Have you ever fallen down the Wikipedia rabbit-hole or got sucked into a YouTube marathon? Have you ever sought one answer online and found 20 more questions you wanted the answer to? Have you ever told yourself that you will be starting an online business, project, or milestone just as soon as you have collected enough relevant data?

I sure have!

I admit it. I have a problem. I am addicted to learning. Wikipedia is my catnip. I could look up the true story that the movie Schindler’s List was based off of and the next thing you know I’m reading Wikipedia articles on Oskar Schindler, World War II, The Battle of Midway, the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Reciprocity Treaty of 1875, Ulysses S. Grant, and on and on and on. I love to learn!

Unfortunately, I sometimes do this in my business life as well. I feel compelled to keep learning instead of taking action.

Don’t get me wrong, learning is a good thing, but it is absolutely possible to have too much knowledge, especially when you’re starting an online business, new project, or new milestone. And I can prove it!

Starting an Online Business: How Horse-racing Can Help Us

Let me tell you the story of a study that was done regarding horse racing*. Here’s the summary:

• The study identified 88 pieces of information that could be acquired from a horse’s past performance.
• They invited 8 experienced horserace handicappers to take part in the study.

They ran 4 tests:

• In the first test the handicappers were given their choice of 5 pieces of information from the 88 available pieces. This is all they could base their predictions on.
• In the second test they were given their choice of 10 pieces of information.
• In the third test they were given 20 pieces of information.
• In the fourth test they were given 40 pieces of information.

So what were the results?

• In the first test the handicappers were correct 17% of the time, and they rated the confidence in their decision at 19%. That’s pretty good calibration!
• In the second test, with double the amount of information, they were still only correct 17% of the time.
• In the third test, with quadruple the amount of information than the first test, they still only managed to be correct 17% of the time.
• In the fourth and final test they had the most information of any of the tests and they were right… Wait for it… 17% of the time.

The conclusion: Having more information did nothing to improve how often they were right.

Does that mean the additional information was meaningless? Actually, it’s worse than that! The additional information actually increased their confidence in their predictions!

As mentioned, they had 19% confidence in their selections for the first test. But then as their results stayed flat at 17%, their confidence increased test after test until it hit a high of about 33% in the final test.

Since the handicapper’s level of confidence is a key determination for how much they would bet on a race, that higher level of confidence would have resulted in less money in their pocket at the end of the day.

What does this mean to you?

First of all it means that whether you’re starting an online business, new project, or new milestone, you’re just wasting your time trying to collect more “data”. You are much better off getting just the data you need and then moving on to taking actual action.

Secondly, it means that collecting too much data may result in confirmation bias, causing your confidence to be higher than it should be, which in turn could impact the decisions that you make.

So get JUST the information that you need and then TAKE ACTION! Not only will you be moving to success faster, you’ll probably also do it more effectively due to better decision making!

Now go make us proud!

* Results are taken from author Paul Slovic’s 1973 manuscript titled “Behavioral Problems of Adhering to a Decision Policy”.

First off, it’s great that you are looking into how to build a website. That means you are taking real actions, which is the key to making real progress.

I know building a website can seem a bit intimidating, especially if you don’t know how to code, but that’s what I’m gonna help you with.

However, before we get started with the actual building, there is a crucial first step you must take to make sure the process goes as smoothly as possible. Before you get a hosting plan, or purchase a theme, or install WordPress, you have to have the right mindset.

Wait… What?!?

Don’t stop reading! I know it sounds goofy, but having the right mindset will make the process of building your website so much easier. Allow me to explain.

If you’re like most people, you’ve seen some pretty cool websites out there and thought, “Hey! I want a website like that!”. Unfortunately, there is a VERY good chance that what you saw was an incredibly expensive website done by highly-paid coders. In other words… A website like that is probably outside of your reach… And that’s okay.

You see, people get all wrapped up in having bells and whistles on their website and kill themselves trying to get it. But the honest truth is, when all is said and done, those bells and whistles are going to have a very small impact on your business, if any. CONTENT is what drives business, not fancy websites.

How To Build A Website: The K.I.S.S. Mentality

Before you start your website you should get your head straight on the proper mentality: K.I.S.S.

K.I.S.S. is a pretty well-known acronym in the business world, but if you aren’t familiar with it K.I.S.S. stands for “Keep It Simple, Stupid”. Or just “Keep It Simple” if you’re the friendly type.

Basically it means to stop overthinking everything. Find the simple solution and take action! Stop wasting time and money on more complex answers that will do virtually nothing to improve your bottom line. All you’re doing is delaying the actual actions that will drive your success forward. Simple solutions acted on immediately will almost always beat complex solutions that take forever.

How To Build a Website: Content Is King

In today’s world, the value you are providing to your clients, or prospective clients, is going to be the primary driving factor in your success. Website bells and whistles aren’t going to get people to buy from you, follow you, or whatever it is you want people to do. It is the value you bring that will drive your business.

How To Build A Website: The Basics

Even though you need to keep things simple, you can’t keep them TOO simple. There are some basics that you MUST have in today’s world (all of which we will help to make sure you have):

1. Responsive: Your website 100% has to be responsive. “Responsive” means the website adjusts it’s layout and design automatically based on the size of the screen a person is using. Or even simpler, it means your website has to look good on a computer and on a phone. Clear back in 2014 the mobile phone surpassed the desktop in regards to internet traffic. That means people are more likely to look at your website on their phone than their computer. So if your website doesn’t look good on a phone you may as well say goodbye to all of those prospective viewers.
2. Good load times: Getting blazing fast websites takes money. And usually coders. But that doesn’t mean you can’t have a fast load time if you… Wait for it… Keep things simple. That’s the thing about website bells and whistles that nobody tells you. All those lines of code that are needed to make the bells and whistles work slows down the website. Now, you might be thinking that a cool website you saw loaded really fast, but the owners are probably paying a small fortune to have dedicated, high-speed servers in order to deliver the content that fast. So, if you don’t want to spend hundreds of dollars a month on hosting, keeping the bells and whistles away from your website will help keep it fast.
3. Security Certificate: Your website has to have a security certificate, regardless of whether you take credit card payments or not. If you aren’t clear on what this means, a security certificate, or SSL, changes your website from “HTTP” to “HTTPS”. The added “s” denotes that the website has security measure in place. This is important because in 2017 it was announced that Google was going to start penalizing HTTP websites, meaning you will have a harder time being found on Google searches. Eventually everything will be “HTTPS”, so you might as well get started now.
4. Look up-to-date: Your website doesn’t need to be “cutting-edge” (in fact this whole article is explaining why it probably should NOT be “cutting edge”), but it does need to look current and contemporary. Using the right tools, like our preferred WordPress theme will allow you to get that contemporary look without breaking a sweat. In fact, you’d have to work hard to make a bad-looking website!

How To Build A Website: In short

Let me shorten this entire article on how to build a website into a short little blurb: Don’t sweat the small stuff.

Is your header a bit bigger than you want? Don’t sweat it. Can you not get the exact structure that you want on the website? Don’t sweat it. Do you think there are websites out there that look better? Don’t sweat it.

At WP Success Path we point you to the tools that will help you understand how to build a website quickly and easily. The tools we suggest may not allow you to do exactly what you want to do, but the tiny variance isn’t worth your time and energy. Follow our steps and recommendations and your website will be exactly what you need.

Worry about bells and whistles when your company starts generating millions in revenue.

In today’s age of social media platforms, mobile apps for everything, and selling platforms like Etsy or Amazon, you may be asking yourself, “Do I need a website?”

Regardless of whether you are an entrepreneur, a social media star, a podcaster, a hobbyist, an MLM expert, an author, a freelancer, or anything else… The answer is a resounding… YES!

In virtually all circumstances you absolutely need to have your own website on your own hosting account. In this article I’m going to cover some of the reasons why options like social media, mobile apps, and selling platforms aren’t good enough.

Do I Need a Website?

First off, imagine that you live in a rural area with no public transportation, and nothing is close to you. Not your work, not a store… Nothing. But the company you work for offers you a company car. Does that mean you shouldn’t have a car that you personally own as well?

What if your company…

… decides to take the car away?
… starts charging you an enormous amount for each mile that you drive?
… says you can only drive to and from certain locations when you’re using the car?
… switches to a first-come, first-serve “pool” system that could result in you not have a car at all on a given week?

Wouldn’t it just be better to have your own car, even if your company let’s you use one too?

The exact same thing is true with your website. Social media platforms, mobile apps, and selling platforms are great, but when you own your own website, nobody can take that away from you or limit how you use it. Not Facebook, not Amazon, not Snapchat.

Do I Need a Website? – Social Media

Let’s look a little deeper at why social media platforms are not a good substitute for a website.

Anyone that has been using social media for business for more than a few years knows the pain of “Facebook just changed…” or “Instagram just changed…” or something similar.

When Facebook first started all posts on your wall showed up in chronological order. If someone was your “fan”, they would see your posts. End of story. Fast forward to today when people that “like” your page have to do a multi-click process in order to actually see your posts, and Facebook makes its own determination about what you should and shouldn’t see and in what order it appears.

Many companies that used to thrive on Facebook have since had to drastically change their method of marketing because of the changes that Facebook has made.

And I’m not trying to pick on Facebook. These changes now apply to almost all social platforms, and will be applied in the near future to the rest, because denying businesses the ability to have fans see their posts forces business to buy ads, and that is how social media platforms make their money (well, one of the ways).

When you own your own website, you get to dictate what gets shown and when it happens. End of story.

Do I Need a Website? – Mobile Apps

It’s true that mobile is taking over the world. Right now about 60% of all internet traffic is done on mobile devices and that number is only going to continue to grow. But do mobile apps, such as Snapchat or Instagram, really offer you the flexibility to sell products and market to your customers the way you want?

The simple answer is “no”.

Let’s say you’re an Instagram influencer and you make most of your money from paid “shout-outs” or product placement. In this instance you really don’t need a website… Right?

Wrong.

What if Instagram changes your ability to do shout-outs or product placement because they want those companies to buy real Instagram ads that they can profit from?

Or what if you decide it’s time to sell a product of your own? Instagram doesn’t offer a “store” feature so you will need to send your customers somewhere to buy the product.

Even if your entire business is done on a mobile app platform, you still need a place that is truly your own.

Do I Need a Website? – Selling platforms

Remember when you were a kid and you did something wrong? Did your parent or guardian just throw you out and never let you return? Almost certainly they didn’t (and if they did I’m really sorry for bringing up that painful memory). In most cases, you received a reasonable punishment and moved on.

The same is true with selling platforms, but sometimes it’s not true.

I’ve heard many a horror story from people that made one unintentional mistake and had their entire profile on the platform shut down for it. All their hard work, all their reviews, all their reputation, gone in an instant because the platform didn’t like something they did.

If you don’t believe me, just try searching online for people whose eBay businesses went belly-up because PayPal didn’t like something they did.

When you have your own website you can dictate what happens on it and nobody can suddenly just shut it down for no reason. Even if you really piss off your hosting company and they decide to shut down your account, you can just seamlessly move to another hosting company and it will be like nothing happened at all.

The Exception

So, there is one instance when I believe you don’t need to have a website: Testing an MVP.

For those of you that don’t know, an MVP is a “minimum viable product”. Whenever you start a new business endeavour, regardless of what it is, you should put together an MVP to test the idea and make sure that it is actually something that somebody wants.

Let’s say you’re interested in selling a cool astrological calendar that you created. You have no idea if anyone would even buy it, but you think it’s possible. So instead of producing 1000 calendars, or creating a website, you should just create a couple and see if you can sell them.

This is where some of these other options are a better choice.

First you could hop on social media and present the idea to your friends/followers to see if any of them say they would buy it. I’d call this a 1st-level MVP.

If you get a bunch of people saying “yes”, then go to a 2nd-level MVP and ask that they actually open their wallets and pay for one as a “pre-order”.

Assuming that works, and to make sure those weren’t well-intentioned “pity” purchases, you can step it up to a 3rd-level MVP and open an account on a selling platform such as Etsy to try and sell the product to the entire world.

If you don’t get the sales you were hoping for, and decide to scrap the project, then you can do so without having put the time and energy into a website.

However, if you are getting good sales, then the exception is gone and you really need a website so that you can get purchases on your own outside of the selling platform as well as to start building your online brand into an eventual world-dominating empire!

A Final Thought: Email Addresses

I won’t go into great detail here, but one of the greatest parts about having your own website is that you can actively collect contact information for your customers and prospective customers so that you can communicate with them as you see fit.

All of the other platforms get to dictate how and when you can directly communicate with someone (especially when you want to directly communicate to everyone at once), so creating your own list gives you an insane amount of power that you just can’t get anywhere else.

Conclusion

While it’s not necessary to have your own website while testing a business idea, the second that you get some traction then you really need to cut all of the puppet strings and build your “home” on the web that allows you to have full control of everything that happens.

Social media platforms, mobile apps, and selling platforms are all fantastic tools to be used for your business, but they should never be the “hub” of your business or online project.

Today I want to talk about WordPress vs Squarespace. And when I say “Squarespace”, I mean Squarespace, Wix, Weebly, or any other web-based website solution.

These companies have spent millions of dollars advertising themselves as a great solution for people that need a website, but are they really a good deal?

The simple answer is, no. If you want the complicated answer, take a look at the recent article over on WPMU that covers the 27 reasons why WordPress wins every time. It’s a great read and I highly encourage you to take a look.

However, I try to keep things simple and streamlined for the fine folks at WordPress Success Path, so instead of doing an item-by-item comparison, I want to talk about just TWO reasons why you need to go with WordPress.

WordPress Vs Squarespace

Reason #1: Cost.

Every business is concerned about cost, so the amount you pay for your website solution is almost certainly a concern. In the WordPress vs Squarespace battle, the winner is… It depends. Either WordPress wins easily, or it’s a tie. It just depends on how you look at it.

It’s a tie if you are going to build a single, general website. Once you crunch all of the various numbers you’ll end up paying about the same for both. However…

WordPress wins handily if you ever want to have multiple websites.

You see, Squarespace charges you per website, whereas most WordPress hosting plans offer you unlimited websites.

Let’s say you have a website that will work out to a cost of about $30 per month once everything is factored in. You can go with either WordPress or Squarespace and the cost will be about the same.

But now let’s say you have a side project that you want to build a site for, or you have a family member that is building their own business and you want to support them.

If you work with Squarespace then your $30 cost will suddenly double to $60 for 2 websites or $90 for 3 websites, and so on.

HOWEVER, if you are on WordPress then your cost remains at $30 per month, even though you have 2, 3, or even 20 websites.

Now, you may only plan on having one website (just like I did when I first started), but if you’re anything like me you’ll likely end up with several websites once you get the hang of building them, so you will be kicking yourself if you don’t go with WordPress because it will save you A LOT of money.

And since the best Squarespace can do on a cost basis is a tie, the clear winner of the WordPress vs Squarespace battle is… WordPress.

Reason #2: Control.

I started with “Cost” because it tends to be a big consideration for a lot of people, but the truth is the #1 reason why you MUST choose WordPress in the WordPress vs Squarespace battle is because of the control that it gives you.

“Control” may not seem like a big deal now, but it WILL be a big deal eventually.

With Squarespace (and all of the other companies like it) they put very strict controls on you and your website. Here are some comparison examples between Squarespace and WordPress (taken from the WPMU article listed earlier):

1) Want a different hosting solution? Too bad. Squarespace requires that you use their hosting.

2) Want to edit your code? Too bad. Squarespace allows for some customization of HTML, CSS, or Javascript, but it is very limited.

3) Want to build your own theme? Too bad. Squarespace only allows you to use their themes.

4) Want to build more than one website? Too bad. Squarespace only allows one website per subscription.

5) Want to keep your copyrighted material intact? Too bad. Squarespace has the right to use any or all of your site for their own advertising, regardless of your copyrights. You can “opt out” but it’s not a simple process and most people don’t even know that Squarespace is doing this.

6) Want to sue your host? Too bad. Squarespace forces you to use mediation first, limits the amount you can sue for, and makes it so you cannot participate in a class-action lawsuit.

7) Want to have massive amounts of traffic to your site? Too bad. While Squarespace does allow for “unlimited” bandwidth, the small print says it is only for “normal” amounts of traffic (which they never define). That means if your website gets really popular Squarespace can shut you down.

8) Want to install a robust SSL certificate on your site to protect your visitors? Too bad. Squarespace doesn’t offer a lot of features and warranties that people want on their SSL certificates.

9) Want to “own” your domain? Too bad. Squarespace automatically becomes the registered owner of any domain registered through them. While it is possible to change this, it is NOT an easy or fast process.

10) Want to have 100 pages on your website? Too bad. Squarespace limits you to 20 pages. To get more you will have to upgrade and pay more per month.

11) Want to use Google Analytics to monitor your website traffic? Too bad. Squarespace only offers their own analytics tool which is not nearly as robust as Google Analytics.

I could go on and on, but let’s stop there, because that is plenty. Now let’s see how WordPress stacks up on those control issues:

1) You can switch hosting companies any time you want with WordPress.

2) You are welcome to change as much of the core code as you want with WordPress.

3) You can build, buy, or acquire any theme you want with WordPress.

4) You can build as many websites as you want with WordPress (please check your hosting plan for possible limitations).

5) WordPress does not have the right to use any of your material, copyrighted or otherwise, in any way.

6) WordPress puts no limitations on your ability to sue them or anyone else.

7) WordPress puts no limitations on the amount of traffic you receive (please check your hosting plan to see if they have limitations).

8) You can install just about any kind of an SSL that you want on WordPress.

9) WordPress does not make themselves the registrar of your domain. That means it “belongs” to you.

10) WordPress places no limitation on the number of pages you can have on your website.

11) Adding Google Analytics (or any other analytics product) to a WordPress website is fast and easy.

It really comes down to this: As the owner of a website, do you really want your hosting solution dictating what you can and cannot do? Do you really want to give them the ability to put a stranglehold on you and your business?

Clearly, the winner for “control” in the WordPress vs Squarespace battle is… WordPress.

WordPress vs Squarespace: Conclusion.

As we’ve seen, when it comes to cost and control, WordPress is the clear winner in the WordPress vs Squarespace battle. And those are just 2 of the many reasons why you should always pick WordPress over Squarespace, Weebly, Wix, or any other company like them.

If you’ve found this information useful, and you’re considering using Divi or another Elegant Themes theme, then I would appreciate it if you would use one of the affiliate links on this page to make your purchase. This will help me to continue to provide useful information to you and others.

And if you don’t yet have a hosting plan, I’d appreciate you using this link to get a new hosting plan from our one and only preferred hosting company.

When shopping for a WordPress theme you will almost certainly come across a common name: ThemeForest. Without question, ThemeForest is the world’s largest marketplace for WordPress themes, but in my opinion you absolutely should never buy a theme from them.

In this article I will explain why the last place you want to buy a theme is ThemeForest.
 

The Problem with ThemeForest

First off, I want to say that I don’t have anything against Envato, the company that runs ThemeForest. In fact, I am a regular customer at many of their other marketplaces. As shown in my profile, I have been buying items from these marketplaces since 2009 and I’ve purchased over 100 items.

However, I do NOT shop at ThemeForest. I do understand how compelling their themes can look, especially if they were designed for your particular niche (for instance, you might be starting a podcast and ThemeForest offers multiple podcast themes that look fantastic). But in a lot of cases (if not most cases), the underlying theme simply does not live up to expectations.

Here are some of the reasons why:
 

Most ThemeForest themes are created by individuals.

Now, I’m all for entrepreneurship, and I’m not trying to say anything bad about “solopreneurs” (entrepreneurs that work alone), but it is a really bad idea to stake your entire online presence on one person located in some country far away from you.

What if your website goes down and the theme developer is on vacation? You’re out of luck.

What if you need help with something but your developer decides to stop supporting the theme and moves on to another career? You’ll have to start your website from scratch with a new theme.

What if a WordPress update causes a conflict with your theme that crashes your website, but time zone differences, coupled with bad response times, make it nearly impossible to have a complete conversation with the developer? You could lose days, if not weeks, of business.

When working with a reputable company (like Elegant Themes, the theme company we recommend) you know that they are going to have people on staff, they will continue supporting their themes, and they will respond quickly when you need assistance.
 

The individual developers on ThemeForest can code in different ways.

Whatever business you are in, you’ve probably looked at something that a competitor has done and said to yourself, “Why did they do that like that? I would have done it much better.”

Well, that’s how developers are too. Everybody thinks they know the best way to code. Plus, coders come with a wide variety of skill levels. That means you never really know what you’re going to get.

I’ve seen it happen far too often where a developer has used some unique code that works great, but then WordPress updates their core software and suddenly the way that the developer wrote their code is no longer compatible and your website goes down.

Working with a reputable theme company ensures that they are using experienced developers that are coding with best practices in mind at all times.
 

Individual developers on ThemeForest can be slow to update their code.

WordPress updates their core software on a regular basis, which is incredibly important, especially for security reasons. Unfortunately, many individual developers don’t do anything until after the update comes out, and if they don’t have people complaining about their websites breaking then they do nothing at all.

This behavior can put your website at risk, even if your website seems to be working fine.

Quality companies don’t act like this. They request advanced “beta” versions of any upcoming WordPress updates and use them to thoroughly test their themes to make sure everything works perfectly. If an issue is found, they will actually update the theme before WordPress does their update, ensuring you have a seamless experience.
 

ThemeForest isn’t very helpful, and there are no guarantees.

One of the problems with the themes at ThemeForest is that you can’t really see how it’s built until after you’ve bought it. All you have to go off of is comments and ratings by other people. And if you look closely at the comments, you’ll see that a lot of them, if not most of them, are from other ThemeForest developers that are just wishing them good luck on their sales.

That means that it’s difficult to tell if it’s a horribly-built theme pre-purchase. You just have to roll the dice.

So what happens if you buy a theme and then realize it’s really a pile of garbage? Not much. ThemeForest will only offer you your money back if you can prove that the theme is fully broken. The fact that it was built like crap isn’t a good enough reason for you to get your money back.

In most circumstances you’ll just be out the money you spent and you’ll have to go and find a different theme to work with.

This is one of the reasons we recommend Elegant Themes and, more specifically, their Divi theme. Not only is it a world-class theme powering hundreds of thousands of websites, but they even offer a 30-day guarantee so you can rest assured that you will get your money back if you don’t like it.
 

Conclusion.

At the end of the day, ThemeForest only exists to showcase products and facilitate a transaction. I’m not saying all of the themes on ThemeForest are bad, but your website is your online reputation. It is your “home” on the web and typically the only thing that potential clients or customers will ever see. It’s simply too important to take a chance on the themes sold on ThemeForest.

If you’ve found this information useful, and you’re considering using Divi or another Elegant Themes theme, then I would appreciate it if you would use one of the affiliate links on this page to make your purchase. This will help me to continue to provide useful information to you and others.

And if you don’t yet have a hosting plan, I’d appreciate you using this link to get a new hosting plan from our one and only preferred hosting company.

For those of you that don’t know, a DKIM record is sort of like a lock and key for your emails. It encrypts your emails so they can’t be tampered with during sending, and proves to the receiving email server that your message is legitimate. In other words, it makes it so you are less likely to get marked as SPAM or have emails kicked back to you.

Most hosting companies offer the ability to add a DKIM record to a domain, but all of them are pretty bad about giving you easy, step-by-step instructions. But don’t worry, WPSP is here to help!

For this tutorial I will be using an account on our preferred hosting company. If you use a different company, that’s okay. The instructions should be pretty close to identical as long as your company uses cPanel. If you don’t have a hosting account, or you are unhappy with yours, I encourage you to check out our preferred hosting company. Using our affiliate links helps us to be able to continue to offer free stuff to our visitors and members.

Let’s get on with it, shall we?
 

How to Add a DKIM Record to Your Hosting Account

Generate a DKIM Key

 
The first thing we need to do is to get a DKIM key. To do that, visit the tools page on DKIM Core. In the first section labeled “Generate a DKIM Core Key” enter your domain (i.e. wpsuccesspath.com) and click the “Generate” button.

The next page offers you a bunch of information, but you won’t need most of it. However, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND that you select all of the text on this page, copy it, and paste it into a document that you can store for future reference. It’s unlikely you’ll need it, but you’ll be kicking yourself if you do end up needing it and you don’t have it any more.

For today we just need to scroll down to the section labeled “Tinydns Format” and click the “Download tinydns format key” link.

Now, this string of text probably looks pretty intimidating, but don’t worry. I’ll break it down for you in a minute, but for now just leave this page as-is and don’t close it or switch away from it.
 

Add a DKIM Record to Your Domain

 
The next step is to access our cPanel in our hosting account. Open a new window or tab (remember not to close the tab that shows your TinyDNS key), login to your hosting account, and make sure you are in your cPanel. Then find the icon for “DNS Zone Editor” (this may be named something slightly different depending on your hosting provider) and click it.

The next screen is where we will add our DKIM record. Start by selecting your domain from the dropdown list and then you will see this:

Start by clicking the “Type” dropdown and switch it from “A” to “TXT”.

Now is when we get started on some copying and pasting. Switch back to the key that you generated earlier. It should look like this:

We first need to get the data for our “Host Record” field. Here is what you need to copy:

So the first character is an underscore (_) and the last part should be your domain. Make sure you don’t include the period that comes before the underscore or the colon that comes after your domain. Now click Ctrl-C (Cmd-C on a Mac) to copy that text and paste it into the “Host Record” field (Ctrl-P on a PC or Cmd-P on a Mac).

Now let’s move on to the TXT Value field. Switch back to the key that you generated and copy this section:

Your selected text should start with “v=DKIM” and end with “QAB”. Again, look at the image closely and make sure you aren’t selecting any extra characters at the beginning or end. Copy the text and then paste it into the “TXT Value” field.

Now all you have to do is click “Add Record” and you’re done! PLEASE NOTE that it can take several hours before this change becomes live. Our preferred host says it can take up to 4 hours, but it can actually take a lot longer (or a lot shorter).
 

That’s it!

 
Congratulations! You just successfully added a DKIM record!

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I’m sure you’ve heard that “content is king”, and you probably realize that most “content” is going to come in the form of blog posts or articles. Unfortunately for some of you, your writing skills are not the greatest in the world. Or maybe they just plain suck. Either way, if you’re one of those bad writers then it’s going to be hard for you to be viewed as an “authority” by your readers.

Does that mean you are out of luck? Absolutely not! Here are 5 solid options for people that are bad writers.

1) Hire an editor or ghostwriter.

Start by writing your content the best that you can, but then hire an editor or ghostwriter to come in and do a little magic, making your content sing. This is the perfect marriage between your expertise in your industry, and their expertise in the written word.

I would start by looking at Fiverr. You won’t necessarily find the very best talent there, but it will be VERY cost-effective. If you do have a bit more of a budget, then head on over to Upwork and post a job there. It will be more expensive but the talent is likely to be first class.

2) Make videos.

It is expected that by 2019 80% of the traffic on the internet will be video-based. Plus, with smart phones now shooting all the way up to 4K video, there is no reason why you can’t start a YouTube channel and turn your blog into a vlog (video-blog).

This works especially well if you are substantially better at talking than you are at writing.

And it doesn’t hurt that YouTube is the #2 search engine in the world.

Once you’ve made your video, I recommend that you send the video over to Rev and they will transcribe it for $1/minute. So a 5-minute video will cost you $5 to transcribe.

Why should you transcribe it? Because search engines can’t watch videos. So embed your video in your post and then add the transcription underneath it. Not only does this allow search engines to review your content, but people that prefer to read over watching a video can have their cake and eat it too. Plus, if you are labeling it as a “transcription” (and you ABSOLUTELY should), then people have no expectation of good writing because they know it’s a transcription and not a post.

If you want to get really fancy you can combine this with option #1. Once you have your transcription, send it to an editor or ghostwriter and have them convert it into a full article for you using their quality writing skills. If you do this, then don’t label it as a transcription.

3) Do a podcast.

It’s true… Podcasts are growing. In 2016 it is estimated that 57 million people listened to a podcast, and most listened to around 5 every week. If you can’t write, and being in front of a camera isn’t your thing, then just get a decent microphone and some free software and create your content by just talking.

That said, have structure to what you are saying. It’s way too easy for most of us to ramble on, so have an outline of what you want to talk about stick to it like glue.

Once you’ve recorded your podcast, consider heading back to Fiverr or Upwork to have some spice added to it (intros, music, etc.).

Also, just like with videos, head to Rev and get the podcast transcribed for your blog post.

4) Get a business partner.

When all else fails, you can consider bringing in a business partner that is better at creating content. You can take care of the part of the business that your skill set applies to, and they can handle all of the content creation.

You may wish to do this as a partnership or just offer them a percentage of revenue generated by their content. Just be open with the person about your expectations and I’m sure you’ll be able to come up with a great plan for both of you.

5) Hire a writer.

Look… Not everyone is cut out for creating content and many people don’t want to bring in a business partner. So that really leaves just one option: Hire a pro.

Again, head over to Fiverr or Upwork and look for a talented writer. Most writers will want some kind of direction from you, but they will often take it from there. Just know that the more steps you ask them to do (conceptualize, research, verification, writing, etc.) the more they will charge you.

I made this the last option because I think it’s the worst one from a financial standpoint. Many people will charge upwards of $200 for a single article, so you really need to have a budget if you are going to go with this option.

They also offer a support plugin, which is pretty unique. This plugin allows them to access your site to find problems without actually giving them full access. Because… You know… Trust nobody.

CONCLUSION

There you have it… 5 options to get great blog content even if you’re a bad writer.

And don’t forget: Going 1 for 5 is better than going 0 for 0. Having NO content is infinitely worse than content that is a bit bruised and ugly.

So… You have a business, or you’re starting a new one, and you need a website (or you badly need to update your exiting website). You’ve looked around and realized that there are a LOT of options out there: WordPress, Squarespace, Wix, Weebly, custom, and more. But which one should you choose?

In this post we will explore the 9 reasons why a WordPress website is the best option for you (regardless of who you are). Let’s get started!

1) You aren’t locked in.

The other guys (Squarespace, Wix, Weebly, etc.) won’t tell you this, but once you start your website with them you are pretty much locked in. It is impossible to “export” your website so that you can use it with a different service. If you end up being unhappy with the service you are getting, or you’re running up against one of their limitations, you’ll need to start your website completely from scratch with the new service you choose.

This isn’t true if you choose a WordPress website. You can easily “export” your site and go to a different website hosting company if you are getting bad results from your current one.

2) You don’t have limitations.

With other services, not only are you locked in (see #1 above), but you face significant limitations. For example, if you are a fan of PayPal, and you choose Squarespace, you are out of luck. They will only allow you to use Stripe. Do you want to sell products or services in China, or Russia, or Mexico, or Spain, or hundreds of other countries? Sorry, but Squarespace’s commerce feature limits you to the US, the UK, Canada, and Ireland. That’s it.

With WordPress, you don’t have these kinds of limitations. You can pretty much do anything (legal) you want.

3) Development speed.

As you know, technology moves REALLY fast. One of the disadvantages of WordPress is that it uses a standard code as the basis for all websites. This makes it an attractive target for hackers because if they find a security flaw that they can access, they can get to a LOT of websites. And that’s one of the reasons why WordPress is so good about updating often to close those security vulnerabilities.

If you rely on a theme that is slow to update, you not only risk having a broken website, but even if everything “looks” fine you are still open to security vulnerabilities. Since the Divi theme has a whole team behind it, they typically have their update ready to go as soon as WordPress publishes theirs.

3) Popularity means more resources are available.

Did you know that WordPress powers over 25% of the entire internet? And the developers of WordPress are shooting for 50% within the next few years.

CONCLUSION

At the end of the day, WordPress is the absolute best option for just about any kind of business.

Those of you that have been around WordPress Success Path for awhile know that we only recommend one WordPress theme for your website, regardless of what kind of business you are running. And that theme is the Divi theme.

At this point you may be thinking, “What gives, JB? Only one theme? There are THOUSANDS of themes out there! Why would you only recommend just one, ya big ninny!?!?”

First off, who you callin’ a ninny?!?!? Kidding.

In this post I am going to break down the top 8 reasons that we only recommend the Divi theme. Here we go!

1) The Divi theme can create beautiful websites without the need to know any code.

Lots of themes can be used to create beautiful websites, but only if you have a reasonable amount of coding knowledge. This includes HTML, CSS, Javascript, PHP, and more. And if you don’t have that knowledge, you will STRUGGLE!

The Divi theme’s drag-and-drop editor, along with their extensive collection of highly-customizable modules, makes the creation of a world-class website as easy as a few mouse clicks. Plus, it comes loaded with a bunch of pre-formatted pages that you can easily apply.

2) There is a whole team of developers behind the Divi theme.

Yes… There are THOUSANDS of WordPress themes out there, BUT most are offered by independent developers. That means there is just a single person that wrote all of the code for your theme. If that person decides to retire and stop updating the theme, then you are in a bad spot (because WordPress updates regularly and eventually one of those changes will break the theme if it isn’t updated as well). Or, if they are out of town for a few weeks when you find a bug that is harming your site, you’ll just have to suffer until they are available. And worst of all, as good as the theme looks, there’s always a very real chance that the underlying code is just garbage.

Since the Divi theme has a whole team behind it, you know that the code is going to be pretty great, you’ll always be able to get help, and it will always be kept up-to-date with the most current version of WordPress.

3) Development speed.

As you know, technology moves REALLY fast. One of the disadvantages of WordPress is that it uses a standard code as the basis for all websites. This makes it an attractive target for hackers because if they find a security flaw that they can access, they can get to a LOT of websites. And that’s one of the reasons why WordPress is so good about updating often to close those security vulnerabilities.

If you rely on a theme that is slow to update, you not only risk having a broken website, but even if everything “looks” fine you are still open to security vulnerabilities. Since the Divi theme has a whole team behind it, they typically have their update ready to go as soon as WordPress publishes theirs.

4) Changes are a snap in Divi.

As mentioned, the Divi theme uses a drag-and-drop editor which makes organizing the content on your page or post a snap. That means that if you want to try something, you can just drag some things around and see what works best. You can even save your page as a template so if, after making all those changes, you decide you like the old style better, you can just reload the template and you are back to where you started.

The Divi theme also has a new visual editor which can come in pretty handy at times, but that’s a topic for another time.

5) When you do need help on your site, the Divi theme staff is pretty good about helping out.

Look… “Support” departments are never perfect. This is especially true when you don’t know code because support personnel are prone to treat you like a second-class citizen. The staff behind the Divi theme is actually pretty good about breaking things down and giving you the information you need without trying to make you a coder. That doesn’t mean I haven’t argued with them a few times (I can be quite a pain), but at the end of the day I pretty much always get the information I need.

They also offer a support plugin, which is pretty unique. This plugin allows them to access your site to find problems without actually giving them full access. Because… You know… Trust nobody.

6) The Divi theme is designed to be 100% responsive.

A “responsive” website is one that automatically adjusts to the size of the screen you are using. Whether your visitors are on a phone, tablet, computer, or other internet-connected device, the content on your site will always be arranged in a visually pleasing way that fits perfectly on the screen.

Note that I said the Divi theme is “designed” to be 100% responsive. The truth is, there are a few options you can choose that might look bad on a different sized screen, but even then you can work within Divi to correct just about anything that happens (and do it without code in most circumstances).

7) There are a ton of people providing support for the Divi theme.

Imagine building your own car from scratch. If something goes wrong with it, who ya gonna call (and “Ghostbusters” is not an okay answer)?

The answer: Nobody, because you’re the only person with that car so nobody can offer assistance.

Now image you buy a Chevy Malibu (just pulled that out of thin air… Sorry if you hate Chevys). If you have a problem, there are a TON of people that can help you because it’s a widely known car.

The Divi theme is the same way. There are a ton of bloggers, companies, and users that are out there helping people with Divi and providing add-ons for Divi. Because it is so well-regarded, you can pretty much always find the help you need (plus we here at WPSP are ready and willing to help with your Divi questions).

One great example is the DiviBooster Plugin which allows people to easily accomplish some of the things that are more difficult to do in Divi. At $19, it is well worth the time and hassle it can save.

8) There are “child themes” (templates) available.

Remember at the beginning of this post when you accused me of being a “ninny” because WPSP only recommends one theme? Well, I get that. When we go looking for themes we find some pretty cool ones that look like we can just plug them into our hosting account and we are ready to rock ‘n’ roll. Having that kind of “pre-made” theme, especially when it is a theme focused on a specific industry, is a very attractive idea, and it makes you feel like you aren’t starting with a blank page, which might be how you feel with Divi.

The problem is (as we talked about earlier) that those themes are often poorly supported, can have garbage code, and often require a significant amount of coding knowledge just to make simple changes (like swapping out the logo or changing the name on the site). Trust me! I have purchased MANY themes that looked like I would only have to change a few small things and it was an incredible nightmare to get them customized for my needs.

Fortunately, there is a solution! There are many developers out there that have used Divi to create beautiful “child themes” that you can just plug in and use (some do cost money). These child themes are built using the Divi drag-and-drop editor, so there is no additional learning curve. When you need to change out a logo or a line of text, just go to that module and make the changes in a snap!

The best place to find these child themes is at the Elegant Marketplace. They have a ton of child themes running from doggy daycare, to photography, to law firms, to bistros… And the list goes on. If you really want to get a head start on your website and you have a few dollars to spare, then a child theme could be right for you.

CONCLUSION

So that covers our top 8 reasons why we only recommend Divi. At the end of the day we want your experience with WordPress to be a good one, and we have learned, through painful trail and error, that Divi is the best theme to choose if you want to maximize your WordPress experience.