While I was on YouTube I came across a video by Ali Abdaal. This eventually lead to watching his video How To Build A Website in 2021. He makes really compelling points and inspired me to take the plunge.
Over the years, I’d tell myself in passing “you should make a website”. But then it would never happen for a couple reasons.
Firstly, I thought it would be too difficult. Turns out tooling has significantly improved over the years so now it’s easier than ever to generate the backing HTML, CSS, JavaScript, etc. I thought the hardest part would be getting an official domain name and hooking it up to your site. In reality, that was the easiest step. Only a couple minutes to purchase and hook it up.
Secondly, I thought it would be expensive. Turns out my domain name only costed $12/year. Hosting options exist at a reasonable $9/month. For more technically savvy people, like me, there are even options for free hosting.
Thirdly, there were fears about starting a website. What would I put on it? Why would anyone care? I can’t produce original content so why even bother? Ali had similiar fears and calls it all out. His catalyst was the book Show Your Work by Austin Kleon. I haven’t read that book but how Ali sums it up is quite convincing.
Starting a blog is not about “hey, I need to write something interesting.” It’s actually just about documenting the stuff that you’re doing already.
He elaborates on three areas around building a website: why, how, and what to do with it.
Why
- Develop your own ideas
- It helps in your professional life
- Increase your worldwide connections
- Expose yourself to more opportunities
- You can have a lot more impact
- You could monetize it
- It acts a serendipity vehicle
How
Domain
Ali says just about any domain registration service works fine. He mentions two specific options:
- Name Cheap where you can get a free
.meif you are a student. - Google Domains which is what he uses now. This is what I used and it was super simple.
Platform
As for platforms, Ali makes three specific suggestions.
- Substack which can be free, but costs $50 for custom domains
- SquareSpace which starts at $12/month
- Ghost which starts at $9/month
He also mentions that if you know what you’re doing you can host for free using netlify. That’s what I pursued.
What to do with it
Pages
Ali says you only need three sections on your website:
- About
- Contact
- Blog
What to post
The goal is to publish at least once a week. The only requirement for the content is “be potentially be useful for at least one other person in the world.”
To help get over the fears just follow the mantra:
Document, Don’t Create