🛠️ Ingredients

• 💡 A unique purpose or brand vision
• 🕸️ A domain name
• 🧠 Basic understanding of HTML, CSS, and Python (Django)
• 🖥️ Local dev environment (VS Code, Git, Python 3.11+)
• 🪄 Hosting (e.g., DigitalOcean, Render, or shared hosting)

🥣 Directions

0. Scope out the Website

• Buy a Domain: Use providers like Namecheap or Google Domains
• Set up hosting: Choose based on if you're static or dynamic
• Design structure: Plan homepage, blog, and other key pages (lay out the UX using stick notes)

1. Build the Foundation

• Setup Python: Create a Django project with apps like research, consulting, art, and blog. Each app should have its own views.py, urls.py, and template folder.
• Setup Routig: In your root urls.py, use path() to define each page. Make sure your templates match the path and that each view returns the correct template.
• Setup Templates: Create a reusable base.html file with a beautiful, responsive nav bar. Ensure it works in mobile (including iPhone portrait mode) by using a hamburger menu and proper breakpoints.
• Setup Styles: Use clean CSS for grids, hover-expand functionality, and subtle hover effects. Define class blocks for consistency (e.g., .research-grid, .research-topic).

2. Build Pages That Speak to You

• Research: Interactive grid with expand-on-hover details
• Consulting: Reused grid format as service tiles
• Art & Culture: Panels with thumbnails on the left and descriptions on the right
• Blog: Linked index with subpage rendering

Note: Each blog post has its own view and template. Link them in your main blog.html index. Ensure paths in urls.py match filenames.

3. Delploy & Improve

• Personalize: Add your personal branding through tone, design, layout, and topic curation. Each page should communicate a distinct message or service you offer.
• Deploy: Use Renders, Vercel, or GitHub Actions for deployment
• Iterate: Use feedback and analytics to improve continuously

📦 Website Structure & Packages

📁 Example Structure (look familiar?)

yoursitename_site/
├── manage.py
├── yoursitename_site/
│   ├── settings.py
│   ├── urls.py
│   └── ...
├── templates/
│   ├── base.html
│   ├── blog/
│   │   ├── blog.html
│   │   └── how-to-create-your-own-website.html
│   ├── consulting/
│   │   └── consulting.html
│   ├── research/
│   │   └── research.html
│   └── art/
│       └── art.html
└── static/
    └── css/
        └── style.css

⚙️ Key Django Packages & Tools

• django – core web framework
• gunicorn – production WSGI server
• whitenoise – static file serving
• psycopg2 – PostgreSQL connector (optional)
• python-dotenv – for local environment variables

🔗 URL Setup Tips

• Each app can have its own urls.py file. Include it in the root urls.py using include().
• Use name='route-name' in path() and reference it in templates with the url route-name.
• Keep URLs semantic and lowercase (e.g., /blog/how-to-create-your-own-website)
• Don't forget trailing slashes unless you've explicitly disabled them.

🌐 Deployment Notes

• Use DEBUG = False in production
• Set up static file handling with collectstatic
• Use environment variables for secrets
• Point your domain (e.g., premwarde.com) to your hosting IP or CNAME

💭 Considerations

• Responsiveness: Make sure it works on mobile, tablet, desktop.
• SEO: Use meta tags, headings, alt text.
• Accessibility: Screen readers, tab indexing.
• Performance: Optimize images, use caching/CDN.
• Hosting limitations: Know the limits of Render free tier.