I just had a friend contact me who is frustrated and overwhelmed with technology – specifically her wordpress website. She’s caught in the trap of “you don’t know, what you don’t know” which happens to all of us intelligent people who didn’t grow up understanding technology and all these terms such as hosting, Cpanel, domain, URL, redirecting and oh so much more. So I’d like to share just a few tips that when you get started online that will benefit you in the long term. And even if you already have an online presence, you might need to get some control back of your sites.
1. If you are at the beginning of your online adventure, you will want to buy a domain name and then that domain name needs to be hosted with a company that makes your website accessible on the internet. I like a company called BLUE HOST because you can handle both tasks in one step, they are reliable, friendly and very reasonably priced. Now here’s where my friend’s frustration I mentioned previously got start. She hired a web developer to build her website who offered her a package price for the domain name registration and a year of hosting. He owns his server and put her site on a shared server with many other websites and won’t provide access to that server to anyone outside of his company. What does that mean? It means if you find someone else to manage this part of your technology work, maybe even your grandson – they can’t get access to the server! Your only option is to work with the web developer who created your site for every little things you want to do that involves accessing that server. ( I have a list of other hosting companies in the member area.)
TIP: Before hiring a developer to create your website, purchase your own domain name and hosting service. This way if you and your web developer part ways, you can provide your login information to someone else who can jump right back in and help you.
2. WordPress is the number one platform for creating websites and blogs. I love it because of the fact it is user friendly. Now with that said, I’m not suggesting it is simple to build out a wordpress website from scratch without some knowledge of the platform, but what I want you to know is that once you are up and running this platform is easy to edit and maintain without paying for a web developer each month. Gone are the days that your only option for a website was all html code!
TIP: After you have obtained your domain name and hosting company, you can search on your own for a look and feel of a website or blog template you might like. The go to a web developer and work with them on building out the site. Here are a few websites I like for WordPress Templates. There are both free and paid templates: Elegant Themes, Theme Forest, Template Monster.
3. If you choose to hire someone to set-up your social media profiles, that’s fine but again be sure the accounts are set-up using your email and passwords. This ensures you will always have access to those accounts! You can certainly hire a social media manager to help you with your strategy or posting, but should you decide you want to get rid of that person and hire someone else, you have control because you have the login information!
TIP: If you and your web developer or social media professional part ways, be sure to change your passwords.
I will be writing more about how you can be in control of your online presence on future articles. I know technology can be confusing, please let me know your biggest challenges in the comments box below. – JoAnne
