This week, I created my own WordPress website and learned a lot about the amount of control that one has when managing a website. You can view my personal website here.
I struggled with WordPress in the beginning because it was unclear what a page was and what the homepage was. Initially, I had my About Me page as the homepage. As soon as I learned how to assign my homepage, everything became more organized and clear. I enjoyed seeing how the buttons on my site could lead to either my home or about me page, showing how interactive a WordPress site can be.
I had so much fun customizing the home page and the about me page. I spent time customizing to ensure that I liked how my site looked and visitors would be able to understand the information. I also had fun customizing the overall look of my website. Initially, the default look was okay, but it did not match my preferences. That is why I ended up downloading a new theme named Kadence.
I faced many challenges when working with CSS files since sometimes the changes that I had made did not reflect on the website. Nevertheless, I managed to customize the CSS to ensure that the links change color when hovered. Such a discovery helped me grasp the power of CSS since it enables one to control how a website looks. However, it was also necessary to understand that some changes may require one to utilize other tools apart from CSS.
I think that in the future, I could use this website as a portfolio to display my qualifications and experience. One could also add additional information such as details about one’s football career, projects, and work experience. It is important to have one’s personal website because we retain complete control over the information rather than utilizing some third-party website. However, the amount of customization requires more effort to get the website up and running, and when something does not work, it can be difficult to identify the cause of the error and how to resolve it. Creating my own website has been something I have wanted to do since a kid, so this was an incredibly enjoyable experience and I can happily say I have my own URL and Website from this project.
I really enjoyed your point about the level of control one has while building his own site. Your example of CSS also really connected with me since, although small changes in coding might seem simple, they are sometimes very hard to get right and working. In addition, your concept of developing a site as a portfolio is really interesting since you can develop the site gradually over time by adding more of your projects and ideas to it.
I really agree that the customization was a lot of fun. I think that the ability to be creative with our websites is a really cool freedom that we have because it is completely our own. I think utilizing the site as a portfolio to display qualifications in a professional setting is a great Idea. Do you think that building your own site could have upsides compared to using something such as LinkedIn for the same thing?
I also had a difficult time trying to understand the difference between pages and the homepage, so I totally understand where you’re coming from. It was interesting for me to see that you decided to download an entirely new theme, rather than stick with the default theme. Also, the idea that you have of building a portfolio on this website is quite good. It is always nice to have a website with full control over its content.
I also made my links change color on hover, and when my CSS changes didn’t show up, clearing the cache or refreshing the page usually fixed it. Adding your football career to the site would make it stand out, since a recruiter could see your projects and your time as an athlete in one place.