To set up this website, I followed the recommended instructions linked to the POSIEL web page and purchased a standard student domain (the personal package).
POSIEL start-up-guide: https://posiel.com/docs/hosting-setup/
I chose to register a domain name which included parts of my name as I wanted the blog to be personal, however, I did not create it under my first and last name as I already own that domain and am holding onto it to create an online portfolio for my freelance work.
The registration was clean and easy; I’ve never used this hosting platform, but the UI was easy to understand and follow along with. Once I was able to access the CPanel, I selected WordPress and proceed with the installation. The installation was standard and I simply followed all the prompts to setup a fresh WordPress site. Having worked with WordPress in the past, I already had an idea of which plugins I planned to install – primarily Elementor Pro.
Link to Elementor Pro: https://elementor.com/
Elementor is a plugin that provides drag-and-drop design functionality with an impressive suite of components to work with. Furthermore, the pro version of this plugin is reasonably priced and allows full creative control over your elements and the overall design – essentially, it feels as I have full control over my pages, as if I was creating them from scratch using html/css/js, however, I can create pages in a fraction of the time. For now this was the only plugin I decided to install. Depending on how this website progresses, I may begin installing plugins that enhance the component suit of WordPress, however, this doesn’t feel necessary yet – the default components satisfy my current design needs.
Getting started with Elementor, you are able to choose a starting kit (starting theme). I opted to go with a blog setup as it felt appropriate, however, wanted to select the most bare-bones kit so that moving forward I have the most create control, and so I won’t find myself deleting unnecessary components from the website. Using one of the basic kits allows me to work with a clean slate and makes it easy to translate my wireframes from illustrator to the live website. Furthermore, I started doing some research into blog inspiration and possible color palettes.
