I've been doing some thinking about registering another domain for use in web design. I'd like to start a web-design oriented blog, similar to FiftyFourEleven, MezzoBlue, and SimpleBits. But all the good domains are (of course) taken - largely by domain squatters. Stupid scalpers - there oughta be a law.
Anyway, since these freaks want upwards of $700 for monkeymountain.com, I'm brainstorming domain name ideas. Names like BrotherCake and MindlessLemming have done well enough despite the apparent meaninglessness of the name, so I'd been looking at names like MonkeyPeak.com and GrouchPot.com, as well as LawnChairDesign.com and TheMadCoder.com. But I'm not 100% happy with any of those, so I'm still brainstorming. But I'm close to deciding.
The new domain would give me a place to play around with WordPress, as well as a good place to document a lot of what I've taught myself about web design. Given the traffic coming to my anti-spam page, I think the new site would get a lot of traffic, which could only be good for a web design business.
The big question now is - do I use WordPress, or do I code the whole thing myself from scratch? Granted, doing it from scratch is more impressive, and would give me more control - just figuring out how to customize the WordPress software might be a pain - but on the other hand, having a nice clean admin interface rather than the clunky ones I write for myself might be nice. Also, I wouldn't have to put tons of work into writing my own trackback routine - I've played with it before and I haven't quite got the hang of it yet. Being able to download plugins might be nice, too. I'm torn.
I recall a case involving KFC in the early days of the Web, where Kentucky Fried Critter went after a small business using "KFC.COM" - seems the owner's initials were "KFC." I think that got settled by KFC paying the guy a lot of money for the name, but it demonstrated early on that just because you're a big company with lots of lawyers, you're not going to be able to push people around who were there first - legally.
The case against squatters usually requires some proof that the name was registered by someone for the express purpose of holding it for ransom. Who among us doesn't wish he had the foresight to register "MODEM.COM" back in 1995?
As for the "to WordPress or not to WordPress" issue, IMO that's a question only you can answer. Any time you decide to use a product written by someone else, you stand the chance of losing things you would have put in yourself. On the other hand, writing it from scratch can be a laborious, time-consuming process.
I guess the reason a lot of us always liked things like UNIX/Linux and what has come to be called "open source" in general is because of the "some assembly required" aspect of the system. The tools are there if you want to do it yourself. If you need functionality that isn't there, there's nothing to stop you from writing it yourself. That's where 'awk', 'sed' and a whole lot of UNIX tools came from in the first place.
The question I would ask is, are you advertising to prospective employeers/clients, trying to learn something, or both of the above? Being able to write your own OS or compiler, for example, is a great way to learn how stuff works, but making effective use of existing shrink-wrapped tools is also something people want to have in place when they hire someone.
I guess it's all up to you.