What should I put on my personal website?
What you put on your personal website depends on what you want to get out of your personal website — it’s purpose.
That said, I think there are a few universal pages that every personal website should have (and the purpose of each page):
- Home: Introduce yourself, demonstrate your value, & prompt people to click further into your website.
- Blog: Demonstrate how your content will benefit people — and prompt them to click on and read it.
- Praise: Prove you are who you claim to be from the words of other people who vouch for you.
- About: Share more about you, your interests, and your story so that like-minded people feel connected to you.
And a few nice-to-have pages — you don’t have to have these, but they can be useful depending on your goals:
- Resume: Write a compelling resume that increases your chances of landing a job interview. A must-have if you are seeking a new job.
- Contact: Make it easy for people to contact you and introduce themselves, building your network. A must-have if you are looking to grow your network.
And here’s a checklist for the other things you want to have on your personal website:
- Your brand promise — your promise about the value you’ll create for people who interact with your brand
- Your personal logo (text is fine)
- A professional picture of you
- Links to your social media pages
- Content! Make your personal website more useful to others, and your personal website will be more useful to you.
If you’d like to see a list of the best personal websites, why they have them, and what they put on them, check out my new post:
> 29 Best Personal Websites 2020 (And Why They Have Them) – Tsavo Neal
What are good websites for entrepreneurs to network?
Twitter is the best website for entrepreneurs to network.
WAY better than LinkedIn — and it’s not even close.
I’ll give you a quick example.
Daniel Vassallo landed a $10K per month gig at Gumroad — and it’s only 10 hours per week.
He responded to this tweet…
We’re looking for engineers who want to work on @gumroad!
— Sahil (@shl) August 6, 2020
– Web (Ruby + JS) or iOS (Swift)
– 20+ hours a week
– $125-$200/hr
– Work from anywhere, no scheduled meetings, no deadlines
– Everything you work on will eventually be OSS!
More info below 👇🏽https://t.co/sdikM13xQs
…with this email…
An email that worked. This is how it started: pic.twitter.com/uLKeRbHfSd
— Daniel Vassallo (@dvassallo) September 1, 2020
…which lead to this result:
Trying out a new experiment at @gumroad: bringing on a quarter-time head of product. Welcome @dvassallo!
— Sahil (@shl) September 1, 2020
My Twitter feed is FULL of entrepreneurs who have…
- Started their business on Twitter
- Sell their products and services on Twitter
- Have met up with other entrepreneurs in person due to Twitter
I can’t say the same for any other website.
So, how do you use Twitter effectively?
James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, says it best:
The most effective networking strategy I’ve found has nothing to do with conferences, cocktail hours, cold emails, or any of the common ideas you hear.
— James Clear (@JamesClear) May 1, 2019
1) Do interesting things.
2) Share them publicly.
Like-minded people will come to you.
Twitter (combined with your personal website) gives you everything you need to build a world-class, GLOBAL network.
How do you generate content ideas from the real world?
Check your email inbox.
It’s a goldmine for content ideas.
You know when your potential or current clients ask you questions via email?
Don’t answer those questions via another email…
…answer them by writing an in-depth article.
Sure, this will take more time.
But you’ll be able to send it to ANY client who asks the same question.
They’ll feel like you’ve written it just for them — which is the key ingredient to effective marketing.
Brennan Dunn, the creator of Double Your Freelancing, does this really well.
People would ask him questions like…
“How do I raise my prices?”
And he would write long-form articles to answer these questions.
Of course, these long-form articles not only made whoever asked the question super happy…
…but the articles also ended up ranking well on Google, too.
Using this strategy, he’s built one of the most popular freelancing blogs.
So, if you’re dealing with writer’s block, start speaking with your audience.
The best content ideas come straight from your clients in the form of questions.
What are the advantages of SEO?
Imagine you run a hot dog stand.
Your hot dog stand is brand new, so no one is searching for you.
You have to wave your “HOT DOGS!” sign to get people to notice.
With those who notice the sign…
- Some of them come over to your stand
- And some of them buy a hot dog
But you want a more efficient way of getting people to come over to your stand— so that you can sell more hot dogs.
After a lot of hard work, you earned the right to put a “BEST HOT DOGS →” sign at the main intersection in your city.
Now, anyone who’s hungry for a hot dog drives over to your hot dog stand.
You don’t have to wave a sign at them to get them to come to your stand.
That is the advantage of SEO.
Having a “BEST HOT DOGS →” sign in the main intersection is like ranking on the top spot in Google for your product.
It helps more people notice your business — without you having to get their attention yourself.
The more people who notice your business, the more people visit your business.
And the more people who visit your business, the more people will buy your product.
Hungry for a hot dog?