How I built a custom website in Notion and why
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How I built a custom website in Notion and why

The Problem

I’ve built websites using many different methods, tools, platforms, and website builders over the years.
Everything from:
  • Hand coded HTML using Dreamweaver, Atom, VS Code, and Gatsby…
  • Using website builders like Ekomobi, Duda, Wix, Squarespace, Weebly, WordPress (using Thrive Themes, Elementor), Webflow, and more…
Each have had their pros and cons.

Great Solution For Clients But Not For Me

Wix and WordPress have been my go to solutions for most client work depending on their needs, budget, and site complexity.

My Challenges

I kept struggling to produce and publish content. Keeping it updated and relevant? Forget about it.
Linking to other pages internally and externally was complicated. I knew it was important for SEO.

Enter Notion

Notion is like an external brain. Imagine Evernote but with WAY more flexibility. The platform is so extensible and customizable for every need.
There’s also a growing community of people sharing their templates and customization tips. Finding solutions and creative workarounds to challenges gets better every day.
I’d been using Notion for almost 2 years, off and on. I loved it but didn’t feel I was getting the most from it.

Going All In

Too many tools. Too many platforms. I needed to simplify. But that meant really digging into the power (and initial learning curve) so that I could make Notion do what I needed.

Other Tools Considered And Tested

Evernote. Cloze CRM. Monday.com. ClickUp. Zoho. Hubspot. Sharpspring. Insightly. Salesforce. FlowTrack. Pipedrive.

One Tool To Rule Them All

Tools I’ve replaced or downgraded back to free plan by going with Notion
  • Evernote
  • Dropbox
  • Cloze CRM
     

    The How

    Before You Start

     

    Tools You’ll Need

    • Notion account. You can test using a free account. I have a paid Teams plan for $96 USD/yr which is a great value
    • Cloudflare account (for web hosting)
    • Domain hosting account (I like Namecheap, but you can use Rebel.ca or GoDaddy.com or other of your choosing.
    • Email account (For professional emails it’s hard to beat Google WorkSpace but you can use whatever you like, even a free gmail account)
     

    Nice To Have

    • Your logo

      Resources

      These really helped me.
      • Fruition.so
        • Because I want the flexibility to create dozens of websites and subdomains, I needed a free solution. You’ll need a little technical know how, but it’s pretty easy to follow.
      • Potion
        • If your needs are simple; you just want one site and you don’t want to deal with code, then this is simple (paid) solution.