In this post, I would like to talk about giving your small farm a website. Whether it be a Blogging Website or an Online Store using a Selling Platform like Shopify. The main thing is to get your farm online.

You might be thinking why does my small farm need a website or any farm come to think of it…? Especially at the beginning, which we will come to in a minute.

I mean the whole point about starting a small farm, smallholding, or homestead is to get away from all the crap and tech of today’s modern age.

This is true, in most cases we start a small farm to enjoy the outside again, the little things in life and get back to basics. Not to be online building an online store or writing a blog.

We all know that the internet has taken over books and is one of the best things ever to be given to mankind. As a learning tool or a selling tool, nothing beats it whatever you want to know or purchase it’s there somewhere.

Learning is important for new farmers, especially because we have never farmed before.

But so is spreading the word about your new farm and also selling for your farm. After all, you will need to attract buyers for your farming products.

This could be meat, speciality crops, selling of eggs, making of soaps whatever it is. There is no better way than a website to show it off.

Your farm is still a business or is going to be a business and every business needs a website in this day and age.

Even if it’s only a hobby farm a website is an extension of your farm plus hobby farms teach others knowledge.

If you choose to blog about your farm you can earn a very nice income from a blog. I’m talking in the thousands per month. There is nothing special about blogging it is really cheap and easy to get started.

There are many ways to make money from small farming. You can check out my post How To Make Your Small Farm Profitable.

Be sure to come back and read the full post to see how to earn even more money from your small farm’s website.

First Start A Blog As Soon As Possible

I would suggest you start a Blogging Website for your farm from the beginning. As soon as you have the land get to writing about it. The website will become a blogging diary for your farm and how far you have come for future reference.

More important than that the faster you get your site listed on Google, Bing, Yahoo and other search engines the better.

If you start writing your blog from the beginning of your small farming adventure and how things are going.

You might be thinking nobody wants to read about this but believe me they do. I mean you are reading my blog are you not..?

Trust me I get 10,000 plus readers per month and climbing

It will also be much easier to launch an online store off the back of a blog. Especially when that blog is already listed in search engines.

This is because it takes time for any website to rank in the Search Engine Results Pages. These are also referred to as SERPs.

If you start your blog straight away. Then when you are ready to sell products online. Your blog will already be showing up in the search results. Then it’s just a matter of linking your online store to your blog.

It’s as simple as writing an article telling your readers that you have now launched an online store. You will then already have an audience that may want to purchase from you and your farm over the internet.

But more than all of that blogging and selling online is great fun also profitable. You will be surprised at the number of readers you will get.

Millions of people dream of living off the land and it is a massive subject worldwide.

What is Blogging anyway…?

Blogging is basically writing about anything, in this case, your farm and your experiences. It’s simple to start as you can see from my blog.

You only need a single post to launch a blog. Then write one article weekly or monthly showing your readers how you are getting on with your small farm.

It takes around several months for your blog posts to start showing in search engines. So don’t be thinking you will only have one post and lots of people will be viewing it. But after several months you will have many articles and lots of people reading your blog. Simple..!

Did I also mention that you can earn a significant income from your small farm blog also..? This is by way of affiliate marketing and there are so many affiliate programs out there that can earn you extra income for writing about what you love.

Yes its true why do you think so may people are writing blogs these days

I have even started to earn a little extra income from my blog which is great and goes towards feeding my animals. Believe me when I say I am no computer genius so if I can do it so can you?

There is no reason why you cannot learn just like I did and have a website blog up and running in just a couple of weeks. It only takes a couple of hours of learning per week before you know-how and are up and running.

If you get stuck along the way. Do what I did and go and type in what you want to know into YouTube. I guarantee you will find the answer in minutes and it will be in a nice easy to follow video. Problem solved…!

Websites Are Not Expensive

This is one of the biggest reasons that may put people off is the cost. Thinking a website is going to be expensive and that you need all the money you have for your small farm. The truth is that it’s really cheap to launch a website.

The main costs behind websites are website designers. Which I am going to tell you, you don’t need. It is really simple to start a small blog or small online store without any coding knowledge whats so ever.

I’m talking less than a couple of hundred which is nothing in the grand scheme of things. Also nothing in terms of what you will get back from your website.

I have 2 websites one for my blog and one for my online store. We will discuss which type of website you need and how much it will cost for each type.

The Small farmer life blog I host with BlueHost and I purchased their 3-year plan which cost from £2.26 per month for three years.

My online store Ukpoultry.co.uk I use Shopify which costs me $29 a month. This is about what I sell 6 fertile hatching eggs for or 1 pullet hen. So I think it is well worth the monthly fee.

Is It Hard To Build A Website..?

In this day and age, you do not need to go to college or university to learn how to build a website. The prosses is easy to learn and there are mountains of online videos to help you through any problem you may come across.

This is great for someone like me who is building their first website. Whether it’s an online store to sell your farm products or you want to learn how to blog. It’s pretty easy to learn either one nowadays.

Now there are plenty of companies offering different platforms to use to sell online and to blog.

But I choose to use Shopify for my online store as it’s really simple to use and so many sources on YouTube to learn from. Not only that but they take care of everything from a free theme to online payments etc.

Now I could build my store into my WordPress blog to sell products online but this is a lot more complicated.

It is much easier to use a Shopify store which was built from the ground up to be an eCommerce platform and link to it from my blog.

I could also run my online blog from Shopify but Shopify is not the best platform to blog from. It was built to sell things so use it for that reason.

WordPress, on the other hand, was built for Blogging. So I choose to blog with WordPress as there are many more options.

So I sell my products with Shopify which is a lot less hassle than having a Blog and an Online Store together.

It’s easy to link your Blog to your Online Store this gives you the versatility and the advantages of both worlds.

Who Do I Use To Host My Sites..?

Now I recommend BlueHost for WordPress Hosting and for Blogging and I recommend Shopify for Online Selling. These two companies are giants in their industries.

I have never had any trouble with either of them and they are both simple to use. The customer service is awesome from both and any problems if you have any are sorted while you are chatting online.

Now I did my homework before I chose which Hosting to go with and also which eCommerce I would use to sell online.

But I have in the past used other types of providers and also pay monthly services like Wix.

But nothing beats having your own hosting, domain name and purchasing a ready-built theme.

After 5 years of using different types of websites. I think BlueHost is by far the best and cheapest for hosting your website. Other people may think differently but what are they hosting and what do they need from a hosting company.

I am certain that if you are looking for web hosting then BlueHost has a package to suit your needs.

Other Platforms To Blog From

There are many different types of blogging platforms out there. All offering different types of options and packages.

I am just trying to make things easy for you by telling you what I use and know something about.

I cannot speak for all the companies and providers out there because I have never used them. That is except Wix and a few hosting companies. Wix was pretty pathetic, to be honest.

The reason I choose WordPress to write my blog. Is because it’s the biggest platform for blogging in the world.

This means there is so much more information out there. There are so many plugins for everything or anything you may want to do. Have you seen fancy share buttons on a website you like..? I bet it is from a WordPress Plugin.

Also, the mountain of instructional videos on YouTube that will teach you everything you need to know is unbelievable.

Other platforms do not have the amount of help you may need. If you are new to website design and building I would stick to WordPress for this reason alone.

You can also easily move your website from one hosting company to another if you use WordPress and WordPress hosting companies.

Also, WordPress is Free, you still have to pay for Hosting and a Domain Name which costs around £12 per year.

Some hosting packages will give you a free domain for the first year with one of their hosting packages even BlueHost does.

But if you are a first-time customer when purchasing a domain name you can get them as cheap as 0.99p.

Always Purchase Your Domain Seperate From Your Hosting…!

I would always advise you to purchase your domain name from a domain name supplier that is different from your hosting company.

Have them both separate as sometimes a hosting company can make things difficult if you ever want to leave.

This has never happened to me but I have read about it in the past so for the price, why take the chance.

This gives you full control over every aspect of your website. If you ever want to move to new hosting then you simply point your domain to your new host.

WordPress Hosting For Your Small Farm Blog

There are many companies that offer WordPress hosting and it’s pretty cheap. I think really cheap.

The great thing about building your own website. Choosing your own hosting and domain name is that you are in control and not some web developer.

List of some Hosting Companies with great pricing.

• BlueHost – This is the hosting I use – Never had a problem
• Hostinger UK
• SiteGround
• JustHost – Have also used this hosting – Again never had a problem
• HostGator

Building and owning your own website is a real game-changer. You do not have to contact web developers to change this or that. You will also not be billed for changing small things on your website.

This is why I was so happy to learn how to use WordPress. If I wanted to make changes I could do it in five minutes.

You may think it is hard to learn but honestly, it is really easy. You will get to grips with it in no time and be well on your way to having your own blog.

Which Option Is Best For You..?

Well, this all depends on what you are doing with your farm. Are you just wanting to blog about your farm..?

If you are raising animals and selling their meat. You may want to start a blog and show your potential customers.

How you treat and raise your animals through images and blog posts. You can also show them videos which are easily integrated into your blog.

In this case, you just need a Cheap Hosting Package a Domain Name and a Blogging Theme.

Total cost around £200 for 3 years of hosting and a cool looking Theme like mine. You will have to pay for your domain yearly but it is around £12 per year.

Then if you decide to sell online in the future you can easily start an online store with Shopify.

If You Want To Sell Online

If you are selling fertile hatching eggs and other poultry-related products. Or if you are selling any other type of products that can be posted or mailed out.

You may want to start with a Shopify store. Or like me, you may want to start with both.

This is the great thing about being in control of your own online world it is all up to you. You can do anything you want and you can do it that very day and it won’t cost you a penny.

If you want to make changes you can and it will cost you nothing and can be done in minutes.

No more overcharging web design companies trying to get thousands per month out of you for a basic farm shop. Believe me, this is what they will try and charge you.

You can add any products you have available to your store in minutes. Start taking any orders and have them in the post for next day delivery. Any payments will go straight into your Paypal Account or Bank.

Shopify is the largest eCommerce platform out there, especially for new online stores. It is easy to set up and you even get a 14 day free trial with no credit card needed.

After that, the price is $29 a month which is nothing compared to what a web design company would charge to build you an online store. If you choose a web design company be sure to have several thousand just for a basic online store.

Another good thing about Shopify is that you can get a Point Of Sale Unit for your farm shop or farmers market if you have one. This integrates with your online store and any sales go straight into your bank account.

You can cancel your Shopify store at any time and you are not tied into a contract.

How To Start A WordPress Farm Blog

Just want to blog..? Using WordPress for your farm blog is pretty easy once you have your hosting. You can then download WordPress free to your hosting platform which will probably have c-panel.

Upload a theme you have purchased or you may choose to go with a free Theme. I recommend you purchase a ready-made Theme as this will make things easy for you and you get 6 months of support free.

There are plenty of videos showing you how to do this. The theme seller will probably have one. This is not a hard thing to do.

The support you get with a purchased theme will also help you if you ever get stuck. They will even go into your website and fix a problem if you have one.

C-panel is the backend of your website were WordPress lives. Once installed you will only see the WordPress panel as seen below when you log into your website.

WordPress DashBoard Above

This is where you will upload your Theme and make any changes to your website or post new articles to your blog. It is really that easy when you get to know your way around.

Now as I mentioned you can use one of the free themes that WordPress offers which are not that good but could be used. Or you can do what I did and purchase a Blogging Theme for a one-time payment of around £50 from a site that sells Themes like ThemeForest.

There are so many Themes to choose from and different types you will certainly find one you like. Always purchase a theme that has sold many times and has lots of good comments about it and you can’t go wrong.

Themes are basically ready-made websites that you can change to your own tastes. It sounds complicated but it takes around ten minutes to download the theme and install it into your WordPress hosting.

How To Always Recover Your Website

Now if you are new to WordPress Blogging. Then you are going to make mistakes. But this is not a problem when you are using WordPress.

As I mentioned if you have read the whole post that is..? WordPress has a plugin for everything. There is a Plugin called UpdraftPlus it is free to install.

Now as you learn to use WordPress and start making your website look cool. All you have to do is hit Backup in UpdraftPlus and it will backup your full website.

If you make a mistake after you have built a lovely website. As long as you have been making regular backups it’s not a problem. You just hit the Restore in Updraftplus and your website will be back to how it was. Before you made the mistake.

You can see I use it in the image of my blog dashboard above.

You can also back your website up to external storage like GoogleDrive who give you gigabytes of free storage space with any Gmail account.

Is It That Simple To Start A Farming Website

Yes, it is. The first step is to choose what you want from your website..? Do you want to blog or sell online or do you want both..?

Now you have made up your mind go with one of the links on this page and you cant go far wrong.

Once you have chosen your desired platform. Go over to YouTube and type in how to learn to Blog With WordPress or how to Build An Online Store With Shopify.

I promise you that you will find everything you need to know about either of the platforms. This is exactly what I did and I have never looked back. I even build Shopify stores for others and make a little extra on the side.

Learning How To Blog About Your Small Farm

If you are wanting to learn how to blog about your small farm then take a look at these guys. They have a channel on YouTube called Income School. You will learn everything you need to know about starting a blog from scratch even how to make money from your blog.

They explain lots of things around the art of blogging because it is an art. Like anything, you will become better at blogging the more you blog. It’s that simple. If you are not the best at spelling then you can download Grammarly the free version is all you need.

Once you are learning to blog you will want to learn about SEO. This will help you write great articles for your blog that will get ranked on page one of Google.

Neil Patel is the guy to watch he has his own Channel on YouTube called Neil Patel.

Watching these two YouTube channels alone will get you well on your way to blogging. Also earning from your blog, yes it will take a little time but so will building your farm.

If you are still not sure about using WordPress then check out channels on YouTube that teach you. But I will say this. The best way to learn is to follow along as you are watching.

If you don’t have WordPress or Shopify then you cannot follow along. Remmember you are in your farm for the long run and on those cold winter nights.

Well what better way to get through them than to write about your farming life..!