So, my first post for 2019 is going to be on how I built my website and it’s something a lot of you were interested in when I put the pole on my Instagram story last week.
When I first started blogging, not only did I want a name that people would remember but I also wanted one that would look professional.
I always wanted a proper website but at the time, it just wasn’t something I could afford. From the moment I started blogging, I had a free domain that comes with setting up a WordPress account.
Why I did it
When I first set up my blog, I wanted a name that was not only memorable but also fun and light hearted.
As I began interning in PR and got to know others in the industry, I realised how important having a proper address is in terms of developing your own ‘brand’ and reaching out to PR agencies and companies. I looked into buying a domain, but as I wasn’t being paid while I was interning and the retail job, wasn’t getting me anything significant money wise, I couldn’t justify spending money on something that I didn’t necessarily need at the time.
Since I had free time around the second half of last year, I investigated buying a domain again and realised that it wasn’t as expensive as I thought and, using some money I had saved over the few weeks prior to that, decided to take the plunge and buy a .com!
How I did it
After asking some friends who were interested in tech, I was introduced to the site GoDaddy.com . GoDaddy lets you search any domain you want and will tell you if it’s available or not and for what price. It’ll also suggest alternatives to your searched domain such as, net/com/ie etc. Luckily, no one had Nagginsandnotions.com so I went ahead to the checkout. It was here that I was told I could buy an email address to and figured having an info@ email address would make me look super professional but ultimately decided to cancel it as combining my existing Gmail address and the info@ was difficult to do and wasn’t something I needed to have…
At the checkout I also noticed it asking me if I had any discount codes which I didn’t. So, I decided to google ‘GoDaddy discount codes’ and found one that gave me a good chunk of money off the initial price.
When you buy a domain name, your chosen domain is yours for the year. One thing to look out for is that the prices are advertised as monthly, but they very nicely take it out as a yearly lump sum which is a bit sneaky!
Once I bought my domain, my next challenge was how to move my current content over and having the technical knowledge of a new-born puppy, I didn’t know where to start. I put off creating content on my blog purely because I knew it would be a struggle to move my existing content over and didn’t want to add to that.
Recently I began following the HILARIOUS Luke and Katie from The Ungraceful Guide who are currently travelling the world on a budget and are just GAS to watch when you’re either planning places to go or need a bit of a pick me up! To make a little extra money, they build websites so I very nicely slid into their DMs and explained my issue and they couldn’t have been nicer! I even told them I’d come back to them when I had money and they said they’d do the site for me and I could pay them back when I had the money like how sound is that??? I gave Katie my passwords for my WordPress and GoDaddy accounts and she worked her techy magic and moved over most of my posts for me! (I say majority because some didn’t move over but they were older posts, so it wasn’t the end of the world! If you’re looking for a website to be built and haven’t a notion where to start or are on a budget, I’d highly recommend messaging Luke and Katie!
What next
Once I had everything moved over, I began getting to grips with my new format and how to write blog posts etc! I also wanted to design my new site and make it the best it could possibly be and lads, let me tell you, there is SO MUCH choice for themes/designs out there and even more if you’re willing to pay for them!
I eventually settled for my current theme as it worked on laptops, tablets and phones which is something that annoys me when I use company’s site and they don’t load properly haha! It looks a little basic but once I’ve more time I’ll go full on geek and add in some cool features!
I’ve put together a plan for my posts both on Instagram and my blog so everything will be super organised, and I’ll follow through with posts haha!
I hope you found all this helpful and if you have any questions feel free to DM me on Instagram and I’ll do my best to help!
Til next time,
Conor xo
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