Hey, welcome back to the Life Coach Launchpad. My name’s BJ, and I’m here every week talking to you about all the online business things that, as it turns out, need to happen in order to have a successful life coaching business. I’m a business coach. I love to help life coaches make more money, get more clients, have more fun, and to do what they love to do, what they’re meant to do, and that’s coaching.

So let’s dive right in. A few weeks ago on the podcast, I was talking about what tech is required to build a group coaching program. I started talking about website hosting and webpage builders, but I stopped myself because it was too far off topic, but that’s exactly what this episode is about. What is the best website hosting service?

for life coaches. And what is the best webpage builder for life coaches? I can save you at least two hours right now [00:01:00] in the next five minutes. This episode. I’m planning to be very short because the answer to the questions I mentioned is short when it comes to what most life coaches need in their website hosting service and page builder.

We do have to start off by talking about what is website hosting. Hosting is the actual server and infrastructure that your website will operate off of and on. You will have a website that lives in and runs that website. On your host servers, your host will run many customers websites on one server or multiple servers.

That’s the great thing. You don’t have to know anything about that. They will answer phone calls from any customer who has issues. They will maintain their servers. They will maintain the software needed for you to interact with their hosting service. This is the agreement that almost all life coaches will end up at is just having someone do all that for you.

Beyond that, you can gain more control and [00:02:00] speed by hosting your website on a designated server at a hosting company. If, for some reason, you need even more security, control, and speed than that, you can host your website on your own server, at home. You could go buy the hardware. But that is so f So far beyond the needs of the average life coach.

When I’m talking about website hosting, I’m talking about a company that hosts many people’s websites. They do all the work required to keep the basic infrastructure up and running. Okay, you guys, that might have been too long, but that is what a host does. Then, There’s the web page builder. The web page builder is where you get to design what the page actually looks like.

It consists of multiple web pages. The web pages are built with a page builder. If you were to hire a web page designer, they would design the page using design software, probably Adobe. The design that they send you is not [00:03:00] actually a website. A web developer would then build that page using that design.

They would use a web page builder. WordPress, Wix, Weebly. These are examples of webpage builders. Some webpage builders have hosting built in, some you’ll have to purchase separately. Let me use WordPress as an example. First of all, there are two versions of WordPress. There is wordpress. com and wordpress.

org. This has led to many people being very confused. They get recommended to use WordPress. Because that is a very standard platform to use for a website, and they end up using the wrong version. WordPress. org is the real WordPress. It has ultimate flexibility and capability by using plugins. Plugins are basically mini programs, mini applications.

And there is a plugin for absolutely everything that you can think of. WordPress. com is more of a basic [00:04:00] functionality. It used to be free, now there are paid options. It includes the WordPress page builder functionality and hosting, puts those together. Another example of the web page builder and hosting combined is Wix.

Wix has their own web page builder. The web page builder is what we see as the user interface when we’re actually building a web page. When I say interface, I mean that we are not actually creating the code that a web page consists of. We are using drag and drop functionality. They’re built in design tools so that we are not actually coding.

Wix has hosting built in. But here is what you need to know about Wix. All the tools I mentioned within a category. They’re all the same. These products have been commoditized. That means enough companies have come in and ended up making their products the same, roughly the same as all their competitors.

The same for our purposes within reason their customer [00:05:00] support is all very similar. So long as you. You’re choosing one of the big names. You will be fine. You are better off just picking one versus sifting through all the data and reviews to figure out which one is the best. They are all similar. I’ve done this research.

I’ve done this research research for myself. I’ve done it for multiple clients and I always come to the same conclusion. They’re all so similar. I’ve done this. My first website I built probably eight years ago. And this is kind of the inkling that I had at that time. And I’ve done the research multiple times since then I’m coming up with the same answer.

Just pick one, but this is the decision that you do need to make. Do you want to run the risk of hindered SEO functionality? And design capability in the future, but potentially, potentially make setup just a little easier. If so, you can go with an all in one solution like Wix, WordPress, Squarespace, [00:06:00] Weebly.

GoDaddy has an all in one solution now. I think you can hear what I’m saying. I highly recommend a three step setup process if you’re just starting out, as in you don’t have a website yet, but you’re looking to maybe create your first landing page, and you intend to eventually build out a full website.

You want to take just a few extra minutes now so that you future proof yourself. Going through this process is not that difficult if you have the right guidance, and we’ll make it so that you can reuse Anything you make now and always add more onto it in the future. The simple three step setup will give you all the functionality you need to set up a full website to offer individual coaching, group coaching, masterclasses, webinars, boot camps, retreats, events, you get it, anything.

Here are the three steps. First, you’re going to buy your domain. Go to any [00:07:00] web domain purchasing platform like GoDaddy or Hostinger. I’ve purchased from Google domains in the past, but they are now recommending Squarespace as a place to buy domains, so that would work too. You’ll brainstorm what you want the URL of your website to be.

The domain is the, if the example is your company. com, that is the domain name. Using www has been optional for a number of years now and is not actually part of the domain. You are purchasing the your company. com. That’s the domain. I’ve used GoDaddy. I can recommend them. If someone else recommends something else, as long as it’s a major brand, you can go with that.

All else being equal, just go with GoDaddy. Then, go to a website hosting company. Like I said, within a category, the services they provide and the price you pay is all pretty much in the same range. You can go on sites like Reddit and plenty of people will have plenty of advice, much of it differing.

There’s really, there’s like this [00:08:00] steady distribution across all the big names. To eliminate you having to do that research, I recommend HostGator. I use it for two clients currently. I last did intensive research on this just three months ago. In the past, for websites of my own or for clients, I’ve used Bluehost, I’ve used GoDaddy, Squarespace, Wix, and they all have very similar functionality.

Just use HostGator. Unless you have someone recommending something to you, if it’s a big name in the space, just use that. All else being equal. Just use HostGator. When you set up your hosting, you will indicate, they’ll ask you, that you’re setting up a WordPress site. This is what I recommend. Instead of using an all in one solution like Squarespace, Wix, WordPress.

com, Weebly, etc. Take the extra few minutes to future proof yourself and your hosting. By setting up a WordPress site, your hosting site will set up WordPress on that space. They create for you. [00:09:00] WordPress is like this very broad platform. It has a bunch of plugins that work with it. It is what’s it like?

It’s kind of like windows. Then there’s a bunch of programs and applications that can run within WordPress that give you all the functionality that you could ever want. Next, you will install a plugin called Elementor. This is what you will use to design every webpage. This is the actual drag and drop webpage editor.

The lowest functionality version is free. The next step up is 50 per year. That’s what I have. That’s what I’ve been using for many years. It is extremely affordable and brings so much functionality to anything you want to do. I have a cousin who is a designer, and he was having trouble making the design that, the webpage design that he was creating into an actual webpage.

But I said, have you tried Elementor? And he tried it, he’s like, oh, that is exactly what I [00:10:00] needed. That gives me the control that I need to make it look like my design. And that’s it. That’s the three step process of setting up your website. If you were doing this for the first time. So boom, how many minutes am I at?

Oh, shoot. That was way more than five minutes, but I’ve saved you multiple hours of research. Just go do this three step process. I chose this as the topic for this week’s podcast, because you can launch any offer with just a website. Email capability and a way to get paid. This is one of those basic building blocks that you are going to use for the rest of your coaching career.

If you would like help with setting up your website for the first time or are ready for a refresh, I can help. Even if you have something going. Something, but you’re looking to make your offer way more clear and enticing. Shall we say an irresistible offer? Set up a free mini session on my website, BJButler.

com. I’m still on our family vacation in [00:11:00] Japan. I recorded this before we left. If you email me, expect a delayed response. I’ll talk to you next week.

Hey, welcome back to the Life Coach Launchpad. My name’s BJ, and I’m here every week talking to you about all the online business things that, as it turns out, need to happen in order to have a successful life coaching business. I’m a business coach. I love to help life coaches make more money, get more clients, have more fun, and to do what they love to do, what they’re meant to do, and that’s coaching.

So let’s dive right in. A few weeks ago on the podcast, I was talking about what tech is required to build a group coaching program. I started talking about website hosting and webpage builders, but I stopped myself because it was too far off topic, but that’s exactly what this episode is about. What is the best website hosting service?

for life coaches. And what is the best webpage builder for life coaches? I can save you at least two hours right now [00:01:00] in the next five minutes. This episode. I’m planning to be very short because the answer to the questions I mentioned is short when it comes to what most life coaches need in their website hosting service and page builder.

We do have to start off by talking about what is website hosting. Hosting is the actual server and infrastructure that your website will operate off of and on. You will have a website that lives in and runs that website. On your host servers, your host will run many customers websites on one server or multiple servers.

That’s the great thing. You don’t have to know anything about that. They will answer phone calls from any customer who has issues. They will maintain their servers. They will maintain the software needed for you to interact with their hosting service. This is the agreement that almost all life coaches will end up at is just having someone do all that for you.

Beyond that, you can gain more control and [00:02:00] speed by hosting your website on a designated server at a hosting company. If, for some reason, you need even more security, control, and speed than that, you can host your website on your own server, at home. You could go buy the hardware. But that is so f So far beyond the needs of the average life coach.

When I’m talking about website hosting, I’m talking about a company that hosts many people’s websites. They do all the work required to keep the basic infrastructure up and running. Okay, you guys, that might have been too long, but that is what a host does. Then, There’s the web page builder. The web page builder is where you get to design what the page actually looks like.

It consists of multiple web pages. The web pages are built with a page builder. If you were to hire a web page designer, they would design the page using design software, probably Adobe. The design that they send you is not [00:03:00] actually a website. A web developer would then build that page using that design.

They would use a web page builder. WordPress, Wix, Weebly. These are examples of webpage builders. Some webpage builders have hosting built in, some you’ll have to purchase separately. Let me use WordPress as an example. First of all, there are two versions of WordPress. There is wordpress. com and wordpress.

org. This has led to many people being very confused. They get recommended to use WordPress. Because that is a very standard platform to use for a website, and they end up using the wrong version. WordPress. org is the real WordPress. It has ultimate flexibility and capability by using plugins. Plugins are basically mini programs, mini applications.

And there is a plugin for absolutely everything that you can think of. WordPress. com is more of a basic [00:04:00] functionality. It used to be free, now there are paid options. It includes the WordPress page builder functionality and hosting, puts those together. Another example of the web page builder and hosting combined is Wix.

Wix has their own web page builder. The web page builder is what we see as the user interface when we’re actually building a web page. When I say interface, I mean that we are not actually creating the code that a web page consists of. We are using drag and drop functionality. They’re built in design tools so that we are not actually coding.

Wix has hosting built in. But here is what you need to know about Wix. All the tools I mentioned within a category. They’re all the same. These products have been commoditized. That means enough companies have come in and ended up making their products the same, roughly the same as all their competitors.

The same for our purposes within reason their customer [00:05:00] support is all very similar. So long as you. You’re choosing one of the big names. You will be fine. You are better off just picking one versus sifting through all the data and reviews to figure out which one is the best. They are all similar. I’ve done this research.

I’ve done this research research for myself. I’ve done it for multiple clients and I always come to the same conclusion. They’re all so similar. I’ve done this. My first website I built probably eight years ago. And this is kind of the inkling that I had at that time. And I’ve done the research multiple times since then I’m coming up with the same answer.

Just pick one, but this is the decision that you do need to make. Do you want to run the risk of hindered SEO functionality? And design capability in the future, but potentially, potentially make setup just a little easier. If so, you can go with an all in one solution like Wix, WordPress, Squarespace, [00:06:00] Weebly.

GoDaddy has an all in one solution now. I think you can hear what I’m saying. I highly recommend a three step setup process if you’re just starting out, as in you don’t have a website yet, but you’re looking to maybe create your first landing page, and you intend to eventually build out a full website.

You want to take just a few extra minutes now so that you future proof yourself. Going through this process is not that difficult if you have the right guidance, and we’ll make it so that you can reuse Anything you make now and always add more onto it in the future. The simple three step setup will give you all the functionality you need to set up a full website to offer individual coaching, group coaching, masterclasses, webinars, boot camps, retreats, events, you get it, anything.

Here are the three steps. First, you’re going to buy your domain. Go to any [00:07:00] web domain purchasing platform like GoDaddy or Hostinger. I’ve purchased from Google domains in the past, but they are now recommending Squarespace as a place to buy domains, so that would work too. You’ll brainstorm what you want the URL of your website to be.

The domain is the, if the example is your company. com, that is the domain name. Using www has been optional for a number of years now and is not actually part of the domain. You are purchasing the your company. com. That’s the domain. I’ve used GoDaddy. I can recommend them. If someone else recommends something else, as long as it’s a major brand, you can go with that.

All else being equal, just go with GoDaddy. Then, go to a website hosting company. Like I said, within a category, the services they provide and the price you pay is all pretty much in the same range. You can go on sites like Reddit and plenty of people will have plenty of advice, much of it differing.

There’s really, there’s like this [00:08:00] steady distribution across all the big names. To eliminate you having to do that research, I recommend HostGator. I use it for two clients currently. I last did intensive research on this just three months ago. In the past, for websites of my own or for clients, I’ve used Bluehost, I’ve used GoDaddy, Squarespace, Wix, and they all have very similar functionality.

Just use HostGator. Unless you have someone recommending something to you, if it’s a big name in the space, just use that. All else being equal. Just use HostGator. When you set up your hosting, you will indicate, they’ll ask you, that you’re setting up a WordPress site. This is what I recommend. Instead of using an all in one solution like Squarespace, Wix, WordPress.

com, Weebly, etc. Take the extra few minutes to future proof yourself and your hosting. By setting up a WordPress site, your hosting site will set up WordPress on that space. They create for you. [00:09:00] WordPress is like this very broad platform. It has a bunch of plugins that work with it. It is what’s it like?

It’s kind of like windows. Then there’s a bunch of programs and applications that can run within WordPress that give you all the functionality that you could ever want. Next, you will install a plugin called Elementor. This is what you will use to design every webpage. This is the actual drag and drop webpage editor.

The lowest functionality version is free. The next step up is 50 per year. That’s what I have. That’s what I’ve been using for many years. It is extremely affordable and brings so much functionality to anything you want to do. I have a cousin who is a designer, and he was having trouble making the design that, the webpage design that he was creating into an actual webpage.

But I said, have you tried Elementor? And he tried it, he’s like, oh, that is exactly what I [00:10:00] needed. That gives me the control that I need to make it look like my design. And that’s it. That’s the three step process of setting up your website. If you were doing this for the first time. So boom, how many minutes am I at?

Oh, shoot. That was way more than five minutes, but I’ve saved you multiple hours of research. Just go do this three step process. I chose this as the topic for this week’s podcast, because you can launch any offer with just a website. Email capability and a way to get paid. This is one of those basic building blocks that you are going to use for the rest of your coaching career.

If you would like help with setting up your website for the first time or are ready for a refresh, I can help. Even if you have something going. Something, but you’re looking to make your offer way more clear and enticing. Shall we say an irresistible offer? Set up a free mini session on my website, BJButler.

com. I’m still on our family vacation in [00:11:00] Japan. I recorded this before we left. If you email me, expect a delayed response. I’ll talk to you next week.