Websites, software, programs etc used to make this website
Website Builder
Now when it comes to website builder of choice there are many to choose from including Weebly, Wordpress, GoDaddy, Wix and more and there are plenty of websites that give the pros and cons of using each website builder. But at the end of the day we are all different and it really does come down to the individual person as to what you use and what you find works best for you and taking this all into consideration and using the many different website builders out there our/my personal preference was for Wix.
I just found this website very easy to use, I was fairly free in being able to develop the website in the way that fit my style without the need for too much coding or understanding of the deep website build.
I also liked the fact that Wix regularly updated features that I would find beneficial to what I'd already created.
Of course as with anything it really does come down to the individual on what and how you invest your time as to what you get back out and as much as I love technology and what it can do I am by no means a tech geek and had to do a lot of research and studying in the art of drag and drop web building to create the site you see before you (every element, text, placement etc has been done by me with no experience and learning on the job as I was going along).
It didn't come without it's frustrations and still today I wish I'd invested time in a course or gone to college to do something like this because I believe web design is a useful fall back career with the amount of websites that will be created in the future (we are pretty much a society that spends our life on the web to do nearly everything and this will only increase in the future). I am not a web designer I have not completed any course of any sort and this website has quite simply been created on a trial and error (plenty of them) basis.
I could of looked at paying for a web designer to create this website for me and they would of course created a much more professional, robust website but I do feel quite proud of what the finished product looks like and that was in no small part down to the Wix platform and how that worked for me.
Websites of Interest
The following websites were used to obtain pictures, music, icons etc to aid in building the website. Again this project/website was created by just a Dad at home with a little help from Mom when trying to make a little extra each month. You may find you are able to do things a lot quicker than me and have better resources/software ideas to help create/build a website. If you feel you do something you can contribute then please leave a comment below which may help me as well as other site visitors build a website.
A brilliant website offering 1000's of pictures that you can use to build your website. The majority of icons and pictures found on this website have been sourced from Pixabay and the safety in knowledge of knowing that all images can be used on commercial projects is a real plus. Pixabay offers roughly 1.6 million royalty free stock photos and videos shared by the generous community.
I used this site to create many of my social media marketing images for Facebook, Instagram and more and found this site so easy to use. The layout of the site is fresh and clean and the site is very easy to navigate. I found there were many options available for the free user and plenty of templates I could redesign to fit my own needs. All in all a great little site that helped massively with my social media presence.
One of the things I personally found difficult was finding icons relevant to my particular page needs. Pixabay is brilliant for stock images and even certain icons but iconarchive gave me exactly what I was looking for when it came to specific icons. Again this is a site that is set out very nicely and there was plenty of options for me the free user in finding exactly what I needed. This will be a site I definitely use for any future projects.
I have to give this guy a massive shout out because without him I was seriously struggling. I searched for hours/days/months/years (ok slightly exaggerated) looking for music for my how to videos and it was hard. Adam's music was exactly what I was looking for and all my background music for my survey videos was from Adam Vitovsky found on this page. Each video has a link to his site where you can download the material and all he asks for is an acknowledgement the music came from him. I will definitely be using his music in the future for any future projects.
Other websites used
Site used to prepare and create the cookie policy for this website. Really simple to use and implement on my website
Another icons site I have used for various icons across this website. Plenty of categories with tons of icons to choose from
A brilliant website for creating various logos. The site is very easy to use and after searching for hours to find a way of creating a stunning logo for next to nothing this site won the day
As mentioned before it can be really hard to find royalty free music for those on a budget but this was another site that allowed me to do just that