If you want to know about me – visit my About page

Successful website RESOURCE page – behind the scenes!

Successful Garden Design Website

Wanna know how everything is done on this website?

I frequently get emails about how this site is set up and the journey I’ve taken to go from knowing nothing about blogging to having my own blog with membership area all within a few weeks.

Well it certainly wasn’t an easy ride and I would really have loved to have someone just tell me the best way to do everything, rather than the weeks of research I have had to put into this. So that’s what I’m doing for you here! And yes some of these are affiliate links by the way (well every bit towards the website running costs helps doesn’t it)!

Stage 1

Which web host to use (the skeleton of your website)?

Ok, first off, buy a domain name and then a host for the website – I do it all through Dreamhost as they were recommended to me by a web developer friend (Click here to visit Jeff’s site). He’s pro them because he does a ton of client websites (obviously!) and hasn’t had any problems and has found them to be very reliable not to mention extremely well priced.

They also have the added bonus of a one click installation of Wordpress (which is the blogging platform the website content sits in). If you want to try out Dreamhost if you enter this promotional code SUCCESS2 you will get $10 off the hosting fee.

A good alternative webhost I’ve tried recently for another website is InMotion they let you have multiple websites within the same hosting package at a very reasonable rate – so far their service has been excellent.

Traditional website or blog?

The first decision you need to make is the type of website to have – I went for a blog because I want to blog – but even if you don’t fancy blogging, don’t dismiss using a blog platform to run your website with. It’s a very cheap and easy alternative to traditional website because you don’t have to hire a web expert to make it look good and it can function like a normal site and not a blog. Updating your content is very easy, so no more relying on someone else to update your website. And there are things called Plugins which are usually free which you can add to your site to easily customise it with extra functions.

Which Blog Platform (the body of your website)?

Ok next up is WordPress itself – the good news with WordPress is it is completely FREE and it works in a similar way to a word processor. I don’t know how easy it is to upload WordPress to your web host manually because Dreamhost took care of that part. If you’ve never touched a website or blog before, WordPress does take a little getting used to but once you understand the difference between pages and posts then it’s pretty easy to use (if you want to know more check out the WordPress beginners guide).

So which WordPress Theme (the fancy clothes)?

Firstly, what the heck is a theme?! Well that’s like the clothes that make your WordPress blog look funky – the theme dictates the layout and the colour of your pages. There are a lot of free themes to choose from which is excellent because it keeps costs down…. or so I thought! Apparently, according to those who know, FREE doesn’t necessarily mean good. This is because of the coding, called CSS. If the code is messy, for want of a better expression, then Google has trouble telling the difference between what is code and what is your blog. Google doesn’t like that, you won’t get good ranking with messy code!

Do you want to rank well with Google?

Or is your blog just for you to let off steam with to a few friends and relatives? If you want to rank well you need good code behind the theme or Google will just pass you by as a waste of time. I was recommended to use The Thesis Theme for WordPress because it is ‘kicks ass’ on SEO (that’s search engine optimisation for those of you that have lives)!

What else is so ‘kick ass’ about Thesis then?

I did start out on the free themes route, until I knew better. One of THE most frustrating things with a FREE theme is the lack of control. Unless you really know what you are doing, you can’t change the colour or layout or anything. Thesis on the other hand allows you at the click of a button to change the colour, the font (on the whole site in one go, rather than having to change every page) you can decide what pages to have on the Navigation bar and change the name and order in which they appear – there’s loads more but you get the gist, you have the control to customise your site as you see fit and pretty easily too (for the basics). There are video tutorials and also a free forum where you can ask questions if you get stuck and you get FREE Thesis upgrades for life!

The great Thesis and Headway debate

Of course where there is one, there is going to be another. The big rival to Thesis is Headway – now I’ve not used Headway but a friend of mine, who has both, says it’s pretty much the same but slightly easier to change headers. I don’t know how good the search engine optimisation is – I do know Thesis is excellent – I was ranked no1 for Online Garden Design Tuition within 2 weeks of the site going live!

Now if you want to do anything fancy (and I didn’t know this at the time of purchasing) with either Thesis or Headway you need some coding skills. I found this frustrating as a newbie because I just wanted to press a button and have pretty navigation tabs and a header in the right place etc. Doesn’t work like that. But having said that, once you look at it, it really isn’t *that* hard to make changes. Whenever I need to do something, I do a google search and there is normally a website showing the exact piece of  code which I copy and paste into the Thesis css box and hey presto changes made.

The scary part

Well I found it scary because I didn’t know what I was doing but you probably won’t! Everyone kept telling me I needed to use an  FTP Client – what the ! is FTP? I think it stands for File Transfer Protocol or something like that – basically you have a little programme on your computer (I use CuteFTP for Mac) or use the free one that comes with your website hosting and all it does is take the files you select from your computer  and transfers them to your web host. It’s bit like posting a letter of files containing information (though a tad quicker). So if you have bought Thesis or Headway you get a file on your desktop when you’ve downloaded it – you then have to get the file to your web host so that it functions on your website. You also need an FTP client to transfer movies (if you self host the movie) and other large files to your website (there tends to be a 7mb limit to do it directly from WordPress – not an issue if you FTP it to where it needs to go).

Need help with it?

Blogging platforms are the cheapest and easiest way to have a website but if you don’t fancy doing it yourself I have some suggestions. I mentioned my friend Jeff earlier – he specialises in customising Thesis but he also has some package solutions take a look at Jeff’s site. Or another alternative is Wordprezzie , they also have a good and inexpensive theme that has customisable colours but not shape (not on Thesis format though but still has good code).

Stage 2

Ok so once your website/blog is up and running then what?

That all depends on what you want to do with your site. If you want regular contact with people who want to know about your blog and your services then a good way to do that is to set up an email list. Then you know you are only sending emails to people that are genuinely interested in your products and information. You do that with an autoresponder service.

Which autoresponder service to use?

There are a lot to choose from. I’ve only tried one because they were recommended to me by Sonia Simone and frankly anything she says goes! If you don’t know Sonia, she’ an absolute sweetheart – her thing is advising small businesses how to promote themselves without being yucky internet spammers or second hand car salesmen on commission! She has been in marketing for a while and has used a lot of autoresponder emails. Her advice was to go with Aweber Communication.

Why Aweber?

Simply because Aweber get more emails through spam filters than anyone else Sonia (the marketing expert) has tried – and she’s tried a lot of systems – some who charge significantly more than Aweber! The reason Aweber has such a high success rate is they have a very good communication with all the service providers and they do a double opt-in which basically means if someone complains that your email is spam, rather than shut your service down, Aweber can prove that you have permission to email that person. They’ve been as good as she said and no problems on delivery!

I sometimes find formatting an email difficult with their software so I now write the email in a Word doc or Mac Pages and then cut and paste it into the email rather than using their system – seems to be much easier!

Do you need a membership area for your website?

If you are setting up an online course or any area of your site that is for paid members only then you’ll need a way of keeping it private. The easiest way to do it is to use WishList Member – they have a WordPress plugin that enables you to link with PayPal and Aweber and you can then make certain parts of your website for members only. They have lots of great video tutorials which are very helpful as I hadn’t a clue what to do!

Stage 3

Need people to find you?

Other than Sonia who I already mentioned – my other favourite small biz marketing guru is Naomi Dunford from IttyBiz – she offer’s excellent, no nonsense advice. BE WARNED Naomi is as brilliant as she is unique – she is slightly prone to cursing – in a funny way but she does swear – don’t let that put you off (unless you can’t cope with humorous cursing!).

The most useful info on the net I’ve found is from Naomi (yes the one who swears!)

SEO School – this explains how to write your blog posts/ webpages effectively and make sure Google finds and ranks you well as a result- it’s the best and easiest to understand that I have read on the subject. Also tells you why you don’t want to optimise your website for the search terms you think you do! Very clever stuff to help you beat the competition. Click here to view more details

Marketing School - everything you need to know to promote your business in the right way, get your stuff found, in a non-icky way, VERY good advice. Click here to view more details

Even if you don’t buy anything from Ittybiz – still go and take a look at the blog – Naomi is very fun to read and offers good advice for anyone with a small business or thinking about becoming self-employed.

Step 4 Taking things to the next level

Just getting your blog or website up and running is only really the beginning. To get anywhere in life you need people. Going it alone isn’t an option. But how do you meet people? How do you strike up relationships with complete strangers and get them to help you promote your blog and your business efforts? Joining a group helps. One of the groups I’m part of is called the The Third Tribe.

What on Earth is The Third Tribe I hear you ask? It’s a group of the World’s most successful bloggers and entrepreneurs, together in one room, chatting and helping one another grow their business and network. It’s also a group of people that advise one another on the latest information, blogging tips. Basically if you’ve got a problem that needs solving, you can bet someone will have an answer in Third Tribe.

But it’s more than a group of likeminded people coming together helping one another. The ethos behind the Third Tribe is not to be a slimy sales person but a genuine, helpful person that delivers outstanding value to your readers and customers. Each week there are lessons from the successful and experienced people on how to get the best from your business. I’ve never met such an inspiration crowd of people. It’s a monthly fee of $47 per month, which will be rising to $97 soon (so get in now whilst they are building up content). You can try it for a month and if it’s not for you, cancel. Even one month with these guys will make a difference to your business – it certainly has with mine!

This is the kind of information you’ll get immediate access to in The Third Tribe:

• The Quick Start Guide to Making Money Online
• Building a Business Around a Blog Part 1 (Darren Rowse with Brian Clark)
• Building a Business Around a Blog Part 2 (Chris Brogan with Sonia Simone)
• Building a Business Around a Blog Part 3 (Brian Clark with Sonia Simone)

Plus this month we’ve got more great educational content:

• Building a Business Around a Blog Part 4 (Leo Baubata with Darren Rowse)
• Email Marketing Strategies that Work (Brian Clark and Sonia Simone)

That’s all for now, hope you have found the information helpful. If you haven’t tried having your own website before, don’t be scared, it’s not as hard as you think and there are lots of people offering free advice if you get stuck – so go for it!