What do you hope to achieve from your portfolio website?

[hotchilidamo]

I realise the answer to my question will be different for everyone, but I'm working on my portfolio site at the moment. I keep stopping and starting and I feel like I'm not totally sure why I'm doing it. Partly I'd like a single place to send people to if they ask, I'd also like to get more people to see my work, and I'd love to have some people ask to buy a print sometime but apart from that I guess I'm not really sure what my goal is. I'm a hobbyist at the end of the day, not a pro. Sure I'd like to get some money, and who doesn't like the flattery of someone liking your work, but is that enough of a reason to create a portfolio site instead of say flickr?

So I thought I'd try and ask around and understand why other people have portfolio websites and what you get from them. I hope this might help me get a bit clearer on what a good portfolio site means to me.