Today’s the day! I’m unleashing this blog to the world. I’m so excited to share this with the wider community, get feedback on my thoughts and ideas, and ultimately see where this takes me.
I wanted to write about some of the tech that I’ve used behind the scenes to help me get this blog up and running, and hopefully highlight the fact that you don’t need to be a tech genius to start a website!
Coming up with a name
People say that coming up with a name for a blog, website, or anything really is the hardest step. I have to say, I agree! I spent a long time sat at home, walking, on the train trying to get the creative juices flowing. I came up with a few names, only to either decide I didn’t like it the next day, or find out about another meaning when I googled it. (For example, I liked ‘The Final Frontier’, but it turns out that’s a Star Trek reference and I have never seen Star Trek!)
So what could I do? I’d tried the traditional brain storming ideas but nothing came of it. I decided to turn to tech for help, specifically ChatGPT. ChatGPT is an AI-based language model, that is designed to have conversations with human users. It’s able to be creative, and even generates limericks and comedy sketches about itself when the site is at capacity and inaccessible. I asked ChatGPT to suggest names for a blog about women in tech, software testing and astrophotography (niche, I know). It gave me 20 suggestions, and in that list was ‘She Codes the Cosmos’. The rest is history.
Creating a website
Whilst I am a software engineer, I tend to work on embedded systems and software testing – not web development! My skillset in technologies like HTML, CSS and JavaScript is limited, so building a website from scratch could have taken me weeks. Maybe one day I’ll get round to learning how to do that, but right now I just wanted something quickly.
There are many no or low-code ways that you can build a website. This site is built using WordPress, but other website builders are out there. Generally, these sites offer templates and visual editors that allow you to build a website in an intuitive way. In HTML for example, you may add <body> tags or <p> paragraph tags, but with visual editors you can click and add elements without needing to know the code syntax that lies under the hood.
This worked brilliant for me. The learning curve was small, and within a few hours I had this site up and running with text, links and images, as well as a subscription and contact feature.
What’s even better is that you can access all of this tech for free! You don’t need a large amount of start up capital to out yourself out there. As someone who came from a low income background, I know the feeling of not being able to afford opportunities all too well. And I’m here to say that anyone can start a website, as long as you have passion and the time to dedicate to it.
What Next?
I have no idea where this website is going to take me. I hope that I’ll learn some new things, connect with like-minded people, and maybe inspire some of you to explore tech and science too. To keep up with what I’m up to, make sure to subscribe to my mailing list using the button on the homepage. Thank you for joining me on this adventure!
She Codes the Cosmos 
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