Steps to Running your Own Website
A lot of people have questions about the process of setting up your very own website. I wanted to clear this up for everybody and try my best to show the different steps necessary to get your own website up and running.
1. Getting a domain name.
The domain name is a separate cost than your hosting. Usually you pay once per year for a domain and the cost is going to be roughly $10-$15 for the entire year. Anything more than that is suspicious. The payment goes towards securing the domain name, for instance “SellBeatsNow.com”. You need to pay for the domain name yearly or obviously having hosting isn’t going to do you much good.
You need a domain name so people can easily find your website by simply typing your URL into the web browser of their choice. You can actually get the domain name through the same website you pay for hosting with, in this case I definitely suggest picking up BlueHost.
2. Getting hosting.
This is one of those steps that drives people crazy. Hosting can be extremely complicated because there are seemingly endless options and keeping a website up and running is obviously a top priority for anybody.
BlueHost is a great company for hosting. They are inexpensive and honestly a lot of the biggest companies around are actually just re-sellers of BlueHost. They are well trusted and the set up process is actually pretty easy.
Choosing the right kind of hosting is actually a simple process. For the most part, cheap hosting is your best bet especially when you’re first starting out. Using WordPress optimized hosting, like the one available at the link below for $12.95/mo, is going to last you a long time and likely be the only thing you need for years to come.
Once your website starts getting more traffic on a daily basis you may notice that your hosting needs to be upgraded. But the thing about hosting is you constantly need to upgrade as your site grows and grows, though for the first year it will probably not be getting enough traffic to spiral you towards needing to upgrade.
Once you do need to upgrade, however (for instance if you notice your website is starting to slow down or load worse), all you need to do is use a standard VPS server for the most part. I use a much more complicated server solution but a VPS is just as powerful. It’ll cost you $30 per month or so for a good VPS but it will deliver you the upgrade necessary to keep your site running smooth and healthy.
3. Installing your CMS (I suggest using WordPress)
Installing WordPress onto your site is a good way to skip thousands of hours of coding a custom CMS. Honestly you don’t want to make an HTML website because you want more easy control over your website. To gain this control you need to be able to put up blog posts easily, change your content and edit the HTML side of your site easily.
This is best done using a CMS, which stands for Content Management System. It is simply a framework for you to build your website up with. It doesn’t necessarily make the job easier, but it definitely makes it more of a simple process. WordPress is the best CMS out there and I like to use it for the majority of my websites.
4. Installing your theme
There are themes online you can pay for, but realistically having a totally custom theme is your best bet. You want something that sticks out and keeps you at the forefront of your business. Anything pre-made or sold for cheap online, it’s sort of like you get what you pay for. You will have a limited website with much less options.
Building a theme yourself isn’t very difficult, but obviously requires some good knowledge of HTML, CSS and general coding. These days you also want to make sure your website is mobile friendly and responsive. It should automatically adjust it’s own size to fit whatever screen the site is being viewed at.
5. Setting up a Marketing Strategy
Once you’ve gotten your website theme up you need to start installing all the different marketing strategies onto your site. This should include things like Share to Unlock features for viral back linking, email marketing strategies such as Aweber which is a service that enables you to have opt-in forms on your website, and to set up automated email follow-ups to people who join your website.
Having sign up forms, social media links, and all sorts of other features is how you’re going to make your site stand out from the rest. For instance having a pop-up on your website for people to join your website’s email list can be extremely powerful. That’s just one of the possibilities.
On-site marketing is the most important factor of all. In fact SEO (search engine optimization) happens on your website as well. It’s very difficult to rank on Google without having your website properly optimized from the bottom up, not just for the content you’re using but also for the actual optimization on your website.
Remember that optimization does NOT just refer to search engine strategy, though. You want to be able to rank on Google and other search engines, sure, but the fact is you need to also optimize your website for sales. Having your offers clearly outlined on the correct pages and places is a good start. Using powerful headlines is another way to make it work.
Here is a link to Aweber, below:
6. For best results, hire US to design your website.
I have no shame bringing up the fact that I am a web designer, owner of Web Design Marketer, where you can find our entire portfolio and pricing sheet. We also do $200-$300 basic websites for clients.
The reason I bring it up with no shame is because you get what you pay for, and having somebody who is a professional build your website for your is an extraordinarily powerful thing. Your on page marketing has to be as high quality as possible and you’re simply not going to make that happen without the proper SEO, sales optimization, social media integration and customized, mobile friendly theme.
Visit WebDesignMarketer.com/wdmportfolio to check out our portfolio, and contact us for a quote or to speak to us about getting your website started. We accept 1/2 down payments.