How i would start my online presence today
How should I get started with a web site today?
I get asked this question more often than I care to admit. If it is free, it’s probably not going to have what you need, and when you pay for services, you pay attention to them as well.
I would also direct you to my tools page for all the tools I use.
Lots of people use Wix, Squarespace, Wordpress, and more.
If you just need one page, you need to use Carrd.co
Most of those are too expensive and too complex for what people need who just need a website to show they aren’t crazy!
Here are the things you need to know:
Domain Names
If you want to exist online, you want to have a domain name. jethro.site is this web site. I have about 50 of these.
All a domain name says is “this is where to find me online.”
Then you need to connect a web site to that domain.
https://sdl.academy is a domain name I own, which I recently learned is not directed to any web site, so it just sits out there. (If you’re reading this in the future, it will be corrected and direct you to a page on this site.)
Web Host
This is where you create and edit the content for your web site. While I’m striving to a place of Tech Independence, that’s probably not the right thing for everyone, so I won’t push that on you.
This is the company you pay to keep your stuff out there.
Since most people who ask me this question are non-technical, I’m going to steer clear of the technical solutions, and point to those that are easy and inexpensive.
Static vs. Dynamic
I define a static web site as a site that you are not going to update much and that you have there to make it easy to point people to something. A great failed business idea of mine that got far, but not far enough is a static site, designed as a reminder of the lessons I learned about that project. All it has is a YouTube video embedded.
Notes mentioning this note
There are no notes linking to this note.