I had the idea for my website come to me out of the blue, and it sounded like such a fun thing to try. I was newly retired, my wife and I love going on road trips, and I love my region of Northeast Ohio. So, why not make a site about where we go and what we do when we get there… what’s not to love about that? It took a very long time to come up with a great name that could also be used as a web adress. Everything good was taken and I was at a loss. One day, when I least expected it, it popped into my mind: “Northeast Ohio Journeys” I was on the road when it came to me, and the first thing I did was check with GoDaddy if the domains were available. They were, and I felt as if I hit the jackpot! That was three years ago this December, I think, and I had no idea what a rough journey it would be.

It’s not so bad now, but early on, it definitely wasn’t a pleasant drive. It was a struggle. The hardest part was first understanding what I really wanted to do online, then visualizing a structure and a flow which supported that vision within the confines of the hosting platform. It seemed simple enough to describe: Give people travel tips to places I know, document all my journeys to new places, then showcase my photography a little by illustrating the site. I’d never built anything online before so everything was new to me. I found a platform which seemed worthy and followed all their guidelines, watched all their videos, I scribbbled notes in a fresh spiral notebook, along with whatever questions I need to ask.

When I felt ready, I began my work, and instantly felt the web builder’s equivalent to classic Writer’s Block. When I got a few things done, I felt dismayed because the site seemed functionally and aesthetically compromised. Certain functions wouldn’t work because they required custom CSS code, and I couldn’t have the site be as colorful as I envisioned because it worke on ‘themes’ that allowed very little flexibility. Building the site took nearly a year because I started from a blank page rather than from pre-made templates (because I wanted to stand out with my own style) and there were many start-overs. In the end, the site worked but just barely, and it lacked nearly all the beauty I’d originally envisioned. Being new at the website building game, I thought it was the best I could hope without paying for a professional web designer which was priced over my budget. I wasn’t happy, but having no other choice, I took the ball and ran with it.

Just after I officially launched my brand-new site, I went to an annual weekend event in my city as a photographer and shot photos for two solid days. I passed out business cards with my web address to any of the attendees who inquired where the photos would appear. When I got home, eager to upload the photos, I found my website scrambled and out of format for no apparent reason, and suddenly, with desperate problems that needed fixed in a hurry, the live online help was nonexistent. In frustration, I canceled my contract because I felt the site was unstable and unreliable. For a little while, I thought maybe my website idea was unrealistic and impractical. I felt that way for about a week, until I decided to look at it again.

In frustration, I began the search for a more reliable platform. This time, I chose WordPress which is what I ultimately stayed with. WordPress instantly impressed me with its flexiblity. The ‘Happiness Engineers’ I emailed were very supportive and assured me I could build essentially anything I wanted, and that was all I needed to hear. I chose a pricing plan, then started again with all the guidelines and videos, feeling that I was back to Square One with my site.