It started about 6 months ago. I saw a photo on Facebook (FB). I didn’t understand what it was I was looking at. The research started.
I found this was something I would want to produce myself, and see, does anyone else want one.
This story is however not about the product(s), but about the tools I selected for my road towards entrepreneurship.
How to build a website? Any free alternatives? I asked friends who had their own businesses. I can’t quite seem to remember how I stumbled upon WordPress (WP). One source is a student I was mentoring in the step to find work, is a frequent blogger, and presented me the website of these blogs. Other sources were the many blogs and guidances on the net. Many artists show their work on WP. I do remember needing to study, do I want a server (.com) based, or a program (.org) running on my own PC. Well, I wanted a solution that I can access from any computer, or location, and I did not want to depend on my own PC, neither on it operating as a server.
Next, I needed to register a domain. A working web address, based on the company name I had in mind. I selected GoDaddy. A straight-forward user interface. A yearly reservation fee that I can live with, even in case I would not be able to get enough air under my company wings to fly.
Then I spent weeks figuring out how to add pages, create a menue, create a static (main) page that doesn’t look like a blog. Widgets! Then, the various plugins, such as a commentary field and a function for enlisting to a newsletter. How to link to FB. How to link from FB.
I am a fairly introvert guy. So far I have had 3 major simply marvelous experiences, resulting in outright scream of joy. 1st was managing to create the link so that typing the company address (domain name) in the browser takes the user to land on the WP website address. The 2nd and 3rd came from making the commentary and newsletter function work. All new to me, and with an atmosphere of magic.
Having studied the plugin functions, by searching discussion forums and reading “WP for dummies”, this brought me to MailChimp and AWeber. More study of recommendations, forums and instructions. Youtube is great source of instructions. AWeber manages newsletter sign-up forms. MailChimp is the tool to build good newsletters. Sort of like an e-mail account.
Eventually it dawned upon me that it would be more useful to register an e-mail address that reflects the business I wish to enter. GoDaddy offers, again, a fair deal. A package of MS Office tools, with its 365.
Parallel to the world of internet, I discovered VBA coding. This grew from a need to go from 2D graphs to visualizing planned product in 3D. In excel. To be able to assign certain elements their own colour.
Next
Next, is to launch a crowdfunding (CF) event. Thereafter, CF successful or not, I want to set up an e-store. To find a good platform, and keep this running. Remaining is also to get active in a few other social media sites. Twitter, Pinterest. And to pay for active marketing, where every change can be measured, and therefore strategically planned.
Negative experiences?
Yes. GoDaddy offers, for free, to create an e-mail account under your domain name. I needed, for the newsletter, a ‘do-not-reply’ e-mail address. Which gives you 100 times to send a message. Which I created, and successfully got operational with MailChimp and newsletter sign-up. To the extent of planting my hand on my forehead and a jaw-drop, I had to accept loosing the ‘do-not-reply’ option as I purchased the Office package. Well, it only takes some time to set up the new function. But, nevertheless, a disruption to the sweet passage of green-light-crossing I so far had experienced.
The author Martin R.C. Andersson is an
engineer who has a soft spot for project management.
He has a keen interest in audio equipment.
Especially studio-level quality of monitors, and always looking for noise-free listening… to be a norm. Values silence, and now and then some solitude.
Thinks Yoga is a mental state of being when thoughts flow long enough to reach conclusion. Thinks Mindfulness is a state of being when work really gets done – done well.
When the outside world is successfully tuned out.
Feels best when Minimalism, Functionalism and Art come together, cross their paths.