You’re Never Too Old To…..

 

So don’t let anyone ever tell you otherwise because at 70 years old, well just about anyway, I’ve proved this again to myself and to the somewhat bemusement of my 43 year old son who silently thought this but didn’t dare say so.

Okay let me explain. For some time I have played with the idea of having my own website and in January this year decided to go for it – sort of New Year Resolution – bucket list thing. And then decided I didn’t want to go the simple Wix ‘ Easy to create’ type site, oh no madam here  decided madam wanted to go for the best because madam had done her own extensive research and all the ‘experts’ said without doubt, WordPress it had to be because with WordPress one can do so much more, one isn’t limited to the basics others offer.

My son, IT and SEO boffin, bless him offered and so did the whole signing up to a Web Host, choosing domain and installing WordPress then concluded his gallant effort with “Well there you are Mother, go and play with it, start writing content, stories and whatever – oh and by the way, you may want to buy a really nice theme.

I stared at him blankly.

And so play around I did but actually got nowhere and I certainly was not heading in any direction towards how I’d visualised the end result I’d planned.

Photo By Emile Peron

I moved onto looking at the Premium themes, found one I really liked and bought it – thinking….!! thinking….!! It would be a case of change titles, add my own text then copy paste and drag photos into their slots.

Big mistake. I downloaded and opened it and the page was all but blank.
“There’s nothing here, it’s blank!” I shrieked. My son came in to help with  pained patience, whizzed the mouse around my screen like a demented wasp trapped in a glass jar and up it all popped up.

“How did you do that?”
“Don’t worry, you won’t understand …. it’s complicated.”
A gave him a look of sheer fury.
“You can read the instructions on how to set it up that came with it – that’ll help.”

Another blank stare.

“Where do I find that?”
Another flight of the trapped wasp, up it popped and off he went.
And there it was A fine lists in gibbly gobbly technical terminology I was never going to understand at this early stage.

Buuugger that!!….realising in short shift time that as much as he wanted to help, it wasn’t going to work for the very same reasons as having a parent teach their kid to drive a car – but in reverse – age that is.

I decided to do it on my own and turned to googled for help. The first and best advice I read was forget about Premium Themes, that’s stage 10 in building a website, WordPress have an excellent choice of free themes which are very easy to use and recommended Blog Builders to set up the site and a further search found the “Sydney” WP free theme and so on the advice given I deactivated the bought Premium Theme to start again.

Blog Builders was brilliant as a starter with a step by step easy guide to follow instructions. His gentle manner patiently explained each step to be taken and the why and how it worked.

From there I then moved onto the other two tutorials by James Stafford and Greg Narayan (each about 2 and a half to 3 hours long) and slowly step by step working with ‘Sydney’ got my site just to how I wanted it to look.

 But it certainly did not go without snot flying, toy throwing, yelling, crying, spitting,
 hissy-fitting, effing and blinding when I started. There were times I had to stop, take a walk, have a cuppa and  then get back to it.

 So here we are, here I am, chuffed as a green mealie (corn) in the rain with my very own website that I built up  all on my own and delighted with the results so far. Lots more to build on, expand and improve, but the    foundation is there just how I want it to do so.

To me, creating a website is rather like building a new house – first the plans, then you build from foundations up adding the plumbing and electrical wiring as you go along followed by fitting the electrical appliances and showers baths sinks taps etc. This would be considered stages 1 and 2 of starting a website. The nitty gritty behind the scenes that make it all work and flow.

Only when all is done, painting, tiling and carpeting do you venture into furnishing. And this I would consider adding blogs and galleries.

Photo by Alex Knight

 

Time for another cuppa – hope you enjoyed this blog –
if you did, I’d love to hear from you.

 

Credits to my tutors: Thanks guys 

Blog Builders  http://www.theblogbuilders.com/guide/step-1b/
James Stafford  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVoXDk8ps10&t=4046s
Greg Narayan  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCDKEiEv2QE

8 thoughts on “You’re Never Too Old To…..

  1. Disey wisey….I just love that you did this all on your own and I love your story telling…when are you coming to S.A. again to tell stories and ghost stories

    1. Rowena – I know, I need to keep up mu ghost stories and terrify all your kids as I did all of you.
      Thank you too for such high praise on my efforts. Bless you xxx

    1. Hello Diane, sorry for this late reply for which I confess to not visiting my website too often.

      Thank you so much for visiting my website and adding your heartwarming comment. Bless you for that, I’m still a newbie with this all and must now spend more time on it.
      Bless you for commenting. 🙂

  2. Absolutely wonderful, Dinah! You put me a youngster to shame. Your website is beautiful and classy, really inspirational you are! Do you want more traffic? Would you be happy if I share your website on FB?

    1. Dearest friend – what a lovely thing to say. I have been a little lazy – or otherwise tied up – in spending more time on my site and adding more to it but that is going to change.
      Yes, I would love more traffic and more than happy for you to share it on FB. Thank you.
      Time to meet up again for a coffee and catch-up, don’t you think? 🙂

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