You Really Need to Setup a Testing Environment for Your Self Hosted Wordpress Site

The more online experience I get the more I realize the importance of really digging into Wordpress and knowing how to tinker with different settings. I'm also trying to learn the basics of HTML and CSS because there's a lot more I want to do with my sports blog and I don't have a clue.

It's actually quite frustrating at times when you want to do something, but a lack of knowledge prevents you from doing it, this happens to be one of those times! But there's no use in crying over spilled milk because that won't help and I'll just get more frustrated.

I've also come to realize that it's important to set up a testing environment to practice. I remember seeing other bloggers recommend doing it when I started out, but "screw that" I thought. I wasn't going to need to learn any of that coding crap and thought it would be a waste of my time because I already had too much other stuff to learn in order to get my site off the ground.

So I've finally decided to set one up and will chronicle my trials and tribulations on here for the world to see. Plus I can use this as a reference to revisit as I continue my blogging journey.

It's funny how life throws us all curveballs at some point during our time on earth
because I never dreamed I'd end up here in the online world. I've fallen in love with blogging, social media, and trying to build websites with Wordpress.

When I first started out I only wanted to get a site up where I could blog about sports and throw some ads up and earn some money in the process. Boy was I dumb back then, LOL! Don't get me wrong I still want to eventually earn some money, but I want to improve my knowledge and skills when it comes to knowing how to design and modify themes and page templates. I've got other sites I'd like to build in the future, but I want to know how everything works and fits together so I can do them myself.

So there's no way to do all that on my live site because I don't want to crash it, or worse. I know that's exactly the outcome if I start messing around under the hood.

I've went ahead and setup up a fresh installation on a subdomain to practice on. It's just another example of me not slowing down at the start and then coming to the realization that I should have done it a lot earlier.

I'm not in a position where I can afford to pay a real web designer to build the site so I've just got to do what I've done all along and push forward teaching myself. It's a challenge that I actually enjoy once I can see things coming together and different things start to click in my mind.