# How I leveraged GitHub, Hashnode and Gumroad to build my website with a blog and a store..!!

After being in the software industry for almost 6 years, I finally created my own website in April this year. You must be wondering, why did it take so long to create a website?

Being a software developer, I wanted to build everything from scratch and somehow I never got to it. 

Well, it's not like I did not try..!! 


![procastinator.gif](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1660165756396/4Q6qt-OWl.gif align="left")

I tried a few times but left it midway because it just did not click. I wanted to build a website that has an integrated blog and can showcase all my work under one domain. All of it did not seem possible back then.

Back in 2016, I tried creating a blog with python-Django and I was able to successfully create one with markdown support. But then I got stuck somewhere with the deployment and the project never took off. 

I also tried creating my portfolio on Angular 4 around 2017-18 and even got it deployed to a custom domain. But then, I really did not like the end result and eventually, that project also did not work out.

Somewhere around the start of the financial year 2022-2023, One of my tweets got viral and many people from media, social media started reaching out to me, and one constant feedback that I got was, that it was hard for them to get in touch with me because they could not find much information about me on the internet, and sending a Twitter message was the only way they could get in touch with me. 

%[https://twitter.com/_sirius93_/status/1508423479594733568?s=20&t=PzUxxnmjN5I68Hxy79Htkw]

That is when I decided to work on my internet presence and build my own website. 
Finding time was a concern alongside a demanding job. So, I decided to create a static website with basic contact information.


![Dev Mode on.gif](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1660166132931/xp5G5_h8X.gif align="left")

I went to Google Domains and looked for available domains and finally decided to go ahead with [https://nandan.dev](https://nandan.dev).

I used Github-pages to host my landing page, and mapped it to my domain address. It is effortless to set up. You can follow the documentation provided by GitHub [here](https://docs.github.com/en/pages/configuring-a-custom-domain-for-your-github-pages-site).

Not just that, all my other projects hosted on GitHub will be shown under my domain. How cool is that? I am listing below a couple of projects that I have hosted. You can add as many pages as you wish :

- [React Tic Tac Toe Game](https://nandan.dev/tic-tac-toe/)
- [Angular Accordion](https://nandan.dev/angular-accordion/)

Next comes my blog, I am using Hashnode to publish my blogs and all my blogs are published under the subdomain [https://blog.nandan.dev](https://blog.nandan.dev), just like the blog you are currently reading. 

You can read more about setting up a custom domain for your Hashnode blog [here](https://support.hashnode.com/docs/mapping-domain).

And finally the store. I am using the Gumroad store to list my products and services (There aren't many as of now but I am working on it) and all my products are listed under the sub-domain [https://store.nandan.dev](https://store.nandan.dev).

You can read more about setting up a custom domain for your Gumroad store [here](https://help.gumroad.com/article/153-setting-up-a-custom-domain).

*Shameless plug alert* 

If you want to buy my handwritten notes on git commands, you can get it from my store [here](https://store.nandan.dev/l/git-cheatsheet-hand-written). 

Now that I have almost covered all the information about the process, let me give you some insight into how much time and money I have saved.

![TME2.jpg](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1660166422729/27k03tFd2.jpg align="left")

- I was able to set up all of it, in less than 2 days, by spending like 3 hours a day. So I practically saved a lot on development costs.
- My only expense to date is the amount I paid to buy the domain for one year, i.e. Rs. 399 (or $5) for one year.
- I do not have to pay any extra charges to create sub-domains, and I can practically create 100s of them. **500** to be precise.
- I spent **Zero **on hosting.
- I can publish unlimited posts under my blog.
- I can list unlimited products in my store and only a small percentage I have to share on each sale.

Now that you have all the insight and information you need. What are your waiting for??
Stop procrastinating like I did for all these years and Go ahead, Build your own ecosystem. 

If you come across any issues and need any kind of assistance, drop a comment below or shoot me a mail at [connect@nandan.dev](connect@nandan.dev) and I will try to help you out.

Stay tuned & connect with me on my social media channels. Make sure to subscribe to my newsletter to get regular updates on my upcoming posts.

[Twitter](https://twitter.com/_sirius93_) | [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/_sirius93_) | [Github](https://github.com/sirius93) | [Website](https://nandan.dev)