As an e-commerce professional, you need a professional online presence to showcase your marketing expertise and solidify your legitimacy to potential business partners. Websites not only provide an easy way for suppliers to contact you, they prove your ability to add value simply by existing – and defy the stereotype that Amazon sellers are amateurs sellers.
If you’ve never created a website, WordPress is a fantastic, user-friendly option for beginners. Combined with Todd’s hosting platform of choice, BlueHost, your life will become even easier.
So if you’re farther down the line with your Amazon venture and looking to boost your business with a stellar online presence, let’s break down how you can create a strong, value prop website in WordPress.
Get Bluehost website hosting: https://amazonseller.school/bluehost
Logo Design from Fiverr: https://amazonseller.school/fiverr
Have Us Build Your Website: https://amazonseller.school/valueadd
First Thing’s First
Before you can even think about creating a website, you’ll need a hosting account to house your website along with a registered business domain. If you’re just getting started, check out BlueHost. It’s fantastic for new and experienced users, has great pricing, and is seamless with WordPress.
Firstly, you’ll need to create an account and enter your information. You can opt for more privacy features to protect your contact information and, if you like free features, skip the section on Office 365. With Todd’s help, you can link your business email to a Gmail account for free.
Once you’ve completed your purchase, click Create Account, set up your password, and log in.
The Website
Time to get started. Once you log-in click Let’s Create A Website, select Business Site, select what type of business you have (e-commerce), and who you’re creating the site for (yourself).
Next, create a name for your website (likely the name of your business) and set a tagline. Taglines should encompass what the site is about in a short, succinct way, such as e-commerce reimagined.
Quick tip – don’t just specify that you work on Amazon. Your website should spell out that you’re an e-commerce professional who specializes in platforms like Amazon.
Also, if you’re new to websites, you can even specify that you’re “a little” comfortable with building a website and BlueHost will take extra steps to walk you through the process as you go along.
Next, select a theme for your website. Your theme will be the overall basic design of the pages you build within the site. Aim for something simple that loads quickly and is relevant to your industry. WordPress also includes pre-set themes specific to different industries. Browse the e-commerce themes for a bit and select what resonates with you.
Once you’ve selected a theme, install WordPress. Please note that WordPress will provide you with a temporary domain name while the one you just purchased finishes processing.
The Building Blocks
When you log-in to WordPress, you’ll see what’s essentially the backend of your website. This is where you’ll build all of your individual pages. Before you start to build, you’ll want to install a few plug-ins that will make each step of your website creation process easier. Each theme recommends its own set of plug-ins. One of the plug-ins Todd uses is Elementor. Elementor allows you to visually edit your website.
Let’s start by creating a Homepage. On the left-hand side, click Pages → Add New Page.
Quick note – every time you finish a section of your site, click Update to ensure that everything is saved.
Once you’ve got a page, click Appearance → Customize to make sure the homepage you’re creating is, in fact, designated as the site’s homepage. Then click Homepage Settings → A Static Page.
Get Visual
Finally, you’re ready to build. As you’re designing your site, click Edit In Elementor. Using the column tool, you can start adding different. While WordPress is user-friendly, the platform provides just enough options for you to customize your site and build it however you see fit.
As you’re building out your content, click Add A New Section, and select how many columns you want in that particular section. Each “section” should include value add information. What does this mean? Your site should explain exactly what you can do to ultimately add value to a brand’s business. For instance, following MAP (Minimum Advertising Pricing) and maximizing sales by optimizing existing listings are great value adds.
For each value add section you can add visual icons to correspond with each headline by dragging an icon onto each of the columns you’ve created. Under the icon, you can add a header listing the value add and a text box so you can describe in more detail what your services entail.
Pictures are always fantastic, eye-catching elements to a website. For access to tons of free images, use Pixabay.
Contact Info
While it may seem like the insignificant add-on to every website you’ve ever clicked on, sections for contact information offer more value than you realize. With phone and address information (or whatever you’re comfortable listing), you’re proving to brands that you’re a legitimate business, not just a stranger who knows how to build a website.
Let’s create a stellar section for your contact information. First, head to the menu in the upper-left corner and click Exit to Dashboard. Next, click WPForms (you might need to add this from the plug-ins section if you don’t see it already). Adding a form to your website is great because if you put up your direct email address you’ll be flooded with spam emails and no one has time for that!
In WPForms, select a simple contact form, or whichever template you prefer, and hit save. Once you’re back in your section, click the plus sign in the column you want to add the contact form to and select the contact form from the left side toolbar.
Let’s Link
To connect sections of your site, simply click Edit With Elementor and head to your handy left side menu.
Click the Menu Anchor and drag that above the section you want to anchor. Let’s create a Contact Us button and use this as an example. The goal here is to link that button to the Contact section you’ve just created.
Once you’ve dragged that into place, you should see a bar on the left side of your screen giving you the option to enter text into The ID of Menu Anchor. Then, label this as “contact” (or anything, really). To link it with the button of choice, simply select the button (in this instance, the Contact Us button), head to the left-hand side and type “contact” (or whichever word you’ve chosen), into the LINK bar after the # sign. And voila, your button and your page are linked, instantly enhancing the experience of your website.
All About Aesthetic
Great websites need great images. If you’re looking to make sections of your site look nicer – as you should be – click Edit With Elementor.
Using the top Homepage section as an example, let’s start by adding a column beneath the title. To add a background image, head to the left-hand side, click Style → Background (make sure it’s set to classic), and simply add an image using Pixabay. As you build your design, play with color, images, and sizing, overlay text when appropriate, and choose images that enhance the meaning of your text. Experiment to figure out what looks sleek and professional yet eye-catching and relevant to your site.
Your website shouldn’t be black and white (literally). Luckily, WordPress has tools to help you build something beautiful without a design degree. Like anything else, the more time you spend on WordPress, the more skills you’ll acquire.
Logos
Inside Header, you can upload a logo to replace the text that you inputted when naming your website in the very beginning. Fiverr is a great place to snag cheap logos.
Quick Note
Finally, you’ll need to launch your site and disable the Coming Soon message. At the top toolbar, simply click on the big orange button that says, Coming Soon, and click the button on the next page that says, Launch Your Website. Now your site is live to the world. To view your site as the outside world sees it, click View Site.
Overall
Show brands how you can boost their sales with a creative, user-friendly website that highlights the actionable steps you as an entrepreneur are willing to take. Debunk the Amazon stereotype and show suppliers how serious you are about adding value to their business. When all is said and done, your website will speak for itself.
Happy selling everybody.
