Deciding to Build a Personal Website
I decided to build my personal website after watching a Youtube Video by Ali Abdaal, reading the book Show Your Work by Austin Kleon (read my notes), and reading a post by Thomas Frank.
Carving out a corner of the internet for yourself is critical in getting discovered and showcasing your skills. It also seems like a lot of fun to build!
Other Blogs That Influenced Mine: Nat Eliason, Ali Abdaal, Mark Manson, James Clear, Derek Sivers
A Note On Just Blogging
If you just want to blog then you can use platforms such as Medium and Substack. However, I think that setting up a website is worth the time investment. You can always re-post your articles on Medium and Substack to take advantage of their network.
Overview of Building a Website
There are Three Main Components to Building a Website
- Hosting Platform: A company you pay to host (store and make available to the internet) the code, images, blog posts, etc, for your website. They store your websites data and make it available to the internet. They also usually provide various tools to build your website.
- Tools to Build the Website: Tools that let you write content, design pages, and add other functionality to your website.
- A Domain Name: The url people type in their browser to get to your website.
My Website Journey
Choosing a Website Builder
My Choice: WordPress
I started by looking for a Website Builder to ensure the tool was capable of implementing the functionality I desired such as selling products, having a blog, subscribing to a newsletter, posting book reviews, etc. WordPress is simpler and faster than coding the website and it also gives more customizations than Squarespace and Wix. WordPress has also been around for a long time and so many people are using it that I doubt it’s going anywhere.
Cost: Free
Other Website Builders: Squarespace, Wix, Ghost
Selecting a Hosting Platform
My Choice: Host Gator
I chose Host Gator after going through Thomas Frank’s tutorial. He gave it a great review and it was low in cost. I’ve heard rumors about why you shouldn’t choose a cheap host like this. If my blog gets a large audience one day then I may choose to migrate to a new host.
Cost: $3/month
Other Hosts: Bluehost, WPEngine, Self-hosted Options (AWS, GCP, etc.)
Selecting a Domain Name
My Choice: michaelphammer.com
Since this is my personal website I wanted the name to just be my name.
Cost: Free with signing up with Host Gator
Customizing the Website
My Tools: Elementor Pro; Search & Filter Pro
Elementor Pro
- WordPress comes with default themes that are okay but Elementor Pro allows you to have full control by designing your own theme.
- Cost: $49/year → $4.10/month
Search & Filter Pro
- This tool was essential for my website because I wanted a way to search, sort, and filter through my book summaries. After you’ve created a large amount of content, searching and filtering is also useful for your users to find your articles.
- It integrates well with Elementor Pro.
- Cost: $20/year → $1.66/month
Selecting an Email Marketing Service For the Newsletter
My Choice: MailerLite
MailerLite is a simple email marketing service that’s low in cost. I’m not looking for complex email campaigns so this stood out. I also liked that there is a free tier while I get started and the cost stays lower then most other services as you get more subscribers. I saw a lot of great reviews on Youtube, reddit, and other websites.
Cost: Free up to 1000 subscribers
Cost
A website has the power to change your life. I believe it’s worth the investment.
However, since I’m starting out I did my best to keep the costs low. As my website grows I will upgrade my tools and buy new ones.
Current Total Cost: About $9/month