STEP #1 – BRAND STRATEGY

Your online presence is only as good as your strategy!

Before you start building anything, you need to have a very clear foundation. That means you’ve got to ask yourself a few simple things:

• What do feel most creative doing? (EX: I feel creative helping my clients get themselves online)
• Who is your intended Audience? (EX: I love having a tribe of creative and driven people)
• What services, art or products will your audience most likely want to purchase from you?
• Once you’re clear on your strategy, you’ll need a great website. Not just a website…but a site that is optimized to get people to join your list (this is when they give you their email address in exchange for a free thing).

STEP #2 – BUILD A WEBSITE

Hit the bullseye by creating a great website that establishes you as an Authority!

STEPS TO BUILD YOUR SITE:

#1 – Buy a URL:

A URL is the name of your site. EX: yoursite.com. Never use GoDaddy (blow-daddy)! They are evil! If you search for a URL but don’t buy it, they will! It’s like the mafia. We love Namecheap. Buy all your domain names (URLs) there.

#2 – Get Hosting:

We have our own server with a boutique agency in Slovenia. But we used to use HostGator and really liked them. Bluehost is also a great service. They both have great customer service. For now you will most likely want to share a server. Once you get tons of traffic you’ll want to get a dedicated VPS. This sounds high-tech and scary…so talk to them about scaling up as your traffic expands.

#3 – Get a Theme:

We suggest you buy one from Themeforest. Review the sample sites and make sure you like them! Customizing a theme is a pain in the butt. So choose a solid one from the get go. Themes cost around $50-$70. You get what you pay for, so DO NOT use a free theme. We prefer Themeforest as they have an upsell to have a team member install your new theme and make it look just like the theme’s sample site. This is a good use of your money as it gets you 80% of the way! PS: Make sure the theme is responsive. This means it ‘auto-scales’ the images and sections to look good a variety of mobile devices!

If you want your own theme, or customizations, the costs can range from $3000 – $50,000. So be very clear on what you need and be strategic! Bootstrap now and upgrade later!

#4- Get a Logo:

A logo is meant to visually brand your company. It needs to evoke the feelings of your brand. We strategically chose our ‘golden trumpet’ logo for a reason. It harks back to Greek Mythology and is symbolic of ‘getting your message to millions’. It took over 3 months of design work to nail it. So don’t freak it out if the 1st pass of your design isn’t 100% right. It’s going to take a few iterations (and constant feedback) unit you get it ‘just right’.

Like everything else, you get what you pay for. You can try to find outsourcers on Fiverr.com, Odesk or 99 Designs. We feel 99 Designs is the best as you can choose before you buy. It’s a bit more expensive, but you’re creating your brand, so don’t go cheap. In some instances, you won’t need a logo (like if you’re going to use your signature).

Fiverr.com will charge you only $5, but it takes forever (usually 10 days) and you have to pay $$$ to get an illustrator file of your new logo. You will need a vector graphics based Illustrator file. This will let you scale your logo up to any size (perfect for printing banners and marketing materials). When approaching designers, make sure you send plenty of examples of logos you like, the style you want and as much CLEAR direction as you can give.

#5 – Make a Sitemap:

You will want to plan out the pages, posts and navigation on your new site. This is a science! You must research the keywords that your brand will be built on, and then make sure these words are designed into your site structure. You also need to plan for legal pages so you don’t run the risk of getting sued! These include your Privacy Policy, Terms of Service, Refund Policy (if you sell stuff), Earnings Disclaimer (in case you recommend affiliate offers) and a contact page. There are a bunch of ‘generators’ online that will create basic legal text for you. Do a Google search for them and select the top search result.

#6 – Install Analytics:

You will definitely want to see how much traffic you’re getting. Plus you’ll want to know which keywords, referral sites and pages are getting you the most traffic. For this reason you need to install Google Analytics on your site. It’s totally free. They have tons of free training’s to guide you on how to install your analytics code and manage it.

#7 – Setup Security & Backups:

We recommend you set your site up with WPMU Dev. It’s a great service that lets you backup, run updates and check security.

#8 – Install a SEO Plugin:

Get the free Yoast Seo plugin. It lets you have full control over all your SEO. It’s the best!

STEP #3 – CREATE AN AUDIENCE PATH (FUNNEL)

Create a lead generating site and funnel that gives you the lifestyle you want!

After you have a great site you’re not embarrassed by, its time to make a plan to get leads. After you get their emails you want to map out a funnel to turn them into Guests (anyone who buys your stuff)! In order to do that, you’ll need to use some software and services.

Email Software (Autoresponders):

This is a fancy way of saying ‘email newsletter’. You need a professional service that automates all your outgoing emails. You don’t want to send out 100s of email from you Gmail account! This is not professional, and Google limits how many emails you can send daily. We suggest Active Campaign.  It’s AWESOME!  It lets you do pretty much any type of automation and tracking you’ll ever need.  We love it and are sure you will too.

Signup Pages:

You will want to easily create pages to ‘market’ why people should give you their email. The best service is Clickfunnels. Their prices start at $97 a month but it’s worth it. Plus they have their own hosting so you can create the page on their network and not worry about integrations with your site. Sweet!

Payment Processing and Shopping Carts:

If you sell products or services on your site then you’ll need a payment gateway. This is a fancy way of saying ‘process payments’. You also want to have a shopping cart. This is the interface your customers will see as they enter their payment details.  They’ll charge about 3.5% for each transaction, so factor that into your revenue projections!

We use Stripe to process our payments.  Stripe is awesome and connects with all the best shopping carts.  We suggest Samcart because it lets you split test payment options, page layout styles and upsells.  It’s awesome!

WRAP UP:

It took us over 5 years to master it. Even now the technology and best practices are always changing. Ugh!

If you have tons of time, and love dealing with SEO, design and programming then go for it. Otherwise hire a consulting firm to do this for you so you can focus on working on your business, not in it.

Bottom Line: You can’t inspire people if you don’t get your message out there. We’ve done all the hard work of finding the best tech solutions, so you don’t need to. Take our advice and don’t get stuck in the maze of ‘what is the best solution?’. The reality is nothing is perfect. You can waste all your time over-thinking things, or take our recommendations and ‘take action now’.

Here’s to your success!