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More Details about WordPress Customization and Costs

1)  Select a WordPress Template.

  • WordPress Template and Theme developers such as WooThemes make it easy to manage content on your website.
  • You want a quality WordPress template, expect to spend between $50.00 to $200.00 for a theme that matches your design likes, colors and branding.
  • Free templates work great but you may spend more hours playing around the theme to get it to look and work correctly.
  • Paid themes have built in SEO and web 2.0 features often not found in the paid themes – these features more than pay for themselves in terms of cross linking and marketing your website.

2)  Select a Domain Name and a Hosting Provider.

  • If you’re just getting started, the best place to register a domain name and host your WordPress website is GoDaddy.com.
  • Expect to pay about $12.00 to $15.00 per year for your domain name.
  • If you already own a domain name you can transfer it to GoDaddy or point your domain DNS to GoDaddy servers.
  • I recommend keeping everything at GoDaddy, that way you only have 1 support number to call and GoDaddy customer service is available 24/7.
  • Expect to pay about $7.00 to $10.00 per month for a basic WordPress website at GoDaddy.com.  If you need more storage or faster servers, upgrade to GoDaddy’s pro and premium plans.

3)  Track Website Visitors with Google Analytics.

  • Setup a Google Analytics code by going to Google.com/analytics.  It’s free and easy to setup.
  • Enter your Google Analytics code into your theme.  If your theme doesn’t provide a location to enter your Google Analytics code, download a Google plugin.  This will store your Google Analytics code in your website Header or Footer and allow you track the number of users and which pages they visited.
  • It’s important to track and manage your site visitors, you can learn a lot from their behavior and from what web pages they visit and don’t visit.

Okay! So you now have your WordPress Theme (at least you picked out a style you like), you’ve registered with GoDaddy.com and got yourself a domain name and a web hosting plan, you’ve installed WordPress and uploaded your them and have setup your  Google Analytics.

Now is a good time to add content to your new website and get a good feel for the page and theme layout and the content you want to have on the website.  Any basic features you want to add try checking out the PlugIns to see if someone already built a tool for you.  Also, use the Widgets to create custom navigation and content on your side bars.

4) Architect your Website

  • One key to successful website development is a good architect.  When you look at a building you never say to yourself, wow the plumbers and roofers sure did a great job on that building.  Instead you ask who designed it? Who came up with this layout, design, colors and content?
  • WordPress, GoDaddy and other providers are just like the plumbers and roofers, great tools and resources, but the success of the project will be based on the design and the content that you create for your website.
  • Use PowerPoint, SmartDraw, Photoshop or OpenOffice.org Draw to create a layout of your page.  As needed screen capture your WordPress template and put a copy of it in PowerPoint.  Write out your content on top of the theme or insert your logo to see how it looks.

5) Create Custom Website using an Online Database & Password Protection

  • If you find your website needs more than just static content and a blog, you’ve found the right place!
  • Searching the Internet for one-off tools to improve your WordPress website can be time consuming and in most cases the final product doesn’t meet all of your requirements.
  • Many WordPress users don’t know this, but you can create custom web forms and custom database pages that integrate directly into WordPress creating a very powerful tool.
  • These tools allow you to quickly deploy password protected and database driven websites such as real-estate listings, custom project management forms, employee forms or surveys, online training materials and more.
  • using off the shelf tools such as Amazon Web Services, Intuit QuickBase and even basic form management using WuFoo.

We’re here to help! If you don’t have the time or expertise, leverage OnDemand Business Software to create a custom WordPress site for you or your clients.