So. I am a Productdesigner and I want to make a personal Website to refer to when clients ask me about my work. So my best guess – a website. sure.
**I want to do it myself, and I want full control about the design. Features don’t matter too much to me as long as I can customize the look of my page.**
# So what do I have, and what do I want:
* I have a domain I already use for emails – purchased on Cloudflare
* I have all the content and text I want to put on the website
* I want to use the purchased domain
* I don’t care if I have to transfer the domain to use it
* I already tried connecting it to WordPress, that would cost me a lot of money I don’t have right now – **so that is not an option for now**
* Ideally I’d set it up once, and leave it. Changing it only a couple of times /year once I have new projects finished for puplishing
* I want to be able to customize the look as I please
* I don’t care if I have to code (on a base level)
* I don’t care if I use a builder (like on WordPress, squarespace etc.)
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Now of course I looked around and asked what others use. Most of my friends and colleagues use WordPress for agency use. So I thought that would be a good fit for myself since I liked the work they’ve done for clients.
I might be blinded by the freedom I have when using usual creator software like InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop. And I know there are great Website Builders and Tools, I just don’t know which one to choose and why?
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You may have some budget constraints to content with, but aside from that WordPress is super flexible and you can do anything from pure code to visual builders.
Start by identifying what you can afford annually to keep the site alive and decide on your required toolset inclusions from there.
For a static site, I would actually create, erm, static files. Just bc you are making a website, doesn’t mean you need WP: it required more maintenance than a static site (WP is significantly the most attacked cms, in part due to its popularity and ease of breaking in if it is left for some time without attention paid to it, i.e., updates.)
You’ll need an account on a budget hosting service. Introductory rates should be modest, US$10 or even less per month if you prepay for a year. Your service will tell you how to point your domain to them.
Or maybe you have a friend who already has a hosting account and will set up a so-called add-on-domain for you.
Then you install WordPress.org software on the hosting service, again following their directions, and you’re up and running.
WordPress.com isn’t wordpress.org, it’s a hosting service but not a budget hosting service.
Start over with a hosting plan for around $5 month. Research WordPress.com vs WordPress.org and you will see the mistake you made.