You want to start a blog or a website. You want something easy and widely used. You don’t have the time or inkling to become a mastering coding genius, and you’re afraid to screw up something because you’re not sure how to fix it.
You want it done yesterday. And it’s got to be dirt cheap because you aren’t made of money.
The Good News Is That I Can Help You
First, just so you’re not shocked and dismayed, there is some fine print (hey, what kind of lawyer would I be if I didn’t have some fine print?) The biggie is that the price I’m quoting for this service is good only if you don’t have website hosting set up yet.
Why? Because when we work together to get your WordPress blog set up and installed, I’m going to have you to through a special link that I have set up with Hostgator, my web hosting company of choice. That link will get you a hosting package for $81.72 (pick their “Hatchling” Plan) including the domain name you have them register for you as part of the setup process and will pay me a commission. You, however, will not pay a dime extra for the hosting – I promise.
Some people get bent out of shape about affiliate marketing and commissions. If you’re one of those people, I understand – but I’m not going to be able to help you with your WordPress blog installation. I make my money off the hosting company – not you. So if you choose your own hosting that’s cool but I’m not the guy for you.
Here’s What I Will Do For You
- Install and configure the latest version of WordPress software on your web hosting account (i.e. “put up a blog for you”)
- Upload a theme of your choice (which determines your blog’s “look”) and make it active so that your blog doesn’t look like everyone else’s. Just to be clear, we’ll be using one of the thousands of free WordPress themes out there – all you need to do is go to Google, search for “free WordPress themes” and let me know which one you like; if you prefer, I’ll just install it with the basic theme.
- Install add-on software(”plug-ins”) that will help your exposure in the search engines, let people share information on your site on social networking platforms, make your blog run faster, fight spam and back up the blog regularly. Specifically, I’ll install and activate these plug-ins:
- Google XML Sitemaps
- All-In-One SEO
- Sociable
- WP-Super-Cache
- WordPress Database Backup
- WPTouch iPhone Theme (allows people browsing on their iPhone, BlackBerry, Palm or Android device to see your site in a mobile format)
- Tell you where you can write posts, add pages, and generally make the blog your home online.
- Provide you with an instructional video on how to put up posts and pages on your shiny, brand-new blog.
What I Will Not Do For You
- Blog migration from one service or platform to WordPress. If you need that service, drop me a line. I can handle importing your posts from Blogger, TypePad, LiveJournal and WordPress.com pretty quickly.
- Setting up WordPress on an existing domain. If you’ve got an existing domain, that’s fine. But I can’t do the freebie WordPress installation for you.
- Personal blog tutoring. I can help with this – from search engine optimization to content generation ideas – but it’s not included in this package. Once you’re all set up and done, you’ll make your own decision on whether to get one of my coaching courses or invest in one-on-one consulting. One step at a time.
- Support and Maintenance. Anyone who knows me can tell you that I’m pretty free and easy with simple questions.This is not a technical support and maintenance contract. If your blog goes down or it breaks, you’ll need to start by calling the hosting company. I offer a variety of video courses to help you learn how to use various features and function of WordPress, plugins and stuff like that. Today we’re looking to get you up and running.
- Graphic Design. I’m not a graphic designer. I know some, and I’m happy to give you a recommendation to my graphic designer to help you out with a custom header or buttons or whatever you like.
- Purchase Or Configure Any Paid Themes Such As Thesis Or Headway. If you want to buy them, I’ll install them at no cost so long as you use the special affiliate links I have for Thesis and Headway. But I’m not going to dig into the code and do customization work on these platforms. Again, I know people who can help with that – but it’s not me.
Don’t worry. WordPress is easy, and the intro video I’ll give you will show you how to do most of the basics. Really.
How Much Am I Going To Charge You For This?
For the hosting and domain name it will cost you $81.72 per year. That’s going to continue for as long as you keep your blog hosted, which I hope is going to be a long, long time.
For my service it will cost you a grand total of $0. Why? Because when you sign up for hosting using my link I get a commission from the web hosting company. It doesn’t add a penny to your cost, and you get the free add-on service I provide.
And before you go off about how I’m selling you a second-rate hosting plan let me be clear – I use the same company. All of my sites are hosted by them. Period. So if it’s good enough for me, I’m comfortable recommending it to you.
Here’s What You Need To Do Now
Interested? Ready to get rolling? Just scroll down to the big Add To Cart button at the bottom and click on it to be taken to the order page.
But if you need to know more about the procedure I follow, no problem. Here’s how it’s going to work:
- Once you pay, you’ll get an email from me with detailed instructions on how to signup for Hostgator. You’ll follow the simple directions I give you to set up your account (that’s where you give them your credit card number for the hosting, so I don’t see it).
- I provide you with a step-by-step process for finding a theme for your WordPress blog. There are literally thousands of them out there.
- I will give you an email address for you to send your Hostgator login information and theme choice so I can get cracking.
- Within a few days, I set up your blog and send you an email.
- I tell you how to get to the new blog and its administration panel, which is where you’ll write posts and all of the fun stuff.
That’s pretty much it. You could be online with a WordPress blog on your own domain in under a week.