Many of us have heard the popular saying, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”* This website is my first step. It’s not totally my website. I didn’t program it from scratch. The layout is taken from a template. It uses other people’s plugins. But it is the first step on a long road for me to learn how to do all of those things.
The current goal is to learn the basics of setting up and running a website for blogging purposes. It also gives me a place to start my blog long before I have the skills to create my own website from scratch. This way, I can start documenting from the beginning, rather than waiting until I’m well into my programming journey before I start blogging about it. To get started, I’m using a simple WordPress site with a pre-made template that thousands of other people use. While I’ve changed it to suit my needs, it’s nothing special or unique.
Even with a simple site like this there is a lot to learn if you’re doing it yourself.
Which I am. I’m doing all the work myself. Everything from site setup and management to creating the content. I didn’t buy a ready-to-go site. I haven’t hired anyone to help. I did my research, bought my own domain name & found a template that suits my basic needs. I researched and loaded the plugins to help it run smoother and provide fun widgets, etc.
All content is created by me. While I have a Print Journalism Diploma, it was earned 25 years ago! (Jeez where did time go?!?!?) Back then we were just getting into basic newspaper websites, digital graphic design and layout. It was very simple stuff compared to what’s available nowadays. Not only do I need to dust off my writing skills, there’s a lot of new things to learn as so much has changed.
With the exception of paying for the domain name and web hosting, everything else I’m using is free.
The WP template is free. I’m starting with the free version of each plugin. All the graphic design software is open source or a free app. Right now, my startup costs are minimal, coming in under $100 CAD/year. Not bad for a fun learner project! Here’s the website specs at this point in time:
WordPress template: Gaming X Esport
Plugins:
- Akismet Anti-Spam
- Really Simple SSL
- UpdraftPlus – Backup/Restore
- All in One SEO
- Feeds for YouTube
- Google Analytics for WordPress by MonsterInsights
- NextGen Gallery
- WPForms Lite
Graphics:
- Screenshots and video I’ve taken myself through my own game play.
- My own photography.
- A combination of Inkscape, Gimp & Canva for graphic design elements.
I know it’s not running perfectly and that’s ok!
Of course there’s missing pieces. There are things to tweak and improve on. There’s probably better plugins out there. But for now it’s good to go! It’s a start. It will be a work in progress for awhile as I learn and grow my skills. At some point I’ll start again, from the ground up, programing my very first site from scratch. I’m very excited about that idea! Taking my designs and turning them into a functional, yet beautiful, website of my very own. I look forward to that puzzle!
For now, here is the first step, of the next thousand miles, of my online life.
* Chinese proverb taken from the Dao De Jing ascribed to Laozi