Need to know how to build your own Wordpress site or use an autoresponder? There 's no end to the learning curve when it comes to being a solopreneur! You'll find the basics of picking a domain name and building your business web site. Once you've done this, head over to Learn it Over Lunch for more workshops on marketing your business.
How to name your business
Naming a business has always been an important part of branding; but now, with the need for your business to show up in search engine results to bring in new customers, your name deserves more thought than ever.
Naming your business is literally branding it. It’s a little counter-intuitive, but this is exactly the right moment to think about how you plan to get out of your business. What’s your exit strategy?
The reason this is important to consider now is because the name of your business (your brand) will be a key asset if you choose to sell your business at some point. Selling Acme Consulting, Inc. is a much cleaner process (and attractive to buyers) than selling John Smith Consulting.
On the other hand, if you intend to build a legacy business to be handed down through the generations, using a family name is an enormous asset to maintain continuity and trust.
Another factor to consider is the name’s “searchability”.
When someone in your city goes looking for someone like you, the more closely your business name matches the search terms they use, the more likely they are to find you.
So if you are an event planner in Dallas, people probably search
“Dallas event planner”
Évent planning Dallas”
Your business will show up higher if it (or your website) is named “Dallas Event Planning” or “Dallas Premier Event Planning”
The general rule for how people search is location + specialty, if you can make it work, choosing a name that makes the most of that will help you be found by people who can hire you.
Before you settle on a final name, there are a few more things to check:
1. Is it available as a domain name? For the most part, you want a .com domain name. There are several other extensions like .net, .info and even industry extensions like .menu or .shop. The best practice, though, is still a .com extension because people are conditioned to think (and type).com. It’s a very real possibility that if you use another extension, your prospect will type .com anyway and end up at a competitor’s website or at a page not found error that makes you look like you’re out of business. It just isn’t worth the risk.
2. How is it being used now? Google your name candidates and see what shows up. Obviously if another business is already using it, or it’s being used for something you don’t want to be associated with, you could run into trouble with it.
3. Is it available? You’ll need to head to your county’s website for this, most have a searchable database of business names that are being used.
4. If you’ve passed all three of the above, you can also go the extra mile and have it researched. This is a good thing to do if you are planning to incorporate or trademark it. In the US you can do that (and file for a trademark) here: http://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/
Naming your business is literally branding it. It’s a little counter-intuitive, but this is exactly the right moment to think about how you plan to get out of your business. What’s your exit strategy?
The reason this is important to consider now is because the name of your business (your brand) will be a key asset if you choose to sell your business at some point. Selling Acme Consulting, Inc. is a much cleaner process (and attractive to buyers) than selling John Smith Consulting.
On the other hand, if you intend to build a legacy business to be handed down through the generations, using a family name is an enormous asset to maintain continuity and trust.
Another factor to consider is the name’s “searchability”.
When someone in your city goes looking for someone like you, the more closely your business name matches the search terms they use, the more likely they are to find you.
So if you are an event planner in Dallas, people probably search
“Dallas event planner”
Évent planning Dallas”
Your business will show up higher if it (or your website) is named “Dallas Event Planning” or “Dallas Premier Event Planning”
The general rule for how people search is location + specialty, if you can make it work, choosing a name that makes the most of that will help you be found by people who can hire you.
Before you settle on a final name, there are a few more things to check:
1. Is it available as a domain name? For the most part, you want a .com domain name. There are several other extensions like .net, .info and even industry extensions like .menu or .shop. The best practice, though, is still a .com extension because people are conditioned to think (and type).com. It’s a very real possibility that if you use another extension, your prospect will type .com anyway and end up at a competitor’s website or at a page not found error that makes you look like you’re out of business. It just isn’t worth the risk.
2. How is it being used now? Google your name candidates and see what shows up. Obviously if another business is already using it, or it’s being used for something you don’t want to be associated with, you could run into trouble with it.
3. Is it available? You’ll need to head to your county’s website for this, most have a searchable database of business names that are being used.
4. If you’ve passed all three of the above, you can also go the extra mile and have it researched. This is a good thing to do if you are planning to incorporate or trademark it. In the US you can do that (and file for a trademark) here: http://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/
How to create a website using Wordpress
Setting up a hosting account
A website has to "sit" somewhere, that's called HOSTING. Here's how to do it and HERE'S WHERE TO DO IT
Introducing Cpanel
Cpanel is literally the control panel for your website.
Setting your nameservers
The nameservers make your website show up when someone types your domain name in their browser. If this isn't done right, your visitors will see an error page instead of your site.
Setting up email for your domain
Please don't use a gmail or other free email account for your business!!
There are several options for setting up email accounts for your domain name, Go Daddy offers email as an upgrade as does Google apps. This tutorial shows you how to set it up in Cpanel
There are several options for setting up email accounts for your domain name, Go Daddy offers email as an upgrade as does Google apps. This tutorial shows you how to set it up in Cpanel
It's Fantastico!!!
How to use Fantastico to install Wordpress and a look at all the other cool things it offers. Don't get lost in here, the important thing is to get your basic site up first. You can always go back and make it awesome later.
Setting up an autoresponse email
Just to be clear, this isn't what most people think of when they hear "autoresponder", it's a one time only message you want sent in response to an email to let the sender know you are out of your office for a few days or to redirect them to someplace else for what they want. We have training on using 2 of the most popular real autoresponders HERE
Just in case you ever need to....
Just in case you install something like Wordpress or a help desk using Fantastico and you want to delete the whole thing, this is how you do it.
Installing Wordpress using Fantastico
Now we start to build the site
Getting to know the Wordpress dashboard
Learning the settings
More about settings
Introducing Plugins!
Plugins add new capabilities to your site, no matter what you want your site to do, there's a plug in for that!
The Wordpress default theme
Themes control how your site looks, there are hundreds if not thousands of themes available, both paid and free. This tutorial talks about the one that comes pre-installed with Wordpress
