For the most part, creating a DJ website is easy and it doesn’t take long at all to get started. Back in the day, it was a task few people could handle, because you would spend long hours in front of a computer punching in codes and testing results. Even today, making a DJ website can seem overwhelming because theres so many ways to make a website. Thankfully, I’m here to show you the right way to make a DJ website that is sure to get you noticed. In fact, Bluehost and WordPress have made it super easy to make a website for people with little to no experience and I’m going to prove it!
So, how do you make a DJ Website with WordPress step by step?
- Find a Hosting Provider and choose a domain name
- Install and setup WordPress
- Choose a WordPress Theme
- Create a Static Home Page
- Create Pages & a Menu
- Install Plugins & Create Content
WordPress Introduction
In this very informative post, I will explain exactly how to create your very own DJ website, using Bluehost and WordPress, and get you started on such a successful path you’ll hopefully want to thank me. First, If you haven’t already read my previous post, “5 Tips On How To Make Your DJ Website Stand Out”, than I suggest you read it. In fact, that post will get your ball rolling down the right lane if you catch my drift… No? Well it explains some important information so go read it!
Now, I will walk you through the steps to get started with WordPress. Everything I’m about to explain to you are steps I’ve already taken to create my own DJ website. You may check it out if your interested! FLORIDA DJ PRO. Notably, I decided to name my website Florida DJ Pro which I feel is a good name, but my point is, start thinking of your own catchy website name. Preferably a website name people would search for with google! Lets get started, shall we?
#1 Find a Hosting Provider and Choose your Domain Name
First off, lets ask the question, “What does a hosting provider do”? Well, a hosting provider will store all of your websites information into their servers and allow you to publish your content to the World Wide Web. Personally, I choose Bluehost because I’ve had problems with other providers in the past. With Bluehost, you can buy your domain name and Hosting through their site and start using WordPress right away.
Keep in mind, there are so many different places you can purchase a domain name as well as a hosting provider, but make sure you do your research because! In my personal opinion, you can shop around for the best price all day, but I assure you, your going to want a reliable hosting provider with great customer service! When technical problems occur, you want to have people you can count on that will listen and act appropriately.
Bluehost offers really good plans to choose from so choose the best plan that fits you. I went with the Plus Plan which gave me a free domain name, it allows me to work on unlimited websites, I have unlimited website space, they also throw in a free SSL certificate (You need this!), & much more. All for $5/month! Of course, they do have cheaper plans!
Purchase a Hosting Plan
Click on the image above and go to the “Hosting” tab. Here, you will find the best plan that fits you and what you plan to do. For example, you can go with shared hosting and choose a the basic plan. Bluehost will guide you through the process. In the image below, this is the screen you should make it to after you click the hosting tab.
Next, after you click the Select button, you’ll end up at a page where you can choose your plan. In the image below, this is where you’ll choose your plan.
After you choose the hosting plan that best suits your needs, it will bring you to a page similar to the image below. On this page, this is where you search to see what domain name is available to you!
Next, think of a good name for your website and see if it’s available. Keep searching until you find a name that’s available and click next!
Finally, you can fill out your information and purchase your package! You have made it to the WordPress world! Congratulations. Give yourself a nice pat on the back!
If you are confused, I recommend chatting with a customer service representative on their website to see if they can bargain with you. In the image above, you can see the “Chat” tab in the top right corner. Tell them you want to purchase a domain name as well as a hosting plan and you want a great deal! They’ll go out of their way to make sure you’re more than satisfied!
Ask about a free SSL certificate to secure your website with HTTPS. Usually, Bluehost has a special that includes a Free SSL Certificate! This will ensure anyone who submits information through your website will be secure and safe from hackers. This will build trust with your potential clients!
#2 Install and setup WordPress
After you find a hosting plan with Bluehost and you’ve chosen your website name, it’s time to install WordPress using the Bluehost Marketplace. In the following steps, I will explain exactly how to do this!
- First, log in to your Bluehost Control Panel
- Next, locate the Website Section of Bluehost and click on Install WordPress
- On the next screen, choose your Domain name to install WordPress
- Lastly, follow the steps it guides you through to set up your WordPress sign-in information. If you get stumped, check this article out!
Set up WordPress Permalinks
Finally, you’ve made it to WordPress, congratulations! Next, a very important detail needs to be fixed in order to keep your new DJ website more simple. By default, WordPress labels your pages a certain way that doesn’t prove useful for search engines or readability. However, WordPress allows you to configure these permalinks with several options. To demonstrate, I will show you exactly how to access these options using the images and steps below.
Step 1: First, log in to your newly installed WordPress Dashboard. On the left sidebar, scroll down to settings. In the image above, the green arrow points to the “settings” tab. Highlight it.
Step 2: Secondly, click Permalinks. In the image above, permalinks is shown with a green rectangle. Also, a green arrow points to it. Click Permalinks.
Step 3: Shown in the image above, the Common Settings section gives you several Permalink options to choose from. Click the radio button next to “Post name”. To explain why we choose this option, this option will make your URLs much easier to read and remember. Also, it improves your search engine rank so don’t forget to change it!
Step 4: Click “Save Changes” at the bottom. Permalinks are all set!
#3 Choose a Theme For Your DJ Website
When you first sign into WordPress, it will bring you to your dashboard. Your dashboard allows you to view important information about your website. The more plug-ins you install, the more widgets you can add to your dashboard, but lets not jump ahead too far! In fact, the next step to creating your DJ website is to pick a Theme! This part is fun and very important!
How to choose a Theme in WordPress
On the left sidebar of WordPress, you will see many different options to choose from. Find “Appearance” and highlight it. Click on “Themes” demonstrated in the image above.
In the image above, this is where you can download themes and activate them to see which one your going to settle with. Simply click on “Add New”. You can search for themes in the search bar or scroll through popular themes and read the perks each theme has to offer.
I recommend doing a lot of research on the many different themes they have to choose from! Read about the theme, how it looks, reviews, and the price to upgrade the theme if you decide to buy it. Yes, a lot of themes cost money and will give you full access to the theme upon purchasing it.
Remember, once you build a website around a certain theme, it makes it more difficult to switch themes later without errors occurring so choose wisely and be careful!
There are an endless amount of Themes to choose from. They’re constantly adding new themes everyday! More over, you can download a theme that you like, activate it, and preview it in your browser to see what it’s going to look like for your viewers.
Again, it’s very important to spend a good amount of time researching the theme your going to choose. Once you have a lot of content, it’s a huge headache to change your theme later to a new one. Choose wisely! Also, make sure your SSL certificate is activated! If you try to activate it later, it can cause a problem!
TIP: It’s not easy making your website look exactly the way you want it. Usually, the paid themes allow you to customize your site better than the free themes. You can learn how the coding works (CSS, PHP, HTML) to change things around, but if not, than you’re better off buying a good theme! Also, They’re starting to make really cool Drag-&-Drop themes so do your research! I use DIVI 😉
#4 Create A Static Home Page For Your DJ Website
For the most part, WordPress caters to bloggers. In fact, If you’re trying to make a DJ website that has no articles or posts than you’re going to want to switch to a static home page. By default, WordPress automatically displays your recent posts on your home page. I prefer you DO NOT make posts to create your DJ site. Pages… Make pages!
How To Create a Static Home Page
By default, WordPress will display your recent posts on your newly created website. You need to change your home page from displaying recent posts to displaying what you want it to display instead. I will explain how to change this:
On your WordPress dashboard, when you click the “Appearance” tab, the drop down menu will look like this:
To create a static homepage, click on “Customize”. This will take you to a page where you can customize the look of your theme. You can add a navigation menu, edit CSS, and many other cool things. Usually, in the settings tab, you will see a homepage section. My themes customization tabs may be different than yours, but mine looks like this:
Like I said, my theme may be different than yours. Your theme may display different tabs than the ones seen in the image above. Either way, somewhere in the settings tab, you can change your homepage to a static page so that it doesn’t show your recent posts.
If I click on my “Homepage Settings” tab in the image above, it takes me to the page YOU need to be. Your tab may just say “Settings”. Click it! The homepage section of the page we are looking for looks like this:
Make sure you click “static page” and save it. Now, you can create the pages your DJ website will need as well as the navigation menu that will navigate viewers to your pages. In WordPress, you cannot make a menu with no pages! So, let’s create your pages first.
#5 Create Pages & a Menu For Your DJ Website
Next, you will need to create pages for your new WordPress DJ website. Furthermore, let’s think about this for a minute and really put some thought into how many pages your website will consist of.
Let me explain to you how many pages you should create and why you should create them. Starting off with page number 1:
- About Me- This page is self explanatory. If you’ve made it this far in making your Dj website with WordPress, I’m positive you can think of some good content to put on this page. Your “About Me” page should be all about you and your goal in life as a DJ! Do not forget to plug your social media sites and a few pictures to make it more personal (I will get into how to add photos soon). WordPress has a ton of social media plugins that allow viewers to see your social media plugs on every page of your DJ website. Some plugins will let your viewers share your posts on social media too!
- Photo Gallery- You do not want to be a plain Jane. Basically, dedicate a whole page to as many photos of yourself performing as possible. If you don’t have any photos, than start taking them! When a potential client first goes to your website, you want them to be able to easily access photographic proof that you’re the Dj for their party. Adding new photos every month will help you grow clientele or at least make them want to get in on the fun! Most importantly, the photo gallery page is meant to show people you have a passion for DJing and they should hire you for their next event.
- Contact- Next, every website has them now and they’re very important… a contact page. In this post, I will show you how to create a contact form so people can contact you via email directly from your website. This page might just be the most important page out of your entire DJ website because people will email you over giving you a call. The easiest way to create a contact form with WordPress is to download a plug-in called Contact Form 7. In this post, I will explain this process and how to get it working.
- Quote Page- This does not have to be a page if you do not want it to be, but it should be. Well, since I’ve already talked you into setting up a contact form, you might as well set up a “Quote Page” form. To explain, you need to create a contact form, but with all the detailed questions you need to DJ a party. For example, you would ask for a name, email, phone number, address, type of event, start time, end time, etc. Once they submit, it will send you an email with all of the details nicely organized and ready for you reply with a quote!
Hopefully this will give you an idea on how many pages you will create for your DJ Website.
Creating a New Page with WordPress
Now that you’ve established the number of pages, let me show you how to create a new page with WordPress. On the left sidebar menu on your WordPress dashboard, click on “Pages”.
Now, click on the “Add New” tab. You will now be at a page that looks similar to this:
Next, type in the title of the page and click “Publish” at the top right corner. Once all of your pages are created, you can now make a menu that will navigate your traffic to their desired page.
How To Create a Menu in WordPress (Version 1)
Now, go back to the “Appearance” tab and click on the “Menus” tab. Stay with me!
Next, click the checkboxes next to the pages you want in your menu. In the image below, you’ll see my checkboxes which displays this sites menu:
Once you’ve finished selecting your desired pages, Click “Add to Menu”. Click “Save Menu”. Now, you need to manage the location of your newly created menu. In the image below, you can see “Manage Locations” at the top left of the image. You need to click on that tab and set your menu to be a Primary Menu. I will explain.
In the image above, it shows how my WordPress menu is constructed. In fact, maybe you can compare it to yours and get some ideas! Furthermore, after you’ve created your menu, click on “Save Menu” at the top right corner of the screen. Now, your menu is added to your DJ website! However, there is another way to add this menu as your primary menu.
Create Menu & Adding Primary Menu (Version 2)
Go to the “Appearance” tab on your WordPress dashboard and click on the “Customize” tab. Usually, no matter what theme you have, you will find a menu tab on your customize page. Navigate to it. It should look similar to this:
Once you click the menu tab, find the “Create New Menu” tab. In the image below, the purple arrow points to it. This is the second way to create a menu:
Next up, go to “Menu Locations”. Locate the menu that you created and click on it. Now, make sure you check the box next to “Primary Menu”. It looks like this:
Step 4 is over!
#5 Install Plugins & Create Content
So, you’ve completed the 4 steps to creating your WordPress DJ website and You’ve made it to step 5. Do you feel like you just built a rocket that can make it to the moon? I didn’t think so. Enough of the rocket science talk, lets talk about plugins!
1. Plugins
For the most part, plugins can make or brake your DJ website. Be very careful with the plugins you add to your DJ website, because certain plugins don’t work well with others! In fact, always try to download the best of the best and try not to overload your DJ website with too many!
How To Install Plugins with WordPress
Navigate to your WordPress dashboard and under the “Appearance” tab, click on “Plugins”.
In the image above, disregard the number 3 next to the word “Plugins”. That number is just a notification notifying me that I have 3 plugins that have updates available. So you know, you will need to update your plugins on a regular basis!
In brief, once you click on “Plugins”, you will see “Add New” at the top on the next page. WordPress allows you to add as many plugins as you’d like to your DJ website. Ordinarily, they have an endless amount of really cool plugins that can make your website stand out.
Do your research and find the plugins that you think will be good for you.
Plugin Examples For Your DJ Website
I will explain which plugins I use and give you a brief description of what they do:
- Akismet Anti-Spam- This plugin prevents spam robots from fluttering your website with spam!
- Contact Form 7- This plugin takes a little bit of code knowledge, but if you watch a few youtube videos on how to use it, I think you can figure it out! Create contact forms, that when submitted, will send an email to you or numerous recipients with the information you request. I will explain how to use this plugin below.
- CSS Plus- This plugin allows you to change the appearance of a certain page using CSS without changing your entire website. For example: You want to make a page on your site that has no header, menu, or the same text style as your other pages. Youtube this plugin to get a better understanding!
- Ewww Image Optimizer- With this plugin, you can reduce file sizes on your images within your website to make it load faster for your viewers.
- Smart Slider 3- This plugin allows you to create really nice image sliders that your viewers can scroll through and click to navigate through your site.
- Wordfence Security- This plugin is an Anti-Virus, Firewall and Malware Scanner that protects your website from hackers.
- Social Media & Share Icons- This plugin is awesome to add to your website. Help your viewers find you on all of your social media sites!
- Yoast Seo- This plugin is highly recommended! Connect your WordPress website to Google and it will help you rank higher in the Google search engines!
How to use Contact Form 7 to create a Contact/Quote page
First, you’ll need to download the plugin Contact Form 7 in order to follow these steps on creating a contact/quote page. Once you have the plugin installed and activated, you can follow these steps to create any kind of form for your DJ website. So, when the form is submitted, it will send you an organized email with the information you request. To explain, I will show you step by step.
Step 1. Search for and download Contact Form 7. Go to plugins and click “Add new”. In the image above, you’ll see the Contact Form 7 plugin. This is the plugin you must install and activate.
Step 2. Once you install and activate Contact Form 7, you will see the word “Contact” in the side bar of your WordPress Dashboard. In the image below, you will notice the green arrow pointing to the “Contact” tab? Highlight it with your cursor.
Step 3: Now, once you highlight the Contact Form tab, you’ll see something similar to the image below. Click “Add New”. To demonstrate, I will show you the default contact form template and how it works in step 4 below.
Step 4: Next, you’ll see a screen similar to the image below. The green arrow points to where you can enter the name of your form. In fact, naming your form accurately will help you differentiate your forms for easy access later. Also, by default, Contact Form 7 gives you a contact form code already filled out and ready for you. Now, you’re ready to fill out a little bit of your info to get it to send to your email.
Step 5: In the image below, the green arrow points to the “Mail” tab. Click the “Mail” tab to view the backend of this specific contact form. Step 6 will have an image of the screen it takes you to.
Step 6: In the image below, the Mail section is where you can fill out the information you will need in order to have the form submit to your email address. Put the email address you want people to email in the “To” section (green writing below).
Step 7: Finally, your contact form for your contact page is complete. Click “Save”. Now, go to your Contact Forms. The Contact Forms tab is shown below.
Step 8: Next, you need to copy the short code Contact Form 7 gives you for the contact form you just created. In the image below, you will see the location of the code you need to copy.
Step 9: Lastly, you must go to the Contact Form page you created earlier and paste this short code right at the beginning of the page and save it! In the image below, I will demonstrate with the green arrow where this code must be placed. After you paste this short code, save it, and preview your newly created Contact Form!
Make sure to test your contact form by filling it out yourself or asking someone else to test it. Hopefully, if everything goes good, it will work flawlessly! Now, I won’t get too technical on how this coding works with Contact Form 7, but I will just give you the coding to create a quote form. In fact, if you follow the following steps, I’ll show you how to setup a Quote form! This is my quote form!
Creating a Quote Form for your DJ Website
Step 1: Create a new Contact Form with Contact Form 7 and name it “Quote Form”. In the image above, it shows the section where you must Copy and paste the following code. Click the link below to download the code you must copy and paste into this section.
Step 2: Next, you must set up the “Mail” section of this Quote Form so that it will send you an email with all of the requested information for the DJ gig. In the image below, this is the “mail” section I’m talking about.
Step 3: Next, you must enter in the email address you want this email to submit to. This step is similar to the contact form you made earlier. This time, we are going to delete everything in the coding section and you must copy and paste the following code into this section. In the image below, this is the “Mail” tab section (Message Body) where you will paste the following downloadable code.
QUOTE-FORM-2.rtfDownload
Step 4: Save this Quote Form. As before, you must copy the short code and paste it into your desired page. Hence, make sure you create a Quote Page so you can do just that! Finally, you can test out your newly created quote form to make sure it’s sending you emails! Your welcome!
2. Create Content For Your DJ Website
After you’ve installed your plugins, it’s time to create your content! I recommend writing down on a piece of paper exactly what you want your DJ website to look like and try to match it to a good theme that looks similar to your style. Eventually, you can add in photos, videos, and posts about your best gigs! Your DJ website is going to be for everyone to watch you grow and become the DJ you’ve always wanted to be and this is where it starts!
