I am a writer. I write.

I am not a website designer.

However, an author site seemed important. Most of the people who teach about writing consistently point their audience to the need for a platform, a website, a steady presence with blog posts. Therefore, I decided to up my game in terms of web presence. I felt it was time to migrate to my own domain. “It’s easy”, I was told. “Just follow the directions in this YouTube video.”

I am not ignorant when it comes to technology. I pride myself on the fact that I can do nearly as well as my 24-year-old coworker in terms of managing the technology at my day job. But creating my own website humbled me immensely. Every single part of the process was fraught with problems.

I spent a great deal of my free time over the course of many weeks learning aspects of website design that I never knew existed.

•             What is my focus keyphrase?

•             Have I included a Meta Description for each page?

•             Where is the Yoast SEO sidebar?

•             Which plugins should I install?

•             Which plugins should I uninstall?

•             What placeholder has not been edited?

•             URL slug? What?

•             How do I get to the CPanel?

I eventually conceded defeat. The final nail in the coffin was when I thought I had it all ready to go, even adding a Subscribe button on my Contact page. When I went to a different browser to subscribe, it came up with an error indicating “Invalid Form”.

At that point I realized how long it has been since I’ve made time to do what I enjoy.

Which is writing.