Learning to Manage a Website from My Mistakes

@ Non-Technical Discussion

Motivations for Managing a Website

“Why do I want to manage a website?” It’s essential to think this through before creating one.

I have been preparing to write a blog since I started learning web development a few years ago, trying many different techniques and challenges along the way. However, I was never particularly satisfied with the results until recently when I began to understand what “blogging” truly means. During this time, I appreciated various subjects and learned to document important tips for me. I summarized the motivations into two types:

  • External motivation
  • Internal motivation

Keep this in mind, as I will frequently mention how to generate these two types of motivation and how they can influence your website management.

Building and Managing a Website Are Two Different Things

Before creating this technical blog, I had countless failed attempts. The biggest issue was that I didn’t understand the meaning of writing a blog for myself. If it was just for “I am a web engineer, so I should have my own website,” or “to add a cool experience to my resume,” that drive would quickly be forgotten. Once I learned a tool and produced a product, I would lose the motivation to maintain it. I’ve seen many such blogs, and I myself have created four or five half-finished ones, changing frameworks one by one, altering styles… and ultimately, none were maintained 😢. Before falling into this trap, here are a few points to consider to avoid making the same mistakes.

Just Meet One Clear Need

For example, “WebDong🔗” is a web technology blog, and it has only one external purpose: to solve problems related to web technology. Previously, I initially wanted to combine my personal design portfolio, illustration portfolio, web portfolio, technical articles, and freelance information all in one (my terrible example here🔗). Oh my… please don’t do this. It won’t make you seem versatile; it will only create confusion and raise doubts about your expertise.

From the previous lessons, I learned that the most basic requirement is to solve a clear problem that someone is willing to pay for, which is an effective external goal. The current goal analysis for this website can be outlined as follows:

  • Problem being solved - Issues related to front-end web development technology.
  • Target audience - Beginner front-end engineers.
  • Features that stand out from competitors - Nice video and image explanations, supplemented with storytelling to make learning more accessible and enjoyable.

Create a Minimum Viable Product

Now that there is a clear external purpose and target audience, we can start creating. But please pause and think carefully! To achieve this goal as quickly as possible, what are the minimum features needed to make people stop and appreciate the solutions you provide?

For my case, what is the minimum viable product needed to “quickly and simply solve people’s confusion about learning web development”? Is it having my own webpage? A professional and fancy website appearance? A search function for articles or a comment board? Good SEO support and website speed? None of these 😅. What is needed is to produce genuinely unique content that addresses pain points. Only after truly solving others’ issues can subsequent management be effective.

So if you are entirely driven by external goals, you should first carefully assess how to avoid wasting energy on trivial matters in the early stages. Step back and think about how to “quickly launch the product to immediately solve problems and gain attention, then build features based on feedback,” which is much more practical than doing something you enjoy but that doesn’t constructively contribute to the product.

Especially for developers, being overly fixated on the details of how to implement the underlying technology often leads to ignoring the project’s purpose. It’s easy to fall into an endless development loop. At this point, you should evaluate whether you have enough time and energy to invest in this project. Remember, at the beginning, you have the most energy and time, and as time goes on, it’s inevitable to start feeling bored. Therefore, it’s crucial to quickly launch a certain quantity and quality of results.

Utilize existing services or tools to the fullest, and understanding your battlefield in advance is more effective than blindly investing time. You can refer to:

Besides External Goals, Internal Goals Are Also Necessary

Previously, I discussed how to attract and seize external factors and opportunities, but if you can’t persuade yourself to keep moving forward, you will still fail. In fact, I believe the influence of external factors is limited; the encouragement of others and fluctuations in traffic are temporary. These external factors are visible yet elusive, making it difficult to serve as actual motivation. In reality, how many situations can truly sustain you long-term solely based on the support of others?

Currently, the most persuasive internal goal for managing my own website is similar to the concepts of Zettelkasten🔗 and Digital Garden🔗. It prompts me to reconsider whether writing articles is really only for external factors. Of course not! Writing is not just about output; it is also a form of input. The thinking involved in this process is something AI cannot replace, and no one else in the world can achieve it for me.

Be your own teacher, and grow alongside yourself in the learning process.

During my time in advanced studies, I realized that the problems in the real world are continuously evolving. I also experienced this during my time as a teaching assistant. There is no one who truly understands your learning situation or knows all the solutions to your problems. You are your own teacher, and you must approach all issues with confidence. You are also a student, knowing that there is no endpoint to learning new technologies. Only through continuous learning and experimentation can you stand firm in a fiercely competitive environment. Therefore, my internal motivation for writing a blog is simple: “Strengthening input to the brain through writing is a way to organize and understand this world.”

Conclusion

By combining internal and external motivations, using my own blog WebDong🔗 as an example, I hope to help you rethink the true goals and motivations behind managing your website. If you share the same thoughts, you can start taking action; now is the best time!