How Much Does it Cost to Have a Website?
Published on .
This is the price that I have to pay to have this website.
Inspiration
I got the idea of writing this from the following question:
Is running a personal website still that complex?
I am still learning about web development. I am still considering myself new at coding. So I still remember how much it cost to have a personal website.
Foundation
I need to know and understand English. Programming languages use English. HTML, CSS, and JavaScript use English. Not only that, most learning resources are written in English. So I must know and understand English.
As a side note, English is not my first language. I am Indonesian. That is why I consider it.
Next, I need to have a desktop. I can create my website on an Android device. But, I think having a desktop will make things easier. Also, it is the right place and what most people do.
I need to have an internet connection. This is important.
I need a physical space to write code.
I need the basic needs as a human. This is very important—even more important than an internet connection.
Knowledge
I need to learn HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
I learned HTML, CSS, and JavaScript without paying for any courses. I learned them from video tutorials on YouTube. Then, I learned about them by reading blog posts, watching conference talks on YouTube, and building projects at Frontend Mentor.
I did all those things without paying any money to any platforms. But, those things took a lot of time—and money for me to keep alive. It took me two years.
Now, I am still learning JavaScript. I am also still learning HTML, CSS, and web accessibility.
Hmm, web accessibility is something I did not expect to learn when I started learning about web development. I knew about it after I joined Frontend Mentor.
After I learned more about web accessibility, I realized that it should be considered whenever I wrote my code. I should consider it all the time. I need to write HTML with accessibility in mind. I need to write CSS with accessibility in mind. I need to write JavaScript with accessibility in mind.
Web accessibility took a long time to learn. I think it is a never-ending thing to learn.
That is the surface. My learning journey is not that linear. I was getting into "tutorial hell" which means I can not build anything without tutorials. Luckily, I managed to escape from it.
Anyway, the point is I need a lot of time to learn front-end web development.
(I just remember about Git. But, you already get the point. I do not need to keep rambling.)
Accounts
I need to have a GitHub account. I need to have a Netlify account. I need a lot of accounts.
I do not think learning web development without making a single account is possible.
Account registration needs an email address. I need to have an email. I need to provide a lot of personal data.
When I wanted to buy a new domain name, again, I have to create an account.
Lots of accounts!
I think having a personal website without having to create an account is impossible.
I can minimize the number of accounts by running things on my own. But, that will require technical knowledge such as setting up a server. I do not know.
Content
A personal website needs something. I need to have something on my website.
This can take a very short time if I only have a heading level one with my name as the text. But, I think that would not be useful.
I learned more about English. I learned how to write clearly. I learned how to write things as simple as possible.
That learning process took a lot of time. Even after years of learning English, my writing is still (blank).
Anyway, I am still learning English.
More
There are more things. I can not remember every single thing. So that is my answer to the "How much does it cost to have a website?"
My answer to "Is running a personal website still that complex?" is "Yes, it is still complex". I can use Wordpress, but that still requires me to learn about Wordpress—then create a new account.
I think the hardest thing to do is to find good resources, especially for self-taught developers like me.
When I began learning in web development, I did not know where to start. I did not know the next thing to learn. I did not know whether I already did the right thing or not. Lots of question marks on top of my head. Now, there are even more question marks.
As time passed, I start knowing the "good places" where I want to learn something. For example, for web accessibility, I can go to The A11Y Project website.
Hmm, I just remember that I also learned how to search for things on the internet. But, I need to stop here.
Resources
A list of people to learn from — People to learn from - FED Mentor
A good writing style guide to follow — Style Guide | Codeberg Documentation and docs/content-style-guide.md at main · github/docs · GitHub
Learn how to write in plain English — Federal plain language guidelines
Google Like a Pro – All Advanced Search Operators Tutorial [2023 Tips] - YouTube