Why do you need iPage?
For both newbies and expert web admins, iPage is increasingly popular because they are both affordable and feature-packed. If you are just starting out in the web business or just experimenting with what you can do with a website, iPage is a good starting point since it will only require you $1.99 per month (prepaid for a 2-year contract) – which is really cheap.
It is cheaper than your gourmet coffee!
For those who are managing multiple sites, this friendly price tag helps you keep your running costs down especially since you need to pay for multiple domains, content and even add ons like security suites and marketing costs.
Other than the savings that it will bring your team, here are the other benefits of using iPage as your web host:
Anytime money back guarantee. So you don’t need to rush your evaluation of their services, you can always contact the iPage team if you think you are not getting what you signed up for.
Lots of marketing support that you can use to launch your site or boost your sales. Things like Google Adwords, Facebook ad credits and Yahoo listings for free.
Free website template tools so that even without WordPress, you can start creating pages for your site.
Why do you need WordPress?
Apart from web templates, you need a content management system like WordPress to make update and maintenance of your site’s content much easier. WordPress helps you:
Write and update the text content of your site. WordPress allows you to save posts as drafts and then publish them during a specific time.
Take advantage of ready-made plugins like social media buttons, links and feeds
Take advantage of mobile-porting applications so that you don’t need to create a separate site for your mobile users.
Of course there are many more features provided by WordPress but these are the most practical ones for a newbie web admin.
Step by step instructions for your WordPress setup
Here’s how you can setup your WordPress through iPage:
Login to your vDeck control panel
Under the “WEBSITE” section, find the “WordPress” icon and click it
You may encounter this warning after clicking the wordpress icon, just click the continue button.
On the next page, you will be redirected to mojomarketplace.com to install wordpress.
Next, click for the “Start” button to do a brand new install of wordpress in your site if this was the first time. If not, click the “Import” button if there’s an existing installation.
After that, choose the domain you want to run in wordpress. Dont forget to click the “Check Domain” button if the domain is ready for the installation.
Lastly, click on the “Install Now” button to install wordpress in your selected domain. Dont forget to check the “I have read the terms and conditions of the GPLv2“
Just make sure you have the latest WordPress kit downloaded.
What to do next?
After installation, you can now enter your content. You can start by selecting the theme that you want. You can choose from thousands of templates, both paid and free so that you can start creating your site. You can easily change from one template to the other.
You can also customize your templates so that you can incorporate your brand colors, logos and even the layout.
Other things that you should take advantage of when using WordPress:
Facebook feeds insertion and ready-made buttons for liking and sharing
Twitter feeds insertion and a retweet function – no coding needed!
SEO mechanisms to drive traffic to your site
Statistics counters to help analyze your site data, a good alternative to Google Analytics
Import content from Tumblr, for those who have existing Tumblr pages
Plugins for video display, photo browsing and even PayPal integration are all available via WordPress