Website Boot Camp

All right you scumbag’s listen up!

MobileMe is dead.

iWeb is dead.

And your pathetic excuse for a website is mortally wounded.

The days of holding mommy Apple’s apron strings are over. From now on, there will be no post to MobileMe button. You will no longer be able to ignore things like DNS, and FTP.  You will have to educate yourself on all your website options, and deploy those which make sense.

It is a big scary world out there.  Are you going to run home and cry to mama, or are you going to put up the best site on the Internet?

Sir! Yes Sir!

The purpose of boot camp is to weed out the crybabies, dilettantes, and whiners from those who are serious about joining the military. I titled this post “Website Boot Camp” for the same reasons. Since the introduction of iWeb and the MobileMe websites Apple has insulated you from many of the nuances of posting a website. While this allowed you to post websites with little or no thought on your part, it also severely limited your options. Now that Apple has discontinued iWeb and MobileMe you are no longer going to be able to bury your head in the sand. While this means that you’re going to have to learn new things, it also means that you are going to have access to new options that you never knew existed.

A Fork In The Road

“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and sorry I could not travel both and be one traveler…”  Like Robert Frost, you are at a fork in the road. It is time to decide whether a website makes any sense at all for you. This is not a trivial decision. In the world of 2011 there are many good reasons NOT to make a personal website. Options like Facebook, Picasa, Flickr, and YouTube can be functionally equivalent to some of the basic MobileMe websites I have seen. Even if you do need more options than something like Facebook provides, you may not need a full-blown, hosted website. You may be able to use options such as WordPress.com or tumbler.com.   So, how does one decide which path to take?

The Essential Question, And It’s Four Answers

As anyone with a two-year-old can tell you, one of their favorite words is “why.” While this one word can drive an adult crazy, asking why is essential to learning. Now that we are at a crossroads it is time for us to ask why. Why do I need a website? And just as importantly; why would anyone bother to come to my site? Without the answer to these two simple questions your efforts on the Internet will be like a ship without a rudder.  When you pull away all the fluff, and jargon, you’ll find that there are four reasons 99% of websites are on the Internet.

1. To Sell Something ( i.e. a camera, a book, a CD, Photos)
2. To Sell Your Abilities/Knowledge  (i.e. your resume, consulting, a service you can offer)
3. To Inform Others on Some Topic  (i.e. global warming, politics, an organization)
4. To Inform Others About You.  (i.e. what you are doing, who you are doing it with)

Take a moment to think about what you wish to do with your website using these four answers. It’s very likely that you will find that your website will use some of each of these four answers. Also, be aware that it is likely your site will evolve over time.

Let’s pretend that you’re unemployed. In an effort to become employed you create a website with your résumé and some basic information about you (reasons two and four). As the weeks go by you decide to show off your knowledge by starting a blog (reason three). This blog attracts even more attention to your site which results in a consulting opportunity. The opportunity shows you that there is a need for a training DVD in your area of expertise. So you develop a DVD and begin to sell it (reason one). As we progress from one reason to another the type of website that we need, potentially changes. A site that will work perfectly fine for reasons two and four will start to fall apart when reason three and one are added to the mix.

A Look Ahead

In the coming weeks we will look at these four answers in more detail. We’ll also look at how these four questions are addressed by different web solutions. In the meantime, repeat after me, This is my website. There are many like it but this one is mine…