I still remember when I was introduced into the world of web development. I believe I was in my junior year of college and I was getting worried what I was going to do when I graduated.
I had no plan, I majored in art, and I had no confidence in my skills to get a job. I was fully unprepared.
But I knew someone who somehow was making money from graphic design and websites.
I wanted to know how he was doing it and that’s when he introduced me to WordPress. Its probably the number one website builder and CMS online today.
What he showed me seemed simple. Download a template, customize it, and sell it to a customer. If you’re good you would sell it to a customer first before you do the rest.
I understood everything he taught me but when I got into the trenches, there was one piece that was missing for me.
Control.
You see when you download a template you have to work with the limits and constraints they give you. That’s no problem if you just want a plug and play system.
But for me I got stuck so many times and some things didn’t work the way I wanted.
There were elements I wanted to customize but I had no idea how to do that.
This problem lead me to the one question that changed my life.
How do websites work?
I wanted to know how websites were built and therefore it lead me to the path of code, or better known as web development.
Over 10 years later I now know how to code and I got pretty good with WordPress. It’s to the point where I was able to get a job designing websites.
But there was something still missing from my WordPress websites.
That control.
Luckily they made this tool called Elementor and I was able to fully customize pages the way I liked them to be.
It worked for me for a while, but any advanced features I would have to get the paid version.
I was content for years until these recent months because I was hacked.
For no reason at all my site was hacked with bogus posts, malicious redirect links, and block outs to my dashboard.
I bought security plugins and software but it seemed it would fix it for a moment, but I constantly had to keep an eye on it to make sure everything was still up and running.
Honestly I was tired of being in fear if my site was working and giving a bad experience for anyone who came to my site.
So I went on the search to find an alternative and I think I might have stumbled on to a gold mine.
Webflow: The website builder that brings it all together
Oblivious to what was going on around the web there was this website builder that was making a mark in the community.
I’ve been coming across websites and landing pages that I absolutely loved the design and interface and soon found out they were built on webflow.
So just like how I do anything else, I like test before I go all in.
Besides the learning curve of their interface and their tools it was pretty simple to build a website on their platform. (it helps that they have tons of video tutorials)
The best thing about it was I had full customization of any and everything without having to pay extra to get access to elements.
It was already built in.
I didn’t need a form plugin, I could add custom code, I could design the blog post page however I wanted.
It was all in my complete control and I could create my website how I wanted. This was one of the main reasons why I learned code.
But the main reason I’m looking to make the search is the security feature.
You see the thing with WordPress websites is you have to get your own hosting and setup everything yourself.
Although this can give you more control over your website and not have to worry about a platform kicking you off.
You have to factor in the fact such as placing your own security measures.
But, if you build your website on sites such as webflow, shopify, squarespace or wix… they tend to take care of the hard part and you just worry about the website.
Thats one of the things you’re paying for.
Now I now there is no website that is 100% safe and can get hacked still, but I believe Webflow will help me have better control over that.
I believe I can sleep peace of mind knowing my website works and they will take care of that for me.
So with all that to say if you are reading this on my website, be prepared to see a few changes.
I’m planning to create a more minimalistic design.
I’m excited because I been looking for something like this and what I discovered is I like the design of the website more or rather the experience I can give visitors.
I believe my biggest motivator for doing anything is experience. I’ve had a bad experience with WordPress and wanted to learn code so I could create a better one.
Then when I understood WordPress I was using a web builder to create even better experience.
Conclusion
So what’s my point after all that?
Well it may be hard to believe but I don’t code to build simple websites such as a portfolio or a landing pages. I code for “bigger” projects like if I’m trying to create simple applications.
With Webflow I can focus more on the design and getting the content out.
If you want to have more control over the design of your website, not worry about security, and design with no restriction, then check out Webflow.
You can build a whole website or landing page on their free plan. Of course you will have their branding in the domain name and the page but who cares if you’re getting started.
Right now the pros of Webflow are outweighing the cons of WordPress.
It doesn’t mean I totally left WordPress but I want my website to at least be functional and a great experience for everyone.
Heads up if you do go for purchasing a site plan with them be sure to get the actual site plan and not a workspace plan.
That is tricky and inconvenient where they placed that but luckily there refund process is pretty quick. (that should tell you its a common problem and might needs to be adjusted)
Well thats it for now by this time next week I will have a new website and a new look.
-Courey
