FirstSiteGuide: Everything You Need to Create, Grow, and Maintain a WordPress Site for Your Online Business

TL; DR: FirstSiteGuide, a trusted resource for information on how to earn money online, operates from the philosophy that with the right tools, anyone can succeed on the internet. More than 10 million people have visited the site since its 2013 inception, leveraging its how-to guides and purchasing tips to jump-start their online endeavors. With the ongoing pandemic forcing professionals to come up with creative new revenue streams, FirstSiteGuide may be just what you need to successfully pivot into the rewarding world of online entrepreneurship.

Many of us have interests that we’d regularly pursue if not for the shackles of a 40-hour workweek. We may not know it, but we likely interact with daydreamers every day — waiters with hidden photography talents, teachers fascinated with scuba diving, colleagues with secret birdwatching hobbies.

Most of us would submit a resignation notice in a heartbeat for the chance to make a living doing what we genuinely love. At the same time, we assume such careers are entirely out of reach.

The good news is, according to Artem Minaev, Marketing Consultant at FirstSiteGuide, they’re not.

“In my opinion, 90% of passions can be monetized online,” he told us. “It just takes time — usually about a year and a half to start seeing results in terms of search engine rankings and financial gain. The biggest problem is that many people quit too early.”

Artem estimates that 80% of online entrepreneurs give up on their endeavors within a year. But with patience, expert advice, and the right resources, pursuing your true calling in life is a perfectly achievable goal.

All you need to do to get started is learn how to build a simple website or blog. And FirstSiteGuide is here to show you exactly how to do it.

The free site is jam-packed with how-to guides, site-building tutorials, WordPress tips, software picks, and educational resources that anyone can use to jump-start their online business. Since 2013, more than 10 million people have visited the site, seeking the information they need to turn passion into profit. With exciting free tools on the horizon as well as regularly updated content, you should probably be one of them.

FirstSiteGuide was initially launched in 2013 as a technical advice site focused on web hosting. But over the years, the team discovered that most web entrepreneurs had little interest in exploring the nitty-gritty of keeping a site up and running — instead, they wanted to get down to business.

“I observed that even if people search for web hosting, they don’t want to know everything about it,” Artem said. “They just want to get their website or blog started. That’s why we started to shift the focus a little more.”

Today, FirstSiteGuide provides an entire range of business advice and product selections designed to cover the full spectrum of business growth.

The site even goes in-depth into various blogging niches. If cooking is your jam, FirstSiteGuide’s comprehensive tips on starting and growing a food blog will hit the spot.

The guide covers everything from choosing a short and sweet domain name to launching a WordPress site, creating a content plan, and monetizing your work. Other subject areas include fashion, lifestyle, travel, music, and real estate. In short, there’s something for everyone.

And while the site won’t bore you with detailed descriptions of datacenters, it does provide step-by-step instructions for hosting and installing WordPress — the content management system of choice, powering 64.2% of all websites. This tutorial, for example, walks you through one-click WordPress installation and hosting through BlueHost, and throws in a 65% discount for good measure.

Other posts cover how to install a theme, add images, and manage content via the WordPress dashboard.

Between blogging services, domain providers, hosting services, website builders, and social media tools, the vast selection of software and services available online can get overwhelming — fast.

As the pandemic forced people out of offices and into lockdown in March 2020, many would-be entrepreneurs learned this the hard way. Others who had already established a site struggled to keep up with increases in traffic, however fortunate such a circumstance was.

In January, FirstSiteGuide published the results of its research on the effect of the global coronavirus pandemic on the blogging industry. Data from a survey of more than 1,000 bloggers revealed that the event had made a significant impact.

For example, 63.9% of bloggers surveyed said that the COVID-19 pandemic has affected them, whether directly or through viewers, sponsors, partners, and web hosting providers. Another 46.50% reported that they have done more blogging since the start of the pandemic, with 35.19% saying their revenue has increased.

FirstSiteGuide’s software and services section is handy for professionals looking to expand their blogs to accommodate more traffic or even start a new online career from scratch. The resource features handpicked software solutions that offer a range of capabilities and are vetted through an extensive review process.

“With people working from home, and in some cases facing unemployment, people are increasingly trying to find different ways to make money — and our site aims to provide the tools they need to take advantage of the opportunities online,” Artem said.

Regardless of the pandemic, Artem said starting a business that operates entirely online often involves less overhead than setting up a brick-and-mortar shop.

“I’ve pursued many different initiatives in my personal experience, and in my view, starting an online blogging business is less complicated and definitely involves fewer headaches,” he said. “We hope to get that message across to our audience.”

When it comes to keeping things simple, there’s no better way to dive into the online business world than to start and monetize a blog. The decision typically pays off: According to FirstSiteGuide’s survey, 59.81% of bloggers said they make money from blogging, and 49.32% of bloggers stated that blogging is their full-time job. And only 28.41% of participants said that they have an annual income under $50,000 per year.

“The blog is the backbone of the modern website,” Artem said. “We provide tips on everything from creating the perfect blog structure to boosting SEO. There are so many aspects to consider.”

Not sure where to start? FirstSiteGuide provides a popular step-by-step resource outlining everything beginning bloggers should know to start a blog in 2021. The 25-minute read covers blogging platforms, domain names, web hosting, WordPress themes, content, SEO, promotions, and monetization.

Artem said the FirstSiteGuide team believes that knowledge is power, and that’s why they’ve created such comprehensive how-to articles and purchasing tips.

Moving forward, the team will also be hard at work developing free software that readers will be able to use when starting and growing their online businesses.

“We’re actually working on some free tools— domain name search tools and business name generators, among others — that we hope our readers will find useful,” Artem said.