Questions I’ve received recently…

Is it really possible to build a website yourself, and not spend much money?

Yes.

Why do you keep “almost” telling us how? Is it because you really don’t want us to know?

No. In fact, I’ll share with you a checklist that you can follow to get a live, interactive website started within the next 24 hours.

Now I’m skeptical. Why would you share your secrets with us?

Because I don’t want to build your website. If you look around this website, you’ll find that I’d rather go to Disneyland.

You see, I’ve built websites for a number of people. Some have been quite amazing, actually. They’re wonderful clients. They have websites, which we started very quickly, And they’re adding content regularly. And discovering that the websites actually work just like I told them they would.

But a lot of them drag their feet. I ask questions, and they take weeks or months to answer them. Or they don’t answer them at all. It’s really quite frustrating.

But, Rich, can I do it without buying your system?

Sure. I’ll even tell you how. I’m giving up my secrets. I’m sharing the formula. Free. Right here. Right now.

I may have second thoughts about this. So this article may go away. But it’s here now. And you have this opportunity. So go for it.

Here are the keys to the castle.

The Free, Secrets-Revealed Checklist…

Do this, and you can have a website up in a day, for peanuts:

1. Domain Research. If you don’t have your domain name already, you need to figure out what domain you want.

• Here’s a dirty little secret. Well, maybe not dirty, but sneaky. Use the “Smart Search” at GoDaddy.com to search for your domain… but don’t buy it there. At least, not yet. You’ll get it free, later, from your hosting company.

2. Website Startup — cheap, just $8-10 a month.

• Sign up for a hosting account at DreamHost. They have a very generous hosting plan, and they will even register your domain name for you and it’s free with your plan. (This plan is great for most websites. If you’re redeveloping WalMart.com, or Amazon.com, it’s not enough. But it’s great for most businesses.)
• Note your passwords.
• Setup your email accounts.
• Wait 3-24 hours for the domain to establish. (A directory listing will appear when you go to look for your new website, something like “Index of.”)

When I first shared this formula, someone asked me, “What about xxx hosting company?”

My answer? “You wanted my formula. I don’t care. Do it any way you want. What I’m telling you is that if you follow this formula it works better and faster than any other way I’ve seen. The hosting company is part of the secret.

3. WordPress Software. Another amazing secret of the internet. The best software to use to “Run Your Own Website” is free! You get it free at wordpress.org.

• Install it. (With DreamHost, it’s a One-Click install.)
• Start your website, startup WordPress. Note password.
• Add some articles to your website. Create a few reasons for someone to be interested in your website. (See below.)

By the way: At this point you actually have a website. It may not be “beautiful” yet or have much information. But your website is started. Start adding some information and getting it working while you’re thinking about features and ecommerce.

4. Style/Design/Graphics. The default WordPress installation is a little boring. And it looks like every other default WordPress installation. But you can change that.

• Find a “theme” that you can install on your website. With the colors you want. The graphics. There are hundreds out there. You might look for days, but something will be out there you like.
• Download it, then FTP it to your website directory.
• You change the graphics by editing images in your theme’s images folder.
• And you can modify the theme by learning php (a computer programming language). It’s pretty easy, as programming languages go.

TOTAL WEBSITE COST: $8 - $10 a month! Really!

That’s the basic system, if you want to do it “on the cheap.” You don’t get our instruction, our connections, or the software we created (the “theme”) that makes it easy to configure without searching for themes, learning to FTP, or learning the php language. To get that, you want the Run Your Own Website Power Package.

5. Features

• Add and test WordPress plugins to enable other desirable features. Be sure to test them; they may mnot work with all themes, or on all hosting services.
• If you want a sequential autoresponder, or formatted emails as part of a marketing campaign, I suggest SellBetter Toolbox.

6. Ecommerce. If you’re going to sell online, you need to take credit cards.

• If you’re serious about marketing online, get SellBetter Toolbox, and get a credit card merchant account. It runs your shopping cart, charges the cards, and deposits the money. It uses a little salesmanship to increase your sales, and can be used to set up an affiliate program. Very cool. If you’re not serious about selling online, but want to accept an occasional sale, consider PayPal.

Then what?

Well, you have a website.

Start posting some articles (”Posts,” in WordPress terminology.)

What to write about? Start by asking yourself this: What are the most frequest questions I hear from prospective and new customers?

Answer those questions.

Add some “Pages” with information about who you are, how to contact you, etc.

Promote your website by adding it to your business cards, stationery, advertising, etc. In fact, promote it a bit by adding some special content to your website and promoting that in your ads, on your cards, etc.

What can the “special content” be? Maybe a checklist, a list of resources, or lists of hints on how to save money using your kind of product.

Does this give me a website with all the bells and whistles of your RYO Websites?

No.

I invested $356,000 in custom programming to make special things happen, like the extra headlines that you see at the bottom of this page suggesting additional reasons you might want to hang around longer. I think that and the other enhancements are great additions, and my website clients get the advantage of these and a number of other enhancements.

But even without the special programming, you can have an amazing website in little time and for little money.

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