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This is part one in a series of posts for new solo business owners with ‘people helping’ businesses (or soon to be mavens) who want a website, but you’re stumped at where to start, because you aren’t (like me) a techie, designer or developer, and you don’t have the ‘money tree’ rooted in your back garden to spend on a fancy pants website.

(Or you’ve started and it needs to be salvaged, chill, you can have my back from carnage website nightmare stories, as we go.)

That means, if your website is all dandy, hunky-dory and top notch away and do something else today, and I’ll see you soon.

Oh, wait, before you zip away if you fancy helping and if you have a good ‘first website’ piece of advice or blood-curdling horror story, are you able leave a comment?

Right.

Now, we’re alone.

Your website.

I’m sure the people that are breaking their nails, scrolling down to leave a comment, know full well the angst a first website can be. It doesn’t have to be though.

Angst-y that is.

This is not going to be just a series of ‘techie’ workshops (but I will give you links to the ‘how to’ stuff and some cool people who are doing that), this is me, a solo business owner like you, who lived with a bump and bruise from slapping her forehead because her website sucked and didn’t know nada on how to fix it, and then what I did (long story) to turn it around.

You don’t have to make the same errors and whoopsies.

Yeah! Good news! Right…

Let’s Set The Scene…

…as this is the first in the series, you’ll get a longer intro.

Like the majority of solo business owners starting out, you probably have a budget.

So, you want to spend it wisely, yes?

You know you need a website, who do you trust? Where do you start? What needs to be in place for it to work?

• You may be on the ‘first build’, trying the D-I-Y approach to save some pennies, nothing wrong with that, but how long have you been at it? Seriously. That long?
• Or, you may have given the task to someone else, you’ve got the reins back again, and now you don’t have a clue with what to do with it. Sucks, huh?
• You have a case of the ‘I’m online, everything will happen now’ touch of the airy fairies You thought you just needed to build a website and everyone would come flooding to your virtual doors. Mmm, ach, loads think that, you aren’t alone.
• You may have built your site a while back, and you aren’t seeing any results. But you did have a plan didn’t you?

No plan?

Nothing?

Nada?

Not even a wee bit of scrap paper, a rough outline? Or an idea of what you actually would like your website to do?

Oh.

You don’t have a ‘freebie’ site, do you? You do. Okay.

Panic ye not, these posts will help you understand what’s needed on your website, to help you build your business.

Websites and Marketing Online My 2 Cents

They are ‘tuff work. Get prepared. (Only ‘tuff, because of the learning and applying, we don’t know, what we don’t know!)

They ‘ain’t easy. Sure, you could throw up a few pages to be ‘online’, but ‘being on online’ generally isn’t enough.

You actually have to make your website work.

And to make that work, you need to get your head around a few things. And then when you’ve done that, you need to get your head round a few more things, then a few more…and on it goes.

These posts are going to be a toe dip (should that be toe dip? Anyway…), an introduction, a fleet around the website world and internet marketing.

You’ll cover a little bit of copywriting (what to say on your site, and how to say it, actually Copywriting is much more than that, but let’s go easy, for now), how to engage people (without looking like a sleazy artist), a little of that SEO malarkey (yep, look you need a wee bit), a drop of design stuff, social media bits and bobs, planning and how to use your website to build your business.

Here’s why…

My very first business website rocked. It also flopped. Big Time!

 

The Rocking: It was huge, really flashy, cost a fortune, pictures were amazing, had a wonderful layout and navigation, looked awesome and it had the feeling that behind it was a team of a thousand minds, creating and writing personal development courses, when in fact, it was just me.

The Flopping: Over the year it was live, 10 inquiries (no list then).

Actually, I mustn’t lie to you, it was only 9, as one was my mum, asking if I was popping out for tea one day as she had Quorn in the fridge and it ‘needed to be eaten as she couldn’t refreeze it’. O, and one was me to make sure the contact form worked. 8 then.

3k for that!

It wasn’t the designers fault, only my mistake (but it’s not going to be yours.)

Why?

Because I was clueless about websites and really didn’t know what to do with it once it was built.

I let the designer lead me, I didn’t take the time (which would have saved me a fortune) to really research what goes into a website that works. (Oh, this isn’t going to be a pile of hate mail posts to designers! I love designers! Mostly.)

I can pinpoint: with hindsight a lot of mistakes that were made, but I’ll focus in on three for you today, it may look like an ‘odd’ three to start with.

But stay with me, I have my reasons for going with these ones first. It will all become clear as you go.

Mistake 1. Where’s The Human Being

There is the very old marketing phrase ‘people buy from people’. That’s true no matter what business you’re in.

However many think their website is not the place to display ‘hey I’m/we’re human too!‘ They then churn out page upon page of boring, meaningless and unemotional pile of heehaw.

And it’s rife. Solo business owners do it, all the way up to the large corporations.

An example: “the most successful businesses are intuitive and strategic, articulate and measureable. XY Ltd is strategy, integrating planning and business information, seamlessly. XY Ltd executes and delivers results by accelerating the strategy. We deliver with impact, drive initiatives and capability”

Urgh!

No one talks like that in my life, yours?

Worse, are the ‘we are so smart and highly intelligent look at the words we have used here to impress you, we are the experts‘ type of pages.

Bore.

Bore.

Snore.

Or, the ‘Welcome, my name is Blah, we are based in Blah, here’s all about me, more about me, me, mini me, I have 10 years experience in blah. I trained with blah. I do blah really well. At blah, I have been blahing, for blah many years, and blah is what I do best. To buy blah just blah your details‘.

People Are Emotional

Not knowing diddly squat, that was how I created my first website, no emotion and plenty blah de blah-ing.

It’s painful to read, worse, it’s painful to write.

Neither wonder most folks struggle when it comes to writing content.

Your customers (people that breathe!) are driven by their emotions, they want to know that the person (that’s you) behind the website gets their pains and frustrations, hopes, dreams, fears, that you’re talking to them, and them alone.

That means, your website really isn’t about you, it’s about what you do for the person reading your site, and telling them how wonderful you are, doesn’t make it so.

How do you achieve this?

Study Copywriting

A great little introductory book I’d recommend is Write to Sell by Andy Marsden – it’s a good starting point if you haven’t been exposed to copywriting before. It’s not actually all about selling, the books really great at helping you focus on what you do, you know, the why, and the way it’s written leads you to think that you are actually your customer.

Write your pages, as if you were talking to one person, talk to them through you’re writing (or video.)

Basically, forget everything that you were taught at school in your English class when writing your content.

WHAT!

I know. Seriously, do the exact opposite.

Write So a 12 Year Old Understands Your Message

Your message being, your understand the people that you serve (you do, don’t you?), and how you can help them solve problems.

Another idea, check your website readability. The Flesch-Kincaid readability test was designed to say whether a piece of text was easy or difficult to read. On the web, for your human customers, it should be easily read. If a 12 years old can understand it, you’re on the right track.

(That’s not write to a 12 year old, write so a 12 year old gets it!)

If you need a tool try these: Juicy Studio, Using English or Words Count or there’s Perry Marshalls readability tool (wait for the pop up to disappear) although his newsletter (esp if you want to read great copy) is one to sign up for – that’s just my opinion, he is a great storyteller.

Or, use the Microsoft Word tool, if you have it. It’s inbuilt.

The higher the score the better.

(In a later posts, I’ll give you a list of sites to look at for folks that are doing this really well, jealous, moi, never.)

Mistake No 2. No Email Capture Form or a Reason to Come Back Again

Simply, my mistake was there was nothing like the sign up box on the right.

Oh, can I just say in my defence :-) that once I did learn a little, and knew that I needed one of those things above (optin form, it’s called), I couldn’t actually add it.

Why?

Because any changes I needed to make to the website I had to go through the designer (£££££!!!!!), so here’s another whoopsie to avoid (important): own your domain, own your site, own your hosting but I’ll go into that more in another post, seriously, six weeks I waited for an update. SIX weeks!

(Oh, and a ‘free’ site is not your domain, nor your hosting and you don’t own your site! We’ll talk about the pros and cons of free later.)

Remember people that come to your site have a problem, they need something, and they will ‘shop’ around. If you’ve done a great job of getting someone to visit your site, give them a jolly good reason to hear from you again.

You can do this by capturing your email address. Ethically.

(No spam, no shenanigans, respect privacy, say what you will do with the address.)

Here’s How That Works Online

A real life example: imagine you were out looking for a new pair of shoes.

You find a pair in the first shop you visit.

But let’s assume the sales assistants were ‘off’ with you, that the shop was badly laid out, they ‘snuffed’ you a little, you felt as you being in the shop was a major hassle to them, that you were putting them out, you left with a bitter taste and didn’t have a pleasant experience.

(Translate Above Online: a badly laid out website, everything all over the place, all about you, not about your customers, no clear navigation, no benefits of how you solve a problem, crappy fonts, funny colours, pictures out of focus, it’s like you entered the Twilight Zone, you want to get out of there quick.)

So you shop around. The second shop you enter has a great sale 25% off, but again they treat you like the first shop. They really do try and sell to you, making you feel awkward.

(Translate Above Online: trying to make the sale at first point of contact, getting someone to buy without them knowing you, your service, your product, the way you work. That tactic may not work unless, say, your Amazon!)

However, the third shop you enter is different. The sales assistant says ‘if you need help, I’m here, if you see anything you like we have a special reduction sale on today but I’ll leave you to browse in peace‘.

Curious, they have you curious.

Special? What special? How much special? So you ask, they tell you that it’s 20% off day, however coming up is a half price sale starting in three days, if you aren’t in an urgent need, they can put them aside for you.

(Translate Above Online: think of the websites you go back to time and time again. Are the helpful, easy to navigate, friendly, about you, do they give you the opportunity to ‘hear more’ or sign up for special offers, information, do they make it easy for people, are they real, genuine, do they actually want to help?)

Give people a reason and experience to come back again.

Add an email capture form to your website today if you don’t already have one. Try Mailchimp or Aweber.

Mistake No 3. The Bare Bones, No Meat, Sizzle or Useful Stuff That People Can Use

Without a doubt my first website had the: we’re experts, what we do, who we are, about us, contact us, how to buy us.

See the problem?

We and Us.

(Worse, it was just me! I used ‘we’ to appear bigger! Hard lesson. Be proud of the fact you’re solo, sure you don’t have to do it all alone, but don’t think that alone means not good enough.)

Use the word you.<——-IMPORTANT! Really Mega!

So it becomes: here’s what we do for you, here’s why we’re like you, how we can help you, how you can reach us, how you can get what we offer.

Basic, but a better start.

An astounding website would be a place where you can give people what they need, without having to pay for it.

WHAT!

That means showing people how to get the results they are after. And a blog is perfect for this, no matter what business you’re in. But we’ll get to blogging later in another series, let’s get the meat on the bare bones first.

You see, the biggest mistake I made with website number one, was thinking that I needed to create pages that told people what I did or (shame) sell them what I offered, so very wrong.

I swear I must have had about 40 pages of different types of courses they could buy — nothing to help them, just guff.

Basically, don’t do pages of guff. Guffing is out. Guffing is hard.

Want an example, okay, let’s say you have childblains, sorry children, and they’re on their school holidays. You’re going mad stuck about what to do with them, you want to spend time doing things at home for a week, but you don’t have many ideas on how to keep them entertained and you’re money is tight.

So you look online and you search for ‘things to do with your children at home’ or ‘activities for children on school holidays on a budget‘.

The first sites you visit are links to books, and things to buy. Then you end up on a site that has page upon page of really cool ideas, articles, links to other sites, freebies, a weekly newsletter and so on. It’s full of great information and ideas, and they are just giving it away to you.

What site will be the one you revisit? What site would you remember, when you have a little to spend?

Why does this approach frighten the bejeepers creepers out of most solo business owners?

Because they think that by giving information away people won’t need what they offer.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Since I added the free confidence course to my site, it’s not only helped others, it’s helped me (thank you people who have signed up for it). People talk to you, they do get in touch, they ask for further help, the make comments, they tell you what’s goof and naff, they say what they liked (so you can do more of that), it’s a way of connecting.

It builds trust, you could be serving and making a difference now – if they do want to more, they’ll come back, if you give them (with no strings attached you hear me) a great experience first.

Are you thinking this won’t work in my business?

Again a myth. Every business owner has something that someone else needs (otherwise they don’t have a business!)

Not sure? Stick around.

‘Till next time, you can sign up above for further posts in the series. And for goodness sake, if you are well and truly stumped. Talk to me, call me for 15 minutes, you can do that here.

What lessons did you learn from your first website? Not built your website? What challenges are you facing?

Photo Credits: Hiking Artist (Know Your Customer)