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“Follow the plan outlined here and you can create your own website from scratch without writing any code for less than $300.”
The Huffington Post is a bustling hub of information.
Whether it is something big in the media, or helpful articles and blogs, having a place for people to go for knowledge and entertainment is rewarding. Plus, there are ways you can create profit for yourself and others.
While you may be interested in creating a website like the Huffington Post, the idea of building a brand new site with similar features can be intimidating. You want to make sure that your version has the potential to achieve the popularity of the infamous news and opinion website, and doesn’t look like some cheap knock off.
Well, I’ve got some good news for you…
Typically, when creating a new website, lots of time and money is put into the final product. Just think how many people are required to run the Huffington Post. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
This guide will show you how to do it yourself, so you don’t need to pay any expensive designers. And it won’t take up a lot of time, because you will be using software that already exists.
A sneak peek at your new site
Your site should be easy to navigate and engaging, just like the Huffington Post. Using WordPress to create your website, you’ll have plenty of themes from which to choose.
Here’s a preview of the site you’ll create by following along with this guide:
Your site is actually going to be so customizable, that you can create wildly different designs. Here are a few more styles you can choose from:
You can stick with the fundamental aspects provided, or you can shake things up and form a unique version. Fonts, layouts, colors, and more are changed and adjusted to your exact specifications.
And as already stated, making this site won’t require writing any code. The tools described in this guide can be used to make a newspaper style website that looks and functions like the Huffington Post.
How much does it cost? You may be worried how much it costs to use a bunch of pre-made tools to create your site. Well, if you follow along with this guide, you can make the site with less than $200.
Requirements to Build a Site like the Huffington Post
Five easy steps are all it takes.
- Select a domain name
- Find hosting for your site
- Install WordPress
- Install and configure a WordPress theme
- Launch your site
Now let’s take a closer look at each step.
1. Choose a domain
Your domain name is how people will find your website. You’ll want to pick something easy to remember that also represents your company. Domain names play a big part in marketing and branding, so this step is essential.
Purchasing your domain name can be tricky if the one you want isn’t available. Sometimes you can buy the domain name you want from someone else; you can also use an acronym that has a prominent link to your business.
Don’t purchase your domain name just yet. There’s a way to get it for free in the next step…
2. Find hosting
You’ve got the name; now you need a company to host your site. Servers store website files and connect them with individual’s browsers when they visit your domain. A variety of website hosting platforms are available, but I recommend Nexcess.
Nexcess offers fast hosting at an affordable price.
Perhaps more important for beginners is the fact that they automatically create a new WordPress site for you. This makes it extremely easy to get started.
If you have any issues, you’ll also appreciate their live chat customer service, which is available 24/7.
3. Utilizing WordPress
Installing WordPress to create your site is stress-free with Nexcess.
While there are many other hosts out there that can help with WordPress installation, Nexcess automatically generates the site for you once you finish creating your account with them.
We have more detailed steps in our WordPress site creation guide you can follow.
If you are not sure WordPress is the best website builder for you, here are a few of the benefits.
- Community – There are tons of products and tutorials for WordPress. You can also access the support forums to interact with other users and learn how to improve your website.
- Professional Team – WordPress employs an extensive team and provides new themes – which change the look of your website, and new plugins – which change how the site works. WordPress always has the latest and greatest for your site.
- Support – While WordPress doesn’t have a direct support team, you can find guidance whenever you need it through online tutorials and support forums. Or you can consult the many documents that answer frequently asked questions and guide you through the actions you want to take to make your website unique.
- Customization – You can customize literally any part of WordPress thanks to the huge market of themes and plugins.
- Affordability – WordPress is free now and forever as an open source project.
- No Coding – All of the great tools available can be used without any coding experience. You don’t need any prior knowledge to create the site you want.
4. Find Your Theme
To change your newly created website to look and function like the Huffington Post, you need to download a newspaper styled theme. Themes are pre-created templates that include everything you need for an awesome website, which is why coding is not required.
Aptly named, the WordPress theme I recommend is Newspaper, and you’ll see why below.
Newspaper
Newspaper is a fantastic theme that allows you to feature whatever content you’d like. With over 62,000 customers and 4,900 reviews, its five-star rating is outstanding.
Don’t just publish plain text posts. Easily include high-resolution images, YouTube embeds, audio and more on a design that is completely mobile-ready. As a robust and customizable theme, any niche news site can be a success with Newspaper.
A lot of the customizability in Newspaper comes from the drag-and-drop template editor that comes bundled with it.
With this theme, you can create your own headers, menus, post layouts, and more. All unique to the vision you have. You are even able to customize the typography of individual elements.
Newspaper comes with a host of plugin integrations and works with:
- bbPress
- BuddyPress
- WooCommerce
- AdSense
- GDPR compliancy plugins
Reliability is important in a theme, or else visitors have issues with your site. And we all know how frustrating that can be. Newspaper has a fantastic support system that is available ten hours a day, six days a week.
As you’ve seen from the screenshots in this post, Newspaper has loads of different looks available, so click here to check out the demo sites. Decide which is a good fit for you and then customize from there. And you can free updates with your purchase of Newspaper, so you know you’ll always have the top quality.
Other Alternatives
Maybe Newspaper isn’t quite what you were looking for, or perhaps you wonder if there are other options. There are plenty more newspaper themes to choose from.
Sahifa and Newsmag are two of the best alternatives to Newspaper.
Sahifa
Sahifa is a responsive news/magazine/blog theme of WordPress. It brings functionality to your site with modern, user-friendly aspects. It works on any device, desktop, tablets, and phones.
The admin panel offers over 400 options for customization. Sahifa also includes a language file to allow translation for multilingual users.
Newsmag
Newsmag theme focuses on news and magazine aspects. Writing articles and blog posts is straightforward. Newsmag boasts similar elements to Sahifa. And with no coding required, designing is as simple as drag and drop.
The use of widgets offers convenience to clients, as well as Ad Boxes, allowing you to start earning right away.
Launch Your Version of the Huffington Post
Now that you have the information and tools to build a website similar to the Huffington Post, it is time to make it happen.
To review the process, you need to start by finding an available domain name. Then you can signup with Nexcess for hosting and register the domain for free. Creating your Nexcess account will also automatically create a WordPress site for you too.
With your WP site online, you can choose a new theme to activate on your site. There are quite a few good options available, but I recommend the Newspaper theme above all others.
Then it’s simply a matter of customizing your site to look like Huffington Post or however you want it to be laid out.
Before you know it, you will have created a hub of shared information that continues to grow, just like the Huffington Post.
