I’ve finally gotten my website to a state where I’m happy with it..for now, though in a few months I’m sure the renovation bug will hit me again. Some people buy new curtains, I play with style sheets.

It does give me satisfaction to use that side of my brain, which isn’t always taxed (or at least not this hard) when I’m writing. And I know that being able to code PHP, CSS, and HTML will come in handy for getting gigs–the CSS and HTML certainly didn’t hurt my chances of landing big blogging gigs, which I have. No potential clients have yet asked me to write something in PHP, but I’m sure that day will come. Hopefully not too soon, because I code like a brute: there are a lot of trial-and-error hours, mostly errors, before a page comes together. (Damn you, misplaced semicolons!)

So it’s a skill I’m proud of having, and I always recommend to other journos (when I’m asked, which isn’t often or anything) that they do their own websites too. You don’t have to decide to learn PHP like I did, because you can start a blog on WordPress or Blogger and learn basic HTML that way. It’s free. When you feel like graduating to the next level, $60 a year or so will get you a domain name and a webhost that you can install the “big kids” version of WordPress on. That gives you the option of using a custom theme, either one you design yourself or one that someone else has built. I’m a big fan of Mimbo, which is donationware (pay if you like it).

I may do a series of posts about how to get a portfolio website set up using WordPress, but for now, I’m just happy I still remember how to code.