It’s been a long, winding, circuitous journey getting here. As many of you on this path can relate, it’s not as easy as simply saying, “start a web presence”.

In fact, I’ve been here before. A few years ago, I tried to start up my own website. I’d had experience creating a fairly simple website in Wix in grad school (*cough* now somehow *cough* a decade ago *cough*). In addition, I even had experience with WordPress before. I had been a contributor and editor on an already existing website to create virtual programming, which was shifted into overdrive when a little thing called the pandemic came knocking….

But let me not get sidetracked.

A few years ago, I felt ready to start my own webpage. I was querying my manuscript, trying to get out there and make it as an author. I did the research and had asked professional development contacts about how they had done it. Looking back, I got really hung up on the whole “owning your own site” clarification. And I still see the value in creating and owning your own site. But doing so is a lot of work. There’s a reason website developers are paid for this work.

So, anyway, I looked into how to purchase your domain and using the .org vs .com for WordPress. I ultimately decided to go through a company to get my domain and they would even “seamlessly integrate” with WordPress. I won’t namedrop them here publicly, but in reality, it was a pain, a huge pain. There were issues with billing and calls to ineffective customer service people.

I’m sure I just didn’t understand what I was getting into, but it didn’t work well. I had to log into the workaround company to log into WordPress. I was so overwhelmed trying to build everything from scratch. I watched tutorials online to supposedly get me up and running quickly. Building it was so clunky and seemingly used multiple editors and programs and plugins to work that half the time, it didn’t actually update on the site (as far as I could tell).

I spent so long putting everything together and I hated it. It was literally just a landing page. A “hey I exist because here’s my picture and a few paragraphs about me and links so here ya go!”

It was kinda useless and not worth it. I regretted my purchase almost immediately, but not immediately enough. I had spent so much time trying to get it to work for me, I missed the refund window.

So, for a year, I had a useless webpage out on the interwebs, but doing nothing for me. I hated it, but became anytime I tried to fix something, I became so overwhelmed and frustrated, and usually gave up before accomplishing anything of value .

And so, when the subscription came due, I literally deleted my card considering my issues with billing earlier to make sure they couldn’t charge me. I got a Linktree instead. It did most of what I was able to get functioning on the website anyway: proving I was a “real person” with a photo and bio as well as links for my work. I focused on blogging in different places, and letting other companies handle the design and build of the site.

But I’m not giving up. I’ve been continually trying to figure out how to make my writing work for me. I’ve made lots of changes in the past year and am continually adapting.

And here’s the thing. In 2026, it’s kinda hard to explain why you don’t have a website. As much as my previous frustrations had enraged me, I decided to get back on the horse. I made it simpler for myself. It doesn’t need to be fancy. I can always update, upgrade, even completely demolish and rebuild from the ground up. I’ve done it before. In so many areas of my life.

So, I’m here. On the Web.

I’ll be blogging here along with the other sites I’ve used in the past:

Medium

Substack

Follow my journey on whichever platform you prefer. I’ve learned a lot of things the hard way. Hopefully you won’t have to follow the same stumbles as I did. I truly believe in the power of community, even if I stayed in my hermit phase a little too long to learn that. Let’s learn together to help all of us rise together.