This WordPress tutorial will help the beginner learn how to create a website or blog using a WordPress website, install WordPress themes, add WordPress plugins, and share tips and tricks for improving user experience and conversions for website visitors.
WordPress How to Use?
WordPress is a popular content management system with over 75 million WordPress websites active. The software was released as an open source content management system, it’s also one of the simplest ways to create your own website, blogging platform, and ecommerce solution.
It’s free, free to install on your web server, and free to modify. As open-source, it means after you install the software, the code is available to be studied by anyone who wants to help improve WordPress – or just learn how it works!
It’s straightforward to create your website, keep visitors updated on your latest blog post and events, share photos and experiences with the world, take online payments for goods or services, and track everything in statistics. A page can be home to almost anything you need.
WordPress software was originally created for blogging, but people now use the page builders for much more than that – building business websites, online magazines, ecommerce stores, fan sites, or any other type of site that could benefit from a WordPress website.
How do I use this tool?
WordPress offers two different versions of their software: one free hosted service called wordpress.com and another open-source one called wordpress.org. This is how bloggers can create customized plugins or themes that alter how a website appears and how people interact without touching a code line. WordPress is updated regularly, so when changes come down from its parent company Automattic, new features can be added while bugs are fixed in relatively short time frames compared to other platforms.
The Pros of WordPress are that it is free and offers lots of support options. WordPress has one of the largest communities you’ll find anywhere on the internet (meaning plenty of tutorials and people who can answer your questions!)
The Cons are that if you customize WordPress too much (especially with premium themes), there could be compatibility issues with future updates; adding video or animation can be difficult for WordPress beginners. WordPress requires hosting, which will require further monthly costs. For a small business, these costs are fairly small relative to their benefit.
Your Own Domain Name
Selecting a personalized or custom domain name is an important consideration for a new WordPress website. WordPress.com comes standard with a unique, but average domain name like www.myblogsite.wordpress.com. This is fine when you are just getting started, but having a custom domain name that matches your brand is much better. Fortunately, WordPress.com will allow users who have a custom domain name (such as www.myblogsite.com) to use them as well.
For those that prefer to install a WordPress website on their own web server (or with a company that will host your WordPress website) a custom domain name will be purchased at a registrar like enom or NameCheap (there are literally hundreds of places to buy a domain now, we do this for our customers as well).
Choosing a Hosting Provider
All you need is to get started building a website with WordPress is a web hosting provider. While setting up a hosting account can be daunting, there are plenty of WordPress hosting providers that can help make it easier to set up your WordPress website.
Hosting is Critical
Your web hosting is a critical function so selecting a hosting provider is a big decision. There are many options in a hosting account and many variables that can affect the performance and management of your WordPress site. Because of the inherent complexity of selecting a web hosting account, we handle the web hosting and installing WordPress for our customers.
However, if you are set on selecting your own hosting provider there are a couple the standout above the rest. WordPress.com offers web hosting along with many other companies. You can set up WordPress yourself, but a quality hosting provider will do this part for you. Most companies that host a WordPress site will help to install WordPress as part of their standard WordPress hosting service.
Setting Up Your WordPress Website Domain Name Records
Once your domain name is purchased and you’ve selected a host for your WordPress website, you’ll need to go into the DNS records at your domain name registrar and set them up. This step can be a little bit technical, but it’s critical to the function of your site. It’s also where you’ll add other domain name records for things like email and WordPress website verification records.
Is There An Easy Way to Install WordPress Site?
For those who don’t want the hassle of learning how “behind-the-scenes” functions work, there’s always wordpress.com. Beyond the ability to view how your blog is doing and how others interact, they make it easy for new users to get their blog on the web.
Installing WordPress on a hosting provider is not for everyone who is creating their own website. WordPress.com is another way to use WordPress websites as your content management system without having to install WordPress on your own. It’s not as flexible as hosting your own WordPress website and there are some limitations that can present challenges. That said, it is an easy, albeit limited way to start a WordPress website.
The First Step to Create a WordPress Website
The first step to create a website this way is to create an account on wordpress.com. The benefit of using wordpress.com for your WordPress website is that they handle pretty much everything you’d need on your site. Provided it falls within their allowable features. There are some plugins and themes that aren’t allowed on this setup. But you are trading simplicity for the freedom to choose any plugin or theme.
WordPress.com also makes it simple for you to add a blog to your website. Having a blog allows you more flexibility in managing your online presence and engaging with your audience and customers. For business websites this can mean more revenue. For writers with more interest in sharing their writing, you can be writing quickly.
In addition to your site, you also get a WordPress Dashboard to help you track how well your site is doing each month. In addition to stats, you also see what theme you have installed as well as all the plugins you are using.
WordPress Themes
You can also purchase a WordPress theme from theme developers who have spent a lot of time customizing WordPress themes to look perfect for a particular purpose. Some free site themes are available, but most will cost a few pounds/dollars to buy.
Selecting WordPress Plugins
There are thousands of WordPress site plugins out there. You can can use these to modify or add new features to your website (such as event management or donation collection etc.). These plugins are generally very well coded and share many similarities with the core software itself. Although there are many good plugins, one must still be careful installing plugins. Some of them can slow your site down, and others can be harmful.
Adding Images and Website Files to Your website
Now that you’ve taken the time to install your website, how will you actually get it online? You can easily upload the files through your dashboard. Or by using FTP (a more technical method of uploading files) to put all your files in the right places. If you use wordpress.org, however, this becomes a free service. It’s up to you to control how your website is organized and how it functions.
WordPress’s open-source software allows you to go at your own pace for those who want more customization options. This often comes at a cost. That means if you’re good with how something works now but are worried about how long-term changes may impact how things look down the road, you can take care of that without ever having to touch any code. Since all of the file formats are publicly available, there are plenty of free plugins and themes available for download. Because these files work across platforms, upgrades to future versions will be relatively painless.
WordPress Site Stats
Tracking your site stats is a great way to measure your effectiveness. From the dashboard, you can see lots of data – things like how many visitors your site gets every month to how many times a person visits you. Here’s a few more metrics you’ll see in the dashboard:
What popular articles are.
How effective your writing style is.
The ways many people find you through search engines.
How do I make money?
When it comes to how you make money blogging, there are three general routes: display ads, affiliate marketing and self-hosting. Display ads are how more traditional “print” companies like the New York Times get revenue for running articles. It works with WordPress because if someone clicks on an ad, the company that sponsors that ad pays you for sending them traffic. On the other hand, Affiliate marketing means that when someone purchases something after clicking on your link. You get a small portion of what they spend. This requires more effort since many affiliates require their own sign-up process before having products linked to them.
If you go the route of self-hosting, the most often used method is Google’s AdSense. You add a code snippet on your site and, based on how people interact with it, you get paid.
How do I get readers?
One of the most significant benefits of in blogging is that every article has its RSS link. This means that anyone can subscribe to your content without ever having to visit your WordPress page. Because older posts are accessible, RSS feeds make it easy to read your blog.
If you’re going to get more readers, the easiest way is to make it easy for them to subscribe. Just post items that most people find useful anyway. Blogging is like any other business: how many sales someone gets depends on how well their product (in this case , how well you write) compares with what competitors are offering–and how good it looks when put into the contrast of its peers too. Just like how important design and functionality are on any website, research also goes a long way on how successful your articles can be.
WordPress Website Security
Security for your WordPress website should be of maximum importance. This is especially true if you have the WooCommerce plugin installed or you have proprietary information on your WordPress sites. One of the easiest ways for WordPress sites to be compromised is to install plugins that are compromised. Another is by failing to update essential plugins regularly.
The htaccess file is another avenue for bad actors to gain access to your website. Many dedicated WordPress hosts will remove or lockdown this file so it’s not a vulnerability.
Securing The Admin Area
The WordPress administrator dashboard can easily be accessed by weak passwords. Another common way is to grant admin permissions to someone who shouldn’t have it. WordPress Admin permissions should be as few as possible and their passwords should be secure.
“Websites for Small Business” may sound like a cheesy infomercial, but I promise we’re serious about the topic.
Your website is either helping or hurting your business. Sadly, it’s the later for many of the businesses that need it most – small businesses. A website for small business should be much more than a brochure, an online menu, or some contact information and a fancy logo.
It’s your calling card. Your brand. It’s your 24x7x365 sales/ customer service employee. It can take messages, greet potential customers, or even welcome back current customers. It might persuade prospects to use your products and services instead of your competition.
Or vice-versa.
Your website can answer questions or track and manage inventory. It can reach out to search engines to bring you more traffic from prospective clients. It can even tell you how people are finding it. Did I mention it can sell things 24 hours a day?
The fact is, the web has entered an era where a website can—and should be—a primary part of your business model. Customers shop based on how easily they can find information on your site and how it looks. Consumers investigate businesses online before stepping foot in a retail establishment or office. Today, people look for phone numbers and addresses on Google far more than they reach for a phone book (for you young folk this is a giant book they used to leave on your doorstep that had the phone number for all the businesses and people in your area).
With this in mind, here are five questions to ask yourself about your website—and these apply whether you have a site already or are planning on making one.
How can websites for small business make Life easier?
Sometimes, it’s as easy as building a Frequently Asked Questions page to help cut down time spent answering common questions. Sometimes it’s a more complex solution, like e-commerce, real-time inventory tracking, or something built around your business model. It could even be as simple as a forum where customers can help one another.
For restaurants, a well built site can take an order or reservation saving you both time and the potential for errors. Plus you get paid before you make anything…
Remember, your website works 24 hours a day. What could it be doing while you are at home with your family, enjoying a good movie?
Websites for small business should improve the overall operation of your company.
Does your website really represent the business?
Your business is your brand. When designing websites for small business it’s important that it authentically represents your business. If there is a difference between what your website communicates and what your customer ultimately experiences it can cost you. If your website sucks, they may not ever do business with you. Conversely, if your website sets high expectations and the customer experience underwhelms, you could lose future business.
Your website should accurately represent what a customer would feel if they walked into your business.
Is your website easy to use?
Actually, don’t ask yourself this question. Ask your customers. Ask your mother. Your grandmother. Next time you’re at your in-laws’ house for dinner, ask them to sit down on your web site and perform a specific task, such as finding a certain product, locating some specific information, or just surfing through it. Do not intervene. Just watch quietly and note where the stumbling blocks are. For your customers, send them an offer to get a 10% off coupon if they test your site and provide answers to a questionnaire about your site. You will begin to notice commonalities in the feedback you get, and those are where you want to start.
Do the search engines like websites for small business?
Search engines have become much more sophisticated over the years. It used to be that “clean” code and a bunch of links to your site could get you a higher rank. To a certain extent that’s still true, but as website builders have grown in popularity, their user friendly nature can come at a cost.
WordPress was among the first website builders and now powers tens of millions of websites – many of them small business. However, there are other platforms that have grown in popularity in recent years. Squarespace, Shopify, Wix, and Webflow are a few of the most popular.
Choosing the right platform for your small business website should be based on what you need it to do. The considerations range from technological competence to whether you plan on selling online, or not. Each service comes with it’s own strengths and limitations, so being clear on what you are trying to achieve is critical.
Among those strengths and limitations is how easily and effectively the SEO aspects of a website can me managed. Most of the platforms we listed do a decent job of the basics, but there are big disparities once you get beyond the rudimentary stuff.
How are people finding your site?
Once your site is up and running, there are a number of things you can do to help drive traffic to your site, many of them being quite simple. Search engine optimization is great, but it can take a while, and/ or incur a significant cost for a new website to generate meaningful traffic. Although this is an excellent way to build a long term stream of potential customers, there are other things you can do in the short term to help.
Start a business blog, making sure to keep it updated with real, useful information and content related to your business or industry. Make sure your blog has a link back to your site and vice-versa. Make sure your content is not just selling your business, but is useful and keyword-rich.
Get linked to (and link to) other sites. Google likes this and will ultimately improve where your site shows up in search engine rankings. Using Google My Business is like a secret weapon for increasing traffic to your website. Another option is to get you business listed on legitimate online business and industry directories. Just be sure to add your website links with links back to your site. Avoid getting into any arrangements with SPAM directories.
Share Your Website
Cross-pollinate with other sites like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, or any of the other social networking sites your customers use. More and more businesses are creating profiles on social networking and Web 2.0 sites. These profiles can ultimately act as another springboard to get more traffic to your site and to help you appeal to entirely new demographics.
Track your traffic. Take advantage of Google’s Webmaster Tools. Their Analytics product is simply powerful and there are multiple ways to display the data right on your WordPress website. Oh- and they are free. You can track your web site traffic, sources of traffic, paths users are taking through your site and even set up conversion goals to see how many people are following through with specific purchase paths. Did I mention it’s free?
So that’s it—a great starting point for you to use as a barometer to make your web site not only more useful to your customers, but also to you. If you would like a more in-depth consultation on how your web site may be able to help your business more, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
A repeatable way to make better business decisions.
Do you have a systematic “process” for making better business decisions?
I built a tool to help organizations, first for the company I was at, then more broadly for clients, to gain deeper clarity into diverse perspectives, better understand and articulate your own point of view, and when combined with a healthy dialogue, surface better solutions to whatever challenge your company faces.
Use it, change it, and share it if you like, but please give me feedback so we can continue to make it better.
I currently use a combination of a website form, Google Sheets, and some Zapier magic to organize the responses, but you could use other tools to get it done – even a pen and paper!
If you’d like a PDF version of the questions, let us know where to send it.
[fluentform id=”1″]
My form is organized into five sections with questions clustered around topics to stimulate responses that might otherwise go unexplored and help you make better business decisions.
Section 1
Decide what you are hoping to make a better business decision about.
Question:
What is the decision you are considering?
Section 2
What are you trying to accomplish or avoid with this decision?
Questions:
What are we trying to accomplish?
What is the primary reason for doing this?
What outcome are we trying to get by doing this?
Is there a phase or time where this decision will be more or less needed? Does it need to happen now?
Section 3
How does this decision align with our mission, objectives, and KPIs?
Questions:
How does this align with our mission long term?
How does this align with our objectives over the next quarter?
How does this align with our objectives over the next year?
Why should we do this?
What opportunities do we create by doing this?
How is this good for our company?
What results would this decision achieve to cause us to look back a year from now with hell yes! appreciation?
If you’d like a PDF version of the questions, let us know where to send it.
[fluentform id=”1″]
Section 4
What risks are we exposing ourselves too? The idea here is to play devil’s advocate even if you are in favor of the decision. What could go wrong if it doesn’t go right?
Questions:
How could this decision harm us?
What are the risks you’ve identified with this decision?
What are the risks you’ve identified with this decision?
What are other areas of our business could this impact?
What would happen if we didn’t do this?
Section 5
Anything Else? An open question for anything not covered in the other sections.
Questions:
Anything else you’d like to say or ask about the decision?
Who else should answer these questions on this decision?
Conclusion
This is what I’ve used to help my companies and coaching clients make better decisions. What do you think? Is this a format you would use? If not, how can we make it better?
If you have a WordPress website (or want one) check out our WordPress Website Management service. We can do thing like turn these questions into a form on your website that automatically gets emailed to all the people you want to have it!
Not only is it a great way to stay focused on your business, our team will keep your website updated and running fast and secure.
If you’d like a PDF version of the questions, let us know where to send it.
Whether or not you agree with Governor Inslee’s decision doesn’t matter. For the next four weeks starting tomorrow (Wednesday if you are a restaurant), many Washington State businesses are severely limited or shut down to in-person engagements.
What’s my approach to this situation? I say GOOD.
GOOD. is a phrase I adopted fromJocko Willink, but you could also use the stoic phase “Amor Fati” – or love of fate…as Friedrich Nietzsche said to “not merely bear what is necessary, still less conceal it….butloveit.”
not merely bear what is necessary, still less conceal it….butloveit.
LOVE IT.
To truly love the difficult, the unfair, the mundane, you must orient your thinking toward a growth mindset. A perspective where you suspend judging circumstances as good or bad, and all outcomes are an opportunity for improvement. It’s much easier to grovel and complain; or accept victimization, making it hard for many people to embrace this mindset.
Many years ago, I read a story, and now regularly share a version of it fromDerek Siversblog called the “Parable of the Horses.” I’ll let you read the story for yourself, but the essence is this: we don’t know what the future holds and don’t have nearly enough information to judge something “good” or “bad.”
Yourmindset, starting right now, will have a profound impact on your business, your health, your employees, your family, your community, and so much more. With a healthy perspective, you can benefit no matter what happens – pandemics, shutdowns, elections, booms, and busts, all are opportunities for growth and improvement.
What now?
To navigate the situation and maximize the opportunity for growth, we need to reprogram how we think. I’ve found a single phrase borrowed fromdesign thinkingto be profoundly effective. How might we…?
How might we…?
How might we…? is a mental exercise in the form of a question that suspends judgment of good vs. bad ideas and allows you to explore possibilities you may not otherwise consider. There are no wrong answers – only opportunities to improve and grow.
Do you own a restaurant that can’t seat customers? How might we delight our takeout customers?
Do you have a gym that must close? How might we continue to serve our members digitally?
Do you have a retail store that is limited to 25% capacity? How might we reach our customers online?
So how mightyoubenefit from Governor Inslee’s statewide restrictions?
If you have a product you want to sell, Kickstarter is a great place to start. Maybe you need funds for the initial production run, or maybe you just want to test your concept – either way it’s a great platform. There are lots of posts and books about how to run a successful Kickstarter project, but after doubling our targeted goal for SnapLaces we did a few things a bit different than what others have recommended. Obviously every project is unique, but some of the principals we used should still be valuable.
3 Simple Lessons for A Successful Kickstarter Project
First and foremost, we worked our asses off. Running a campaign is more than a full time job, and even with people splitting the work there was still a lot to get done.
We didn’t discount our product. Kickstarter is the one time in a products lifecycle where people might be willing to pay more just to help you out. Don’t make the mistake of discounting just to get backers. Most people underestimate what it will take to get a product to market, and even if you don’t, unexpected things can crop up.
We contacted everyone that backed us. Literally everyone. Their responses to our questions ultimately led to valuable insights and shaped both the tone of our campaign and the direction of our company.
A Successful Kickstarter Project is A LOT of Work
The amount of work a successful Kickstarter project requires is probably the biggest reason for failure. Having successfully managed a campaign and backed several others that were not successful, I can confidently state that there is a high correlation between the effort and result. The ones that didn’t interact with backers or actively engage, didn’t meet their funding goals.
We Didn’t Discount Our Product
Many Kickstarter projects offer discounts on the product being funded. We felt like that was a bad idea, especially at the under $50 price point we were in. We knew that we’d need over 1000 backers to be successful and lowering an already small price point would add to that number. More importantly the purpose of the campaign was to raise funds to pay for a new plastic injection mold, so we reasoned that backers would be preordering our product and helping us bootstrap the effort.
One thing we did do was offer a significant discount to a limit number of early backers to gain momentum. Your first week on Kickstarter is crucial because new projects are featured and people are much more likely to discover them. The “early adopter” reward allowed us to get the required momentum to become one on the top projects on Kickstarter which led to additional backers, but the limit made sure that we weren’t sacrificing our overall funding objectives.
Communication is Key
Prior to launching we studied other successful projects and one data point stuck out. Successful projects updated an average of 1.8 times PER DAY! This is where the bulk of the work came in. In addition to sending messages to every backer and responding to their questions, we tried to post 2-3 times every day on Kickstarter, as well as maintaining an active social media presence (active as in cultivating relationships, not just carpet bombing posts) on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Google+.
Communication is the key to success on Kickstarter.
Engage and communicate relevant information to people who have helped you (or would likely help you if only they knew you existed) is the most reliable way to have a successful Kickstarter project.
What Now?
The next project will definitely be better run and more organized, but if we can save you some time and misery by sharing than it will have been worth the time invested in reading.
As always, if you have a question or comment – just ask!
Hosting Deficiency Syndrome (HDS) is a serious problem plaguing the WordPress community. Symptoms include slow page load times, the need for caching plugins, poor security, out of date WP installations, terrible customer service, and more.
Fortunately there is hope.
The treatment for HDS is Managed WordPress hosting from www.GetFlywheel.com. Their dedicated team of hosting professionals will migrate your site for free and have your website operating better in no time.
If you, or a company you know suffers from HDS, please contact them today.
About Flywheel
Flywheel is an amazing WordPress hosting company based in Omaha, Nebraska (AKA The Silicon Prairie). They do an awesome job of managing WordPress hosting for design firms like us at Workshed.com. If your website is built on WordPress, check them out (Also they do free migrations, which is very, very, helpful). CONTACT FLYWHEEL
About Workshed
We approach design, marketing, and websites from a business owners perspective. Sure, we love cool tech just as much as the next geek, but we know that providing solutions to real business problems is a better way to provide value.
