- If you've never set up a website before,
it can be a bit daunting,
and not just the actual doing part,
but all the terminology and technical requirements
you need to wrap your brain around.
If you hear people throw around words like, you know,
web host and domain,
or they ask what website platform you plan to use,
you may already be wondering how you're going
to navigate through all of this web lingo.
So I made this video to explain all these things
in a clear and simple way for you and make it easy for you
to remember what's what,
and to understand what you need to do
to get your website set up for your handmade business
if that's something that you'd like to do.
We'll cover five things
you need to build that your website in the first place,
plus two things you'll need immediately after you build your
website and finally where to get it all from
and how much it would cost,
including understanding the key differences,
for example,
between Shopify and Squarespace or WordPress.
Ready?
Let's dive in.
(drum music)
Bonjour! My name is Deb,
and I'm the founder of a Tizzit dot Co,
a membership community for makers and handmade shop owners
just like your fabulous self.
You can learn more about our community
Tizzit HQ via the link below this video, but for now,
let's jump straight into today's conversation
about setting up a website to sell your handmade products.
When you go to set up a website,
there are five things that you need to make it happen.
When I talk to members of our community,
Tizzit HQ, and teach them how to build their websites,
I tell them it's a lot like building a house.
When you build a house,
you have to do things in a certain order, right?
You have to find a land, buy it,
and then build some house foundation on it,
et cetera, et cetera.
And you complete each step before you can move
to the next one.
Building websites is very much the same.
So let's walk through the process together.
Many of you may have heard terms
like domain and host before,
but you might not really know what those words
actually really mean.
They are actually quite easy to understand
when you think of them in terms of building a house,
the first thing you need is a domain.
A domain is like the plot of land
you buy to build your house on it.
It is your house's street address.
For example, Tizzit.co is my domain,
my business address on the internet.
Next, you will find and sign up for a web host,
and the web host will provide you with two things:
hosting, and an SSL certificate.
That certificate is a bit of code that provides security
for online communication,
kind of like sealing a letter in an envelope
before sending it through the mail.
It ensures that when people use their credit card
on your site, it's all encrypted.
It's all safe and secure.
Think of your hosting as your house's foundation.
It's really making sure that it's structurally sound
and safe to live in.
Now onto number three,
you need to choose a website platform.
The platform contains all you need to start your website,
the basics needed to get your website functioning.
So in a house analogy, think of the platform
as having the basic kind of framework for your house,
you've got walls, you've got the roof,
the plumbing, just the basics,
your house isn't decorated yet, but it's functional.
It has the basics you need to live in there,
you know, it will keep the rain out.
It has running water,
the very bare necessities.
Now you're ready for number four,
which is your theme.
This is what gives your website a certain feel
and gives its character.
Your theme combines different colours and fonts
and pictures and layouts to give your website
just the look that you're after.
Think of all the decor detail
that make your house look nice.
Choosing the furniture, the wallpaper, the paint,
all those things that make your house feel like a home.
This is what your theme is.
Finally, you will want to get any plugins,
sometimes called apps that you want to use on your website.
Each plugin adds a certain function to your website.
Perhaps it's a contact form or pop-up,
or social media buttons
that are linking to your social media pages.
There are infinite choices here, just like they are
when you build a house.
You can add pool, you can add air conditioning,
a fireplace, patio,
you choose which things are important to you.
Now, once you have completed this first five steps,
congrats, you have set up your website.
You're not quite done yet, though.
There are two more very important things
that you need to set up for your new website.
Insurance and maintenance.
Once your house is built,
you need to protect it from fire or flooding or, you know,
weather damage.
And so you insure it, right?
And of course, you will perform regular maintenance
on your house to keep it in tip top shape,
the same applies to your website.
So how are you going to do that?
That's the two things that you'll need to do
immediately after you build your website.
We've all experienced that moment
when a file that was very important to us was damaged
or corrupted or deleted.
It's awful.
I poured hot coffee on my laptop a couple of years ago,
and I can tell you, I was not a happy bunny.
I was thankfully able to recover my files, but, you know,
can you imagine losing your whole website?
Not fun.
Which is why you need just like for a house
to have what I like to think of as an insurance policy.
Now what's an insurance policy for website?
It's really a backup system that regularly backup
your website files and does it automatically,
so you don't have to do it manually
or ever think about it at all.
So that if anything ever happens,
you have the copies of all your files
so that you can recover your website
with the click of a button.
You will also want to be sure that you do
regular maintenance on your website
or that you hire someone to do it for you.
Maintenance is essentially doing updates to the software,
so the platform and plugins,
making sure that everything is up to date
so your website runs smoothly.
Now you might wonder, where do I get all these things Deb?
And where you get all the items we've just talked about
really depends on if you choose a hosted
or a self-hosted website.
A hosted website is an only one option that takes care of
all the seven items that you need to create and maintain
your website.
This is like your Squarespace or your Shopify,
all of the seven items we covered in this video,
they offer to you in one package, right?
All under one roof. They will give you a domain,
provide your hosting and SSL certificate.
There will be your website builder.
They will have free themes for you, and apps or plugins
that come with your monthly subscription.
And they also have premium ones that you can pay more of
if you want,
but there are plenty of free ones to get you started.
So you really don't need to spend
beyond your monthly subscription if you don't want to.
They also will take care of backups and
do maintenance website for you.
So things like the software update, for example,
so that insurance policy and that maintenance plan
that we talked about are included.
You pay one monthly fee, which covers all of this,
except for any premium themes or plugins
if you do decide to add them.
And so obviously this is the easiest,
least complicated option,
but if you'd like to have more control over your website,
some people will prefer the self-hosted option.
So when you choose the self-hosted option,
you're in charge of your design and you choose
where you get all of the seven components from.
Some people choose these options to try and save some money.
Although if you aren't careful though,
you may end up spending almost as much as a hosted website.
So it's important that you add up all your individual costs
before doing it for this reason.
So with the self-hosted option,
you will first need to get a domain hosting
and SSL certificate.
If you get them separately,
you would typically buy your domain
from a domain registry company
and then your hosting and SSL from a hosting company.
But what I actually recommend is that
you find a hosting company that offers all three,
a package that gives you a domain hosting and SSL at once.
Many times, these companies will also do automating backups
for you as well, which is great.
Once you have that,
you then need to decide which website platform
you're going to use.
The majority of people use a platform called WordPress,
which is also my recommendation,
because 99% of any hosting companies out there
will have a one-click instal button
to instal WordPress on your own domain.
So that's going to make it really easy to do.
All you're doing is clicking a button and then you will have
installed WordPress on your domain,
and be ready to build your website.
Now, quick note here,
WordPress actually doesn't come
with an e-commerce system built in,
but that's not going to be a problem
because you'll be able to get that for free as well
and I'll tell you how in a second.
Once you have WordPress installed,
you then need to pick your theme
from the WordPress collection.
They have many, many, many free themes
if you're on a budget, and they also have some premium
ones that you can choose from that cost a bit more.
Then it's time to choose your plugins.
There are endless amounts of plugins out there
for WordPress that will do this or that
for your website.
Down the road, you may decide to add some
to give your website a certain feature that you want,
but to start with, you don't really need any plugin
except the one and only Woo commerce plugin
that will turn your website into an e-commerce store,
and it's completely free.
So that will be the one that you want to download
and instal right away.
Backups will be covered with your hosting company
most of the time,
but maintenance and updates are your responsibility
when you have a self-hosted website.
If your software has a bug causing problems,
or if they upgrade it to work better,
the update is what makes the changes.
So you need to be sure to update the software and plugins
that you have installed whenever a new update is released.
And it's important to do that,
to make sure that your website runs smoothly.
Now, I know that deciding on hosted versus self-hosted
is a big decision,
so I made a list of question to ask yourself
that will help you decide
which is the right choice for your business.
And we're also going to talk about cost.
And the first question is how much flexibility
do you want in the design, features and customization
of your website?
Self-hosted websites like WordPress
with Woo commerce installed give you 100% freedom.
But with that said,
platforms like Shopify these days,
which would be my recommendation,
if you decide to go with a hosted platform route,
have more features than you'd probably ever need.
So that is a pretty even field here.
Next is do you prefer to have a maintenance person
to handle website issues,
or are you more of a DIY person
that feels pretty good handling
your own website maintenance?
This is a personal decision.
You just need to decide what's best for you.
If you don't feel comfortable performing site maintenance,
then a hosted website may be a better option.
Finally, what are you ready and willing to spend?
Shopify pricing at the time of this recording
starts at 29 a month,
79 a month for the standard and 299 a month
for the advanced plan,
you're going to choose based on the feature you need,
likely is going to be the 29 or $79 a month plan for you.
WordPress pricing really depends on what you decide
to get and where you get it from.
So let's break that down.
I always recommend SiteGround, not sponsored,
for domain hosting and SSL.
I've worked with dozens of similar hosting companies
in the past, and SiteGround has always been the winner
in my eyes.
They have great entry packages.
They have a great support team.
If you have any issues or need help,
which is super important.
And they also have the capability to scale up
to bigger plans
when you start getting more visitors to your shop,
and at the time of this recording, it starts at $5 a month
initially.
Be careful though,
the first year is always cheaper.
You can take advantage of these cheaper initial rates
by signing up for three years, right from the get-go.
If you sign up for one year
at the intro rate of $5 a month,
consecutive years we'll jump to the regular rates,
which starts at $15 a month.
So if you sign up for three years,
you get to take advantage of that cheap introductory price
for three years before your prices go up to standard rates.
And by then, no doubt,
your sales will be able to more than cover
the cost of your plan.
WordPress is free,
so this won't add anything to your cost.
For themes,
I do recommend you go with a paid premium theme if you can.
My two favourites are Divi and Elementor Builder,
which respectively costs $89 a year,
and I think starting at $49 a year
at the time of this recording.
The only plugin I recommend when you're first starting out
is WooCommerce, and that is completely free.
Finally maintenance and updates.
You can do both of those yourself to save money,
but it's definitely not as nice as not having to think
about it and having someone else do it for you.
If you use SiteGround as your hosting company,
they do automatic backups for you,
so you don't need to pay extra or worry about that.
Most hosting companies actually offer free backup
these days so just to make sure that yours do too.
Now, you'll want to write down the cost for each option
you choose, and compare this monthly total
to the self-hosted option.
Are you saving enough money to make it worth
the extra work and responsibility?
There's no wrong or right answer here.
This is a personal choice.
If you're feeling a little overwhelmed by all of this,
or all the parts of setting up and running
your handmade shop, I know it can be a lot.
My absolute best recommendation is to check out
all the information and support that is waiting for you
over at Tizzit.co.
We have all the courses you need to walk you through
setting up and running a handmade shop,
plus supportive coaching calls,
with myself and accountability that help you
keep you on track,
so if you feel that you benefit from
more support and guidance,
as you navigate all the ups and downs of running
your handmade business,
come and join us over at Tizzit HQ,
and let us help you get your business off the ground
or take it to the next level.
I'll put the link to that just below
so you can learn more and join us.
Thanks for watching.
Make sure to click the link below, and until next time.
Au revoir!