Website Tools
Technical terms
Content Management System (CMS)
A CMS is a software package (usually found in an app or website) that lets you create and edit webpages without learning code yourself. They also often take care of web hosting. All of the services below (Wordpress, Weebly, ect.) are CMSs.Web Hosting Service
The information for your website has to live on some device somewhere called a server. A web hosting service provides a place for that information and routes it to other internet users, usually with some backups and security features. In return, you pay for the storage space. Think of it as rent for your website. A CMS will usually have a web hosting service built-in.HTML, CSS, Javascript, PHP, ect.
These are the coding languages used to mark up your web content and communicate with the servers. You don’t need to know these languages to create a website on a CMS platform. However, it can be helpful to learn the basics and a great skill to put on resumes. I highly recommend W3 School’s tutorials. You can learn the fundamentals with a couple of dedicated weekends.Cyber Security
Bad actors will attack vulnerable websites for money and sport. A common attack is threatening to delete the website unless you pay a ransom, which is frequently too expensive for a private individual. A CMS and Web hosting service will usually offer security measures on their end to prevent hackers.However, security breaches happen—even to the big guys. It’s not a bad idea to keep a copy of all the text and images for your website on your personal computer, a hard drive and the cloud in case something goes wrong. You as a user should take measures like quickly and regularly running updates, creating strong passwords, not clicking mystery emails, and not downloading questionable content.
If you’re not confident in your security literacy, you can pay for services like Norton, McAfee, or Bitdefender to protect you. These security software packages will also warn you of threats unrelated to your website and are worthwhile for anyone who regularly uses a personal computer.
Widget
A widget is a little piece of software that you can add to your website. For example, many CMS platforms offer widgets that include easy-to-use survey forms. Some widgets are built into CMS platforms; others you pay extra for.CMS Platforms for Your Consideration
This is by no means an exhaustive list, but here are four popular platforms that are approachable for writers with limited technical experience.Clippings.me
Tech Skill: MinimalCost: Free for the first few publications. Monthly fee after you cross a content threshold. Always includes Clippings.me branding.
Clippings.me is suitable for the one-page resume/portfolio website. You can set your website up in around an hour and be done with it. This CMS is not suitable for blogging or anything complicated, but it has all the basics.
Weebly
Tech Skill: Minimal to advancedCost: Free with limited features, Weebly branding and ad. Monthly fee removes branding and ads and unlocks more features.
Weebly and the rest of the CMS platforms we’re going to glance at can serve as a simple personal website or scale into something suitable for an online business. The technical knowledge required will scale with how much you want to do.
I have personally found Weebly the easiest to use of the CMS platforms that offer expanded functionality. The drag and drop feature is intuitive. You can probably build a 3-5 page website in a weekend, no coding knowledge required.
Wix
Tech Skill: Minimal to advancedCost: Free with limited features, Wix branding, and ads that Wix will run on your site. Monthly fee removes branding and ads and unlocks more features.
Wix is similar to Weebly. Wix has more options for widgets and designs, but sometimes more flexibility is more confusing. If you have a specific vision for your website, Wix may be better than Weebly.
Wordpress.org and Wordpress.com
Tech Skill: Moderate to advancedCost: Wordpress.org is always free. Wordpress.com is free with limited features and Wordpress branding. Monthly fee removes branding and unlocks more features.
There is a Wordpress.com and a Wordpress.org. Wordpress.org is open source, meaning the code and tools are free for anyone to use. You would have to pay for and set up a separate web hosting service. Unless you have some background in web development, you’re almost definitely better off using Wordpress.com which has these technical features built in.
Since so many publishers and businesses use Wordpress, it can be worthwhile to learn it so that you can put it on your resume. The caveat is that Wordpress is less intuitive to use. Its dashboard takes some experimenting before fluency.
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