WordPress
This service is for folks familiar with WordPress. If you’re not, I suggest going over to WordPress.com & signing up for a free site. You create an account, pick a free domain name, click a button to install the site & login to the “backend” to take care of business. From the backend, you tweak setting, install themes & create things like pages & blog posts. With Jetpack pre-installed, you could also have a portfolio page & testimonials not to mention more widgets to choose from for your blog’s sidebar &/or footer. On most pages within the backend there’s a question mark down at the bottom which leads to help files if you need them.
Things are simple there because it’s a freely hosted site. There are few themes to choose from & they’re very basic. I couldn’t use this theme on their site. Because of this theme, I’ve got widgets here I wouldn’t have there. Plus, you can’t install any plugins there at all. That’s why you’re coming to me. You’re familiar with WordPress but need more than a freely hosted site.
The Steps to Building Your Own Website
Step 1: Order your domain name via Namecheap (affiliate link).
Step 2: Order your hosting via SiteGround (affiliate link).
Below are the steps for securing their hosting.
Pick Your Plan
Choose Your Domain
Review & Complete
As you can see, you’ll need your domain name first so when you get to “Choose Your Domain” you can click on “I already have one” & add yours to the box.
Once you have your domain name & hosting, I’ll need your login info (username & password) for both sites so that I can point your domain name to your host’s servers, create an email account for you, install an SSL certificate & install WordPress.
I also need a username & password you want to use for your email & WordPress accounts. However, once I’m done & I’ve added myself as an admin to your site so I can help you out later if you need it, you can change at least all the passwords if you’d feel better. I’ll let you know when.
You must have an email address that matches your domain name for contact forms to work. But if you’d rather stick with your personal account through Gmail or somebody you can. We can forward your biz email on to your personal email. I’d simply need to know what your personal email address is. Just remember you can’t reply from a forwarded email address. When you reply – you’ll be replying from your personal email address.
When you get a domain name you have to provide them with info like the registrant, administrator, technical & billing people. With my site they’re all the same person – me. With your site, we can add me as the technical person if you’d like. Let me know & I’ll do so.
Both your registrar & host will likely automatically set you up to auto-pay. So next year when everything expires, they’ll automatically try to charge you for another year. If you don’t want them to, we can take you off auto-pay. Then when everything expires, they’ll send you an email & you can decide at the time if you want to pay for another year. You can also update your credit card info, like the expiration date, to make sure it goes through. It’s up to you.
My Service
Besides the above, for $250.00 I’ll install WordPress & set it up for you. That means a simple enough site with simple enough plugins. The fewer the better. The more you add the more you risk a buggy site.
While I’m doing this you should head over to WordPress.org & check out their themes. WordPress.com is the host – free & paid. WordPress.org is the repository for everything WordPress. The software, themes & plugins. The software is free & most of the themes & plugins are free. However, most themes & plugins offer more features if you want to pay for them. I’ll talk more about WordPress in my blog.
Think about what your business is, what you want to say to people & how you want to present it. You can search their themes. They’ve got a feature filter. Use the two to narrow down your search. Pick 2-3 out. Remember their names & we’ll discuss them & check them out.
Some, like this one, were harder to set up. This theme required plugins to make my site look anything like their demo site. Some themes, including this one, even let you import their demo site including all of its content. Then your site looks exactly like their demo site. All we have to do is go through & edit – changing their info into yours. Most that have demo sites usually have documentation that tells you step by step how to go through & edit their info into yours.
I’ll install a couple of themes & any plugins required. I can try to help you set up a couple of them if necessary…like a contact form. But some plugins & possibly even widgets require you to have an account with someone & only you’d know that info so only you can set it up. Like, for example, you can install the Jetpack plugin to your own site, but you’d have to have a WordPress.com account to use it. We could also put the Blossom Themes Email Newsletter in your sidebar or footer, but you’d have to have a MailChimp account to use it.
I’ll do what I can to make your site look like a site should. But I can only deal with simple plugins. And adding the content – pages, posts, media, portfolios, testimonials, etc. – that’s all up to you just like it is at WordPress.com. But you should already have experience. Plus, like at WordPress.com, on most pages within the backend there’s a question mark down at the bottom which leads to help files if you need them. There’s also my blog. So, if you need this service, contact me.