How to create free press for your work

A website for your side project.

This could be a page with a simple grid of your lifestyle photography.

Or a gallery of gradients or illustrations you make for fun in your free time.

Or a one-pager of GIFs and images of your 3D experiments.

Or a page documenting your travels around the world.

It will take you literally 5 minutes to drag a folder of images onto the screen, add a headline and share it online. Your own little marketing page and press release, broadcasting your work to the world. It's easy to create and simple enough to be shared. A bite-sized introduction to you and what you're all about.

I've made one-page websites for all kinds of side projects, including an ebook I wrote and a personal library of color palettes. They took off immediately thanks to their simple, visual, sharable nature. I wasn't pitching myself to be hired, pointing visitors to my resume or asking anything from them at all. I was just sharing something I enjoyed creating, with the hopes others would enjoy it too.

Inevitably, people who discover these pages find their way to my portfolio, because it makes them curious about me. They discover my side projects without any prior knowledge of me, and they want to learn more. Before I know it, they're at my portfolio – they may even eventually become my collaborator, client or partner. All because of a simple page I published once, that continues to live on and point back to me and my other work.

Here are a few nice examples of this strategy, all made with Semplice.com and Carbonmade.com:

A personal travel journal

Anna Rising's travel journal, made with Semplice.com

Anna Rising made a website to document her travels, including photos, blog entries and a travel log detailing her calculated Carbon emissions for each trip.

Visit Anna Rising's travel journal →

A lifestyle photography website

thelocals.dk, a photography site made with semplice.com

Søren Jepsen created a website solely for his lifestyle photography work. He brands it so well, it almost feels like a publication.

Visit The Locals page →

A page of colorful illustration experiments

The maalavidaa.com homepage, made with carbonmade.com

This website by Alycia Rainaud is focused entirely on her psychedelic color experiments.

See Alycia Rainaud's gradient gallery →

Jon Vio's one-pager features 3D experiments and projects, made with semplice.com

Jon Vio's made a one-pager with a GIFs and images of his 3D experiments, along with a brief introduction.

See Jon Vio's 3D world →

A marketing page for an ebook

My own marketing page for Let's Go to NYC, a guide for moving to New York. Built with Semplice.com

I launch marketing pages for nearly every side project I do, including one for a book I wrote about moving to NYC. This one probably took me an hour to create at the most, after adding images, writing a summary and linking up a buy button.