When I recently decided to set up a freelance writing business, I realised that I needed to set up a website. The issue? I had never launched one before, having long held fears that it would be far too complex for me. You need to know how to code! You need to have basic web design skills! Nah, not for me!
All it took to change my mind, however, were a few YouTube videos and a little trial and error. When I was first starting out, I was able to ascertain that I needed my own domain, a hosting provider and a theme. That’s it, and there are a multitude of videos that explain the process.
Now, when I was looking at site builders for my website, I came across well-known names such as Squarespace and Wix, which would have been adequate for a newbie like me. Their relative simplicity meant that I would have had something up and running in no time. I eventually settled on WordPress, though, because I would have greater control over the appearance of my website. There had to be a catch somewhere, surely? Not at all. I didn’t even need to know how to code. Perfect!
So, I signed up to a hosting provider and got all excited because I was on my way to building my first website on WordPress. Then, having picked a theme, I discovered the world of drag and drop page-builders. Without wasting time looking for different plug-ins to meet the look and feel my website, I wanted to use one plug-in that would handle all my web design requirements. Step forward, Elementor Pro.
Elementor is one of the most popular names in the market, which is understandable because it’s designed with ease of use in mind. You simply drag and drop widgets from a panel into different sections of your web page. You can customise your page however you want. Calls to action, price tables and testimonial carousels; there really are a multitude of options. In fact, rather than feeling intimidated, the whole process of building a website suddenly seemed exciting to me. The free version of Elementor would be adequate for many people, but I opted to use a paid version in order to access a wider range of widgets.
One concern an amateur website builder might have is the speed at which different pages of the completed website load. I personally haven’t experienced any issues with pages loading slowly, but your mileage may vary. If you add lots of elements to individual web pages, this could well have an impact on performance. Also, as far as I can tell, there’s no live 24/7 chat support; this could be an issue if you urgently need technical help. I had to join Elementor’s Facebook group to get an answer to a question, which wasn’t exactly ideal.
All in all, though, I overcame my fears and got my own website up and running in very little time. Setting one up needn’t be technically difficult, and if I can do it, so can anyone.