I'm a Blogger Now!
So, I did this thing and created a blog, and this is officially my first blog post. I wasn't sure as to what this first post was going to be about, in fact I'm still working on that, but this all kind of started because I wanted to put my domain name to use. I've been buying domain names for almost 10 years now, being frugal, trying to underdog my way through free services to have a full blown website. I usually ended up with hosting that gave me what I wanted for free, but downtime, space, speed, and other factors got in the way. There's also my neglect to maintain the sites and domains consistently.
Neglect is probably too strong of a word, but I'd get as far as I am right now, and the interest would just disappear. Like writer's block or something. I still don't have a business to operate and there are plenty of blogs and forums already providing insight to technical and software related inquiries, and I still have yet to fully find a need for my website, like, why did I buy a domain? Well, I want to build and maintain websites in the freelancer realm. That's all fine and dandy, but, what does that have to do with having my own domain? Well, lol, I don't have any clients and until recently I didn't have as much faith in myself to just jump out there and do it. Even though I've actually been doing this for a corporate employer for almost a decade. I'm shy!
So anyway, I have this domain and no business. People always come to me with their computer needs and occassionally their web curiosities. I haven't had to support the physical hardware and operating systems in years, but for the right people, I'll at least try. The web inquiries range from starting a business to launching a website, but most people are just eager to get their site up and then of course they have 1 million changes they want. I'm here for the 1 million changes lol, but usually once people have a basic setup and/or process, they don't really need me anymore. Especially if they're using web apps like Shopify, Wix, etc. Those applications are very user friendly, so small business owners can typically manage their website themselves, and I end up back where I started.
Again, I have this domain, and no business. I still have ideas though. People starting out with their website usually want to go with something as low in costs as possible. They always find out that it's not as simple as purchasing a subscription or using a free website builder. I usually start them off in the right direction, but not having explored enough open-source options to truly give them a low cost experience, they end up with a subscription through a hosting provider. I'm now dedicating my site to showcasing how to get what they want for free. This blog post is apart of that showcase.
So far, I'm doing very well. I purchased my domain and domain-level security through GoDaddy and that's the only thing I'm paying for. They offered a free one-page website, so I put that to use too, just because. I'm using the free Blogger space to host my blog and the free plan under BigCartel to host my store. I can only list 5 products in my store, but I don't have any merchandise, so it's of no major concern. I listed the 5 main things I'll charge for and setup the store to receive payments. The real job is managing different templates and themes on different platforms, in an effort to make the design among them seamless.
I also have my own support channels setup. A lot of companies are using Slack for instant messaging, so am I. A lot of companies are also using Atlassian products for documentation and bug/ticket logging; so am I. The next steps will include implementing AWS Cloud Computing, as free as possible. I've started researching the possibilities, but we shall see.