Too Much Thinking

"I never realized that there was so much thinking required to set up a Web site," Claude said. "Is it always like this?"

"No," I replied, "because the first site is always the hardest. You're learning a lot of new concepts. The second and third sites are always easierespecially if you're reusing the same design."

"Second and third sites?" Anita asked. "You expect us to build more than one site?"

"Well, no," I said, shaking my head. "I don't expect you to, but I won't be surprised if you do. Once your site is up and running and you have some spare time again, you may be tempted to start another site."

Claude nodded. "Financial advisors are always talking about having multiple streams of incomesame thing, I guess."

"That's assuming you're making significant money from the sites, yes," I agreed, "but nobody can guarantee that. But let's not count our chicks before they've hatched. I think we're done talking about design, so I want you to go home now and think about how you want your site to look. We'll meet together again to learn how to build Web pages, and then I'll spend time with each of you to get you started with your site."

"I'm just a blogger…Do I really need to learn how to build Web pages?" Stef asked.

"Remember," I explained, "your blog is fundamentally a set of Web pages. If you want to modify your blog's template, for example, you'll need to understand how to build a Web page. Besides, you may decide to set up your own Web site at some pointyou might as well learn about it now!"

We set another meeting timeat my house againand parted ways. Claude seemed pretty excited, so I reminded him to stay away from the blinking text. He would, he promised, and they all laughed as they walked out the door.