5 Things I Wish I’d Known When I Started My WordPress Website

Note from Laura: When I received this essay from Janis Fisher Chan (a regular guest columnist), I knew my readers would relate. Janis expresses frustrations most of us experience when we build a website.

Knowing what you’re getting into BEFORE you begin building your website is critically important. That’s why I created Your Website Budget Blueprint. This online course helps you pre-plan a time and money budget for your website, so you can avoid many of the headaches Janis experienced. Details at the end of this post.

By Janis Fisher Chan
Guest Contributor

I never set out to launch a website.

I was writing a book to help people afford the travel they loved by swapping and renting out their homes, something my husband and I have done for years. I asked my son, the digital marketing expert, whether it made sense to publish and sell the book myself instead of handing it over to a publisher.

“Why don’t you start a WordPress site?” he suggested.

Me? Start a website?

It was all I could do to handle my email. I didn’t know beans about how to create and maintain a website.

“You’ve got great content,” my son said. “You can learn the other stuff.”

So it began, the project that has more or less dominated my life for the past couple of years. Would I have done it, knowing what I know now about what it would take to get the site up and keep it going?

Maybe, maybe not. Here’s what I wish I’d known when I started.

1. Building, maintaining, and marketing a WordPress site eats up an enormous amount of time.

I naively thought it would be quick and easy to set up the site with my son’s help. Then all I’d have to do was pull content from the draft of the book and drop it into posts.

Hah! Just setting up the site took a ton of work.

I had to choose a “domain name,” the URL that would identify my site. The name of the book was Travel on the House, so I chose travelonthehouse.com.
I had to decide on a “theme,” which would determine how the site would look.
I had to develop flow charts that showed the structure of the site and determined how visitors would get from one place to another.

There were so many questions to answer. So much to do before even starting to populate the site with content.

2. There would be a lot of things I couldn’t do myself.

I’m a word person, not a techie, and certainly not a visual artist. I had never used spent much time on social media much before starting this project. I had a Twitter account and a Facebook page that I hardly ever visited. Pinterest and Instagram were foreign countries, and not the ones I was particularly interested in visiting.

It didn’t take long before I realized that I needed help. Lots of help.

I had to find a graphic artist to design the logo. A WordPress expert to keep the site up to date and make changes when I needed them. Someone who knew how to set up and manage a mailing list on MailChimp. A social media maven who could help me get the word out.

Putting together the right team turned out to be more difficult than I thought.

3. Setting up and managing a WordPress site is costly.

Speaking of my team, my son kindly didn’t charge for doing the initial set up. But he has a job that takes most of his time. My daughter, who works in social media marketing, helps when she can, but she has a full-time job and two kids. I need to pay the good people who work with me to keep my site up and running.

It’s not only people. While the WordPress software is free, but there are lots of other costs involved in setting up and running a WordPress site. Buying the domain name. Site hosting. Web design to keep the site looking fresh. Hootsuite (a social media management tool), and more.

I’m sure that people with technical and design skills and endless time on their hands can do it for less. But I don’t have any of those, and with no venture capitalist at my back, I have to dig down into my own somewhat shallow pockets.

4. Running a WordPress site can be very frustrating.

Any project involves a certain amount of trial and error, and the results are seldom (if ever) perfect. But a website…

There are constant technical glitches I haven’t the slightest idea how to fix. The site never looks exactly as I envision it. Despite our constant promotion and marketing activities, the visitor count creeps up much too slowly.

Some days I feel as if I’ll never get it right. I feel as if all I’m doing is spinning my wheels, throwing away my time, effort, and money on something no one cares about but me.

But, I remind myself, I’ve been here before. I’ve been here every time I’ve tackled a challenging project, and I know that frustration is an essential part of the process. I’ve pushed through this tunnel many times in my life and have nearly always come out stronger at the other end.

5. No matter what, the site still gives me a pang of satisfaction.

My website will never be perfect. I know that now, in a way I couldn’t have imagined when I began. But it’s out there! Despite everything, I feel very pleased with myself to have come this far. I love sharing my ideas, information, and experiences and providing a forum for others to do the same.

I know it is still a long, hard slog from where the site is now to where I hope to take it….but when I look back to that first conversation with my son, I am amazed at how far I’ve come!

Janis Fisher Chan ran a training company that helped professionals, executives, academics, authors, content developers, bloggers, and others write clearly for specific audiences.

A passionate traveler, she recently launched Travel on the House, an informational website with tips and advice for people who want to make travel affordable by swapping or rent out their homes. You can reach her by email or on her Facebook page.

Your Website Budget Blueprint

Whether you build your website yourself or hire help, I want the website-building process to be a positive, rewarding experience for you.

Your Website Budget Blueprint online course is all about pre-planning… the planning you need to do before you begin building a website:

Pre-planning the elements and features that’ll go on your website.

Pre-planning a realistic, comprehensive website budget.

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When you finish the course, you’ll be ready to begin BUILDING your website. Enrollment is open for Your Website Budget Blueprint. Get complete details about the course and enroll now at WebsiteBudgetBlueprint.com.

Contributer : Blogging Bistro