Step 1. Create a Brand Strategy

Before you set out creating a website for your business, you should have a clear outline of your brand. All the aspects of the design, copy, and which features are included will be drawn from your brand strategy. The idea is to create something that fulfills your customers’ expectations and accomplishes your business goals.

Combining those two ideas can be very tricky, and that’s why having a solid strategy in place is important.

As we cover in the guide above, finding the sweet spot where your audience’s needs intersect with your goals is about learning from interactions with customers. Creating a website gives you incredible access to data about what prompts your customers to buy, and how to optimize both your product and the experience you offer.

If you can, talk to your current customers about what works for them, what doesn’t, and what they would expect from your website. If you can’t access your customers, or you’re just starting your business, then you’ll need to start with a brand identity that you think will work best, based on your current knowledge and assumptions, and then refine as you learn more.

Free Tools

There are many free tools that enable you to measure interactions and refine your website copy, design, features and even the products or services you sell with data. Here are a few big ones to keep at the ready for when your website is ready to launch.

• Google Analytics – Track traffic and interactions on your website
• Google Optimize – Run A/B tests and refine your site
• Google Tag Manager – Integrate third-party tracking technology (such as advertising pixels)

Step 2. Create a Site Map and Gather Content Assets

This step ensures that you don’t have to rebuild your website because you missed something important. Based on your research and planning from step 1, think about the features, pages, and information you need for your business website to be operational. For the initial launch, you should focus on the MVP, or minimum viable product.

The idea of an MVP is to have a product that works and can accomplish business goals while meeting customer expectations. But an MVP doesn’t have to be the complete vision for your product—nor should it be. By starting small, you can discover what your customers really need, and how that plays in with your business strategy. This enables you to refine your products and website experience more and more with each new release or improvement to your products and services.

So think hard about what you need to be operational, and put the big goals on the map for the future. Then, you can create a viable map for your site that includes:

• Each critical piece of information your customers need to know—what is your product, how much does it cost, how does it work, are there refunds, warranty, etc. Think about it as if you’re explaining it to someone who’s never heard of your product or service.
• Find the breakdown of pages for all this info, organized so that customers can find it easily and intuitively. For example, don’t include product features without the price points.
• Now, map the flow for every interaction you need for the MVP. For instance, the home page > the product categories > sub categories > product details and pricing > checkout > follow up (emails and content).

It can help to list out each piece of information critical to your sales cycle and then draw out a map, whether pen and paper or a post-it wall, of how all those pieces fit together. This will be an uphill battle, but when you get to the actual site building step, it will make it way easier to manage all your detailed information and processes.

Free Tools:

Mapping out your site can be a difficult process, especially if there are multiple teams or stakeholders involved in the process. Luckily, there are some really great free tools for keeping track of all of it.

I’d recommend Trello, which is technically a project management software, for listing out each piece of info, content, or feature you need for your MVP. Then, your whole team can keep track of progress, logins for tools, and details, while still having a bird’s-eye view of what needs to be done.

When you’re ready to create the visual map, GlooMaps is a free, web-based application that makes mapping it all out easier. And unlike post-it note maps, you can share this with your team, and access it from anywhere.

Step 3. Build Your Website

If you’ve created a basic strategy and mapped out your site, you’re ready to build it. And the first step to creating a website is finding a place to put it. Literally.

Install WordPress

WordPress is our favorite platform for building a business because it offers the most flexibility and open-source/free tools. It’s great for startups looking to DIY without incurring the potentially huge development and design costs. It’s easy to integrate amazing marketing tools like OptinMonster, Google Analytics, and Constant Contact, and much more.

But first, you’ll need to install WordPress through your hosting provider. After you set up a hosting account, you’ll have access to the control panel, or cPanel, where most providers feature a one-click WordPress installation. Make sure your provider offers a WordPress installation feature—that’s a bare minimum these days.

Once you’ve installed WordPress on your website, you should receive an email with your login credentials. These will get you into your WordPress admin dashboard, which is where you configure all the settings for your website. You can access this login page any time by typing in your website URL with /wp-admin added to the end, for example: yourdomain.com/wp-admin.

Choose a WordPress Theme for Your Business

WordPress themes are essentially templates for your business website that you can customize with your feature sets and branding. Premium WordPress themes, which are what we sell on MOJO Marketplace, feature the latest and greatest in design, code, and customization features. Although you can find free WordPress themes, you will quickly run into limitations that require coding or editing of the theme files, especially with more unique business models and features.

We recommend finding a WordPress theme with an importable demo design that fits your business model. For example, The Core WordPress theme features 23 demo designs for a variety of businesses, which you can customize to your liking without writing any code.

With a theme like The Core, you can find designs for yoga studios, restaurants, mobile apps, creative agencies—you name it—that follow industry best-practices in design and are fully responsive. Also, these demos include content mockups that make it easier for you to base your site map on, using tried and true practices.

Check out more business and multipurpose themes on MOJO Marketplace.

Install Your WordPress Theme

Once you’ve chosen your WordPress theme, it’s time to install it through WordPress. Remember that installing a theme doesn’t mean it’s active, so you can install as many themes as you like and preview them with an existing site’s content. When you’re ready to push it live, you can click Activate on the theme you like by selecting Appearance > Themes > Activate (on the chosen theme).

Read our guide to install your WordPress theme.

Import Your Theme Demo and Customize

Now, if you found a great demo design with your WordPress theme that fits your business model, that’s where you should start. You can easily import those designs and customize the content in a matter of hours, getting your site off the ground super fast.

Follow these guides to import your demo and start customizing:

1. Guide to Import a WordPress Theme Demo
2. Guide to WordPress Pages, Posts and Menus

Kick Off Your Digital Marketing Strategy

If you’ve completed your website, you’re already on the market. With SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, your site will soon be indexed by Google and the more you refine your keywords and write quality content, the more you’ll appear in search results.

But your website is just the first step to making money online. It’s time to start integrating marketing, online scheduling software, and advertising tools and tracking your progress, and even optimizing your site for better user experience and a higher conversion rate. We’ve assembled a list of guides to get you started:

• How to Create Killer Marketing Campaigns with WordPress Tools

• 5 Ways to Improve Your Website with Simple A/B Tests

• 4 Quick & Easy Tips to Help You Start Advertising on Facebook

• How To Best Configure Your Business’s AdWords Account

• How to Integrate Conversion Pixels on WordPress

1. The Core

The Core is a longstanding favorite WordPress theme for businesses because it comes pre-packaged with over 20 demo designs created for niche websites and businesses. These demos take best practices from well-designed industry websites and wrap them up in a beautiful package. The best part? You can import a design with one click and customize the branding.

Using a demo from The Core could save you hours and dollars in design and development by giving you a better starting point.

The Core also makes it easy to customize features and design through WordPress. Learn more about The Core in this video:

Try the Core

2. Creativo

Creativo is a true multipurpose WordPress theme, and it’s built so you can do just about anything with it. For businesses, this theme gives you excellent control over the look and feel of every page or blog post with the Visual Composer page builder—drag and drop elements to create a page. Also, Creativo is ready for an online store, and includes premium slider plugins to create a great product or post feed at the top of your home page.

Also, Creativo comes with a complete set of tutorial videos that will walk you through using WordPress and Creativo’s feature set. See the videos here.

Try Creativo

3. Highend

A longstanding favorite theme on MOJO Marketplace, Highend provides an excellent framework for customizing your WordPress site, and includes the Visual Composer page builder and slider plugins for free.

Like The Core, Highend features many demo designs to start you off with an online store, app, creative business, church, lifecoaching platform, and much more. All designs can be imported with one click, and with the range of customization, you can make Highend accomplish all of your goals.

Try Highend

4. StartUp

The StartUp WordPress theme is one of the best themes available for creating landing pages and engaging content for your business. Instead of building pages through an interface like Visual Composer, StartUp features it’s own plugin that let’s you create amazing pages using widgets. This video demonstrates how it works:

Try StartUp

5. New!Shop

If you want to start selling products online tomorrow with an excellent user interface and experience, try out New!Shop. This theme offers a full-width or boxed layout design and packs in all the e-commerce features you need for an online store to be effective.

The admin panel makes it very easy to customize the features of your shop, without ever touching the code.

Try New!Shop

6. Apoa

Apoa is a beautiful business WordPress theme that is simple to use and effectively designed. This theme was built with the agency or creative in mind, and it lends itself to a beautiful presentation of your work and philosophy. This theme comes with the basic features you need to build a great landing page with animations and style, without a lot of features to sift through or bloating to deal with later on.

Try Apoa

7. Multicorp

The Multicorp theme features a clean, minimal design for businesses that makes it easy to find information and learn about your company or products. It’s easy to choose one of the pre-defined skins, pick a layout, and get started with other customizations for your brand, right from the WordPress admin panel.

Try Multicorp

8. Creatica

Creatica is a very cool WordPress theme for business, and features one-click importable demos for everything from creative agencies to restaurants. Their designs alone are worth buying the theme. But the features and customizations available make this theme a real standout for businesses looking to improve their user experience with limited resources.

Try Creatica

9. BizBuzz

With BizBuzz, you can build a complete, fully featured business website with one of their 6 one-click importable demos very quickly. You can easily create amazing, dynamic pages using the included Visual Composer page builder, and brand customizations like colors and fonts are a click away in the WordPress customizer.

Try BizBuzz

Developing Your Advertising Campaigns

Plan quarterly advertising campaigns that align with your customer’s interests and capitalize on holidays and events. Advertising that appeals directly to your target market by focusing on their wants and needs will deliver a stronger ROI. Being consistent helps to improve brand awareness, and capitalizing on marketing opportunities surrounding events and holidays captures a larger share of the market at critical opportunities for potentially higher sales.

How to Decide Which Channels to Advertise On

Finding the right online channels to focus your advertising on can make a big difference in maximizing your ROI. Depending upon your industry, one particular channel might serve you better than another, so it pays to research competitors to see where they are focusing their advertising dollars.

Various channels include:

Google—ideal for service providers and niche businesses that can utilize highly targeted keywords.

Google AdWords—ideal for targeting potential customers or clients that might not be aware you exist.

Facebook—ideal for companies that are seeking to engage their audience, as well as attract a local target market. Facebook also allows for very specific targeting and budget controls, making it an optimal marketing tool.

LinkedIn—ideal for B2B companies. Using LinkedIn, you can source leads, engage in networking, and advertise to specific professions, companies or industries.

Keep in mind that you might benefit from cross-channel advertising, utilizing one or more of the above channels to cast a wider net, subsequently improving your conversion rate.

Analyze and Revise Your E-Commerce Marketing Strategies

Consistent analysis of your marketing strategy to determine whether it is effective or if it needs revision is key to ensuring you continue to reach sales goals. A marketing strategy that was highly effective one month can deliver less than optimal results the next month due to changing trends, consumer behavior and competitor marketing strategies.

There are several ways to gauge the impact of your marketing campaign. For starters, installing tracking pixels on your website will enable you to see which parts of your e-commerce advertising campaign are leading consumers to your website, and, ultimately, making a purchase happen. Google AdWords makes this process relatively simple, and other channels, such as Facebook, also enable you to set up conversion pixels.

Second, using analytics to measure your conversion rate from your ads can give you additional insight into your campaign and consumer behavior. Google Analytics offers a suite of tools and products that you can use to improve your engagement, track and analyze website traffic, increase your click-through rate, and much more.

And lastly, you can experiment with different creative content and ads in order to increase conversions through A/B testing on your website. This is the process of trying out two similar ads or pieces of content to see which one works better—conversion pixels and Google analytics can help you track and compare the effectiveness of either ad.

With the data you collect from analytical tools, conversion pixels, and A/B testing, you’ll be able to fine-tune your strategy on a weekly basis, as needed, in order to keep an optimal ROI.

Why Websites Still Matter

1. Establish your authority and professionalism.
2. Impress (and rank on) search engines.
3. Give your users and customers a place to return to and a way to engage, from sharing your content to commenting and creating user generated content.
4. Don’t get Panda’d — Protect your content from algorithm changes beyond your control.
5. Detailed analytics — Along with the ability to control your content and your audience, managing your own content hub allows you to collect data and perform detailed analytics.

Install Your WordPress Theme

The first step in the process requires a WordPress theme, preferably one that includes a one-click demo import. Any of the top selling themes on MOJO Marketplace should come with this feature. But, whatever WordPress theme you choose, check for that detail in the list of features before you buy.

In a way, you want to shop for your WordPress theme based on the demos if you’re going to use a demo to begin your design.

If you want to design your site completely custom (using WordPress), then check out this article on designing your site.

But if you’re going this route, pick out a theme with a demo that you like. Keep in mind that many developers create amazing demos for industry specific or niche websites.

And once you’ve settled on a theme, you can follow our guide to installing WordPress themes on your WordPress website.

Also, if you’re maybe a few steps behind, and you don’t have a domain or hosting set up yet, you can read our guide to setting up hosting and getting a domain.

Import Your WordPress Theme Demo

Next, if you found a demo that will work, you need to import it into your WordPress site. Due to the variety of themes available, I’ll run through two ways to import a demo.

1. Automatic demo import through your theme dashboard
2. Manual demo import

Auto Import that Demo!

The first option is easy, and will work if your theme offers this functionality. I’ll use the Highend Multipurpose WordPress theme for this demo because it features one-click demo imports from the theme dashboard.

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Here are the steps covered in the gif above:

1. Open the Highend theme options tab
2. Click Import Demos
3. Browse the demos and click Import Demo on the one you want to import
4. Choose which types of content you’d like to import, or simply select All to get the full demo
5. Wait, because it can take a little while

Then, as simple as that, you’ll have the full demo design installed on your website, ready for you to customize it and replace the content.

Now, your theme may not include this in-dashboard import feature. No big deal! You wanna choose the theme that looks right for you, so we’ll show you how to do this manually as well.

DIY that Demo Import!

Okay, so this method is still easy. In the end, doing a little legwork here saves you a ton of time in designing your own site because you get to leverage the demo.

For this tutorial, I’m going to use the Jayo minimal portfolio WordPress theme, which offers a manual demo import. Here’s how it works:

1. Once your theme is installed and active, click Tools and Import.

2. Next, locate the WordPress Importer to the right. If not already installed, click Install, and wait for it to finish.

3. When you’re ready, click Run Importer. This will open up a page that allows you to upload a demo file.

4. Now, you need to locate the demo file for your theme, usually in your theme documentation or the developer’s website, and download it. For Jayo, I simply Googled “Jayo WordPress theme demo import” to get there faster, and clicked the link to documentation.

The documentations shows me the process, and directs me to a specific file in the theme folder. The theme folder is the full package of files you received when you purchased your theme. You’ll need to find that folder first, and locate the file (in this case jayo-demo.xml).

Or, if you bought your theme through MOJO, simply log in to your account, access your purchases, click the download button, and choose Demo Data.

5. Navigate back to the importer, as described above, and upload the file as shown in this gif. Make sure to select a different author after the demo is imported to make it your own.

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Get Your Brand in There

After you’ve imported the demo, you probably want to start making it your own. One of the first, and most obvious ways to do that is to update your colors, fonts, and logo.

All of this can be done through the WordPress visual customizer under Appearance > Customize or from a theme options panel. Of course, this will depend completely on your theme, so you may need to reference your theme documentation or tutorials to figure out how to make specific changes.

If you need help figuring out your branding, see our article on creating an identity for your site.

And if you’re in need of a logo, check out this affordable and effective option offered on MOJO Marketplace.

Don’t Forget to Change the Filler Content!

The beauty of importing a demo is that you get a beautiful design out of the box.

The problem is, you’ll have every piece of content included in the demo to sort through. I suggest making a list of things you need, then go through your pages, posts, and menus and delete all the stuff you’re definitely not going to use.

Then, you can easily jump in to each page, post, or feature that you want from the demo, and insert your own content and images.

For more guidance on messing around with the content, check out our post on editing pages and menus in WordPress, and our post on drafting a great first blog post.

If you need help beyond that, or just some basic WordPress knowledge, look at the WordPress section on our blog, our WP Live WordPress support product, or a website like WP Beginner, which will cover the gamut of what you need to configure your site!

Website Hosting Comes Clean

You may have been pissed off when you bought a domain name and then someone told you “By the way, that won’t work without hosting.” And you wouldn’t be alone on that one.

Here’s why they said that. Website hosting is really about storing your website files on a computer, so that other computers can access and load those files when someone way over in Timbuktu types in your domain name (or web address).

So that domain name you bought is basically a digital address without a structure. Once you get hosting, you can combine your domain name with a server (which is just a big, fast computer) where your website can be accessed and loaded on other devices connected to the internet.

For other paranoids out there, I’m gonna calm your nerves right now. Heading to your web address does not give everybody access to all the files that make up your website. Just the ones you intend for them to see (which is known as the front-end).

via GIPHY

While hacking can take place on any website, that’s a different story. Your hosting server should be a secure place to manage your website and serve it to internet browsers.

We could go down an ugly, treacherous road of hosting detail, but that sounds terrible. So, the important takeaways for you:

1. Website hosting is where your site is stored
2. Domain names are how your site is accessed on the web

Who’s Host is it Anyway?

There are many places to get hosting, even though you may not have heard of anything but GoDaddy’s superbowl commercials. The biggest differences you’ll find between hosting companies are:

• quality
• cost
• types of hosting
• speed
• security
• maintenance

When it comes to assessing these qualities, it’s best to rely on reputation and reviews, since it’s very hard to figure out at a glance.

MOJO Marketplace recommends one of our hosting cohorts, Bluehost, especially if you are using WordPress to build your website (which we also recommend ).

Click here for a nice rundown of Bluehost’s products.

If you’re not feeling the Bluehost vibes, that’s fine, but for demonstration purposes, we’re going to cover everything from this point through Bluehost.

Choose a Hosting Plan

As if hosting weren’t confusing enough, there are lots of options for all budgets.

For instance, at Bluehost you can choose between:

• Shared hosting
• Cloud hosting
• Specialized WordPress hosting
• Dedicated hosting

Each of these options offers different packages with varying amounts of storage and other features, based on your budget.

Most of us only need shared or cloud hosting, which are the more cost effective options. However, if you’re using WordPress for your website, the specialized WordPress option is the ideal choice. Bluehost knows WordPress, and has core developers on their staff.

Bottom line: you need fast and secure hosting with good support that aligns with your budget.

Hi, What’s Your Domain Name?

Before we get to the next part, we need to take stock of the big elephant in the room. Do you have a domain or not?

Yes, I bought a domain name already.

If you have purchased a domain name somewhere other than your hosting provider, get access to your account. Who knows how long ago you bought it, when you had that shining moment of clarity and a big idea? Get all your passwords reset, usernames recovered, information updated with the place you first purchased your domain from.

Getting access to that domain account is necessary, and it will save you headaches to get it done now.

Nope, no domain name here!

If you don’t already own a domain, you can typically purchase one through your hosting provider.

Click above to search Bluehost for available domain names, and don’t forget to consider a different top level domain (those are the different endings on web addresses like .com, .co, .io, or .tv). Some hosting providers also provide a free or discounted domain when you purchase a hosting plan.

If you need some great guidelines on choosing a domain name, check out this article from MOJO CEO JR Farr about confirming your identity as a brand.

(If you choose a domain through your hosting provider, you can skip the next step.)

DNS—The Problem Child of Hosting

Domain name servers function as address books for all of the websites on the internet, and show authenticity of registration. Sounds good, but the problem is that pointing your domain can quickly become the bane of your existence if you’re trying to set your website up quickly.

So, if you see this DNS error page when you were expecting to see a WordPress “Hello World!” or other page, you need to start digging.

The first place to check is your DNS settings in your hosting account.

On Bluehost, that means

• logging in to your account
• clicking the Domains tab
• scrolling to the bottom and clicking Name Servers from the summary window

The weird numbers shown here are the name servers for Bluehost. If you own a domain already, you need to copy these and paste these numbers into the DNS fields where you bought your domain.

If that sounds like it might be over your head, you’re not alone. The best course of action in that case is to contact support where you bought your domain and get guidance on where to put those numbers.

If you are still experiencing problems, or didn’t get the help you need, your hosting provider should be more than happy to help. So if you tried all the steps listed here, contact support.

With Bluehost, you can find support links at the bottom of your cPanel. Try out the live chat, and your problem should be resolved quickly.

Manning the Control Panel and Installing WordPress

Once you get past the hurdles of understanding hosting, choosing a plan, and setting up your domain or solving DNS problems, it gets a lot easier.

From the control panel, or cPanel, of most hosting providers, you can install software and make upgrades to your website. If you want to get started right away, Bluehost offers a one-click installation of the WordPress software on your website, so you can install a theme and start customizing today!

All you have to do is click install WordPress and you will be given credentials to log in to your WordPress dashboard at yourwebsite.com/wp-admin.

Off to Build a Website

If you made it through that process, give yourself some kind of unicorn chaser. It can be a headache, but it’s a one-time headache. Once you set up hosting, set it and forget it.

Before we go, here are some resources to help you get started on the actual build of your site:

• How to Find Your Perfect WordPress Theme in 10 Steps

• How to Install WordPress Plugins that Improve Your Website

• How to Find the Best Quality WordPress Plugins for Your Site

• How to Create Great WordPress Pages and Menus

• How to Make Your Website Accomplish Your Goals with WP Live

• How to Quickly Remove Blog Posts from Your WordPress Homepage

• How to Write a Great First Blog Post with WordPress

What in Tarnation is an LLC?

Okay, so without going all legal beagle here, an LLC is a type of business. It is not a sole proprietorship, partnership, nor a corporation. LLCs are different for the following reasons:

• The Owners (also called members) will never have to use personal money or assets in the case of lawsuits or debt problems
• You have the option to file taxes for your profits or losses on your personal income tax statements, or you can file taxes like a corporation
• One person or multiple partners can file an LLC
• Banking, trust, or insurance companies can’t create LLCs

And there’s one big disclaimer to all of this: LLC rules vary by state.

Depending on which state you’re in, the rules, fees, and requirements for filing can vary. Here’s a 50 state guide to forming an LLC by NOLO.

Click your state to get the full picture of what you’ll need to prepare to register as an LLC. If it’s the right move, that is. Let’s look at some reasons why you might choose an LLC for your business.

First, check out this video from My Corporation, which explains the differences between an LLC and a corporation.

Why Would You Even Choose that LLC Life?

Well, that LLC life may or may not be the best option for you.

LLCs are the Gateway Drug to Corporations

First, if you are planning to become a corporation, or an S-CORP (a corporation held 100% by a single person or entity), forming an LLC is a good starting point, because it has some similarities and requires some organization to get going.

For example, when filing, you typically need Articles of Organization and an Operating Agreement between partners. These will help you establish some of the guidelines you need to run and scale a bigger company in the future.

Liability

By definition, LLCs limit the liability of members. Huh?

Basically, if you run into some money issues, or someone comes after you because they stubbed their toe in your restaurant [insert your scenario here], being an LLC means that they can’t seize your personal assets.

In more basic lingo, they can’t take your money or your stuff to pay for your business’s problemos.

So, if you run a business where these risks are real, or you just want to stay on the safe side, LLCs have the liability advantage over partnerships or sole proprietorships… and other kinds of ships, I’m sure.

Tax Flexibility

If you’re paying self-employment taxes, and you want something to change, try an LLC. Basically, you can choose whether to report profits and losses on your personal income taxes (each member of the LLC can do this), or you can file taxes like a corporation.

Having this flexibility can be nice, especially for new businesses where things are constantly on the move, and managing your finances can get hairy, especially when things are mixed up in your personal affairs.

You also have the option of filing as an S-CORP, meaning that a single person or entity holds 100% of the company.

For more information, check out what the IRS has to say about filing your taxes with an LLC. (Don’t worry, they look scary, but they’re chill and probably drink La Croix, too).

What You Need to Establish Your LLC

If you want to get your LLC done in a day, for reals, there are some things you’ll want to nail down either by yourself or with your business partners. These are the main pieces of information you’ll need in most states, but be sure to check your state’s requirements, as well.

Articles of Organization

Every LLC will need Articles of Organization, which establish the details of your business, including:

• Company Name
• Statement of Purpose
• Duration (if your business is created for a temporary purpose)
• Management (if your business is managed by it’s members or another entity)
• Business Address
• Member(s)/Owner(s) Addresses
• Registered Agent (the one who receives tax and legal documents for your business)

Download a free Articles of Organization Template from Quickbooks, here.

Operating Agreement

While an operating agreement isn’t always required, it’s a solid idea and a step toward better partnerships.

This agreement specifies the way your business will be managed and how things will be divvied up between members or owners. If you’ve already started your LLC without one, you should consider creating an Operating Agreement.

Rocket Lawyer provides a template for each state here.

Done in a Day—Creating Your LLC Online

If you want your LLC done right, and done fast, online is your best bet. Online services walk you through the process and register your business with the state for a small fee (on top of the state fee, which varies state-to-state).

Here are some great options to choose from:

NOLO

You can create an LLC for any state with NOLO for either $99 or $299 plus the state fees.

NOLO lets you choose your state, then gives you the option of an express service with priority shipping, personalized record book kit, and a pre-filled IRS application for an EIN, or employer identification number, which you may need to open bank accounts, apply for loans, or hire employees. $299 + state fees.

Or, if you just need standard filing and shipping, and a customized operating agreement, you can get those for $99 + state fees.

Legal Zoom

With legal zoom, their landing page allows you to search for available LLC names, which can be a handy tool even if you don’t use their services.

If you search for your business name, Legal Zoom will take you through a series of prompts to assess what you need for your business. Packages range from $149–$899 plus state fees, depending on how fancy you want to get.

Also, with the typical time to complete being 5 minutes, this is a pretty fast option.

Rocket Lawyer

Rocket lawyer has a pretty great tool right up front. Their pricing calculator gives you the run down on how much it will cost to register in your state. You may want to use this to calculate the cost, before you choose a service.

If you’re a Rocket Lawyer member, this service is free. If not, the base cost is $99.95 without any of the add ons shown below.

My Corporation

Another good option is My Corporation, which has a wider range of prices, with a low end of $69 plus fees. They allow you to filter by state, and choose a standard or rush filing option.

Plus, their packages offer a wide range of add ons to complete everything you need for your business in one place.

BizFilings

BizFilings will help you register your company as an LLC, as well as a variety of other options, such as S-CORP. Their basic plan starts at $99 plus state fees, and includes a free 6 month registered agent service (meaning that they will process all your legal and tax documents).

Incfile.com

The cheapest option on the list is Incfile.com. Their basic LLC filing costs $59 plus state fees.

Their website spells it all out really well. You choose a state, then the packages automatically update with the fees and the price per package. Below that, they provide you with more details about filing for the LLC, which are very useful for reference.

Take the First, Small Step…

…into something bigger. Filing for an LLC helps you organize your thinking around your business, be prepared for managing finances and taxes, and for the future of your company. Take the first big step toward making your business idea a living, breathing thing with a government tax ID, just like the rest of us. 

A Full-time Team Backing Your Project 100% of the Way

WP Live Helps You Succeed All the Way

We know that building a website isn’t always easy and can be very time consuming, so we have WordPress Experts on-demand to assist and teach you how to do it right, yourself. We coach you through a proven plan for building, launching, and growing websites, which we call The Journey.

WP Live Experts are available through on-demand live chat, as well as phone support, so you can get questions answered and solve problems as they come up.

Plus, the WP Live team isn’t in the business of just fixing things for you. Sure we will fix little issues, but we’re primarily dedicated to teaching you how to fix them. The goal is to turn you into a WordPress expert by guiding you to achieve your personal goals, step by step.

The WP Live Journey Gives You a Plan You Can Follow Through With

With WP Live, we walk you through what we call the WP Live Journey, which is a proven four-phase process for building your own website. The four phases are Build, Launch, Grow, and Maintain. Each contains key building blocks that teach you how to run a successful WordPress website, as you work. Here’s a more detailed outline of what our WP Live experts have created for you.

• Build – We help you figure out the goal of your website, choose the right WordPress theme for the job,  and help you find great plugins and tools that will help you achieve your goal, and walk you through designing your site to look the way you want and best fits your goal.

• Launch – In this phase, we help you check everything off your list for an initial public launch. We’ll help you make sure your website is fully functioning, help you with site security, make sure that your images are the correct size and format, and test any plugin features to make sure they work properly.

• Growth – After your launch, the work isn’t over! We’ll teach you to optimize your site and content for search engines (SEO), ensure you line up keywords that are relevant to your goal or business, and help your website rank in searches for the most critical keywords, as well as setting up analytics and tracking so you can measure performance and improve your site with real data.

• Maintenance – As time goes on, we’ll help you and teach you how to keep your site up and running, with plugin updates, continual security checkups, and ongoing SEO analysis and improvement.

We know that everyone has a different goal for their website, and different ways of working. The Journey is designed to account for those variables while still giving you a solid plan and tools to be successful. The Journey isn’t a requirement, but it ensures that our users have covered every base in order to build their online presence and build the best website possible.

What Does WP Live Cost?

WP Live is priced according to your needs as a WordPress user, and your budget. We’ve designed our pricing to ensure there’s something for everyone–from a total beginner to an experienced user.

You can start with expedited email support ticketing and 50% off a MOJO Marketplace product once a month (a great value when you’re building multiple sites, or want to try multiple themes).

These packages can be purchased with a 6 month or 12-month commitment for a lower price (12-month pricing shown above), or you can stay flexible and pay month-to-month.

For more info on pricing, click here.

10 Things to Consider When Choosing a WordPress Theme

In all honesty, it’s not that easy to find the Goldilocks of WordPress themes–the one that’s just right.

For starters, there are a lot to choose from and they’re not all available from the same website or marketplace. Secondly, themes are usually designed with specific businesses or purposes in mind. So, it can take a while to sift through all the features and determine if it’s right for your website.

1. How Much Does the Theme Cost?

The cost of a theme may factor into your decision.

WordPress themes come in two flavors when it comes to cost. Free WordPress themes are plentiful, but they tend to lack in quality, features, and customization.

More often than not, you’ll need to add custom CSS code or edit the theme files to make the site look and work the way you want it to. And that kind of defeats the purpose of using WordPress, doesn’t it?

Your WordPress theme should enable you to do more yourself, without spending hours learning code and chasing down bugs.

With premium WordPress themes, you get much more flexibility and better quality. Especially if you buy from a trusted, established theme developer.

And the cost? It’s pennies on the dollar for the functionality you get. Our top selling themes on MOJO Marketplace run just $59, and that’s a one-time fee that gets you the theme files, demos, and support.

So the question of cost is really more about time. Do you want to spend time fixing up a free theme that might not work at all, or save time and create a better site with a quality theme for a negligible cost?

2. Read the Reviews and Ratings

There’s always something comforting about seeing what previous customers had to say about products you’re interested in. It helps you figure out if it’s right for you, as well.

WordPress—and its community of users—has always been good in this regard. With reviews and ratings clearly published for each theme, it’s easy to get a sense for the quality of a theme and weed out any negative trends related to security, performance, or reliability.

On MOJO Marketplace, you can browse reviews for each theme on the item page, or leave a review for the theme’s you’ve bought. We want to keep each customer’s experience transparent so you can make the best choice.

Also, if you’re browsing themes on WordPress.org, you can look at how many active installs the theme has, as well as ratings. These are good indicators of theme quality and usability.

3. Check How Often the Theme is Updated

Because WordPress is the most popular content management system around the world, it’s also greater target for security breaches.

But WordPress isn’t the only one responsible for keeping users like yourself safe from hacking. Designers must keep their themes up-to-date at all times, and address any weaknesses.

If you’ve found a theme that you like, but see that it hasn’t been updated in the last six months or so, that’s a definite red flag right there. For example, on MOJO Marketplace and WordPress.org, you can find the date of the last update, and all previous updates.

On MOJO, you just click the Changelog tab on the item page to see the history of updates.

Generally, you want to see an update at least every few months or so. If the theme hasn’t been updated in over a year, that’s a bad sign and you should probably avoid it.

4. What Kind of Support is Offered with the Theme?

One of the biggest advantages to premium themes is the support.

Free theme authors generally don’t invest the time it takes to field questions and help you troubleshoot issues. All premium themes on MOJO come with support, and we include a support forum on each item page.

You can usually find support details and contact information at the bottom of the item page, like this example from the Daisy blog theme.

Having great support can make a big difference when you get stuck or have a problem, and prevent delays.

5. Check Site Speed

Site speed isn’t just convenient. It actually affects your site ranking on search engines–it’s a factor that Google checks to deliver the best user experience.

A good way to check site speed? Look at the theme demos, and look for speed optimizations in the feature list. And even better, if you can find a site built with the theme you’re interested in, plug it into a site performance checker, such as Pingdom.

If you have trouble finding a site to test, you can always reach out to the theme author. My new website is a real estate website so we always use Pingdom to check the loading time of all the heavier images.

Or, you can try searching for sites using the method in this article, where you search the web for theme files by typing in “wp-content/themes/themename” then testing the urls that come up.

You can always optimize your site for speed with plugins and refinements, but it’s good to start off with a lean, fast theme.

6. Does it Look Good on All Devices?

There was a time not so long ago when responsive web design was considered a “nice-to-have” and not a “must have.”

Nowadays, responsive websites are all but a requirement—this is what your visitors expect and it’s what search engines want to see. It doesn’t matter what type of site you have, it needs to have responsive design.

Almost all themes these days are responsive, so it’s a no-brainer if you find one that isn’t–don’t use it!

The question is, how does it actually perform on different devices?

On MOJO, you can test this by viewing a live demo of each theme. It really helps to see how the theme performs across devices.

Another option is to visit the theme demo website and resize your browser.

Some themes perform better than others, and you might have to make some CSS changes to get it just right once you customize the theme.

7. Is it Built with the User in Mind?

While it might seem fun to pick a theme that looks unlike anything else you’ve seen before, you have to remember that we’re all just creatures of habit.

If you force your visitors to work too hard to figure out where your navigation is, how to find the information they’re looking for, or how to progress past an animation to the actual content of your site, you could lose them.

Sometimes choosing a clean, modern design that follows user experience best practices is the safest and smartest choice.

8. How Much Customization and Flexibility Do You Have?

Even for sites that are simple by nature (like blogs), you still will want a certain degree of flexibility in what you can customize.

For some, this means having access to your preferred type of content creation tool: a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor, a drag-and-drop editor, or the Visual Composer page builder plugin.

For others, this may mean having a variety of pre-built menu layouts or page templates available. I think it’s safe to say, however, that everyone wants to be able to control the individual elements that make up a site: font choices, logos and other imagery, sizing and spacing of content, color palette, and so on.

Here’s an example of what you can do with a more flexible theme.

This is a big factor in choosing your WordPress theme because it affects the potential of what you can build with it. It’s a matter of preference and a matter of capability, so be sure you understand how to manage your website with the theme’s tools.

9. Are the Plugins You Need Compatible?

This one is especially important for specialized sites.

If you know that you’ll build your store with WooCommerce or if you know that your site requires multilingual support, you’ll need to look for themes that are compatible with the plugins you intend on using.

A good practice is searching for plugins that are best for accomplishing your goals. Then, check to make sure those plugins are either included or supported and ask the theme developer if necessary.

10. Show Me the Features!!

Finally, you don’t want to buy a theme without knowing the features! Just like any product you research, this is an easy way to narrow down your choices.

Theme features are really any sort of special element you wouldn’t find in the most basic of themes. Things like:

• Accessibility
• RTL language support
• Image slider
• Image gallery
• Video background
• Portfolio
• Testimonials
• Menu alignment
• Layout and column options
• Footer widgets
• Full width design
• Payment gateway
• Calendar

But here’s the thing: a theme is not a plugin. A theme needs to be a cleanly coded, modern design that you can work from. While it’s nice to have certain features automatically included within it, a theme that goes overboard and tries to include too many unnecessary elements is usually one to stay away from.

Specialized themes created for a specific purpose or business model is where you want to focus your attention.

Check out the best #WordPress themes for specific types of websites via @mojomarketplace
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Here are some examples of highly targeted MOJO Marketplace themes for WordPress that hit the nail on the head:

Best Multipurpose Theme and Page Builder: StartUp

The StartUp WordPress theme is a new theme on MOJO Marketplace that changes the way you customize your site and create pages. It allows you to customize everything visually from the built-in WordPress customizer, similar to what you’d experience with a page builder like Wix or Squarespace, but better and more flexible. This is perfect for anyone who needs something totally custom, and can be great for blogs, businesses, and portfolios in particular.

Here are some features this theme includes that make it stand out as a multipurpose theme:

• One-click demo import and great templates to start from
• Tons of customizer widgets to create better page designs
• Translation and WooCommerce ready, search engine optimized, and quality support offered

Learn More

Best for Blogs: Freyja

The Freyja theme comes with three different template options. 1 and 2 would work perfectly for bloggers of all types: lifestyle, food, family, travel, etc.

Here are some features this theme includes that are perfect for blogs:

• Variety of blog layouts from simple column to Pinterest-style masonry grid
• Different post types depending on the style of blog: video, content, photo gallery, etc.
• Simplified page options for the home, blog, about, and contact

Learn More

Best for Business: Highend

The Highend theme is what’s known as a multi-purpose theme, which means that it comes with an extensive library of theme options to choose from. These sorts of themes tend to be ideal for businesses since they won’t pigeonhole you into using one style, especially if your business crosses a number of industries.

Here are some features this theme includes that are perfect for businesses:

• Over a dozen theme templates to choose from with new ones always being added
• Includes a live visual page builder which means even the least tech-savvy business owner can create a new site in no time
• Comes with lifetime support, which is important for the busy business owner

Learn More

Best for eCommerce: Kaching

Ideally, if you’re building an e-commerce store, you’ll want to use a plugin to create your inventory and set up your payment gateway. However, you’ll still need a theme to host it all from and Kaching is a good one to start with.

Here are some features this theme includes that are perfect for ecommerce:

• Page templates like Help & Support, Terms & Conditions, and Track Your Order
• Modified header designs that include shopping cart and search functionality
• Discount and coupon code notification bars

Learn More

Best for Food & Drink: Food

Despite labeling itself as a “multi-purpose” theme, the Food theme is indeed a great choice for food and drink establishments. It’s modernly designed and puts the focus on what matters most to foodies.

Here are some features this theme includes that are perfect for food and drink establishments:

• Page template for Menu
• A variety of image gallery options to show off food and drink
• Full-width, retina-ready header design that works with image and video backgrounds

Learn More

Best for News: Observer

Unlike other multi-purpose themes that cross into different sectors, it is clear that the Observer theme is meant specifically for online news publications. With clean lines and a highly organized interface, this theme would work well for any news-heavy site.

Here are some features this theme includes that are perfect for news outlets:

• Retina ready so every post or article looks crisp and clean
• Over a dozen widgets available to create a variety of news sections
• Page options for posts, video, categories, TV, and reviews

Learn More

Best for Non-profit: Maisha

The unfortunate thing about many non-profit websites for charities, churches, and other organizations is that they don’t always look professionally-made because of the lack of funds to hire someone to do so. This theme will change that.

Here are some features this theme includes that are perfect for non-profits:

• Integrates with plugins like WooCommerce, The Events Calendar, and Contact Form 7
• The theme is translation-ready
• Page templates include those for Donations, Causes, Stories, and Projects

Learn More

Best for Portfolio: Portfolio

Portfolio sites aren’t just for photographers. This Portfolio theme would work great for any creative professional who wants to show off their photos, illustrations, web designs, coded apps, event setup, hand-crafted goods, and more.

Here are some features this theme includes that are perfect for creative portfolios:

• Responsive design so high-res images can be viewed in full-screen from any device
• Gallery LightBox feature included
• Variety of blog post and project layouts available

Learn More

Wrapping Up

WordPress is a truly awesome platform to work on, but it doesn’t always make our work easier or quicker when there are so many high-quality themes to choose from.

Rather than take a gamble on a theme that by all outward appearances looks good, use these tips to find the right WordPress theme for your site the first time.