10 MINUTES AND BA-BAM—A WEBSITE!!!……….NOT
Confused, confused, confused. This is after spending at least three hours trying to finish designing my website. (pssssst; am I suppose to admit that?) And many claim that this should take less than 10 minutes. Really? What am I missing? I want a nice website and at this point, I don’t see how with only working 10 minutes or 10 times those 10 minutes. Boy, do I need some ways to ease the frustration.
Now I’m not totally computer literate or savvy; but I do know my way around the general, everyday stuff we all use the computer for. And what I use at work, of course. However, once I got to the part of my website where I needed to figure out where to put things—wellllll, let’s just say, things went downhill from there.
Some terms I didn’t know—permalink, title (to what or how does that mean my blog name), child theme (?), I’m making an adult website—no munchkins allowed. (LOL)
And you don’t get to see what you are creating or changing as you are working on your site. Kinda seems bass ackwords to me. But I’m thinking this has to do with the theme I chose.
DAYS LATER—-AND THE BEAT GOES ON!
I’m frustrated again and I feel stupid—which I really, really don’t like. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and it seems to keep moving just a little farther away. I want to launch, but I still have a few things I can’t seem to figure out how to do inside of WordPress.
So, I’m going to bite the bullet again and hire someone to help me with these last few things I want done to my website. I stumbled across finding out that I can hire support through Bluehost for not too much a month and call as often as I need and besides helping me—the best part is, there is no contract and I don’t have to pay upfront for the whole year. It’s called BlueSky Support.
I don’t know how I didn’t come across this option before, since I do so much research in the first place. Somehow, I’ve missed it, so I know what I’ll be doing this weekend…sitting on the phone. But that’s OK if it helps me get to my goal, wooohooo!
I have accomplished some things in the last couple of weeks, my logo is complete, and I have the majority of my pins ready for each journal post and several regular posts. Actually, that part was fun, creating the pins satisfied the creative side of me, but I’m not so hot at coming up with the headlines and descriptions for them. Practice makes perfect, though, so I’m moving ahead.
BLUEHOST SUPPORT–HERE I COME!
My plan for the weekend will be to set up WordPress support through Bluehost and get things moving again. To give you an idea of some of the things, I’m concerned about, I’m going to share. One of the first things I need help with is changing admins. I was the only admin for a while, but then I decided to include my husband. He’s more techie than I am, not where blogs are concerned, but willing to help.
When I gave him admin privileges, his user took over. I’m no longer an admin and he is writing and editing everything according to WordPress. Things I know he has no interest in. I can’t delete him, and he can’t delete himself, so we have been stuck; I’m hoping there is a work-around for this.
My contact form page is not working. It’s been added, but when I click on it from the web, nothing is coming up. Another thing to add to the “to do” list.
SIX WAYS TO EASE THE FRUSTRATION
I did some research on the web on frustration in general and I think I’m going to try a few suggestions I came across and a few that I know in reference to myself.
*Keep my goal in mind. This is my own conclusion; I know myself enough to know that I can get past the frustration I’m feeling now if I keep my goal in mind and the reasons why I’ve gotten into the blogging thing.
*Take a break: Again, I know myself and I haven’t even been reading like I like to or listening to music; so, I need to start allowing myself time for me and for my family and friends. Balance is key for me and I have not been doing that.
*Meditate: This is a calming thing for me to do. Even 10 minutes of quieting my mind while listening to waves crash does wonders for me. Why have I not thought of this before? Hmmmmmmmmmm.
OTHER IDEAS I LIKED
*Take a small break when frustration kicks in and have a cup of coffee or tea. Not a bad idea, since we already know that caffeine gives us a boost to get our brains going. Isn’t that why we all want a cup in the morning. So, bring on the coffee!
*Exercise or stop and take a walk: The walk part I could do, but exercise would just make me more frustrated—I just don’t like it. But if it works for anyone else, I’d certainly give it a try.
*Realize that frustration happens to all bloggers and everyone, really; although I have to admit, it’s hard to keep that in mind when you are in the middle of a frustrating episode. And I also need to remember that I suspect there will be many more of these times during my blogging journey.
I’m going to keep all these suggestions in mind, as a plan to us, for when I’m hit with blogging frustration again.
UPDATE
I signed up for Bluehost support and guess what I learned???? CTA’s and landing pages are plug-ins or in the mail system you choose. I was stunned at this realization; another tidbit that I missed in my research. I usually take note of pieces of information like that, but this tidbit was nowhere to be found in my notes.
I’ve already made a call to action to include with my pages and I have to say, I’m thrilled. This little bit of information and accomplishment has taken away my frustration from a day or two ago and sent me into happiness and possibilities again. I’m not easy too please am I?
Can’t wait to see what I learn next—Give it to me!!
Let’s Own Our Awesome!
Cher
