsidian-tutorial-for-academic-writing-87b038060522), *Obsidian Tutorial for Academic Writing* *Since it's so easy for me to add to this list now... I will continue to update it as I come across new resources that help me make this website whatever it becomes ### Do I still recommend Squarespace? Yes, but it depends on what you want to use it for. Squarespace websites are easy to maintain and they always look great. I can't tell you how many times people commented on my website or asked questions about how I built it. I wish I could take more credit for the design, but really it was all in the squarespace theme. I will miss the beautiful themes and the way that squarespace makes it easy to add your content to an aesthetically pleasing interface. I still think it's a great choice for a personal website, I just got to a point where I wanted more flexibility. > Did you find the helpful? Please get in touch and let me know: [[contact me]]