How did I fare setting up?
The basics of setting up my own website were not as difficult as I was expecting it to be. Perhaps it was the fact that I was given step-by-step instructions– who knows? It was extremely gratifying to open up my website for the first time. When I was choosing my theme, it really dawned on me that I could design the website to visually be exactly how I wanted it to be. Even with what I began with, I knew that I was merely scratching the surface of the possibilities for personalization. Once I came to my bearings of the discovered potential, the first thing I had to do was put an image of my dog on the first page because, why not?
What might you do with this platform?
There are so many different options to take advantage of with this platform and use it to your likings! When I was browsing through the themes, I noticed how the descriptions for each varied, identifying to be catered towards a specific interest. There were real-estate driven themes, themes for online markets, and even one for a food blog. I was really struck by seeing how the technical design of the website can help to relay the product you are presenting. For example, using a theme geared towards online markets would be interesting for my blog site, but probably wouldn’t be as effective. Or maybe…?
What benefits or drawbacks come with “rolling your own” website instead of signing up for a hosted service or using a social media platform?
Creating your own website certainly gives you the creative freedom to mold the site to be exactly how you would want it to look. Especially with the CSS plugin, you can fit the image and setup of your website down to a T. However, this can also prove to be a lot more work when compared to signing up for a hosted service. While you have more liberty to do what you want, the manual labor to design is completely on you. Fun, but also not so much fun.
2 replies on “Setting up WordPress”
I had the same feelings with CSS plugins – I didn’t know they existed before and I’m more than happy to know that they do. I certainly love the templates, and sometimes only little details need to be changed, and CSS plugins are just a great tool to overwrite things like this.
I agree with the versatility of having a website, and also, I find that having good control of what I want to do with the website can be a hassle too in comparison to say social media or a hosted site, I can just type my thoughts and I don’t have to think about it no more.