Website Woes

I have made websites in Wix and other website-making platforms before. WordPress is relatively more involved and technical than something like Wix, but it was manageable for the most part. In terms of the actual web development, I found that editing site through WordPress’s own interface to be quite doable, and I did not have any problems with it. However, I did run into many issues in how to add CSS code to the website. I understand CSS when having the files on my computer, but adding CSS to WordPress (even with the extension) felt harder which does not feel right when reading fellow classmates’ posts. Which makes me wonder if I am doing something wrong.

Platform

http://brinkj.sites.carleton.edu/ is my website now. Now what? I am not sure what I can do with it. I always glamorized the idea of having my own website. It to me seemed like a more personal and customizable alternative to a LinkedIn Profile or a resume. If I want this to be a professional site, it might be a good idea to add my resume and other projects I have done. However, I wonder if there will be any requirements for the site for this class, or if it truly is our blank canvas that we can do anything with. From what I’ve seen, some people’s personal sites actually have blogs ranging from ideas, reflections, and ramblings. This seems like a good idea for some people, but I sometimes like having thoughts to myself. Finally, I think that a website is a great way for one to show off their projects in a well-formatted way that is completely in control by the web developer (me).

Making Your Own Site

As mentioned above, making your site, even using a platform like WordPress, can be quite difficult. I think making your own site all by yourself is inaccessible for many people. With the steep learning curve though, it is quite powerful, and you can customize it in a thousand different ways fitting to your needs. Also, making your own website requires a lot of time of learning how to use HTML/CSS and actually making the site in of itself. Moreover, server costs and hosting seem to be huge headaches that thankfully I did not have to deal with.