all right this is Jeremy Marsan from MIT small business comm in this video I'm
gonna show you how to create a professional business website and
business email address with your own domain for just three dollars and
forty-five cents per month you don't need any technical knowledge to set it
up and you'll have your website up and running in less than an hour I'll be
walking you through the process step-by-step using the hosting service
Bluehost I'll be creating my own website as an example but I encourage you to
follow along by clicking the link in the description of this video on top of
giving you a domain 5 business email accounts 50 gigabytes of storage and
unlimited bandwidth Bluehost lets you create a wordpress website at no
additional cost wordpress is the number one content management system in the
world about a quarter of websites use it across the entire web with WordPress you
can choose between thousands of themes and tens of thousands of plugins to make
your website work for just about any purpose if you have any questions
throughout this video leave a comment below and we'll be sure to respond also
if you find our guide helpful be sure to like this video and subscribe to our
channel for more helpful guides ok let's get started
if you haven't already click the link in the description to reach Bluehost.com
the first step is to choose your hosting account most businesses can get by with
a basic account if you want more than 5 email accounts however or want to create
more than one website consider the Plus account instead in the next step you'll
need to choose the domain for your new website and business email accounts this
is something you won't be able to change later so be sure to choose carefully to
start I'm going to enter the name of my business unfortunately this was not
available blue house does give me a few
suggestions however I don't want to use a domain that's not a dot-com instead
I'm going to try a slight variation adding salon to the end of my domain if
you're having trouble choosing the name be sure to check out our guide at
fitsmallbusiness.com since this domain is available I'm going to continue
creating my account at the top I'll enter some basic accounting firm
further below I'll choose my account plan you'll notice that the best pricing
3 dollars and 45 cents per month is reserved for a 36 month plan well this
may sound like a long commitment keep in mind that blue house will give you a
refund if you wish to cancel early or switch your plan so you aren't locked
into any long term commitment for my account I'm going to skip these add-ons
except for domain privacy protection which hides my email and home address
from the domain registry this just prevents any spam mail from potentially
reaching my mailbox last but not least enter your payment information and click
Submit you'll now be on the control panel of your new Bluehost account to
start let's create your first email address scroll down to the email tab and
click email manager now select create an email account now
enter the name for your first email account note that this will be at your
domain com enter a password and when you're done click create and finish at
the bottom
you can repeat this same process for each email address you need to create if
you want to log into your new inbox select a webmail client
I recommend roundcube then click view inbox this will bring you to the login
page for your new webmail account you can also access this from the Bluehost
home page you're now in the inbox this is where you can send and receive emails
using your new business email address you can also connect to your account to
Gmail or outlook this way you don't have to log into a new inbox you can continue
using your old one to send and receive messages for instructions on how to set
this up check out our guide at fit small business comm now back in Bluehost we're
going to start creating your website click on home then scroll down to the
website tab click on the option that says install WordPress from here we'll
begin installing the wordpress content management system on your new domain
while this may sound complicated it's actually very simple
it's also free while there are a few paid options that include one on one
setup help this video guide should give you everything you need the first step
is to choose which domain you want to install WordPress onto as part of this
decision you need to choose whether or not you want WW in front of your domain
for me personally I prefer the look of my domain without it note that if
visitors type WWJ at salon.com they'll still reach my website and the same goes
vice-versa now I'm just going to enter a few quick details like my website title
and a password so I don't have to use the one randomly generated by WordPress
be sure to check the boxes below then click install
the installation can take a few minutes so we're going to go ahead and speed
things up once complete you'll see a message at the top that reads view
credentials here click on this link
in the upper right corner you'll notice a URL user name and password this is how
you'll log into your new website so make sure you remember this information click
the URL then enter your information
this will bring you to the dashboard of your new WordPress website
you can think of this as your main control panel you can do things like add
new website pages or if you plan on blogging add new posts for now however
we're going to head to appearance then themes this is where you choose a theme
for your website which we can think of as a website template at the top click
upload here you can browse through over 2,000 free wordpress themes many are
designed to suit particular industries such as restaurants or real estate or
particular purposes like blogging ecommerce education and more the theme
we're going to use in this demo is called Brasserie though designed for
restaurants it works great for spas salons boutiques photographers event
planners artists and just about anyone else who wants an elegant yet playful
design Brasserie is responsive meaning the website will automatically shift oof
it any sized window or device including smartphones it's also highly
customizable compared to other free themes since a few steps in this guide
will be specific to the Brasserie theme I recommend using it as well if you do
choose to go with another one most of the steps should apply however the
customization menu in particular will be different Brasserie is also the theme we
used in our restaurant website guide so if you want to view more restaurant
specific instructions or just prefer a text walkthrough be sure to check out
that guide as well at fitsmallbusiness.com once you've decided
which theme you'll be using simply click install and then activate right away
we'll start customizing our themes to make it a better fit for our websites
on the left-hand toolbar select Customize
this will bring you to the menu where you can personalize your theme with your
own branding and formatting preferences we're going to go through each option on
the customization toolbar starting with site identity on this menu enter your
website name and tagline
on the next menu you can upload a logo it works best if you have something
small no more than 150 pixels tall and 250 wide if you need help on this
there's a few options the graphic designer on Fiverr can give you basic
formatting and design help for as little as $5 if you're looking to create a new
logo from scratch we recommend 99 designs the service we
use that fits small business to create our own logo for more information check
out these guides we also link to a few high rated graphic designers in the
description of this video next you can upload a header image just
like a facebook cover photo this is a banner that will stretch across the top
of each page on your website you can upload any image that's at least 1700
pixels wide and WordPress will ask you to crop it if need be if you need help
finding a photo we link to a website in the description of this video where you
can search for public domain photos the header might seem a bit too large but
don't worry we'll add a call to action over this later so you aren't wasting
any space also keep in mind the header will grow and shrink as you resize your
website window next under site colors you can change your header text color or
your theme highlight color the theme highlight color most notably will change
the main menu bar on your website I'm going to keep both of them as is
under typography you can change the font and style of your text you can preview
the different options in the window to the right again
I'll be keeping mine as is
next under top bar contact details enter your phone number and email address in a
moment you'll see this displayed at the top of your website
now click social media settings again enter any social media pages you use for
your business once finished you'll notice your social media icons appear at
the top of your website as well as the contact information you entered in the
previous step
for now you can ignore the rest of the customization options we're going to go
back to these after you create a few pages on your website click Save and
publish at the top then X out of the menu
now that you're back on the main WordPress menu head over to pages this
is where you'll create the main pages for your website including your about
page services products and so on most themes will come with a sample page but
you can delete this by checking the box and clicking move to trash at the top
then apply to create your own page head to the top
and select add new
enter your page title at the top and add any text and images below you can always
go back and edit these laters so don't worry about getting everything perfect
right away once you have something entered click publish
I'm going to jump ahead and create four more pages for my website services
stylists products and policies be sure to pay attention to the permalink which
is displayed just below your page title you can edit this to change the URL of
your page for example check your head salon.com slash policies once you're
complete add one final page called home assuming you've use the Brasserie theme
find the box to the right that says page attributes under template select custom
home page keep the text portion blank and click publish the reason we're doing
this is so that you can add some unique interactive features to your home page
once we head back to the customization menu for now click pages you should be
able to see each of the pages you've just created again we'll head back here
later to fill out the rest of the detail for now head back to appearance and then
click customize scroll to the bottom and select static front page
switch the option from your latest posts to a static page then under front page
select the home page you created earlier this will allow you to design a proper
home page rather than the default setting of displaying your latest blog
post now head back and find home page settings here you can add and remove
features to your home page I'm going to start with promotion bar remember when I
said earlier you could place a call to action across your header image this is
how you do it enter a title button text and button URL for my fake salon
business this will direct people to an appointment booking page for your
business just think of whatever your main goal is for the website perhaps you
want visitors to submit a contact form to land on your ecommerce store or to
watch a video or download a white paper next I'm going to setup feature text
boxes these are specially formatted boxes that highlight the main aspects of
your business plus each box can link to an external or internal page for my
business I'm going to use this to share my specialties and help direct visitors
to the right page now let's fast forward
it helps to choose images that are similarly sized although they don't
necessarily have to have the same exact proportions
here's how featured boxes look when complete again they'll only appear on my
home page now I'm going to head back to the home page menu today's special is
another option that lets you add four images further below that also link to
pages of your choosing I'm going to skip this option to keep my home page simple
on that note under hide show elements I'm going to hide everything except for
my promo bar and featured boxes this will make things much less cluttered
remember to hide elements on your other pages as well such as your about or
services page now let's head back to layers and select menus
this is where you can create the main navigation bar at the top of your
website click add a menu and give it a name now select add items and find the
pages you created earlier you can add them in any order you like
once finished select primary menu at the bottom you should now see the menu
appear at the top of your website keep in mind my browser is zoomed in
right now which is why it looks more like a mobile website I'll show you how
it looks zoomed out later on now head back and select widgets
at the very bottom of your homepage and on the sidebar of your other pages you
can add additional tools known as widgets these can be anything from a
text box to a search bar email newsletter sign up appointment calendar
and more by default WordPress includes just a few basic widgets but you can add
more by installing plugins for my website I'll be adding the following
widgets on the Left column I'll add a search bar
you
in the central column I'll choose a text widget and list my stores location in
ours
be sure to check automatically add paragraphs at the bottom
you
in the right column I'm going to add another navigation menu this way
visitors can find the right page even after they've scrolled to the bottom
with that your homepage should be just about complete since I've been zoomed in
to give you a better view of this tutorial I'm now going to zoom out this
is how my website will look to an average visitor
you
now I'll click Save and publish and then exit the customization menu
at this point you can head back to your pages and start filling in more detail
in addition to text and images you can also install plugins that add more
functionality to your pages one example is a Google Maps embed which is great to
show the location of your store or office
another option is an email newsletter signup form if you plan on using email
marketing if you want to learn more about plugins we provide instructions in
the article version of this guide if you're in real estate or property
management you can also check out our guide where we show you real estate
specific plugins like a property search tool
when you're ready to publish simply click this button at the top of your
screen
while previewing your website keep in mind that as long as you're logged in a
toolbar will appear at the top to get a better idea of how your website will
look to the average visitor either log out or open it in a private browsing tab
here's my website and all its glory
that concludes our guide on creating a business website and email address with
Bluehost if you have any questions be sure to
leave them in the comment section below and we'll respond as soon as possible I
also encourage you to check out the article version of this guy where we
further explore plugins and explain how to remove the branding at the bottom of
your website from there you can check out more of our online marketing guides
including the walkthrough of how to use bean and Google AdWords with coupons for
free advertising credit last but not least if you found this guide helpful be
sure to like this video and subscribe to our YouTube channel thanks for watching