Getting your website off and running

My new website project is coming along nicely - and I will show you how soon!

Hello bloggy friends!

I'm on a bit of a high at the moment. Why? I've got a new project. Whenever I begin something new, I'm like a kid on red cordial. I stay up late and wake up early and can't wait to get started. 

But I'm not writing. This project is not a story, it's a website. A website I did not want to make ... because it would be hard. Now I'm getting some (slow) progress, I'm really excited. I promised to share the steps, so I've been taking loads of screen shots and making notes all along the way. In fact, that's my first tip: If you adjust, rebuild, start from scratch, or touch ANY button on your blog/website, keep a notebook dedicated to your site by the computer. Write down everything you do. That way, if you delete the whole project (as I did, not once, but twice) you'll be able to backtrack and at worst, will have the steps to repeat (minus the deleting bit).

I'm so keen, that I'm not just starting my website, but a few others as well! I'll be creating:

iTeenWrite - a site for all my workshop materials for kids and teens who want to write (I'm even making vlogs!).

Happy Family Challenges - anyone who knows me is familiar with my whacky challenges I set for myself and my family. I'm now going to share various activities and challenges you can take to bring your family together in a fun way.

illusions4kids - one of my challenges was to set a project for my daughters to start up a small business and run it for six months, at which time it will be evaluated for its success. They started off with ideas like dog washing, but quickly moved to an online platform for their business. They'll be following Pat Flynn's advice on setting up a niche website business. They plan on making videos performing magic tricks, only revealing the secrets to kids who sign up to the young magician's club (all free). They're hoping to be sponsored by products relevant to the magic world. Matilda is a magic lover and now a young entrepreneur (teenpreneur?).

Phew! I've got my work cut out for me. I'm hoping that recording all the steps will make it easier for each new site I have to set up.

Soon I'll post the first step. Just to remind you, I'll be using Just Host (who also go by the names Host Clear and Super Green Hosting). There are other good hosts, but I can only recommend the one I use and like (when I had a problem late last night, I hopped on the chat function and had it solved and explained within 3 minutes). 

My next post will show you how to register your domain name and install Wordpress via the 'cPanel' (fancy name for dashboard), and even how to choose a 'theme' (template, layout design for your site). If you want to see how I'm going so far, here's my landing page (most links don't work yet - but they will soon!).

www.charmaineclancy.com

And for even more excitement! My good bloggy friend, Michael Di Gesu is revealing a new novel by Siv Maria Ottem - featuring a cover illustrated by Michael! Pop over to cheer them on:

Michael Di Gesu ... In Time

Siv Ottem ... Been there, done that.

And one last thing ... have you signed up yet for the Imagination Sparks Blogfest? It's a fun event where we all share one of our favourite ways to warm up our creative muscles before writing. Do you take a walk? Have a writing exercise? Something we can try? Share it for the blogfest, then go around to others and try a few of their ides.

Sign up now and please spread the word!