I have always been a “coder”, someone who likes the excitement and discovery of finding a solution. When I was a kid, I would trade in my P.E. time for more computer lab time. I enjoyed playing video games, but was more interested in how they worked, how they were built, and learning to do it myself, than I was in beating the game itself.
So, when the internet became more easily accessible via AOL, I jumped on it to figure out what the heck it was. And, boy, was my mind blown! So much info at the tip of my fingers that I could read, learn, and devour without leaving the house to go to the library. It was just awesome!
True to my coder roots, I quickly became more interested in how it all worked, and discovered that all that information was stored on things called ‘web pages’. Web pages are built using a code called HTML, so learning HTML became my primary focus, and once I figured it out and how to use AOL for hosting of my new web pages, I was off and running!
My first professional client was a piano teacher. He wanted a pink background, with black polka dots, a grand piano, a little about himself, and his phone number. Thankfully, I talked him out of the midi music auto-playing when the page loaded! He was thrilled with the end result, but to me it was a simple one-page, eye-opening, wonderful experiment!
I went back to school to learn all I could about building websites, databases, and so many other things that I basically got an IT degree. I used that knowledge to work for various companies, building my knowledge and love of coding at each stop along the way.
When a friend of mine started Novel Website Design to help Women’s Fiction authors better connect to their readers online, I agreed to help out with the tech side of things…and once we discovered WordPress, never looked back!
I eventually took over Novel Website Design, but am now branching out on my own. I’m taking all my knowledge and expertise gained over the years, and using them as The Website Handyman!
Whether you are a website owner, designer, or anything in between, if you are feeling overwhelmed by the constant updates and bug fixes, or you feel bored building the websites instead of doing what you love by designing them, that’s where The Website Handyman really shines!
