As part of the Onboarding stage of WordPress Credits, I set up this website. It will be my personal site and the place where I document my progress during the program, so here is a short reflection on how it went.
Platform and hosting. I chose WordPress.com. Universidad Fidélitas gives its students an education coupon that includes a hosted plan and a free .blog domain, so I didn’t have to set up a server or install WordPress myself. With the Student plan active, I picked the domain estebanvalverde4.blog. Since WordPress.com takes care of hosting, updates and security, I can focus on writing and on my contributions instead of on maintenance.
Challenges. The site started with a default theme designed for podcasts, which didn’t fit a personal website, so I switched to Twenty Twenty-Five and adjusted its colors. The harder part was deciding how to organize the site. I didn’t want it to be just a course assignment, so I built it as a general personal website, with Home, About, Projects, Blog and Contact pages, and added WordPress Credits as my first project. I also learned that a new site stays in “Coming soon” mode until you launch it, so nobody can see it before that step.
What I learned about WordPress. I finally understood the difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com. WordPress.org is the open source software and the community I’m now part of, while WordPress.com is a hosted service built on that same software. I also learned that in a block theme everything is made of blocks, including the header, the footer and the templates, so the whole site can be customized from the Site Editor.
Most useful decision. Keeping the structure simple from the start: a short menu and a WordPress Credits category on the blog, so every future update has an obvious place.
My advice for future WP Credits students. Set up and launch your site early, and pick a theme made for blogs or portfolios. That way you can spend your time writing about your progress instead of fighting with the design.
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