Note: This article was first posted on my official blog/website
Hi, are you looking for better opportunities and want to share your thoughts with a lot more people. It's not hard, you just need some tips and tricks and get this thing in your mind that "It's not possible in one day or a week." You have to work on it and pay continuous attention to it every day.
Choose a name
Yes, this is not a typo. You've to name yourself on the internet, and it will impact all the things. Maybe your name is like "Aashir Aamir Khan" or "Kate Efimova" or "Kelly Vaughn". It'll be much easier for people to remember you by a short memorable reference than your name. So pick up a name that you do love and then use it everywhere from domain to all the social media to emails. be sure with that name and check out the availability everywhere.
For Example:
kvlly = Kelly Vaughn
kefimochi = Kate Efimova
justaashir = Aashir Aamir Khan
Start using Twitter as a very first step
Stop running away from twitter, I'm still regretting it. I never thought that twitter can be used for self-promotion, I thought that it's for movies and politics but It shocked me when I used it and It got me a lot of work and I made so many connections.
How to use Twitter?
Just make an account and put up a professional headshot, and write a short bio. your brand name should be your twitter username then just follow 20 people at the very start according to your niche. Your feed is ready, now use twitter for 3-4 days and just like posts & pictures. only re-tweet when you are sure about it. Learn from others that how they are tweeting, what they are tweeting?
Start tweeting on #hashtags according to your niche, and post some articles from the web, and take part in twitter chats.
Share your code with screenshots and do live screencasts. You'll get at-least 100 organic followers in 2-3 weeks.
One Tip: If you scratch their back, they will scratch yours. Follow other people they will definitely follow you back
Some Popular Hashtags for Developers:
Start Blogging right now
It doesn't matter whether you are a designer, developer or manager. You've to talk to people, you have to share your thoughts by reaching out to the audience somehow. Blogging is the easiest and cheapest way to reach out to people. Don't get scared by your writing skill, just start writing and by this, you'll gain enough self-confidence and followers;
But How?
You can start blogging on Medium as it's free to use and very easy to start.
If you are ready to invest some bucks into this then you should be looking up directly for WordPress as it's the most stable and efficient way to blog.
Note for Programmers & Developers: There is a platform called DEV specifically for developers to blog, and it's amazing. just blog there and you'll be embraced by a wonderful community.
Buy a .com Domain
You've to buy a domain for your brand name to secure it. It's a major sign of your existence and professionalism. Just buy it, it'll only cost you a few bucks. You can then point it to your Twitter account or blog. If you want to invest more than you can create a well-looking website for yourself. don't buy anything other than .com
Note for Programmers & Developers: Developers must need a portfolio/blog website, just roll up a static site generator and put up a professional website.
Create a Professional Email
This is a major point to make a great impact on people, as I get 60% more replies in emails from clients just because of my website's email like hello@justaashir.com. You shouldn't be using a Gmail or outlook. You can create an email when you buy the domain.
Note for Programmers & Developers: You can create an unlimited amount of email aliases for free using ImproveMX. it's amazing and I'm going to write an article about it in the future. Hi, are you looking for better opportunities and want to share your thoughts with a lot more people. It's not hard, you just need some tips and tricks and get this thing in your mind that "It's not possible in one day or a week." You have to work on it and pay continuous attention to it every day.
Follow me on Twitter : @justaashir
Note: This article was first posted on my official blog/website
Top comments (13)
Go JAM stack if you really want to save. The cost is just the domain and use the saving to get a email software to build your email list.
I recommend ActiveCampaign which is what I'm using now.
The pros in having your own website is the control the you get from keeping your content whereas medium is really bad and I hate their paywall.
Hi, Max!
I love your content. You're right I'm myself using JAMSTACK myself as it's the fastest and custom and there are lots of options available but I tried to make this post helpful for anyone(non-programmers) as JAMSTACK will be complicated for them and DEV is for developers. So there are two options "Medium" or "Wordpress".
Hope you understand.
I think even developers should start with Wordress and Squarespace instead of holding their noses and wasting months in analysis paralysis on how to choose the best solution for every single detail.
JAMSTACK is not so much better that it justifies not getting started.
If it helps in the long term, then get started with something so simple that you can focus on the content, and refactor to jamstack only later.
Nobody cares which stack you are using for your website.
If you are alright with the hosting cost, by all means, go for it by picking Wordpress or Squarespace route which both are great choices.
Since my justification is that you should control your own content and narrative.
To prevent anyone from pulling the plugs on you by moving your content or having a paywall for content that you created for free by the platform.
For me, getting started with JAM Stack is much easier as you might think.
Since for GatsbyJS has its own starter libraries or themes that allows you to get started and host it online through Netlify.
Which this is the starter template that I used for my blog with some modification from my end by taking advantage of certain plugins.
Yep, you are absolutely right. Most of the development publications started with WordPress and then moved to Gatsby.
I think it's just some peer pressure going in the Front-End community to use JAMSTACK
Yep. Don't get me wrong, I like Jamstack myself
I will eventually build my website with Orchid
github.com/jmfayard/jmfayard.dev
It's simply that it's much more important to get started right now, have something that you can share, ... than to have the "right" way to build a website.
Yaah 😊, I appreciate your thoughts on this topic.
Orchid is great, and different in it's own from many SSGs out there. Support is awesome from the author 👍
Thanks for making this thread more helpful
The problem about creating a site as developer is that not all developer are good designers :D
People can differentiate between a website made by a developer or designer. They understand very well! You just have to deliver the message and you can do it with one paragraph and a picture 😊
Hopefully you are right :)
I think I have to look at a few portfolio pages and see how they made their design :)
Portfolio Website of Evan You, Founder of VueJS.
One of the Best example for developers.
Is there any reason not to buy anything other than .com? There a lot professional portfolios based on .me domain and they seem to do well.
Yep, there is .dev, .io and many more.
But this is just my personal preference as .com is much popular as a general domain.
Just don't buy anything like .xyz or .online as it looks cheap