Click Here to Download the FREE Political Campaign WordPress Theme!

We already touched on the more general topic of creating and implementing a great political campaign website, but let’s focus for a moment on the website management platform that I use for my campaign sites: WordPress.

I absolutely love WordPress and am more impressed with it every time it comes out with a new update (which is usually every few months or so).  While WordPress was originally used as a platform for designing and maintaining blogs, it has quickly evolved into a platform to also manage static websites as well.

Newspaper websites, political campaign websites, business websites; these and many more are designed and maintained with the WordPress platform, and as it continues to evolve, it becomes more and more simple for the average person to use.

I don’t just use WordPress for my own political campaign website.  I also use it to manage Killer Campaigning and several other sites that I own and operate.

If you are not a tech-savvy person but you want to create your own political campaign website, then WordPress is a great option.  It is free to use, and easy to figure out (and anything you can’t figure out is certain to be easy to find with a quick Google search).

Additionally, there are thousands of pre-designed WordPress themes that you can quickly and easily plug into your site to change the way it looks and operates.

The only cost involved in starting a WordPress political campaign candidate website is the annual fee you’ll have to pay a web hosting company in order to host your site.  I use a hosting company called Bluehost and am very satisfied with them and their customer service.  It only costs about ten bucks a month to host my site with them.

Setting up a WordPress political campaign website is as simple as this: 1) Sign up for an account with a web hosting company.  2) Choose a domain name that hasn’t been taken yet, and register it through your hosing company.  3) Click a few buttons to install WordPress on your new domanin.  4) Go into your new WordPress admin panel, pick out a theme, and start publishing content to your new website.

There are other, more complicated steps involved if you want to make your WordPress political campaign website do more impressive things, but with some time and patience you’ll be very comfortable with the platform itself.

If you think that you might run for local political office sometime in the future and want to save hundreds (or thousands) of dollars by learning how to design your own campaign website, the WordPress is the answer.  I suggest that you set up a test site long before your campaign starts and get comfortable with the way it works.

And don’t worry if you make any mistakes and have to start over from scratch!  That’s part of the learning process.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve screwed up a WordPress website and had to teach myself how to fix things.  Making mistakes, after all, is a great way to learn how to do something better than anyone else!

The advent of computers and specialized software has made it easier to do just about every job imaginable, and political campaigning is no exception.  Although I’m sure you could run a winning political campaign without a computer, I wouldn’t want to try it.  When it comes to organizing and tracking  names, addresses, finance reports, contributions and countless other data, computer programs make a political candidate’s job immeasurably easier.

First time political candidates might think that they need to buy specialized political campaign software or programs in order to make the best use of their computer during the election season.  And while there are plenty of programs and software packages available for purchase that claim to make campaigning easier, the fact is that everything you need is probably installed on your computer already.

The two computer programs that I’ve used most extensively for political campaigning are Microsoft Word, a word processing program, and Excel, a spreadsheet creator.  Unless you’re running in a statewide election or you’re a field director for a presidential campaign, I doubt that you’ll ever need anything more than these two programs, which come installed on many Windows PC computers out-of-the-box.

The biggest value of a computer in political campaigning is its ability to help you organize, track and plan.  The Excel spreadsheet program is a huge help for any campaign, and I suggest that you familiarize yourself with it if you plan on running for office in the future.  Not only is it fairly simple to use, but it allows you to easily keep track of every interaction you might have on the campaign trail.

Additionally, most election statistic reports that you receive from your local board of elections will likely be in an Excel format.  If you know a bit about how to use spreadsheets, you’ll be able to sort and organize names, addresses and voting history for people in your district–a very useful ability that could mean the difference between winning and losing your campaign.

Sure, you could probably find flashy political campaign software and programs that make the process of tracking and organizing more entertaining, but you’d basically be paying for something that you probably have the ability to do already. Microsoft Word and Excel aren’t flashy software, but they’re very useful to political campaigns from the lowest to the highest levels.

Click Here to Download the FREE Political Campaign WordPress Theme!

In spite of what some tech-savvy web designers and Internet specialists might say, we still haven’t reached a point in our society where a website is a must-have for every single local political campaign.  True, it’s hard to imagine a successful congressional, senatorial, statewide or presidential campaign without a great website, social media plan and online grassroots coordinator.  But smaller campaigns, such as city council and school board races, don’t always need a website for their respective candidate to win on election night.

Still, if you can afford it and if it’s done correctly, a political campaign website is a great way to raise your name identification in the community, find volunteers and raise money.  A word of warning: if you’re a candidate in a smaller race, don’t concentrate too much energy on designing a website unless you intend to make it a professional looking and fully integrated part of your campaign.

By “fully integrated,” I mean that your political campaign website should be something that you integrate into all other facets of your campaign.  If your web page is professional and effective, you should make sure to mention it in your campaign literature, newspaper ads, media interviews and when you meet voters personally.  If done correctly, a website can be a terrific “follow-up hit” for voters who want to learn more about you and your campaign.

Here’s where many local political candidates fail with their campaign website: they make it nothing more than a static page, and don’t capitalize on potential voter interaction that could lead to more contacts, more volunteers and more donations.  Your campaign website shouldn’t just be a bland listing of your qualifications, your political philosophies and a few pictures.  Instead, it should be a way for you to learn more about the people visiting your site, as well.

Don’t think that you have to spend thousands of dollars or hire a team of web designers in order for your campaign to have a professional web presence.  In addition to very affordable independent web designers who can build a campaign website for a fraction of the cost of larger companies, there are also other free website design options that you can use yourself to create a decent-looking site from your own home or campaign headquarters.

My free website platform of choice is WordPress, which we use to publish Killer Campaigning.  It’s free (except for very minimal hosting fees), easy to use and update, and comes with thousands of pre-programmed template designs that you can choose from to make your website reflect your particular political campaign.  In addition to WordPress, there are many other free website and blogging options that your campaign can take advantage of to get your info online.

But let’s get back to making your site interactive.  While it’s great to include a photo page and general information about your campaign, you need to consciously design your website with features that will help you learn about your visitors, as well.  In addition to a contact page, you should also include a donation page, a volunteer page, and even a short survey asking voters what issues are important to them.

Doing all of this on your website isn’t as difficult as it might sound.  If you hire a web design specialist, adding a couple of extra contact pages won’t usually cost much more.  And free Internet publishing platforms like WordPress also have simple plugins available that let you include features like a contact form with just a few easy clicks.

Regardless of what route you take to get your political campaign online, remember that you don’t want to make your website a boring, static page of information about yourself.  Take the time to listen to the voters on your website, as well, by including plenty of interactive features in your design.