WordPress website setup for busy people
Had a great chat with Salena Knight on her Bringing Business to Retail Podcast where we talk about:
Listen now at Salena’s website or download the podcast on iTunes.
This article originally appeared on iamnickdavis.com
You’ve gone to all the effort to write a blog post, record a podcast or release some other kind of work into the world.
But, for whatever time you spent writing that article, you should be putting in way more time promoting it.
Here’s the truth:
It’s smarter to find another 10,000 people to consume what you’ve already created as opposed to creating more.
Or, in other words, create content 20% of the time. Spend the other 80% of the time promoting what you created.
– Derek Halpern of Social Triggers
Of course there are an almost infinite number of ways to do that and I highly encourage you to try lots of different things and measure the results.
But if you’re regularly posting up content on Facebook and Twitter there’s one small extra ‘trick’ you can do to give your article a greater chance of being seen.
Making sure a beautiful, eye catching image accompanies every post.
And it’s not just about makings things look prettier, Twitter reports that tweets with images in them can get a 35% bump in retweets compared to updates without images.
Here’s how.
First of all, if your images are horrible go and get yourself some free (and awesome ones) from any of the following sources:
All of these images are free to use (in terms of cost and copyright). I found the image I’m using for this post via Stock Up.
Once you’ve done that, come back to this post.
We’ve probably all posted links to Facebook before and have an image come up automatically, so why the guide?
Because when you post a link, because sometimes it comes up with:
However I post links to articles I’ve written on Facebook several times a week and now always manage to get the ‘big image’ version to appear (yes, I’m pretty proud of that).
Here’s how to do it from your WordPress blog:
That means an image that’s:
Not sure about all of that? As long as the image is landscape, reasonably wide and tall, Facebook should still handle it.
Don’t know how to do this or what your password is? Read this guide.
If you’re not already using it, I recommend you install the WordPress SEO plugin by Yoast.
There is a premium version of the plugin, but the free version is good enough for our needs and is designed to keep up with any of the latest changes to how Facebook handles this stuff.
From the WordPress Menu:
Once the WordPress SEO plugin is installed and activated, go to the Edit Post screen of the post you want to an image to in WordPress.
From the WordPress menu:
There may be one extra step for WordPress websites that use caching, which is to clear the cache.
(Caching is something which can speed up the speed at which a page loads on your site by storing a copy of each page that’s already ready to use, instead of checking with WordPress what should appear (what’s the title? where should this image go? etc) every time a visitor requests a new copy of that page).
Now there are an awful lot of different caching plugins and solutions for WordPress and I can’t cover every one here except to offer this advice.
There’ll probably be be a ‘clear cache’ button somewhere in your WordPress admin or hosting control panel. If you’re not sure just ask their support.
Simply check the settings for that plugin in your WordPress admin. Check with the plugin author or the plugin’s documentation if you’re not sure where this is handled from.
Again, sometimes this is unnecessary but if you want to be sure of getting the right image in Facebook, there is one more step, this time outside of WordPress.
Now simply go to the Facebook Group or Page or wherever you want to post your article. Add a few introductory words and paste your article link in.
After a few moments you should get your beautifully formatted Facebook update which you can go ahead and post.
For 90%+ of WordPress themes this will be good enough. If you’ve followed all the steps and you’re still not getting the right image you might want to check with your theme author in case their theme handles Featured Images in a different way.
With Twitter, you’ll be pleased to know that there are less steps to achieve the above.
Firstly, though it’s important to understand that depending on which device and application you’re viewing a tweet on you might see an image automatically.
However if you want to be sure that an image will be displayed, it must be uploaded as part of the status update and it must follow a few guidelines, just like on Facebook.
Here’s how it’s done:
Anything not clear? Just ask in the comments section below and I’ll do my best to help.
In case you didn’t know, ThemeValet was finally (properly) launched as a result of me re-reading Dan Norris’ 7 Day Startup book – in which he lays out a system for launching an idea fast – while on holiday.
And a key part of that book lays out how to use a pre-made WordPress theme to setup a basic WordPress website cheaply, by yourself in order to get your new idea off the ground.
Of course the range of different themes can be overwhelming and it’s also hard to know the quality and support behind the themes if you’ve never used one from that company before.
Fortunately I have a lot of experience in this area, so I’ve made it my task for today to give you some solid recommendations.
For this list, my priority is design and reliability (looks good on all browsers, things don’t break unexpectedly), rather than fancy but ultimately pointless theme features.
The main goal is to create a striking landing page that will help you get your message out. And while we’re more concerned with launching fast, than slowing ourselves down worrying about unnecessary details, design does matter.
So if you can get a great looking site from day one, why not?
Also, to try to give you some variety I’m only going to pick one theme from each ‘theme shop’, though in most cases I could have picked more from each one.
Yes, you’re not doing a double take. This is the launch theme for ThemeValet (i.e. the one you’re viewing now) and has been lucky enough to attract a lot of compliments.
It’s strength undoubtedly is its homepage but it also supports inner pages and blog posts (like this one) too.
Altitude Pro is made by StudioPress, one of the oldest and best theme shops in the game and they have a lot of design talent (in the likes of Brian Gardner, Lauren Mancke and Rafal Tomal).
So by picking a StudioPress theme for about $100 or less you can get a great looking modern theme that looks like it could’ve cost way more.
The Theme Foundry has some fantastic designs, many of them blog focussed but, of all their themes, the Basis theme is probably most appropriate for new product or service launches.
(There’s even an alternate landing page template that comes with it).
I have to admit I prefer a site that looks more finished than a countdown version, but I guess it wouldn’t be a list of pre-launch / launch themes without a countdown theme in here somewhere.
Yes, there are a lot of free countdown themes, but I like how the guys of Themedy have done Hatch.
If you’re looking for a more feminine style for your startup WordPress theme, I recommend checking out the stunning collection of themes by Lauren over at Restored 316.
I could’ve picked out a few different themes but I’ve gone for Sprinkle. It has a variety of homepage widget areas and a prominent subscribe box.
And the design is fantastic.
Made by one of my favourite WordPress designers Orman Clark for his ThemeZilla theme shop, Storey is an elegant theme that could suit all kinds of businesses.
If you like this style of themes I also encourage you to check out Orman’s themes in general because he has a few others in a similar style to this one.
Lindsey Riel over at Pretty Darn Cute has created a lot of great WordPress themes but my favourite is probably Swank.
If you’re looking for a clean, light look for your 7 Day Startup homepage you can’t do much better. It also has an email subscription box and social media links prominently displayed.
And finally, I have to admit more than a little bias here because I’m the co-founder of Lean Themes, but since launching our Kickstart theme we’ve had a lot of praise for it.
Like Altitude Pro it has a lot of homepage widget areas you can play with (to fit almost any kind of content) plus a stronger header image space.
It’s even had praise from the likes of Andrew Warner, interviewer of many startup founders over at Mixergy!
PS Got a favourite theme you want to give a shout out to? Let us know in the comments below (please feel free to include a link to your website if you’re still using the theme on it).
PPS And if you found your perfect ‘7 Day Startup’ launch theme but don’t want to set it yourself, we can do it for you from $99. Just browse our homepage for more details on how it all works or get in touch if you have any questions.
There are also sorts of complex and clever things you can do with recurring PayPal payments and a WordPress website, like set up a membership site where people only have access to your content as long as their subscription payment is good.
But what if you don’t need something that does all of that?
What if you just want to set up the recurring payment and manually manage everything from there?
Maybe, for instance, you just want to provide some kind of recurring consulting service (e.g. social media management) each month to a client and right now you just want to get things off the ground and set up your recurring payments pronto?
Yes, bootstrappers and hustlers, I have a simple solution for you that will cost you exactly $0 to setup and just a few minutes of your time.
(You can even build in a free trial period too if you want).
First we’re going to generate some button code that we’re going to copy and paste into WordPress. Here’s how we do it.
On the following page you should see three steps to creating your button:
You can probably skip.
To improve your checkout experience, in the Step 3 section I recommend setting up both a cancel page and a success page for completed transactions on your website.
Finally to get the actual button code for your website:
Now we’re going to put this button somewhere on your website.
Depending on your WordPress theme you should also be able to add the button to your homepage or a sidebar, if you wish.
Generally this will be done by pasting the code into something called a widget which can be displayed in certain parts of your WordPress theme (known as ‘widget areas’)
Probably the easiest way to find out if you can do this with your theme or not is to try, so here’s how you do that:
No problem, just tell them to follow the steps here: https://www.paypal.com/gb/webapps/helpcenter/helphub/article/?solutionId=FAQ2145&topicID=&m=ARA
PayPal sends you an email.
Yes, you could, but a word of warning from serial product and course creator Brennan Dunn:
Those who refuse to enter a credit card to start a trial, even after giving them a backdoor option, end up NEVER converting.
— Brennan Dunn (@brennandunn) July 7, 2015
It's taken me way too many years to realize this. Now I just turn them away.
— Brennan Dunn (@brennandunn) July 7, 2015
So if you’re going to offer a trial period, better do it as part of the process of them signing up and of course they can always cancel their subscription before their first payment is taken anyway.
You have an audience who respects your knowledge. They have problems they need solving. You have product ideas or other ways that you can help them.
You just need a buy button!
This tutorial covers two scenarios for quickly monetising your website, neither should take you more than 10 minutes:
You can always switch to a more sophisticated solution, like those offered by my company eSanctuary, later on.
What can you sell with as a digital download?
You’d be surprised. Perhaps you already have something that is useful to your audience.
Amir Khella famously repackaged the templates he used to mock up new product ideas for clients and turned them into a product called Keynotopia which has earned him money ever since.
Maybe there’s an interview or webinar you did which has value. Or some standard process or knowledge you use or form the basis of a product.
If you’ve got an audience, hopefully they’ll already be sharing some of their frustrations and pain points with you so that should give you some ideas.
You don’t have to think of something on the spot, but once you have something you believe will provide value to your audience, it’s never been easier to make a buy button.
We’re going to use this method to sell any kind of digital download (PDF, video etc) as long as it’s yours to sell.
Example Gumroad button:
I also cover selling with Gumroad in more detail in this video.
Perhaps you offer some kind of consulting or you’re a fitness trainer who wants to pre-book classes online.
Whatever you do, if you sell your time and you have an audience you can add a simple buy button to your website and start collecting money today.
Forgot about shopping carts and fancy booking systems. You can email or call them your customer after a purchase to make whatever arrangements you need.
(Sure, you can still do that more complicated e-commerce or membership website later on but why not just get started? Plus, the money you make now will help pay for it).
In most countries, PayPal will let you take payments from people registered with PayPal or even those who haven’t registered via a credit card.
Customers are sent from your website to the PayPal website to complete their payment, after which both you and the customer will be notified of a successful payment.
You can then follow up via email with the customer to arrange your consulting session.
You can even make different PayPal buttons for different amounts to cover different coaching packages.
Example PayPal button:
Something not clear in the instructions above or got another question? Let me know in the comments below.
This article originally appeared on iamnickdavis.com