Creating a website is an exciting step in building your business and your brand. It promises to offer endless opportunities for showcasing your ideas, and products to the world. The allure of a quick and easy setup may have convinced you that it can be done in a mere 10 minutes, but the truth is far from it. In this blog post, I'll share my personal experience of setting up my new website, the challenges I faced, and the lessons I learned along the way.
The Myth of a 10-Minute Setup: Ya right! Unless you are a programmer don't even think it can be done that quickly, despite the promise made by advertisements and YouTube videos. There are so many steps involved in building a website, and, really, building your Brand! You have to factor in time to learn the fundamentals of whichever e-commerce platform you choose, Wix, Shopify, Squarespace etc. I chose Shopify, and you can click this link for a free trial ) I watched countless videos to begin grasping the basics and thank goodness for the plethora of content on YouTube with in depth tutorials, I’ve received a crash course in web design! Don't get discouraged if you find yourself spending days, weeks, or even longer (that was me) on this task. Remember, Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither will your website.
Choosing Your Domain Extension: While the visual design of a website is crucial, you have to consider other things like domain registration, do you want a .com .ca .co etc. Depending on which part of the world you reside, you need to decide if you want to represent a more domestic or a more global consumer. This factor will help you decide whether to choose for example, .ca which will be ranked higher in Canadian market searches, whereas .com is looked at as a generic extension, and Google does not associate it with any particular country, thus a better choice if you are perusing a more international consumer.
Diving into the World of Web Design: You may think that you need to know how to write code, but I'm here to tell you that you don't. The e-commerce platforms do all that work for you, unless you want to re-write something to suit your own needs, but that's way beyond my skill set. You will however need content. You can't build a website without it, and since this is YOUR website you have to create all of the content yourself! This means, photos, more on this later. You also need products, and or services that you plan to offer, in my case and probably yours, it will be your own pottery/ceramics creations.
Now that you have products, you need to come up with product descriptions. This is a very important step as it's the building blocks of a strong SEO (Search Engine Optimization, in the most basic of terms, driving traffic to your site). Coming up with good product descriptions can be quite entertaining as it is time consuming! But do not rush this step, be as colourful with your words to help your potential customer see, feel and know your product. You want to consider what kinds of emotions you want the user to experience, suggest how the product should be used, mention size, weight, and any other measurements to help your prospective customer understand scale since they can't physically touch the product.
Other things to consider is the functionality your storefront. Have a friend 'test run' your website to point out potential problems, it might be as simple as changing the colour of your "Buy Now" button as it was in my case. Considering all these things will help ensure happy customers, thus returning customers.
The Tedious Process of Product Photography: If your website involves showcasing products, be prepared for the tedious task of product photography. High quality photos is essential for creating an attractive and professional-looking website. Firstly, you do not need expensive camera equipment to take great photo’s, most smart phone will do the job perfectly fine. You do however need to have excellent product shots. The key is you must take multiple photos, and I mean a LOT of photos of each item and from different angles, adjusting lighting as need be. Using a bright window is a great option or you can invest in some lighting as this will provide a consistent setting. Be prepared to retake pictures to get the shot just right. Review your footage on your computer so that you can see it on a larger scale. Remember, this will make or break your customers decision on committing to that purchase. Yes, it can be time-consuming, you will however, get better at it and as an added bonus, you now have lot of photos for Instagram!
The Back End And Front End Of Things: Ahhh, just when you thought you’ve understood it all and you’re going to throw your website together… now you are faced with uploading it all to the provider. This part confused the heck out of me, until I got the hang of it, so stick with it, you will get it. To simplify things, there is a front and back end of your store, you have to upload everything to the back end, much like receiving a shipment to your studio, this is the stockroom of your online store. Once you have everything 'put away so to speak' you have to link it to the front end of your store, think of it as your storefront, what your customer sees. Your policies, contact information, menus, products etc. these are all created in the back end and then linked to the storefront. I wish I understood that before I embarked on this web journey it would have saved me some time and definitely some aggravation!
There are many apps you can download to your store that your e-commerce platform have created to assist you with this. Some have additional fees and many are free. All in all you want your store front to represent you, the brand and be easy to navigate for your customer.
Perseverance and Patience: On my website setup journey, I can’t lie, frustration and the temptation to give up occasionally (not-so-occasionally) crept in. It's important to acknowledge that setbacks and challenges are part of the process. Taking breaks, walking away, sometimes for days, weeks… and returning with a fresh perspective can help overcome roadblocks and prevent burnout. Remember, every successful website owner has faced similar challenges, and perseverance is key to achieving your goals.
Conclusion:
Setting up a new website is a rewarding but underestimated task. It requires time, lots of it! Effort and a willingness to learn. The idea that it can be accomplished in just 10 minutes is just simply a myth. Embrace the journey, be prepared to face challenges, and approach them with patience and perseverance. With each hurdle you overcome, you'll gain valuable skills and create a website that reflects you, your vision and your brand. So, roll up your sleeves, dive in, and enjoy the process of bringing your website to life.
Try, Fail, Learn…Advance!