Building a Website – Don’t Let This Daunting Task Defeat You
Building a Website Should Be a Priority
Updated October 16, 2019)
You know that building a website should be at the top of your list.
But, money is tight, hiring someone is not an option.
And you? You’re not a techie, you can’t write code, and you have no skills or experience with website development.
You are living in the digital age and EVERYONE needs a website.
It’s been part of your marketing strategy from the beginning but keeps getting pushed to the bottom of the list of things to do.
What is the answer?
Kick the Fear to the Curb and Build Your Website
For some people, building a website may not be daunting at all, but for many people especially if you are a decade or two beyond 40 or a complete novice, It can be terrifying.
I was faced with this same problem in 2013 and had no choice except to build my website
This Is My Story
Let it be an inspiration to you.
October 30, 2013
If you could see me right now, you would be witnessing a wild and crazy happy dance.
I started writing and self-publishing my books a little over a year ago (back in 2012).
Early on, I became aware of the necessity of having a website to communicate with my followers.
Because I had finally quit my day job to write and money was not flowing freely, hiring someone to build a website was not an option.
If it were to be, it was up to me . . . and I had no clue how to begin.
In fact, just thinkng about building a website made my head hurt. The challenge was so intimidating it had been sitting on my “to-do” list for months.
Finally, I realized I had to stop procrastinating. Like it or not, I had to take the leap, dedicate the time, and learn how to build a website.
The first few steps were easy.
I had purchased my domain name 13 months prior, and setting up my hosting account with GoDaddy had been simple enough – thanks to their tech support. But, those were only tiny first steps!
Building the website quickly became complicated. I had no idea that I would be facing one of the steepest learning curves I had ever experienced.
It took two full days to get the basics in place – two days filled with moment-after-moment of complete, pounding-the-desk frustration.
The problems started with choosing a theme that appealed to me and would also do what I needed it to do (and I wasn’t even sure what I needed it to do.)
The next big hurdle was trying to get the theme downloaded into WordPress. That took several hours. I made the mistake of trying to figure it out myself using instructions on WordPress.org.
After three frantic phone calls to GoDaddy, I finally reached someone who knew how to do it. With his help it was done in 10 minutes.
What I didn’t know was that the biggest challenge of all lay ahead – actually building the Website – layout, design, colors, creating new pages, etc., and making it all work correctly.
last came the struggle of how to get images into my posts, plus a dozen other little issues that took hours and hours of hard work along with the feeling that I would never get it done.
BUT . . . I did.
I now have a Website. Yeah!
Please, do the happy dance with me!
Accomplishing that task was amazing. I wasn’t sure I could do it and wanted to quit more than once, but I persevered.
If I had been years younger, or a techie by nature, it would have been easier, but I wasn’t young. In fact, I was 76 at the time with no experience regarding the inner workings of a computer or websites, and I did it anyway.
You Can Do It Too!
If you have been procrastinating about building a website, don’t let another day go by. Now is the time to take the leap and do it.
You are lucky because there are many tools, articles, and services available to help you through the process.
My recommendation is to build a website with WordPress.
It’s been around for a long time, has many valuable plugins, is very reliable, there is no fee, and it provides free themes that are easy to install. In other words – WordPress offers everything you need.
The first step is to choose and purchase your domain name. Cost is usually $15/annually or much less for the first year if you find a good promotion.
Next, pick your hosting company (which includes an annual fee). The three companies suggested below interact nicely with WordPress when building a website.
GoDaddy still has an excellent support team to get you through the rough spots. Wix is also known as an excellent website builder for the novice.
I recently transferred to SiteGround for hosting, and I’m happy with the results. A big plus is that the SSL Certificate (Security) is included in the annual fee.
If you are a freelancer, author, owner of a small business, or entrepreneur of any kind, a website is critical. Delaying the task of building a website is not in your best interest.
Remember: if I can do it – you can too!
Related Articles:
Leave a Reply