You can consider the following if WP Engine pricing is too high:
Shopify = $240 a year
Woocommerce = Free, require wordpress subscription. bluehost.com does it for 2.95 /m so 34.25 promotional rate and then I think it renews at 84 a year.
Funnily enough, I have actually just started my own blog for the exact same reasons(somewhat, still the same church but stepping away from teaching/preaching while I focus on my studies and my own spiritual life). I haven't published anything yet, just using it as a place to voice thoughts and improve my writing. Will probably make it public once I have more than 2 posts.
The easiest way to go is to get WordPress up and running, you can decide whether you want to purchase a personal domain and email, but that is really up to what you hope to achieve.
bluehost.com is pretty good.
I quickly looked at bluehost.com. It looks like they work with cPanel which is helpful. Access to phpMyAdmin is also very good.
The first thing we have to know is if you have clean files and a clean database. And we need to know how your site was hacked. You might want to reset some passwords (like your FTP password).
Is your backup a (huge) archive? Like a .tar.gz file? It should contain the web root and the database dump. You need the web root folder and the database dump to reconstruct (or restore) the website.
I would put the online database and files aside. Just reset the database password and move the files to some sub folder preferably a private folder (outside the public html folder - aka web root folder). That should give you a clean starting point.
Next I would create a new database + db user and db password and open that database in phpMyAdmin. You can do that by clicking the database in the left hand pane. Next use the "import" function to upload the database file.
Once that has been done you should edit the wp-config file and enter the new database name + db user + db password there. Not sure if you have to change the db host; it's in most cases localhost.
Next just upload all the files and you should be able to login to your website again.
Next I would reset the Wordpress user passwords, update all plugins and Wordpress itself. Next I would install some plugins to secure my site.
Once everything works you might want to delete the old database and remove the old files which you set aside earlier. But please backup the restored/reconstructed situation first :-)
Questions? More details needed? Happy to help.
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>When developing the website should i use my own account or create a new one which i can just give to the client later?
Are you talking about a hosting account? If so, then use yours. With WordPress you can make your own account. WordPress doesn't limit the amount of accounts created.
>Should i buy a plan or should i just buy a theme like divi? These websites will be fairly straightforward so i don't imagine that i'll need too much to build them.
Are you a developer? Are you planning on creating your own theme? If not, then look for a theme that fits the client's needs. There are plenty of free themes out there. If you're looking for a drag-and-drop solution, then look at Oxygen 3.
> Should i give the client their password when i'm done or not?
Is the client planning on adding content to the site once you're finished with development/creation? Then yes, they will need a password.
>This is probably where i struggle the most. How do i go about getting a client to pay for their own hosting? Does wordpress offer hosting? How do you set this up exactly?
Check out dreamhost.com or bluehost.com for hosting. They make it very easy to set up a WordPress site. Both offer one-click installs.
Currently adding content to the portfolio I put together this past week. I bought a domain hosted from bluehost.com
I purchased a theme from Themeforest.com (under the html>creative section) for $13. Started parsing through all the code myself but got frustrated and reached out to the individual that created the theme on fiverr and he made the changes I requested for less than $50. He also created a new page for me not included in the theme that I set up in sketch and ported to him through zeplin.
There's a lot of routes to take but you just need to know how much time you have and how much you want to spend.
Honestly siteground is a bit more expensive. I use and highly recommends https://bluehost.com for their affordability and amazing support. Even wordpress themselves recommends them.
So, so far I have used a hosting which is bluehost.com and have started using wordpress to build the website. I have found this tutorial online https://www.competethemes.com/blog/create-site-like-upwork-odesk-freelancer/ which suggests installing freelanceEngine which appears to be some sort of plugin to use with wordpress. Is there any sort of free 'built in' plug in using wordpress that I could use without purchasing something like FreelanceEngine?
You dont need a good computer. You would use a host like dreamhost.com or bluehost.com to host your wordpress.org install. in fact they have 1 click installs. Their hosting is super cheap and really easy to use.
Namecheap.com is pretty inexpensive for .coms ~10 but GoDaddy.com is only a couple of dollars more at ~$11.99 unless they are premium domains at auction which can vary in price wildly.
Bluehost.com is inexpensive for hosting at $3.95/month.
If you're just using Paypal that's an easy integration and doesn't need e-commerce hosting. Same thing with e-transfer.
However, depending on your knowledge it is most likely going to be cheaper and easier in the long run to build your site on Shopify. I can give you an unlimited trial account if you'd like through my Shopify Partner account, in the end the cheapest package is $29/month.
One consideration (and excuse me that I don't know your level of expertise) is that although Shopify is more expensive than cheap hosting, it's complete. You don't need to necessarily hire a developer or designer if you're just going for the minimum cost possible.
Over the course of a year, Shopify + Domain is about $360.
Over the course of a year, Blue Host + Domain is $60.
Although you save $300, it's impossible to get a decent site built by a designer and developer. With Shopify it's actually fairly easy. Assuming you're new to this I would try our Shopify and see how it works for you.
Thank you.
It is a temporary domain given by bluehost.com until I can get the once I purchased from wordpress.com in a few weeks.
Yep this is on my main website, I haven't been switching between the two since nobody has been really using it all too much.
Most CMS let you tag assets (in this case, student posts) and you can give students content-writer access while maintaining editor/administrator control. They could upload their assignments that way and sort it based on author (the student), project type, or post tags. I'd look into Wordpress.org specifically. There's many resources for getting up and running and BlueHost.com has cheap monthly hosting for Wordpress sites.