Getting Started

Things started out pretty simple.  I had a few static HTML pages I put together using Bootstrap.  I chose Bootstrap because it's proven and simple to use when it comes to producing clean web sites.  It also has nice support for responsive design/development, which I haven't completely taken advantage of, but plan to.

I decided to take what I had, and introduced PHP for things like common headers and footers.  PHP isn't necessarily my first choice, but Apache is the cheapest option when it comes to hosting.  It's actually nice for a change to do something other than Java, and after all, building itstiredinhere.com isn't necessarily about the language, its about everything else that's involved in building something, including people using it.  I use GoDaddy for hosting; it's not necessarily the cheapest, but I'm used to it, and so far I've got no complaints.

Now that I've got hosting, some content for my site, a general purpose defined, and a domain name, there are 2 more things I believe are no-brainers before making your site public:

1. Add Google Analytics.  It's free, and it will allow to collect the data you need to determine if people are using your site, and what improvements to focus on if you've got users. 
2. Version control your site with something like GitHub, which is also free.  As little content/code that you might have in the early stages, losing it all, or being unable to reproduce what your site looked like 5 days ago, become difficult to deal with without version control.

Now publish your site.  Don't wait until you've got the exact look, or all the content/features flushed out.  It is important, however, to start to think about how you expect your site to be used, and how you'll use the analytic data to prove your theories.

Here's some additional tools to help you build/maintain your site:

•  If you're using PHP, I recommend downloading an AMP package.  I use MAMP on my Mac; it's free and easy to use.
• Use an IDE that has support for what you're building.  A text editor that highlights HTML isn't worth using, when you can download something like Eclipse for free, which has code assist, and server integration.
• FileZilla is a nice free tool for uploading content.  At least in my case, I find it much easier to use than the tool GoDaddy makes available,