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Fulcrum
07-11-2016, 07:07 PM
Time to build a website.

Registered some domains (even figured out how to park one and have it redirect to the other) and setup hosting (went with Bluehost as shared hosting is good 'nough for now)late last week. I am glad that I setup a separate email account for this as the spam is off the charts.

Now it's time to figure out Wordpress and start building.

turboguy
07-11-2016, 10:34 PM
Congratulations on taking the plunge Brad. WordPress seems a little daunting at first but once you get it all figured out it is pretty easy to work with. I have two WordPress sites finished and 4 more to do but I am on a break until my busy season is over. Feel free to post if you get stuck on anything. You are also welcome to PM me if I can help in any way. I am not an expert at it but do have it pretty well figured out. I may post a little more late tomorrow.

Fulcrum
07-12-2016, 07:50 AM
Thanks Ray.

Glad to hear your busy. My traditional slow time just started and it hit with both barrels. Of course, the fact I might be moving the shop and setting up a factory direct sales room are going to complicate things slightly.

vangogh
07-12-2016, 10:16 AM
I'll echo what Ray said. Wordpress might seem confusing at first, but it isn't that hard. A lot of what you see when you login, you won't need to work with. Once you know where the things you do need are located, it'll become easier.

Have you installed WordPress yet? Bluehost probably has an option to install with a click or two.

Definitely ask questions if you have any. There are enough of us here using WordPress that we should be able to walk you through any problems you'll encounter.

Harold Mansfield
07-12-2016, 12:08 PM
Glad to see you lit the match. As VG said plenty of WordPress people around, just ask. Also thumbs up on the hosting. Been setting clients up there for years and rarely have any problems with their shared hosting.

KristineS
07-12-2016, 12:10 PM
Congratulations on starting your site. Wordpress is fairly easy to use. I can make it do things, and I'm not in any way tech savvy. I can also testify to the fact that there are great sources of help here. Vangogh has saved my behind a time or two when I screwed something up.

turboguy
07-12-2016, 03:12 PM
There are a lot of good tutorials on YouTube about WordPress. The ones I liked the best are the ones by WP Scultpor & Josh Jackson

The plug ins for Wordpress that I have used a lot are these: They are all free

Nexgen is a good photo gallery
Page Builder Site Origin Nice for page building, lets you edit visually
Widgets Bundle easy way to add map
Black Studio Tiny MCE Visual page builder/Text Editor
Title Remover, Removes title\
Spacer Allows you to control spacing
Contact Form 7, Best contact form
Light Box plus color box. For video
Social Media Widget
MetaSlider (Pro)

Keep in mind with a lot of themes you don't really have a home page. They often come with a "sample" page that acts as a home page but you need to specify (and build) your home page.

My experience would suggest that it is far better not to create your text and copy live. What I like to do is to use Word and decide what pages I want, how to lay out the navigation, what copy I wan't on each page and pick out the photos I want to use for my site. It is just a lot easier to organize everything first so if you write something and decide it should be on a different page moving it is easy. Then when you are ready to put the content on your site you can just copy and paste and instead of thinking about content while you are trying to figure out how WordPress works.

Fulcrum
07-20-2016, 12:51 PM
Looking for a good theme now. Bluehost promotes Mojomarketplace but from browsing their offerings, I wasn't overly impressed nor did a few stand out to me.

Is it better buy or build? If buying, where? I don't mind spending some cash to get something that's well done and has the base layout I want.

Harold Mansfield
07-20-2016, 01:07 PM
Looking for a good theme now. Bluehost promotes Mojomarketplace but from browsing their offerings, I wasn't overly impressed nor did a few stand out to me.
No me either. Not very impressive at all.


Is it better buy or build? If buying, where? I don't mind spending some cash to get something that's well done and has the base layout I want.

Ah. That's the million dollar question. I used to be all about "build", but I have to be honest and say that the variety, and quality of themes is pretty good these days. Yeah, there's a lot of crap, but you can find some good stuff.

What I've been doing the most of is a combination of the 2. Finding a theme that has the basic structure that I want, and then customizing it with CSS and additional ( or less) functions that I need. That's going to be the cheapest and quickest way compared to building from the ground up.

My honest opinion is if you're not looking for a lot of custom functionality, that a well made theme will do the job and with some custom CSS no one will know. The average user doesn't go around looking at WordPress themes and since most sites across the web follow the same structure ( because it works), no one cares anymore. It's not like the old days. These days people care more about function and marketing, than winning design contests for originality. That is for the average non creative works. Designers, and arts have different needs and standards. They'll want to build from scratch mostly because design originality IS important.

That being said, a lot of themes that look nice can be over coded and many use plug ins to provide functionality that are separate licenses that need renewal in about a year if you want to keep things up to date. Something they don't tell you when you purchase them.

Also some of those plug ins block out SEO. Visual Composer is a huge offender of that. It can still be used, but you have to mix it up so that you meet the content requirements for indexing and so on.

If you need custom, then don't try and force a theme to be it. Especially not on your own. Many calls I get these days are people who set out to do it on their own, did their homework, did the one click install with the host, read some things, and did a pretty good job..as far as a novice can do, and then call me to finish up the more complicated styling and integration, SEO, copy writing help and so on. Saves them about half the money,and they get the benefit of learning more.

Lastly it really comes down to what you need the site to do. An out of the box theme isn't always the best way to go if you need specific things and functionality, nor is WordPress always the best choice. I assume you've determined that it does what you want already and we're past that.

I could be a little more helpful if I knew what you needed the site to do. What functions? Forms? Ecommerce? Landing pages? Bookings? Reservations?
It's the details that are the difference.

Fulcrum
07-20-2016, 02:09 PM
To be honest, I prefer some of the "older" site looks and layouts.

The basic layout I want is quite simple (see mcmaster.com for a visual idea):

Fixed header
Fixed left hand sidebar
Remainder of screen will be the "showroom"


The rest will probably be 6-10 pages outlining services and products, while catalogues and a members area (for online pricing access) will be added on later - probably in conjunction with e-commerce.

Harold Mansfield
07-20-2016, 02:31 PM
To be honest, I prefer some of the "older" site looks and layouts.

The basic layout I want is quite simple (see mcmaster.com for a visual idea):

Fixed header
Fixed left hand sidebar
Remainder of screen will be the "showroom"


The rest will probably be 6-10 pages outlining services and products, while catalogues and a members area (for online pricing access) will be added on later - probably in conjunction with e-commerce.

This is good to know up front, so then if you're going to buy a ready made theme you want to stay away from frameworks and look for something that is Woo compatible (or whatever ecommerce system you decide to use). Woo is included with WordPress now and technically works with most every theme. I'm assuming you're selling products. If you're selling services, I'd go a completely different route.

There are many membership plug ins from free to $69 and up. Depends on how much functionality and user options and control you need. You DON'T want to buy a membership theme because they suck.
If you want the ecommerce and membership to work together ( all account information working together) then that's a consideration when choosing the best 1 or 2 plug ins to get that.

The layout stuff you mentioned is pretty standard or can be tweaked with CSS.

turboguy
07-20-2016, 02:34 PM
Looking for a good theme now. Bluehost promotes Mojomarketplace but from browsing their offerings, I wasn't overly impressed nor did a few stand out to me.

Is it better buy or build? If buying, where? I don't mind spending some cash to get something that's well done and has the base layout I want.

There are a million places to get themes. I have used the free ones but usually end up paying for a premium theme just for the few extras it has. The first Wordpress site I did I used the Enigma theme and can't say I found it easy to use. The last one I did I used the Vantage theme and liked working with it a lot. It was easy to use. I did most of it with the free version but they are really pretty nice to work with. To get the premium version you can decide how much you want to pay, even $ 1.00 but they suggest $ 15.00. I gave them the $ 15.00 mostly because I appreciated the access to a good theme and there were a few extra bells and whistles with the premium version. I am getting about ready to start my third site but undecided if I will use the vantage theme again or try something different.

Fulcrum
07-20-2016, 05:24 PM
Good to know. Thanks guys. Gonna be slow the next 2-3 weeks (maybe into September) so should have time to get something together.

vista
07-21-2016, 10:40 AM
Good luck with your site. Their are a ton of resources out there to get you started. Just always back up your site and for me attending some courses at
a local community college did wonders and advanced me way further than what I would have.

vista
07-21-2016, 10:47 AM
congrats1! Their are a ton of resources out there however, attending a few courses at my local community college moved along much faster than I could have on my own. If you go this route network a bit with the other students they can teach you a lot! As far as themes go Avada is fantastic!

turboguy
07-21-2016, 12:54 PM
I took a look at the McMaster site and doing something like that looks pretty straightforward. It does look like it will take some time but doesn't look too complex. I am sure you will be fine setting up the site. Of course you have lots of friends here who will be happy to help you through any rough spots.

Harold Mansfield
07-21-2016, 01:15 PM
I took a look at that site too. First things first, that is not built with WordPress, but you can find that kind of layout easily.
Second thing, if you have anywhere near that many products a Do It Yourself WordPress site on shared hosting is NOT the way to go.

turboguy
07-21-2016, 01:20 PM
I have worked with two different themes so far and the one I found very easy to work with is the Vantage theme by site origins. The free version is pretty powerful but if you want to go the paid version that adds a lot you can pay whatever you want for it, even a buck. They do suggest $ 15.00 but whatever you want to pay is up to you. I do like that theme.

However you want to do the site is up to you but I would suggest making it a little more modern. My suggestion would be a nice header and below that a nice slide show with color photos of your facility and/or some of your products or equipment you use and below that a left sidebar with the menu and on the right all of the photos like the Mcmaster site. Below that three icons with things like 1. Prompt same day shipping, Helpful experts to answer your questions or whatever and below that a nice footer.

yoligrana
07-29-2016, 03:18 PM
Work once on a professional website to showcase your company. Choose a high quality theme with advances features. And don't forget to hire a professional web designer & developer! the professional will take the system, the theme and the skills to make your company shine and succeed! That was my advice.

Fulcrum
08-31-2016, 05:30 PM
Thought I'd throw an update here (got a few requests:)). Haven't really gotten anywhere with the website. I did find a theme I liked so I bought it and installed it then lost track of time with everything else. Between maintenance, more work than I expected, and a shop move, time seemed to disappear on me.