(00:06)
Kyle here from Wealthy Affiliate. Again welcome to the affiliate bootcamp, today I'm going to be walking you through the website set up process which is going to involve activating a few of the plug ins and also creating your first few initial pages on your website.

(00:22) This is actually a fairly simple process. I'm going to be walking you through the plugins first, in particular the all in one seo plugin and then walking you through the creation of a few pages on your website. So I'm going to get right into things here.

(00:38 displayed title) Setting Up Your Plugins

(00:44) First thing here that I'm going to be covering are plugins for your website. So essentially what a plugin is... it is extends the functionality of your site and it allows you to do certain things; like there are plugins for seo, and blocking spam, and accepting payments, and design plugins. I believe there is over 30000 different plugins that you can plug in to your site with Wordpress and as a premium member you can take advantage of all these.

(01:15) As a starter member you only have a certain set of plugins that you can use which are actually some of the better ones that we preinstall with your website. And you can access these: you can see how I just click the plugins section here (01:28) within the menu and that's where you're going to access the plugins page. And that's where you're going to be able to add new if you're a premium member. And that's where you're going to also be able to activate any of your plugins so that's where you access your plugins.

(01:42) The first thing that we are going to do here is we are going to activate a few of these, in particular the Exclude Pages from Navigation. You don't really need to know about that but basically what it does is it allows you to create a page - and pages by default are going to be added to the menu on your website - and this allows you to check the option of not adding it to your menu. It will become somewhat important down the road when you want to create a page but you don't want it to go to your menu.

(02:13) So the other plugin that we are going to activate right now is the All in One Seo plugin and it basically simplifies the entire seo process in terms of what Google is looking for in respect to your website. It doesn't give you rankings but it prepares your website to get rankings and it organizes it in a way in terms of the meta tags and that sort of thing; the tags that Google sees when it comes and visits your website. So it takes care of all of that for you and we're going to be setting up that plugin so first we need to activate (02:46) that plugin so we can configure it.

(02:51) So I've done that as well. And Akismet is comment spam, it prevents comment spam. We are going to get to that in a later lesson. We already have by default SI Captcha anti spam so someone has to enter the captcha. If you ever tried to enter a comment and you see that you have to enter characters, random characters, in order to submit the comment, that's exactly what this. So this is your first line of defense against spam on your website and it prevents I'd say like 90% of all spam.

(03:29) So that's good. We will get to Akismet later. Just activate these two plugins and we are going to be setting up the All in One Seo plugin next here. You can see that after you activate it as well that it's going to appear up here in the menu as well and that's where we are going to be configuring it so I'm going to be getting into the configuration of this next.

(03:52 displayed title) Configuring your All in One SEO Pack

(03:54) The next thing we are going to do is configure the All in One Seo pack and there are a couple of ways that you can access the configuration control panel for this plugin that allows you to update all the settings. One of them is within the plugins page here and then up here (04:10) you're going to see the options configuration panel if you click that it's going to take you into the options configuration panel like it sounds.

(04:18) You can also access it up here All in One Seo and under General Settings it's going to allow you to update that. So I'm going to click that here (04:27) and its going to take me into the plugin. You can just dismiss this, it's just telling you about updates there. So what we are going to do is we are going to go through and set this up and again basically what this plugin does is behind the scenes it makes your code search engine friendly meaning that it's going to create the proper titles within your code, the proper descriptions and keywords and that sort of thing.

(04:56) Something that is kind of an arduous task if you're going to try to do it yourself. I remember back when I started out building websites, I spent hours and hours doing this. So this is all done for you automatically through this plugin and its going to save you a ton of time and you're not going to have to worry about this aspect of seo at all, it's going to be handled for you.

(05:18) So the first thing we are going to need to do is click the enabled button here (05:22). That's the only thing you need to change up there. Then the next thing we are going to do is update the home page settings so this is the (05:32) Home Title, Home Description and Home Keywords. This is not actually text that you're going to see on your website. Again, this is happening within the code so when your website gets indexed with Google you're going to be able to see your title reflection in that.

(05:54) I'm just going to give you an example here. So if I type in wealthy affiliate, you're going to see a bunch of search rankings here. At the very top you're going to see our website wealthyaffiliate.com and "Wealthy Affiliate - Online Business Starts Here" that's our title description that's reflected like in all in one seo and this is the actual description.

(06:24) So if we go back over here; here's the home title and that's what the home title (06:29) is going to look like in Google and here's the home description and that's what the home description (06:37) is going to look like. So just so you can see what's going to happen is when Google indexes your website for the homepage of your website that's going to be the title and the description. So that's what we are going to set up initially.

(06:52) And then there's the keywords as well. This doesn't really do a lot. A lot of people spend too much time worrying about this and we're just going to add a few simple keywords. So when I come back I'm going to have the title description and keywords there and I'm going to explain to you what I have done.

(07:06) (title/description/keywords have been filled in)

(07:07) So your website title, your home title, should reflect the name of your website. In this case, waystoavoidscamsonline.com is my website so it should reflect that and here (07:20) you can see I have that. And then I typically add something in addition to that to captivate the audience. If they see my listing in Google, I want them to see something else "get the truth about scams here" people will be more inclined to click that versus just having ways to avoid scams online.

(07:41) So that's what I do there. And this can always be changed down the road if you don't like it or you have new ideas as to what you want within that area. You can always update this down the road. I don't really recommend doing it after your website has been indexed for too long unless there is a spelling error or you just really don't like it.

(08:01) And then the description is basically just a description of what your site is. This should be somewhat captivating as well. In this case I wrote "There are many scams online that you want to avoid. This is a site dedicated to revealing scams and show you some honest opportunities online." So that's kind of what I have there; it's just kind of a blurb about what my site is and how it's going to help someone

(08:26) And then the next thing I have is the keywords here. I just have the website name, ways to avoid scams online, scams online, and avoid scams. So that's all I have there and you know you don't have to put anymore thought into it. Just put a couple like two or three keywords this isn't going to help your rankings under keyword so don't think that if you put a bunch of keywords there you're going to get ranked under those.

(08:50) Google doesn't rank you because of these but you know it's okay if you have a few. And there is right below here, you can disable these altogether and some people just do that because it doesn't really do a lot like I said; so don't waste a lot of time doing this.

(09:07) And then as you go down here there's one more change that I usually make and that's turning these what are called pipes (09:16) into dashes. And that just ... this is ... what the title settings are going to do is, this is going to automatically when you create new pages or posts on your website this is going to automatically take the title of the post that you create and make it your title tag so this does all the work for you going forward

(09:37) And this is the only time you'll ever have to manually enter your home title and description for your pages because it's going to give you the option to do this as well for each and every page and post that you create. But this is the only time that you are going to need to actually manually set this up.

(09:53) So I turned that into an upright bar or what's known as a pipe and I turn it into a dash and then I'm good to go and then rest you don't really have to worry about at the moment so I'm just going to scroll down and I'm going to click update options (10:11) and then I'm done.

(10:15 displayed title) Creating Your Initial Pages

(10:20) So the next thing we're going to do is we're going to head up here to "pages" and we are going to create the initial framework for our website. So if you click on the "pages" tab here (10:29), it's going to show you all the pages that you have associated with your site. Sometimes you'll have a default or a sample page and you can just trash that. This is actually something that's part of the bootcamp so I'm going to leave it there so just disregard seeing this because you won't see that on your site.

(10:48) What we're going to do is we're going to create three new pages here and these are going to serve as the start of your website framework. So simply click add new here (10:59). The first page we're going to create is an About Me page and then you can say (11:07) "content goes here" you don't have to type anything. And then we are just going to save this as a draft and then we are going to come back to this and work on it in a little bit here.

(11:17) Then we are going to add another new page. So click add new over here (11:20) and then we're going to create a Privacy Policy page. Save draft (11:27). Then we're going to add one more page here and this is going to be Getting Started. Save draft(11:41). If I go back to the pages homepage, you're going to now see my three draft pages that I created. So our next task is going to be going through and building out these pages so the next task is going to be content creation here.

(12:00 displayed title) Creating Your Content, Starting With the About Me Page!

(12:06) So here we are a few hours later. I have created all the content for the initial framework of the site. I didn't want to bore you with two hours of watching me type this out and add images and that sort of thing. So I'm going to give you an overview of kind of how I constructed the pages and how I went about the content creation. The first page we are going to have a look at here is the About Me page.

(12:32) If we go in here, you're going to see a picture of me over here and basically my personal story. This is actually a picture of me just over ten years ago before I started online. I thought it was quite appropriate for the website and basically I just outlined my story: where I came from, where I've gone, what I do, that sort of thing. So you want to make this a personal page and do invest some time into it because it's going to be quite in important in terms of connecting with your audience.

(13:10) And don't feel like you need to perfect this content. You can update it in the future and it will evolve as your story evolves. So be real, be authentic, and just outline who you are, why you care, why you want to help someone, and what you are doing now. And this is kind of going to tie into your promotions of Wealthy Affiliate. So there's my About Me and then I'm going to get into the Getting Started page next.

(13:39 displayed title) Your Getting Started Page

(13:44) So what I'm going to do is I'm going to click the pages over here and head back and show you my Getting Started page. (13:52) So basically the Getting Started page is going to be an outline of how to get started online and this where you're going to be telling people about the process of getting online

(14:05) You know it can be a relevant story related to the theme of your site. Mine is avoiding scams online, yours might be something different within the industry and that's completely fine. Basically it's your way of showing people how to get started online and you can definitely use some influence from my page if you want. And I'll be providing all my page links within the tutorial as well or sorry within the course.

(14:33) So here I am. Basically "I want to help you get started and show you how to get started online," and "what is the most critical thing that is preventing you from online success." I like to break things up in terms of like in this case I've used quoted headlines (14:51). But when someone's reading they like paragraphs to be short, headlines to prelude the upcoming text and it just makes it easier to read if you break things down for people. So I typically, as you can see here, I've broken things down into sections and I tell people how to get "rolling with $0" online.

(15:19) This page isn't quite complete at the moment, but by the time you see it, it probably will be complete. And then I tie in a promotion of Wealthy affiliate. I show them how to go to the starter page (15:31) and get their $0 a month membership. I always tend to end every single page on my site and every single post with an invite to ask questions if they need a hand with anything.

(15:47) People don't like to be left in the dark and if they know that you're there and you're willing to help them, oftentimes they'll ask you a question or leave you a message. And this creates engagement on your site which is also going to be good for seo and for other people visiting this page to see that there's activity. So that's one thing that I'm always going to recommend throughout this course is to add statements like that and encourage people to ask questions on your site.

(16:20) So basically this is the framework of the Getting Started page and its your way of telling people how to get rolling online and how to do so for zero dollars at Wealthy Affiliate. And as I said, I'm going to provide you the link to this page so you can use the influence. Do not copy this content directly because that's going to hurt you in the short and long term because your site will not get indexed if you use duplicate content on it.

(16:51) Definitely use ideas from it and use some of your own ideas and be as creative as you want. And there's going to be an opportunity to ask for feedback and that sort of thing within a daily discussion. So that's basically an overview of the getting started page.

(17:11 displayed titled) And the Privacy Policy...

(17:16) Okay so the last thing we are going to do is head up to pages here and I'm going to show you the Privacy Policy. It's the last and probably the most unexciting page on your site. And it's pretty standardized privacy policy. Basically what you want this for is for Google. Google requires it, and they definitely do require it for pay per click reasons as well.

(17:43) It is good to have a Privacy Policy. You will see a lot of sites out there that probably don't have them and you know they just don't care about it. But I do recommend you have a Privacy Policy and I typically put one on every single website that I do create. And I'm going to be providing you with a standardized script that you can use within this lesson.

(18:10) You can basically copy it and you're just going to replace waystoavoidscamsonline.com with your URL. And then I do have a contact address here, you're going to use your own contact details there (18:29). But basically you'll be able to go through the script that I give you and you're going to be able to replace your URL with the URL that I have here and I've highlighted them all in bold so that you can get a good idea of where all the instances of that are.

(18:49) That's the privacy policy in a nutshell. Do not spend too much time on it. You can read through it if you want and make some adjustments but overall this is a pretty standard Privacy Policy template here and you can use this one if you want.

(19:08) Next thing we're going to do is we are going to publish all these pages. I've actually published them already. There's going to be "publish" button here (19:18) on your pages and after you create them you're going to want to publish all of them. I'm just going to go back here and see if I've published all of them. Yeah I've published all of them so you're just going to want to go back to all of your pages and publish them when they are ready.

(19:36) And don't hold back from publishing something waiting for it to be perfect. A page is never really going to be perfect and it's always a work in progress. You can always update a page down the road but it's better to get your content out there as you create it then to hold back a bunch of content and try to perfect it before you get it out there.

(19:57) So that's a little tip that I want to give you because a lot of people tend to hold back there content trying to make it the greatest content in the world when in reality your audience is going to really determine which content is good, which content is bad. And you're going to get feedback through the comments on it and you're going to get feedback through other people taking part in the bootcamp so don't try to perfect that at all. So just go with the flow, upload your content when it's ready and get feedback after it's live.

(20:33 displayed title) A few last things...

(20:39) And one last thing that I'm going to do here is I'm going to take you to the actual live website. (20:45) So here's the website I have. I believe I'm using the Pagelines...yeah I'm using the Pagelines theme. And it's simple, it's white, it's easy to see content: all the components I really like. I like to focus on the actual content instead of all the fluff and the bells and whistles on the outside of the theme.

(21:12) You can always change your theme down the road and you can get more sophisticated down the road as you build out your site but its best to start off with a more of a simple looking theme. One that's clear and concise and puts emphasis on the content.

(21:27) So on the homepage here I have the homepage still set up as the blog roll and since I have no blog posts, just pages, it's going to be a 404. And that's completely fine for now. I'm not too concerned; even though the site is live I'm not really concerned about Google or anything at this point because we are going to be building out the pages and the posts very quickly.

(21:50) So this should not be a concern for you and if you see a 404, that's why; because you do not have any posts yet. Here's my About Me page. Here you go (20:01). You can come check out my site if you want. I leave comments on, on most of my pages due to the fact that I want feedback, I want feedback from people.

(22:13) And then there's my Getting Started. And same thing, it's just a walk through. I might go through this page and add some more imagery. I like to usually include a relevant image within the first fold of the page cause most people are visual by nature and you're going to get a lot more engagement and a lot more people actually reading through your content if you provide relevant images within the first fold so I will be adding an image here (22:44) at some point but like I said I'm not overly concerned about my content at this point because you know it can always be updated and you know I'm just getting the structure down for my website.

(22:56) Privacy Policy that's here right now, everything's fine with that. It's within the top menu right now. I'm going to probably exclude this from the menu at some point because it's not really the focus of my site I'll probably just leave it in the side pages over here (23:13) so anyways that's my walkthrough for this lesson I hope it was helpful and there's going to be a discussion and you can ask anything you want within the comments below this video and I'll be more than happy to help you out. But there is a quick overview of how to get your site up and running and the initial structure in place. There you go.