Trial & Error Unlimited

I started creating a website called e-propertymatters.com during Covid-19 Lockdown. It was a time to walk and write and garden and reflect so – “Trial and Error Unlimited” was around creating a website.

I had never built a website before and after doing a brief course on WordPress some years ago, I put it in the “Too Hard Basket”.

I began to re-visit my notes and look at other options like Wix, but as I am naturally drawn to hard work and punishment I settled down on creating something in the WordPress environment.

The original course that I attended was probably aimed at people who would hand the management of their website over to them in frustration. So it was indeed a surprise that I was able to create this website by trial and error at my age.

The journey has been a little Topsy Turvy, as I learnt about new features in a different language it seemed to me, and my “to do” list began to grow from what originally started as a rather static website.

Blogs – They looked like fun…and had I not already written over 60 000 words about the humorous incidents in my real estate career in Africa and beyond? Blogs rekindled my earlier love of writing.

Information – I wanted to impart useful information and resources that were not always easy to access to a non-industry expert.

Products – I wanted to share some of our research into things that we found really useful during our own projects and experiences of renovating and living in a “Tiny home” while we did some of them.

Youtube – it was an excellent way of learning new skills and utilising each new skill became a journey itself in “Trial and Error Unlimited”.

So inside WordPress I began creating a website, but it was still reasonably expensive for what was really just a hobby. Plus there was this topic of “administration” the Gurus referred to – What? Why does my piddly website need a ministry of admin people?

So I looked at Hosting services…how to move my website across and with that, it seemed that all my new skills evaporated into a few silly questions.

Enter Upworks… and with it many people that clearly weren’t using Trial and Error in developing their website skills! They had actually studied and been born into the Digital World.

So it was that I came across my very own “Digital Native”. Let’s call him MAK.

There have been many things that I have learnt along the way, but this one person was an enormous help. I could ask him silly questions and he did not laugh too long at the absurdity of my questions, which clearly lacked the experience required in HTML and Coding!

He was a huge help and I am happy to pass on his details as a recommendation if you have built your website and need some fine tuning. He knows his stuff!

So for anyone like me, who has years of expertise and experience in another field, and wants to give back to their industry by way of blogging or pointing people in the right direction by “paying it forward” have a go at building your own website.

I have been introduced to the wonderful world of plugins, SEO, analytics, bump rates, and am still learning. It is a whole different world to the “no internet” one that I grew up in. Go on…have some fun. You might just find that you will enjoy it!

Yours sincerely

Kathryn

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