Wondering how to start a website as efficiently as possible?  Building a Site can be very technical.  So let us give you the big picture steps you so don't get totally overwhelmed.

Step 1 - Buy A Domain Name

You can do this from a Registrar Service like namecheap.com.  We don’t like GoDaddy.com (the most popular place to buy sites) because we’ve found that if you search for a site, but don’t immediately buy it, GoDaddy seems to have a third party buy your site query.  They then want to charge you $400 for what was $12.95 the day before!

Step 2 - Get Hosting

Think of hosting as a part of a computer you rent that simply hosts your Site.  It’s like renting a storefront in a shopping mall.  You’ll want to tell your Hosting Provider (who sells you space on their computer server) that you own your Domain Name.  

Step 3 - Point your DNS Servers

This sounds crazy technical but is very easy to do!  Your Hosting Service will provide you with a specific server address, also called a DNS (Domain Name System).   You’ll simply want to enter the two DNS servers addresses that your Hosting service provides into your Registrar.  Your Registrar and Hosting should have plenty of tutorials on how to do this.

Step 4 - Install Wordpress

Next you’ll want to install Wordpress to your site.  You do this within your Hosting service.  They should have plenty of tutorials to make this super easy for you.  Once Wordpress is installed you’ll have a basic working site!

Step 5 - Add a Wordpress Theme

Basic Wordpress can look a little ghetto.  Fortunately there are a ton of Site Themes that are all under $100.  Sure you can get a free theme, but you get what you pay for.  

We prefer to buy themes because you get updates and support.  They also usually come with sufficient documentation on how you can customize your theme.  

A word of caution!  Most theme demos look amazing, but it takes a lot of time to get yours to look that way.  For this reason we suggest you hire a professional Designer to assist you.  If you buy your theme from a service like ThemeForest.net you can upgrade and have someone make your Site look just like the demo version for around $50.  But that still means you need to supply them with text, images and Visual Branding.  

To help overcome this annoying problem, our amazing programmer Stas created a ‘Visionary Site Theme’ that is perfect if you don’t want to waste any time (or money) being confused as to what elements your Site needs to have.

Step 6 - Spice Up Your Site

You will need to add Site assets - text, images, Visual Branding, blog posts (Episodes) and signup areas - to your new Wordpress Site.  When you’re doing all of this you need to constantly use keywords (SEO) so Google can easily figure out what your Site is about (and then send you people who are searching).  If you plan your Site’s assets ahead of time, populating your site should be as quick as possible.  

Most people begin working on their Wordpress Site (by trying to save money and add assets themselves) and then get confused.  It’s best for you to have all your assets ready before you start customizing your Site so you can easily have a Developer make your site look great, or use our Visionary Site Theme.  You can literally set your Site up in 15 minutes and have it look top notch!

Step 7 - Optimize Your Site

Once your Site has assets on it, you’ll want to optimize it.  This means using a service like Google Webmaster Tools to make sure your Site loads as quickly as possible.  Typically you’ll want to reduce the size of images and turn off any unnecessary plugins.

Step 8 - Get Your Site Ranked

Once your Site is built, no one knows about!  The only way Google can find it is if you link to it.  

The more links (links from outside Sites are called ‘backlinks’) you have pointing to your Site, the better!  

We suggest you use a service like fiverr.com to have your Site indexed and pinged.  This simply means an Outsourcer from fiverr.com will tell Google about your Site.  This means you can typically start showing up in search results in less than a week.  You’ll also want to include links to your new site for you Social Media Channels, especially Google Plus (this is because Google checks Google Plus for backlinks!).  

Wrap Up:

That’s it!  

After these 8 steps you’ll have a Site up and running that can start to establish your Brand.  

You’ll want to do a lot more things to grow your authority and generate revenue, but those are different action steps for a different day!