I always wanted to create a website in order to make money while doing things I enjoy. I enjoy learning about science (including space), geography, and history. Like many other people my age, I’m into Minecraft and Star Wars is my favorite story of all time. I thought it would be fun to create a place where others can learn, share, and appreciate these subjects.

And so, this is where my project begins…. 

There are many articles about creating websites. However, they are not written for young teens. At least I could not find one. This article was written for older kids who want to share their ideas. It considers new technologies and other resources available in the fall of 2023. The steps are provided below:

1. Determine the purpose of your website

With a clear purpose your website will be created in a way that is attractive to your audience and will also motivate you to manage it and contribute content. As mentioned above the purpose of my website was to create a sharing platform for subjects I enjoyed learning about.

2. Find a good name

My dad says “give a dog a good name, it becomes everybody’s pet”. The same is true for a website. I came up with Starbade years ago when I came up with a username for minecraft. I have no memory of how I came up with it but it probably had to do with my early interest in all things space.

I also came up with a slogan. In Star Wars, the Jedis say “May the force be with you” and Mandalorians say “This is the Way”. At Starbade we say “We prepare for the future”. Isn’t that what learning and sharing is all about? Starbade prepares us for the future. That is a purpose I can get behind.

3. Find a domain 

A domain is a website address. For example, www.google.com or www.nasa.gov are well known domains. However, finding a domain that matches or is close to your name is difficult because most of the good domains have been taken. 

To search for a domain go to a domain registry.  I used Godaddy.com, one of the more known domain registry companies. You can go to their website and search for domain availability. While you might not find yours as a .com, which is the most in demand suffix, you might find .net, .news or other suffixes. My first choice was Boolio and then it was Starbadestef. The strongest domain name was the .com. Boolio.com was not available and I didn’t choose Starbadestef because it was too long, but I was pleasantly surprised when I saw that the domain Starbade.com was available. 

4. Create a logo

A logo is like the flag of your company. It is a visual representation of its purpose. For inspiration, I googled words that represented the subjects of interest for example Webb Telescope, moonwalks, and Minecraft. I learned that the logos can simply be the name spelled out, like Star Wars, having a unique future looking font. Below are my initial designs. 

I experimented with an AI tool, “LogAI.com ” to get other ideas. 

I assembled a logo from everything I looked at. I liked the blue color of NASA’s logo because we associate NASA with advanced technology. Finally below is the logo I decided to choose. It did not look so nice because I am not a graphic designer. So I sent a professional graphic designer to improve the dimensions because my dimensions on Powerpoint weren’t perfect. I posted a job opportunity on Peopleperhour. As you can see below I gave a description and also uploaded my design ideas and instructions. 

This opportunity was sent to freelancers in multiple countries including the United States, United Kingdom, India, Romania, Bangladesh, South Africa, and Nigeria. Some people had hourly rates of over sixty dollars an hour! And some had rates as low as ten dollars. After I contacted the freelancers I was afraid that my offer was too low. I was afraid I wasn’t getting any responses because of the time differences in Europe and any other countries further east. But the next morning I got forty proposals. I could not wait to get home from school to reach out to these potential designers.

My criteria for selecting the freelancers were as follows: 

1.Was a contractor’s budget within the budget of fifteen dollars?

2.Did the freelancer read and understand the offer?

3.Did they have a history of good performance with other clients with similar projects?

Only three people met this criteria, two from Pakistan and one form the United Kingdom. I decided to request a call from the United Kingdom to learn more about their understanding of our project. My only response was from a woman by the name of Fiona. So I set up a call.

When we spoke it turned out that Fiona turned out to be a man named “Dan”. Although I was surprised and amused, Dan seemed to know a lot about graphic design and was interested in my project.  I explained that I needed a website as well and he said he could design the website as well.

Dan took my design ideas and made it look professional.  He offered three alternatives.

I went with this one.

5. Website Design 

In designing your website, I recommend observing websites you like, write down what you like about them and attempt to recreate them in PowerPoint. I took inspiration from these favorite websites:

NASA.GOV, Wookiepedia.com, and Nationalgeographic.com.

And here is my Frakenstein creation of a website.

I sent this design to Dan and he believed he could make my ideas into reality. Days later he came back with a design that was just what I wanted. And a week later, he proved he could make it into reality.

There was one other technical task I had to do. I had to contact Godaddy to have them create a hosting service so that I could place the newly designed website on my domain. You might need a parent or technical person to help with this step.

6. Content creation

Before the website was ready I could not stop dreaming about what it would be like. I could not wait to get started.  So, I began writing my first pieces including this one.  I also wrote pieces about Star Wars and most of this one. By the time Dan had finished his work I had two articles in my hand. 

The journey continues

This is the first stage of project Starbade. This article will be updated as the project progresses to the next level.  

 

Please support the Starbade project by contributing an article or purchasing one of our awesome shirts. To see our collection click here.