Running Your Web Site With WordPress

WordPress is great software for managing a web site, because it's:

  • Very user-friendly - You can be editing your web site with as little as 20 minutes of training. Update your content any time you want!
  • Easy to customize - Add programs (plugins) to make your blog do stuff like SEO, contact forms, shopping carts and more.
  • Widely supported - There's a very large community that takes care of updating the software on a regular basis, and many webmasters are familiar with it.
  • FREE! - Yep, the software itself is free. You can do it yourself or hire a consultant (like us!) to set it up for you.

We can install the software on your web site, get a theme in place (the look of your web site) and train you how to make changes. The whole process normally takes from 5 to 8 hours or more, depending on how much you want to customize your site. At our current rate of $80 per hour, that works out to between $400 - $640 to get started. It can be a less if your requirements are simple.

Sites We've Done

Below are some of the best sites we've done thus far.

Based on Custom Themes

Based on Free Themes

We've also done plenty of blogs, like Career Management Alliance, Career Solvers, Fort Bend Jobs, Happy About My Resume, Jay Block, Harvey Careers, Midlife Careers, Resume Pro, our blog and Emily's personal blog.

If you like what you see and you're ready to get started, keep reading for the 4 steps to your new site or blog!

Step 1 - Do You Have a Domain Name and Web Hosting?

If you already have a domain name or a web site, we'll need to know your hosting user name and password. We'll call you to collect the information by phone - please don't email it to us because email is not very secure.

If you don't have a domain name or web site, we recommend Blue Host. They're reliable, have good support, and include a domain name with each hosting package; hosting and additional domain name registration are very reasonably priced... the last time we checked, hosting was $6.95 per month and additional domain names were $10 per year. If you decide to use them for hosting, please click the link above to sign up and we'll receive a small commission. Thanks! After you get signed up, call us with the user name and password.

Step 2 - Choose a Theme

We're not designers, so we rely on the skills of others for this type of work. You can use a free theme or you can have a theme developed especially for you and your brand. While a custom theme is more expensive, it gives you total control over the look of your site. With a free theme, we have a couple of sites we recommend, and you pick from the available themes.

Free Themes
There are thousands and thousands of free themes for WordPress - the trick is finding one where the basic look is what you want. We can make some changes to the free themes, such as fonts, colors and pictures (perhaps replacing the heading image with something more appropriate for you). A free theme can be a great solution if you're willing to put in some time finding a good theme to use as a base. Or, if you would prefer, we can research a theme for you for $80. We'll discuss what you're looking for and then go from there. Here are the sites we recommend:

WP Themes Free - Try to find a theme which has a rating of 2.5 or better; we've found the lower-rated themes can hard to work with. On this one, if you find something you like, copy & paste the "View" link into an email to us (you'll see it near the bottom right of the block which contains the theme info). An example of a link would be like this one: http://wpthemesfree.com/view.php?theme_id=2904. Sending this allows us to take a look at and download the theme.

Themes at WordPress.org - On this site, if you find something you like, put your pointer on the sample image, and copy the link address. Or, click on the sample image, then copy the web address of that page, and paste it into an email for us. An example link is like this one: http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/yast-yet-another-standard-theme.

Custom Themes
If you would rather have a site which is designed especially for you, get in touch with JoEllen Harshman at JH Graphics. She does wonderful work! It usually takes between 3 and 6 hours for us to set up the template for a custom theme.

Step 3 - Have Your Site Developed

In this step we'll work together to get everything set up on your web site. This process normally takes between two days and a week or two, depending on the complexity of the project and our current schedule.

Step 4 - Payment

We bill at the beginning of each month for work completed in the previous month. Our rate is $80 per hour and we accept checks (preferred) and credit cards. Invoices are due upon receipt and will incur a late charge of $35 or 10% (whichever is greated) after 30 days. If you're paying by credit card, we'll collect the necessary info by phone at the time of billing.

Optional - Step 5 - Training

If you're interested in maintaining your own content, we can show you how! Just schedule an appointment with us and we'll spend as much time as you need to feel comfortable editing your site. Or if you like, we can do your updates at our normal hourly rate.

Ready to get started? Call us at (727) 857-1615, send an email, or use our contact page to get in touch with us. We look forward to working with you!