Fridays with Vicky 157
When starting up a new website there’s a lot going on. If this is the first time you create a website you probably have some questions….
How do I create a website? What’s the easiest way to create a website?
I wasn’t planning on doing weekly reports but in the beginning, I will share in detail how I set up a website, how I do keyword research, how I hire a writer and more.
When we have all that taking care of it will be more of a monthly case study update with time spent and eventually, hopefully, an income to share.
I’ve had thoughts of possibly doing this as a start to finish project maybe a two to three-year project where I would sell the site at the end. I’m still deciding…
Would that be something that you as a reader would be interested in following? The full process of a 3-year-old site, from start to… sold?
This first week I spent most my time doing keyword research and setting up the site. This week we will cover the website setup, next week we will dive into keyword research.
Setting up a website or blog can be done quick and easy OR the more difficult way. Over the years I’ve probably tried most versions. There are a few main components that you’ll need no matter what route you choose.
You’ll need to decide on the following before setting up your website
- Domain
- Hosting
- Website platform to use
Let’s look at little closer at these three things.
How to Pick a Good Domain Name
Your domain will be your little corner of the internet. For this website, my domain name is – itsvicky.com.
- Domain name: itsvicky.com
- URL: https://itsvicky.com
So how do you pick a domain name?
You want something that’s relevant and brandable for your site.
Something that’s memorable.
I prefer to use .com it is one of the original TLDs (top level domain) and they rank well in the search engines. There are exceptions, for example, if you would target a specific country like Sweden you might want to use the .se instead.
I usually brainstorm ideas write a ton of different ones down. Come up with a word that is somewhat relevant to what I want to do on the site. To get domain ideas on that specific word I use a domain generator to get even more ideas…
Domain Suggestion Generators:
Hopefully, these tools can help you find an angle and a domain that will work for your site.
You want your domain to be…
- .com
- easy to remember
- brandable
- memorable
- not too long
Where to Get Your Domain?
For this project I will be using Wealthy Affiliate for both domain and hosting, it’s a case study site and I wanted to try something new. I’ve never gotten a domain from them but the process was super easy I share it below.
How to Pick a Web Host
I have tried a few hosting companies throughout the years, and you want the following to be provided by your web host:
- Reliability
- Security
- Load your site fast
- Little to no downtime for your site
There are a ton of options when it comes to web hosting, and they will all have their angle to why you need to choose them.
Something you want to consider is to get the SSL to make your site https certified. This will make your site more secure. Some hosting companies will charge you a hefty amount for doing this.
For this project, I will go with the Wealthy Affiliate hosting program, where they also include the https in your premium membership.
How to Pick Platform
There are many different platforms to use, one of the most common one and the one I use is WordPress. WordPress is user-friendly and pretty easy to learn if you spend some time with it. One of the great advantages of WordPress is that you can get away with no coding. WordPress use plugins to add functions to the site.
There are plug-ins for pretty much everything and anything you would want to do with your site. Say you want to add social media share buttons to your site, there will be a plugin to do it. Say you want to add backups to your site, there will be a plugin for it. Say you want to add a contact form to your site… yes, there will be a plugin for it.
The plugin will allow you to add all these functions to your site without doing any coding at all.
I’ve been working with WordPress for years and are very happy with the platform.
Putting these three things together, domain, hosting and WordPress, what are your options?
The Easiest Way to Create a Website
Domain + Hosting + WordPress + Online Marketing Training
For this case study site, I had already decided to go with the quick and easy rout when it comes to domain and hosting, using Wealthy Affiliate. I’ve been a member there for 10+ years, but never set up a complete site with them, meaning bought my domain from them and hosted my site there.
The beauty of using Wealthy Affiliate is that if you are a premium member SiteRubix hosting (Wealthy Affiliates own hosting program) is included, even the secure https option.
If Wealthy Affiliate is new to you, let me share who would benefit from their program:
- If you are new to blogging and affiliate marketing, Wealthy Affiliate will walk you through step by step the whole process of setting up your site, how to get traffic and how to make money with it.
- They also have a great community where you can get instant help if you run into issues.
- Wealthy Affiliate works, the daily success stories from members proves it.
- Wealthy affiliate makes it easy… You can purchase your domain with them, have your WordPress website hosted right there alongside the training you need to get going.
- They have a free membership and a premium membership. Kyle the owner outline the difference between free and paid membership here.
Why Consider the Premium SiteRubix Hosting?
Within a couple of minutes, you can have your own site set up if you follow these steps:
- Create Your Wealthy Affiliate Account Here
- Get your domain name
- Create a website on the domain you purchased
I will happily recommend Wealthy Affiliate to you, but I want to let you know that If you decide to buy through my affiliate link, I may get a commission. This will not impact the price for you in any way, but it will help me continue running this site. Thank you!!
1. Create Your Account by Signing up with Wealthy Affiliate
2. Get Your Domain Name
When you are logged in, go to the sidebar on the left and click SiteRubix – SiteDomains.
Here you will be able to search for available domain names.
When you find the domain you are looking for, you can add it to cart and purchase it.
You fill out your contact details and choose your payment method. You can use a credit card, PayPal or WA credits to buy your domain.
It can take from a few minutes up to 24 hours to get the registration complete, for my domain it took a couple of minutes, it was done very quickly.
3. Create a Website on the Domain You Purchased
Now you are ready to set up your website.
Go to SiteRubix – SiteBuilder and you will get the option…
Chose “on a domain I own” and pick the domain you just purchased.
Enter the website title. Don’t stress over this too much it can be changed on your site later.
Choose the wp theme the design for your website. You want to pick a clean looking theme with a layout that you like. Again, this can be changed later so don’t spend too much time with it.
That’s it your site can now be created.
Super simple and easy. Having both domain and host at the same place makes things a lot easier if you are new to this. I remember how I pulled my hair out the first time I got my domain from one place and the hosting from another and then with changing the DNS settings tried to connect the two…
This makes the process super easy.
When your website is installed there are a couple of things you want to double check on the Wealthy Affiliate side of things. You want the Sitespeed, SiteSSL https and the SiteProtector to be ON.
When you have your site set up, there are two ways to access the backend of your website.
- Directly within WA ( go to SiteRubix – SiteManager and click “log in”)
- From the site ( go to your url/wp-login.php)
You could now be logged into your very own website!
Domain + Hosting + WordPress
Another great place to get your website set up is BlueHost. This is for you if you feel that you don’t need the online marketing training.
With BlueHost, you can get the domain and hosting in the same place for your WordPress blog. It’s quick and easy to set up, but you are left to figure out the marketing piece for yourself.
Here’s why you should consider BlueHost and the steps needed to get started.
Domain and Hosting Separate
This is how I started out 10 years ago. I got my domain in one place and my hosting from another company. This is a little more tricky, nothing that can’t be done but you do need to know how to point your domain to your host using DNS settings.
An example would be to get your domain from one company and point that to another outside hosting company. It sure can be done but not the easiest way to get started.
Why would you consider going this rout? If you want to host a lot of sites for a good price that would be the main reason.
To sum things up, and answer the question: How do you create a website? You’ll need three things to get your website set up, domain, hosting and a platform to use. What direction will you be taking for your site? Where will you get your domain and hosting? I would love to hear your thoughts feel free to share below,
I did have time to do a few more things with the site for this first week. I got some keyword research done, next week I will be going through that process. I also wrote a sample article that I can share with the potential writers that I want to hire.
Time spent: 5 hours
Total hours spent on site: 8 hours
Main tasks: Set up the website. Keyword research. Sample article.
Week: 1
Great Related Reads:
- Wealthy Affiliate Review
- Create a Website in Under 30 seconds
- Setting Up Your Website the Initial Steps
- BlueHost Review
- Amazon Case Study Site with Income Report
Have a productive week!!
Vicky
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