I’ve been ever so busy these past few days working on my website. See, I’m not the best with social media, so I decided to focus on what I do feel good at, and make the most of it. I’ve had this website for ages! It started way back in 2006 as my research journal. Back then, everyone used paper notebooks, but I decided to make a blog instead. It was private, just for me and my PhD supervisor, with a password and everything. I used it to record my research journey, which was really helpful. I could write about things as I was learning them, and keep everything organised with categories and tags. When it was time to write my thesis, it was so useful to have areas dedicated to each chapter and topic.
After I graduated, I wasn’t sure what to do with all that data! I’d spent four years building it up. Then, I had an idea: I’d turn my private blog into a public one, so I could share it with others. I went through every post and unlocked the ones I was happy to share, keeping the others private. Of course, my writing style changed after that, since I wasn’t writing about research anymore. My life had taken a different turn, and I started writing about figuring out what I wanted to do next. I also had a Portuguese blog where I wrote about being a foreigner, living far from family and friends, so I didn’t spend as much time on this one. It’s called ‘Inclusive Thoughts’ because I’ve always been passionate about inclusion, and the blog was a place for my reflections on that. I’ve never been a super consistent blogger, but in the last two years, while I’ve been working on my book, I’ve tried to use it to connect with potential readers.
Recently, I’ve been thinking more about having a proper author website, especially after taking the ‘Write that Book’ masterclass. I knew I needed to work on it! Since my blog already had a domain with my name, I decided to use that for my author page, and turned my blog into a website.
When I started cleaning it up, I remembered Mo Gawdat’s advice about using AI as a tool. So, I asked an AI to review my blog and tell me how to turn it into a professional author website. It gave me tonnes of suggestions… The AI was also really honest, saying the template was too basic, hard to navigate, and didn’t look professional at all. Blimey, it really went through everything! It only took like ten seconds, and the feedback was so detailed. Every page and post had been analysed.
I started working through the AI’s suggestions… After making those changes, I asked the AI to review it again. This time, the feedback was much better! It recognised the improvements and pointed out a few things I’d missed. I was chuffed! I felt like the AI was a great teacher, giving honest feedback and encouraging me. I’m starting to feel like I’m friends with AI!
In just two days, with Gemini’s help, I’ve made huge improvements to my website. I even used my basic HTML and CSS skills to make it look the way I wanted. It looks much more professional now, even though I still have a CSS line to fix and a few more points to address from the second review.
But before I do that, I wanted to share this update with you, writing in my blog, but on my brand new website! I’m so excited!
