I believe that every business should have a website. But I also believe that every individual should have a website too. Whether you want to find your dream job or simply share your cooking skills, you better have a website.
Can you earn money with your website?
I’m going to start by saying that you can make money with your website but not right away. Most likely you won’t make any money in the first year or two. In other words, be aware that this is a long-term game and you need to put a lot of work into it in order to actually get some return. And by return I don’t mean placing ads on your website but, for example, with the thing called guest posting which is letting other people publish articles on your website for money. However, you need to really build a big audience and strong brand in order to do that.
Another way which is more likely to happen sooner is when someone finds your website and they want to hire you or buy your services/products. Even if you’re a healthy chef and you post your recipes just for fun, someone might actually hire you to come to their place and cook for VIP guests. Or if you have your pet and you simply want to show this little creature to the world, someone might contact you for a new pet commercial. You have to think outside the box here.
I have seen this hundreds times usually on Instagram live when musicians, actors, entrepreneurs went live and they were looking for people to talk to. And then there is a person who says they paint/create jewellery or whatever and they show them their products. They have an opportunity of a lifetime here to be seen by thousands of people and promote their not even yet business. The response from their idol on the other side of the chat is amazing, they’re amazed! And then the simple question comes:
Do you have a website?
If you reply no, they will immediately tell you to create one and basically that’s where it ends. They might not even follow you or be interested anymore and you know why? Because they can see that you’re not serious about this if you don’t have a website. That means that if they wanted to help you or spread the word about you or buy something from you, it would be a one off thing because you didn’t put any effort into promotion yet so why would you do it now?
But imagine if you said yes and they could look at it right away and big things can happen. They could look it up as you speak on their Macbook and literally and immediately buy something from you.
But because you didn’t think this would ever happen, you didn’t even bother to create a website. I call this ceasing the opportunity or in this case missing it. Be prepared for anything. Always.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=botnMPnNv78&feature=youtu.be
Where to start when creating a website?
But let’s get back to the topic. You might think that creating a website is very difficult and you can’t do it alone if you want it to look good and professional. Of course, a customized, originally designed and programmed website is much better but if you’re on a low budget, you can make it work anyway.
The website you’re looking at right now is my creation entirely. Though, I have to admit I do have a Multimedia design degree from a university but I’m still telling you that it’s not as hard as you think. Especially using WordPress.
I’m going to tell you main points you need in order to create your website:
- Couple hours of your time
- Laptop and Internet
That’s it! Ok not so fast.
Do I need a web hosting?
You need to buy a web hosting and domain name and then you can download WordPress and start rolling. I would suggest you do invest £1 month into a web hosting and the reason behind it as that you can use your own domain name for example: www.nicoleven.com.
If you want a web hosting for free, there will be the name of the provider before your domain name: tomAndjerry.nicoleven.com.
Do you really want it to look like this? No! You can really find web hostings for £1 per month so why not take advantage of it? Just type into Google: ‘web hosting for £1 per month’ and choose the first one that comes up. Of course if you want something better meaning more reliable or with more email addresses possible, you can choose the ones costing £5.
My website is hosted with Wedos.cz which is a Czech provider but I’m very satisfied for over 10 years now.
How to choose the domain name?
There are so many websites already existing that you need to come up with something very special. Your name is a good idea, maybe you can modify it like me if it’s too complicated. My full name is Nicole Venglovicova but I registered my domain name back in 2011 I think under the name: www.NicoleVen.com. It wasn’t taken and I think it’s damn cool.
How do you find out if the domain name is taken?
You go to GoDaddy.com and you can also find a webhosting there for £1 per month and type in the domain name you wish to choose. Also with the ending .com or .co.uk
The main idea is that it’s actually very intuitive once you install and run WordPress. I have created an online course How to start a blog on WordPress which shows you the entire process of a website creation in a very easy to understand way. I’m also sharing my screen so you can literally repeat what I do and make no mistake.
No responses yet