Starting a new website can feel like slogging through molasses, trying to figure out how and where to begin. It’s also easy to get yourself into a sticky (and expensive) mess.

You worry about starting out on the wrong track and not realizing it until it’s too late – like when you’re driving an unfamiliar route, start turning right and then halfway round you realize that you should actually be turning left.

7 simple steps will keep you on the right path from woe to go. So what are they?

These are the Seven Simple Steps I recommend to my clients and friends.

Step One

Write your content, till it’s 70% ‘right’. Don’t worry about the other ’30%’. You’ll be continually improving it, and it will never reach ‘perfect’, so only aim for 70%.

How the heck do you figure out what content you need on your website? The first thing to do is to create a Site Map of how your content will be organized.

The Site Map is basically just a list of pages and subpages on your site.

It may look similar to this:

​​​​​* Home
* Who I help
* How I help
* Free Stuff
o Subscription confirmation page
o Subscription thanks and download page
* Blog front page
o Single Posts
o Search Results
o Archives – Date/Tag/Category/Author
* Products
o Product A – eBook
+ Thanks for purchase page
+ Download page
+ Feedback page
o Product B – eCourse
+ Thanks for purchase page
+ Confirmation of subscription to list page
+ Overview page
+ Lesson 1
+ Lesson 2
+ Lesson 3
+ Feedback page
o Product C – physical product
+ Thanks for purchase page
+ Feedback page
* Services
o Service A
+ Thanks for purchase page
+ Feedback page
o Service B
+ Thanks for purchase page
+ Feedback page
o Service C
+ Thanks for purchase page
+ Feedback page
* Resources/Affiliate products
* FAQ
* Testimonials
* Affiliate Program – Sign-up
o Thanks for signing up
o Affiliate Dashboard
+ Sales Report
+ Promotional banners and info
* Forum section
o Registration form
o Single topics
o Search results
o Member Profile
* About
* Contact

Uh-oh. What about the sidebars? (Sidebars are those narrow columns in a layout next to the main content area. They contain information of secondary importance. If you plan on using a large footer divided into areas, think of each area as a separate sidebar for this exercise.)

Then you need to think about how the sidebar information may change depending where you are on the site. For example:

* Home sidebar
* Blog front page sidebar (or none)
* Blog post sidebar
* Informational page sidebar
* Sales page sidebar (or none)
* Thanks/Confirmation/Download page sidebars (or none)

And then you need to write all the content for every one of those items.

Don’t be too overwhelmed – you probably already have most of this information already written down in some shape or form.

And you really don’t need to write all this content at once. Just start out with these five:

* Home
* Who I help
* How I help
* About
* Contact

Make sure you wear your visitors’ shoes when you decide what information goes where. If in doubt, find someone who would be your ‘ideal visitor’ and ask them what they’d want.

Step Two

Now it’s time to learn the difference between the two flavors of WordPress:

1. The free hosted service at WordPress.com

2. The self-hosted version of WordPress at WordPress.org (still free but you pay for hosting)

For a small business site, you really need to use #2 – the host-it-yourself version. But I’m different from everyone who says you need to jump straight into using the self-hosted version. I say it’s best to dip your toe in the water by signing up for a WordPress.com site first.

This isn’t meant to be the final resting place for your site – I’m suggesting you do it this way because it’s free, and it’s low risk – if you decide you don’t like it, you haven’t spent a cent on WordPress.

So, to get your feet wet with WordPress, create a free account at https://en.wordpress.com/signup/

Step Three

Tinker around with WordPress.com and see how it works.

Learn how to use WordPress

Step Four

Copy and paste your web pages into WordPress.com as ‘Pages’ and your articles (optional) as ‘Posts’.

Post vs.Page — Support — WordPress.com

Are You Abusing Your WordPress Pages – and Your Blog?

(You can actually combine the first four steps into one, by writing your content within WordPress.com. But you could get sidetracked by using a new ‘program’ to write in, so if that could possibly slow down your content-writing process, don’t let it. But if you can handle it, the content editor in WordPress is just as easy, if not easier, to use as Word or other word processor programs.)

Step Five

Sign up with a hosting provider. Your options are:

1. A normal hosting account

2. A managed WordPress hosting account

A ‘normal’ hosting account should cost under $10 a month, and often include registering your domain name* in the package. You’ll be responsible for keeping WordPress and any plugins you use up-to-date, and you’ll be responsible for keeping backups of your site’s files, and daily or weekly updated backups of the WordPress database (which contains all your content). This can be automated via a WP plugin, to make backups easier.

Also, you’ll need to install WordPress (the WordPress.org ‘self-hosted’ version) yourself, or hire someone to do it for you.

I recommend Bluehost and use it for many of my sites.

A ‘managed’ hosting account means that WordPress comes already installed on your account. And you don’t have to worry about upgrades/updates of WordPress or your plugins, or backups, because all that is handled automatically for you. It’s great for anyone who isn’t geeky. (Or even if you are geeky – I use a managed WP hosting account for my main site, as well as a normal account for other sites.)

Some people argue that a WordPress.com site is easier to use because you can’t break it and it’s all the geeky stuff is taken care of for you – but you sacrifice almost all your control in return. That’s no fun. But with a managed hosting account, you get all the benefits of a WordPress.com account plus all the perks of a WordPress.org site that you need for a small business website. It’s awesome.

You’ll pay $20 and upwards a month for this service, and it’s well worth the extra money. I use Pagely for my main business website.

If it didn’t come included with your hosting package, register your domain name. (That’s your website address – like http://trishacupra.com or http://blueowl.me) Note – you don’t own your domain name, it’s more like you rent or hire it on an annual basis. If you forget to renew it, you can lose it if someone else snaps it up. That can be a major disaster.

I use Namecheap.

Avoid GoDaddy – they seem very popular but a lot of that has to do with their affiliate scheme. I’ve worked with many different domain name companies on behalf of my clients, and I can tell you for sure that Namecheap is the best I’ve come across. GoDaddy is a real headache in comparison.

Step Six

Now you can export your content from WordPress.com to your new hosting account. (If you didn’t go with a managed WP hosting account, you’ll have to install WordPress first. If you chose a normal hosting account, it might have a simple set-up wizard called SimpleScripts you can use (I used to use Fantastico but I’m not fond of it anymore). If not, this may get complicated – talk to your hosting company’s tech support. WP has a famous ’5 minute install’ but who really enjoys setting up a database? )

It’s really easy to export your content from WordPress.com to your new WordPress installation on your hosting account.

Step Seven

Now that your content is on your own account, you can work on the design and extra features you want to add. The design is called a ‘WordPress Theme’. You can find lots of free themes in the official WordPress Theme Directory (which have been checked that they’re spam-free – don’t get free themes anywhere else). But you get what you pay for – these aren’t really suitable for a professional small business. (They suit hobby bloggers more.)

You can buy premium WP themes – some are great quality, others suck. Thesis, for instance, is marketed with lots of hype as being suitable for a newbie to create something fantastic with, but in reality it’s more suited as a blank canvas for professional web designers to start with. (I’m not saying it completely sucks – just that I believe it’s better as a framework for designers/developers, not so much for newbies.)

This is the point where it pays to invest some money in hiring someone who knows what they’re doing to design you a proper theme – someone who knows the principles of professional web design, and how to add extra features to your site by installing the best plugins (some are great, some will slow your site right down and possibly lower your ranking in Google).

Someone like me.

And if you’ve already got all your content in your WordPress site, you’ll save a good chunk of money because your web designer can work on the important stuff that only a designer can do, instead of spending lots of time putting your content in (which you’ve already done yourself).

Hiring a designer like me costs much less than what I paid for my second hand, ten year old car. My car doesn’t make me any money – it gets me around but it costs heaps to register and maintain.

A website, however, is an investment. It’s a vehicle that drives part of your business, and it does have maintenance costs, just like a car. But a website should be profitable – unlike my car, it makes money.

That’s why it’s worth investing as much thought and money into your website as you would with getting a vehicle.

Or you will end up with the equivalent of a broken down bicycle rather than a nice company car.

So stop slogging through molasses and trying to figure out which way to turn next, hoping that you’ll end up with website that won’t break down on you. Just follow these seven steps to success using WordPress.