The First Step to Creating Your Own Website or Blog

The First Step to Creating Your Own Website or Blog

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creating your own website or blog

Do you want to create your own website, or start a blog?  Welcome to this column.  I have tailored the column to help you carve out your own corner of cyberspace so it’s visible to the world. And to make your voice heard!

If you’re already up and online with your own website or blog, this column will introduce you to all kinds of brilliant tools that will make your life easier, techniques that will make your website work  better for you, and tips from those “in the know” so that your website really stands out and presents you, or your business, to maximum advantage.

If you are just testing the waters and want to know more about building your own website or blog, this column will also be helpful for you. And I promise not to use too much tech-speak, but rather stick to down-to-earth, normal language, easy-to-follow tips to get you up and running.

creating your own website or blog

Today, so many people need websites.  Whether you have a business that you need to get online, or a project you’re working on you that want to make public, or you want to create a “personal branding page” in order to have a place to refer people to, or you want to create a personal blog – pretty much everyone wants, or needs to get, some kind of online presence.

While getting a website used to be a complicated undertaking, these days you really have all the tools at your disposal to make things easy for you.  It’s usually just a question of deciding what you want to do, then seeing how you are going to go about creating it – what tools you are going to use to get the right look for your site, and get it working as you want it to.

For the first “episode” in this column, I want to ask you a question.  This question is equally valid for readers whose website is already up and running as it is for those who haven’t yet started working on their site.  That question is: what kind of site do you want to create?

Do you want to create a blog that’s perhaps a mouthpiece for your opinions on a particular topic, or maybe just to share what happens in your everyday life?

  • Do you want a showcase of your work so that potential clients can see what you’ve done and contact you with a view to hiring you?
  • Do you need a simple online presence that gives all your contact details and social media links, and a statement about what you do?
  • Maybe you’re planning to build a site that positions you as an expert in your field so that those who meet you in the real world can look you up and see your credentials?
  • Or perhaps you just need to have a page that collects email addresses, because your project isn’t ready yet – but you’re giving out business cards with your website address on it and you really need to have something there to show people and collect their details.

It often happens that when a website goes live, you find it doesn’t actually fulfill the purpose that you intended it to fulfill.  When you’re building a site yourself, it’s easy to lose sight of what your original aim was and get carried away adding lots of extra elements.  Or if you had a professional build your site, it’s possible that they didn’t understand what you wanted, or maybe you weren’t even really sure what you needed.

Bottom line: In order for your website to work really well for you, you have to be clear on its function.

PART TWO: How to Plan Your New Website or Blog

For more tech tips, consult my website www.alannahmoore.com 

Get Alannah's Latest Book: "Create Your Own Website the Easy Way"

Create Your Own Website the Easy Way

Alannah Moore has been living and working in Paris for 20 years. She first came as a bit of an adventure and is somewhat surprised to find that she’s still here. Alannah is passionate about demystifying the world of website creation. She runs workshops to show ordinary, not especially technical people how they can create their own website or blog; her books are available on Amazon (her latest, Create Your Own Website The Easy Way, will be out in Spring 2016). Alannah lives in the 5th arrondissement, and has a seven year old son; they enjoy holidaying in the depths of the Auvergnat forest. You can visit her website at www.alannahmoore.com.

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