Best way to go about this (website)

[rbs]

So here's what I want to do:

-Create a website with several articles (much like a blog or news site)
-Add articles to this website on a regular basis (again, like a blog or news site)
-Eventually be able to set my website up to sell a product after I've driven in some traffic. (This means it needs to be possible to smoothly and easily add whatever programs are necessary to set up a sales page)

Keep in mind I'm not very internet savvy. I know some basic HTML, but not enough to build a website...so I'll be outsourcing a designer I imagine.

But is that necessary? Would it be difficult for me to create a wordpress account and then later add some sort of sales mechanism? I don't want to drop too much money at first.

What's the best way to go about this? Any first hand experience? Advice?

Thanks!

[FrozenCanuck]

You can make sales pages in Wordpress no sweat. My sites are all WP and I would make sure you get a self-hosted option, not the one over at wordpress.com where they host it for you.

What do you actually need to spend?

$7/month for hosting
$whatever you want on a nice theme.

OptimizePress is something that I'm using on my latest sites. I love how easy it is to create sales pages and squeeze pages. If you want to see an example blog go here: http://blog.outsourcefactor.com

This is the default settings for OptimizePress and I think it looks pretty darn good. It's not highly customizable though, so you'd have to pay someone to play around with the CSS file if you wanted something very different in terms of layout, and I'd argue OptimizePress would not be ideal in that case.

Thesis Theme is something I've used previously but had to pay for customization to get what I wanted. No "sales" capabilities built-in. And by "capabilities" I mean features like buttons, fancy bullets, testimonial boxes, and all that stuff.

FlexSqueeze is another premium theme I've used before. It's OK. It has a LOT of built-in capabilities for sales.

Bottom line - yes Wordpress is the way to go.

You're looking at $97 to get started with a gorgeous theme.
Then hire a graphics person to make a nice logo.
LogoNerds.com is a good place to get started at very low cost. They did our OutsourceFactor logo.

[rbs]

Thanks for the help, Canuck!

How do I set up a self-hosted wordpress page? Is it something I can do easily through wordpress?

[Ileana]

What you do is get a domain and hosting and then after you've gotten your hosting there is an option available to you where you can load wordpress on your webhost. It really is very easily done!

Hope that helps

[Marianne]

Hi rbs.
Look for a host that has C panel and Fantastico deluxe. All the big ones do.
If you want to use a premium theme (and I recommend you do) download the free FTP client Filezilla. You will find tutorials for all this if you google them.
Hope this helps...

[Reebz]

I really like WebHostingHub, they have cPanel and Fantastico.

Took me 10 minutes to create my account and register my domain (www.XXXXX.com). PS: You get a free domain with these guys and it's only $5 a month for unlimited everything.

It took me under 5 minutes to get my WordPress site loaded up once I got access.

It took my under 3 minutes to get my WordPress theme loaded.

The rest is up to you!

[birdman]

thanks for the pointer towards flexsqueeze and optimise press canuck. will remember that on my next little venture, might help me save quite a bit of time and money. i'm so dumb i remember trying to create my own tickbox graphics and stuff on a desktop publisher lol.

i like hostgator. although they don't necessarily market themselves towards newbies i think they would be very newbie friendly. i have had endless problems with hosting (because i'm an idiot) and they always have given me super friendly and super fast support every time i've had an issue. would recommend them. it has fantastico and it truly is super easy to upload a wordpress site with it.

filezilla looks a lot scarier than it actually is, just watch a tutorial and you'll be fine.

drop me a message if you want a discount code and i might be able to save you a sizable chunk of money if it's not already expired.

i'm not an expert but as far as themes go i've always used themeforest. even though i'm not a designer by trade people have asked me to build them sites and i've always used their premium themes (they're quite cheap as well). everyones always been very happy with them.

good luck!!!