Using WordPress.com to promote your business? Here’s one approach: keep it simple. Damon Davis, a chef based in the Chicago area, uses his website to promote and sell his fresh, flavorful “Everything Sauce.” Here are three ingredients that Damon uses to create a successful website.
1. Go minimal: build a website with the essentials
Damon’s WordPress.com Business site is part of Rebrand Cities, a project that aims to get more small businesses online.
Damon’s website is made up of just three pages: a front page introducing his sauce, a “Buy Sauce” page where you can purchase the product, and an About page. His front page is clean and modern, with a black-and-white palette with one accent color (which is sauce-inspired, of course).
The front page includes a full-width header area with the sauce’s name in bold and elegant font, a prominent call-to-action section (“the only sauce you need”), an image of the product, one customer testimonial, and a footer with contact info and social links.
Damon’s About page, via the menu button at the top right, offers a succinct description on how his everything sauce came to be, which gives the reader the right amount of info on the chef and his culinary concoction.
As you build your site, be strategic about page content creation. You can publish as many pages as you’d like, but it doesn’t mean you have to — do you really need a company history page? An FAQs page? For some people, lean may be the way to go.
2. Be direct: grab attention with one CTA button
The call-to-action (CTA) area on Damon’s front page directs potential customers to his purchase page with a can’t-miss “Buy Sauce” button.
Some themes have built-in CTA button styles, like Goran, Gateway, and Radcliffe 2. But if you don’t have a theme that supports a CTA button, you can also design your own with this step-by-step tutorial.
What’s the purpose of your website? To spread the word about your business? To get more bookings? To sell your paintings? Once you identify your main goal, you can craft the right messaging.
3. Keep it simple: use a payment button to sell on your site
On his “Buy Sauce” page, Damon continues the minimalist approach: the header image is a simple but striking shot of him holding a jar of sauce to the camera. Below, the two-sentence headline is short but effective: “One sauce. Many uses.”
He uses the Simple Payments button to sell the original and spicy versions of his sauce directly from this page. With the payment button, customers can specify the quantity they’d like to order, and buy via PayPal, credit, or debit.
Are you looking for a no-fuss way to sell your jewelry? To allow people to register for your DIY workshops with a few clicks? Create and add a payment button to any posts or pages on your site for your own product or service.
Ready to sell on your site? Use the Simple Payments button — and much more — with the WordPress.com Premium plan.
This is great. Really helpful.
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Nice post. Simple and straight to the point.
LikeLiked by 15 people
thanks for the helpful post!
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This was helpful!
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Excellent “Blitz Marketing” idea. Great post. Thank you.
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Thanks for the helpful article 🙂
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Damon, I enjoyed seeing your “Everything Sauce”. Glad to know you have a keep it simple idea. Has this been lucrative for you? Good business sense.
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ok I guess this is good! Yea simple is good but my challenge right now is to find the right fans for my blog.
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This is a really nice and straight to the point article! Thanks for sharing!
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Love this!
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Nice post!
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I find this very helpful — nice.
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Greatly explained! 🙂
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Nice and helpful post.
LikeLiked by 11 people
Thanks for the information. It is great.
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Thanks for the valuable recommendations.
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Keep it Simple.
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Good to know — thanks for sharing.
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Thanks, I like the suggestions…particularly the “go minimal” suggestion.
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As always great information! ❤
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Thanks great information
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Good piece there!
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I make my own zines and postcards and have been prepping the best way to sell them on my blog with a bang. This write up is fantastic knowledge for me on this process. Thank you!
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Thanks for the post! It was very informative.
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Really, simplicity is beauty. How exciting it is to ponder on the idea that as simple as this site could generate millions!
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This is so helpful!!
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Simple and amazing. I like it and thank you for sharing.
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A well made sauce goes a long way.
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Business in the air.
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We are currently getting ready to add a one click buy button for our virtual interior design packages…a bit of work but our clients requested it and that was the call to action on our part!
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Hi,
very simple indeed. Very useful to me because I’m just starting my blog.
I would like to ask if this simple payment button – is it only with the WordPress.com Premium plan possible? (i just begin my blog with a free theme!)
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Hi there — correct, the simple payment button is currently available on sites with either a Premium or Business plan. Thanks!
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I like his web site, I am also just starting my blog as well. I like that you can focus on one product at a time and make the payment options simple and easy once you have a good product for sale.
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Inspiring post.
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Thanks for publishing this. As a television writer/producer I always found it difficult to get clients to focus their message. They always want their commercials to have too many messages. The same applies to websites. Recently I was talking to a web developer who had a client that wanted to make one website for two different businesses and didn’t understand how that would be confusing for the consumer. Simple is best. And this case study of “Everything Sauce” by Damon Davis is a perfect example of what a web site should be. In this case he has one product but the same web site would work for a line of sauces or a series of books for example. I’d love to read a follow up in a year to know how the product sold and any other lessons learned.
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I like that he keeps it simple. This is technique that would be good example for me to try since have a tendencies to get wordy.
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Hey, I actually do not really want to sell something, but still you did a very good post!
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It’s amazingly helpful.
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Umm, sauce everywhere and it really attracts a sauce lover or simple user. Thanks for this — it’s on point.
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Simple but perfect…☺
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Hello Cheri! Thanks for sharing this post. 🙂 This is very helpful for my fiance’s Dog Training business that we’re looking to get online very soon. We could totally adapt this kind of call to action button for clients to schedule their complementary consult or future dog training sessions.
Sincerely,
Toni S.
Hello bloggers I’m new to WordPress! You can find me at gratefulandgivingblog.wordpress.com
LikeLiked by 9 people
Nicely written. Very simple and straight to the point.
It’s similar to the advice that I give to my clients. Another advantage to simple design is the effectiveness of white space. It really helps to add clarity.
Thanks for sharing. Tweeting soon to my followers.
Nathan.
LikeLiked by 8 people
Loved this!
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Hello Cheri, my name is Laura. I need a website but do not have time to design one. Can you help?
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Hi Laura,
We have a support site to help you get started: https://wordpress.com/support/
As well as forums to ask questions: https://forums.wordpress.com/
If you are a small business in the US, an upcoming Rebrand Cities event may be fitting: https://rebrand.city/
Otherwise, I’d suggest searching online for a freelance web designer or someone similar if you’re looking for a professional to build/design your website.
LikeLiked by 6 people