From the idea of having a website to its creation. In this article, you can find my personal experience.
The idea
Like many other people, both individuals and professionals, I asked myself: why don't I publish a website where I explain who I am, what I do, my professional career, the projects I have carried out, and other information? And why not a blog with interesting articles?
So the very first thing I did was to think about the idea for the website and decide on some fundamental topics, which I then explored in detail:
- Choosing the domain name: in my case, I wanted a professional/personal website, so I chose my first and last name and opted for .com as the extension (massimodemartin.com).
- Drafting the main topics: I drew up a list of topics that I then reflected in the website menu (Home, Services, Professional Experience, Projects, Blog, Contact).
- Drafting content: I developed the various main topics I had chosen in detail, trying to be as brief and concise as possible and leaving more details to be explored in the future.
- Developing details: at the moment, I haven't gone into too much detail on the main topics. When I do, I will try to organize them into sub-topics and then secondary pages and specific menu items
The domain: registration
After choosing the domain name, I moved on to registering it and then looked for a company (“Registrar”) that offered this service, and possibly other services as well.
I found a good Swiss company (Infomaniak) that offers high-quality services combined with the necessary security and protection of personal data.
For domain registration alone, you can of course choose one of the many companies that offer this type of service.
Web hosting service
After registering the domain, you need to purchase a web hosting service, i.e., a service that allows you to host the contents of your website.
In my case, I chose Infomaniak's web hosting product because it offered the right balance between service quality, data protection, and price.
Basic features of Infomaniak's web hosting service:
- Technologies for dynamic websites (HTML, CSS, PHP, MySQL/MariaDB, Apache, etc.).
- 20 to 100 websites (domains not included).
- 250 to 500 GB of SSD space.
- Site Creator, WordPress with Divi +100 CMS with 1 click.
- Unlimited traffic.
- FTP and SSH access
There is also the option to purchase a Managed Cloud Server, designed for commercial sites requiring dedicated resources and advanced technologies, but in my case, Web Hosting was the most suitable solution.
Mail service
The next step is to purchase a mail service, i.e., a service that allows you to manage the email accounts linked to the domain, the flow of communications, contacts, and other aspects.
As for the mail service, I opted for a solution that included several services in a single package: kSuite Pro by Infomaniak is available for 1 to 300 users, offering 5 professional and secure email addresses per user through kMail, 3 terabytes of storage space per user through kDrive, and other services that I will explain below (Calendar, Contacts, kMeet, kChat, kPaste, Docs/Grids/Points, SwissTransfer).
There is also a free version called kSuite Standard with the same features as kSuite Pro, but limited to 1 user, 2 email addresses, and 15 gigabytes of storage space. This version is free if you purchase at least one Infomaniak service, such as Hosting web or Hosting Web+Mail.
For more demanding businesses and professionals, there is the kSuite Enterprise version, available for 1 to 300 users, offering 10 professional and secure email addresses per user through kMail, 6 terabytes of storage space per user through kDrive, and the Custom Brand option included.
Storage service
This service is not mandatory, but it can be very useful for saving documents, working remotely, and collaborating with a team. As already mentioned, I chose a package that also includes this service, which in my case is called kDrive.
kDrive is a service that includes storage space (in the case of kSuite Pro, the basic space offered is 3 terabytes) and provides other useful services for working individually and collaborating in work groups.
Key points about kDrive:
- Ability to work directly online on documents with Grids, Docs, Points.
- Ability to open/save/import/export files in Microsoft 365 format (Excel/Word/PowerPoint).
- Ability to share files in read-only or read-write mode and other options.
- Apps available for iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, and Linux
Other useful services
Other services that may be useful and are included in Infomaniak's kSuite packages:
- Contacts: contact list management
- Calendar: appointment management
- kMeet: conference/meeting service
- SwissTransfer: secure transfer of large files (up to 50 GB)
- kChat: secure and protected messaging service
- kPaste: secure sending of secret messages
There is the option to purchase the Custom Brand feature, which allows you to customize access to applications with your domain name (e.g., https://kmeet.yourdomain.com) and display your company logo when presenting yourself to clients, partners, and employees.
The Custom Brand option is included in the kSuite Enterprise package.
The CMS (Content Management System)
And now we come to the most "juicy" part, the actual development of the website, namely the construction of web pages and the insertion of content.
The tool for doing all this is called a CMS (Content Management System), i.e., a content management system.
There are many on the market; the most famous are WordPress, Wix, Joomla, Drupal, and Magento, and the choice depends on the purpose of the website (general presentation site, e-commerce site, site with photos/videos/streaming), the skill level of the person building the website, personal tastes and preferences, or other requirements.
In my case, I chose Site Creator, an easy, fast, and intuitive tool offered by Infomaniak, included in hosting services, which allows you to create pages, insert various types of content (text, images, videos, links) in very little time, and offers many ready-to-use themes.
Site Creator also offers many interesting additional modules, such as: Blog posts, Countdown, Polls, Knowledge base, Frequently asked questions (FAQ), Frames, Price comparisons, Feature lists, File downloads, Testimonials, Photo sliders, Team presentations, Location map, Social networks, Audio player, Sitemap creation, RSS feed display, Custom HTML code.
The blog
Among the modules I consider of great interest and that I personally activated immediately is the blog.
With this tool, you can write and publish articles, insert images and videos, lists, tables, HTML code, and more.
The blog makes the website more active, as it may generate interest and attract loyal readers who visit the site periodically, thus maintaining a good level of site traffic.
You can obviously insert links to the articles created on the blog on social channels, adding a preview that can spark interest among post visitors.
A suggestion: use "Tags," i.e., keywords that help classify articles by topic and facilitate online searches.
The newsletter
A tool I consider important is the newsletter: you can send newsletters to one or more recipient lists, delivering periodic or special occasion information (announcements, special offers, news, etc.).
The tool should have a set of features:
- Contact list management
- Contact subscription and unsubscription management
- Privacy management and GDPR compliance
- Attractive graphic design
- UTM tag management for Google Analytics
- Provision of statistical data (number of contacts reached, number of unique opens per contact, number of unique clicks, open time, total number of opens, geolocation, type of devices used, etc.)
Infomaniak offers the ability to create and manage newsletters and recipient lists, handle subscriptions and unsubscriptions, preview content, create/edit the subscription form in HTML format to embed on the website, and more.
Social channels
Social channels are not mandatory, but they can contribute to website visits, especially when interesting articles or pages are included in your social posts. This way, interested people can click on the provided links and visit your website.
I personally use only LinkedIn, a social network dedicated to professionals: I already had a personal account from which I then created a company page more focused on my professional activity.
It is therefore advisable to add the link to your social channels on the website.
Other services
There are many other services available that you may be interested in.
Infomaniak offers several other services, such as:
- Event and guest management.
- Multimedia services: audio streaming, video streaming, video and audio on demand.
- Cloud computing services: Wordpress hosting, NAS Sinology, VPS Cloud (create a Windows or Linux server), Public Cloud (IaaS, high-performance cloud infrastructure), Jelastic Cloud (PaaS, customized development environments), Swiss Backup (backup of all devices in Switzerland).
Ideas, suggestions, or questions? Feel free to leave a comment or contact me.