Whether you are the successful business owner, the ambitious entrepreneur, the stay at home mom or the novas socialite odds are you will need to start a website at some point. If it's worth doing it's worth doing well, it's worth doing with all of your heart. So, you pour your heart into your business or ideas or kids or relationships, but how in the world do you convey all of that on a web site? How does doing any of that benefit you? Whether you are paying a professional or doing it yourself here are 5 simple steps to get you started on the great site you know you need.
While at one of my first Emerge Luncheons (which I love and would highly recommend) I sat with a lot of people I had never met. There was a particularly popular speaker, and the place was packed. As with any professional small talk we asked each what the other did for a living. I was talking to a young lady from Procter and Gamble (an excellent company & corporate citizen). I asked what she did, and she replied, "I'm a chemical engineer at P&G. What do you do?" I told her that I was a graphic designer to which she said, "I was thinking about being a graphic designer." I found that ironic because, as I commented, "I considered being a chemical engineer for a while."
She looked at me like I had just insulted her mother. She didn't say anything to me the rest of the meeting, but shot me glares that screamed, "A simply artsy person like you could never do what I do." Perhaps there are engineers and designers alike who will be insulted by this statement, but I'm a pretty dicey that way. Designers and engineers are more alike than you may think.
HubSpot and Kyle Lacy have both recently published articles about Landing Pages. Even the top marketers see their value and most of the bottom marketers think they are all the rage. So, why isn't this post in the "Trends" section? Because the way most people use their Landing Pages isn't a trend; it's a travesty! My original thought was to tell you all the things I don't like about landing pages, but I realized that wouldn't be very helpful to anyone. So, instead I'm going to give four suggestions on what to do (or not do) with landing pages to help maximize the wholestic approach to your web based marketing. If along the way I mention things I don't like about landing pages, so be it!
Welcome to my very own (first) official website… for myself. Over the years I’ve made dozens for other people, but never officially one for myself. Sure there were several prototypes, but nothing that I ever really ran with. Well, here it is!
One of the things I want to do with this site is provide an outlet for my thoughts pertaining to the world of graphic design and web development. I’ll be discussing various topics from time to time, but they will all (more or less) revolve around the website world. In fact, next week there will be an article on Search Engine Optimization that is a must read for anyone looking at their business site. I’d love to hear from you, though. What would you like to read? What are you wanting to know?
For the moment, I want to point out a few of the futures of this site that you might find interesting.