Wouldn’t it be great if you could short-cut the process, save the three grand and
build your own website? The money could be put to many other uses when you’re starting out.

This guide has been put together to help people with big ideas and small start-up funds who want to get their idea off the ground as quickly and cost effectively as possible; it’s for those who need to bootstrap their website development and build a website without breaking the bank.

Whether you’re in need of a small business website or you just want to setup a personal blog, this guide will help get you up and running.

I’ve been helping small businesses and start-ups market themselves online for a little over 10 years now. Although I no longer accept clients, I still want to help as many people as I can make their own website.

LET’S BE CLEAR: The instructions in this site will help you get a website up and running quickly and cheaply, they are not aimed at turning you into a website building expert (although the lessons are a good place to start.

The software used by the method are also used by many professional web developers, so you can easily get help from a professional if required.

COSTS: There’s no such thing as a free lunch and no matter what path you take there are some costs associated with making a website. Here are the basic costs involved in building and maintaining a website:

• Domain Name (www.yourdomain.com): $11 per year
• Hosting: $10 per month (approx.)

Yes, that’s it! Running your website should cost you about $130 per year.

The tutorials here will give you the ability to take control of your own website and remove the need to pay through the nose every time you require a change to your website.

I’ve helped 100′s of small businesses develop websites using a variety of tools and methods and the one I’m about to show you in this guide is by far the easiest and cheapest.

This free 14 step guide will show you the easiest way to build a website without having to know anything about web development.

Ready to get started?

Step 1: Register a domain name.

WordPress is a very popular blog and CMS software used by millions of people all over the world. One of the best features of WordPress is the ease of changing themes. WooThemes takes this one step further by providing beautiful, functional themes complete with elegant administration.

All the themes from Woo are built on a custom framework. This concept allows for easy administration, superior SEO and customization that will make theme exactly what the site owner needs. All themes can be updated from the WordPress backend, eliminating the need the need to download again and reinstall. The framework is a timesaver for both personal and business sites.

WooThemes currently offers 90 different themes, many created by top designers, ranging from simple blogging to complex CMS setups. All themes are well documented and highly supported with tutorials, videos and even a WooCodex. There is also an active support forum so customers can help each other, as well as get assistance from the site itself.

The site offers several different pricing structures. The first tier is packages, which are Standard, Developer and Enterprise. All packages include updates and access to support. Photoshop files and bonus themes are included with the Developer package and the Enterprise Package allows for advanced functionality. The second tier is the Theme Club, which requires a startup fee and a monthly payment. Club members have access to all current themes, updates, support and will receive two new themes each month. The club also allows for themes use on unlimited domains, which is very attractive to people running many websites.

As an added bonus, WooThemes offers all customers the opportunity to become an affiliate and earn a 20% commission on all themes sold through their affilitate link. Woo also throws in another 10% if the sale becomes a subscriber.

WordPress is an amazing platform and WooThemes makes it more fun and beautiful.

Browse Woothemes Premium WordPress Themes

The version of WordPress that we recommend in this guide is a free piece of software that is easily installed on your website hosting platform.

While WordPress was initially intended as a blogging platform, it is now widely used to build websites.

There are over 50,000,000 WordPress websites in the world (at the time of writiing), so this give you an indication of it’s popularity.

• ns1.somename.com
• ns2.somename.com

Your website need to live on a computer somewhere so that people from all over the world can access it 24/7. Hosting services provide you with space on a computer, otherwise know as a web server, in a highly equipped data center. Hosting providers look after all the technical hardware maintenance and support so you can focus on your website.

It doesn’t really matter where your website is hosted, so long as it is hosted by a reputable dealer.

I use and recommend Hostgator hosting. Having used Hostgator for over 3 years, I know their support is top notch and their pricing is reasonable.

If you’re only going to be building 1 website,  then use a Hostgator Baby account. If on the other hand you’re going to be building multiple website, buy a reseller hosting account.

While most agencies charge an arm and a leg, I can recommend a service that will help you get up and running for a minimal fee. Package start at as little as US$295.

Before you rush off and order you’ll still need to:

1. Register a Domain name
2. Purchase a hosting plan

Order a Super Fast Website

Search Engine Optimisation, or SEO, will help get your website ranking towards the top of Google for certain search terms. The higher you rank, the more traffic your website will receive.

The best way to get your website ranking higher is to build links from other websites back to your website, otherwise know as “backlinks”.

If spending a couple of hours per week trying to convince other website owners to give you a backlink isn’t your idea of a good time, then get the experts to do it.

I use and recommend SEO Partner.

They have packages starting from $147 per month which includes the following backlinking techniques:

• 1 Original Written article
• 1 Manual Re-write Article
• 80 Spun articles from seed articles
• 50 Manual Article Submissions
• 250 Automated Article Submissions
• 5 One-Way Backlinks (manually submitted)
• 15 Social Bookmarking Sites
• 3 Web 2.0 posts
• 10 Link Directory Submissions (Can be GEO specific)
• Create 2 Squidoo lenses and 2 Hubpages and interlink them for you
• 1 WordPress.com and 1 Blogger.com blog linking to main domain and sub-pages
• Submit RSS feeds from Web 2.0, 3 Article Sites, Squidoo and Hubpages to Multiple RSS directories
• Ping 90 sites for EACH new web property

Order Your SEO Starter Pack

There are two important aspects to consider when registering a domain name:

• Branding vs Keyword domains
• Geography

Let me explain…

Brand vs Keyword

What do I mean by Brand vs Keyword? For example: www.ipod.com vs www.mp3player.com.

iPod is a brand that has become synonymous with an easy to use personal MP3 player. Or as Apple says in their marketing: 1000 songs in your pocket. In the long term, the branded domain has much more value than the keyword domain. You can trademark a domain so no one else can use it and therefore it becomes unique to your business.

If you already have a business name you plan on developing into a brand, then I recommend using your brand name as your domain. Although your brand name may have nothing to do with what you sell (just like www.apple.com), in the long run, a unique solid brand name can be extremely valuable.

If you’re testing the waters, setting up a niche website, or are highly focused on one niche category of product, then try to register a keyword domain, for example: www.mp3players.com. Search engines love keyword rich domains which means you should be able to rank higher in search engines quicker.

Geography

You have the choice of registering a global style domain name or a local domain. Global domain names take the form of mybusinessname.com, (or .net or .org) while a local domain name is one that is unique to your country. These take the following naming convention:

• Canada: .ca
• Australia: .com.au
• UK: .co.uk
• New Zealand: .co.nz
• See Wikipedia for more

How do you decide which one to register? A simple rule of thumb: if your business trades locally, register a country level domain, if you trade globally, register a .com.

In other words, if you sell a physical product that you want to sell online and ship, then in most cases, go local. Go with a domain name relevant to your country or geographic area such as .co.uk.

If you sell a digital product such as an ebook or software, then you can sell your product globally, in which case, shoot for a .com, .net or .org. Please, don’t go for a .info – they aren’t worth the $2 it costs to register them.

Where to Register A Domain Name

For global domain names, these are the two domain registrars I recommend for .com, .net or .org:

• GoDaddy (I’ve always used Godaddy and highly recommend them)
• Namecheap

For country based domain names, find a local registrar who’s reasonably priced. Don’t use the most expensive or the cheapest – you get what you pay for. Just do a search for “your country domain registration” on Google.

Take Action Time!

Go and register your domain name. It’s the first essential step on the road to making your own website, and at about $10 it’s a cheap investment in your business.

Next step: Setup a Website Hosting Account.

Here’s some tips and recommendations for choosing a website hosting provider:

Unlike domain name registration, it doesn’t really matter where your website is geographically hosted. Some of the most cost effective and reliable hosting providers are based in the US and will give you all the bells and whistles you need to get you up and running.

Personally, I’m a big fan of Hostgator.com (aff). I’ve been using them for over 3 years and I can vouch for their support and their up-time. You can host a single website with them for as little as US$4.95 per month or if you think you might want to build more than one website, you can host an unlimited number of sites with them for US$7.95 per month.

There are of course, 100′s of website hosting providers. If you want to compare apples with apples to make sure you’re getting the best deal from Hostgator, then check out Dreamhost or Bluehost. But whatever you do, don’t try to scrimp and save here – it WILL come back and bite you in the ass later.

Action: Purchase hosting from Hostgator

Point Your Domain Name to Your Hosting Account

This title may sound a little confusing… breath. Let me explain.

We need to tell the people you registered your domain with (Godaddy, Namecheap etc), where your website is going to live (Hostgator, Dreamhost etc).

When you purchase your hosting, your hosting provider will send you an email with some info including your Name Server details. The format differs from provider to provider but it should look something like this:

Your name servers:
nsXX.something.com
ns.XX.something.com

To add these details to your domain name at your Domain Name Registrar (GoDaddy, Namecheap etc), login to your Domain Name account and find the Name Servers Settings option. Here’s what it should look like if you registered with GoDaddy:

Once you click the Nameservers button, you should get a pop up that looks something like this (click to view full size):

Now just type in your name server details for Nameserver 1 and Nameserver 2. It’s unlikely you will have details for 3 and 4. Click OK and you’re done!

That really is the hardest part of this course, everything from here on in is a breeze!

Step 3: Setting Up WordPress