Why creating a personal website could be one of the best decisions?

Creating my personal website was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. Why? Well, the answer is below. If you want to set up a personal website, here’s a step-by-step guide (with little or no coding).

💡 There are 6 main reasons why I think everyone should create their own personal website:

1. It helps you develop your own ideas. If you want to become a better writer, thinker, or communicator, creating your own personal website is likely the best way to achieve that.

2. It can help you with your professional life. A personal website is a modern version of a CV. You can impress your employees, and it can lead you to a perfect breakthrough.

3. It creates connections. You can get very good client if you are working as freelancer or doing some other work online. Once people find things that they relate with your post they can reach out to you which leads to the next benefit.

4. You expose yourself (in a non-weird was, lol) to loads of interesting opportunities. From getting invited speaking at conferences to getting featured in various publications. A personal website is a serendipity vehicle (shoutout to @david_perell) that works on your behalf.

5. You can have far more impact on the internet. Once your articles get shared online, you can reach hundreds if not thousands of people. That just wouldn’t be possible if you were doing the same thing offline.“Let your network speak for you.”

6. You can monetize it. It’s the least important reason, since it can take years to earn from publishing online. But, It works for sure.

You basically need two things to create a website:

1. Platform

First, let’s talk about which platform to choose. Depending on how advanced you are with computers, decide one of these three solutions.

• 1st - It would be substack.com. Great if you just want to see how it feels to write online. Substack offers a platform to everyone say whatever they want. The independent writers that join the platform own their own content, as well as their subscription lists. They also have no obligation to stay on the platform. They can leave at any time—and bring their subscribers with them.

• 2nd - It would be squarespace.com. It’s the best choice if you’re ready to pay for your website but know nothing about coding. Squarespace, a do-it-yourself website builder, blogging platform and hosting service, lets businesses of all types create professional websites with the service's user-friendly drag-and-drop interface.

• 3rd - If you know a little about computers, this one is for you. ghost.org is an open source, professional publishing platform built on a modern Node. JS technology stack — designed for teams who need power, flexibility and performance. Every day, Ghost powers some most-read stories on the internet, serving hundreds of millions of requests across tens of thousands of sites.

2. Domain

Now it’s time to pick a domain. A domain is basically a name for your website, e.g. amazon.com.

Unless you pay around $10/year for a custom domain you’ll be left with something like shivas.gtsb.io which doesn’t look that much good, but it works if it's your personal use or for showcase(you can see mine thought)

• To purchase a domain, go to namecheap.com or domains.google (my choice these days) and look for a domain name that suits you best. The most common combination for a personal website is NameSurname.com. You have your website ready. Now what?

Let’s address the most common questions.

• Question #1 - How do I structure my website?

  • Ans - Don’t overthink it. Your website only needs three pages:

    About page

    Blog page

    Contact page

    Your Home page can be just your latest blog post or an about page. In the start, you don’t need more than that.

• Question #2 - What should I do once my website is ready?
  • Ans - The goal should be to publish at least one blog post per week. If you do it long enough, you’ll see all the benefits mentioned in the first section.

• Question #3 - What should I write about?
  • Ans - Don’t overflow the idea of writing online and how creative you have to be. Write about books you’ve read, things you’ve experienced, and challenges you went through.

• Question #4 - How will people discover my work?

  • Ans - Just share it on social media, wherever you’re present. It can be Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or LinkedIn. If people find your content interesting, they’ll share it even further.

• Question #5 - What about SEO?
  • Ans - Don’t think about it for the first few years. Focus on writing content you’re proud of and share it among your social network. You’ll have a much greater chance of someone sharing your content than if people were to find it through Google.

• Question #6 - How should I design my website?
  • Ans - Again, don’t overthink it. If you choose the right platform - ghost.org or squarespace.com - you can use one of their pre-built themes, which all look great. Remember that people care much more about the content than the design.

The End !

I hope you found this article valuable. If yes, do let me know. 😊

Also, if you got any question feel free to ping me anywhere.