Website in a Weekend: The No-Stress, Step-by-Step Website Recipe
Here’s a letter to you from Laura. (She’s the first person who bought the course, and we love her!)
To: Everyone who thinks they can’t build a website
From: Laura Scholes
Re: The awesome program that will change your mind
Dear Tech-Skittish Friend,
A long time ago, I paid someone a lot of money to build my website, and though it’s beautiful, I hadn’t been able to update it in four years because I’m just not that tech-savvy.
So when I decided to start fresh for my new company, I snooped around for ways I could do it myself with WordPress. I quickly found the BeAwesomeOnline dynamic duo and their Website-in-a-Weekend program. A website in 48 hours? I wondered what the trick was; it sounded way too easy. But because it was so inexpensive, I said what the heck and happily clicked on PayPal.
Boy, am I glad I did. Catherine’s no-nonsense, “it’s as easy as that” video tutorials held my hand through the process of linking up my new URL with WordPress. Even more helpfully, she gave me all the tools to make a standard WordPress template look less blog-like and more “I’m a real company doing cool things”-like. I had—literally—nothing when I started; here’s what I had after I was done with the program:
Not bad, right?
So go sign up. Really. Right now. You will be so, so happy you did.
*****
I bet you’re already thinking, “Yeah, right.”
A website without stress? That I can make in a weekend? Pull the other one, it plays Jingle Bells. I’m not good at that technical stuff. I won’t be able to follow a word of it, and it’ll be all, “And of course here you just swibbulate the oscillatorium in the usual manner” and I give up. And why’s it called a recipe, anyway?
Technical people are stupid
I say this with confidence because I am one. There are far, far too many techs who are so smart about every aspect of their work except talking about it. Many of them fall into what the lovely Pace and Kyeli call “the usual error”: they think you’re just like them. And since they love every tiny detail of their work, they assume you will too. But you don’t! You just want the thing to work so you can go pick up the kids from soccer, or get on with the business of doing business, or the ten thousand things more important in your life than listening to some guy in glasses blabbering about doohickeys.
The incredibly bad communication skills of many techs have a worse effect. Have you ever heard a tech talk about a complex subject like it was simple and obvious and only an idiot would fail to understand it? And some small traitor voice inside you says, “Well, I don’t get it. I must be an idiot.” Lots of people have listened to that traitor voice and are now convinced that they’re dumb about technology.
But you’re not! Technology has been dumb about you. What you need is a way to cut through all the jargon and explain it so you can understand. Once you get the ideas figured out, you can do much, much more than you thought you could. Like start a website in a weekend!
What you’ll need (other than the course, of course!)
- A computer with broadband internet
- $100 (on a debit or credit card) to pay for your web hosting
- One weekend
How it works
There are six videos. Each one takes you through the steps of starting a website. Here’s the introduction:
(If you’re wondering why I call this a recipe, I explain in that video.)
There’s also a worksheet of instructions that you can refer to.
Special bonus!
I don’t want you falling into the same trap of a lot of other people who start a website: they take far, far too long to write any content for the website. In some cases the website remains a beautiful blank slate for a whole year. What a waste!
So I’ve included a fill-in-the-blanks homepage. It won’t take you long to make a decent page that will work until you have the time and inspiration to come up with something better.
Sound good?
I want you to feel the powerful joy of staring at a website and shouting, “I made that!”. I want you to email me with sixteen exclamation marks telling me to have a look at what you did. I want everyone to enjoy the chance to connect and communicate that the ability to start a website gives you.
How much is it?
This course used to cost money. But with the big sister version (The Awesome Website Extravaganza) now live, it felt weird to have both on the market. Beside which, this was made on my old dodgy camera, and the sound quality is… okay. Ish.
I didn’t want to charge money for it any more. But I know some people really need the information. So here it is, free and useful. Enjoy!
Hell, let’s get started!
First, download the Worksheet. (It’s in PDF format, and if you don’t have the Adobe Acrobat reader, you can go here to download it. It’s a very useful program to have, because PDFs are one of the few document formats that can be read no matter what kind of computer you’re using.) The Worksheet has all the steps: you can use it as a refresher or an extra reference.
While you’re there, grab a copy of the special bonus Fill-in-the-Blanks Homepage if you think you might get writer’s block when it comes time to write the content.
Now for the the big show: the videos!
If you get stuck, email me at catherine@beawesomeonline.com or come talk to me on Twitter and we’ll get it sorted out lickedy-split.
Step 1: Choose a domain name
Firstly, watch the video here: http://www.screencast.com/t/NzFmOGMzY
The domain suggestion tool is at http://domain-suggestions.domaintools.com/
Step 2: Choose a web hosting provider
Watch the video here: http://www.screencast.com/t/NzZkNzZhN
The article I refer to is: http://www.beawesomeonline.com/how-to-choose-a-web-hosting-provider
Step 3: Install WordPress
Watch the video: http://www.screencast.com/t/NGZmMWQx
Step 4: Choose a theme
Watch the video here: http://www.screencast.com/t/ZjY0NjEzODI
Step 5: Write the homepage and 3 useful tweaks
Watch the video here: http://www.screencast.com/t/MTg4YzQxZ
Well done, you’ve got a website! I’m so proud of you… I’d love to see the website you’ve built if you’d like to show me!