Do it MYSELF!!!

Doesn't that heading sound just like a 2-year old? You know how they want to get their hands in and try it, without your help. If you're a parent, babysitter, aunt, uncle, grandparent - you KNOW how it goes! :)

And yes, I'm starting to sound like a 2-year old again, strangely.

You see, I've always been the independent type who likes to know how things work, how to fix or make or do things on my own - from the car and its bits, to home-baked bread (from SCRATCH), to my latest issue. Websites.

OK, I can do the basic website. I know HTML and Dreamweaver and a few other things, but when it comes to this darned business of mine, it gets a whole lot more complicated. Registering a domain - fine. Finding a hosting service - fine. Doing the basic site design - fine. Figuring out oscommerce, MySQL, PHP, credit card transactions, secure servers etc etc etc - not quite so fine!

I'm trawling through "PHP and MySQL for Dummies" at the moment. Brain overload alert! Geez... there's so much to learn before I can even start setting up the site. Got the products (minus packaging, but working on it), got the photos ready to go. Don't got the database or the programming knowledge to organize it all.

I know, I could cave and actually ask an expert to set the thing up for me. I could pay someone to get a slick-working, good-looking site online. But the old independant streak kicks in. I want to do it MYSELF! I want to know how it works and interacts, so I can add things, take things away, re-arrange pages or whatever. Without help.

I'm starting to realize just how complicated this entire exercise in online commerce is going to become! But once it's up and running - pure bliss. And that's what's keeping me at it, getting my head around languages and programmes and concepts and stuff that I may ordinarily just move on from.

Expect a good few 2-year old tantrums before this is all over! :) (yes, that's me in the pic, age 2)