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And how to get one fast
When I started writing back in January 2018, I never expected I’d still be writing today. I was a software engineer, building video games for a living. My only reason for writing was to improve my written English. But within the first month, I was already published by an important publication and had become a top writer in 7 categories.
I knew then that I had to get more serious about it. So I got myself a domain name and built a website around my writing. From my early days, I was already training my readers to look at my other work. This eventually led to transform my “personal brand” into a self-improvement business, Forest Co.
Today, I don’t work much in the video games industry anymore, spending most of my hours on Forest Co. And that was possible only because I have been telling my readers about it in my articles, in my bio, and in my call to action at the bottom of my articles.
If you want to take your writing to the next level like I did and turn it into a portfolio, personal brand, or business, you need a website.
Top reasons for Medium writers to have a personal website
Here are some of the top 5 reasons why medium writers should have a personal website:
1. To sell or promote products and services
If you write on Medium and have a product or service to sell or promote, you should definitely have a website to link people back to. If you have a book, a podcast, a coaching service, or anything else that’s popular at the moment you read this, there’s no better way to promote it than with a website under your name or brand.
2. To be the owner of your content
If you’ve written a sizeable number of articles, you might also want to start a website with a blog. This “safeguards” the content you’ve created. When you create content on private-owned companies like Medium or Quora, they own the content. If they go down for any reason, your content is gone. Serious writers don’t want that.
Having your own websites allows you to own your content, but also you get to keep your full creative control. Medium has guidelines to follow, for example, but on your website, you can do whatever you want.
3. To make money from your blog
You can make money from your blog using popular methods like ads, product placement, and affiliate marketing.
But more and more, people are willing to pay you to put a simple backlink to their website on your blog. Some also pay to guest post on your blog too. The more popular your blog becomes the more of those requests you’ll get. This can add up to good money and takes close to zero effort from you.
4. To be taken seriously
99 percent of Medium writers don’t have a website. If you have one, you stand out. It shows commitment to your craft. Because of that, your readers tend to react more positively to your posts and are more likely to follow you.
5. To have a central point of contact for your readers
Serious Medium writers tend to also write in other publications outside of Medium, and sometimes also on Quora and LinkedIn. Some writers even have a Youtube channel, like Tom Kuegler (Youtube link) and Ayodeji Awosika (Youtube link).
Now, when writing all over the place and shooting videos, your website is the only central location where your readers and viewers can refer back to see what you’re up to, buy from you, and contact you.
How Medium writers can get a personal website quickly
It’s possible for Medium writers to get a personal website in as quickly as a single day, without having any prior technical/coding skills.
Here are 5 ways Medium writers can get a personal website quickly:
1. Use professional services
After having built websites and other web services for top writers like Tim Denning, Anthony Moore, Jordan Gross, and Sean Kernan, I decided to open up the Forest Co Web Services. We are quick, cheap, professional, and speak the same language. I’m a writer too after all!
But we’re not the only professional service out there. You can find very capable website developers on both Upwork and Fiverr, for example. You can also do a simple Google search with these keywords: “personal website”, “creation”, “service”, etc.
2. Use Squarespace, Wix or Wordpress
I personally use Squarespace all the time and my clients love it. It’s the easiest to use and includes everything you might need without the complexity of Wordpress. My friend Marta Brzosko built her website from scratch by using Squarespace. And that’s without having any previous experience doing it.
Wix is another popular service. Some people find it more intuitive to use than Squarespace. It’s also cheaper than Squarespace.
Wordpress is the most widely used, but also the most complicated one of the three. Wordpress websites are harder to maintain but are cheap, supposedly more SEO-friendly, and highly customizable.
3. Use templates
You can also get your hands dirty and start from a template, update it, and host it on one of many website hosts like HostGator.com or BlueHost.com.
W3Schools and Colorlib have great templates to start from.
However, this will require you to get into the code to make updates, so this is not the easiest option for non-technical people.
4. Use Shopify
If you plan on selling products online, nothing beats Shopify. Their tools are top-notch and very easy to use. I once ran a workshop where I instructed the participants on every step required to set up their own stores. Within four hours, all of them had a running store, ready to sell products!
Shopify also has excellent tutorials to show you how to do anything on their platform and their customer support is excellent. But all that comes at a price. Shopify is more expensive than Squarespace, for example, and it focuses on one aspect: selling products.
5. Ask a student
Computer science students are eager and cheap or free. They learn the latest technologies and can usually build websites within less than a week. They may not be the easiest to find, but if you live near a college or university, you might be able to drop by and ask faculty administrators. You might be able to post an ad as well.
Summary
Get yourself a personal website if you:
Have products or services to sell
Want to own your content
Want to make extra money
Want to be taken seriously
Want to have a central point of contact for your readers
Build it (or get it built) using:
Squarespace, Wix or Wordpress
Templates
Shopify
The help of students