by Joseph Dowdy, Electronic Word of Mouth

What You Need to Get a WordPress

Site Going For Your Business?

• What do you need?• What will it cost?• What you’ll need if you

move to another host?

by Joseph Dowdy, Electronic Word of Mouth

What You Need to Get a WordPress

Site Going For Your Business?

• Joseph Dowdy, Author• Former SMC SBDC• Launch for Bragg.com• Launch for Dan Poynter

by Joseph Dowdy, Electronic Word of Mouth

What You Need to Get a WordPress

Site Going For Your Business?WordPress—• 1 out of every 5 websites• Not rainbows & unicorns• #1 hacking website target• Free… -ish

by Joseph Dowdy, Electronic Word of Mouth

What You Need to Get a WordPress

Site Going For Your Business?WordPress Costs—• Cost of Hosting?• Cost of Themes?• Cost of Modification?• Cost of Custom Design?• Cost of Plugins?• Cost of Support?• Cost of Migration?• Cost of Training?

by Joseph Dowdy, Electronic Word of Mouth

What You Need to Get a WordPress

Site Going For Your Business?WordPress Hosting—• Free = Limited Freedom• Paid = Total Freedom• Freedom = Vulnerabilities• Vulnerabilities = Outages• Outages = Less Money

by Joseph Dowdy, Electronic Word of Mouth

What You Need to Get a WordPress

Site Going For Your Business?WordPress Hosting Cost(“Best Effort Support”)—• BlueHost: $83.40• Liquid Web: $149.50+/yr.• WP Engine: $360+/yr. • EWOM: $399+/yr.

by Joseph Dowdy, Electronic Word of Mouth

What You Need to Get a WordPress

Site Going For Your Business?

COST/YEAR

BlueHost Liquid Web WP Engine EWOM

Hosting $83.40 $149.50 $360 $399

WordPress FREE FREE FREE FREE

WordPressBreak/Fix

Phone/Chat (they want

you to fix and then they try

to fix)

Phone/Chat (they want you to fix and then

they try to fix)

Phone/Chat (they want

you to fix and then they try

to fix)

I will fix it for youright away!

Theme andPlugin Help

NO NO NO YES!

Host Cost Comparison

by Joseph Dowdy, Electronic Word of Mouth

What You Need to Get a WordPress

Site Going For Your Business?WordPress Theme—• Free = Dangerous• Paid = Free Support• Two Types of Paid:• Pre-designed• Custom

by Joseph Dowdy, Electronic Word of Mouth

What You Need to Get a WordPress

Site Going For Your Business?WordPress Theme Cost—• Predesigned/Paid• Starting at $19/yr.• Up to hundreds/year

• Custom• $59/yr. for Headway

by Joseph Dowdy, Electronic Word of Mouth

What You Need to Get a WordPress

Site Going For Your Business?

COST/YEAR BlueHost

Liquid Web

WP Engine

EWOM

Woo Themes(Used by Jonathan Register)

$100 + $360

$100 + $360

$100 +$360

FREE

Elegant Themes(Used by Scottie Hobbs)

$39 $39 $39 FREE

Headway Themes(Custom Site Maker Theme)

$59 $59 $59 FREE

Theme makers do not customize for you. Who will help with your theme?

NO NO NO YES

Theme Cost Comparison

by Joseph Dowdy, Electronic Word of Mouth

What You Need to Get a WordPress

Site Going For Your Business?Theme Customization—• Cookie Cutter: Bad• Some Customizing: Better• Color Schemes• Theme Features (Sliders)

• Totally Unique: Best

by Joseph Dowdy, Electronic Word of Mouth

What You Need to Get a WordPress

Site Going For Your Business?Theme Customization—• Customizations Can Be

Overwritten By Upgrades(“Point of No Return”)

• This Can Break The Theme• Upgrades Can Be Frequent

by Joseph Dowdy, Electronic Word of Mouth

What You Need to Get a WordPress

Site Going For Your Business?Theme Customization Cost—• Customization is always

free if you know how!• Changes beyond your

knowledge: $???• Full Customization: $???

by Joseph Dowdy, Electronic Word of Mouth

What You Need to Get a WordPress

Site Going For Your Business?

COST/YEAR BlueHost

Liquid Web

WP Engine

EWOM

Woo Themes $??? $??? $??? (included)

Elegant Themes

$??? $??? $??? (included)

Headway Themes

$??? $??? $??? $200

Comparison of Cost to ModifyBefore “Point of No Return”

(Includes Minor CSS Changes)

by Joseph Dowdy, Electronic Word of Mouth

What You Need to Get a WordPress

Site Going For Your Business?WordPress Plugins—• Free and Dangerous• Free/Supported/Updated• Paid/Premium• Data Forms (sign-ups)• Pop-ups (subscribes)

by Joseph Dowdy, Electronic Word of Mouth

What You Need to Get a WordPress

Site Going For Your Business?WordPress Plugins Cost—• Paid/Premium• Data Forms (sign-ups)• Pop-ups (subscribes)• Pay With a Like• Snapshot (backups)

by Joseph Dowdy, Electronic Word of Mouth

What You Need to Get a WordPress

Site Going For Your Business?

COST/YEAR BlueHost

Liquid Web

WP Engine

EWOM

Formidable Pro (free/support)

$0/$47 $0/$47 $0/$47 FREE

Pop-Up Domination $97 $97 $97 FREE

WPMUdev Subscription• Pay With a Like• Snapshot• WP for iPhone/for

Android• Ultimate Facebook• Chat• Comments Plus• (Dozens More…!)

$588 $588 $588 FREE

Plugin Cost Comparison

by Joseph Dowdy, Electronic Word of Mouth

What You Need to Get a WordPress

Site Going For Your Business?Setup/Maintenance—• WordPress Updates• Plugin Updates• Theme Updates• Google Webmaster Tools• Google Analytics

by Joseph Dowdy, Electronic Word of Mouth

What You Need to Get a WordPress

Site Going For Your Business?Setup/Maintenance Cost—• If you know how, it’s free• These are mostly wasteful

one-off tasks; you spendhours learning it and younever do it again

by Joseph Dowdy, Electronic Word of Mouth

What You Need to Get a WordPress

Site Going For Your Business?

COST/YEAR BlueHost

Liquid Web

WP Engine

EWOM

WordPress Updates/Support(most hosts provide DIY help and then tickets to fix probs)

YES; if you at

least try to fix first

YES; if you at

least try to fix first

YES; if you at

least try to fix first

YES

Plugin Updates NO NO NO YES

Theme Updates (premium plugins provide DIY help)

NO NO NO YES

Google Webmaster Tool Setup

NO NO NO YES

Google Analytics NO NO NO YES

Setup Cost Comparison

by Joseph Dowdy, Electronic Word of Mouth

What You Need to Get a WordPress

Site Going For Your Business?Migration—• From free WordPress• From paid WordPress• From Blogger• From most free services

by Joseph Dowdy, Electronic Word of Mouth

What You Need to Get a WordPress

Site Going For Your Business?Migration Cost—• If you know how, it’s free• Export from old site into

your new WordPress site(is either very easy or it’sdifficult/time-consuming)

by Joseph Dowdy, Electronic Word of Mouth

What You Need to Get a WordPress

Site Going For Your Business?

COST/YEAR BlueHost

Liquid Web

WP Engine

EWOM

Migration Instructions YES YES YES YES

Will Do Migration For You

NO YES NO YES

Cost for Migration Service

$??? FREE $500 FREE

Migration Cost Comparison

by Joseph Dowdy, Electronic Word of Mouth

What You Need to Get a WordPress

Site Going For Your Business?SEO (Search EngineOptimization)—• WordPress SEO and other

free plugins• All-In-One SEO Pack and

other premium solutions

by Joseph Dowdy, Electronic Word of Mouth

What You Need to Get a WordPress

Site Going For Your Business?SEO (Search EngineOptimization)—WordPress SEO by Yoast is free, hands-free/automated and provides interactive feedback for tweaking

by Joseph Dowdy, Electronic Word of Mouth

What You Need to Get a WordPress

Site Going For Your Business?SEO (Search EngineOptimization)—Yes you can pay someone to thousands to manually do your SEO, but why? May bethe biggest scam ever!!

by Joseph Dowdy, Electronic Word of Mouth

What You Need to Get a WordPress

Site Going For Your Business?Training—• Learn it yourself• Hours and hours?• Hundreds of dollars?

• One-On-One Training• Have It Done For You?

by Joseph Dowdy, Electronic Word of Mouth

What You Need to Get a WordPress

Site Going For Your Business?Training Cost—• Common video-based

training programs• Hundreds of dollars• Hours and hours

• Alternatives

by Joseph Dowdy, Electronic Word of Mouth

What You Need to Get a WordPress

Site Going For Your Business?

COST/YEAR BlueHost

Liquid Web

WP Engine

EWOM

Web-Based Video Training

$??? $??? $??? YES

One-On-One Training $??? $??? $??? YES

Have It Done For You Instead of Learning How To Do Something You Will Only Do Once In Your Whole Life

$??? $??? $??? YES

Training Cost Comparison

by Joseph Dowdy, Electronic Word of Mouth

What You Need to Get a WordPress

Site Going For Your Business?Cost Recap—• BlueHost• LiquidWeb• WP Engine• Electronic Word of Mouth

by Joseph Dowdy, Electronic Word of Mouth

What You Need to Get a WordPress

Site Going For Your Business?

COST Headway

Theme

20+ Hours ofSite Design

Follow-Ups (Break/Fix,

Change, Upgrades, Updates)

Total

BlueHost $59 $???(ex.: $75/hr. x 20 hrs. =

$1,500)

$??? $???

Liquid Web

$59 $??? $??? $???

WP Engine

$59 $??? $??? $???

EWOM FREE $200 FREE $200

Custom Site Cost Comparison

by Joseph Dowdy, Electronic Word of Mouth

What You Need to Get a WordPress

Site Going For Your Business?

COST/YEAR

Break/Fix

Upgrades

Backups Videos/Training

Total

BlueHost $??? $??? $??? $??? $???

Liquid Web

$??? $??? $??? $??? $???

WP Engine

$??? $??? $??? $??? $???

EWOM FREE FREE FREE FREE $200

Unknown Cost Comparison

by Joseph Dowdy, Electronic Word of Mouth

What You Need to Get a WordPress

Site Going For Your Business?

COST/YEAR

Hosting

Elegant

Themes

Forms Pop-UpDomin.

WPMU

Total

BlueHost $83.40 $39 $47 $97 $588 $854.40

Liquid Web $149.50 $39 $47 $97 $588 $920.50

WP Engine $360 $39 $47 $97 $588 $1,131.00

EWOM $399 FREE FREE FREE FREE $399

Known Cost Comparison

by Joseph Dowdy, Electronic Word of Mouth

What You Need to Get a WordPress

Site Going For Your Business?

Thank You!