Your $100 Professional Website Guide

Transcription

1

2 Your $100 Professional Website Guide Complete step by step instructions to create a professional, low cost website for your business by Greg Miliates of 2011 StreamLine, Inc. All rights reserved.

3 Required disclaimer (feel free to skim ) The information contained in this guide is for informational purposes only. I am not a lawyer or an accountant. Any legal or financial advice that I give is my opinion based on my own experience. You should always seek the advice of a professional before acting on something that I have published or recommended. Any amount of earnings disclosed in this guide should not be considered average. Please understand that there are some links contained in this guide that I may benefit from financially. The material in this guide may include information, products or services by third parties. Third Party materials comprise the products and opinions expressed by their owners. As such, I do not assume responsibility or liability for any Third Party material or opinions. The publication of such Third Party materials does not constitute my guarantee of any information, instruction, opinion, products or services contained within the Third Party material. The use of recommended Third Party material does not guarantee any success and or earnings related to you or your business. Publication of such Third Party material is simply a recommendation and an expression of my own opinion of that material. No part of this publication shall be reproduced, transmitted, or sold in whole or in part in any form, without the prior written consent of the author. All trademarks and registered trademarks appearing in this guide are the property of their respective owners. Users of this guide are advised to do their own due diligence when it comes to making business decisions and all information, products, services that have been provided should be independently verified by your own qualified professionals. By reading this guide, you agree that myself and my company are not responsible for the success or failure of your business decisions relating to any information presented in this guide StreamLine, Inc. All rights reserved. p. 1 of 1

4 Too Good To Be True? Can you get a website for $100 and have it look professional? Absolutely! While it s possible to spend thousands of dollars and weeks or months creating a professional website, it s also possible to create a professional website inexpensively. And that s a wonderful thing for anyone starting a business, since you can start your business fast and cheap. Even if you re not a techie That s OK you don t need to be a technical genius to create a nice looking website. In fact, with all the great tools available on the web today, you can create a great site, automate your marketing, track your site s traffic, and manage your business in ways that were unthinkable even 5 or 10 years ago. Step by step I understand that this can be overwhelming I went through that when I was starting out. There are so many resources and so much information available giving different advice that it can be difficult to know where to start. With what I ve learned, I ll walk you through every step to show you exactly what you need to do to create your website. Even if all you ve ever done is surfed the web, that s OK creating a website nowadays isn t rocket science, it s mostly a matter of knowing where to click. Unlike those fat 300 page books that tell you that you can learn something in 24 hours (and where each hour is a weeklong lesson), this guide will show you all the nuts n bolts steps to create a professional website on the cheap. And seriously, the whole process will only take 1 or 2 hours. Seriously. So let s get started! p. 1 of 16

5 Just 2 steps Although getting a website might seem complicated, it s really not. There are actually only 2 steps you ll need to do: 1. Get a domain 2. Configure your website I know, I know. You may have no idea where to start or even what a domain is, much less what or where to configure anything. But fear not! The whole process is really not terribly difficult. First things first: Getting a domain A domain is simply the name of your website which is used by computers. For example, google.com. Your domain name is also called a URL. The first thing you ll need is to decide on a domain name for your website. You can name it anything you like, but since you re creating a business website, you ll want something professional. A couple of other suggestions/rules: You can t use a name that s already in use. Your domain name must be unique. Keep your name as short as possible. Short domain names are easier to type and to remember for your users. If you have multiple words in your domain name, make sure that their meaning is unambiguous. For example, if you re a psychotherapist, you wouldn t want someone to misread a domain name like therapist.com as 2 words just sayin Try to keep it professionalsounding. If you re in an industry that s a bit more casual, it s OK to make your domain name a bit more fun. Imagine what your customers will think when they see your domain name; you want them to be interested and have confidence in your business. Help with finding a domain name You might already have a name in mind. If so, great! But if you re not sure, there are some ways that you can figure out a domain name that might make it more likely that you ll get more users. p. 2 of 16

6 For example, if you were able to find out that lots of people searched for a particular keyword like fly fishing then you may get more visitors to your site if you use that keyword in your domain name. That s not universally true, but more often than not, using a keyword in your domain name can lead to more traffic on your website, which in turn, can lead to more business for you. How do I find keywords to use in a domain name? There are a couple of ways to find keywords that receive a lot of searches. You could use Google s Keyword tool, which allows you to type in keywords and then review related keywords, the number of searches on each keyword per month, how competitive each keyword is (i.e., how many other websites are using the same keyword), etc. To use Google s Keyword tool, you ll need to have a Google Adwords account. If you don t already have one, here s how to create your Google Adwords account: 1. Go to 2. Click Start Now to create your Google Adwords account. 3. Google will walk you through setting up your account, your country, timezone, and currency setting. Don t worry the whole process is free. After you ve signed in to your Google Adwords account, click on the Reporting and Tools tab, and make sure that Keyword Tool is selected near the top left of the tab. Enter a keyword into the Word or Phrase field at the top of the page, and click Search. In a few moments, you ll see a bunch of related keywords, and stats for each keyword (searches per month, competition, etc.). You can add additional columns if you want, but the 2 that are most important are monthly searches and competition. You want to choose a keyword that has high searches at least 1,000 per month and low competition. p. 3 of 16

7 Although Google s Keyword tool is great, I find that it can be fairly timeconsuming, since it takes some time to get used to how Google s Keyword Tool searches for keywords, tweaking the search settings, and finding the right keyword(s) that not only match your niche, but which also have high searches and low competition. If you want a more automated way to look for keywords, there s an excellent tool called Market Samurai, which automates much of the process. It can be used for other things, such as figuring out what might be the most profitable and least competitive niches for you to focus your business on, but those are topics for future ebooks and/or blog posts. In any case, the time that Market Samurai will save you can be well worth its one time cost. It s hands down the best product available for keyword research. p. 4 of 16

8 Making sure your domain name is available After you ve found a good keyword that you want to use in your domain name, you ll need to make sure that your desired domain name isn t already in use. The easiest way to do that is to search for your desired domain on the web hosting service that you ll be using. Huh? What s a web hosting service? If you don t already know, a web hosting service or web host, for short is a company which stores your website files on its servers so that the world can view your website. For this service, you pay a fee either monthly or yearly (you get a discount for paying yearly with most hosting companies). I ve used several different web hosts over the years, and have found that BlueHost is one of the least expensive, most reliable, and has great customer service. Many bloggers and other internet based businesses also rate BlueHost very highly. Besides, they ll give you a free domain for which you would otherwise typically have to pay around $12 $15 per year. You can also buy your domain and have your website hosted through GoDaddy, but as of this writing, GoDaddy charges extra if you want to use WordPress for your site. I ll talk about WordPress later in this ebook, but for now, just know that you ll use it to manage just about everything on your website, including your design, content, tools, and automation. Just get me my domain already! Anywho, now that you ve picked out a domain name, go to BlueHost, and click the Sign up now button to create your account and make sure that your desired domain name is available. After you click Sign up now, enter your desired domain name in the I Need A Domain Name box: If someone else is already using your desired domain name, you ll see alternate/related domain names that are available. You can either pick one of the recommended domain names, or search for a different domain name that you d like to use. p. 5 of 16

9 Again, a couple tips: Try to keep your domain name short, if possible. If possible, get a domain name ending in.com, since.com domains tend to have higher credibility, and can garner higher traffic. Next, you ll enter your name, address, phone, e mail, and other contact info to set up your account, and choose the hosting package (as of this writing, a 12 month hosting package is $6.95 per month, which totals $83.40). You can pay by credit card or via your PayPal account (click Other payment options to pay by PayPal). After you ve entered all the required info, click Next, and your account will be created. You ll then choose a password for your account (be sure to store your password somewhere safe!). BlueHost will then walk you through entering your domain name and password, and then you re done setting up your web hosting account and domain name. You re halfway done! That wasn t so bad, was it? Now, on to the next piece: installing WordPress. What s WordPress? Glad you asked! Back in the old days, if you wanted a website, you had to know HTML (a computer language), and would write the code to design each of your web pages. Then you d upload the HTML files onto your web hosting server, and well, you get the idea. Building a website was a cumbersome process best reserved for serious geeks. And I m sorry to say that I used to do that kind of thing many years ago But, thankfully, times have changed! You no longer need to know how to write code, upload and manage arcane files on your web host, or do any of the other things that webmasters used to have to do. Why? Because some other geeks invented content management systems (CMS for short). WordPress is a content management system. WordPress allows regular folks like us to create and maintain a website without having to get a degree in computer science. I don t know about you, but I d rather not spend my weekend and evenings pounding out code. I d rather have a website in a few clicks. WordPress p. 6 of 16

10 makes that possible and a whole lot more. And best of all, it s free! WordPress also allows you to change the design of your site with a couple clicks of your mouse. You can change color schemes, column layouts, and bunches of other design elements for your entire site with a few clicks. Seriously cool. Did I mention that WordPress is free? Another really cool thing about WordPress is that there are tons of extra features called plugins and widgets that you can add to your site to create additional functionality. Like allowing comments on a blog, or an e mail signup form, or even shopping cart functionality. And most of these tools are free as well. Are you drooling yet? But before you can do all that cool stuff, you have to install WordPress on your site. But don t worry! It s easy. Installing WordPress Now that you have your domain and your web hosting account, you can install WordPress on your website. Note that these instructions are applicable to having your domain hosted at BlueHost; other web hosting companies have similar installation steps for WordPress. To install WordPress, you ll need to log into your web hosting account at BlueHost, and go to the cpanel, which is essentially the control panel for your web hosting account. In cpanel, scroll down to the Software/Services section, and click Simple Scripts. At the next screen, you ll see a section for Blogs; click on WordPress, and then click the big green Install button on the next screen. Choose the latest stable version of WordPress to install, make sure to enter your domain in the Where would you like WordPress installed? field (you can enter something like Check the box that indicates that you agree to the terms and conditions, then click Complete. The actual installation will take 1 2 minutes, and then you ll see a summary of the installation info. MAKE SURE that you write down and save the Login URL, Username, and p. 7 of 16

11 Password; you ll need these to configure and update your website. Now, go to your website URL in a browser. You re live! Of course, you ll just see the default WordPress template, but so far, so good! How do I make my website look better? Excellent question! You ve got your website up and running, but you re not going to want to keep the default WordPress design. You want something individual that reflects your company. Easy. One of the many great things about WordPress is that you can change the look of your entire website with just a few clicks. You can try out different designs and layouts, without having to write any code all you need is a few mouse clicks. To change the look of your website, WordPress uses what they call themes. Essentially, themes are design templates that are applied to your website. You can change your WordPress theme whenever you want, and not worry about losing any of your website content, reformatting it, etc. Very cool. There are literally thousands of free WordPress templates to choose from, and some are really good. However, I ve found that the free templates often require manual tweaking of the code to fix bugs, adjust the layout, etc. That may not be a problem if you re familiar with PHP, HTML, and CSS, but even if you know your way around, it can certainly be a big time sink. A better alternative is to use a premium theme. Premium WordPress themes aren t free, but they give you more features and customization, are easier to work with, are more stable (in other words, less buggy), and have tech support from the company who developed the theme. When I first started with WordPress, I tried several free themes, but found that I was spending hours tweaking the code, fixing bugs, and adjusting layout issues all of which was time that wasn t earning me any revenue. As a result, I decided to use premium themes, which have saved me countless hours. A premium theme makes your site more professional, and is easier to work with p. 8 of 16

12 A few companies that make highlyrated, beautiful, and stable WordPress themes are: WooThemes Elegant Themes In addition, the Thesis theme (made by DIY Themes) is the gold standard of WordPress themes. It s EXTREMELY customizable, very feature rich, stable, and comes with tons of support. Pricewise, it s about on par with WooThemes. Install your theme So let s get to it! To install a new WordPress theme, you can either go snag a free theme or a premium theme; with a premium theme, you ll get a download of the theme files, and will upload the files before installing the theme on your site. I ll show you both ways, since they re both easy. Installing a free theme To install a free theme, you ll log in to your site s WordPress admin page p. 9 of 16

13 (usually and then either click on the Install Themes button at the top of the page, or click Appearance, and then Add New Themes. You can then either browse the available categories, or just enter a keyword, for example, simple if you want a design that s relatively clean. You ll see a ton or results returned, and can choose one by clicking the Install link under the theme. Click Install Now to install the theme on your website. Back on the WordPress admin page, click Activate, and your new theme is live on your website. Installing a premium theme Installing a premium theme is almost exactly like installing a free theme, but you just need to upload the theme.zip file before you can install and activate your theme. First, you ll need to download the premium theme s.zip file to your computer (remember where you saved it!). Next, you ll go to the WordPress admin page like you would when installing a free theme (either click the Install Themes button at the top of the window, or click Appearance, then Add New Themes ). Now, instead of searching for a theme, you ll click the Upload link. Next, you ll snag the.zip file for your theme. Click Choose File, navigate to where you saved the.zip theme file, and select it. Click Install Now, and then click Activate to make your theme live on your site. That s it! Your site now has a nifty theme. If you don t like the theme you ve chosen, feel free to install and activate a new theme. Configure WordPress: next steps Now that you have a slick theme installed on your site, you ll want to do a few things to make sure that things run smoothly and that your site can easily be p. 10 of 16

14 found by search engines. That s what we ll do here. Don t fear though, all this is easy too! Permalinks: make your pages search engine friendly Back in the WordPress admin panel, click Settings, and then Permalinks. Here s where you ll change the links for each of your site s pages so that search engines have an easier time indexing the content on your pages. Simply select Custom structure and enter /%postname%/ in the field. So, if you have a post titled My wonderfully interesting post, the URL for you post will look something like: wonderfullyinteresting post That makes it easy for Google, Bing, Yahoo, and other search engines to index your site s content so that users can find you. Plugins: Tools for automating stuff WordPress plugins are really cool, because they greatly extend the functionality of your site. There are hundreds of plugins available, but don t get overwhelmed. I ll show you the bare bones plugins that you ll need to get started. The whole point of putting up a website is for users to come read what you have, and to generate business. The more user traffic your website gets, the more business you can get. Getting traffic to your site p. 11 of 16

15 So, it s important to do as much as we can with WordPress so that search engines have an easy time finding your content. We already did part of that when we tweaked the permalink structure. Now, we ll tweak a couple of other things to make it even easier to optimize your site for search engines. From the WordPress admin page, click Plugins, and click Add New. Click the Search link. You re going to be searching for specific plugins to install, so type All in One SEO Pack in the Search field, and click Search Plugins. You ll notice that a bunch of similar plugins are returned in your search results, but you want the plugin with the exact name All in One SEO Pack. Find it, and click Install. Next, you ll want to search for and install the plugin named Google XML Sitemaps. Finally, click the Plugins link on the left side of the page, and click Installed. You ll now see all the plugins your site currently has installed. Click Activate for any that are listed as Inactive. Prevent spam Next, we ll make sure to filter out any spam that gets entered into comments on your site if you choose to enable commenting on pages. Click Plugins, and Add New. Search for Defensio Anti Spam, and install and activate it. Automate your marketing, and get it into overdrive This is a really cool one. When users visit your website, even if they don t end up calling you on the phone or e mailing you right then and there, you still have an opportunity to snag their e mail address so you can reach out to them with pertinent info, offers, or other marketing materials. The best way to do this is to include an e mail sign up form on your website, and use an e mail marketing vendor to manage your e mail subscribers, your mass e mails/newsletters/offers. E mail marketing typically has a cost, but it can be extremely effective at growing your business, and any cost is well worth it. Real time marketing tracking One of the really wonderful things about e mail marketing is that you can actually track how many people opened your e p. 12 of 16

16 mails, how many people clicked on links in your e mails, and which links they clicked on. That s valuable information that you can use to test and optimize your marketing efforts. Automate your marketing Another fantastic thing about e mail marketing tools is that they allow you to set up auto responders, which essentially automate your marketing. For example, you can set up e mails to be sent out 1 day after a user signs up for your e mail list, or 5 days, 30 days, or 6 months later. That way, you don t have to take time to respond in person if you don t want to you just let the auto responder do it, and you can monitor the traffic. Automatically keep subscribers in the loop I just want to mention one last thing about e mail marketing that s great. You can set up your e mail marketing to automatically send out an e mail to your subscribers each time you post a new article on your website. So, you post some new content, and the e mail marketing company automatically sends it out to your list of sign ups. How cool is that?! Setting it up I ve used several e mail marketing companies, and have found that AWeber is the easiest, most fullfeatured product in the marketplace so much so, that it s the industry leader for bloggers, multi million dollar businesses, as well as small businesses just starting out. Another fairly good service is MailChimp, which I ve used in the past, but I ve found that AWeber offers more features and controls, and was easier to configure for what I need; so I now do all my e mail marketing through AWeber. A few other reasons to go with AWeber over MailChimp or another e mail marketing vendor: Easier to use and more flexible split testing tools: These help you optimize your site to get more sign ups. Sign up forms are easier to design. AWeber also has more templates for you to choose from. It s easier to insert the code for your sign up forms on your website. (I ll show you what I mean below). E mails are delivered more reliably, and you have better control over when they re sent. I ve found that the easiest way for me to insert an e mail sign up form in my website is to design it in AWeber (after signing in through their website), and then pasting the code into a widget in WordPress. Widgets are the little sections that typically sit in the sidebar, p. 13 of 16

17 such as popular posts, an e mail sign up form, a search field, etc. I like using a widget because I can make any design changes to my sign up form via the AWeber website, and the changes automatically update on my WordPress site. Huh? But I told you I m not a techie That all might sound complicated, but it s actually really easy. Here s how to do it. After you have a sign up form designed in AWeber, click on the Publish link at the top of the page. Next, click I will install my form, then click Javascript snippet, and you ll see a little box with your code. Copy and paste that code to your clipboard. Then, in the WordPress admin panel for your site, click Appearance and then Widgets. You want to add a text widget, so drag a Text widget onto the Sidebar. Once you ve got it stuck onto the sidebar, click the down arrow on it to expand it; you can then add your javascript code as I ve done in the screenshot below. Make sure to click Save, and you re e mail sign up form will be live on your website! Another really cool thing you can do is make tweaks to your e mail sign up form, and test your newly tweaked form versus your old form to see which one gets more sign ups. AWeber makes that kinds of testing extremely easy. p. 14 of 16

18 Adding your content Whew! We ve covered a lot of ground so far. Fortunately, things get a bit easier now that you have everything configured. Let s get down to adding the content. First, we ll make a couple of static pages. We ll create a Contact page and an About page. These pages won t change very often, and we want them easy for users to find, so that s why we re making them Pages in WordPress. Next, we ll add a Post. Posts are articles that you create on your site, and they won t have their own link on your main website toolbar. Create your first pages To create a page, in WordPress, click Pages, and Add New. Enter the title of your page; for now, we ll enter Contact, since we want users to know how to get a hold of you. Next, you can add your content in the large pane beneath the title field. After you re done adding your contact info, you can click Publish to make your page live. If you don t want to publish it now, you can click Save, and even schedule it to be published at a later date. Easy, eh? Next, you can follow the same steps to make a page named About for your site. p. 15 of 16

19 Creating your first post Creating a post follows pretty much the same steps as creating a page. The only difference is that you need to click Post, and then Add New. Then, whenever you want to create a new post, just follow the same process. The tools and steps for creating and laying out post and page content is really similar to creating a document in Microsoft Word or any other word processing software. You can change fonts, add pictures and graphics, bullet point lists, etc. Wrap up! That wasn t so bad, was it? And you still have a fistful of dollars left over! Go celebrate with a couple of lattes or beers or whatever strikes your fancy. Your $100 professional website is live! Admittedly, this just gets you started. In the future, I ll be posting more info about additional tools and tricks you can use for your website. Thank you! If you found this ebook helpful, please comment on my website, or if you d prefer, you can e mail me if you have any questions or suggestions for improving this ebook. Thanks! You should congratulate yourself to getting started! p. 16 of 16