As I work through my “non employed” progress, I am going to share tidbits and updates. Essentially, the process I find myself going through each day moving forward. Whether it is more spiritual or technical, if I think it will help someone in a similar situation, I will be sharing. I am currently developing three websites (this one included), and I am sure there will be ups and downs as I go. I am creating a career and livelihood from scratch all while trying to define my purpose, so this should be interesting.
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I am not the ultimate designer nor do I really have the desire to be one, but today’s task is shaking out to be “website design 101″. I feel the need for custom headers on all three of my blogs, and since I do not have the funds to pay for one to be designed, I will need to take a crash course and do my own work. I also need to clean up my new Wordpress template for two of my sites, and load it up on this site as well. This is going to take longer then just today……
Backing up, for those who have never created a website or a journal and are considering one, I highly recommend Wordpress. Here is a link to their free blogging program, and here is a link to their paid domain version (meaning you bought your own website name).
Wordpress has greatly sped up my web progress, period. Its very flexible, and allows for a lot of creativity without programming knowledge. There are tutorials all over the web for any aspect you could want. Plus, you can download free and paid templates that can really change the look of your site (sort of the front facing look of your website). I have been experimenting with Wordpress since about March 2009, and at this point I see no need to look at anything else.
While there are free themes or templates all over the web, I have opted to pay for my latest version to help speed up my progress. Search engine optimization is very important for me, along with the ability to super customize via a dashboard (ie, tons of pretty little buttons and drop down boxes), rather then code/programming work. I am currently testing out the Thesis Theme, and so far very pleased, although I would say it takes a good deal of work out of the box to make it what you want.
I tried to find some non technical easy to understand articles on what Wordpress is exactly, but that seems to be seriously lacking. I know when I first started thinking about websites, I was overwhelmed with some of the concepts, lingo, and how all the pieces fit together. Here is a link talking about “What is Wordpress”, and here is an article that helped me walk through the initial set up processes almost a year ago. If you wanted to explore further these will at least get you thinking.
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So off I go to learn about designing website headers and color schemes. Hopefully I do not drown in information and decision overload! :)
