Average Investor

Website building Questions

8 posts in this topic

I am going to be working on a building a website for my health coaching business. I've never made a website. Before I hop into guides on building one, I figured some of you have a good amount of experience here.

Is it hard to embed videos into a site? I mainly want to make one video to pitch the service, then some testimonial videos as I get them. I would like to be able to easily edit it. 

Where is the best place to buy a domain? 

What kind of hosting is best, or who is the best provider? 

Is there any traps I should look out for? 

What kind of skills would be worth learning to manage and maintain the site? 

Are the pre-built kind of sites the best route for my situation? 

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Do you want to learn to code your site or not and just get something like Squarespace? The first option is more time consuming and imo not worth pursuing in your case since I'd want to focus on getting clients. The second option can get you started quickly (though I have less experience with Squarespace maybe someone else can address how easy it is to navigate it).

And then you'll probably want to add some scheduling management plugin, some I have seen and like are Practice Better, Jane app. Basically you don't need to code things like that just grab what's already available.

Not hard to embed videos, you just have to upload it somewhere and link to it on the page, similar to how you embed images in html. 

Domain I just go with GoDaddy there might be better ones.

I would say it's easy to look up/quickly learn html and CSS to be able to customize your site, since you are not dealing much with backend code. 


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6 hours ago, Average Investor said:

Is it hard to embed videos into a site?

Extremely easy, basically copy and paste the link into a box and it's done. I would upload them as unlisted videos on Youtube and then embed them, instead of taking up hosting on your own site. Most modern website themes are dynamic and they'll automatically adjust the player size based on the device someone is viewing your site on, so you don't even have to worry about resizing it.

6 hours ago, Average Investor said:

Where is the best place to buy a domain? 

I've always liked Namecheap. Never had any issues, and it's popular enough that there are Youtube tutorials to walk you through any common questions like linking your domain + host together, creating redirects, etc.

You can do a quick search for "best domain providers 2022" or something to see if there's anything revolutionary out there I've missed in the past few years, but I don't think so.

Right now Namecheap has a deal where new customers can sign up for 2 years of domain registration for $0.98. I don't know when it ends but I would jump on that. (Most domains are about $10/year ongoing after that regardless)

6 hours ago, Average Investor said:

What kind of hosting is best, or who is the best provider? 

Shared hosting is good enough for what you need, until you're getting about 30,000 or more views per month. Basically your stuff is stored on a server with 10 - 20 other sites instead of its own dedicated server to cut down on cost, but it's all kept separate and secure and you won't notice a difference.

This is the base plan most hosts offer, starting from about $3/month.

I personally use HostGator and it's fine, but if I was starting again today I'd use BlueHost.

You only need one hosting account unless one of your sites gets huge. I have 10+ sites running on one shared hosting plan.

6 hours ago, Average Investor said:

Is there any traps I should look out for?

Don't buy your domain and hosting from the same company, so if you ever want to transfer it's easier and your domain can't be held hostage.

Both the domain registrar and hosting company are going to try to upsell you on a lot of stuff you don't need to pay for:

  • WHOIS protection is free (make sure you get it to hide your address and personal info)
  • SSL certificates are now free from most hosts as a standard practice. Enable this early on to make your site HTTPS instead of HTTP and avoid headaches converting over later, especially if you plan to take payments through your site. (Gives you the little lock in the URL bar, and will make sure people don't get a "This domain is not secure" warning from their browser when they visit your site)
  • Wordpress installation is free and easy. You don't have to pay for it or pay someone to do it for you.
  • Don't confuse Wordpress.ORG (An open source software that millions of websites run on) with Wordpress.COM (A mediocre web host)
  • You can create infinite email accounts with infinite storage with your host (@ yourdomain.com) for free. Don't pay for email.
  • Anti-spam protection, DDoS protection, backups, and most security stuff is free

When you first link your domain and hosting together, it can take up to 24 hours for them to sync up (called propagation.) Don't freak out if your website is showing a blank page or some random ads at first and you can't seem to fix it, it's normal. Once you point your domain at your hosting nameservers, just leave it for at least a few hours to propagate and avoid obsessively refreshing or trying to work with it before it's ready.

6 hours ago, Average Investor said:

What kind of skills would be worth learning to manage and maintain the site?

You'll pretty much pick up what you need as you go. Coding is not required. If there is some little customization you want to do that your theme doesn't cover, someone has probably written the CSS for you to copy and paste in somewhere on the web.

Assuming you will use Wordpress, there are a lot of little initial setup things and recommended plugins I can list out if you want.

6 hours ago, Average Investor said:

Are the pre-built kind of sites the best route for my situation? 

Platforms like Wix, Squarespace, etc are easiest to set up. But you end up overpaying for what they offer in the long run, and they tend to nickle and dime you for little extras.

You also don't want to waste hundreds of hours coding a website from scratch.

I suggest the middle option, which is paying for your domain + hosting, then do a free 1-click install of Wordpress on your site. Then everything you do on your site is within Wordpress, all GUI and user-friendly, no coding or moving stuff through folders.

Wordpress has thousands of free themes to choose from, which basically offer all the out-of-the-box customization you could want. Especially for just a basic website with a home page, contact form, testimonials, a blog, maybe 10 pages in total.

In Wordpress, the only "managing and maintaining" your site you really need to do is updating your plugins occasionally with 1 click when it tells you there's a new version.

Avoid using website builders like Elementor, especially drag-and-drop stuff, as it tends to break over time and eventually you'll end up having to redo your whole website anyway.

Edited by Yarco

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@puporing Thank you very much. I think I am going to take the middle route as Yarco suggested as far as making the site. I like the practice better thing you suggested, I will look into that a bit more. 

 

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26 minutes ago, Yarco said:

I've always liked Namecheap. Never had any issues, and it's popular enough that there are Youtube tutorials to walk you through any common questions like linking your domain + host together, creating redirects, etc.

You can do a quick search for "best domain providers 2022" or something to see if there's anything revolutionary out there I've missed in the past few years, but I don't think so.

Right now Namecheap has a deal where new customers can sign up for 2 years of domain registration for $0.98. I don't know when it ends but I would jump on that. (Most domains are about $10/year ongoing after that regardless)

Ooof, I just bought my domain with cloudflair. Only $8.57 per year though and no rising cost at least. Great tip though. 

26 minutes ago, Yarco said:

Shared hosting is good enough for what you need, until you're getting about 30,000 or more views per month. Basically your stuff is stored on a server with 10 - 20 other sites, but it's all kept separate and secure and you won't notice a difference.

This is the base plan most hosts offer, starting from about $3/month.

I personally use HostGator, but if I was starting again today I'd use BlueHost.

You only need one hosting account unless one of your sites gets huge. I have 10+ sites running on one shared hosting plan.

So if I get the web hosting from bluehost would I want the website builder too? Or would just having the 1 click install of word press cover it?That seems super cheap at $3 per month. 

 

26 minutes ago, Yarco said:

Assuming you will use Wordpress, there are a lot of little initial setup things and recommended plugins I can list out if you want.

Yes please! 

 

Also, one thing I noticed on bluehost is that the ssl is for only one year. Is that something you pay extra for later? You mention it is usually free. I don't mind going to the $5 package if need be later to get it. 

Thanks so much for your write up on this. This has been super helpful. 

Edited by Average Investor

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So if I get the web hosting from bluehost would I want the website builder too? Or would just having the 1 click install of word press cover it?

Just the 1-click install of Wordpress is probably good. I looked at their Website Builder page and I'm kinda confused what it is, or what it really offers beyond the functionality already in Wordpress. It seems like maybe their own Squarespace-type builder layered on top of Wordpress.

Personally I would rather go with plain Wordpress and learn the general principles so you can apply them to any future sites, with or without BlueHost. But if you're just making this one website it might be a little faster and easier. Possibly also a little more restrictive.

I guess I would watch a Youtube video or two looking at the pros and cons, and see if you're able to disable it (or add it on later) if you change your mind. Since the lowest cost version of both options is the same amount, I feel like you must be able to switch it on and off. I've heard BlueHost has really great customer support, so I wouldn't hesitate to email them any questions you have, even as a prospective customer before signing up.

Quote

Also, one thing I noticed on bluehost is that the ssl is for only one year. Is that something you pay extra for later? You mention it is usually free. 

It's usually free indefinitely, but they might renew it for free each year.

That's how it is with my Namecheap domains. WHOIS protection is "free forever" but you have to add it on each time you renew the domain even though it's free.

When I click the little "read more" link on the home screen it sounds like it's forever, but you could email them to confirm.

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initial setup things

Free plugins to help prevent your site from getting hacked:

Limit Login Attempts Reloaded - Locks people out if they try to guess your password X number of times for X amount of time you set.

WPS Hide Login - Changes your default Wordpress login page to whatever URL you want, so people can't even find your login page to try and hack you.

Disable XML-RPC - I don't fully understand what this is, but it seems to be an exploit hackers use, and I haven't been hacked again since I started using it.

My sites kept periodically getting broken into no matter how secure my password was (30+ characters of random lower/upper case letters, numbers, symbols) until I started using all 3 of these plugins. I don't know how they managed to do it, I just know how to stop it xD

Really Simple SSL - To activate SSL on your website you just install and it's done.

  • If you care about stats for your site then you'll want to watch a tutorial video on how to set up a Google Analytics account, then link it to a plugin like Google Analytics for Wordpress by Monsterinsights
  • If you don't want comments enabled on your pages and posts, I would go into Settings > Discussion in Wordpress and just disable it, or else you just get lots of spam.
  • I get a lot of spam through my contact form too, to the point I've actually disabled it temporarily. You probably want to look for a contact form plugin that includes a Captcha or similar "I am not a robot" type test to cut down on that.
  • Settings > Permalinks I choose the "post name" option, otherwise Wordpress names all your pages random numbers. I heard it matters for SEO, although I don't know how much you'll have people finding you through search engines vs. direct links from your videos.

Personally I add the Classic Editor and Classic Widgets plugins to all my sites because that's how I learned Wordpress. If you have trouble wrapping your head around their new editor, you might want to try the classic version. It makes creating pages or blog posts on your website more like the WYSIWYG editor for comments here on the forum, or when making posts on Reddit. So for people who have been on the internet for a while I think it's more intuitive the old way.

I feel like there's about a dozen other things I find myself doing whenever I create a new site, but I'll have to think about it because nothing else is coming to mind.

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For domain registrars, I’ve used Namecheap with no issues.

Be careful with researching online articles as some of them are affiliated with the domain registrars they mention. 

Craylor Made on YouTube has good content on things related to websites. You can look into his stuff.

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@Yarco Thank you so much for all of the tips for this. This is really going to speed up my learning curve for doing this. I will have some time this week to really get it going. 

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