HOW TO CREATE A WORDPRESS WEBSITE

Having a great online presence immensely boosts our chances of getting hired as freelancers. Want to know how to create a wordpress website? Read on..

Choosing the right platform to base your site on is pivotal if your site will be successful in the long run. Most businesses and large companies recommend WordPress CMS (Content Management System).

Here is why WordPress is Worlds Number 1 CMS

  • You don’t have to be a geek to use wordpress- It’s targeted for ordinary users and enhanced with easy to use tools, widgets and thousands of plugins- mostly free that allow you to customize almost every detail of your site.
  • You have hundreds of themes to choose from- you could be creating an online shop, an online school, a blog or even a studio, there should be a theme to fit you, both free and paid.
  • It’s considered to be SEO friendly- a website which can’t rank in search engines won’t bring any money. This is the reason that makes SEO so lucrative. By its design, word press is optimized to be light, fast and easily indexed by Google and other search engines.
  • WordPress is free- Can you believe that you get all these incredible features without having to pay a penny? You use wordpress for life without ever paying anything.
  • Enhanced security features- you don’t want to wake up one morning to find your site down. Word press has excellent security plugins such as Worddefence that will block and alert you about malicious attacks.
  • Excellent support- wordpress has millions of users worldwide, forming a large community who meet in various wordpress forums. You will get an answer for any of your wordpress questions from these forums.

This is how you build your first wordpress website

STEP 1: Register a domain name

A domain name is your online identity. For example, the domain name for this site is freelancingbuddy.com

We choose freelancingbuddy since our blog is all about helping people succeed as online freelancers. .com is out tld (top level domain). The choice of .com was influenced by the fact that we didn’t want to limit ourselves to just helping freelancers from any particular countries- rather our services are aimed at a global audience and globally, .com remains the most credible tld.

You are free to choose any other tld. Go for .tech if you are in technology and feel comfortable with it. There are hundreds of other tlds such as .net, .org, .online. Since the internet is one free community, feel free to go for any.

 

There are tens of web hosting companies offering domain registration services. I would recommend you register a domain name as you buy hosting to simplify the process. I like experimenting with buying a domain name and hosting differently and found the entire process lengthy and cumbersome. Certainly it is not something you can enjoy as a beginner.

Interestingly, you may decide to go for a free domain name from https://wordpress.com/log-in

The only problem if you choose to use a free name is that your brand will be a subdomain. So, let’s say you choose a domain name like besttranscriber. Your address will be besttranscriber.wordpress.com. This has three major problems;

  1. The name is quite mouthful and hard to remember.
  2. It hardly inspires confidence in the brand seeing it’s a sub-domain.
  3. Free sites hosted on wordpress.com are not fully customizable.

Having a unique brandable domain name is crucial for your online success. That is why I recommend you go for a paid for domain name. Domain costs as little as $14.95 p.a

Be creative and choose a domain name which is;

  1. Unique
  2. Short and easy to memorize
  3. Easy to spell and smooth to pronounce
  4. Brandable- you can easily build your reputation around it
  5. Not associated with negativity
  6. Doesn’t violate other company’s copyright e.g you can’t use the name com

 

STEP 2: Buy hosting

For your website to generate income, it needs to be available on the internet 24/7. This is where buy hosting comes in. Buying web hosting means you secure space on a server where your website will be uploaded so that it can be available 24/7/365 to users.

When choosing a webhosting package, consider the following;

  1. The number of websites allowed in your hosting package
  2. Hard disk space
  3. Traffic supported per day
  4. Does it allow site transfer?
  5. Do you get a site builder?
  6. How many email accounts
  7. Support
  8. Do you get SSL ? Is it free or paid for?
  9. Do you get cloudfare?
  10. Do you get a backup option?
  11. Money back guarantee
  12. How may apps to install?
  13. CPANEL

Where to Buy Hosting

Out there, you will meet thousands of hosting companies all competing for your attention. And they will bombard you with a million reasons why you should choose them. It can easily get confusing!

When I started, I started with one of the small hosting company in our country. They had offered me a price I couldn’t resist and I jumped in.

But I soon realized that any time I needed support, they would take upto 36 hours before replying. I also realized that my site was occasionally going offline especially  when traffic shot up.

That meant lost income..

When time came to renew, I dropped them like a stone!

Since I didn’t want to repeat the same mistake twice, I scoured the web for information about the best web hosting company. I read reviews, talked to experts and even enrolled for trial plans. After a whole 3 months of trial and error, I settled for  Siteground  …tell you what? I have never been this satisfied!

What I like about SiteGround

  • Flexibility

You can always upgrade or downgrade your hosting plan based on your needs. Just log in to the user area and you are ready to go!

  • Speed

If you would like Google to fall head over heels in love with your site, ensure you optimize it and have it load as fast as possible.

Siteground have a unique formula for speed. I am talking of features like PHP caching, plus reverse proxies, which allows you to change configurations to minimize site load time. They also have wordpress “boosters” an add-on that increases load speed.

  • Support

I once had an issue with my wordpress setup. I emailed support and to my surprise, they immediately opened a ticket, worked on my configuration and emailed me within 3 hours to alert me that they had checked everything.

Don’t forget their live chat is available 24/7

  • You are dealing with real people- guys who care

So, you have real people there – people who care about your site! How? Anytime I have called the team, they first take time to listen to my problems and then answer my questions comprehensively. You can feel the warmth-they sound as if they are genuinely interested in helping you succeed.

  • Affordable hosting packages

Price starts from as little as $3.95 per month for shared hosting.

  • Easy wordpress installation

You can download WordPress and install it yourself – the process is very straight forward. Amazingly, if our get stuck along the way, you can request support to install it for you.

  • Fantastic cPanel interface

Even if you are a beginner, you will find their cPanel very simple to use.

  • They are safer

You get SSL installed for you at NO COST.  Ordinarily it would cost you $30-$50 a year- . Remember Google nowadays prefer sites on HTTPS (with SSL).

  • What else?

Siteground is full of goodies! You also get free transfers from other hosting providers, Unlimited emails, Cloudfare, Backups, Automatic wordpress updates ….It’s a full basket of freebies!

So, Why not have peace of Mind by Claiming Your Offer?

We recommend only the best- what we have tested and used. And we don’t stop there..we go a step further and negotiate the best deals with the companies.

That is what we have done with Siteground. Claim your Hosting Offer from SiteGround Here

Step  by Step Guide on Buying Hosting From Siteground

 

Step 1: Click here

HOW TO CREATE A WORDPRESS WEBSITE

Step 2: Click see hosting plans and choose your best plan by clicking get started. Let’s assume you choose start-up

HOW TO CREATE A WORDPRESS WEBSITE

Step 3: Choose register new domain(if you don’t have a domain name) or enter your exiting domain name (if you already have one)

HOW TO CREATE A WORDPRESS WEBSITE

I don’t have a domain name if click register new domain, type my chosen name (it must be unique) and click proceed

I chose makavelicom.com then clicked proceed. This is the window I get:

Step 4: Review and complete

HOW TO CREATE A WORDPRESS WEBSITE

Enter all the relevant information- your email address, set up a quality password, then enter the information required in the client information area and then under the payment information

 

Then choose the period. You may click at any other service you want under extra services

HOW TO CREATE A WORDPRESS WEBSITE

Step 5: Click to confirm you have agreed to the Terms of Service then click pay now. You will then be taken to the checkout window.

 

 

Proceed to check your email inbox for a message from Siteground and follow the instructions on how to log in to your cpanel(This should take a few minutes)

Do not forget to verify your domain name and hosting service later one- you will get an email to this effect. Just follow it.

Finally, it is time to install wordpress.  Follow these steps

CONGRATULATIONS! YOUR WORDPRESS WEBSITE IS NOW READY FOR CUSTOMIZATION.

Read the 7 reasons why Online Freelancers need a website

In the next tutorial, we will answer the question how to create a wordpress website in a more detailed fashion..

 

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