This site is truly under construction (at least it was when this post was written). Nevertheless it is ‚ “live”‚ (though unpromoted right now). This will motivate the developers (me) to work faster. This blog will chronicle the learning curve in the hope it will be useful to others. This is what has happened so far:

1. I bought some books on web site design and web site building. (It’s my nature. I tend to buy books to find out how to do stuff before starting). I did that about a year ago.
2. I did lots of planning. As I’ve been blogging (in a way), since about 2001 on IT-Director.com, this site isn’t about having a blog, it’s a little more ambitious. Anyway, I did way too much planning and thinking. I should have acted much earlier.
3. I got a copy of DreamWeaver and did a heap of design work with it. It took me months and eventually I threw most of the work away. I realised at some point that this was a blind alley.
4. For some reason the existence of WordPress escaped my notice until a month ago. I’d taken a long look at the Blogosphere in 2003 when sites like Blogger.com were the main vehicle for blogging. (Did WordPress exist then?) Anyway, one day I noticed that WordPress was a ready-made blog engine and I needed one.
   I rented hosting space (through HostICan) and set up WordPress. It’s not too expensive -$11 per month or so and it was easy to get started – but that is probably true of most hosting companies.
   I chose a theme for the blog. WordPress has lots of well-designed themes. I chose one that I thought had the right shape and that catered for Google’s Ad Sense.
5. Then I started….

What should I have done?

1. Got a hosting account
2. Got WordPress
3. Got going

See. I could have done that in a week or two. I had decided to do something a little more complex than a blog, so a couple of weeks makes sense (and a year does not). If I just wanted to do a blog, then I could have done that with almost no effort through the WordPress blogging site. I could have done that in a day or so, and I could have done it a year ago.