Alexa Nguyen
navigation
close icon
⚠️

My Website Journey

Started with HugoMoved to FruitionWhyHowPotential downsidesSetting up custom Polywork domainNow using PopsyWhyMigration from FruitionNeed to update your website?

Started with Hugo

Static site generator
Why
How

Moved to Fruition

Using Notion for your personal website

Why

  • Fast and easy to set up compared to using a Static Site Generator such as Hugo, Next.js, Gatsby or Jekyll
  • No need to deploy every time you make a change and you'll see the change almost instantly
  • No need to set up a CI/CD pipeline for your website or push code to a repository — Notion has a Personal Pro plan if you want some form of version control for your website
  • No hosting costs or unexpected bills
  • No maintenance required like updating packages
  • No coding required

How

  1. Create a page in Notion
  1. Buy a domain (I use Namecheap)
  1. Use Fruition for custom domains, pretty URLs and dark mode
  1. Use ImprovMX for free email forwarding via Cloudflare e.g. [email protected]

Potential downsides

  • Slower
  • Fewer learning opportunities if that is your goal when creating a personal website
  • Less control over the look and user experience — you can't modify a component when you feel like it

Setting up custom Polywork domain

I had some issues following the instructions provided by Polywork to setup a custom domain since I was using Fruition for my personal website
How I got it working with Fruition
  1. Enter your desired domain name on the Polywork settings page e.g. https://profile.alexanguyen.com
  1. Go to your website's Cloudflare dashboard
  1. Navigate to the DNS page
  1. Click add record
      • Type: CNAME
      • Name: [subdomain] e.g. profile
      • Content: [Custom DNS target generated by Polywork]
      • TTL: 2 min
      • Proxy status: DNS only
  1. Hit Save. Note: It may take up to 24 hours for the changes to propagate.

Now using Popsy

Friendship with Fruition over, Popsy is my best friend now

Why

  • Custom themes
  • Can add navigation bar
  • Turn links into real buttons
  • Apparently faster than default Notion pages

Migration from Fruition

  1. Create your site in Popsy
  1. Add the new DNS records and remove the old A records
  1. Publish site
  1. Refresh

Need to update your website?

  1. Click Sync from Notion
badge