How To Create A Niche Site On WordPress In Under 60 Minutes

Starting a niche site shouldn’t take weeks, nor cost you thousands of dollars.

This guide will teach you how to build a WordPress site at almost no cost, all you need is hosting, and preferably a domain.

You’ll learn how to deploy WordPress on CloudFlare, connect your domain, install a theme, plugins, index your site, and track its performance.

How To Create A Niche Site In Under 60 Minutes

We all know there's no such thing as "free", but my goal here is to make this whole thing cost you no more than a cheap dinner, and take you no longer than a couple hours each phase, so you can actually get to writing content and finding out whether it's even worth investing time and effort in a specific niche.

I'm a noob just like you when it comes to technical stuff, so I like to keep things as simple as possible.

Nothing in this guide requires any technical knowledge, there's no complicated steps or any of that.

To do EVERYTHING I'm going to mention in this guide, you actually need a domain and hosting. It's important to note that this post assumes that you've already picked a niche and domain.

You'll also need hosting, I personally use CloudWays and will be using it in this guide.

Get a 3 day free trial at CloudWays and follow along with me!

How To Deploy WordPress From Scratch 15 minutes.

Here's what you need to deploy WordPress in 2 steps.

• Domain Name

• CloudWays Account

• CloudFlare Account

• Couple hours of Spare Time

Step 2. Create & Set Up CloudFlare Account

First step is to create a CloudFlare account so we can point your domain to your server.

• Go to Add Site

• Enter your domain

• Select the Free plan

• Follow any DNS changes they require

Next, go to your domain registrar (wherever you're currently holding the domain) - go to DNS settings and select "Custom DNS".

Then enter CloudFlare's DNS, point your site to

• joyce.ns.cloudflare.com

• rodrigo.ns.cloudflare.com

Now your site is pointed to CloudFlare, which we'll use to point to your hosting.

Step 1. Create & Set Up Your CloudWays Server

Sign up for an account at CloudWays, this will be your hosting.

On your CloudWays account - Add Server.

Select WordPress, enter a name for your site and server, select VULTR 1GB, choose a location near you, DEPLOY.

You can always go back and change the names and server settings.

That should take a few minutes to process, but once it's done, now Add Application.

Select WordPress, enter a name for your site.

Wait for it to be installed, it takes a few minutes.

Next, copy the IP address shown here, and go back to CLOUDFLARE.

In CloudFlare, go to DNS, Add New Record, in the Name, enter @, and paste your IP in the next box, then press Save.

If you have an existing A record pointed to another server, change it to the new one.

Next - go back to CloudWays, Domain Management, and enter your domain.

Next, go to SSL Certificate, add your email, domain name (www. yourdomain .com) and hit Install Certificate.

When it's added - let's log into WordPress and customize it.

To log into WordPress, go back to Access Details, copy your password, and log into the Admin Panel.

You should now be in WordPress.

Total time elapsed, under 15 minutes.

Next, we install a theme & plugins.

If you got this far and found this useful, bookmark this post (CTRL + D) so you can repeat this process.

How To Install A Theme & Plugins

Now that you're on WordPress..

Go to Appearance > Themes > Add New > Scroll down until you find GeneratePress > Install Theme > Activate. Boom. Functional site. Total cost $0.

Total time so far about 17 minutes.

Then, go to Settings > General & add your business name & a catchy tag line.

Something I recommend you do before doing ANYTHING ELSE at this point, is temporarily blocking search engines from indexing your site, until you have some more content.

To do that, go to Settings > Reading, and tick "Discourage Search Engines From Indexing This Site"

This is temporary while we add some content to the site. Don't enable this until your website passes this SEO checklist for new websites.

I usually submit a site to index after it's got 3-5+ articles, sometimes more. At this stage, you have a lot to go before indexing.

Here's usually when I recommend you install Google Analytics & Google Search Console:

• Basic Google Analytics 4 Setup For WordPress

• Basic Google Search Console Setup For WordPress

Now let's install some plugins.

Plugins

Now we start configuring some basic plugins.

Go to Plugins > Add New

Add the following plugins. These are non-negotiables, all free.

• RankMath - All-in-one SEO tool

• GenerateBlocks - Theme Customization

• Joli Table Of Contents - Inserts Table of Content

• Site Kit by Google - Connects Google Analytics & Search Console

• WPForms - Forms

• WP Fastest Cache (free) or.. WP Rocket (optional $49/yr)

Now we set them up in this order.

Site Kit by Google

Begin with Site Kit by Google, if you've already created a Google Analytics & Search Console, you just have to click Connect and it'll attach itself automatically.

Rank Math

When you open RankMath, you'll be greeted with the installation wizard.

Enable RankMath > Start Wizard > Easy:

• Choose a business type that reflects what you do

• Website Name: Your business name that will appear on Google

• Alternative Name: If you use acronyms or alternative names, add them here

• Person/Organization Name: Add more company details that will appear in Googles Knowledge Panel

• Upload A Logo

• Upload A Social Share Image

Go to RankMath Dashboard, Select Advanced Mode (top right) and enable:

• 404 Monitor

• Sitemap

• SEO Analyzer

• Schema

• Analytics

• Instant Indexing

• Image SEO

• Link Counter

• Redirections

Next. Go to General Settings 

• Links

  • Enable "Strip Category Base"

  • Save

• Breadcrumbs

  • Enable Breadcrumbs function

• Images

  • Enable Add missing ALT & TITLE attributes

Now, go to Titles & Meta

• Global Meta

  • Enable Capitalize Titles

• Social Meta

  • Add Your Social Media Profiles

• Home Page

  • Add a Home Page Title & Meta Description (This is how your home page will appear on Google)

• Authors

• Disable Author Archives

• Check Posts/Pages & make changes if you want

Most of this is good as-is, as a beginner, you don't need to worry about much else.

You now have a pretty basic, functional website.

This is when you can spend some time working on the design, and this is why I personally have GeneratePress Pro, their paid themes, because at this point, I can import one of their pre-set templates and begin editing it visually.

Personally, instead of spending thousands on themes and plugins for my dozens of sites, I use a service called FestingersVault to gain access to most WordPress themes/plugins for just $15/mo.

If you got stuck or have questions, post them in the comments below so I can address them publicly and hopefully help others.