I'm Claudia Snell & I build Websites

Custom Website Not In Your Budget?

On a budget? The 5-Minute WordPress Site Challenge can help.
Yes, it really is THAT easy to set up a WordPress site. Anyone can do it. In the video above, Adam Purcell of Hungry Dog Media, shows you how. Find this video and many others on how to use WordPress on WordPress.tv.

A few things you will need to think about

Find a host
WordPress has a list of recommended hosts. There are several to choose from and one of them is sure to fit your budget. If you want to go the completely free route you can also get a site through WordPress.com. The only downside is that your URL will be www.YOURNAME.wordpress.com. The set up works great for millions of blogs so it’s not really much of a downside for those really watching the budget.

I have used hostican.com and have now moved to MediaTemple. HostICan did the trick and was one of the better hosts I’ve dealt with.

Customize
The place to start is the Free Themes Directory on WordPress.org. As of today there are 812 themes to choose from – all in a searchable directory. You can also check out ThemeForest. They’ve got a lot of very nice themes to choose from also (Note: Themes on ThemeForest are not free, prices range from about $20.00 and up.)

The second place to go when customizing your WordPress site is the Plug-Ins Directory. As of right now there are over 5,400 plug-ins to choose from offering all sorts of functionality. If you aren’t sure what a ‘plug-in’ is, it’s a bit of code that you load into your WordPress site (see the video for details) that adds functionality to the site that isn’t part of the base WordPress features – for instance, WordPress doesn’t have eCommerce functionality built in but as the example video shows, you can add it with a few clicks by installing a plug-in. For everything you need to know about using plug-ins, visit codex.wordpress.org/Managing_Plugins.

That should get you up and running.
Obviously, this approach won’t work for all projects. In most cases, a custom built site is going to be the only way to go but for some, it’s not necessary. Leveraging WordPress and a pre-designed theme is a good way for individuals or home businesses to get a website running quickly and on a tight budget.