Redesign Of The Website

Redesign Of The Website

I went through a pretty thorough redesign of this website and made it a lot easier to manage and cheaper in the process. Here are the items I completed –

Migrated from EC2 to LightSail

This was probably the most cumbersome of the changes I made to the site. My previous WordPress version running on EC2 was completed before AWS launched LightSail, a more affordable, simplified web service for bloggers etc. There was no easy migration to LightSail (AWS tools focus on moving AWAY from Lightsail) so I had to figure out what to do. After launching a new site using the LightSail tool (super easy BTW), I had to migrate all of my posts over to the new site. I did this using the Export/Import tool in WordPress. This was pretty straightforward to and after a few hiccups worked.

Secondly I had to migrate my theme. I really like this theme, it is a custom one I purchased several years back and made it my own. The company that sold me the first one is out of business, so I had to migrate this one over. I used WP File Manager to drop the theme in and made some additional simplifications to it. A little learning curve but at the end of the day super easy. NOTE – I did try a new theme and the block editor, it is not easy to use but I can see the future value in it.

Net/net the site performance isn’t as robust but I am saving about $120 a year in hosting fees.

Dropped all categories and tags

This is going to save me so much headache. Categories and tags are useful but they require a lot of management. It is easy to just do away with them and add a search box.

Added pages for Python, SQL, Java, and AWS

For now, I won’t be adding a sub-domain and a static website to showcase technical skills. I will continue using WordPress for all of my blogging needs. I plan on doing a lot of technical research in 2023 and want a special place to collect and showcase what I’ve learned (and reference it later).

Added pages for Reviews

I won’t be doing book reviews as individual posts anymore. Instead, I’ll be writing them as pages where they will be accessible via a drop down menu in the header. This was necessary given that I’m doing away with categories and tags. I really want to get back into writing book reviews again and reading regularly.

Conclusion

I still recommend anyone who enjoys writing to create their own website. It gives you a place to showcase your talents and keep control of it. When you rely on someone else you put yourself at their mercy and their design changes.

 

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