Creating your own internet site, it is child play ! Apparently so… Well, for me, NOT AT ALL!
Of course, if you are reading this, it is because I’ve managed…. But I can assure you it has not been plain sailing and it still tourments me !
I must admit that I had very little clue what it was going to entail… I had to lean everything from A to Z. Or shall I say from A to wherever I am now. Indeed, when I started, my knowledge was very limited. Ok, I knew how to navigate on the net, I was ok with office automation… But little by little, over the years, I kind of had developped an aversion for anything relating to screens, so I have had to re-familiarise myself .
My difficulties are certainly not the fault of the marvellous people who have trained me (thank you Sylvie, you have the patience of an angel!).
Creating your website with WordPress
I started my education with the CMA (Chambre des Métiers et de l’Artisanat) des Côtes-d’Armor.
So, on a beautiful morning, I took myself to Ploufragan, about 70km from my home, a small town situated on the coast. 1 day a week, for the duration of 5 weeks.
YIPEEE !!!! I get out of there after 5 sessions and un have a handsome WordPress site and an online shop and I sell! (The majority of the people in the room wanted, like me, to ameliorate their business. A lot were younger and were very at ease with the materiel offered. But me… well, a little bit less comfortable).
The first and second days went well. Wow ! I have a name for my website and there is a picture underneath ! What an accomplishment!
At the end of the second day, I realised that I had a website but NOT an online shop. That was all different training course.
Then, from the third day, I started to loose sight of my direction, I had trouble to follow. My head was all in s spin, I could not assimilate anymore… Somehow, I finished the training and created a few basic pages.
So, armed with my notes (maybe I should have scribbled less and listened a bit more) and the online material available from the training company, I go back home, with the firm intention to have a fonctional website within 3 months !
Of course, but, I had not understood everything… So I try, I get stuck, I get frustrated, I rip my hair off, I end up in torrents of tears… So, I put it back to later, I procrastinate… DEADLY MISTAKE!!! I try again. Too much time has gone by. My notes do not make sense anymore. I become anxious… I do not dare touching it, only the thought of it sends me in a right panic!
But I have registered for the next step, the training to create an online shop. So, come what may, I go for it! No website, no shop!
Adding photos
At last, I manage to create passable pages. Let me tell you, what a relief! So on a beautiful morning (again) I take myself to Ploufragan. And I create my online shop. Not too difficult, even for me, I think. I amaze myself!
Yes… But for an online boutique, I NEED PICTURES!!! I do not know how to take pictures. At family reunions, I am forbiden to touch a camera… It is always me who cut grand-ma’s feet, who split dad’s torso in half, who severe auntie Simone’s head!
What more, I am renovating a house and live in a mobile home, you know, a glorified caravan… Not a little white corner in sight which I could use as a background for my woolly hats and mittens… So I buy a head at a boot sale (what a find!), a mannequin, some paper photo backgrounds.
The light is well to dark inside. So I buy some spotlights. I do not have the space for taking pictures of my shawls. So I end up taking them under my polytunnel. After all, it’s winter, and there is no use for it at the moment.
I take pictures… and they are HORRIBLE!!! I am not a trained photographer, I do not understand my camera. The pictures are worthless, the colours do not reflect the reality, it does not look like anything…
It is my husband Nicholas who teaches me a few basics. He has not choice. I make his life hell with my frustration fits and if I continue, for sure, he is going to do a runner, as they say… So I better learn quick!
Ha ! I’m so happy! Pictures in abondance! I amaze myself even more, I think I am David Bailey. I take pictures, I resize them, I adjust the brightness and the contrast. And here we are! I get it! I have products in my shop, my site is magnificient!
Creating your website and managing the SEO
And here we go again. On a beautiful morning, I take myself to Ploufragan.
And this time, I am going to learn how to ameliorate the visibility of my website. GREAT!!! Very soon, I’ll be known in the entire world! Oh yes! Except that… I haven’t even published my site yet! It is the least you can do if you want your site to be visible, isn’t it, Sylvie tells me…. It is a good thing that all I have to do is click a box. And there! Done!
Of course, being a complete novice and staying faithful to myself, I also had not realised that it was not done in one day, the visibility of a website! Creatinf your website takes definitely a lot more than I thought.
Clearly, now, I have understood the principles? Not so clearly but not too bad. Now I just have put them into practice.
Firstly, the publication of a blog. Essential if I want to exist and be visible to the supreme being Google. So publication of an article at least once a month.
Secondly, I must carefully use key words and I must try to understand the analysis of my site from Google Analytics.
Thirdly… well I’ll get there later. In the passing, it turns out I am being told it would not do me any harm to redo the “create your own wordpress website” formation… Undoubtedly, my shortcomings are all too evident.
No one becomes an expert so easily…
So… On a beautiful morning whoop de doo I take myself you know where…
I re-do my very first formation “creating your website with WordPress”. And then. EUREKA!!!
Super happy. It seems I just needed a bit more hammering in my thick head. I just maybe (no, surely) needed a bit more time than others in my group.
This time, I manage to follow and at the end of the 5 sessions, I get out with a pretty much good understanding (though not perfect). I am an artisan, not a website designer, after all. But I am now starting to enjoy working on my website rather than loathe it. That’s a plus! I am starting to be proud of lalainedegaleine.com.
Indeed, I am feeling so good about it that I even make my site bilingual (english-french) without too much difficulty. The progress is obvious..
Créer un site internet, ce n’est pas fini…
Surely now, all is ready for my international fame?
Just to make sure, on a beautiful morning (we’ve never had so many of them in Brittany) I take myself to Ploufragan. This time, I am going to learn how to fix my prices as an artisan. The right price, but not at any price…
Luckily, this time, all is well. Indeed, I understand, it is all making sense to me. At the first day, the instructor goes on my website so that each present person can give their opinion, and the instructor tells me… Your site, it is very good, it’s you, it represents you well… What your create, it is attractive, beautiful. But… your pictures… It would be better if you had live models, if you want to sell at a fair price. As it is… it is a bit old-fashioned…
Nooooooo…. My site which appeared so magnificient to me! I cannot look at it with the same eye anymore…
I go back home, I’m a bit depressed. Then I pull my hair out, then I throw myself into photography. I am one minute on top of the world and the next at the foot of my caravan, ISO, operture and… the other! Click click ZOOM ZOOM ZOOOOOOOOMMMMMM…. I still can’t take proper pictures. The weather is ridiculously warm for october and my polytunnel is full of tomato plants…
There we go again!!!
So this is how it is… It is now beginning of 2024 and my polytunnel has been completly destroyed during the last storm in Brittany.
When you go on my website, please, be indulgent for all my shortcomings… Know that, as for my house, it is still in the building process. Speak to you very soon…