Get Yourself a Decent Website!

By Pierre Bastien

Do you need help setting up a decent Website for yourself or an organization you’re part of?

If so, I’d like to help you out. For the last few years, I’ve been creating Websites as a hobby. At this point, I’ve created nearly 20 Websites, including this one. I enjoy this so much that I’m offering to help anyone in the world set up their own simple but powerful Website.

I’ll help you set up a Website very much like the one you’re looking at — a clean, simple design that gets you off on the right foot. All you have to do is add your own content.

You’ll be able to customize the Website to your liking. The site I set up for you will come pre-installed with Thesis Theme, which is highly customizable. They have a control panel that lets you play with the fonts, colors and design, and you don’t need to be technical-minded or know anything about Web development.

If you later want to get a professional Web developer to overhaul your Website, they’ll be psyched you’re already using Thesis. It’s probably the most professional and popular theme in the world.

Here are some good reasons to get yourself a Website:

  • Become internationally renowned. It’s a big world. 2 billion people have Internet access. Introduce yourself!
  • Look professional. Most people don’t have their own Website. If you have one, you’ll be hot stuff.
  • Get your own personalized email address. Which looks more professional: PastaLover12@aol.com or james@jamesbond.com? If you own your own Website, you can set up your own email addresses. (P.S. yes, you can continue using Gmail, Hotmail, etc. and import your sexy new emails into your existing inbox.)
  • Be found. When you’ve got your own Website, people can find you with a simple Google search. When people ask how they can get in touch with you, you get to say “Google me”.
  • Blog…if you feel like it. Blogging makes it easy to share your creations and passions with the world, but I recommend people set up a Website with a blog attached — as opposed to just setting up a blog. Blogging is immensely rewarding, and I blog regularly, but it’s time-consuming. You don’t want to start a blog in a flash of inspiration, only to become bored with it a few months later. It’s smarter to make it a secondary feature of your Website. My Websites come with a built-in option to blog, but it’s not required.
  • No ads. When you own your own site, there are no ads showing up next to your face. Unless of course you want ads next to your face, in which case, go for it!

How This Works

  1. You get hosting. To have your own Website, you need hosting. It’s not expensive — usually around $7 or $8 per month. I recommend a company called Hostmonster. They’re the only hosting company I’ve ever used. They host this site and all my other Websites, and they’ve been great. If you already have hosting, that’s fine.
  2. You email me your hosting info. Your receipt from Hostmonster will contain your login info. Email this info to me: pierre [at] pierrebastien.net.
  3. I’ll set up your site. Once you email me your hosting info (my email again is pierre [at] pierrebastien.net), I will begin setting everything up for you. I have a day job, so it might take me a couple days, but I’ll keep in touch with you via email.
  4. My fee. I don’t charge anything for this service. When you sign up with Hostmonster through my link below, I’ll get paid a few bucks (currently $65). Of this, I’ll spend $40 to purchase Thesis Theme for you (more on that in a second). That leaves me with $25, which I will use to buy beer. Thanks! If you already have hosting, I’ll charge you $65 separately…just email me and we’ll work out the details (pierre [at] pierrebastien.net)

What You Get

  1. Your own Website. Like we talked about! It’ll look like a lot like the site you’re looking at now, just not filled out quite as much. You can also have a look at my wife’s Website, which is very simple and to the point.
  2. The latest version of WordPress. I’ll install and set up WordPress on your site. WordPress is the phenomenally popular open-source publishing platform. It powers like 20% of all websites.
  3. The latest version of Thesis Theme. There are over a thousand free designs available for WordPress, and those are great, but I love Thesis Theme. It’s a paid theme, but in my experience it’s worth every penny. It looks beautiful, it’s highly flexible, it’s well-documented and supported, and it’s optimized for search engine results. I’ve built tons of Websites, some using Thesis, some using free themes, and some with hand-coded HTML and CSS. And I can tell you from experience, Thesis is dope. In fact I feel so strongly about it, I’m dropping 40 bucks on it just so you can have it too.
  4. Customized design. I’ve got my own special-sauce setup for Thesis that has the menu in the left column, which makes your site easier for visitors to navigate.
  5. Widgets pre-installed. Wordpress has these things called widgets that add functionality to your site. I’ll pre-install a handful of carefully selected widgets for you.
  6. Help via email. I’ll help you out with any questions you have about getting started or making changes. I can’t do a completely customized Website for you, but I like helping people get things set up the way they like ‘em.

Ready to Get Started?

Click here to continue to hostmonster.com. Make sure you sign up through that link, otherwise I won’t receive the cash money $$ referral fee from Hostmonster, and I won’t be able to buy Thesis Theme for you. When you get to Hostmonster, click the “Get Started” button in the middle of the page. On the page after that you’ll search to see what domains are available for your name.

Once you have signed up for Hostmonster, you’ll get an email receipt with login details. Forward that to pierre [at] pierrebastien.net and we’ll be on our way.