I have been with GoDaddy since the inception of my business back in July 2007. However, lately I have been wanting to do more with my site and found that Hostgator offers that flexibility, including the ability to insert a WordPress website.

But, since developing a WordPress site is going to take considerably more time than I anticipated, I had to go with this template for the time being. I really prefer all the bells and whistles that WordPress offers as a main website template. So, some of the obvious will be missing unfortunately.

Please let me know your thoughts on the layout, content--anything you see fit to mention. All comments will be greatly appreciated!

Thank you in advance.

http://calibervirtualservices.net

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Delilah Smith
Caliber Virtual Services

Delilah,

You can install Wordpress on Godaddy, you probably have to upgrade your account with them. I know they have several different account options so speak/chat with one of the customer service people and get recommendations from them.

A Wordpress site does not take tons of time to develop if you can find a template that has most of what you need. At that point it's just a case of changing out the header for your preferred image and adding widgets/plugins as needed.

~C

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~Christina|BD Mag|VOSTeam

GoDaddy does that you install WordPress and they have two options. The first is an upgrade in which you do the work yourself getting it set up and the second is WP Plus where they install WordPress and set up the basics (database and program) for you. Like Christina said, call them and they will walk you through your options.

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Lee Drozak
My Office Assistant

Originally Posted by ChristinaVOS

Delilah, You can install Wordpress on Godaddy, you probably have to upgrade your account with them. I know they have several different account options so speak/chat with one of the customer service people and get recommendations from them. A Wordpress site does not take tons of time to develop if you can find a template that has most of what you need. At that point it's just a case of changing out the header for your preferred image and adding widgets/plugins as needed. ~C

Hi Christina!

I didn't realize I had other options to consider when wanting to install Wordpress on my GoDaddy site. I heard so much to the contrary that it wasn't really recommended by some. So I didn't even look much further into the possibility. Good to know. (I still have my account with them.)

Wordpress, I think initially can appear to be intimidating. However, after looking at some templates as per your suggestion, perhaps just being patient, mapping out my desired design and set up, it shouldn't be as challenging as I imagined.

Love coming here to gain insight and receive such great recommendations and suggestions. I know you are a very busy lady, so I especially thank you for the comment!

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Delilah Smith
Caliber Virtual Services

Originally Posted by leedrozak

GoDaddy does that you install WordPress and they have two options. The first is an upgrade in which you do the work yourself getting it set up and the second is WP Plus where they install WordPress and set up the basics (database and program) for you. Like Christina said, call them and they will walk you through your options.

Yes, thank you for the suggestion. Sometimes as a VA we feel we are by ourselves in making changes such as these. I am very happy to have other VAs I can bounce thoughts and challenges off to.

So, that said, I guess I will be tweaking the site in Wordpress. I will post when that has been accomplished. Had I realized it wouldn't have taken much more than what it took to do this one, I could have had a critique on the WP site instead.

Thanks guys!

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Delilah Smith
Caliber Virtual Services

Delilah,

Let me know if you get stuck :-)

~C

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~Christina|BD Mag|VOSTeam

Hey there Christina!

Wanted to let you know I've completed the design of my Wordpress site! Had a ball with it!

I basically spent time in selecting a theme, mapping out my content, understanding widgets, plugins, changing placement of pages, adding a blog, adding images, urls, and even a little code.

Of course a website is always a work in progress. But, I am at a point where I wanted to share my results with you (and others who are interested) to finally get a real critique.

I would love to add a contact form, opt-in form, and more at some point in the future. The more sites I see, the more I want to add.

Thanks for the tips. Curious about your thoughts now.

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Delilah Smith
Caliber Virtual Services

Nice Job Delilah!

I have some tips to help though.
Not looking at content at all, just design. Here are my suggestions:

-First and foremost, your images are loading really slow. They are HUGE and .jpg. It's best to resize them to what you need outside of WP (not just shrink them within the post/page) and save as .gif. They will load much faster.

- The calendar in the sidebar looks out of place. It's taking up some valuable real estate. If you don't have a newsletter or free report for visitors to sign up yet- highlight a testimonial or, even better, put your social media links there (much better than buried on contact page).
-In Footer- the widgets- I would find something else to put there. Could be image links to forums/associations you are a member of, A mini about your company (basically your elevator speech) with a pic of you (diff from about page), You could also put your twitter or FB feed. Many options for this.
- Change your permalinks. Your url's are like http://calibervirtualservices.net/?page_id=52
got to settings->Permalinks and click "custom" dot. In that box put /%pagename% then save - if things are acting funny after after that change it to /%pagename%/%postname%
- Remove the "rss" in the nav bar at the top & next to the header it is very out of place on a business website but you need it for the blog. Does the theme allow for different sidebars on pages? maybe add a link in the sidebar (with the social media icons).

Those are the things I noticed right away- someone else will have to comment on the content, I'm no writer. lol


~C

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~Christina|BD Mag|VOSTeam

Fantastic! Thank you so very much! You are a gem. You should consider giving little mini email courses or a teleseminar on things like this.

I've been reading your posts. You are quite knowledgeable in these areas.

Chat soon.

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Delilah Smith
Caliber Virtual Services