I’ve been wrestling with my website, well the concept of my website for some time and I really don’t feel that it fits what I want to achieve. The main stumbling block to all of this is the fact that a) I have to manage the operational side of things, i.e security, updates and backups. And b) the fact that at some point I would like to sell things from my site, but that is way above my pay grade, and the thought I would be responsible for this is at best daunting and worse terrifying that I might be the architect of financial loss.
However, I recently was exposed to a video with Derek Sivers, who was promoting the idea that we should be in control of our own destinies. Now I take that somewhat with a distant eye as he has programming chops that I don’t. And encouraging self realisation is easy but the reality is that freedom costs time and money. I suppose ideally, if I was completely honest is that ultimately I would love a square space site. They just look so good. More importantly they provide e-commerce that one doesn’t have tear one’s hair out for.
In the mean time I am really considering a far more simplistic version. The WordPress site I have provides everything I need and takes away the friction, but it is very much like cracking a nut with a sledgehammer. The fact that I can just use simple text files is something that will never (maybe I should never say never) go out of fashion and is tiny in its footprint. It sounds like I am talking myself into this decision. It will take effort and patience to learn these new skills but in my mind learning should be lifelong.
One could argue that this is just a distraction from the important task of creating art. However in this day and age the website is just as important. So as long as I don’t go down the procrastination rabbit hole then this might be a productive use of time.
Maybe I will play around with some basic HTML. I guess there’s nothing wrong going back to ones roots. So if ABC goes dark, and i don’t mean dark mode, then you’ll know that I have put a spanner in the works and am unable to recover from my mistakes. I may have to leave a crumb trail.
A final little note, I have managed to fathom out ConvertKit and added to my blog. I am in the process of learning how to configure and send out a newsletter. I am trying to work out the balance of timing as I know how annoying it is to get email bombarding one. I think I am going to stick with one once a month, which will be an update on what I am doing and also things that I have learned or found inspiring. It certainly is a learning curve as to what information should be shared and not to spew verbal diarrhoea and every opportunity. And with that happy image 😉
Until the next time…