DIY WordPress Site Overview
So You Want To Build A WordPress Site
Congratulations on choosing a great platform that is used as the content management system for roughly 30 percent of websites on the Internet.
In a nutshell, you’ll now have to purchase a domain, install WordPress on your domain, and use a combination of third-party resources to realize your perfect site. This is what K&J Productions now does for many of our website projects.
First Steps: Domain Purchase & Hosting
The first step to building your site is to purchase a domain name. We like to buy ours from Dynadot.
After you purchase your domain you will need to create a hosting account. Website hosting provides you with disk space and databases for storing your site files and data, as well as bandwidth for serving those files and data to viewers. In short, your web host enables you to serve your website to your visitors when they request to see it. There are a number of reliable companies that offer hosting services, such as GoDaddy, Bluehost, and HostGator.
Next Steps: Installing WordPress And Selecting A Theme
While you could try to code your site’s design from scratch, you’ll likely also want a well-designed theme to serve as the foundation for your site’s design.
There are numerous free themes that you can find throughout the Web, but you get what you pay for (or don’t pay for) in a lot of cases.
One of the best provider of themes we’ve come across, and the one we use here at K&J to power many of our designs, is ElegantThemes.com. With Elegant Themes you get access to many dozens of professional-quality designs, it’s well worth the investment for the impression it will help you make on your site.
You can alternatively check out designs on websites like ThemeForest or CreativeMarket.