When it comes to getting a business off the ground, there are lots of decisions to make. From finding the right theme / plugins / host, figuring out fonts, writing good copy, finding great images, and getting your site ranked, it’s tough to know where to begin. In this session I’ll provide a list of steps and to-dos to help you get started and get your business off on the right foot.

1. Getting Started: What you
should do BEFORE buying
your first WordPress theme
Andrea Napierkowski
CurlyHost LLC

2. Why am I speaking?
• I love to organize things
• I love to research new information
• I have a B.A. in International Relations
• I have a certificate in Web Design & Development
• I started taking clients in Aug. 2011
• I’ve worked on over 150 sites since then

3. – Andrea Napierkowki
“Every website is a puzzle - you first need to find
all of the pieces before you can start putting it
together.”

4. Do You Need a New Site?
• Has it been 3 years to 5
years?
• Is your site easy to view
on a any device without
pinching or expanding?
• Is your site using trends
that have trended out?
• Does your site’s type look
small?
• Does your site require
Flash?
• Has your site’s target
market changed?
• Is your site hard to
navigate?
• Now, be honest, does
your site just look dated?

5. Free Website Builders
• www.wix.com
• www.weebly.com
• www.ucoz.com
• www.yola.com
• www.moonfruit.com
• www.webstarts.com
• www.imcreator.com
• www.snackwebsites.com
• www.squarespace.com
• www.devhub.com
• www.jigsy.com
• www.doodlekit.com
• www.yep.com
• www.sitezulu.com
• www.jimdo.com
• www.homestead.com
• www.breezi.com
• www.bravesites.com

6. – Albert Einstein
“Make everything as simple as possible, but not
simpler.”

7. Minimalism is a movement, not a trend.
• Less is more
• Show restraint in your
design
• What path do you want
users to take?
• What is the essential
information that needs to
be understood?
• How does your
competition talk about
what you do?
• What makes you different
from them?
• How will people
experience your site?
• What elements can you
integrate to stay fresh?

8. – Department of European Paintings, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
“Largely self-taught, Van Gogh gained his
footing as an artist by zealously copying prints
and studying nineteenth-century drawing
manuals and lesson books.”

9. Design Trends of 2014
• Flat Design Elements
• Mobile First
• Parallax Scrolling
• Less Text
• Bold Typography
• Fixed Navigation
• Condensed Navigation
• One Page Sites
• Mono or Hyper Color
• Tiles (Pinterest)
• Bigger, better images
• Video Backgrounds

10. – Ecclesiastes 1:9 (NIV)
“What has been will be again, what has been
done will be done again; there is nothing new
under the sun.”

11. A Few Puzzle Pieces
• Head over to awwwards.com
for inspiration
• Get mentoring with
grandrapids.score.org
• Find a unique color scheme at
kuler.adobe.com
• Get a unique font at
google.com/fonts
• Share files with dropbox.com
• Hire a designer or
photographer at 599work.com
• Check out moz.com/learn/seo
to write for Search Engines
• Use hemingwayapp.com to
write better copy
• Get paid with square.com/cash
• Get accounting at
waveapps.com

12. How to choose a WordPress theme
• Sometimes it takes
LONGER to update an old
theme than to start fresh
• Head over to
themeforest.net and
search for “responsive
WordPress”
• Search for number of
purchases (the higher the
better)
• Read the documentation
(good themes tell you how
to exactly do everything)
• Sign up for the theme
support (good themes
have a whole forum
dedicated to help)
• Google your question
(you’ll be surprised at how
much help you can find on
google)

13. A Few Don’ts
• Don’t set up a WordPress.com
site and then buy a
WordPress.org theme
• Don’t force a bad theme to work
on a good site
• Don’t buy a theme before you
have any content
• Don’t force whatever content
you do have into a theme that
doesn’t make sense for your
audience
• Don’t reinvent the wheel -
someone created a plugin for
the exact functionality you are
looking for
• Don’t give up until you’ve read
the documentation and used
the developer’s support forums
• Don’t copy the look of just ONE
business - copy many, many
different examples
• Don’t edit your new theme -
make a child theme

14. This is not Field of Dreams - if you build it people
WILL NOT come until you tell them about it
• behance.net/curlyhost
• facebook.com/pages
• business.instagram.com
• tumblr.com/business
• google.com/business
• business.linkedin.com
• business.pinterest.com
• business.twitter.com
• flickr.com/services/dev
eloper/business

15. Other Helpful Sites
• www.google.com/analytics
• smallbusiness.yahoo.com
• www.bingplaces.com
• biz.yelp.com
• grandrapids.craigslist.org
• google.com/webmasters
• bufferapp.com
• ifttt.com

16. Plugins I Use on EVERY Site
• http://www.gravityforms.com/
• http://jetpack.me/
• http://www.w3-edge.com/products/w3-total-cache/
• https://yoast.com/wordpress/plugins/seo
• http://www.ruhanirabin.com/wp-optimize/
• https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-google-fonts/
• http://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-smushit/
• http://akismet.com/

17. http://designforgoodwm.com/
http://grgivecamp.org/

18. Thank you.

19. Questions?