Everyone tends to do it. It takes a conscious effort to not do it. I mean, you are a rational person. You believe everything you believe and think everything that you think. Why wouldn’t everyone else think and believe the same way? What are they? Morons?

It's really easy to believe that everyone else is like you. They aren't.

When you are designing your site and writing your content, do it from the users point of view, not your own. They are the ones that you have created this magnificent new web site for, so honor them by talking in their language and answering their questions and meeting their needs.

The first step to do this is to define just who they are. Once you have them defined, forget everyone else. If you want to sell video games, your site will look much different then if you want to sell medical equipment.

It might be helpful to write down your definition of your users and tape it to your monitor, where you can remember them while you’re writing.

Their words, their needs, their solutions. That’s what you need to focus on.

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. How much it costs will depend on how optimized you want it to be. Nothing in SEO costs any money, only time. You should learn what the techniques are and then you should do them your self.

SEO just wants to be free.
Don't pay for it.

The first thing that you must do, MUST do, is to pick some keywords or phrases that you want to rank highly for. The best way to do this is to think about it from your users point of view. What problem are they trying to solve when they come to your site. Why should they be there? Wedding Flowers? Car Repair? Pizza? a TV Show? What are those words that they will type into Google to find you?

It’s good to get one main phrase that you was to own. That phrase will go everywhere on your site, so many times that’s annoying.

Now you need to pick 3-5 more phrases that you want to do well for. Maybe you won’t own these, but you still want traffic from them.

Remember, these phrases must be from the user’s point of view, not yours. You might think that you sell “water treatment systems”, but your users want to buy “water softeners”. You might think that you sell “hand made, one of a kind, jewelry”, but I’m looking for a “woman birthday gift”. You might think you sell “woman’s action wear”, but my wife’s looking for “woman sports clothes”.

Now that that has rolled around in your head for a while, you can write down the phrases that you want to rank well for and the one that you want to own.

Next, you can scatter those phrases around your site and ask for links from other sites. Make your title on every page contain that main phrase. Leave comments on other sites using those phrases. Do all of the other SEO stuff that you can find on the Internet and that I’ll talk about later.

SEO just wants to be free. Don’t pay for it.

I saw an article recently listing 10 free web site building tools.

Most of them take a while to figure out.

They won’t all let you do what you want to do.

None were expandable to your own site if you ever wanted to take the next step, from “free” to “owning your own”.

The biggest cost is time.

The biggest cost is time.

How long does it take you to learn how to work it and make it do what you want it to do?

How much is it going to frustrate you and make you figure out how to do something simple?

In my experience with WordPress, and I’m coming at this from a developer point of view, it’s much easier and intuitive to learn to use WordPress than with any other platform out there.

When I build a site for a client using WordPress, it’s much easier to train them and get them up to speed on WordPress than other systems that I’ve tried.

The Real, Hard Costs

Let’s look at the cost it would take to put a WordPress site on your own server and run it for a year.

Domain name is $10. Don’t pay more than that for a domain name.

Hosting packages can be had for less than $80 a year.

Call the whole thing $100 for a year of hosting your own site.

If you use a good host, they would have an auto install version of WordPress. Click, click, bang. It’s set up.

Play with a theme. Spend too much time looking on line for a theme. Download, install.

Play with plug ins. Download, install.

Write a few posts. Create a few pages. Change the layout a bit.

Call it 8 hours total, from start to having your own blog on line, working, with your own theme and content.

You have added the plug-ins that you wanted, the theme that you wanted, the layout, the content, the menu.

All of it is exactly what you want.

The Price Of Choice

The cost in time is really because you have TOO MANY options.

If you can be satisfied with what comes out of the box, then a WordPress site can be set up in 20 minutes.

Other Free Hosting Options

Compare that to another free host.

Set up is quick and easy. Pick a theme. There are only 20.

Write a post. Change the layout? No. Can’t do that.

Put the menu on the other side? No. Can’t do that.

You want to post video? No. Can’t do that either.

Podcast? Special functionality? Nope. None of that.

The Cost Of Free

You’ve spent the same 8 hours trying to do stuff and not being able to that you would have on WordPress.

The other free host is $100 cheaper and maybe that’s the difference for you.

It doesn’t look quite like you want it to and it doesn’t have quite the right functionality.

It’s harder to use and takes longer to post than WordPress.

If it takes 3 minutes longer and you make 20 posts, that’s an hour.

How many posts in a year?

Time Is Money

This reminds me of the difference between Windows and a Mac.

The Mac costs a bit more to start, but lasts twice a long, lets you work twice as fast, and makes it easier to do anything you want.

Which is a better deal?

How much is your time worth?

How much money do you have?

It’s all up to you, but if you have $100 to spend on a web site for a year, spend it on building a WordPress site.

You’ll thank me at the end of the year.

Special Offer

This page has gotten so much traffic that I’ve just added this offer.

Want Me To Set Up WordPress For You?

FOR FREE?

Doing the WordPress installation and set up can be a bit tricky, especially for people who are not technically inclined.

I get an affiliate fee from my web hosting company for every person I refer to them.

If you use the special link I provide below, which contains my affiliate code so they can pay me, I’m willing to do the complete WordPress installation for you, for free.

Get Web Hosting

They are charging $3.88 a month for hosting as I write this.

(That price could change, so check it out yourself.)

They have a 30 day money back guarantee.

I’ll Set It Up For You

I’ll install whatever theme and plugins that you want.

I have a list of plugins that I always install for my clients.

I’ll walk you through any configuration settings that you want and show you how to make it do what you want it to do.

I’ve done so many WordPress installations, it’s fast and easy for me.

I make a few bucks from PowWeb and I make another WordPress fan.

You get good, cheap web hosting for your own web site, with none of the technical hassle.

How cool is that?

NO OBLIGATION NOW

CLICK THIS LINK FOR MORE INFO:
http://www.powweb.com/?AffID=577083

After you click on that link and set up your hosting account, send me an email using my normal “contact us” page, and tell me that you want me to install WordPress for you.

As long as you use that link, you can buy the web hosting any time within the next 6 months and I’ll get the commission.

If you have any questions, please drop me an email and ask.

Looking forward to helping you get your web site set up.

Knocked Off The Horse

People don’t seem to understand that WordPress is free and powerful. I am an old school, hand coder, who would rather do it all myself, so I can have total control, but I cranked out a complete web site, including a custom design, including an image gallery, and including all the fixin’s, in two hours. That’s two hours folks, to build a site that would have taken me two weeks in the old days.

WordPress rocks. No way around it. WordPress just freakin’ rocks.

It also seems that SEO is the buzz of the day. Either people want it or they don’t know yet that they want it. I’m finding that the common thread, with everyone that I talk to, is that they just don’t know much about how to effectively do SEO, even though it’s relatively easy.

A client told me this morning, after I gave them an outline of what to do, that it’s not hard to do, they just didn’t know what needed to be done. It’s like I gave them the map and now they are driving the car across the country.

I’ll be talking more about WordPress SEO and SEO in general. It is really not difficult, once you get a few ideas figured out. I’m surprised that people charge so much for it, but it does give results and most people are not doing anything, so it’s easy to beat most other sites out there.

They said they were about to update their web site. Their spouse had created it and they wanted to add some features and update the look. I suggested that they use WordPress. I sounded like the fan boy that I am.

They were pleasant, but said they already had hosting with GoDaddy and they would just use the web blog application that they provided as part of the hosting package. They had heard of WordPress and that it was good, but they would use what they had.

I continued on about how cool WordPress is. They were very nice, but had decided that they didn’t want to pay anything extra when they already had a blogging application included in their hosting package.

I checked it out on my own GoDaddy account. It sucked! It had a tenth of the functionality and the interface was horrible.

Did I mention that it's free?

Oh. That’s quite different. It’s free you say? You don’t have to buy it?

No! It’s FREE. You can download it, install it, pick a theme, put in some plug ins and have a complete, professional web site FOR FREE.

They said they would check it out. They thanked me profusely. Told me that I had motivated them to get going on their web site.

I have no idea if they will do anything on it at all, but I guess I was shocked that not everyone has the same understanding and knowledge and beliefs that I do. Silly me.

People seem to think that to get cool software, you have to spend money. If you don’t spend money, then you can have cool software. People can’t wrap their heads around the whole “open source” thing.

If you happen to not be aware, WordPress is free. There is no cost. You can download it and install it on any web server that’s running MySQL and Apache (which is almost every web server these days). You can control all aspects of it. You can build your own theme if you want. You can do anything with it.

Did I mention that it’s free?

If you are involved with a church that does not have a web site, I can show you how to get one for free, using WordPress.com. All it takes is a little initiative on your part and you can have a web site. You don’t need a $300 site. You don’t need a $500 site. You can have a free web site for your church. Go to www.worpdress.com and follow the instructions.

Do it now. For the children.

Quoting from The Church In 2009 – KYPost.com

Close to half of the churches offer Web pages.

For example, local churches have caught up with the secular society in their use of computers and technology. In 1998, fewer than one in five U.S. congregations hosted Web sites; today, close to half of the churches offer Web pages to their members and local community. A friend of mine who ministers to a large Washington, D.C. Baptist congregation has a frequently updated interactive Web site whose volunteer editor works from India.

Read the entire article at:
http://www.kypost.com/content/middleblue3/story/The-Church-In-2009/o3oMerab5E2upfPeBvDqdg.cspx

Quoting from 5 Features That a Church Website Shouldn’t Be Without | Web Site Design Blog

A good church website needs to be informative, visually appealing and have a bit of interaction with the visitor. After all shouldn’t your church’s website inspire people to visit your church physically? It can be easy to forget that people not in your local community may be searching for a church to attend a worship service. What features do you look for when you are looking at a church website?

How do you get there? Sure an address is great, but a map or written directions would be better.

Driving Directions

How do you get there? Sure an address is great, but a map or written directions would be better. Make it as easy as possible for the website visitor to locate your church.

Service Times

When do you worship? Often more times than not the service times are not listed on most church websites. Be sure to place your worship times prominently on the homepage of the site.

Sunday School

Let’s say that your visitors have children. What do you suppose they would like to know about your church? Make it well known that you offer a Sunday school service to avoid any confusion with new guests to your church.

Events Calendar

What if a member of your congregation misses a Sunday, but would like to know about the youth soccer game in the park? By having an up-to-date events calendar you can let your church members know what is going on.

Pictures

Sure stock photography is great in some cases, but what about those great pictures from your church’s mission trip? Be sure to include real pictures of your church and congregation. This will give your site a more realistic and personal touch.

Read the entire article at:
http://blog.collinsinternet.com/27/5-features-that-a-church-website-shouldnt-be-without/

Look at his response. Leads with a compliment, addresses the concern, and follows with a positive statement. Also notice that he gets a link to his site in the comment he left (good for SEO). If it was just comments spam, I wouldn’t have approved it. Since it was a meaningful comment, it’s approved and he got the link.

I wish I could comment as well as Douglas! The dude is a professional. I’m happy to give him the extra links.

I’ve been promoting PowWeb, since they are who I’m happy with, but perhaps it’s time to stroll on down to Hostgator and check them out.

Quoting from How To Use The “Suckage Ratio” | Web Design and Developement for Small Business

I wish I could comment as well as Douglas!

By Douglas – HostGator.com on Dec 29, 2008 | Reply | Edit

I’m glad to see that you utilize a ratio (most posts like these just use the flat out number of results), but am disappointed to see that HostGator had the highest “suckage ratio.”

With that in mind, though, our customer service is still amongst the best in the industry and is continually improving. We also invest a lot of time and resources into reaching out to customers that have any trouble (we have an extremely strong presence on the Twitter and regularly reach out to bloggers). And the CEO of the company is also personally available to customers who ask (this is not a gimmick and actually does happen).

Hopefully our reaching out will help demonstrate our commitment to customer service excellence. If you have any questions or concerns, don’t hesitate to send me an email.

Read the entire article at:

http://www.waltonwebdesigner.com/2008/12/22/how-to-use-the-suckage-ratio-to-pick-companies-and-products.html#comments

Quoting from Church Marketing Rocks « Billy Chia

When I reached into my wallet to pull out my debit card to pay, I pulled out a churchinabrewery.com card as well. I laid it down and said,

Web addresses on business cards just work.

“I worshiped with these guys on Christmas Eve.”

She said she’d never heard of Church in a Brewery but that she really enjoyed the Christmas Eve service at Grace UMC. She asked to keep the card. (My vibe was that Grace is the right place for her – but I’m suspecting she might have a friend to pass the card along to who would find a great home at Sojourn.)

Business Cards with a web addresses just work. In a situation where it’d be awkward to try to start up a conversation about going to church while there are 300 other people waiting for driver’s liscneses it’s simple and gets you to the point quick.

Read the entire article at:
http://billychia.com/2008/12/29/church-marketing-rocks/

I think that phrase could also be used for any business that doesn’t have a web page. In 2008, there is not reason that any business doesn’t have a web site, none at all.

It’s not that hard folks. It’s really not. I sell a book, Web Site Starter Kit, that will tell you how to get a web site for free, (yes, free!) and it won’t suck, I promise. You need to drag your small business or church out of the Dark Ages and into the 21st century. All the kids are doing it these days.

The Teapot Atheist: Isn’t that cute! The Church figured out the intertubes!

Church is a primitive, backwards relic from a superstitious, theocratic Dark Age.

Secular people practically own the internet. It’s old news. We’ve been bloggging, podcasting, all of it, ever since the internet was invented. And now the Vatican has just figured out what this crazy “iTunes” thing is that all the kids are using. The Pope made headlines in 2005 because he figured out how to use a five year-old piece of technology known as a “text message” with the help of only a $90 million Peter’s Pence Vatican budget.

The whole story is quite a commentary on what people really think about the Church. Why would it be news for them to use the internet if it didn’t defy our understanding of the fact that the Church is a primitive, backwards relic from a superstitious, theocratic Dark Age?

Read the entire article at The Teapot Atheist: Isn’t that cute! The Church figured out the intertubes!