Your website will need 3 main components

1. Domain (think of this like your street address)

2. Host (think of this like your city, where you live)

3. Content management system (think of this like your home)

I have done the research and I have found that a one stop shop is easier than buying or joining multiple sites to accomplish this.

Bluehost is my one stop shop. Not only is their hosting as low as 3.95 per month, but you get a domain free for one year! It is also connected to WordPress so you have your domain, host, and content management system in one spot! Click here to get started with Bluehost!

Once you decide your domain name and buy the hosting, that’s half the battle.

When looking into the extras…I just chose the Domain Privacy protection (This comes free at other domain purchasing sites like Google, so you can certainly buy a domain there first and not select this!)

Extras can be done easily with FREE plugins!

What the heck is a plugin? Well think of this as an app on your phone! You can enhance your site with limitless options through these plugins! But be careful not to install too many, because it can start to slow your site down. You can check your site speed for free at gtmetrix.com

Here are some of my favorite plugins:

Security: Wordfence plugin

SEO: Yoast SEO plugin

Social Sharing: Social Warfare

Mail Lists: Mailchimp

How to Install a Plugin:

• Go to your website
• Go to: Dashboard > Plugins > Add New > Search Plugins
• Search for the plugin you want
• Install
• Activate

So I need to sell product on my site-what do I do?

Woocommerce plug in – Then follow the setup wizard from the woocommerce site here

Squareup- a great way to take payments for products, get free $1000 processing here

I am not the expert on creating website while selling product, so it may take some time to get fully up and running!

Choose a Theme!

Popular Free Themes

Ashe- I started out using this theme, and I absolutely loved it!

Storefront – a great free theme if you have an online shop

Ocean WP- easily integrates with woocommerce as well

Popular Paid Themes

DIVI is by far the most popular paid theme! Click here to get it!

Avada is another popular theme

Customize your site

• Go to: Dashboard > Appearance > Customize

Your customization menu will look similar to this:

Specifically how to do this will look different depending on the theme you are using, but you may want to find a youtube tutorial specific to your theme if you need help!

Add a Page

You want to start by having a landing page to send people to. This can start out as an “about me” (or your business), but you will want to send your readers somewhere.

• Go to: Dashboard > Pages > Add New
• Then type out what you want to say
• Make sure your new page is set up as your .com homepage (the first thing they see when they get to your website) So select the name of that page here: Dashboard > Settings > Reading > Static Page

You are Ready to Launch!