Post: #1

Fellas,

I'm looking to build a basic website for my business with limited functionality as all I need is a brief bio, some pictures, a contact me, and perhaps a few other dropdown options on my website.

I'd also like to offer an e-book in exchange for email addresses and create a lead page. I'm somewhat new to all of this but it doesn't seem like it'd be rocket surgery on a somewhat basic level.

Do you guys have any websites/apps/programs that you'd suggest?

Thanks much.

Post: #2

If you only want some basic stuff, just install Wordpress on your site and experiment finding a theme you like. As you say, it's not rocket science and you can be up and running in one day. I used Bluehost as my hosting because they offer one-click Wordpress install after you buy their hosting package.

Regarding email autoresponders, I haven't used one so far, but I think MailChimp offers a free account until you get 2000 subscribers, which is more than enough for you to test and tweak your funnel. After that, you can simply upgrade to a paid account.

So, to sum up: Bluehost for hosting (but you can go with any major hosting company really, they are not that different), Wordpress as a CMS, MailChimp for an email autoresponder.

Post: #3

Kajabi if you can afford it. It's the most convenient tool there is, but a tad pricey.

Post: #4

So it sounds like this is a service or product based business and the entire concept is not just affiliate marketing correct?

It's pretty straightforward the concept of setting up a site, offering a freeibe for email leads, etc. Keep in mind that the quality of your site is basically what people will judge you on don't just throw up some half ass wordpress site if you don't really know how to work wordpress and make it look professional.

You may want to look into squarespace. It's a bit more user friendly than wordpress. Wordpress has a bit of a learning curve getting things to show up where you want, etc. Some people will probably say it's super easy, I guess it depends on if you have some expereience with the stuff. I think I know more than your average person but by no means am I good at coding or design, but I definately feel there's a learning curve.

If your up for spending several hours reading blogs, watching youtube videos, learning wordpress, then it's a great option. If your not that into design, coding, not super techy, etc you may find squarespace to be much more user friendly, intuitive, drag and drop, and overall just gives a more professional presentation without having much knowledge in how to build a site.

Post: #5

(07-06-2016 03:24 PM)jamaicabound Wrote:  So it sounds like this is a service or product based business and the entire concept is not just affiliate marketing correct?

It's pretty straightforward the concept of setting up a site, offering a freeibe for email leads, etc. Keep in mind that the quality of your site is basically what people will judge you on don't just throw up some half ass wordpress site if you don't really know how to work wordpress and make it look professional.

You may want to look into squarespace. It's a bit more user friendly than wordpress. Wordpress has a bit of a learning curve getting things to show up where you want, etc. Some people will probably say it's super easy, I guess it depends on if you have some expereience with the stuff. I think I know more than your average person but by no means am I good at coding or design, but I definately feel there's a learning curve.

If your up for spending several hours reading blogs, watching youtube videos, learning wordpress, then it's a great option. If your not that into design, coding, not super techy, etc you may find squarespace to be much more user friendly, intuitive, drag and drop, and overall just gives a more professional presentation without having much knowledge in how to build a site.

Yes, you hit the nail on the head. It is a service business, of which I need to make look very professional. I don't need any bells or whistles; just clear, clean, and concise.

As mentioned before, I'd like to put a link to a freebie of which they give me their email address in exchange--- all to build my funnel.

Thanks for the squarespace recommendation-- You're right, I have enough on my plate to work on at the moment. I'm sure there are plenty of upsides to knowing how to code, wordpress, etc. but I just simply don't have the time to learn all of that currently.

Any other advice on how to generate leads? I was thinking about linking my semi professional instagram page to my website as well as throwing some hail marys on craigslist--- all linking back to my website.

Open to any and all ideas. What you guys have said so far has been great.

PS--- has anyone heard of HostGator? I heard those guys are pretty cheap and have some good customer service as well.

Post: #6

(07-07-2016 01:15 PM)Cruisen_Chubby Wrote:  

(07-06-2016 03:24 PM)jamaicabound Wrote:  So it sounds like this is a service or product based business and the entire concept is not just affiliate marketing correct?

It's pretty straightforward the concept of setting up a site, offering a freeibe for email leads, etc. Keep in mind that the quality of your site is basically what people will judge you on don't just throw up some half ass wordpress site if you don't really know how to work wordpress and make it look professional.

You may want to look into squarespace. It's a bit more user friendly than wordpress. Wordpress has a bit of a learning curve getting things to show up where you want, etc. Some people will probably say it's super easy, I guess it depends on if you have some expereience with the stuff. I think I know more than your average person but by no means am I good at coding or design, but I definately feel there's a learning curve.

If your up for spending several hours reading blogs, watching youtube videos, learning wordpress, then it's a great option. If your not that into design, coding, not super techy, etc you may find squarespace to be much more user friendly, intuitive, drag and drop, and overall just gives a more professional presentation without having much knowledge in how to build a site.

Yes, you hit the nail on the head. It is a service business, of which I need to make look very professional. I don't need any bells or whistles; just clear, clean, and concise.

As mentioned before, I'd like to put a link to a freebie of which they give me their email address in exchange--- all to build my funnel.

Thanks for the squarespace recommendation-- You're right, I have enough on my plate to work on at the moment. I'm sure there are plenty of upsides to knowing how to code, wordpress, etc. but I just simply don't have the time to learn all of that currently.

Any other advice on how to generate leads? I was thinking about linking my semi professional instagram page to my website as well as throwing some hail marys on craigslist--- all linking back to my website.

Open to any and all ideas. What you guys have said so far has been great.

PS--- has anyone heard of HostGator? I heard those guys are pretty cheap and have some good customer service as well.

Depending upon what type of service you offer you may want to checkout Thumbtack. They work with everything from landscaping businesses to painters to handymen to even like makeup artists, videographers, and life coaches.

I hear people talk bad about the site but it was super lucrative for me. I had a landscaping business last year. I didn't get started until May which is really late but using Thumbtack alone had 50+ weekly accounts and a bunch of mulch and cleanup jobs within a month or two, it was great. The people I hear complaining about it are typically life coaches and people offering services which are not really necessetities but I find it works best for service related businesses.

It's free to signup and use, you just need to pay for credits to contact people and bid on jobs but its only a buck or two per lead and you can build up credits for free by sharing them on social media and doing other things like that.

I actually wound up getting myself banned from the site because I was selling reviews and verified reviews for $25 a pop, lol, and was giving out hundreds of reviews. I wound up getting sloppy using my real profile on the same ip and computer as the other one and they called me and told me they didn't appreciate me skewing their reviews. I find this kind of funny comming from a company who got a Google penalty for essentially doing the same type of behavior.

Post: #7

If you're looking for completely free DIY options, I know some people that mentioned Wix (wix.com) is really easy to use. Quality definitely suffers though.

Also, like some other people mentioned in the thread Wordpress with a custom theme is a good option. The good themes usually cost a few bucks on themeforest.com. This also looks promising (http://www.elegantthemes.com/gallery/divi/) as a noob-friendly way to get a nice looking site running.

Personally, I use namecheap.com for domain and hosting. Doesn't annoy you with all the extra, added bullshit that services like hostgator do.

Post: #8

Weebly is a great simple platform to get sites up and running quickly.
Their development platform is go to administer plenty of sites in one spot and you can easily copy template designs you have created yourself.

Its quick and it is dirty, but its about generating leads not being pleasing on the eye.
Most focus should be on SEO, keyword research and getting plenty of citations. White spark is a good place to get citations up quickly for businesses.
https://whitespark.ca/

Post: #9

(07-07-2016 01:15 PM)Cruisen_Chubby Wrote:  

(07-06-2016 03:24 PM)jamaicabound Wrote:  So it sounds like this is a service or product based business and the entire concept is not just affiliate marketing correct?

It's pretty straightforward the concept of setting up a site, offering a freeibe for email leads, etc. Keep in mind that the quality of your site is basically what people will judge you on don't just throw up some half ass wordpress site if you don't really know how to work wordpress and make it look professional.

You may want to look into squarespace. It's a bit more user friendly than wordpress. Wordpress has a bit of a learning curve getting things to show up where you want, etc. Some people will probably say it's super easy, I guess it depends on if you have some expereience with the stuff. I think I know more than your average person but by no means am I good at coding or design, but I definately feel there's a learning curve.

If your up for spending several hours reading blogs, watching youtube videos, learning wordpress, then it's a great option. If your not that into design, coding, not super techy, etc you may find squarespace to be much more user friendly, intuitive, drag and drop, and overall just gives a more professional presentation without having much knowledge in how to build a site.

Yes, you hit the nail on the head. It is a service business, of which I need to make look very professional. I don't need any bells or whistles; just clear, clean, and concise.

As mentioned before, I'd like to put a link to a freebie of which they give me their email address in exchange--- all to build my funnel.

Thanks for the squarespace recommendation-- You're right, I have enough on my plate to work on at the moment. I'm sure there are plenty of upsides to knowing how to code, wordpress, etc. but I just simply don't have the time to learn all of that currently.

Any other advice on how to generate leads? I was thinking about linking my semi professional instagram page to my website as well as throwing some hail marys on craigslist--- all linking back to my website.

Open to any and all ideas. What you guys have said so far has been great.

PS--- has anyone heard of HostGator? I heard those guys are pretty cheap and have some good customer service as well.

Don't go with hostgator. I've used them and they suck big time. I've written an in-depth guide about hosting services for Magento on my blog, but I'm not sure I'm allowed link to it.. Those hosts are great for Wordpress as well.

Post: #10

I second the notion of staying away from Hostgator. After they got purchased from another company, their customer service went down the drain and good luck getting them to assist you with anything in a speedy fashion.

I personally use Namecheap for a solutions since I like to use cPanel for throwing up quick Wordpress blogs for domains I purchase. But, from what I'm reading, if you're limited on time, Wordpress will eat up some of that time trying to configuring the back end of it and whatever plug-ins that may cause problems. Some of the drag and drop solutions like Weebly, Wix, or Squarespace could be better suited.

I use GetResponse for my email campaigns, even though I don't dabble too much into their other features. I do find it to be pretty user-friendly and they keep adding other updates like landing pages. Never had a problem with them yet. They do a 30-day trial period for up to 1000 subscribers. I think AddThis also has a way to catch emails using their targeting feature as well and you could just manually email people back, but never tried it..

Post: #11

Alright guys.

I've attempted to work with Squarespace but I found it somewhat difficult to use... There are very few templates and the ones that seem to be able to possibly work with my business (Service business) seem to be so set on the template that being able to customize it has been proving very difficult.

In terms of Wix--- I love how easy it is and how the site looks when logging in from a computer; however, their mobile versions look like trash. Considering that I'm trying to pair my website up with my Instagram for leads, this is a deal breaker.

Bottom line is that I need to get a website up and running but have it look nice (looking sloppy in this business is a no no) but I'm low on capital after investing a 10k plus on licenses, an office, software, etc.

It doesn't need to be fancy with calculators, bells, or whistles on it; just a clean landing page where people can see who I am (verify that I'm actually a business owner) and read a little bio about me. I'd say 4 basic pages in all.

Looking for:

Cheap(ish)
Clean
Ability to look good on mobile
Be able to create a lead page

Perhaps I'm missing something or I am that terrible at this online marketing.

Anything I'm overlooking? Wordpress seems better fit for a blog than what I'm trying to do.

Appreciate any suggestions-- otherwise I'll continue to slug it out with squarespace.

Post: #12

You're overlooking that WordPress doesn't have to look like a blog. There are so many WP themes that it's by far the cheapest and best option for running any kind of web biz. Well, maybe not any business. But, for your situation, go with it man.

Hostgator works fine as well if you use it for self-service. Just don't expect to get any real support from their tech. I use AWS and its a beast, but could be overkill depending on the scale you're looking for.

Post: #13

(07-28-2016 03:57 PM)Cruisen_Chubby Wrote:  Alright guys.

I've attempted to work with Squarespace but I found it somewhat difficult to use... There are very few templates and the ones that seem to be able to possibly work with my business (Service business) seem to be so set on the template that being able to customize it has been proving very difficult.

In terms of Wix--- I love how easy it is and how the site looks when logging in from a computer; however, their mobile versions look like trash. Considering that I'm trying to pair my website up with my Instagram for leads, this is a deal breaker.

Bottom line is that I need to get a website up and running but have it look nice (looking sloppy in this business is a no no) but I'm low on capital after investing a 10k plus on licenses, an office, software, etc.

It doesn't need to be fancy with calculators, bells, or whistles on it; just a clean landing page where people can see who I am (verify that I'm actually a business owner) and read a little bio about me. I'd say 4 basic pages in all.

Looking for:

Cheap(ish)
Clean
Ability to look good on mobile
Be able to create a lead page

Perhaps I'm missing something or I am that terrible at this online marketing.

Anything I'm overlooking? Wordpress seems better fit for a blog than what I'm trying to do.

Appreciate any suggestions-- otherwise I'll continue to slug it out with squarespace.

Is this going to be a static site? Just a few pages that you're rarely going to change? Or do you need to regularly update it?

Wordpress is crazy overkill for a static site and just introduces a great deal of fragility.

Also, I recommend MDD hosting. It's not as cheap as the bargain basement services but the uptime is amazing and the tech support is great. And it's still objectively pretty damn cheap.

Post: #14

Hey guys,

Yes it is more or less going to be a static site with updates few and far between (perhaps if I write an article and want to link to it I will do so) and have a blog type page as well.

Its paralysis by analysis right now. So many choices and I have zero experience in this field.

Just afriad I put in a few days making a site sharp only to find out the mobile version looks like shit or that it takes forever to load.

Post: #15

If you're not using Wordpress for a blog and just want a static site, Processwire is a good cms to fit needs that aren't for blogs or you can use Stacey and Casey which is more simpler.