Today, I will share my process, tech stack, and strategy to build, monetize and promote a personal website. My hope is to share my ideas with everyone who is trying to break into a product/tech or independent professional career. For context: I’m sharing my experience as a solo founder, product builder, and independent consultant who has benefited from the power of personal websites and branding. 1. Starting point 💡 I started my in 2019 when I was pivoting my career from digital marketing. The initial goal was to create a new portfolio and hold myself accountable by constantly building, launching, writing, and reading. personal website As my work expands, I begin to transform my website into a multifaceted “hubs”. Here are my thought processes in building the current version: (1) The product studio To de-risk new ventures by building and launching startup experiments using MVP and fast prototyping approach. You can find all my product launches on the Home page. (2) The portfolio To expand my portfolio, I have added a Growth section to record my project traction, traffic, subscribers, and revenues. You can find these tracking on the Home page. (3) The resource hub To document my process in building MVPs, Notion productivity setup, growing profitable side projects, and product launches — and contribute knowledge to the community. (4) The vision setting memo Where do I want to be in tech in 2021? What do I want to build next? These questions are being answered on my About page. By creating this public memo, it forces me to clarify my North Star and refine it as I go. (5) The digital product hub To package my track record, expertise, and social proofs into digital products, i.e. no-code app templates, Notion templates, and online courses. You can find these on my . Tool page How to build a portfolio when you have nothing to show? If you’re trying to break into growth marketing, write a teardown on successful marketing campaigns— or even better, your own experiment that drives X traffic or SEO keyword ranking. Create case studies. Identify a specific domain that interests you and start sharing your point of view, lesson, tutorial, note, prediction, etc. It will open many doors to relevant conversations and connections. Write a blog. Instead of using your personal site as a (boring) resume, start showcasing your core skills by developing side projects to attract potential clients, recruiters, collaborators, sponsors, etc. Start a side project. Want to attract more customers, supporters, investors, and collaborators? Write about what you’re working on, WHY you’re doing this, current results, how you will take it to the next level, and a clear “ask”. Pitch your way to the opportunity you’re seeking. 2. Tech Stack 🕹 In a , I explained how I built the 1st version of the site in one hour — without any coding. previous post To expand my site functionalities, I have used these “no-code” tools to quickly set up my website with features like: directory, portfolio, email signups, product page, and customer payment: (1) Namecheap I bought the site domain from Namecheap for $8.88 per year. They have the most user-friendly UI and DNS dashboard. (2) Carrd Pro Carrd is a website page builder with integration capability. It allows me to quickly drag-and-drop, add custom CSS, integrate with no-code tools, and create multi-pages or sections. (3) Airtable I use Airtable to create a database of testimonials. I created a “ ” featuring praises from people who have shared their words about my work and product creation. Wall of Love (4) Notion I created a as an extension to my personal site. As my work expands, I wanted to display all my previous work and resources without overwhelming my personal site. Notion Portfolio Tracker (5) Gumroad I integrated Gumroad to sell digital products and handle customer payment directly from my personal website. Test an example (6) PayPal (buttons) I offer 1:1 video consultation for Notion and no-code session. You can easily do this by using PayPal buttons and paste the payment URL on the website buttons. Try this example (7) Calendly Pro Upon purchase of my video consultation via PayPal, I use Calendly to automatically redirect paid customers to book their time slots. (8) Substack Using Substack to collect email opt-ins and grow my newsletter subscribers. With Carrd Pro, I can easily embed and customize the signup box to match the theme of my website. I placed the signup near the bottom of every page: (9) Buy Me A Coffee Collect $ contributions from supporters and fans. (10) Google Tag Manager (GTM) & Google Analytics (GA) I created containers and tags in GTM to integrate Google Analytics, GA event tracking, and custom Facebook Event code. This can avoid cluttering my HTML codes with a bunch of tracking pixels. 3. Monetizing 💰 I monetized my personal site (or personal brand) by offering products and services for a tech-centric audience. Here are 4 types of business models that I’m using to monetize: (1) Service business model In the beginning, I was monetizing my expertise by offering client services for US/APAC remote teams and tech companies in product, community, and growth strategy. (2) Productized service model I created pre-determined advice packages through 1:1 video consultations in the domain of Notion consultation and no-code product building. (3) Digital product model is a profitable business that monetizes from selling online course and Notion templates ( ). I also added a mix of other no-code products on my Tool page. Notion TrackerSuite how I built this (4) Subscription business model (not yet) This is the model where I’m currently synthesizing— a recurring business model that will create scalable profit growth. How to find your “voice” and monetize your expertise? If you haven’t found a passion, you can start by following your curiosity. Pick up a skill, learn something new, build a side project, and share your learning. You will eventually discover a pattern of your “voice”. Start with curiosity. Turn your learning into a project and build a portfolio around it. This will demonstrate your core skills as an independent professional and convince potential clients to work with you. Create “proof of work”. Your track record in growing email subscribers, ranking on SEO, and bootstrapping a profitable business are valuable for monetizing your expertise. Publish your results and convert your track record into social proofs. Here are Build a track record. my examples Once you have social proof around your expertise, create an offering and sell it. Find your first paying customer. Your first dollar earned from the Internet is the most rewarding experience. Create the product. 4. Marketing 🥳 I landed a remote role with a US-based company in 2019 while physically remained in Malaysia. I wouldn't have attracted that opportunity if I didn’t set up my personal website and promote my work in public. Marketing your website can be showing your work consistently, growing an email list, pitching your expertise, distributing your blog posts, building an audience, a community, or a personal brand, etc. For example: Building an audience Building an online audience can increase visibility for your work. Here’s what I do: I’m growing Twitter (5,500+ followers) by sharing my best resources, writing articles on Medium (46K/month traffic), and growing a list using (2,400 email subscribers). Substack Alex Lieberman, CEO of Morning Brew recently shared a for audience building. The idea is to turn your free audience into a monetized audience where they become the paying customers of your products. framework Build in public I call this “transparency” or “behind the scenes” marketing. You publicly share your ideas, strategies, wins, losses, learning, tech stack, templates, etc. In this Tweet, I share my revenue growth and strategies I used to get there: Paul Yacoubian, founder of Copy.ai transparent statistics about his startup traction: users acquired, recurring revenues, product metrics: shares More ideas to promote your personal site Update personal site and Tweet about it Create free downloads and opt-ins Hyperlink personal site across your blog posts Blog about your process in building a personal site Mention website link on Twitter & LinkedIn Bio Consistently showing great work Launch email campaigns and point people back to your blog Your website is like a product — build something people want Also published on SubStack

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How I Build a Personal Website With Monetization (And Without Coding)

How I Build a Personal Website With Monetization (And Without Coding)

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