A few more days before 2017 is over, can you believe it? Such a cliche, but time does fly when you have 1001 things to do to meet your goals. So don’t take your mind off yet to celebrate New Year’s, you can still squeeze in a few hours to think about the plans for your business!
You need a website
Whether you’re a blogger, freelancer or startup, you know you need a blog or website to tell the world about your story, your services, or products. Read more reasons to have a website here. The problem is, where do you start?
How do you set up a website? What’s the best program to do this? What should I have on my website? Will I need a designer? Can I manage my own site or will I need a webmaster? I’m not tech-savvy, is there information for people like me?
All relevant questions that are real and make the idea of having and managing your own website very intimidating. It doesn’t have to be, because it’s really not that complicated when you know where to look for the answers.
Which tool to use?
Almost 10 years ago, I started dabbling into website creation. I don’t say design, because I’m not a web designer by training, everything I know, I learned on my own.
It all started when one day I went to a Borders bookstore, and decided to get the easiest book I could find to learn HTML and set up a site. Just for the fun of it… (who does that?). I followed the step-by-step instructions, just like I would a recipe from a cookbook (I love food), and voila! Within a day I had my first website up. It wasn’t pretty, but it was live and I coded it from scratch!
However, I realized that there had to be an easier way (I’m all for solutions) to create a website. Then I learned about programs like FrontPage and WebPlus, which were a lot easier and resulted in better looking sites!
I’m not a total tech geek (some things are still way over my head) but I love to learn about new systems and tech. After attended a few webinars where I learned about various blogging platforms I discovered one I really liked. WordPress, with its endless possibilities, became my main tool for creating blogs and websites. I’m still amazed how easy it is to create a website with parts like a forum or beautiful photo gallery without knowing any code. As long as you are willing to learn, from books or (online) courses, believe me, it is very doable to set up your own blog or website.
The basics to start a WordPress website
For those brave souls who, like us, want to take the wheel and be in charge of this part of their business, you will need the following to set up your own website:
- A webhosting account where you rent space for your website on the internet. Your information should be housed somewhere and that’s what your webhost will do at a monthly or annual fee. (We use Bluehost and if you signup through our links, we may earn a commission with no additional cost to you.)
- A domain name or address where you can be found on the internet, like a street address. (With Bluehost your 1st domain is free.)
- WordPress (free) software, the framework to build your website with flexibility to add any functionality without breaking the bank.
- Some knowledge to do this on your own, or at least know how a WordPress website designer sets up your site. Knowledge is power! You wouldn’t give all your money to an investor if you had no idea what he’d do with it right?
Seriously, that’s it! The basics of setting up your own site. So how do you get all of this together?
There is a ton of free information available on the internet, from blogs to YouTube videos. The only problem is that searching and gathering all the information may take hours to find good and easy to follow information.
Making WordPress easier to learn
To make the process easier and faster, Grace and I decided to help people like you. We wanted to teach in easy to understand language (meaning: stripped of tech-lingo) how to set up a website and manage it too. Even if you have no desire to do all this ‘work’, you will at least have an idea of what your WordPress designer is doing under the ‘hood’ while working on your site.
It is our goal to make WordPress easy to understand and less intimidating for users. We know that most people don’t have time or want to learn the nitty-gritty on the topic. Grit Webstudio is a place for startups and bloggers, especially women, to find all the info they need to set up or manage their own WordPress blog or website.
We publish articles and created a free mini course to help you figure out the basics of setting up your own WordPress site. This introduction course covers seven steps to set up a basic site within an hour. Want to see for yourself?
Coming soon: WordPress site creation course!
We are currently working on a full WordPress website creation course (stripped of tech-lingo of course) which will be ready in early 2018. Be the first to hear when registration opens and become a founding student of the course. What that means is that you can pre-register and take the full course at half the regular price! Does that peak your interest? Go to the site creation page to sign up and we’ll let you know when it’s time.
Make 2018 your year
As we approach the end of another year, we want to encourage startups and new bloggers, to make 2018 your year. Be in charge of your own website, you can do it, so just do it!
Best wishes from
Debbie & Grace