We’ve been home social distancing since March 13th and we’re starting to get tired of practicing our math. It’s also causing us all to gain a few pounds.
Um, yes, we’re doing some baking around here!
I love to bake. It’s a major stress reliever for me especially when it involves chocolate. My Kids love cookies, so this is a win-win situation for us. Add in that my youngest is reviewing his fractions and its even better. The kicker – my oldest was in FACs class this year, which is when they learn to cook in middle school. So yeah, we’re often surrounded in chocolate!
How Creating a Website is Like Baking
Just like in baking and cooking, when you create a website you need the necessary ingredients. You can’t make chocolate chip cookies if you’re missing the chocolate chips or the sugar. You can’t create a website if you have no words or images. Well, I guess technically you can. People might come around when they hear that it exists, but there wouldn’t be anything to keep them around.
You all know I’m big on building on a firm foundation, but sometimes you just need to take advantage of getting online quickly. Working out at least your basic offer before advertising your website to the world with a landing page is a wonderfully good idea! Otherwise its like eating chocolate chip cookies without the chips and who wants to go there?
Just like when baking cookies, you’ll want to make sure you have all of your ‘ingredients’ before you hit publish. So, even though I encourage you to take advantage of the time you have to invest in getting your site online, take the time first to gather your supplies.
Your Necessary Ingredients:
- a description of your offer
- a way for someone to get in contact with you
- a way for a customer to pay you
- a domain
- website hosting
- a theme (you could build with html and css, but a WordPress theme will make it easier)
You don’t need to start with a full-fledged website built out with several pages. You can start simply with what’s called a landing page.
A landing page is simply a web page that shares a description of what you’re offering along with both a way for the reader to contact you to sign up or learn more, and a reason why they should trust you.
I suppose technically you don’t even need to share why someone would trust you, but I’m not sure many people would sign up without testimonials from others if they don’t already know you. If you don’t have a testimonial, you can always share a supporting quote directly related to what you offer.
What You Need & Where to Get Them
You will need a domain. I recommend using NameCheck to see if the domain you’d like is available before searching for it on Namecheap and taking advantage of their sale (affiliate link: Stay safe and #CreateFromHome with a smile!)
You will also need hosting. I use and love Siteground. They have what’s called ‘Managed’ hosting, which is where they take care of making backups of your website and updates to WordPress for you. Basically, they take extra measures to make sure your website is secure, so there’s less maintenance you’re responsible for on your site.
If you want to DIY, I recommend Astra with Elementor, or Divi (affiliate link). I’d love to chat and help figure out which might be best for your future website needs!
Then of course you need your offer description, a way for someone to contact you about your offer and a way for them to pay for your offer. So, you’ll need 6 ingredients!
You’re not limited to just the basics of basics here. You can start with the bare minimum described here, then expand it to a true one page website, and slowly add more pages, too. The point is to start.
In Summary
Affiliate links are great, but what I really want to share with you is how simple it really is to get online and start sharing your offer. A landing page set up on your domain and hosting with a description of your offer, a way to contact you to take advantage of the offer, and a way for your visitor to pay for your offer are your necessary ingredients.
Now, while I go and make another batch of chocolate chip cookies, start gathering your supplies!
Take Action
- Gather your ingredients (your offer’s description, set up a way to get paid, purchase your domain and hosting)
- Start creating!
Or Connect with me and we’ll get you all straightened out!
