I have started 3 websites in the past 12 years.
I cannot say launched, because it was without the fanfare typically associated with a launch.
I registered a domain name, installed WordPress, a nice minimalist theme and published my first blog or page. That was all.
Shilalekh – My Personal Blog
The first one was Shilalekh, where you are reading this. The first blog I posted there was on 7 Jul, 2011 (I checked WP dashboard!!) while working full time as a Computer Science teacher. I wanted to start a blog to fulfill my occasional writing itch. And I never did find time to write more than “occasionally.”
Since it was meant to be just a blog, I would have loved to have it in my own name. But considering I have such a popular (eyes rolling) name, I had to come up with something creative. And Shilalekh it was. It’s a Hindi word meaning stone inscriptions. I was sure it could easily lend itself to the near-immortality of webpages on the Internet. I of course did not want to dwell on the perpetual obscurity part.
With time it became a place to share my thoughts feelings and reactions to everything from movies to breaking news to whatever touched me in my daily course of life.
In 2012 I quit my full time job and started freelancing. Not writing, but developing a software for a local school. That continued for almost year and a half. Why I started with it and why I eventually quit is a story for another day. Today I want to focus on the reason behind why I started three separate websites, and why I am still confused about where I should focus my maximum effort.
To continue, in Jan 2014 I landed my first freelance writing gig and there has been no looking back. After doing a few projects I realized I needed a place to showcase my portfolio if I wanted to continue landing gigs. In April 2015 I had started on Upwork and was earning good enough for a beginner. What worked in my favour was the exchange rate. Clients paid in dollars, which when converted to Indian Rupee was a steal. Because in the short span of 1.5 years I had reached the conclusion that Indians clients paid peanuts. They were out to exploit freelancers, especially writers.
iTechCreations – What Started as a Portfolio Website
When I needed a place to host my portfolio, I first turned to Shilalekh, but then realized that since I was writing technology pieces, the blog, did not lend itself well to what I was trying to do. The Shilalekh blog was pretty personal and touched upon varied things.
Okay, it had a personal touch, and showed the real me, but it was not at all professional. I have talked about this earlier too that I have always been uncomfortable sharing my personal stuff with people. I realized I had to look at other options.
I went hunting for one-page website providers and tested platforms like Squarespace, Wix, even Contently. Eventually, I did not like any of them. With some, I had issues about ownership. and others like Wix and Squarespace gave too many design options. I was reminded of this when my editor recently asked me if I could write article(s) on Squarespace for beginners. Of course I could. Because I had spent days on making Squarespace work for me, because reviews said the final outcome would be awesome. Just abandoning everything after wasting hours deciding what would look could for the page.
I know most people would be thrilled to have lots of options, but I am NOT. I am design-challenged and cannot tell which color would look good with which combination, which fonts would go together, or what font color would look nice on which background color.
Long story short, I went ahead and created my own website iTechCreations.
I had to come up with a name, so I asked my husband for help, and we brainstormed a few names. He suggested “tech and creations” since I was writing about technology and its impact on people and business, and it also had a creative aspect because I had started writing books. And I was doing everything remotely, using the power of Internet.
The name iTechCreations stuck, but I realized that itechcreations.com was not available, so I went with “.in”. I wanted a place for my portfolio and a home page that would tell prospects and leads what I was doing. I never expected organic visitors to land on my website. Though, to my credit, I did search for keywords like “freelancers in India” or “content writers in India”.
I realized it would be difficult to beat people who had been in the game for long, so I focused first on creating a portfolio website and a simple homepage. In 2016, I started using the Divi theme. There was a learning curve, but I enjoy playing with technology and it was fun. And I had come to terms with having white, black and grey for my website if the templates did not appeal to me. No. I had not given up, I had simply matured enough to focus on what I did best.
Around that time, I also started exploring my passion for time management because I was getting bored writing only about technology. At one point of time I was writing 7-8 monthly blog posts for a single client on mobile development and the monotonicity got to me bad. I started tracking my time to gather data around how I was spending my “work” time. The data told me that I was getting a lot of work done but still there was a feeling of dissatisfaction when it came to writing.
I had finally started being a writer because I loved to write. But the kind of writing I was doing was not fulfilling. I wanted to talk about people, not just technology.
I started posting about time management. Time management was something I have always been good at and enjoy talking about too. I realized I had been giving people advice on time management both online and offline. So it seemed pretty easy to start writing blogs and LI posts. What helped me was that I knew there would hardly be anyone reading what I wrote, so I could go with the flow.
Sense of anonymity made me confident.
Proof that High Quality Content Works
At the beginning of 2021, I realized that the iTechcreations website had become more about time management than technology. I would have been happy to let it be, but there was another development around that time
When my elder daughter was in Grade 9, she had Artificial Intelligence as a paper. I was so frustrated with her book and her teacher that I started writing about it. Artificial Intelligence, not het teacher or books!! My target audience were her classmates. My effort felt worth it when her friends told me that they found it immensely helpful.
And unwittingly, without any effort, those blogs started gaining search rank. And Google Search clicks started going into 1000s. The first time I saw it, I was shocked. I felt there must have been some goof up. But clearly there was not.
I finally accepted the age old wisdom that high quality content speaks for itself given time.
But that made me restless. I knew that my target audience for time management content and AI content was totally different. But I did not want to take the drastic step of having two separate websites for them. Being a soloist I have finite number of hours to work on my business.
24HoursAreEnough – Resource Website for Working Moms
After ChatGPT was launched, I realized I could continue writing about AI as there was so much people didn’t know and were confused about. And I revel in explaining concepts in an easy to understand way. So, I decided to move the time management content to a separate site and let the iTechCreations site focus on tech stuff.
When my book “24 Hours Are Enough” came out in October 2021, I believed in its potential. So I purchased its domain name and moved the time management posts there.
That’s how I ended up with three websites, each representing different aspects of my interests.
Going Forward in 2024 – What Do You Want me to Focus On?
Yes, that’s a question for you my dear readers. What would you like to see me doing more?
- Writing about personal experiences (on Shilalekh)?
- Publishing beginner friendly tech articles on iTechCreations?
- Adding more value to the 24HoursAreEnough website so that it is more useful to you?
Let me know in comments.
