Build Your Website

Step #1 – Find a domain name

We first need to get a domain name for your business website. There are many sites you can use to do this, but the two I recommend are below.

• Go Daddy – Here you can look up domains to use, and purchase them once you find the perfect domain.
• Bust-A-Domain – This site is good if you are brainstorming ideas for a domain.

Once you select a domain, go to Go Daddy and purchase the domain. I recommend that your purchase it for at least 3 years. This keeps you from looking like a spam website, most spam sites only purchase for 1 year because they know they will not be in business next year. By purchasing for 3 or more years you show the internet world you are here to stay!

Note: When going through the purchase process Go Daddy will try to get you to buy many variations of your domain name. This is the equivalent of the supermarket checkout isle impulse buys. They want you to add on little purchases to raise the overall income they receive. Unless you are planning to be the next Microsoft, NetFlix, or Facebook, you can probably get away with just the .com version of your domain name for now. If you are concerned that you might need more than one domain name, just ask me, we can talk about which ones make sense to purchase now, and which ones can wait until later.

Step #2 – Purchase Hosting
Now that you have a domain name, you need a place to store your website files. Hosting costs can range depending on the amount of traffic your website receives. I recommend using Host Gator because they can upgrade your account as your traffic grows.

• The first part to purchase hosting is to go to the Host Gator website.
• Click the “View Web Hosting Plans” button in the middle of the page.
• Scroll down and select the far left box for the “Hatchling Plan”
1. Here again, just like your domain name, I recommend purchasing hosting for three years.
2. On your first Host Gator purchase you get 20% off the entire order. You will not get this offer again after your first purchase. The discount is one reason I recommend the 3 year plan.
• Once you have selected the duration of your plan, click the “Order Now” button.
• Since you already purchased a domain name through Go Daddy you can simply enter that domain in the box on the right “I Currently Have a Domain Name”
1. Once you entered your domain, make sure the box for “Enter a Coupon Code” has the word “SPRING” in it. This ensures you get the 20% off your purchase.
2. Click the “Continue to Step 2” button once you entered your domain and promo code.
• Now it is time to complete your order. You can see at the top “Hatchling Plan” and now you can select the duration. As mentioned above, you need to select 3 years to get the most out of the discount.
• Enter your remaining billing information lower on this page.
• Once everything is entered you can click the “Create Account” button. This will create your account, and send you the login details.
• Once the account is set-up, please forward me the emails that Host Gator sends you so I can login and configure your account.

Step #3 – Pick the design for your website
Now that the hard work is out of the way, it is time for some fun, picking the theme (design) for your website! There are a number of Free WordPress Themes you can use for your website, and while the price can be appealing, the end result is not as good as when you pay a few dollars for a professional design. There are three websites that I recommend to pick your website from Woo Themes, Elegant Themes, and Theme Forest. About 70% of the sites I build are from Woo Themes, 20% from Elegant Themes, and 10% from Theme Forest. With that in mind I recommend you look through the sites in that order.

Note: The word “Theme” means the design, skin, or look and feel of the website. Theme is a word used by “Wordpress” to mean the design of your site.

When looking for themes, it is important to keep in mind a few things:

• You can always change the design again later, this first design is exactly that, a first design. If 2 weeks, 2 months or 2 years from now you find a design you like better we can replace the first design. So do not treat selecting a design as decision which is set in stone.
• When looking at the themes, and specifically the theme demos, it is important to remember the original theme designer has filled out the theme with fake photos and text, this helps you see how the website could look. That being said, you can provide all your own photos and text to replace it when we apply the theme to your website.
1. It is similar to buying a house, when you first walk through the house it has someone else’s furniture, carpet, and colors on the wall. But once you move in, you can easily replace those with your own choices.
2. However, just like buying a house, if you suddenly want to knock down a wall, move a bathroom, or add an addition those all cost extra and will be more time consuming.
3. Ultimately the goal when selecting a theme is for you to like the general look and feel, not necessarily the pictures or text.
• I recommend looking through the theme sites quickly, making notes of the themes that you like the first impression of.
1. For example, when looking at Woo Themes, there are roughly 60 themes to chose from. It should not take more than 60 minutes to look through them all. Just open the demo version of each theme, and take your first impression, do you like it or don’t you.
2. Out of those 60 themes I would hope you find 3-5 that might work for your site.
3. Now go through the other theme sites doing the same for as long as you can handle it.
4. After you have looked through as many themes as you can handle without going crazy. Take 3-4 days and do not think about the themes, clear your mind of the process of picking a theme.
5. After a few days, come back and just look at the few designs you really like on the first go around. This time spend 3-5 minutes, click on the links, try different color options, etc. The goal now is to narrow it down to one or two that you really like.
6. After you have narrowed down to just a few designs, consult friends and family, only showing them the very few themes that you really like. Send the designs to me, I will try to help you select the one that would best promote your business.
7. Ultimately the decision is yours, you are the one that needs to be proud of your website, picking a theme you like is the first step.

Once the decision is made, your theme selected, make the purchase through the website, and send me the login details to your account. I will download the theme and apply it to your website.

Step #4 – Provide Content
You are nearly there, your website is a few steps away from being set-up. Now you just need to send me any photos, or text that you have for your website. Usually sending that information to me via email is the best way, but sometimes you can send me a flash drive, or CD with the same information.

If you do not have content for your website, I recommend a couple of things:

• Hire a copywriter to create the text content for your website. A professional copywriter will do an interview with you (usually via the telephone) to learn about your business. Then they will generate the content (text) for your website. You will get the final say in the text, you can edit, delete or modify it as needed. The key to remember is what you are in business to do. If you are a plumber, your time is better spent fixing pipes rather than writing text about plumbing. Let a professional copywriter do what they do best, and you do what you do best.
1. Typically to build out a 10 page website the cost is $500-$700, if you need more or less pages the cost adjusts from there.
2. You can also generate your own content, and let a copywriter edit/update your text. This costs less, but can produce similar results as option a.
3. Last, if you already have a website, you can have a copywriter do a “Content Refresh” where they look at your current text, and modify it to fit the new website. They will also edit/update it just like part b above.
• Do not settle for crappy pictures, get AWESOME pictures!
1. A website like I-StockPhoto can make the difference between a good and great website.
2. Pictures range from $1-$3, and the average 10 page website will need 15-20 pictures. This is well worth the investment!
3. Obviously if you are a photographer, or artist you are going to want to use your own work, but you may find a few graphics that can enhance your work.

Step #5 – Plan, Do, Check, Act
Understand that your website is a work in progress and will never be “Finished.” It is better to put up a rough draft, rather than have no website at all. Right now people are searching the internet for your products and services, if you are focused on making your website “PERFECT” before you make it available to the public, it will be that much longer before your customers find you. Get something up, and get it up now! Once it is up, you can continue to refine it daily, weekly, monthly, or as often as needed. So PLAN what you want your website to look like, then let me DO it, then CHECK my work and let friends and family see/comment on the site, then ACT on the changes that the site needs.

I am excited to help you build out your business website! I know these first few steps require a lot of work on your part, but that is OK. Simply take it one step at a time, trying to do a little bit each day.