This site began a few weeks ago when I received notice that a site I had previously purchased was being shut down. I had not done any work on the site. It remained a non-site lost in cyber-land. This new site is a resurrection of a past site that some of my friends and followers might remember from years ago. The original site has since disappeared into the ether of cyber-land. I imagine the pixels floating around in a TRON-like world.
I wanted to build an efficient, modern and easy to maintain website. I am now working to that end. So far, the hardest part of this has been researching to find what I wanted when I did not have any idea of what was available. I do have a little experience in Web building, enough to know it is not as easy as it should be.
This is what I wanted for my website/blog and why:
- The cost had to be very reasonable. Why? This is a hobby, more or less, after all.
- It has to be easy to build and maintain. Why? I want control of my site. I don't want to call and pay someone every time I need to add something other than a blog post.
- It has to look new, fresh, and up to date. Why? I want a nice well-rounded site that can sell my business as well as something I can have fun with. I don't like the early 2000's blog look.
- It has to have tons of features that are easy to incorporate. Why? It's the features like widgets and add ons that make your website rock. If they are hard to do you will end up disappointed and having to hire a web designer.
- It has to load fast, be responsive across platforms, and do its job.
- Inmotion Hosting (WordPress is installed as part of the set-up process)
- Theme: Generate Press (Free WordPress Theme. Clean and easily modified by a page builder like Elementor.)
- Plug-in: Elementor Page Builder (Free Plug-in. Upgradeable) (I chose the upgrade)
- Youtube video Making Custom Websites . (by wpSculptor. Step by Step instruction from installation to finished site.)
Half way into the building process I upgraded to Elementor Pro. I wanted the easy to add slide shows and other cool add on features.
Nancy
Question, is there a way to build a template of a website before making a commitment and purchasing?
You could certainly build a free site on WordPress.com. It will not have all the functionality of a hosted site. But is a good way to start. If you think you might want to go for a more advanced site, you can always go for it later on. If you do build a free site on WordPress.com and you buy your domain name, you can take that with you. But if you know you will want to have a site it is easier to find a host and build it there and not have to go through the bother of moving and re-pointing your domain name.