Welcome to the Guide to Starting Your Business Online: Part 1
Do you have a business idea and want to test it, but don’t know how?
Do you need a website for your business, but don’t want to spend a fortune on website developers?
Follow this step-by-step guide for creating a website, buying a domain, and creating a landing page in 10 minutes.
What are we going to cover?
In this article and accompanying videos, I’m going to walk you through the following steps:
- How to buy a domain name from Google Domains
- How to set up a Bluehost account to host your website
- How to launch your WordPress website
- How to create a landing page with Instapage
- How to pass the landing page to your WordPress account
- How to make the website live
Get a Domain with Google Domains
1. Go to domains.google.com
2. Sign-in with a Google account, or create an account if you don’t have one
3. Click the big red “Search Domains” button in the upper lefthand corner of the webpage
4. Type the domain name you want to use for your website in the search bar in the center of the webpage
5. Press the cart button with the “+” sign in it to add the domain name to your cart
6. Click on the cart in the upper righthand corner of the webpage
7. Decide whether to accept the “Privacy Protection” and “Auto Renew” features
8. Press the big blue “Check Out” button
9. Fill out the ICANN form, payment form and submit
You’re now the proud owner of a brand spanking new domain! Are you as pumped and ready for the next challenge as this little guy?
Set Up Website Hosting with Bluehost
1. Click on the “Create Website” button under the “Build a Website” section of the registration modal
2. Click on the blue “Start Trial” button next to the WordPress logo
3. Once the page loads, click on the large green “Get Started” button in the center of the webpage
4. Sign in with your Google account, if you haven’t already
5. Select your domain from the drop-down menu
6. Press the large green “Next” button
7. Fill out your information on the Bluehost payment page
- The first 30 days are free and then hosting costs $9.99/mo
8. You’ll be taken to a page with this on it:
- Follow these directions
9. Go to your Google Domains Manager
10. Click on the DNS icon next to your domain (see image above or video)
11. Scroll down to “Customer Resource Records”
12. Enter the IPv4 address you’re given by Bluehost on your version of the image above
13. Press the “Add” button
14. Wait for the information to process. This typically takes a few minutes, but according to Bluehost, it can take up to 24 hours.
If you’ve made it this far, you are on FIRE!
Keep up the strong work.
Create a WordPress Website
1. Once the page loads, press the “I don’t need help” text below the blue “Business” and “Personal” buttons
2. Click on “Bluehost” in the navigation bar on the left side of the browser to exit the Bluehost on-boarding process. We don’t need it right now.
3. Click on “Settings” in the navigation bar on the left side of the browser
4. Enter your domain address (ex: https://www.mktr.ai) into the “WordPress Address (URL)” text field
5. Enter your domain address in the “Site Address (URL)” text field as well
6. Scroll to the bottom of the window and click on the blue “Save Changes” button
7. Go to the Bluehost login page
8. Sign-in using the Google account you used to buy your domain (if you aren’t signed in already)
9. Click on “My Sites” in the navigation bar on the left side of the screen
10. Click on “Log into WordPress”
11. Once the WordPress interface reloads, select “Users” in the navigation bar on the left
12. Beside to the “Users” label near the top of the page, there is an “Add New” button. Click that button.
13. Enter your desired information for Username, First Name, Last Name, Website, and Password
14. Adjust the “Role” drop-down selector from “Subscriber” to “Administrator”
15. Press the blue “Add New User” button
16. Now, roll your mouse over “Plugins” in the left navigation bar and select “Add New”
17. In the “Search installed plugins..” text field at the top right of the screen, enter “Instapage”
18. Press the “Install Now” button on the Instapage WordPress Plugin card
19. Wait a few seconds until the button text changes to “Activate” and press it
You now have a WordPress website to go with your domain. Excellent work!
You’re on a roll, keep it up.
Create a Landing Page with Instapage
1. Go to Instapage.com
2. Click on either the big blue “Get Started” button, or the “Sign Up” button in the top right corner of the page
3. Fill out the sign-up form
4. Enter your company name and your role in the company
5. Agree to the GDPR Compliance terms
6. When the modal pops-up, answer the questions. This will give you suggestions for the type of landing page template to use.
7. Select the template you want to use by clicking on it
8. Enter the name of your page when the “Name Your Page” modal loads and press the “Continue” button
9. Open a new tab in your browser and go to your WordPress website (ex: yourwebsite.com/wp-admin)
10. Select “Instapage” in the left navigation bar
11. Click on the “Settings” tab along the top of the screen
12. Enter your Instapage User Email and Instapage Password and press the “Login” button
13. Once you’ve logged in, under the blue “Logout” button, check the “all” box, and press the blue “Connect to WordPress” button
14. Open the Instapage tab
15. Press the big blue “Publish” button in the top right corner of the webpage
16. Click “Continue Anyway” for the prompt considering A/B Split Testing. We don’t need to worry about this right now. We’ll get to it after we’re up and running.
17. Select “WordPress” when prompted with the question, “How would you like to publish your page?”
18. Press the “Push Page to WordPress” button in the next modal
19. After you receive the popup telling you that your website is now available to publish in WordPress, press the “Close” button
20. Return to your WordPress tab and make sure you are in the Instapage section of the left navigation bar
21. Click on the “Add Page” tab near the top of the webpage
22. In the “Landing Page” drop-down, select your Instapage landing page by name
23. In the “Page Type” drop-down, select either “Landing Page” or “Home Page”
24. If you select “Landing Page” you’ll need to add the ending for the landing page URL (ex: yourwebsite.com/landing)
25. Press the blue “Publish” button
26. Once the page is updated, click on the highlighted URL and go see your live landing page
…
YOU HAVE A WEBSITE! Awesome job.
It’s ok if you dance for a minute. In fact, I’ll join you:
Conclusion
If you followed along and finished these tasks, great job! If not, at least now you have an idea of what you need to do.
In this, Part 1, of our Guide to Starting Your Business Online, we covered several steps needed to build your first website and landing page.
In Part 2 of the Guide to Starting Your Business Online we’ll tackle creating your logo and social media design assets needed to brand your website and social media accounts.
THANK YOU for reading and until next time, keep hustling!
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