I built this site by following the instructions from Derek Sivers' Tech Independance. I have grown frustrated with fancy web design tools that make pretty sites, but require me to work within a rigid, often unintuitive, framework. Each site builder requires me to learn their proprietary system. They also nickle-and-dime users for additional features that are otherwise free. For example, one hosting site charges $25 per SSL certificates when adding a domain. OpenSSL lets me create as many certificates as I want without paying a penny. I have also gained a deeper understanding of how my site runs. It takes time to learn to use these tools, but as I develop my skills, I can apply them to other topics because I have developed a foundation of understanding my site and the general functionality of the web.
Derek's instructions are straightforward and his script does the heaving lifting. After following his instructions, I had a working website, IMAP/POP email, calendar and contacts database. I had to run through the process a few times to get it right, but each time I made a mistake I learned something.
When it came time to add another user or create a second website on my Virtual Private Server (VPS) things got more challenging. Here are my notes, which I record for my own benefit. Hopefully, you will find it useful as well. Feel free to contact me if there are any gaps in my process so that I can update the following information:
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