January 29, 2014

Snowpocalypse 2014: Web Work

I decided a while ago that I’m done paying for web hosting. Instead, I want to use professional applications for my digital content — services like Tumblr and Medium that focus on one thing, have the best tools for shaping my content, and — most importantly — do not require me to play sysadmin.

Now this does not mean that I’m not willing to pay for services. For example, I use both Zenfolio and Square Space for my photography. Both of these services add up to about $200 a year — but both are pretty integral to making LucasPix look good.

I’d even consider moving LitMUSE to Wordpress.com and pay for their service, but I’ve not looked in to that yet. (Anyone have experience with their hosting?) I’d like to continue to use Wordpress and WooThemes for LM, but I do not want to deal with the web hosting headaches that come along with continuing to host my own WP installs. I’m moving grlucas.net to both Medium and Tumblr. Big Jelly and HumX already use both, and I’ve ported over much of LM’s content here as well.

I discovered Pixel Revel’s Debut theme that I really want to use for this site — and maybe even LitMUSE+. But, $50 seems really high to me. Maybe it’s not.

I know enough about CSS and HTML to probably code my own slick — Medium-inspired — theme for Tumblr. I’m thinking it would likely take me several days and endless tweaking to get it right. Let’s say it took me twenty-four hours at a minimum to get a working site up. This means my time is worth about 50¢ an hour. Isn’t it better to just pay the professional designers and get pretty much exactly what I want right out of the box? I’m leaning toward yes, but a discount code would still be nice.

I’m excited about Pixel Revel’s work — the way I used to be with WooThemes when I was still in love with WP. They quickly responded to several questions I’ve had on Twitter, so I know support would be excellent. Their Boardwalk theme is really nice, too. Guys, perhaps you should consider a “theme club” similar to WooTheme’s? You’ve probably already thought of this, but it’s just my 2¢.

OK, I have more porting to do. And I’m enjoying not being out in  Snowpocalypse 2014.