How to create a WordPress website for beginners
Create a WordPress Website
Here is a step by step method to create a website using the world famous “WordPress.”
It is the easiest way to get a website onto the internet yourself and is definitely the cheapest.
To build an online business it is necessary to have a website and there are some things you need to decide before you begin.
You do not need to know any programming languages and you do not need to really understand how WordPress functions. Some very clever people create web designs in WordPress for themselves and then publish them as free “Themes” for people like us to use. These Themes can be very flexible and there are thousands of them to choose from.
With a little help you can build a WordPress website and make something which becomes the central part of your business.
First, let’s sort out a few words and what they mean
Domain name: The name of your website and in effect, the name of your business.
It is registered to you and you lease / rent the name for a period of years at a time. No one else can use the name and you can set it up for automatic renewable. The cost is low although it depends on the suffix.
If your domain name is “Mynewbusiness” the suffix might be “.com”, “.co.uk” or one of several different suffixes. Generally we use “.com” because that is associated with the USA and is known the world over. There are others with specific purposes which at this moment you do not need to worry about.
Your new domain is now called “mynewbusiness.com.” Of course you cannot use that name, because all domain names are unique and you cannot use someone else’s. This then becomes the address of your business, in internet terms.
Choose a niche / a plan / an area of interest
Your business needs some direction now. You need to plan which general area you are going to work in. Your domain name needs to reflect that general direction. E.g. if you want to sell flowers – your domain name should not be called: “The best cakes in the North.”
Register a WordPress website
Now you have a name and you need to register it. There are a few places to register your domain and you can combine it with the next phase, hosting a WordPress website.
Hosting a WordPress website
Hosting also needs to be paid for most of the time. The cost varies a lot and depends on the complexity of your website and how many people access the site per day. In the beginning you do not need to worry about this.
Often you can register and host your website at the same place:
Godaddy
BlueHost
Hostgator
Hosting means putting your business in a place on the internet. It is like having a shop and putting it in a street. (The domain name is just the name of the business.) What actually happens is your website is on a hard-drive on a server (a computer) which is switched on and running 24 hours a day. The server will also have a backup in case of power failure etc.
Now you need to begin building your WordPress website: putting in pictures, words, descriptions, menus graphics etc. creating a layout which is attractive to customers.
You can get free images online to use in your website. Once you have decided what it has to look like.
If some of these things seem too much for you, you can pay someone else to do them. They are not so difficult once you get used to them.
With your web-site up and running, you need people to find it and we use “Search Engine Optimisation” to do that. (S.E.O.) This is used to draw “Traffic” to your website.
“Traffic” means people who click on your website and look at it. These are your potential customers. The more people who look at your website, the more chance there is of them buying your product or service.
If we compare it with setting up a shop:
The Domain name is the name of your shop
The hosting is where you will build it.
The website is the building that people enter to do their shopping.
S.E.O. is your advertising to get traffic.
Traffic is your customers.
The address of your website is the “URL” and usually looks similar to: “www.mynewbusiness.com.”
You need to create a way to collect their money when they pay and a bank to put it in. In the beginning, most people use a marketing add-on and PayPal. So, you need to sign up for a PayPal account (Free.)
You will need one or more email addresses with a similar name as your business. These can be free and there are several different ways to get these. One of the most common is to set up a “.gmail.com” email.
As a general rule, do not use Yahoo or Hotmail addresses. These have built up a bad reputation over the years and are still slightly mistrusted. There is no justification for this anymore, but your image is important to you.
Your website is now your shop window and it needs to be attractive, functional and easy to navigate round. You will need a “Contact” section so that your customers can contact you. This is best done through one of the WordPress inbuilt systems so that your email address is not available for spammers.
If this sounds a little complicated, you can use one website which will walk you through the process, help you with hosting and registering your domain name and show you how to set everything up to draw traffic to it.
In my opinion this is the way to for beginners to get started. They have 10 courses for you to study and hold your hand through the basics. There is a large community of experienced helpful people to support and encourage you.
Expensive? No, up to this point it is free. Yes free video courses in how to set up websites and how set yourself up to create an online business.
Once you have your website up and running and you understand the way forward, you can decide if you are serious and really want to make some good money with an online business. So far all you will have paid for is your domain name, and you still own that.
If you decide to pay a subscription and become a serious online marketer, you will find some of the best training courses and support you could wish for. You are lucky to have found them. Look at some of their customer reviews:
Image
Video
There are several different ways to pay:
Show monthly / annually.
Whatever you choose, remember that there is some hard work and studying to do and making a fortune overnight is unrealistic. Building a business from scratch and with very little outlay is possible. Good luck whichever way you choose.