The World Is Changing
Social media, once the bastion of sharing, has now become a battleground—full of bots and disinformation designed to ignite controversy and sow seeds that empower the powerful. Your information, ideas, and thoughts get lost to the algorithm and, over time, buried in the noise.
What to Do?
The answer has been there all along: take control of your own thoughts—your ideas, your ramblings even—and keep them where you can find them in the future. Tag them, categorize them, share and reshare. Or just post willy-nilly. Let it be yours.
But you might say:
“It’s hard.”
“I don’t know where to start.”
“I’m not a techie.”
And sure, all of that might be true. But the basics are—well—basic, if you take the time to learn and know where to begin.
So What Are the Basics?
In my opinion, they are:
- What is a domain, and how do I get one?
- What is hosting, and why do I need it? I have a domain—how do they work together?
- How do I even create a website? It’s all techy—HTML and stuff—and I don’t know any of that!
I plan to put together a series that dives into each of these topics (and more), but for now, here are some very simple answers:
1. What’s a Domain?
It’s your address on the internet.
Back in the day, properties often had names, and many modern apartment buildings still do. Your domain might be something like myfullname.com. It has to be unique—otherwise people might end up at the wrong “myfullname”! While .com is the most common, there are plenty of other options—we’ll talk about those later. You buy domains through what’s called a domain name registrar.
2. What’s Hosting, and Why Do I Need It?
Think of your domain as your address—but you still need a piece of land to put your signpost on. That’s hosting. It’s the place where your site actually “lives.” Many registrars also offer hosting, and that might be good enough for you.
But be aware: they often lock you into proprietary systems, making it hard to move your site later. Hosting providers lease you space and let you attach your domain name to it. You then connect the two—your name and your land.
3. How Do I Create a Website?
Yes, it can be technical—but it doesn’t have to be. There are plenty of tools that let you build a decent-looking site quickly and easily.
While I’m not its biggest fan, the most common and arguably easiest platform is WordPress. At its core, it’s blogging software, but with free and paid add-ons, you can expand it to include things like event calendars, image galleries, and more.
You can even start with a free WordPress.com site, using their hosting and a subdomain (like yourname.wordpress.com). If you want your own domain later, you can pay a small fee—or even migrate your site to a self-hosted WordPress setup. It’s fairly straightforward.
Stay Tuned
I’ll be posting more detailed guides and explanations on each of these topics—and more—in the near future!
Nova Scotia-based software developer with a rich history in entrepreneurship and technology. In the year 2000, embarked on a collaborative journey to automate statistical data gathering for a hockey pool, which later evolved into a thriving business focused on curating sports statistics.
Through strategic contracting in various sectors, including telecommunications and insurance, contributed to the growth of the startup, eventually expanding it to a significant enterprise with over 100 employees and worldwide affiliates.
Now, in the phase of semi-retirement, founded 'Daptl' to explore new contracting opportunities, adding another chapter to an already impressive career.
