Portfolio Site: Cheap, Fast, and Dirty
Let me preface this with: I know as a former Full-Stack Dev that there is a 'better' way to make a site.
No Effort, Right Now
I found myself out of work and figured that it had been too long since I had a portfolio. But I needed something fast. I wanted something live, within 24 hours. So, that didn't give me time to compare hosts or stacks. Forget about learning a new front-end framework. My Reactjs skills are out of date. So, I came up with a plan to use what was available to me with the least amount of effort but the best return on features.
The Site
This is the site I created with this method. The next series of this blog will be the migration to a new platform. I'll let you know as I decide.
Prerequisites:
Decide On a Name
Picking a name should be straightforward but it's not as easy as it seems. There's so many different TLD's now and you have to decide how 'edgy' you want to look. Check out the table below for some examples.
| TLD | Vibe | Cost Low | Cost High |
|---|---|---|---|
| ,dev | New-age | $12 | $15 |
| .ai | New-age | $75 | $100 |
| .me | Portfolio/Resume | $15 | $25 |
| ,co | Traditional | $25 | $35 |
| .tech | New-Age | $40 | $60 |
| .xyz | New-Age | $10 | $15 |
| .com | Traditional | $10 | $15 |
| .cv | Portfolio/Resume | $5 | $10 |
Ultimately it's up to you. I went with something simple: FirstNameLastName and I chose the TLD .cv
Get A PorkBun Account (or Other Registrar)
NOTE: If you are on a strict budget, consider PorkBun. Now we need to check if our desired domain name is available and register it. There are alot of different options here. GoDaddy and CloudFlare for example are great options. One way or another, go register a domain name and come back.
Get A Google Account
If you haven't already, create a google account specifically for this purpose. Let's say it's a freelancer account. Make this for that purpose only. Separate the concerns via account. Make this account your name. Example: FirstJimmy Neutron TLD: .tech = Jimmy.Neutron.
| First Name | Middle Initial | Last Name | TLD | Account Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jimmy | I | Neutron | .tech | JimmyINeutronTech@gmail.com |
| Mike | K | Johnson | .cv | MikeKJohnsoncv@gmail.com |
Get A CloudFlare Account With Your Google Account
Using your Google Account, open a CloudFlare Account. After doing this, go to the DNS Settings. We will be going there often so get used to it now. Get your domain set up and set the NS on either PorkBun or whatever Registrar you chose. Don't make any other settings yet. Just get the NS set.
![](https://cdn.hashnode.com/uploads/covers/69bc3429b238fd45a320671b/4273d5d9-d2c4-4e58-bd1b-611ccb7e53c9.png align="middle")
Get A HashNode Account With Your Google Account
Same thing for your blog account. We want everything connected for simplicity. Don't configure anything else yet. We're doing this piece by piece. This just simplifies it for us so no one waits around creating accounts.
![](https://cdn.hashnode.com/uploads/covers/69bc3429b238fd45a320671b/b5fa35e2-1bc8-4ef5-8745-46e59e981b2c.png align="middle")
DNS Final Design
To give you an overview and idea of what we're going to do, here is the final product dns config.
![](https://cdn.hashnode.com/uploads/covers/69bc3429b238fd45a320671b/ccc2b03c-f8dc-4725-a050-e5b8ef975801.png align="middle")