My Objective
The desired result played a big role in my website project. I already had a small webspace and my domains. But if you had visited my website at that time, you would have found only a generic welcome message. The development of this website actually started back in late 2020, but it wasn't until 2021 that the development of the website picked up momentum.
The goal of the project was to create a custom and, most importantly, functional website that was as simple and minimalist as possible.
In my opinion, if I hadn't set such a simple goal, the project would have failed because I would have been overwhelmed too quickly. If I had set myself the goal of programming a complex and large website, I probably would have quickly lost motivation and fun.
Requirements
The requirements for the creation of a website are very simple. Of course you need the technical possibilities to buy a webspace and upload a website.
You should also be able to read and understand English well, since most forums and resources are in English. (Since you are reading this text, this should be no problem!)
And last but not least, you should of course have the time and motivation to program a website yourself. In a way, this is of course a waste of time, as you could just use a service like Wordpress. Therefore, you should really enjoy writing code and have some technical understanding.
Basic Knowledge
I had, as mentioned, no previous knowledge of programming and web development. I started by researching the basics. Thanks to numerous blogs and websites, I was able to quickly get somewhat familiar with HTML and CSS. A good place to start is the W3-Schools website and the numerous programming forums on the Internet.
Programming
After I roughly understood HTML and CSS, I started looking for examples and templates. I looked at the code of various websites to understand how they worked. Code generators should be avoided.
Eventually, I came across Leo Babauta's website.
I liked the design right away, as it matched my idea of a simple and minimalist website. So I searched for the CSS file and finally found it. To my surprise, Leo Babauta waived his copyrights and made the CSS design available for everyone. This meant I had a foundation to build on.
The websites of James Clear, James Stuber and Derek Sivers served as further inspiration for me.
Over the next few weeks, I analyzed the CSS code line by line to understand how it worked. Finally, I combined everything I learned and coded my own CSS file from scratch.
Thus, the development of my website was complete and I could get down to writing the first articles.
Result
The result of my efforts is not only a (hopefully 😄) working and minimalistic website, but also the experience I gained and the knowledge about website development. I really learned a lot!
Of course, I could have just created a website with Wordpress, but then I would have had to forego a lot of the experience and knowledge.
Since my website is resource-efficient and self-sufficient, meaning it doesn't require any third party services, it's also relatively low-maintenance. Over time, my knowledge of websites has also increased, making programming quicker.
Should I develop higher demands on my website in the future, I can of course not guarantee that I will not fall back on a website builder. But self-programming is definitely compatible with my current goals.
This project reinforced my opinion that everyone should have a personal website. Of course, my articles are still not perfect.