How I started my website and what I use

I talk about how I started my website, what I use, and how it only costs me $12 a year.

When I started this website back in 2017 it was just going to be a place to post the webcomic I draw. Since then it had turned into an artist podcast and a blog/vlog about what I do after starting my own business.

So basically when I get an idea for something I want to do I will create a website for it just to see if I will actually do anything with it.

The service I have been using for years to make websites? Blogger, which is owned by Google.

It's free and I don't really have to set anything up, I just create something from the few templates that it has and start posting.

(Related post: Drawing: How I draw my daily webcomic on my website)

If I do decide to go forward with any of the sites I make out of my ideas? I just buy a domain from Google domains which is built into Blogger and I only pay $12 a year for that!

Google Photos, Gmail, and more built-in.

Google Photos hosts the images on Blogger the site is easily connected through my Gmail account already. So, I find it really simple.

I just want to make a site when I have an idea & run with it!

I know there are tons of other great website services out there, I have just been using this over the years and wanted to talk about it.

I seriously have like over 25 sites I created just to try out an idea on Blogger. Some sites evolved and others I lost interest in a week.

But it was a free way to see if I even wanted to do it. So I thought I would share what I've learned from using it over the years.

To Do: Multitasking My Business, Music, and Comics

Sometimes balancing my multiple projects can often feel like an overwhelming task. I sit and think out loud about the tasks I need to juggle this week from my vintage reselling business, my band, and my webcomic series. In this video vlog, I begin the week by prioritizing tasks and setting goals. I'm going to mark them as I go along. ✅ = Done ⏲ = Still waiting Vintage reselling business - The Pop Culture Roadshow With a vintage reselling business to run, the first order of business is to pack orders from weekend sales on platforms like eBay and Mercari. As I pack these items I need to record a 'What Sold' video for my Pop Culture roadshow YouTube channel , turning the task into video content. ✅ Pack orders ✅ List new items I got from estate sales (See my latest eBay store listings here ) ⛔ Create a new "What sold" video for my YouTube page (Recorded not edited - Laptop upgrade issues) Band - Lorenzo's Music I've also got a new song out this month so I nee...

How I use one Gmail address for multiple Soundcloud accounts

Do you know the Gmail "+" trick to use one email for multiple accounts on one service? Here's a little trick I use that works for any service. I talked about this on the podcast episode I did with artist Mortimur K . In this case, let's say I used up all the uploads I have for my free Soundcloud account . With this trick, I can open a new free account and use the same Gmail address. I don't want to create another Gmail account to sign up again. Using my one Gmail address for multiple accounts on the same service I don't remember when I learned this but you can alter the name on a Gmail address. Like, let's say mine is "tom@gmail.com". To be clear that is not my email. I wish it was, but this is just a short example. Start with the original Gmail address Add a "+" after the email name Where it says "tom" on the address I can put a "+" after that. Add a "+" after the email name After that "+" I ca...

Artwork for the original Candy Land game by Milton Bradley from 1955.

I have a vintage Candy Land game from 1955 by Milton Bradley and I was about to sell it so I thought I would add it to my personal art history course concept I've been doing . I'm going to try and see if I can find out how this game was created, designed and why? Here is what I found out about this game https://candy-land.fandom.com/wiki/Candy_Land_Wiki Candy Land is a board game about children exploring a world made out of candy and other sweets that originally came out in 1949. In every version of the game, there are a group of children that go through Candy Land. In the earliest versions of the game, it was a realistically drawn boy and girl. Drawing of the Candy Land kids I did on my phone ☝ https://board-games-galore.fandom.com/wiki/Candy_Land The game was designed in 1948 by Eleanor Abbott , while she was recovering from polio in San Diego, California. It's rumored that Eleanor also did the original artwork but I didn't find anything that...

Using Google Photos and Google Docs To Make My Webcomic Book

I came up with a way to use Google docs and Google photos to make my webcomic books So whenever I draw my webcomics , the drawing program I use on my tablet saves them in a folder. I have Google Photos set up to back that folder up online. At first, I just wanted to have them backed up there so I could have that "year ago today thing" where it would just show me my own comic from the past year in the app. You know, so I could go, "oh I remember that happened this day". That was the original reason that I did this. Backing them up in Google Photos was a happy accident later on In my first book, I just used Google docs to put it together. I downloaded the book template from Amazon KDP and uploaded it to Google docs so it would have the right format. Then I just needed to add the comics. I added webcomics the hard way in the first book When I did the first book I thought this was genius! I figured out google docs lets me add images by URL and I had been posting t...

Tom Ray

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