How To Scope Your Web Design Project With WordPress

WordPress makes building websites easy.

I received an email from one of my students this morning with the following questions about web design using WordPress.

She says: "I’ve gotten ‘stuck’ trying to describe what I want a website builder to do for me.

In essence, I know what I want, but don’t know how to convey that to a web contractor.

For example, I know:

• I want them to use a wordpress template,
• I want to have functionality such as an auto blog,
• I want to link it to auto responder emails,
• I want auto delivery of products,
• I want links to social media,
• I want a payment page,
• I want squeeze pages,
• I want an automatic payment facility,
• I want sign up pages
• I want a facility to list build,
• and I want something which easily allows for uploading of video/photo/blogs, etc,

…but how do I say that?

I’m not clear on other considerations, such as whether I need the designer to give me all the coding underpinning the website or is that all contained in wordpress?"

Let’s make this as simple as possible for you.

Here’s what you need to know, step-by-step, to get this job done effectively.

Q1: "I want them to use a wordpress template"

WordPress is the best choice in my opinion.

The good news is there are many excellent free wordpress themes available.

Here is a selection I regularly check out when considering themes for clients.

But if you really want an awesome WordPress theme, you can’t go past WooThemes – Premium WordPress Templates

WooThemes is my absolute favourite WordPress theme provider – I buy all of my themes from these guys.

Their themes all run on the same "back-end" system they call the WooFramework.

It means you can easily copy and paste your information and settings from one WooTheme to another; saving you a lot of time and effort if you decide to change themes.

Q2: "I want to have functionality such as an auto blog"

The easiest way to set-up auto-blogging is to use a plug-in.

However, if all you mean by auto-blogging is that you write a whole bunch of articles which are then automatically posted, say, one week apart for a year, that is actually a built-in feature of WordPress.

All you need to do when publishing your post or page is look directly above the "Publish" button. You’ll find an option that says: Publish immediately, and then a link saying Edit.

Click on that link, and you can schedule the post or page to be published at any time in the future.

You choose the date and time.

Q3: "I want to lnik it to auto responder emails"

To do this, you’ll need an auto-responder system.

Some of the more popular options include Aweber (recommended), iContact and Get Response.

1ShoppingCart also has an in-built auto-responder, as does Infusion Soft, but these are alittle more pricey.

What you need to do is create your opt-in box (also known as a sign-up box) inside your autoresponder program.

Then you take the code for the completed opt-in box, and post it into your wordpress page or post (or widget), wherever you want it.

You need to click on the HTML tab in the top right hand corner of the box where you type in your content for the page in order for the code to paste in properly.

Then click back to VISUAL, and you should see the box there on the screen.

The next step is to actually write and upload your emails to your auto-responder.

Q4: "I want auto delivery of products"

This depends largely on whether you are talking about information products (downloadable or streaming content), or physical products.

Downloadable products are easily delivered automatically.

The easiest way is to get a Paypal account, and create a payment button under the Merchant Services tab.

It’s a very intuitive, step-by-step process, so I won’t detail it here.

In step 3 of creating your Paypal button, you specify which page the purchaser whould be redirected to once they complete the payment (i.e. when they buy your product).

Simply make a "Download Page" in WordPress, and link to your product.

Then take the URL of your Download Page, and paste it in as your Paypal button redirect.

The easiest way to link to your product on your Download Page is to use an FTP program, such as Filezilla to upload the file (i.e. your info product) to a folder on the back-end of your website. Then you copy and paste that link into your Download Page.

Q5: "I want links to social media"

Here’s the absolute easist way I know to do this.

Install a plugin called Sexy Bookmarks.

This will let people share your content via social media.

Many WordPress themes come with this feature built-in to the theme. Check out WooThemes – Premium WordPress Templates

Many themes also have built-in widgets for adding your Social Media accounts (i.e. links to your own Facebook page, Twitter account, etc.)

If that’s not the case with your theme, go to the WordPress plugins directory and search for the particular social media sites you want to be able to link to, then install a plugin to give you that functionality.

Q6: ‘I want a payment page" and "I want an automatic payment facility"

Using the process I described above for making a Paypal button should sort this out.

Otherwise, you’ll need to invest in a more full-featured shopping cart.

Check out 1ShoppingCart as a starting place.

Q7: "I want squeeze pages" and "I want sign up pages"… and "I want a facility to list build"

There are a million ways to do this!

The easiest way is to simply embed the opt-in box using the steps I described above in my answer to question 3.

There are WordPress themes with squeeze pages built in.

Check out "Optimize Press" and "Launch Theme".

Q8: …"and I want something which easily allows for uploading of video/photo/blogs, etc"

The good news is… that is what WordPress is all about.

It’s a blogging platform, so that ticks off "blogs".

It has built-in the ability to upload photos directly into your posts and pages.

And… you can sopy and paste YouTube video code into the HTML section of the typing box (the same process as for adding your auto-responder code described above).

Or… you can get plugins that make it super easy too.

So there you have it!

All your questions are answered.

If that all seems too hard, and you’d like me to do it for you, click here to request a quote.

I turn websites around in a week, and occassionally accept web design work.

Tags: build website, WooThemes, wordpress