Allow Me to Blow Your NEW WEBSITE Creation Mind

byParthaB

4.2K followers

2 years ago

I'm thinking about renaming this blog post:

"How to Go Off On About 2,374,977 Tangents Before Finally Getting to the Point!"

But, then again, it wouldn't be me if I GOT TO THE POINT!!

Okay, today I want to cover how I would start a new website.

I’m not really going to talk about any of the technical aspects, as this is quite clearly covered in the initial training.

However, I will show how to start your website, choose a domain name, and what to initially write about.

And obviously, this is MY WAY of doing things.

So, let’s get to it.

Website Creation

Now, you’ll typically hear that you have to narrow down your niche, and while this is good advice to those starting out, I don’t completely agree.

Realistically, when you’re first starting out I would look at a website as a 5-year plan.

Plus, most of you know that I like lots of content.

In fact, aiming for around 20 published articles to your website per month is a fantastic way to get to your dreams quicker.

Obviously, I realise that if you’re completely new and just starting out, this is going to be difficult to achieve, as much of your initial time will be spent on learning, education, and training.

That’s absolutely fine, but the same as anything else you put your hand to in life, your aim should be to get better and improve your skills.

A quick wake up call - if you’re 6 months, 9 months, a year into your journey and you don’t feel any further educated that your day one, this is YOUR FAULT,

You have all the tools here to be successful, but if you’re not learning something new every day, then do you know what I think?

You’re still looking for that magical push-button system, and you’re just not willing to put the hard work in.

Here’s some life advice, you will NEVER achieve anything in life with this attitude.

Realistically, you should be educating yourself and learning something new every single day.

And if you’re not, you’re simply cheating at life, above all you’re cheating yourself.

Okay, back to it.

Now, when choosing your specific niche, especially with this initial “5-year plan” in mind, and the fact that EVENTUALLY you want to try to hit 20 articles per month, this is a lot of content.

Realistically, at the 5-year mark you’ll hopefully be at around 1,000-1,200 articles published on your website.

Therefore, going too narrow with your choice of niche, well, you’re going to run out of things to talk about.

For me, this all comes down to domain name selection (I will admit that I choose very defined domain names sometimes, but I have different plans for those websites, plus, do as I say, not as I do!! Hahahaha!!)

Basically, choose a domain name that allows you to expand on your niche at a later date.

So, for this example I’m going to choose my niche as Red Wine.

Now, your first thought for domain names could be (and I haven't checked any of these, so they may well already have been taken, but that’s not the point, I just want to provide you with examples):

redwine(dot)com

vinored(dot)com

wineforeveryone(dot) com

Now, by choosing a domain name such as this you’re really narrowing down the opportunities available to you.

And before you start wondering about keywords in domain names, extremely short and memorable domain names, it really doesn’t make a huge amount of difference in 2022.

Granted, if you’re building a brand and looking at your website 0ver a 10, 20, or more year period, then something catchy may be handy.

However, in 2022 there isn’t such a requirement to “remember” domain names.

You visit a website via Google, you visit it again at a later date, Google’s autosuggest will remember this, and even if you type just the first letter of that website it's likely that Google will “suggest” to you that this is the website you’re looking for.

So, don’t get overly caught up on domain names.

I mean apple(dot)com isn’t particularly well-known for their fruit selection, amazon(dot)com doesn’t give you much information about rainforests or rivers (unless of course you buy a book).

Okay, so for my new red wine focused website I could simply go with anything alcohol-related.

This then gives me the opportunity to expand at a later date.

Therefore, I could go with something like:

drinksareonme(dot)com

happyhooch(dot)com

boozybestfriend(dot)com

So, as you can see, this allows me to go much more into detail in the future.

Now that you have your domain name, let’s create your website.

There are clearly thousands of themes to choose from, but I’ll typically always START with

GeneratePress

OR

Astra

Both are lightweight themes, easy to navigate, and they look very plain and simple (that’s what you want, let your content do the talking, don’t have a website that “looks great” but provides absolutely no value).

As for plugins, just stick with what all Wealthy Affiliate websites are loaded with.

These are fine for at least your first year of blogging.

The only plugins I would add are SITEKIT and the Headers & Footers Script (this is now WP Code).

For all of those who struggle with creating Google-related software, just use SiteKit.

Once you’ve logged in with your email address you can literally set up Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and even Google Adsense, with more-or-less one click of a button.

The headers and footers script (WP CODE) is simply to paste the codes into the header of your website, which is required for things like Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Google Adsense, and even Pinterest.

Now, I know some people will suggest using the Ad-Inserter plugin, or WP Scripts, each to their own, but I prefer the Headers & Footers Script/WP Code, and it has NEVER caused me any issues.

Content Production - Now it’s Time to Narrow Down

Okay, so you’ve chosen your domain name, installed your theme, and added the additional plugins.

Now it’s time for niche research, keyword research, and writing articles.

THIS IS WHEN YOU SHOULD BE NARROWING DOWN!

Okay, when you first start a new website you’re a completely unknown entity to Google, the other search engines, and the internet in general.

Some people talk of the “Google’s sandbox” (I’m not sold on this), but I prefer to think of it as gaining trust.

Let’s look at an analogy:

You need to have a minor operation done.

But, you are given a choice of Doctors to perform this operation.

Firstly, you have the young 20-something, who just graduated from medical school, who also looks like he should still be in school.

OR

You have the Doctor who is in their 40s, has performed this operation 100s of times before, and she exudes confidence and comfort.

Who do you choose?

DON’T LIE EITHER!!! Hahahaha!!!

Yes, obviously our young buck has to gain experience somehow, but if you were aware of these details above, you would always go with experience.

So, for those of you who recently started a website about football boots, have 3 articles, and are wondering why you’re not a millionaire and ranking above Nike, Adidas, and Puma - GROW UP!!!! Hahahaha!!

Google works on Expertise, Authority, and Trust.

Guess what?

As a brand new website you have NONE of this, so you have to set about creating this.

Do you know the EASIEST and QUICKEST way to achieve this?

Really, really, really, really, narrow down your first few articles.

Okay, I spoke last year about creating Topic Clusters.

Plus, Jay also has recent Premium Plus classes about Topic Clusters.

Trust me, topic clusters are the way forward ESPECIALLY when first starting a website.

What you want to do is create AUTHORITY for your website on one tiny topic that forms part of your niche.

You do this by focusing every single article you initially write around this one tiny topic.

Now, I would say that you should at least produce 25-30 articles like this when starting out, but the closer to 50 articles, the better.

So, my website is boozybestfriend(dot)com

Therefore, it looks as though it’s going to be about alcohol in general.

BUT

I have decided my narrowed down niche is RED WINE.

However, for those first 25-30 (50 please) articles, I want to NARROW DOWN EVEN FURTHER.

So, ALL of my initial articles are going to focus on Pinot Noir.

Can you now see how much I can expand this website?

I could’ve just talked about red wine, and after about 200-300 articles I’d be done, because my topics of conversation were TOO BROAD.

By picking Pinot Noir, I now know that I can discuss perhaps 10 different types of red wine (25-30 articles each).

I can expand at a later date into white wine, then rose, then if I want to, lagers, beers, real ales, ciders, etc.

So, I have left the choice open to expand MASSIVELY.

BUT, I still start out very, very, very small and focused, i.e. Pinot Noir.

And it is this narrowing down your initial focus that helps to create EXPERTISE, AUTHORITY, and TRUST much quicker.

Imagine 2 months down the line I have 50 articles about Pinot Noir, while every other alcohol-related website, even the BIG authority websites, barely have 10-15 articles on the same subject.

AND

By finding those magical low competition QUESTION keywords that YOU KNOW PEOPLE ARE ASKING in your niche, you’re going to create this “authority” even quicker.

So, let’s get to the initial research around PINOT NOIR.

Initial Research

Okay, I’m going to give you a few tips and tricks here out of the Partha toolbox.

Some of these are going to come across as really weird (I bet OLD FLUFF picks on me for some of my “concentration and productivity hacks”)

Now initially, you want to head on over to YouTube and simply type your narrowed down topic into the YouTube search bar.

Plus, I want to WEAR HEADPHONES.

What many people don’t realise is that there are different neural pathways activated in the brain depending on how you do something.

And believe it or not, wearing headphones can actually increase productivity in most people, purely because you have blocked out so many other distractions.

Next, you are going to ALWAYS work in 25-minute slots.

This is like the pomodoro technique, but an easier version.

Okay, here’s something that I see at Wealthy Affiliate every single day.

People with massive plans and stating that they're going to work X amount of hours a day.

Here’s some life advice for you - if you’ve never worked a 12-hour day before, you are not suddenly going to be able to achieve it.

In fact, by stating that I'm going to work 14 hours a day, and put my heart and soul into this, do you know what you’re doing?

Two Things

Lying to YOURSELF

AND

Attention-Seeking.

You can slag me off all you want for saying that, but honestly ask yourself, when no-one else is around, so you have no-one to “impress”, whether I’m right.

If that above comment makes you dislike me, that’s because you KNOW I’M RIGHT!!!

Do you know how many hours I work per day?

I don’t do Pomodoro as it’s supposed to be done, but I ensure that I get between five to eight 25-minute slots per day.

So, I work for 2 hours and 5 minutes per day, up to a maximum of 3 hours and 20 minutes.

BUT

I WORK!!!

I did actually make a joke about this yesterday, and I mean no harm to anyone by saying this, but once again, IT’S TRUE.

When someone says, “I’ve been working on this article for 3 days”, do you know what I think?

NO YOU HAVEN’T!!!

There is a massive difference between “Being Busy” and actually “Working”.

Realistically, this 3-day article has gone like this:

“Let’s do some keyword research, oh look a cute dog on the internet, I want a dog, but I can’t have a dog, what will my husband say? Hmm, maybe I can talk him into it. Anyway, what shall we have for dinner today? I really fancy steak, and I think there’s some in the freezer, let me go and check. Oh, actually I’ve been “working” (NO you haven’t) for an hour now, time to take a break”.

You’re then away from your computer for another hour as you decide to go through the freezer, make a cup of coffee, and ring your closest friend to tell them that you’ve “just worked for a whole hour on your online business”.

LIAR!!!!

Hahahahaha!!!

But, you’re also LYING TO YOURSELF!!

When you go back to your computer to work the “enormity” of what you have to do hits you, so you start looking at funny TikTok videos, socialising on Wealthy Affiliate, spend two hours on Amazon, etc.

Your first day is over, but SUCCESS, you’ve worked for 8 hours and found ONE great keyword to write your article around.

LIAR

You actually worked for 10 minutes and you have FOOLED YOURSELF into thinking you’ve had a great day…

You decide to create a Wealthy Affiliate blog post, “It’s a Marathon Not a Sprint”.

Hahahahaha!!

Do you get me!!!

Stop PRETENDING by being busy, and actually do SOME FOCUSED WORK.

This is why I set a timer for 25 minutes, I put headphones on, and if I’m not on YouTube watching a video, I am listening to Binaural Beats or Work Focus Music.

Here’s the one I’m listening to at the moment:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4kHxtiuML0&t=5169s

(if ANYONE reports me for adding an external link, I am going to go all Liam Neeson on your backside, Hahahahaha!!!)

"I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking for ransom I can tell you I don't have money, but what I do have are a very particular set of skills. Skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my daughter go now that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you, but if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you and I will kill you."

I’m trying to help you, not spamming or self-promoting, understand the difference.

Have I gone off on a completely different tangent?

Dammit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Focus Partha, Focus Will You Man!!!

What was I talking about?

Oh yeah, YouTube and INITIAL research.

So, I go over to YouTube and type in PINOT NOIR.

I set my timer for 25 minutes, put my headphones on (DO NOT have the work focus music at the same time as watching the YouTube videos about Pinot Noir - I swear, I am gonna punch you straight on your cute nose)!!

Now, the 25-minute thing.

I want you to FULLY CONCENTRATE on the task in hand.

It’s ONLY 25 minutes!!

I don’t care about the cute dog videos.

I don’t care what you’re having for dinner tonight..

YOU MUST BE TOTALLY FOCUSED FOR THAT 25-MINUTES ON THE TASK AT HAND!!!

You can take a 60-MINUTE break afterwards, I don’t care, but I want you to GIVE ME EVERYTHING for JUST that 25 minutes.

Next, grab a pen and paper, for anyone aged under 25, go and Google it (pens and paper are GOOD, see those 5 things on the end of your hand, they used to be capable of so much more than scrolling and index-finger typing).

Now, you’re NOT doing article research here, or even keyword research.

I just want you to listen/watch and take notes on ANYTHING YOU FIND INTERESTING or DIDN’T KNOW

DO NOT STOP THE VIDEO AT ANY POINT.

If you miss something, tough!!!

Just watch, listen, and take notes.

Trust me, even if you do THREE 25-minute sessions like this, spread over an entire day, get on with your evening, go to sleep, that’s enough.

You’ll wake up in the morning and think to yourself “I CAN’T REMEMBER ANY OF THAT PINOT NOIR STUFF”.

You’re WRONG!!!

It’s been parked somewhere in your subconscious mind, and you’ll be surprised at how many ideas come to mind when doing keyword research or article research.

Anyway, always start a new niche website with this YouTube “thing”.

And as I say, you’ll feel as though you can’t remember a thing, but you’ll be surprised at just how much you can recall WHEN YOU’RE RESEARCHING.

Keyword Research

I honestly don’t think I have to go through keyword research, I’ve spent probably over 300 hours writing guides, blog posts, training, etc.

But, here’s my keyword research research refresher.

Basically, I want to go through question phrases:

Why Does

Is it Okay

Is it Alright

Can I

Should You

And then add Pinot Noir afterwards.

I then allow Google Autosuggest to do it’s thing, while using alphabet soup, double letters in-between words (re, de, or, ca, fu, anything you can think of, the more variety you type into the Google Search Bar, the more potential keywords you can come up with).

I would then do my SEO Minion thing, check DA of websites things, and look for user-generated content thing.

Once again, these things are covered in my article based around using People Also Ask to your advantage.

QUICK PRODUCTIVITY TIP:

For those of you who exercise regularly you’ll understand the importance of warming up first.

The same can be said for when you work.

I bet you didn’t know that!!

This is why you procrastinate!!

You haven’t “warmed up”, you haven’t prepared yourself for what's to come.

In fact, because you don’t even work in 25-minute (or even 10, 15, 20 minute) slots, you look at the BIG PICTURE and then talk yourself out of it.

“Oh Man!!! The last article I wrote took me 3 days (no, it didn't, it actually took you about 90 minutes WORK and about 60 hours of procrastination). And I know this is going to be even worse”

Can you see how defeatist that sounds, and yet YOU ALL DO IT!!!

So, working warm ups (Old Fluff, you can %$$ &$*, Hahahaha!!)

First, set a timer for ONE MINUTE.

Stare at your computer screen for that entire time WITHOUT BLINKING.

Once more, this impacts different neural pathways in the brain.

Because you are spending just one minute totally focused on that screen and really trying NOT to blink your eyes, you activate your concentration neural pathway.

Next, a tip for writing!!

Did you know there’s no such thing as Writer’s Block?

It should actually be called “I made this so massive in my head, rather than breaking it down, that now it’s got me overthinking and procrastinating” BLOCK!!

So, much like the gym, and your initial concentration, you need to “warm up” your writing muscles.

Therefore, set a timer for 5 minutes and just start writing:

WRITE ANYTHING!!

“I woke up at 6am this morning, felt a bit groggy, but was fine once I got out of bed. Decided to wear my superman top today, and I think I ight have my underpants on back-to-front. I had a cup of coffee, stared out the window for about 10 minutes, had a shower, and then decided what to have for breakfast”

JUST WRITE for those 5 minutes.

Remember it’s a warm up!

So, just write about your day, what you’re wearing, what you fancy eating, what you’re going to do later.

Can you ALSO see what you’re doing here?

You’re ridding yourself of those distractions that come into your mind when YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO BE WORKING.

Once you’ve done that for 5 minutes, you’re ready to work.

You still stick to 25-minute work sessions.

Trust me, if you can FULLY CONCENTRATE for 25 minutes at a time on the task in hand, you’ll get more done in 100 minutes (4 different time slots) than you usually do in an entire day (probably 2-3 days actually).

So, my aim is to find as many PINOT NOIR related keywords as I can.

Building Momentum

Okay, so we’re going to build “authority” by simply sticking to talking about Pinot Noir for our first couple of months.

I also think you need to get momentum on your side when first starting a website.

Look, I’m going to be honest with you, consistency isn’t actually a thing!!!

If you’ve chosen fantastic keywords, written great articles, you’re going to do well.

In fact, I previously spoke of how much traffic and money I’ve made (from selling after a year) on a website that ONLY had TWELVE ARTICLES.

The reason you hear about consistency is to simply get you start writing, stop procrastinating, and not be ready to give up after a month.

That said, I do think you need to be consistent for that first month or two.

Plus, I would also want to get as many articles onto a new website as possible in that first 2-3 months.

So, if you want to, do your keyword research, write your articles, but don’t publish.

Once you’re at around 15-20 articles start publishing one a day, while you continue with keyword research and writing new articles.

Using this method you have a much better chance of hitting 25-30 articles in your first month, and 50 articles in your first two months.

Trust me, I have left many websites alone for MONTHS and MONTHS while they continue to grow in traffic and income.

How?

Because my keyword research was on-point, I stuck to a very tightly-knit subject to start off with, and I literally bombarded my website with content at the outset.

Final Thoughts

Let me summarise

• Choose a broad domain name (allows you to expand in the future).
• Use GeneratePress or Astra as your initial theme.
• Add SiteKit and Headers & Footers script plugins to what WA has already provided.
• Start with Topic Clusters in a tiny part of your niche (not alcohol, not red wine, but pinot noir)
• Three x 25-minute YouTube research, take notes, don’t stop the videos.
• Increase concentration and neural pathways to the brain by staring at the screen for one-minute before starting work.
• Listen to “work productivity” music via headphones.
• Start writing for 5 minutes about your day before you start writing (“warm up” your writing “muscles”.
• Stop “being busy” and actually focus on “working for that 25-minute slot”.
• Keywords research on pinot noir, find 50 keywords via my methods.
• Write 15-20 articles first before publishing.
• Aim for 50 articles published in your first two months (30 will suffice when first starting out and learning).

ABOVE ALL

Stop lying to yourself, actually DO THE WORK..

Finally, this was all quite broad, but to give you a simple idea of how I like to start a website.

So, for my next blog post I will actually show you ALL OF THIS within an actual niche.

I’m going to pick a travel-related niche and show you exactly how I would get that website off the ground.

I’ll wait for at least a week to publish, apparently it’s Orange Thursday or something soon, so everyone goes absolutely bananas on the platform (the important day is THANKSGIVING by the way, all the other stuff is completely commercially driven… but that’s the world we live in).

Anyway, that’s your lot for now.

Thank You For Reading

Partha