When we started WPBeginner in 2009, we had a tight budget and limited resources. We built it as a simple WordPress blog, using free tools and a lot of creativity to make things work.
Over the years, we’ve grown WPBeginner into a thriving platform and launched several successful products, such as WPForms, MonsterInsights, OptinMonster, and SeedProd. This journey taught us that you don’t need a big budget to grow your business online.
There are plenty of free and affordable strategies for attracting visitors, converting leads, and building a recognizable brand. We’ve personally tested many of these methods and know how effective they can be.
The biggest mistake you can make as a small business is choosing the wrong platform to build your website. A wrong platform will not only cost you more money but will also limit your business’s growth potential.
We recommend using WordPress. It is the most popular website builder on the market, and it powers over 43% of all websites (including both small and large businesses).
Why do we recommend WordPress?
We use WordPress for all our websites, including our eCommerce sites. For more details, see our complete WordPress review.
When we say WordPress, we are talking about WordPress.org and not WordPress.com. They are two different platforms. See our article on the difference between WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org for more details.
To start a self-hosted WordPress website, you’ll need a domain name and a web hosting account. Yes, they’re different. Want to learn more? See our beginner’s guide explaining the difference between domain name vs web hosting.
Different hosting companies offer different plans suitable for small to large websites. This ultimately affects the cost of your website.
If you are just getting started, then we recommend using Bluehost. They are one of the largest hosting companies in the world and an officially recommended WordPress hosting provider.
Luckily, they are offering WPBeginner users a free domain name and discounts on hosting. Basically, you’ll be able to get started for $1.99 per month.
As your business grows, you will likely need more hosting resources. Hopefully, by that time, you’ll be making enough money to justify an upgrade.
Getting a professional to custom design your website is expensive, and it’s not needed when you’re just starting out.
You can easily start with a ready-made free or premium WordPress theme for a fraction of the price.
See our expert pick of the best WordPress themes for some inspiration:
We use SeedProd to create landing pages and custom login pages, and some of our business websites are made with SeedProd. For more details, see our full SeedProd review.
You can also use Thrive Architect. It is a versatile WordPress page builder that works with your existing theme. We use Thrive Architect to design custom landing pages. See our Thrive Architect review for a deep dive into its features.
The simplest way to do that is by using a contact form on your website.
By default, WordPress doesn’t come with a contact form. Luckily, there are WordPress contact form plugins that can help you easily add a contact form to your site.
We recommend using WPForms Lite. It is the free version of the popular WPForms plugin that’s trusted by over 6 million websites.
once your business has grown, you can upgrade to WPForms Pro to create more advanced forms like surveys, polls, payment forms, and more.
The most cost-effective way to do this is by building an email list. We have found it to be the easiest way to reach out to our users and bring them back to our websites.
Email marketing is the most reliable way to communicate with your website visitors.
You can get started with Constant Contact. They are the top-rated email marketing service provider on our list. For details, see our tutorial on creating an email newsletter the right way.
WPBeginner users get a free trial for those just starting out and 20% off if they upgrade to their paid plan.
Building an email list allows you to directly communicate with your audience. Tools like OptinMonster can help you grow your email list with high-converting opt-in forms and targeted campaigns.
SEO or search engine optimization is a set of guidelines and techniques that make your website more search engine-friendly.
We use All in One SEO on all our websites and the SEO gains we have made are remarkable. See our case study of why we switched to All in One SEO or see our detailed analysis in the full All in One SEO review.
For more details, see our complete step-by-step WordPress SEO guide for beginners. We will walk you through the process of making your website as SEO-friendly as possible.
The easiest way to add useful content to your website is by adding a blog. WordPress allows you to add a separate blog page to your website and sort your content into categories and tags.
For more details on this topic, take a look at our guide on how to do keyword research for your blog.
Do you need ideas on how to use those keywords in your content strategy? Here is a massive list of blog post ideas that you can use on your blog.
This is where Google Analytics comes in. It allows you to see how many visitors are coming to your site, where they are coming from, and what they do while there.
See our guide on how to install Google Analytics in WordPress for step-by-step instructions.
Google Analytics comes with a lot of information. Even though it is neatly organized and beautifully presented, it could still be a bit overwhelming for new users.
To make the most out of it, install and activate the MonsterInsights plugin. It is the best Google Analytics plugin for WordPress and allows you to easily view your most important traffic reports inside the WordPress dashboard.
If you run an online store, then MonsterInsights can also help you track WooCommerce customers using Google Analytics.
With so many users, social media platforms bring great opportunities for business. You can start by creating your business’s social media profiles and automatically sharing your blog posts.
Next, you will want to make it easier for your users to share your content on social media. For that, you will need a social media plugin for WordPress. A plugin like Novashare allows you to add social sharing buttons to your WordPress site.
These communities provide you with access to people interested in topics associated with your industry. You can join them for free and invest your time in building authority.
First, you need to find out which communities are more relevant to your business and where your potential customers may go looking for answers or content. For example, if you run a travel website, then you may find TripAdvisor more helpful than other communities.
Each visitor who leaves your website is a potential customer that you are losing. To grow your business, you need to focus on converting those visitors into paying customers.
This is where OptinMonster comes in. It is the best conversion optimization software in the market, which allows you to convert casual website visitors into loyal customers.
How does it do that?
It comes with a drag-and-drop campaign builder where you can create different types of campaigns to collect user emails, display special offers, show exit-intent popups, countdown timers, smart popups, slide-in optins, and more.
If you sell products online, then you can use affiliate marketing to partner up with skilled affiliate marketers. You will pay a sales commission to these marketers for promoting your products and bringing you sales.
You will need an affiliate management system to track referral activity and payout your affiliate partners. Here is our list of the best affiliate management and tracking software that you can use.
In fact, Google Ads even offers free advertising credits to new advertisers. Bluehost, a trusted WordPress hosting company, also offers free Google AdWords credits with their hosting plans.
Marketers use this phenomenon by showing their customers that other people already trust a product or business. This is done by sharing their statistics, subscriber counts, customer testimonials, and more.
Studies show that from 2000 to 2016, the average human attention span dropped from 12 seconds to 7 seconds.
As a website owner, this means that you have very little time to show users what you have to offer and convince them to stay on your website.
Follow the instructions in our step-by-step guide to improve WordPress speed and performance for beginners. This guide includes all the tips we use on our very high-traffic websites for reliable speed and performance.
Growing your business online doesn’t have to be expensive. With the right strategies and tools, you can achieve great results without a huge budget.
We hope this article helped you learn how to grow your business on a shoestring budget. You may also want to see our expert pick of the most useful tools to manage and grow your website and the best live chat software for small businesses.