How to Create a Website for Your Small Business (a Three-Part Tutorial Series) from Automattic Design

Posted byJenTPosted inHow-To, Support SpotlightTags:,

Are you a small business owner looking to set up your very first website? There’s been some really great tutorials and content coming out of Automattic’s various satellite blogs to help you.

I entirely missed the first two installments of this series on Automattic.Design on creating a SB website, so here are links to all 3 installments so you don’t miss them either:

Part 1: Planning Your Site 

Part 2: Website Structure and Content

Part 3: Customization and Sharing

Another great addition for time-strapped site owners, WordPress.com has teamed up with Pexels to bring Creative Commons Zero (CC0) License images directly to your site’s Media Library.

To access these images in your My Site Post or Page Editor, click on the +Add icon in the upper row of the Editor tools, select “Free photo library” which opens the search function for Pexel photos. Browse and select the image you want to use and click “Insert” to add the image to your post or page and it will be uploaded to your site’s Media Library, which also means they can be used for Featured Images.

One last resource for SMBs which is not new, but seems to be mostly unknown, is WordPress.com’s “Go” blog, “where experts share their knowledge on building and growing a successful web presence.”  Add it to your reading list!

Published by JenT

After 4 years hand-coding websites, 2 years setting up and running WordPress sites, I launched my first website on WordPress.com in 2006 and never looked back. Since then, I’ve helped other site owners safely navigate through the ins and outs of the ever-changing WordPress.com ecosystem. Find me at wpcommaven.com

7 thoughts on “How to Create a Website for Your Small Business (a Three-Part Tutorial Series) from Automattic Design”

    1. I’m so sorry, David. I completely overlooked your comment, but as you know it was a roller coaster month around here with four-footed people needing attention.

      I also very much liked these articles because they were laid out in an understandable and readable format. Sometimes when setting up a site there are so many little details that one jumps from one thing to another. These articles really are usable.

      And I see that there was a recent announcement about the additional free media we have access to, but it was presented as if it is only available in the WP app. That surprised me.

  2. Not sure I would go down that route, but I asked Support, and they confirmed one can use WooCommerce and other plugins on the Business plan, so maybe it is a viable alternative to self-hosted for an e-commerce store.

    About the free photos – I might try them with the mobile app to see whether attribution or a note on the source is pulled in.

    1. It is possible to do the whole thing under the Business plan, but don’t know how the cost of upgrading to Business compares to hosting a standalone site on other providers.The only measure I have is Pressable, which was the hosting plan offered to users wanting an online shop before WPcom Business was fully operational, was listed on the signup page at US$25/month. So US$300, same as the Business plan.

      All the Pexels photos are CC0 (zero) which means no attribution is required (or noted). And I hope I was clear (?), these photos are available via Add Media in the online My Sites/Calypso Editor as well. It’s a real boon to users and quite a feather in Pexels’ cap to be integrated with WPcom. 🙂

      1. Our self-hosted store is $20/month for hosting. Mailchimp and Stripe integration are free. We have a couple of extensions that are probably about another $150 total for the year. So similar costs, but security is taken care of, and sites are optimised.
        I see why I didn’t see the free photos – I use the ‘old’ version of the editor. Thanks for the tip – it’s the first reason I’ve seen to use the ‘improved’ editor.

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