When you bring your business online the first thing you'll need is a website. The top choice of over 8,000 sites on the Intra-net is WordPress. The most influential people and companies in the world are using WordPress. No small wonder it's the most universal online publishing platform in the world.

Maybe you didn't realize that eBay, Oprah and even the Whitehouse uses WordPress for their website. Just take one look at the thousands of companies listed at http://www.wordpress.org and you'll see that if you aren't built in WordPress- you'll want to switch fast!

I've had clients tell me that some web designers and graphic designers advised them against WordPress. The only reason this would occur is if a person didn't know how to edit and refine WordPress. Years ago the best websites made were rich in graphics, filled with flash movies, bells and whistles! Now you run a great risk with a site like this because Google doesn't like you when it spiders for organic traffic. The flash is NOT recognizable by Google's robots and graphics that are more than 1/3 of the entire site are not crawled for higher organic listings and search engine optimization. Most of the time they are demoted and even ignored.

But once you get past the overly technical website jargon and the threats from graphics designers that you'll lose a ton of money I'll tell you this- if you don't get into WordPress you will KICK yourself in less than a years time. Mark my words. Just remember this- do NOT use the free websites found at http://www.wordpress.com for your company or you'll be legislated by WordPress and that's not a good thing. Instead, have WordPress installed to your own domain so you are a privately owned website that can sell what you want, say what you want and do what you want.

To make the leap quickly, click here

Now that you're ready to take the jump here are a few critical things to do immediately. Choosing a theme is the first thing you'll want to do once you decide to move to a WordPress site. After helping my clients’ port over to WordPress and teaching thousands of people how to use WordPress profitably I've found a few themes that out-rank them all.

You'll want a theme that can connect nicely to Social Media channels, allow you to show several archives on the first page, have options to edit the sidebars and page widths and to do a few custom edits.

Magazine Basic is one of my favorites when it comes to a free site. It’s a clean layout, easy to navigate and you can edit a few sections. This is the theme that many of my students use in our WordPress class.

Thesis is the top of the line when it comes to SEO rich websites. It’s a theme that is built to make money with. Organic traffic, social media connections, hidden private pages, memberships and more can exist beautifully in Thesis. Our entire site at: http://www.arealchange.com/blog is built in Thesis. It is only $ 97 – a one time purchase and one of the best investments you’ll ever make.

But what if you want a colorful theme, one that matches your message and you don’t want to pay someone for that or attempt to figure it out yourself. That’s ok too! Here are some tips on what to look for in a good theme.

• Look for a theme that enables customization of the header
  
• Be sure that you can have hidden pages
  
• You’ll want to be able to change sidebars and table widths on the page
  
• Get a theme that is not showing up on 100+ other sites
  
• Find something that represents YOU, not anything else

I hope these tips have been helpful!

The fun thing about themes is this- if you do choose something and want to change, you can. Just be sure to always back up your files before doing so. WordPress is so versatile that you are never stuck in the mud, waiting on a graphics designer or some other expert to pull you out. It’s the tool everyone can use!

If you are looking for a easy to understand, profitable and actionable class to get started on WordPress for business – this is it. Click here.