How It’s Done
Whether I approach someone in need of a website or they approach me, there are several steps that I give them in order to get their website up and running. And my hope is that in the end, they feel as though they have control of their website and not me, knowing how to put the content on their pages or posts and do basic construction of their own site without my help needed. I merely want to be a catalyst to help others create the website(s) they need.
One question that someone might ask is, “Why wouldn’t I just do a free website through Blogger, Tumblr or WordPress? Good question! You absolutely can do a free website or blog through those websites. The only difference between that and what I do for people is that there are no ads and many other options of themes or design layouts.
Below are the few steps I ask of anyone who is going to work with me to create their website.
1. Go to godaddy.com and purchase a domain name for your website
* Costs anywhere from $6 – $15 per year for a domain name. That’s it! Usually you get a deal when you first buy one and then it can cost more each time you annually renew it (around $15 – $18).
* When purchasing a domain, all kinds of options are thrown at you to increase the price of your purchase, like “Privacy”, buying similar domain names with different suffixes, etc. Each option costs more money. For most, they don’t need to concern themselves with the extras. But if someone is a business, overseas missionary that needs privacy for security purposes, etc, then they might want to search it out and make more of an investment on their domain purchase. For most though, I advise them to skip all that and get to the payment process.
* The great thing is that there are always discount codes for GoDaddy which can be found through a Google search. Click Here for a link that will possibly help you find some of the latest codes.
* I create each website through WordPress and use the themes or design layouts of a company called Elegant Themes. I have access to all their theme layouts based on an annual cost.
2. So step #2 is to access the Elegant Themes website, preview their theme options until one is found that the individual(s) would like to use.
* Any of the theme options are fully customizable. So much of the website can be tweaked and changed, however each theme has specific elements that might not be found in other themes, such as a “Media Bar”, etc.
3. Once a domain name is purchased and a theme is picked, I then have the person send me the login for their GoDaddy account and the theme that they have chosen. I then connect their domain to my hosting, install WordPress and upload the theme they have chosen. It literally takes 30 minutes to do.
*After their basic website is set-up, I can then give them the instructions on how to access it.
4. At this point I then try and help design and set-up the basic look of the website based on discussion with the one I am building the website for.
* One thing that I cannot do, but is imperative at this stage of development, is provide the content for the website. That is up to those who I am seeking to help. So I encourage whoever I am serving to sit down and brainstorm their website’s navigation/menu bar. Those are the options that normally sit at the top of a website and lead to other content within the site. Once the navigation/menu bar is roughly configured, then the person(s) can begin to fill each page with the content they would like on that page. And lastly, figuring out what images, graphics, etc they want with their site.
5. Once the basic layout is done, the navigation bar is in place and content has been added, then I try and give a tutorial of how to use the basic features in the backend of the website to those I have built the site for. Hopefully leaving them with enough knowledge on how to continue with a majority of the changes they would like to make in the future.