Making a Website

Hi there! Would you like to make a website for your business?

Having a website is not 100% necessary when starting out with a business. You can start your business by having an Instagram profile, a Facebook Page, a Facebook group, etc. All you really need is a place to show what you're working on, and a way for people to contact you. Social media profiles (combined with building a list of email subscribers!) can be a great start for this.

But as your business grows, you may want to invest in a 'home on the web' to add a professional touch to help your customers/clients to find, like, know and trust you.

The links below can hopefully help you with this :)

We'll be updating this page as we receive more post submissions, so please check back often or subscribe for updates.

If you have something that you'd like to add - submit your own post!

♥️ Hayley

1) Take a look at these pages on our website that might help:

Making a Website

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

Copywriting and Editing

Branding

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2) Take a look at our curated playlists on YouTube:

Making a Website

SEO

Branding

Copywriting

How to write your 'about' page

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3) Looking for online events/workshops to help you to make a website? Click here to view our community calendar.

Our calendar contains links to events/workshops/scheduled Instagram Livestreams/virtual summits/fitness classes, etc, that women from around the world are hosting. Please note that Online CoWork is not affiliated with any of these events.

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4) Take a look at our quiz section to see if there are any relevant quizzes on making a website that may be helpful for you.

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5) Looking for relevant freebies? Such as free guides, checklists, etc? Visit the freebies page!

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6) Looking to shop for products, services, etc, to help you to make your website? Visit the Online CoWork shop.

Everything in the shop has been submitted by women in online business. Please note that Online CoWork is not affiliated with these products/services.

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7) Looking to hire someone to help you out with building your website? Perhaps a designer, copywriter or branding expert? Click here to visit our 'hire me' page - or add a job post on our remote jobs page to let others know what kind of help you are looking for.

(Alternatively, add your LinkedIn profile or website to be hired!)

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8) Take a look at the 'Branding Struggles' page on our website. There you'll find resources to help you to choose your website colours, logo, etc.

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9) Take a look at the 'Copywriting Struggles' page on our website. There you'll find resources to help you to write your website copy (i.e. text).

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10) Below is a list of some easy 'no-coding' drag-and-drop website (and sales page) builders (some of them have a free plan):

a) Wix

b) Squarespace

c) Canva

d) Wordpress.com

e) Wordpress.org (self-hosted website building)

f) Clickfunnels (sales funnel builder) and the 'One Funnel Away' Challenge to get you started!

g) Leadpages (sales page builder)

h) Shopify (E-commerce)

i) You can hire someone to build you a custom HTML/CSS/Javascript website or perhaps even someone to build you a mobile app using React.js - Hayley, Online CoWork founder does this! Click here.

j) Note: You can make simple landing pages with sign-up forms for your lead magnets without having a website. Instead you can use email marketing software such as Mailchimp and Mailerlite for this - which are both free for up to a certain number of subscribers.

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11) If you are wanting a professional home on the web, it is also important to purchase a domain name that correctly represents your business - such as 'thehappycoach.com' or 'flowers.io'.

So you can first build your website on one of the above 'do-it-yourself' website builders and then add a custom domain name.

The price of a custom domain name ranges dramatically - from a few dollars a year to thousands per year (for premium domains) - but is usually around $10 to $30 a year (but this can depend on the country you are buying it in as well)

NOTE: You will need to renew your domain name each year or it can be taken by someone else.

Here are some companies that offer domain names for sale:

a) GoDaddy

b) NameCheap

NOTE: Before you purchase a domain name, you will want to check whether the relevant social media handles are available or taken. To check this, you can type your domain into NameCheckr.

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12) If you decide use Wordpress.org to build your website, you will also need to purchase 'hosting' for your website as an extra cost.

This is a monthly/annual fee (usually $3 to $7 per month) that you pay a company to host your website online for you.

A self-hosted website is great because your website is your own and you are not subject to the potentially expensive monthly fee/rules/restrictions of website builders such as Squarespace.

However, self-hosted Wordpress websites are bit more technical to set-up (but usually don't require any coding skills).

Here are some hosting companies that you may wish to use (be sure to also purchase the 'SSL security certificate' when purchasing hosting!):

a) SiteGround

b) Bluehost

b) GoDaddy

NOTE: Custom HTML/CSS/Javascript websites also require hosting, but can be hosted on many free hosting services (as long as the website is not too large/complex) - such as Netlify and GitPages. Also, some hosting services may also allow you to buy your domain name through them at the same time.

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13) If you choose to build a Wordpress.org website, you'll need to purchase a theme for your site:

a) Divi Theme (easy drag and drop builder)

b) Elementor (another great builder)

c) Theme Forest

d) Template Monster

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14) Don't forget to test the speed of your website once you have built it :) - you can add the domain name here to test it.

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15) Have you been trying to build your website for months but you're just not able to make it happen? Hayley (Online CoWork Founder) offers an accountability service! We'll break your website building down in bite-sized tasks to make it happen! Email Hayley at info (at) onlinecowork.com.

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16) Don't forget that your website should have a lead magnet of some sort. A lead magnet is a very simple guide, checklist, quiz, etc that you have created that your website visitors can download in exchange for giving you their email address. This will help your customers to get to know you and will also help you to build your email subscriber list! (An email list is so important to have in order to be able to share your news, updates, products and services with your customers)

NOTE: If you'd like to add your own online event, link, LinkedIn profile, website, quiz, shop product, YouTube video, etc, then click here to submit a post 🥳. We will share your post with our social media and email list at no cost :) Alternatively, if you would like to advertise on this page, please contact us at info (at) onlinecowork.com.

Do you know any well-known website-building experts with great content? Let us know at info (at) onlinecowork.com so we can add them to this list!