I decided to build my own blog to record my learning experience where my interest would lead me. The first question is, how the heck to start a website from scratch?
I did some search… Actually, some conversations with Claude to be honest. It evaluated my needs and suggested me to use WordPress and self hosting. It outlined the procedures as getting a domain, a host, a theme and some plugins, and then I should be good to go. Sounds neat and easy. So I started.
Everything turned out fine. At least I got my website launched and here’s my first blog post. However, what I thought would be one night’s work turned a week’s learning and trying. Here’s how everything actually went.
Step 1. Rent a domain name with a domain registrar
I did some research to understand what a domain registrar does and why I need to pay for a name I came up on my own. Here‘s an old discussion on stackexchange. Essentially, we pay the registrar so that the entire internet knows where to go when someone types in the domain name in the browser. They link the domain name to the IP address of your server.
Popular domain registrars include GoDaddy, NameCheap, etc. I eventually went with NameCheap because it asked for a lower price and a more flexible plan (without a three-year commitment for example).
Picking a domain name was not an easy task for me. Obviously my favorite domain name is also someone else’s favorite and thus already taken. (The registrar’s website will tell you whether a domain name is available or not.) I had to try many different variations. I spent hours on this and finally landed on the name that’s currently showing at the top of this page. The last part was easy, — just take out my credit card and pay.
Step 2. Get a hosting service
This part is straightforward. I just chose the recommended web hosting provider by WordPress and went with bluehost. Again, just take out my credit card and pay.
Bluehost asked a few questions about the purpose of this website. Apparently they were trying to optimize the set up to suit my need. But I’m not sure if that turned out ideal.
Step 3. Install and activate plugins
Honestly, I’m not sure if this should be the third step. I did this based on Claude’s advice. But I felt it made things more complicated than necessary. I added plugins for defense, backups, SEO, etc. They added extra components to my menu and dashboard. It’s just too overwhelming for a pure beginner. I should have started without any plugins and then added them as needed in the future.
Plugins are like apps to the smart phone. They are said to provide addition functions and to make life much easier. So far with only one post on this new website, I don’t really have much experience yet.
Step 4. Select a theme
As I mentioned in Step 2, bluehost did some default set up to help build the website. I found a few themes pre-installed. How convenient! But when I actually activated one and tried using it, I realized that’s not I wanted or needed. For example, the theme had blocks about “product price”, “why choosing our service”, etc. I clearly don’t need them. Initially I thought I could just deleted them, but there were so many related items that I was not sure if a simple deletion would break anything. I switched to another pre-installed theme, but it was similar, with many blocks I didn’t need. (That’s why I said bluehost’s default setting might not be ideal.)
What should I do? Should I pause and go learn HTML and CSS coding?
I did pause and did some learning. Not HTML or CSS though, but the course by bluehost: WordPress for Beginners. It covered almost all buttons and their functions on the WorkPress backend. I’m still not 100% clear about everything on my admin page, but I got some ideas now.
As for the theme, well, it has a filter function, but very well hidden.
I found some themes that suited my needs with simple appearance. I added one and was quite satisfied with the minimalism look. However, I soon found that my search had just started instead of ended. For example, I wanted to have a side bar to show all categories of my posts, but there’s nowhere to add this in the theme. It took me quite a few clicks and hours to realize that the Appearance options depends heavily on the theme. See the comparison below. The one on the left allows for many customizing options while the one on the right doesn’t. Therefore, choosing the right theme goes beyond the appearance, but reaches deep into what you want and how much customizing you need. It really requires a lot of experiments and patience.
Step 5. Create pages and posts
It’s easy to add pages and posts. The hard part is to make them nice. The course by bluehost covered a good amount of topics for editing posts, but not so much on pages. Currently, I’m still learning how to organize the pages. I launched this site with only one post and very primitive design. Hopefully I can improve it as I move forward.
Now, time to launch!