Site Build It - how I built this site
One of the things I like to do (as a hobby) is create websites. I'm not a particularly brilliant website designer, but I enjoy the writing and I enjoy getting feedback. And as you know if you've browsed the site, I have a bit of a bad back. (Are the two linked? Probably...)
Anyway, I had been thinking about creating another website for a while, but I couldn't think of a suitable topic. And at some point I realised that I could write about my bad back. I've tried all sorts of things in trying to fix my back and while you can find lots of products on the internet that (allegedly) will work miracles, it's a lot harder to find actual genuine independent stories about the products, systems and exercises.
You can spend an awful lot of money trying to fix a bad back...
So I realised that a more personal website was a possibility.
I wanted the website to be easy to maintain, and also fairly interactive. I want readers to be able to contribute their own stories and ideas (although that hasn't really taken off properly yet). This is where my slight knowledge of website-building starts to be a limitation - I don't really know how to create forms and boxes for people to fill in.
That's when I decided to use Site Build-It! I'd already used Site Build It! for another of my sites, and it lets you create forms easily - and you can also create headers, footers and menus without knowing any tech-stuff at all. (As it happens, I do know a little bit of tech-stuff, but you really don't need any tech stuff to use Site Build It!)
My favourite part about Site Build It! is how it drives traffic. There are a gazillion sites on the Internet and finding the information you're looking for is harder and harder and it is more and more important to make sure that your site can be found in the search engines (such as Google).
There's an entire science around this called "search engine optimisation", but it's a full time job or hobby just keeping up with it all. The great thing about Site Build It! is that it sorts all that out for me and all I have to do is write.
(Site Build It! also lets me create a mailing list/newsletter and a store - I'm not using it to its full potential.)
My goals for the site were:
- To create an independent site describing my lower back pain and how I have tried to deal with it.
- To have visitors contribute with their stories of what has worked for them
- To make sure that the site is visited
It also turns out that writing mylowerbackpain has helped me put more focus into sorting my back than I expected - an unexpected and very pleasant advantage!