I am used to doing this all the time, but some people who are new to linux may find this useful.

Make a directory in your account called www which would be:
/home/useraccountname/www/

make an index.html file that has some text like “Yay working!”

1. open a terminal
2. Install VIM by typing: apt-get vim
3. Now you are ready to edit the apache file
4. type: cd /etc/apache2/sites-available/
5. type: sudo vim default

Press I and change DocumentRoot and Directory
from /var/www/ to /home/useraccountname/www/
then press ESC and : and w
then press : q
then type: sudo a2enmod userdir
then type: sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart