Within the week I'm going to try and set up a personal website for myself.  I'm graduating college and want a little webspace for promotion and to show off my resume/portfolio.

I don't really know much about this kind of stuff, so I have been recomended WordPress to make my site.  I am looking into Godaddy or BlueHost because they play nicely with WordPress I guess.

Anyone recommend one over the other?

I go directly through WordPress for mine. The tools they offer are nice and make it simple. They also offer a variety of themes. If you want more control though, this may not be the best option for you. You can get an idea of what I did with my web site using WordPress here: http://the-time-capsule.com

Wordpress might be a good idea but I'd rather hire a web designer to make a simple website preferably in flash format. If you want to do it the traditional way then it would be best if you knew html at least..

DO NOT USE FLASH FOR CONTENT. Ugh. Horrible advice. Use Javascript.

I'm going to preface that I've been coding websites since 2002. A few tips:

1. Use Wordpress. It's well-rounded with just about the most friendly interface out there and there are a billion plug-ins for the software. I've built 6-7 sites using the software and it's great for simple sites.

2. Do not use GoDaddy. They suck. This is coming from someone who first opened a GoDaddy account in 2002. Every host will play nice with Wordpress so don't let that influence your decision. I moved to KnownHost but I think they only do larger hosting packages.

3. You can pull a template for Wordpress from one of thousands on their site. One of them should work for your needs just fine. Don't give much thought to hiring someone to design a portfolio site. It's not necessary.

Using flash for websites is a real pain for the viewers... that's right. I was just assuming that it was going to be an exclusive website for a portfolio, in which case I have seen many flash websites made for that purpose that work great. That's my opinion at least, I haven't much experience on website building.

I see a lot of designers use Flash for their porfolios and it's a bad idea unless they're a, you know, Flash designer. Then it makes sense.

Depending on whom you ask, anywhere between 5-10% of users have Flash disabled or they never bothered to install it in the first place. What kind of impression do you think you'll make on a potential employer if they go to your site and see nothing because they block Flash or didn't install it in the first place?

Besides, from a technical standpoint, there are about a billion problems with Flash for website content. It's great for some stuff like animated banners, video, interactive games, etc. but people use it far too often and for the wrong reasons when it comes to web content because it "LOOKS TEH SHINY!!!1!11"

wow sorry I kind of neglected this thread...didn't see that you guys had all answered.

I am by no means a programmer so I went with wordpress and just used a standard template.  Messing with code seems like to much for me right now but I'm happy with the outcome so far.  Thanks for all the advice!

Even with people who know how to use Flash it's annoying.  Use something that's easy, portable, and fast.  Make it fancy if you can make it look good but making it easy to browse is the most important thing.

Also, if you have a smartphone or tablet, make sure it's viewable on that! 

Wordpress is a god-send. It would be great for a portfolio, as you can add/edit/change anything on the front-end of WP via the CSS editor. If you aren't good with CSS, you can generally bumble around to figure out whatever other stuff you need.

For domain registar, I like NameCheap. For hosting, I use Z4 Webhosting and HostGator.

Flash will be gone soon, HTML5 is coming in. 

Also an tip would be to put videos of your self discussing stuff then writting page after page of text. Employers like resumes that stand out, Websites are one, but an website with videos is another.