5 Compelling Reasons Building a Website is a Fabulous Mid-Life Project

Unless you have a background in technology, building a website may seem like an intimidating —even overwhelming—endeavor. You may think it’s expensive. Or maybe you don’t see a real purpose.

In reality, building a basic website can be inexpensive and relatively simple. Websites aren’t just for businesses, either; the possible uses are limited only by your imagination. And the satisfaction that comes from seeing your site come to life makes it worth giving it a try.

word "website" in blue capital letters being "constructed" with scaffolding on the second "E" and cranes dropping the first "E" and the "S" into place. yellow bulldozer sitting in front of the "W"

This post may contain affiliate links where I make a commission on your purchases at no additional cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. For more details, please see Affiliate Disclosure.

What Makes Building a Website a Good Mid-Life Project?

If you’ve been on the fence about building a website, here are a few things to consider that just might convince you to give it a try.

Learn Something New

Research shows that learning new things throughout life can slow down the aging process. Who wouldn’t want that? Building a website involves many factors, from functionality to design to content, making the learning possibilities essentially infinite.

This may be a negative for some people, but I’ve found that it all depends on how you approach it. It’s virtually impossible to learn everything, so just acknowledging that and setting out to build a learning path can be satisfying enough—no need to overwhelm yourself trying to do it all.

Besides, you’re doing this for yourself, so if you make a mistake, you can go back and fix it. No big deal, no pressure. No client or boss to get annoyed. This is your time for trial and error, learning and experimenting.

woman sitting at a desk looking at a computer monitor showing a woman in a pink dress on a pink beach and the words "create your website"

The popular website creation platform, WordPress, has a simple way to set up and display a “coming soon” page on your website until you’re ready to make it visible. Once you have that, you’ll be free to experiment with building various elements on your site. If you like it, great. If not, that’s ok. No one will see it until you are ready. This way, you can just keep learning.

Relatively Inexpensive

You can buy a domain (your website address) plus privacy protection for a year for around $30. A hosting plan (where your site “lives” on the web) can be less than $10/month (depending on the plan you choose). So, for no more than $150 the first year, you can be up and running. I purchased my domain through Bluehost and use them for hosting and have been very happy with them.

While plugins (add-on tools that help you create and manage your website) can add to the cost, you can operate a site with the free versions of most plugins. The same is true for your website’s theme (the foundational layout). I created my website, I Just Retired…Now What?, three years ago, and operate primarily using free plugins. I used a free theme for the first two years, only switching to a paid one when I wanted to add additional functionality.

You’ll want to sign up with an email service provider (ESP) to collect emails from your site visitors (to let people know about new blog posts, products, etc.). There are many good options (ActiveCampaign, ConvertKit, MailChimp, AWeber, and more), and most of them have a free version that will work just fine when you’re first getting started.

So with a fairly reasonable investment, you’ll have everything you need to set up a well-functioning and useful website.

A Sense of Accomplishment—In Real Time

As soon as you start building pieces of the site, you see it right in front of you. The satisfaction of seeing colors, fonts, and images change based on your actions is so exciting!

I built my site using a page builder tool called Elementor. Page builders make things so easy—it’s essentially a drag-and-drop process. There’s plenty to learn with this process but you don’t need to know coding.

A super terrific instructor, Alexander Oni, was my savior. This was all so foreign to me and the books weren’t helping as much as I had hoped. But somehow I stumbled on Alex’s courses and it all began to make sense. He has an easy-to-follow structure with an engaging delivery style.

You can find his courses on Skillshare, a subscription-based online learning tool. Or if you prefer to pay course-by-course (rather than a subscription) Alex’s WordPress and Elementor courses are also available on Udemy. I highly recommend Alex and his courses.

Useful for Business or Personal Projects

If you have an existing business, are considering starting a business, or just have a personal passion project, having a website makes everything so much easier.

Use your website to share:

helpful hints or topics of interest
hours of operation
a description of what you do
testimonials
your location
ways to contact you

Gone are the days of handing out business cards. Now, just send an email to someone with a link to your site and all your important information is right there.

Websites are even good for organizing volunteer projects, family or school reunions, or other social functions. Having one central place to share information about your project or event reduces confusion and can eliminate unnecessary work.

Most people think of blogging as the only reason to have a website, but that’s not the case. Use your imagination and I’ll bet you can think of all sorts of ways a website can be useful to you.

Looking Back: A Missed Opportunity

In 2019 my daughter was studying in Cape Town, South Africa. I planned a trip for our family plus my sister-in-law’s family (who lived in Ghana) to go for a visit. Communicating and coordinating arrangements between Cape Town, Ghana, and various US cities was a challenge, to say the least. After the trip, we all had photos and videos to share.

Looking back on that adventure, I wish I’d had a functioning website. I could have set aside part of it as a private area, giving access to family members only. We would have had a central place for itineraries, links to events and event tickets, lists of “don’t forget” items, and a place for comments and questions. Afterward, we could have uploaded photos and videos to share.

This is just a simple example of the broad potential websites have.

Makes Technology Less Intimidating

I’ve never been known as a tech expert—far from it! But it’s amazing how I feel about new technology after building my website. So many times I’ve thought to myself, if I built this website, certainly I can figure out this other thing.

This sense of confidence probably comes from all the times I searched for answers or followed an instructor as I built my site. As I did, I began to see more of the logic behind the technology which, in turn, made all technology seem so much less intimidating.

Used the right way, technology can play a big role in helping us all live independent lives for years to come. Why not shed that “Ok, Boomer” stigma and embrace technology rather than shy away from it? Building a website is a great way to start doing that.

Think about how happy you’ll be on those blah Winter or rainy Spring days when you have something challenging and satisfying to do with your time.

If you’d like a little more background on the concept of websites, my article, Want to Build a Website?, may add some perspective. Then go to Bluehost, lock in your domain name, and let the adventure begin!

A Little Help with Terminology

Domain Name

Your site’s web address is it’s domain name. My site’s domain name is https://www.ijustretirednowwhat.com.

Host

Web hosting is an online service that allows you to publish your website on the internet. I use Bluehost and have been happy with them. As a beginner, I found Bluehost very user-friendly and competitively priced. They also have an easy-to-use search function to see if the domain name you want to use is available.

WordPress

The platform on which the websites are built. Once you’ve purchased a hosting plan and your domain name, you’ll be prompted to install WordPress on your site. Most hosting companies will help you get started with WordPress.

Theme

A theme is the framework that provides the structure (layout) for your website. There are many free themes to choose from, and you can change your theme at any time.

Plugins

Plugins are used to add specific functionality to a website. For example, you’ll use a form creation plugin to add a contact form to your site.