Installing WordPress, plugins, and a theme is just a start, but in maintaining and growing your website, you’ve got to make plans. Sure, your initial idea of creating a WordPress site for whatever reason is great, but if you’re trying to get people to either subscribe to your newsletter, share your posts, fill out your lead forms, leave a comment on your posts, click an ad, or buy your stuff, you’ve got more to do. If you’re not getting some type of return on investment, which is to get people to do something on your website, then your website is broken. Come sit in and let me help you fix your problem by giving you ideas that you can use. Originally presented at WordCamp Chicago 2016

1. Creating A WordPress Website That Works From
the Start
By Nile Flores
@blondishnet
http://blondish.net

2. Once upon a time, on a WordPress website near
you...
❏ A domain was bought
❏ Web hosting for that domain was
purchased
❏ WordPress was installed
❏ “Hello World!”

3. You have a WordPress website…
What next?

4. The 6 Things Your Website Needs
❏ A site focus / a plan for your website
❏ SEO
❏ Building an email newsletter list
❏ An easy way for visitors to contact or connect
with you
❏ Ability for visitors to share your articles
❏ Tools to protect your investment

5. The ultimate purpose of your website...
ROI is the name of the game.
Your site can look ugly or pretty, but if you’re not getting people to
subscribe, call you, contact you, share your posts, or buy your stuff, then…
YOUR WEBSITE IS BROKEN!

6. … So you gotta make plans for your website
Your website MUST be clear about the following:
❏ Who you are
❏ What you’re offering
❏ Why you matter

7. If you can’t answer who you are,
why you matter, and what you’re
offering, you’ve already confused
your website visitors.

8. “Practice makes perfect.”
You can plan a ton of things, but your first website
isn’t going to be perfect.
The beauty of WordPress is that you can always
update your website. It’s not set in stone.

9. “But I’m just a blogger.”
You’re still wanting attention to your blog articles, and wanting them to
share them on social media. You still want them to click on your ads, or buy
from your affiliate links, or follow you on social network sites.
Just like businesses that blog, you NEED a plan for
your own blog.

10. “ROI” doesn’t have to necessarily involve
gaining money. It just means gaining
SOMETHING.

11. SEO
Don’t just blindly write about anything in
your niche.
Keyword research can keep you on top of
what you need to write AND also fuel
your blog for more topics.

12. Some pretty cool SEO tools
❏ Blog Title Generator - http://bit.ly/1QiL7zE
❏ Google Adwords Keyword Planner -
https://adwords.google.com/KeywordPlanner
❏ Yoast Suggest - https://yoast.com/suggest/
❏ Google Trends - https://www.google.com/trends/
❏ Yoast SEO - https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-seo/

13. SEO tips
❏ Fill out your meta descriptions to look enticing.
❏ Write naturally and uniquely.
❏ Create content on as many mediums as possible.
❏ Never write less than 300 words on a post.
❏ Linking is important!
❏ Write an engaging title

14. SEO Tips - Part 2
❏ Have an About page and a Contact page.
❏ Video, audio/ podcast, image/ infographics
should be accompanied by some text.
❏ Link to external to resources to enhance your
own content.
❏ Make sure your site is mobile responsive.
❏ Site speed is important. Under 4-second page
load time is ideal.

15. Your website needs an email newsletter list
Attract visitors back to your website or
social handles.
Otherwise, your website will leak traffic.
This means you will get people who will
never come back to your website.

16. Use your Calls to Action
A call to action is designed to catch the
audience attention and to persuade
them to respond to it.
It gets them to “do something.”

17. Where you can add an Optin form/ Call to action
❏ In your meta description for your website’s search results
❏ A link in your post
❏ Social share buttons
❏ Optin form in your sidebar
❏ Optin form at the bottom of your blog article
❏ Full page or pop up optin
❏ In your contact page

18. Email marketing tools
❏ Aweber.com
❏ MailChimp.com
❏ ConstantContact.com
❏ MadMimi.com

19. OptinMonster - Lead Generation for WordPress
OptinMonster - http://optinmonster.com/
Allows you to add various lead capture forms to your website. Costs, but it’s
worth the investment.

20. More on Newsletter optin-in plugins
❏ MailChimp for WordPress http://bit.ly/mailchimpwp
❏ AWeber Web Form Plugin http://bit.ly/1zxbBqy
❏ Constant Contact for WordPress http://bit.ly/1sfaZ3i
❏ Mad Mimi for WordPress http://bit.ly/1vVZ13q
❏ Bloom https://elegantthemes.com

21. Keep the door to your visitors open
with a contact form

22. Contact form plugins for WordPress
❏ Ninja Forms - https://ninjaforms.com/
❏ Gravity Forms - http://www.gravityforms.com/
Both allow you to easily create forms.

23. Make it easy for your visitors to share your posts.
Let’s face it. People are lazy. Meet them
half way by placing social share buttons
on your blog articles.

24. Social Share plugins for
WordPress
❏ Digg Digg http://bit.ly/diggdiggwp
❏ JetPack http://bit.ly/jetpackwp
❏ SumoMe http://bit.ly/1zqOXPs
❏ MashShare http://bit.ly/1Nibk6p

25. Protect your website, your investment
❏ Backup your website
❏ Have a security plan
Your time is valuable, so it’d really suck
if you lost it all because you didn’t have
a security and backup plan.

26. Backup plugins for WordPress
❏ UpDraftPlus https://wordpress.org/plugins/updraftplus/

27. Security Plugins for WordPress
❏ Wordfence - http://bit.ly/2nkaEpc
❏ Sitelock - http://bit.ly/1TfcFwm
❏ Sucuri -http://bit.ly/1He85sW

28. BONUS: Awesome resources
❏ What to Do After You Install WordPress - http://bit.ly/2mFYt2e
❏ Introduction to WordPress Security - http://bit.ly/2nCkTCx
❏ How to Make the Most out of Yoast SEO - http://bit.ly/1Tufx77
❏ Click This! Subscribe Today! All About Calls to Action -
http://bit.ly/1VFiN2k
❏ 17 Tips for Starting a Blog in 2017 - http://bit.ly/2n8BbVQ
AND tons of articles on my website!

29. Thank you!
Nile Flores - http://blondish.net
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