Information for starting a website.

A bird watching the caribbean.

When I retired, (yes, lazy and happy) I gave myself a full year off before I started serious work on a website.  To get ready for that I took a course from AWAI (website is awaionline.com) first on copywriting, and later on money making websites.

I really recommend the programs at AWAI for someone who wants to get started, but doesn’t know how, or where to start.  This could be a writing career, or it could be a website, writing for marketing, for information and referral, or for travel.  There are plenty of other areas that they encourage.

Why do I want to start a website and make some money?  Because I like the idea of being able to travel, or to live abroad for a period of time and be able to make money from wherever I happen to be.  My image of myself is sitting at an outdoor table, at a cafe, looking out at an interesting street, or in a square, beautiful weather being a given.  I don’t get that in Minnesota, at least not for about 9 months of the year.

So I want the freedom to earn some money, to write, to be where ever I happen to be, whether it is in my office at home, or on a deck overlooking the Caribbean (next week!) or sitting in a cafe, on a square, in Chile, or Italy, or France (my future).

Nice dreams.  Now to make them happen.

 

 

Learning to start a website.

My knee replacement is going well.  I have to admit that it is difficult to fit in extra knee exercises with all of the other things that I want to do.

My big new thing is starting a web site.  My idea is to base the website on the work that I did on stress management and relationships when I was practicing as a psychologist, and make these techniques and methods available to the wider public.

So the challenge for me was to learn about pictures, so I am learning how to use photoshop, how to get around wordpress.org in developing a website.  I am also writing the pages, and figuring out how to introduce them, how to put them in order, and how to make them easily available to my visitors.  I will let you know when it is ready for public consumption.

My knee is coming along, but it sometimes gets achey.  So I work on getting enough exercise to encourage more bending and increeasing strength while it continues to heal.

Meanwhile, I am reading a good book of fiction, The Next Best Thing, by Jennifer Weiner, a coming of age book about a girl who tries to find herself in the wilds of Hollywood’s TV land where nobody is ever allowed to be a self.  It should be interesting, and she is just reaching the point where she feels more alone, and more challenged while she finds out that her power over her own creation (she is a screenwriter) is dwindling.  Will Ruthie find love and success?  stay tuned.