Setting up a WordPress site in six easy steps

The other day, because I didn’t have enough on my plate, I built a new design site, shut down Sweet Faerie Designs and opened Carrie Loves Design. It took all day, from buying the domain name, hosting, setting up WP, and customizing a design to creating new social media accounts and setting up back-end reporting. It’s a process, and now I’m much more comfortable in what I charge for this service.

So, what did it take to get a WordPress site up and running from nothing to tah-dah?

1. Purchase domain name, you can get one (or, lots of them) reasonably price at GoDaddy or NameCheap.
2. Purchase hosting, I host through SiteGround and could not be happier!
3. Install WordPress, most hosts have a 1-click install that makes this very easy.
4. Install WP theme
5. Customize WP for you
   1. Customize theme – this is where a HUGE chunk of time is dedicated
   2. Create logo/branding/graphics for new site
   3. Install, activate and set-up all of your must-have plugins.
   4. Use anything but the default permalinks
   5. Add About, Contact, and other Pages
   6. Customize a menu/navigation bar
   7. You may or may not need to do this, depending on the type of site you are creating – create & populate Portfolio
6. Make sure things out in the Interwebs are working for you, not against you
   1. Create Facebook page (or, in my case submit request to change name, update email & website info.) create new profile picture
   2. Create Twitter account (or, change name, update email & website info.) hopefully use same profile picture as FB update color scheme
   3. Set up Google Analytics – get the code + id.
   4. Redirect old website URL to new URL

Some other things I learned along the way:

1. Know & Love FileZilla. You’re welcome.
2. Patience is key.
3. Remember to eat and drink water… you’ll start to feel wonky if you don’t.