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My First Years Building Websites

I remember the first website I ever built and how looooong it took. The year was 2000. I was one year from completing my undergraduate degree and was using code. ”Yeah,” code. On top of that, the company I was working for had dial-up internet. I would show up for work around 5 a.m. and work on the website until 9 a.m. because, during that time, the internet would just run so slow. From time to time I would get completely kicked out and had to dial back in to hear, “You’ve Got Mail!” However, after 4 weeks at 20 hours a week I was happy with my work and so was the owner. I actually took several classes outside of my major because I understood the demand for websites. I was also paying my way through college and companies where 4x times than average and if you could complete with 4 weeks you could receive a bonus. After that first website, the referrals were coming in so fast that I had one booked out even one month after I was scheduled to graduate.

I eventually recruited and trained my neighbor to assist and was able to create four websites a month, attend school full-time and work at the residence hall one day a week. All while enjoying my last year at Northern Illinois University. Time management is a skill I perfected.  Once I graduated and started working in the field of training and development I would still get referrals and would refer back to that neighbor. He had to do an additional two years of college because he changed his major to Computer Science.

The Advantages of Knowing How to Build Websites

Because website design was a skillset of mine, whenever I landed a job I would get picked over other people in my field because of that ability and I was able to negotiate more pay. Although my job title would be Trainer, Human Resource Professional, Development Specialist, part of my job duties had something to do with using design to create e-learning and trainings. In 2007 when I turned my hobby of event and wedding planning into my first business, creating a website had become simpler. I created my business website in about 3 hours, I could have finished faster, but I added code to the various templates available. Therefore, when my husband asked me to assist him I was able to produce at least 5 websites a week while working as an Event Planner and raising our three little girls.

Last year, when I decided to take my passion for journaling and teaching online as a blog, I created my website and started gaining followers within an hour. Thanks to my many friends who had been asking me for years to start a blog and share my knowledge with the world. Before my first month of blogging could pass, I received a blogger award. Requests for answers around blogging were coming more and more often. I decided to include those topics in my repertoire and they are truly the most popular. I was teaching my friend and their friends offline how to build a blog. Then my students wanted me to teach them how to make money with their blog. The demand was high, so I had to rent space to hold trainings and began charging for these skill sets. As a homework assignment, I was able to trim my training time by 8 hours and the price by $200. I found 2 amazing YouTube videos on how to create some great multi-functional blogs. That extra time was precious. I produced more educational blogs and started designing blog courses for online learning.

Empowering People To Build Their Own Website

I have scoured the web and ran across countless videos and have become partial to James Stafford and his team at Welcome to Websites Made Easy. Their teaching style is similar to mine, if not identical.

The first video I recommend is “How To Make A WordPress Blog Step By Step For Beginners 2018.” It was published on Feb 21, 2018 and is 48 minutes long. Before I shared with my students I allowed my, then 11 year-old daughter to follow along with him and she created an amazing website with no help from me. Except for the content I gave her to paste on the site before she started. 

The second video I recommend is “How To Make A WordPress Website 2018.” It was published on May 29, 2018 and is about 80 minutes. Once again, my daughter was able to follow his steps and create another beautiful website.

I personally stand by these videos and recommend following his YouTube channel. I never met or talked to James nor am I being compensated in any way by him for this recommendation. You might be asking why don’t I have a video? I started creating a video when I ran across his amazing videos so it is nearly identical to my outline, with the exception of the plugin section, where I recommended 3 additional plugins. If you are ready to start a blog and not get stuck in a technical rut, I suggest you give these videos a try before you hire me starting a $300 and increasing (depending on the difficulty level) well into the thousands, or  you can hire my husband’s company Evolution Digital Marketing & Promotions,  a one-stop-shop for all of your digital marketing needs.

Have you started a blog? Did you do it yourself, or did you hire someone? What are your thoughts?  Please share in the comments below. I really would love to know.

Until next time, shine amongst the stars!

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