My Method for Building a Website

Ask yourself: What purpose will the website serve? Who is the audience? The more precise and clear you can get in step one, the better. Keeping your answers in mind while building your website will help you build the proper foundation. It’s also the most powerful step to ensure your site ranks in search enginges. (space here) SEO is a term thrown around quite a bit and stands for Search Engine Optimization. Search engines, like Google, just want to provide their customer the best results for their search. For exmaple, if you built a website for the purpose of sharing your expertise in golf and to make money through affiliate links of your favorite golf products, Google will rank you for golf related terms (keywords) if your website has relevant information. The more you shy away from your purpose, the more difficult it is to have an effective website. Let’s use a Golf website for an example. Website’s purpose: Sharing stories of a career in golf, game expertise and making an income from affiliate marketing by recommending products/services. Website’s potential: Once an experience, tutorial, review, etc. is presented (with photos, video, or text) on a page of the website, links to purchase the particular products/services can be provided. The company will give you a pre-agreed upon dollar amount for referring the visitor to their product/service. The more content you have on your website, the more Google will recognize your site as something helpful – AKA people will see it when searching!

As stated before, I exclusively host my websites through BlueHost and/or WealthyAffiliate. If you research the ‘best’ hosting, you will inevitably go down a rabbit hole – as I did. Ultimately, every article, post, and website that recommends a hosting provider will be biased. It’s not always on purpose, but rather because every website is niche and each hosting provider has different ‘benefits’. However, as a logical person, I wanted to keep it simple and go with the most comprehensive services – additionally the ones that were also recommended by WordPress! I also don’t believe in spending an arm and a leg for hosting, which is another reason I chose BlueHost and WealthyAffiliate. Whichever you chose, you will not be disappointed.

WealthyAffiliate : Best choice if you are new to this. I would recommend starting here either way because you can start free. 
https://www.wealthyaffiliate.com?a_aid=e86114ba

BlueHost: I do not currently have a BlueHost hosted website because I only use it to setup my clients and handoff to them. This option is best choice if you already have an understanding of Host, Domain and CMS. Please check out MyEclecticGrace for a really honest writeup on how she sets up her blog with BlueHost.  
https://myeclecticgrace.com/how-to-make-money-blogging/

Wealthy Affiliate:

I found Wealthy Affiliate on this web-page and as they say, the rest is history. I was welcomed by an actual person (a mentor assigned to help me!), and was invited to get started my first niche website. I simply began by following the training, which didn’t take long at all. I was actually able to make my first website with WA for the purpose of making money right after that!

BlueHost: 

I choose to host with BlueHost (as opposed to Wealthy Affiliate) when I build a website for a business or an individual. I do so because I am the one who is managing and building their site, hence they won’t need training and support from an outside source. BlueHost is great if you already know what you want to do and how to do it – you can sign up with BlueHost and install WordPress in minutes. (Please note, I would only choose this option if you are already familiar with what Domain, Hosting and WordPress is.)

For a discount and assistance, just check out MyEclecticGrace to get started with BlueHost.

These quick video and screenshots show how I:

• Install WordPress.
  
• Update WordPress.
  
• Confirm which theme you want to use and remove extra themes. (you only want an active theme and one backup. Two total themes installed)
  
• Remove sample post and page.
  

One of the most underrated pages on any website is the about page – do not skimp or forego this page. Even if you want to keep your websites anonymous from your personal life, which is totally acceptable, your readers will want to know about your page. What’s the purpose, why you created it, etc. It can be simple and to the point. Let’s use the Golf website for example; in the ‘about me’ section readers might want to read about the creator’s career in golf, why they wanted to share their knowledge, and what they hope website users gain from the website.

When people read “add content” or ‘content is king’ they instantly get hesitant or fearful. Content is simply the meat and potatos of you website. It’s the text, the imagery, the helpful information you provide. Simply put – a website can not exist (successfully atleast) without content. PS – you don’t need to add 100 blog posts and 40 subpages, but start simple and you can continually add from there as your website is live. Google also loves this – it shows you are updating your website and keeping things relevant.

If you used WealthyAffiliate as your hosting and domain, then you likely already know what affiliate links are. Affiliate links are urls that are used to identify the user who referred the website to them. The new website now knows who referred them. This info is used to give credit based on what was previously agreed. AKA – this is how you will make money. 

Example: I use Elementor Pro. After using the WordPress page builder for much of my work, I decided to share it with others. I checked their website and found an affiliate section. I found my affiliate link and details on what I receive depending on what my visitor does. My affiliate link shows my user ID, so Elementor knows who to credit for each visitor I share to. Here is my Elementor link: https://elementor.com/?ref=21087 Do you see the 21087? That is my unique ID that Elementor gave me so they know it is me who shared their website to someone. The last thing I need to know is what a visitor needs to do in order for me to get credit or money. In this example, if I have someone click on my link, https://elementor.com/?ref=21087, then they decide to make a purchase, Elementor knows it is me who referred the person and I get 50% of any purchases made.

Do some research to find affiliate programs associated with your niche. Best place to start is Google. If your niche is golf, simply Google “Golf equipment affiliate program”. You will find directories, but I have found that they are somewhat difficult to navigate. This website is an example: https://www.affiliateprogramdb.com/ which will help to provide insight on top affiliate programs in general. This is also a good place to look at if you want to pick a niche just to make money, however I recommend your niche be one you are passionate about. I don’t have to tell you that caring or being passionate about what you’re showcasing will make it feel less like work. You will also know of and have specific brands in mind, in which you could reach out to to see if they have any affiliate programs!