Hello, today I'll start a new topic on 87studios about creating business WordPress website. It's a great way to save tons of money, instead of paying for the website, create it on your own, without need to know any script language. Let's say that we have a budget around $125 and I promise, that beer is included in the process. I decided to use premium theme, why? Check list below. You can also use a free WordPress theme, but be sure to get a safe and up to date one.
The four reasons why you should choose premium theme:
1. Quality
Quality for me is something most important. When I buy something, I can expect that it's without bugs, hidden code, backlinks and any other threats. You can expect compliance and responsive design. Web standards are always changing, so premium themes are coded with most recent web trends and standards. Also you can expect, that your website will get unique look, isn't it better to know that only 1,500 websites have the same theme than 15,000? And most likely, every single one will be customized, so you will stand out of the crowd.
2. Functionality
It's next important factor. Making even small changes in free theme can turn into nightmare for person without intermediate knowledge about PHP, CSS and HTML. Most of WordPress users aren't geeks, so premium themes with options panel are like iPhone apps for them. Just click here and there, done! Premium themes are designed with functionality in mind.
3. Security
When you download a free theme from untrusted site, it can contain malicious code. Read this great article to open your mind.
I don't say all free themes are compromised, but check them with TAC WordPress plugin.
4. Updates and Support
You're not alone when troubles come, you can rely on professional support, not just community forum. Also when some errors will break your site or because of the new exploit, site security will be exposed, you don't have to worry. Premium themes are typically updated on a regular basis to keep up with new versions of WordPress and security standards.
Alright, after some explanations it's time to move forward.
Let's get the necessary ingredients
Before start we will need a WordPress theme, hosting and some extra stuff to make site extraordinary.
1. Fast and Safe WordPress Hosting
Firstly, if you don't have server for your business and don't want to lose money I suggest HostGator Web Hosting. It's extra cheap, fast and safe. That is great choice for a new website, their pricing is very affordable, it starts from $3,96 per month, which is $83,40 per year. Also for that price it includes 24/7 support, stable server, functional and easy to use cPanel.
To make better deal use this coupon code at checkout and save 25%! Instead of $83,40 you'll pay only $62,55 - you got extra 20 bucks to make site beautiful. I'll tell you later what to do with that money.
2. Beautiful and unique theme
We will use Maxx WordPress theme from ThemeForest. Maxx WP is a Modern Clean & Creative theme suitable for any corporate business or portfolio,It’s created by using the latest techniques : HTML5 and CSS3. With a extremely responsive design That means it will fit any device (Desktop, tablet, smartphone…), completely optimized for touchable device. Maxx has everything we’ll want for our business website.
Theme Features:
- Full Responsive Layout
- Fullwidth Layout & Boxed Layout
- Cross-browser Optimization, (IE8,IE9, Opera, Firefox, Safari, Google Chrome)
- Unlimited Sidebars for each page/post
- Custom Portfolio Post type
- 8 Page Templates
- Shortcode Generator with over 30 useful Shortcodes
- Supported 2 Menu Navigation – Topbar & Main menu
- Custom 404 page
- Subscribe form
- Widgetized footer (min 2 columns & max: up to 6 columns)
- 3 footer styles, large(widget area and extra copyright info), medium (widget area), and small (copyright info)
- 6 Gorgeous skins Built-in (or custom define)
- Custom fontface using Google font library
- 7 Custom Built-in Widgets (Twitter, FLickr, Custom Category, Childpages, Recent/latest portfolio and Posts (2 styles))
Let's get started!
The very first thing to do after hosting purchase is setting up WordPress on it. WordPress is very famous of it's 5-minute installation, but it's even faster. Follow steps below to accomplish this task correctly. Pay attention to security tips I gave you there.
WordPress installation
Automatic installation
It's a official HostGator tutorial. I don't recommend using this method, because later you can encounter some problems with updates. For me it's better to follow manual installation method.
Manual installation
Follow steps below, to have your WordPress installed under few minutes.
1. Download latest WordPress version from it's official homepage.
2. Go to your FTP (I recommend using FileZilla) and upload all files to /public_html/ folder or create subfolder if you pointed domain to it.
3. Now the database. Go to your cPanel account and find icon like this.
You'll create database in following steps
- Type your database name and also copy it to notepad (with prefix).
- Fill user name and password fields (pick a strong one! - it's very important). Also copy user name with prefix and password to notepad.
- Add user to database and set privileges (mark ALL PRIVILEGES).
And that's it! Your database is ready for WordPress.
4. Go to your domain name where you uploaded files in step one (http://example.com/) and you'll see screen like this
Click the Create a Configuration File and it will take you to next screen
Now open the notepad file where you've pasted database details - as I told in step 3, and in next screen fill required details. It's important to change default wp_ database prefix to something else, because of the security. It's harder for bots and hackers to get into your installation if you don't have default values in it. Then push submit, and on next screen Run the install.
After few seconds a new screen will appear, where you'll be asked to fill some details.
It's always a good practice, to pick passwords that will be hard to break using brute force attacks, so don't use your name or any popular word. If you know Leet speak - use it! Or try strongpasswordgenerator.com.
That's all! Log into your dashboard and explore WordPress.
Install Maxx WP Theme
If you don't already have Maxx theme, get it here
Then in your dashboard go to Appearance -> Themes and click Install Theme tab where is upload section.
Click browse and search for maxx-wp.zip file. Hit Install Now button and activate the theme. That's it! Check the basic setup, it's not beautiful right? But don't worry! We'll make it better in next part of this tutorial.
Summary
As you now have WordPress installed on very own server and new theme running, get familiar with it, so in next part of this tutorial you won't get lost. Check some Theme Options, strengthen WordPress security, you can follow tips I wrote in this article: Hardening WordPress Security. Then you can test some WordPress Quick Tips. But don't mess too much in your setup. Better try those options in test installation.
That's all in this part, thank you for reading!
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