COMING SOON
Launch Your Website in 10 Weeks: A Cohort-Based Web Design Course
Launch Your Website in 10 Weeks: A Cohort-Based Web Design Course is a hands-on, cohort-based course for anyone ready to learn how to design a WordPress website and launch in ten weeks.
Taught by Samantha Pennington (she/they), Founder of Oree Virtual, and co-facilitator, Verónica Silva (she/ella), Oree Virtual’s Operations Director.
What is the Launch Your Website in 10 Weeks: A Cohort-Based Web Design Course?
This comprehensive course is the consolidation of our years of experience in designing websites and coaching clients through the process—regardless of their tech ability. We’ve designed and redesigned dozens of websites for a wide range of industries alongside a diverse spectrum of people.
Throughout this course, we’ll work through our step by step process to design a website alongside a cohort of people with expert guidance throughout. By the end of this course, you’ll be:
- a website designer with the ability to maintain your own accessible and powerful website with ease
- able to design websites for others as a new source of income
- the owner and creator of a live, user-friendly website ready to serve you and your customers/clients/community with increased impact and reach. The value of this website is $10-30,000!
- connected to cohort peers and professionals in the field and poised for success in creative community through our exclusive Slack workspace
- able to access the course content for life!
Instruction will take place through videos, written formats, and live sessions for a variety of learners. Your finished website will be a mobile-friendly, search engine optimized, easy to use (and maintain) WordPress website using the Divi theme—and—we will launch that website in 10 weeks!
Who is the Course Best For?
It’s our specialty to make tech make sense for people with any level of understanding or experience. So if you want to launch your own website or learn how to design websites for income and you’ve been getting lost in the sauce, then you’re in the right place.
Learning how to design a website can be an overwhelming and daunting task, which is why we created this course and interactive cohort structure for YOU.
We know how many options there are out there and how many tech industry jargon terms there are to slog through. But don’t worry—we can guide you through the challenges because we’ve been doing this for years.
Be sure to check out our Frequently Asked Questions for more details!
Why We Think it’s Important to “Make it Make Sense”
We are people who specialize in making it make sense for anyone when it comes to tech and website design. We know this is an important piece of the tech world puzzle because, more than ever, we need diverse tech professionals with a whole spectrum of perspectives.
We’ll translate and work through complex concepts in an easy to understand way like:
- What platform should you use?
- What theme should you choose?
- What the heck does SEO, accessibility, and site architecture even mean? Why do they matter?
- Where are you supposed to start?
- What all do I need to complete a website design?
- How do I integrate my website with email, social media, and other marketing tools?
- What are website best practices so my website works all on devices, loads quickly, and search engines boost my content?
- How do I plan and organize my content so people get my message?
- How do I get help whenever I get stuck or make mistakes?
Sign Up for the Waitlist
The waitlist for Launch Your Website in 10 Weeks: A Cohort-Based Web Design Course is now open! Because this is a cohort-based course, space will be limited so be sure to sign up now to be among the first to know when you can officially secure your spot!
You can unsubscribe anytime. For more details, review our Privacy Policy.
Course Timing & Schedule
This 100% hands-on course will take place over 10 weeks alongside a cohort of people and will cover:
- Week 1: An Introduction to Divi, WordPress, and Each Other!
- Week 2: Web Design, Accessibility, and SEO Best Practices
- Week 3: Website Planning and Content Organization (Site Architecture)
- Week 4: Getting to Know the Divi Visual Builder
- Week 5: Designing a Homepage with a Global Header and Footer
- Week 6: BREAK Week, with Optional Q&A Office Hours to Fine Tune Your Work with Sam
- Week 7: Site Building: About & Blog/Resource/Portfolio Pages
- Week 8: Add Ons/Special Features: Post Template, Social Media Integration, Forms, and More
- Week 9: Technical SEO, Final Testing + Optimization, and Ongoing Website Maintenance
- Week 10: Full Site Review + Expert Feedback, Group Celebration of Our Websites, and Closeout of the Course
Because this is a cohort-based course, space will be limited so be sure to secure your spot!
Throughout the 10 weeks, we will be with you every step of the way. Each week, we will provide you expert feedback and support and we will host a weekly live Q&A session that everyone can attend as a cohort.
By the end of these 10 weeks, you will be ready to confidently launch your completed website!
Not only will you finish with an accessible and powerful website, you’ll also get our tips and tricks for designing a website easily, speedily, and with TONS of support now and in the future. An added benefit of the cohort structure is the accountability and encouragement from us and the group at every step of the process.
Testimonials
Wow! Wow, wow, wow was my first thought after our website went live. This process with Samantha Pennington has produced an amazing result. She designed a new website for our organization as well as a new brand and helped us strategically restructure our brand architecture. She is fair and understands the personal nature of our non-profit, but her strength is the ability to teach. I learned so much under her guidance.
When tech-literate people work with those who aren’t, the process can be frustrating on both sides. But Samantha was always patient with my questions, very clear in her explanations, and wonderfully communicative throughout the process. Her emails are all well crafted, full of helpful information and constructive points. Our dialogue throughout this process was always crystal clear and served to move the project forward.
Samantha is an expert at turning information into useful content that informs consumers and sells products and services. She is amazingly multi-talented with tremendous creative and technical skills. She designed and launched a great website for my business as well as a very helpful brand style guide. I truly enjoyed working with Samantha at every moment of the process and highly recommend her to others! I am so impressed. What a remarkable person and company. They have a customer for life!
What You’ll Get
A WHOLE DANG WEBSITE!
Did we mention that you will finish this course with a fully functioning, ready to launch website?! It’ll be accessible, mobile-friendly, and it’ll be search engine optimized. That’s a value of $10-30,000! Plus since you designed it yourself, you’ll be prepared to confidently maintain and update your site into the future. We will cover the design of a homepage, about page, blog/ resource/ portfolio page, and post template as well as adding on essential special features like forms, social media integration, and more.
COMMUNICATION, COMMUNITY, & ACCOUNTABILITY
This is a cohort-based course, which means you’ll be learning, working, and celebrating alongside co-facilitators, Sam and Vero, and a whole group of peers. You’ll have accountability and encouragement to make sure you get to the finish line. The exclusive Slack channel for the course will remain live even after the 10 weeks are up so you’ll be able to maintain relationships with everyone who goes on this journey with you.
EXPERT ANSWERS & FEEDBACK
We will be available to you each week to answer your questions via written responses and during a weekly live Q&A session the entire cohort can attend. Before the final week of the course, Sam will do a comprehensive review of your website and provide you with personalized feedback to make sure your site is ready to go live.
WRITTEN & VIDEO INSTRUCTION
This course will have written and video instruction. All videos will have full transcripts so you will always have the option to read the content alongside or instead of watching the videos.
LIFETIME ACCESS
Once you complete the course, you will still be able to access all of the content in the future to help you design as many websites or web pages as your heart desires! You’ll even get access to updates that get added to the course in the future.
Sign Up for the Waitlist
The waitlist for Launch Your Website in 10 Weeks: A Cohort-Based Web Design Course is now open! Because this is a cohort-based course, space will be limited so be sure to sign up now to be among the first to know when you can officially secure your spot!
You can unsubscribe anytime. For more details, review our Privacy Policy.
Meet Our Teacher: Sam (she/they)
I’m Sam, the sci-fi and fantasy novel obsessed and queer founder of Oree Virtual. I’m a bona fide tech wizard and I’ve been designing websites since 2015. I specialize in helping people of all levels of ability use and understand tech.
Whenever I design a website, I not only make sure that the site visitors will be able to use and navigate it easily, but I also ensure that the client will be able to update and maintain that website. I prioritize usability, accessibility, and ease because it’s what works, it’s sustainable, and it’s what algorithms prioritize too.
Meet Our Co-facilitator: Vero (she/ella)
Vero is a flower farmer and community organizer who loves connections among people, and doing whatever she can to support livable futures for all. As a bilingual (english and spanish) organizer from the deserts of Nuevo México, her focus has been on facilitating community spaces, climate justice, mutual aid, creativity, and honoring roots.
Our connection to Vero is held in the intersections of bringing people together to learn new things and increasing access. With her years of experience in facilitating spaces and creating ease for the people, she will be supporting the logistics and community aspects of our course.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this course for me?
This course is for anyone ready to dedicate 10 weeks to designing a website. Whether you want to design a website for your own business or goals, or you’re looking to learn web design in order to design websites for clients as a source of income–this course is for you.
Can I take this course if I have zero prior web design experience or knowledge?
Absolutely! This is a beginner-friendly course and we’re experts at teaching people of any tech skill level and experience. We work with people of all ages, backgrounds, and tech savviness on a daily basis so as long as you have access to the internet and the will to learn something new, we would love to have you!
Do I have to know how to code?
No. You do not have to be able to code in order to design a website using my methodology. While it can be handy to use the occasional bit of code to customize certain things on a website–it’s not necessary in the slightest and I’ll cover this in more detail in the course.
What do I need to complete outside of the coursework in order to launch my website on time?
- Ideally you will have branding developed before we begin the course. If this is not possible, you can always design your website and easily change these elements later, but it’s great to be able to design with your branding right from the outset. Branding includes:
- brand colors and fonts
- a visual style
- brand voice and tone (the overall vibes)
- a logo (which is optional–a logo is not a requirement to launch a website).
- Website content. While I will provide pointers throughout the course about writing great content and sourcing images for your website, you will need to provide the content for your website.
- You will need to purchase the Divi theme, website hosting, and a domain (details listed below).
What costs are associated with my website that are not included in the course?
- Website hosting and a domain. I recommend Siteground’s WordPress hosting at the StartUp level which is $2.99/month to start and $14.99/month after the sign up period and includes a free domain. Siteground is very user-friendly, has great service, and incredible support. That’s why we use them, recommend them, and why we’re affiliates with them: Sign up for Siteground.
- Any hosting provider you prefer will work, but because each hosting provider has different setup processes, it will be a bit easier for you to use the same hosting provider as the rest of us.
- Divi theme license from Elegant Themes for $89/year or a one-time license. This is another affiliate link for this theme that I use and love and that will be the theme we use in this course. I recommend signing up for the standard $89/year and signing up for the Elegant Themes newsletter so that when they run their annual sales, you can upgrade to a lifetime license at a super discounted rate and never pay for the theme again.
When will the course begin?
The course start date is currently still to be decided. The exact days and times of live meetings will be decided once everyone in the cohort completes an availability survey.
How much will this course cost?
In alignment with our values, the team at Oree Virtual is committed to offering price points for anyone to access this course, therefore, we are carefully considering pricing tiers and will release those details soon. We can assure you that we will offer partial scholarships to qualifying applicants.
Will you offer scholarships for anyone who can’t afford the full cost of the course?
Yes. Be sure to sign up for the waitlist even if you’re unsure about affording the cost of the full price course because we will send scholarship details once they’re available.
Why WordPress and Divi?
WordPress powers about 43% of all websites on the internet for a reason. It can be used to do pretty much anything and everything. Other site builders like Squarespace or Wix are simple, which is great, but they also have a TON of limitations. With WordPress, you’re never going to go through the agonizing realization that you’ll need to move your website to a new platform and completely redesign everything because you need functionality that other website builders don’t offer.
Why Divi? Let me list some of the many reasons why I use Divi with my clients:
- it’s the best multipurpose WordPress theme out there meaning you can use it for a wide range of functionality and design
- it has a visual builder—meaning you can see what your design looks like as you design—which makes it really easy for even inexperienced web designers to use
- the support is FANTASTIC and the benefit of this cannot be understated because almost any web designer is going to be reaching out to support frequently
- it’s one of the most popular themes on WordPress which means there are so many ways to learn more about ways to use it such as dedicated Divi websites and Facebook groups
- because Divi is so popular, tons of plugins are designed to work specifically with Divi and Divi will always be updated so it remains working correctly when popular plugins like WooCommerce get updated
- their template library is seemingly unlimited making the web design process so much faster
What’s Oree Virtual all about?
Oree Virtual is a values-driven, full-service digital agency shifting power alongside historically excluded communities across the globe. Using accessible and ethical technology, we support our clients to root into their own power and autonomy, meet their missions, and create compelling online presences.
We envision a livable future for us all where everyone has equal and fair access to tech, thus reducing our reliance on oppressive systems to access the resources we need to thrive. In this world, we use technology to regenerate, support, and protect ourselves, our communities, and liberation near and far.
We make tech ethical and accessible.
Don’t hesitate to send us any more questions you may have! Send us an email.
Sign Up for the Waitlist
The waitlist for Launch Your Website in 10 Weeks: A Cohort-Based Web Design Course is now open! Because this is a cohort-based course, space will be limited so be sure to sign up now to be among the first to know when you can officially secure your spot!
You can unsubscribe anytime. For more details, review our Privacy Policy.