The Personal Website Playbook
Leads, revenue and opportunity.
A video course by Tom Hirst.
If you work or spend a lot of time online, you need your own website.
It's your modern-day CV and gateway to a pipeline of opportunity:
- Leads for work that come to you
- Revenue across multiple income streams
- Valuable opportunities from interesting people
Your personal website should be the centrepiece of your marketing strategy.
Do you want to know how to create a good one?
Let me show you the playbook.
"Valuable information relating to specific and achievable wins you can make on your own site today."
– Scott Spence, Web Developer
"Tons of examples that can help anyone accelerate their personal brand."
– Areej AbuAli, SEO Consultant
"Tom's playbook was the roadmap I needed."
– Mike Richardson, SEO Consultant
"A fantastic blueprint for creating a great personal website."
– Philip Benton, Commercial Photographer
"Finally, a website course without the fluff."
– Connor Fowler, Brand Identity Designer
"Tom's teaching style is down-to-earth, clear and actionable. High recommend."
– Kevin Cunningham, Developer and Educator
Who Am I And What Do I Know?
I've been using my personal website to generate interest in my services for years.
My website provides fuel for my six-figure yearly freelance career.
It's been tweaked, modified, tested, added to and removed from in this time.
Leaving me with 100s of valuable lessons learned in what makes personal websites successful.
This is what my inbox looks like every month:
278 leads from 7,012 clicks in 1 year; all organic, no paid ads.
The biggest lesson learned of all?
When your personal website is good, you need less traffic than you think.
And because your personal website is good, you can increase results by driving more traffic at any time.
The first step is creating a good personal website.
And that's what this course is all about.
What You'll Learn
Across 12 video modules you'll learn:
- Why having a personal website opens you up to
opportunities from all angles
- How to choose the best tools to assemble your personal website
- How to structure your pages to increase conversions
- The style and layout strategies that get your content seen
- Which pages to include and what to show on them
- How to gain trust through your personal website that gets you work
- How to position your personal website to gain an audience
that will buy from you
- Why messaging raises personal brand awareness and how to create yours for your website
- How to write convincingly to encourage people to get in touch with you
- How to craft offers that present value effectively to get leads and make sales
- The tactics I use to drive relevant traffic to my personal website
- Methods to monetise your personal website from different sources simultaneously
- How to test your personal website's performance and improve it over time
The Modules
- Getting Started
- Choosing a Platform
- Layout and Style
- Content
- Trust Signals
- Taking Your Position
- Messaging and Copy
- Crafting Offers
- Traffic Tactics
- Revenue Streams
- Iterative Improvement
- Inspiration
Course Sample
Click here to see a 60-second sample from the course.
Praise From Buyers
"Although I'm a designer, websites are my least favourite thing to design. They're complex, the tools are awkward and unless you know what you're doing a "three day job" becomes a six month battle.
But, by the end of TPWP all of those frustrations melted away. Finally someone had put together a website course without the fluff.
I felt I could finally tackle my website with ease and clarity.
Tom took it back to first principles and didn't hold back on sharing his expertise. I'm actually excited to start designing my new website now. Thanks Tom!"
– Connor Fowler, Brand Identity Designer
"The Personal Website Playbook not only shows you why your personal website is important but how to make the most of it. It's clear and concise while giving you all the information you need for a successful website.
A no-brainer for freelancers and incredibly useful for anyone trying to create an online presence."
– Dan Spratling, Freelance UX Engineer
"If you're creating a personal website for the first time or in the process of improving your current one, follow the advice in Tom's Playbook.
It's a fantastic blueprint for creating a great personal site."
– Philip Benton, Commercial Photographer
"Even as an experienced consultant, I learned a tremendous amount from this course!
I was very satisfied with it, and would highly recommend it."
– Simon Hoiberg, Software Engineer
"I've had my own ideas for a personal website for some time, but Tom's playbook was the roadmap I needed to put it into practice. Everything started to become clear on how my website should be structured for my audience's needs. I now understand how to prioritise my messaging and use the layout of my website to convert users.
The layout and style section was particularly useful in seeing how Tom uses storytelling to direct users through a website. The bulleted slides made his advice super easy to implement and acted almost like a checklist as I built my own site.
Being able to follow a tried-and-tested approach, in a digestible format, has made a huge difference and has allowed me to finally get over the line and finish my personal website."
– Mike Richardson, SEO Consultant
"Valuable information relating to specific and achievable wins you can make on your own site today."
– Scott Spence, Web Developer
"Tom's course generously shares lots of advice and tips that helped him over the years. He includes tons of examples that can help anyone accelerate their personal brand.
– Areej AbuAli, SEO Conulstant
"Tom's teaching style is down-to-earth, clear and actionable. High recommend."
– Kevin Cunningham, Developer and Educator
Built In Public
I'm a big believer in building things in public.
For a behind the scenes look at how I put The Personal Website Playbook together, check out the story on Twitter.
FAQs
Do I Need To Know How To Code?
No, because this is not a technical course.
I won't be teaching you how to code because there are already 10s of courses out there that will.
My strength is helping independent workers market themselves and this is what The Personal Website Playbook is all about.
Does My Website Need To Be On A Certain Platform To Benefit?
It doesn't matter what platform you use.
The Personal Website Playbook's content applies to any CMS or website builder and if you build your website entirely from scratch yourself.
Choosing the platform for your personal website isn't the biggest hurdle; knowing how to get results from it is.
Who Is This Course For?
Anyone who:
- Works online
- Freelances
- Consults
- Creates
- Has a personal brand
- Wants to raise their profile
I recommend that you have time to commit and think long-term. Compounding happens over time.
Did You Pay For Ads To Get Traffic?
I've never paid for an ad to my personal website.
What’s The Format?
Slides and demonstrations taught by me on video.
12 module files, all downloadable and with free updates for life.
You’ll also get an appendix PDF with links to tools, references and resources, plus a PDF of the presentation slides.
What If I Don't Like It?
I created The Personal Website Playbook because there isn't enough quality content on this topic out there.
If you're worried this course will be of poor quality, should you find no value inside, I'll happily process a refund for you.
What Next?
Now's your chance to stop procrastinating on your personal website.
You do good work and have big ideas. So let people know about it.
The Personal Website Playbook will give you clear direction and help you feel in control of your marketing.
Launching or levelling-up your personal website can get you a shot you wouldn't have otherwise had.
Open yourself up to a pipeline of opportunity.
Click the "I want this!" button now!