After reading so many people asking for help to create a website for their businesses, I thought it could be a good idea to write a tiny step by step guide to do it.
But before that, I want to include a quote said by Noah Kagan in a presentation called "How to Start a Business and Insult Engineers":
"Do everything manually, and after it become so annoying that you can't manually handle all the emails and texts, that's when you build the website. The website's only purpose is to help you leverage your time. So many people get excited about having a website, having social media, whatever that means, but the whole point is what are you helping these people with, how are you creating value and making their lives better?"
(Video: "How to Start a Business" and insult Engineers by @NoahKagan - YouTube)
You still need a website?
If so, continue reading...
First of all, I think you don't need to learn HTML/CSS to do this. If you want to learn to code, do it once you need to automate your business with the help of software, NOT BEFORE.
Step 1: Go to ThemeForest.net and pick a template. You have A LOT of premium designs and even you can filter them by industries.
Do you need a static website? Pick a HTML template. They cost around $10-15, and you have a full set of pages (about, contact, pricing tables, etc), in some cases they even include a mobile version. There are also Landing Pages templates!
Do you need a shopping cart? Search for WordPress templates with WooCommerce integration. WooCommerce is a plugin for WordPress that allows you to have e-commerce functionalities within your WordPress website. It's very easy to use and it's a great starting point to automate your online sales.
Go to WooThemes if you want to see more WooCommerce templates and extra extensions, like Payment Methods integrations, etc.
Step 2: Hire a developer on Elance to help you customize your template. Now you have the base code of your website, so it will be a lot cheaper for you to hire someone to change colors, logo, imagery, etc. Depending on what you want, it won't take him/her more than a couple of hours. I usually pay between $20 and $30 the hour, but $10-15 is acceptable I think.
That's it. You've saved a lot of time that you can use calling customers, selling your product, etc.
BONUS #1: Do you need something that your template doesn't have like a custom functionality? Before asking someone on Elance to code it from scratch, take a look to CodeCanyon and search for something similar to what you want to do. Then hire a developer to customize it for you.
BONUS #2: Do you need a logo and don't want to spend hundreds of dollars? Go to Fiverr (you will pay $5 for a logo but the quality is generally very low) or use MicroLancer.
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By no means I'm associated with any of these websites, but I use CONSTANTLY ALL of them to save A LOT of time instead of building everything by myself and I'm sure they will be useful for all of you too.
You'll have the time to do fancy stuff when your business income allows you to do so.
But before that, I want to include a quote said by Noah Kagan in a presentation called "How to Start a Business and Insult Engineers":
"Do everything manually, and after it become so annoying that you can't manually handle all the emails and texts, that's when you build the website. The website's only purpose is to help you leverage your time. So many people get excited about having a website, having social media, whatever that means, but the whole point is what are you helping these people with, how are you creating value and making their lives better?"
(Video: "How to Start a Business" and insult Engineers by @NoahKagan - YouTube)
You still need a website?
If so, continue reading...
First of all, I think you don't need to learn HTML/CSS to do this. If you want to learn to code, do it once you need to automate your business with the help of software, NOT BEFORE.
Step 1: Go to ThemeForest.net and pick a template. You have A LOT of premium designs and even you can filter them by industries.
Do you need a static website? Pick a HTML template. They cost around $10-15, and you have a full set of pages (about, contact, pricing tables, etc), in some cases they even include a mobile version. There are also Landing Pages templates!
Do you need a shopping cart? Search for WordPress templates with WooCommerce integration. WooCommerce is a plugin for WordPress that allows you to have e-commerce functionalities within your WordPress website. It's very easy to use and it's a great starting point to automate your online sales.
Go to WooThemes if you want to see more WooCommerce templates and extra extensions, like Payment Methods integrations, etc.
Step 2: Hire a developer on Elance to help you customize your template. Now you have the base code of your website, so it will be a lot cheaper for you to hire someone to change colors, logo, imagery, etc. Depending on what you want, it won't take him/her more than a couple of hours. I usually pay between $20 and $30 the hour, but $10-15 is acceptable I think.
That's it. You've saved a lot of time that you can use calling customers, selling your product, etc.
BONUS #1: Do you need something that your template doesn't have like a custom functionality? Before asking someone on Elance to code it from scratch, take a look to CodeCanyon and search for something similar to what you want to do. Then hire a developer to customize it for you.
BONUS #2: Do you need a logo and don't want to spend hundreds of dollars? Go to Fiverr (you will pay $5 for a logo but the quality is generally very low) or use MicroLancer.
====
By no means I'm associated with any of these websites, but I use CONSTANTLY ALL of them to save A LOT of time instead of building everything by myself and I'm sure they will be useful for all of you too.
You'll have the time to do fancy stuff when your business income allows you to do so.
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