What do I need to build a basic website?
1. Buy A Domain!
- Domains cost about $10-$20 per year
- Try to buy a “.com”
- If not available .net is okay, and .tv is good if your site focuses primarily on tv clips, video and media.
- .org is for organizations
- Ignore all the new options like .me, .us, etc. unless it really makes sense for the concept of your program.
You can purchase them at any domain provider:
- NameCheap.com
- Hover.com
- Dreamhost.com
- Name.com
- Gandi.net
- GoDaddy.com
2. Your website needs a server to host it online
- This is your Webhost (the computer your website runs on)
- After you buy a domain, you must buy hosting
- It is NOT recommended to buy your webhosting through your domain registrar (some domain registrars will try to sell you email, hosting, and many more things that you don’t need, and their quality is not as good as other options)
- Fortunately, there are many fast and cheap options available. There’s even a free option!
“Free” Option
- WordPress.com offers a free option, but you cannot use your own domain (it will say YourName.wordpress.com)
- For $15 per year you can use your own domain on wordpress.com – this is the cheapest option for a website with your own domain name
- The downside of using wordpress.com’s hosting is that you cannot upgrade or professionally customize your website. It’s not YOUR website.
- This is ok for personal blogs/”business card” sites only – not e-commerce
Brand/Life Marketing also provides free hosting to members!
Visit www.brandlifemarketing.com/memberships for more info
Good Simple Shared Hosting
- Shared hosting is where you buy use of a server for your website.
- There will be many other websites also hosted on this server, so it will not be very fast.
- This is good for small sites with 10-500 daily visitors.
- This is a very cheap option: from $5-12 per month
Good Basic Hosts:
- Hostgator.com
- Leaseweb.com
- Site5.com
- Dreamhost.com
- 1and1.com
High-Speed WordPress Hosting
- There are now a new breed of hosts that have created high speed solutions specifically for WordPress websites
- There are some restrictions to using these sites (some plugins are not allowed), but they provide the speed of a dedicated server at a fraction of the cost.
- Cost is from $25-$150 per month depending on the size of your site (good for up to 100,000 monthly visits)
- WPEngine – $25 per month for 1 site
- Presslabs – $150 per month for 1 site (for large sites with lots of visits)
3. Build a WordPress Site
- WordPress is a website platform that makes blogging and customization user friendly
- WordPress.com is the free version of the blogging platform
- WordPress.org is home to the professional version. Here you can learn how to use WordPress on your own hosted server to build a fully customizable website and store.
- When you buy hosting, you can install WordPress on your server for free
- To build a website or store you can purchase or build a WordPress Theme/Template
- After WordPress and your theme are installed, you can install plugins to add functionality. Plugins are programs that add to the functionality of your WordPress website
4. Ad Content
Your website should have the following content:
Professional Biography, Personal Story (About Page)
- Who are you?
- What is your purpose?
- Who have you worked with?
- What are your certifications and accolades?
Website Pages
- Examples: Home, About, Testimonials, Products/Services, Contact
- Use at least 1 photo that relates to the them of the page and your brand on each page/post
Ads
- Do you have any products or services for sale?
- Do you have any affiliate products or services to promote?
Blog Content
- What kind of articles/videos will you produce?
- What kind of information will help your readers the most?
Social Media Links
- Provide links to your: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google +, Youtube, Pinterest
- How can you engage your readers to interact with your content?
- Which Social Media platforms will relate best to your talents and your audience?
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