I learned how to build websites with html code 25 years ago, in a graphic design vo-tech class at a local community college. It was my junior year of high school, and I spent half of every day having the best time of my life. We learned how to use Adobe Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, QuarkXPress, and CorelDRAW. We processed film screens in a dark room to screen-print shirts. We made concert tickets and stationary pads with a small press, and cut out vinyl for stickers (like the pictured She-Ra sticker I made that somehow still looks good after all this time).
The instructor was the epitome of cool. He gave me a Monolith Graphics magazine that make my little goth heart nearly explode with wonder. He was so laid back, letting us explore and create practically whatever we wanted once our assignments were complete--assignments that still had lots of creative breathing room. I recall making a food can label for Artificial Intelligence, a Danger Girl shirt, and a concert ticket to Hell, seat 666.
I don't believe website coding was even on the curriculum at the time. If memory serves, there were only a handful of us who received that special crash course while waiting for our classmates to catch up. The instructor showed us header and body tags and how to input RGB color codes and change fonts. How to build layout tables, and insert images and music files. I had the most epic Sailor Moon fan site. 🎶Fighting evil by moonlight...🎶
Two and half decades later, I still love Sailor Moon and Monolith Graphics. And, up until this past week, I was still coding my own website--my author website. There have been various crash courses on the newer coding languages to keep up. When I finally redesigned to make the site more mobile friendly, it took months, plus lots of tears and bad words.
All this to say, I never dreamed I would ever make the switch to a drag-and-drop site builder. In the famous words of Alicia Silverstone, as if! I've spent so much time learning CSS and JavaScript. I'm a dreamer and a perfectionist, and most drag-and-drop builders I've dabbled with just don't have the flexibility I crave. Until now.
I've been using PayHip for my personal author store for a few years now. It was easy enough to embed on my website store page, so I left it at that. Likewise, on the rare occasion I posted a blog, I would link from my website to an ancient BlogSpot. But a couple of weeks ago, I decided it was time for another revamp, to assimilate all these pieces together into something better. Like Captain Planet.
Apparently, PayHip has been doing some redesigning of their own since I last test drove their site builder. There's a bit of a learning curve, but with my coding background, I think I've managed better than most. They do have a few places where custom code can be added, which made integrating my newsletter and giveaways easy. The built-in blog feature is nice, too. I'm pretty happy with this setup!
I hope you enjoy the new site, as well. Have a look around and make yourself at home. There are big things on the horizon, new stories and special projects in the works, and they'll all be making their debut right here. Stay tuned!
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