with Created Expression

If you already know what you want in a website, please skip this article and check out the next one. If you're still reading this one, there are a few questions to ask yourself to, exactly, get you started in "your" website. Notably, the concise version is "Why?". A short version is "What?", "With or for whom?" and "How often?" And, a longer version follows...

The very first question to ask yourself is why you want a website at all. Do you have things to say? Things to show? Things to sell? Things to "organize"? Things to collaborate on? Are there things that you just want to store "somewhere"? Do you have things that you'd like to try out that need space and "web ability"? Are there things that you want others to share with you and you need the space and the ability for that? Before starting up a site, you really do need to know your answers to these questions. And, notably, if your answer is "Ummm... yes.", well, that's fine too. You do though have to start somewhere and you do have to know where that is even if, or particularly when, you can't quite articulate it all "yet".

• With whom do you want to share? To whom is your site relevant? With whom do you wish to connect?

Those three questions, seemingly the same, really aren't interchangeable. They are though the questions that will get at the answers to focus the intentions for/of/with your site.

With whom do you want to share from the "get go"? Do you want to share "at large", with a specific public or private community, amongst family and friends or is this site just for you? Maybe you would like to find if there is a community into which your site, your interests connect? Maybe you would like to build one. Knowing to whom who are speaking, with whom you are connecting, with whom you would like to connect changes everything.

This isn't about security. This is about taking care to connect well with people you wish to connect with and taking care to not get swooped into connections that are not relevant to you (meaning your intentions). "At large" is suprisingly large. A rule of thumb I have about anything I put up on the web (on my site/s or as part of someone else's)... assume that anyone you don't want to find your stuff will and never assume that people you want to find your stuff will just "happen upon it". By this I mean that a website is work. Good, appropriate, pointed, effective delivery "work". And knowing how you wish to respond once it has been "received" is crucial.

Assume for a moment that your site is magically set-up and as full with stuff as you would have it be right now. Do you want this magically set-up and full site to be a part of your daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, or whenever-the-mood-hits-you life? By that I mean, is your intention to set something up, fill it out and leave it at that -or- is this something that will see updates, that you will work on, that will evolve from "here"? If it is the latter, how often (from where you are right at this moment looking at your set-up and full site) do you see yourself working on it, adding to it, evolving it, using it?

I write about this given that a successful website is, for me, one that is both clear about its intentions and then delivers and is current with what it promises. Most of us are incredibly fast at judging the credibility of a site for our own "visiting" intentions. If a site isn't current, most of us have a tendency to ignore the content beyond using it to "help us on our way". And for sites we deem "current", we are quick to learn whether this is a daily, weekly, monthly or once-in-a-while thing. And then we decide whether or not this suits us. Fine. All of that is from a visitor's point of view. But what about all of this from your point of view. What kind of "life" would you like and are you able to sustain for your site?

And I write that knowing that it could be that your site won't have a "life" in the community sense at all but will more in a "document" or "reference" sense. "Document" sites never really go backwards. If they change at all, they usually only ever grow fuller (not always better but fuller). They can though go stale. And they won't be referenced as current if people sense that this is the case.

This isn't meant to be discouraging. It's meant as a reality check to help you and your site succeed as, exactly, you would have it. If you know that you don't have much time, then set things up with that in mind. If you want this to be incredibly vital, set it up that way. If you feel you don't have enough experience to even understand what "maintaining a site" means yet, go slowly and plan in your own learning. Being aware of your own expectations for this will move delivering on them into the realm of the possible.

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There is an amazing amount of stuff out there. You are now considering or intending to add to it. Make your contribution count by knowing why and how you want this *first*. And, once you're clear on that (including being clear about what you are still unclear about), going through the technical considerations is a breeze. Please read on if you are ready to get started in that.