3.2. Website System (and a Hosting Plan) for Your Business Website

“What separates design from art is that design is meant to be … functional” – Cameron Moll

Building a website nowadays can be very easy. Establishing your online presence is the first tangible step of your online business journey. If you want to get online, you have to take care of the three basic elements of a functional website that include: 1) domain name, 2) hosting plan and 3) a website management system (WMS). You could arrange (get) all these three important elements in a bundle, but foremost you should reserve (purchase) your domain name since it can take a lot of time and energy. Taking care of the website system and the hosting plan afterwards is much simpler.

A Website Management System (WMS), or simply Website System, is a software that will help you build and manage your website. A website hosting is a place on a server (computer), where your website (and the website system) will reside.

The modern website systems like WordPress, Joomla, Blogger, Weebly, Shopify, Magento, Moodle etc, are more or less intuitive, user friendly, customizable, expandable, affordable, safe and so on. In other words, these systems could help any regular internet user to create an appealing website according to his/her business needs. All these systems (and many others) can help you build a website but they may significantly differ in their core purpose, features and associated costs.

The costs when using the above-mentioned web systems may vary from $0 to $30 or more, but you need to plan at least $5 a month if you want to get decent performance and features for your website. Regarding the system you choose, there will be a need (or no need) for a hosting plan. Namely, Weebly and Shopify go together with hosting and cost $12 (with domain) and $29 per month respectively. WordPress, Joomla, and Magento are free open source systems but you would need a reliable hosting plan that could start from $5 or up. Blogger is self-hosted and free platform but is least customizable then the other available options.

As we have mentioned several times before, we suggest you use WordPress together with an appropriate hosting plan for your online business website. There are more than few reasons why we warmly suggest WordPress (WP). First of all, WordPress is advanced, user-friendly website system that, at the same time, is open source and free. WordPress is the most widely used tool to build websites worldwide and has a large support community, wide selection of themes, widgets, plugins, regular updates etc. You can use WordPress to build different online business models like informative websites (blog, news, magazine), online services, online shop, classified ads, social network and more. You can even find affordable WP developers to create a custom features/plugins for a unique online business you may have in mind, based on the WordPress platform. (Don’t confuse WordPress WMS with WordPress.com that is self-hosted blogging platform based on the WordPress website system)

Within the last several years, WordPress become more and more user-friendly and more easily manageable by regular internet users. You don’t need technical knowledge (nor HTML or PHP) in order to set, arrange and manage your website. Anyway, some other website systems like Weebly and Shopify may be simpler to use especially if you want a plug and play online store, like one you will get with Shopify. These systems, that come with a monthly plans, will also have 24 hour support what is not the case with the free WordPress option. If you encounter a problem with WordPress you would need to rely on Google search, community support, video tutorials or affordable help from freelancers, what is not a bad option at all, especially if you are really dedicated to your online business.

Another reason we suggest you use WordPress is that the following instructions of this Guide, the next lesson and Step 4, Building and Managing a Website, are mainly based on WordPress and its features. If you decide to use another system, it doesn’t mean you can’t follow the Guide, but choosing WordPress will simplify your journey.

If you followed our suggesting previously, you possibly got a domain with a hosting plan where you can easily install WordPress in one click. If not, here are some options for you:

If you already have purchased domain get only a hosting plan:

– HostGator – Hosting with WordPress option

– BlueHost – Hosting withWordPress option

(At your domain provider, you will need to set the DNS addresses to point to your hosting)

If you need to get a domain and hosting in a bundle with an option to install WordPress with one click, follow this link: domain + hosting.

If you decide to go with open source system other than WordPress you can also use the above-mentioned hosting options.

Installing WordPress

Once you have a domain and a hosting plan you can easily install WordPress, (or any other open source system). Regarding the hosting provider you have chosen, follow the appropriate video tutorial (links below) to install WordPress. As you can see in the videos , the process is really simple. Prior to the installation you will need to login to the user’s panel at your hosting provider using the username and password provided during the signing-up process.

Installing WordPress at Hostgator (Video)

Installing WordPress at BlueHost (Video)

Installing WordPress at Godaddy (Video)

If you used different hosting provider, search for tutorials at Google using the search term “Installing WordPress at <<YourHostingProvider>>”. If your hosting provider does not support one click installation of WordPress you should download the WP package at WordPress.org, upload it to your hosing using file manager or FTP software and them manually install it.

When you finally get your WordPress website installed, you can follow the link http://yourdomain.com/login (change yourdomain to your real domain name) to log in to the dashboard of your site. To do so you will need to use the admin username and password acquired during the installation process (keep them in a handy place).

Now you are fully prepared to finally go online. Your WordPress site is now up and running but you need to do some initial adjustments and to add some content before you announce the official start of your online business.

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