Create a WordPress Blog in Less Than An Hour (Day 2 – Goal 1)

Well,  I’m still following along with the Shiny Object Lemonade plan to get a foundation site up and running QUICKLY.   The challenge, of course, is to just get something up and running and not make it endlessly complicated.

And, as you can see,  I’m on Day 2 and have a functional site up with an opt-in.  Since I already had a domain name, web-hosting and a Thrive Themes membership and an email autoresponder (Active Campaign) account, getting something decent up took me about an hour.

Of course, there is still more to do… but what I have worked (you are here reading this post after all).

Here is a quick recap of the steps I took. (And, I am amazed at how technology advances and this becomes easier EVERY time I do it… even 2 years ago this would have been a MUCH bigger deal).

1.  Get a Domain and Web Hosting.  I already had this.  But, when I get NEW domains, I just get them from my web host (Hostgator)  because then I don’t have to go through the extra step of hooking the domain up with the web hosting.  Since this is the “Meredith” blog – I picked my name as the URL.  Shiny Object Lemonade does a great job of going through the pros and cons of the different options – but the upshot is think about both what people will be looking for when they find your site AND how you see the site morphing over time   I chose my name to allow me the flexibility to write about ALL the different things I’m up to right now.
2.  Hook the web host and the domain together.  If you don’t have your website and domain name hosted at the same place, you’ll need to get the nameserver address of your web host (usually you get two  – addresses ar something like “ns145.yourhost.com” and ns146.yourhost.com).  On the web host side of things, you need to add the domain to your hosting account.  In Hostgator, you do this by adding a sub-domain.
3. Install WordPress Most web hosts have “auto-installers”.  All I had to do is click a button that said “QuickInstall WordPress” and I was in business.   Here’s a quick hint.  When it asks you for an admin name – don’t use admin.  Using admin opens up your site for hackers because it is the default and easy to guess.
4. Log in to Your Brand New WordPress site and install your theme.  A theme is what make your site look like your site.  And, there are plenty of great themes out there to choose from – including many free from WordPress.  You can find them in the Appearance menu.   Personally, I really like Thrive Themes – the themes are clean and easy to use – plus they make creating opt-in boxes really easy (I’ll get into that more in my next post on setting up the opt-in page.

So..  I spent about an hour and have a brand new website.  Not bad.  I did have a few things going in my favor though, I already had my domain name and mailing list set up. Plus, I’ve created probably close to 50 WordPress sites over the past 10 years or so.  So, it putting up sites comes pretty easily for me even though I don’t consider myself a web developer or designer.

Need some help?  Not everyone can (or wants to) get into putting up websites.  That is part of the reason we started Time Traders Club – so solopreneurs could get affordable (even FREE) help with the things they didn’t want to do in their business (like putting up websites?) and more time helping other Time Traders members with the things that come easy.  Learn more about time traders here.