Self-Serve Web – Perfect for the do-it-yourselfer

Self-Serve Web - Perfect for the do-it-yourselferWe love supporting do-it-yourself and suggest that honesty is the best policy – just because you CAN do it yourself, will you?

Review

Already have a website/web presence and or want feedback on your plan?  We’ll review and provide our written recommendations – use our service order form to order a review via Paypal.

Recommendations

Our recommendations are listed in order of our preference.  Weborization earns affiliate/referral fees* on most of what we recommend - and recommendations are based on what we believe to be the best product(s) and service(s) for the cost.  Your patronage is appreciated.  We recommend that before you purchase products or services on the Internet, including here, that you do your own research and be responsible for your choice.  We offer no warranty, implied or otherwise.

Website

1.  Domain & Hosting

Unless you’ve already got one or both, you’ll start with a domain & hosting for your site – we recommend Godaddy* or Hostgator* for domains and Hostgator* for hosting – (the Hatchling Hosting Plan is perfect for most of what you’ll do)

    • Tip:  Remember that your domain is very important.  Short is good and including what you do can be as important as your business name.  Think in terms of hosting the site using a domain that tells what you do for the search engines, and then forwarding a “glamour” domain (i.e. your name or your business name) to the site and using that for marketing purposes.

2.  The Site Itself

We recommend WordPress (think Legos – there are all kinds of functionality available via plugins).  There is no charge for it – it is an open source web software originally created for blogs that allows you, the user, to maintain your own content.

    • Tip:  Install it from your Hostgator control panel – it will happen in a second or two and it’s MUCH easier.

3.  WordPress Theme

There are a bunch of free themes out there on the web and we recommend Studiopress/Genesis*.  WordPress updates their software regularly and you’ll want a framework and theme that is a) designed to be easily upgraded when WordPress upgrades, b) is search optimized and c) is supported (this is huge).

    • Tip:  The Prose theme is probably the simplest of the themes if you’re just starting out.  It allows you to control colors/fonts/menus simply via menu and offers several menu options:  above the header, below the header, above and below and along the left side.
    • Tip:  Find video tutorials for installing Genesis themes from Studiopress here.

4.  Graphics

Graphics make all the difference!  There are several sites we use regularly for stock photos and graphics:

5.  Resources

Check out our Resources area and Recommendations

Support

Have questions after you get started – we’ll do our best. Support via email, phone, and computer sharing is purchased in one hour increments and used/billed in quarter hour increments – use our service order form to order support via Paypal.

Our recommendations are listed in order of our preference.  Weborization earns affiliate/referral fees* on most of what we recommend - and recommendations are based on what we believe to be the best product(s) and service(s) for the cost.  Your patronage is appreciated.  We recommend that before you purchase products or services on the Internet, including here, that you do your own research and be responsible for your choice.  We offer no warranty, implied or otherwise.