The good news is that there are tools you can use to help you grow your business and website The bad news is that researching, reading reviews, and testing out different products can take a long time. And it can hold your business back.

Luckily, we’ve tried everything! And in this post, we share six areas that will help you improve your website and grow your business. And for each area, we give you a list of tried and tested tools that we’re happy to recommend, so you can spend less time researching and more time growing your business.

Some of these links are referral links that we earn money for or awards. In all honesty, this does not bring us a lot of dough – enough to buy cat treats. And we wouldn’t recommend anything that we don’t use ourselves. We’ll let you know if it’s a referral link you’re clicking on.

1. Creating high-quality imagery and graphic

If you want your website to look professional, you have to use great photos, images, and graphics. If you’re planning a photoshoot for your website, you might enjoy our podcast episode How to prepare for a photoshoot for your website.

But having professional photos of yourself might not be enough. Sometimes you need to add text over an image or re-size it to fit in a certain area of your website. And unless you’re a skilled graphic designer (or have one you can call on a regular basis), you might need to use photo editing software.

Canva

A tool we always recommend is Canva (if you sign up, we get awards and stuff). It has a free version with a lot of functionality, and a paid-for version you might want to upgrade to if you need to. It’s much easier to use (and much cheaper) than Photoshop. And it’s perfect if you want to create images for your blog posts, for example. You can easily overlay text onto existing photos or simply add nice graphics to your website to make your pages look more interesting.

Placeit

Another tool we use regularly is Placeit. Placeit allows you to take a screenshot of something – an eBook cover, for example – and place it onto a device like an iPhone, an iPad, or a laptop. So if you want to create the mock-up for a downloadable PDF or lead magnet, you can create a professional-looking, tangible product in minutes. At the time of writing, you can subscribe to Placeit for about $29 a month and get unlimited downloads.

Deposit Photos

When it comes to stock images and photos, our go-to website is Deposit Photos (referral link) We know, we know, we do tell people not to fill their websites with cheesy stock images, but sometimes, a stock image is a necessity.

2. Videos 

Video is a great tool to improve user experience and build trust with your audience. But it’s also great to improve your SEO efforts, as when watching videos, your users spend longer on the page. And this tells Google and the other search engines that your content is worth consuming.

There are different ways you can use video on your website – you may want to record yourself talking to the camera or do presentations, for example. But whatever you decide to do, where can you host the videos?

YouTube

The obvious choice is YouTube. It’s free, and it’s incredibly easy to set up. You just create an account, upload your videos, and you’re done.

However, you need to be aware of the fact that after playing your videos, YouTube will advertise other content that may or may not be appropriate or relevant to your audience or your business. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. But just bear in mind that you’re not fully in control of the user experience you’re providing through your website.

Loom

We love loom! If anyone has a question in our membership about, well, anything, we hit the loom button which starts recording our screens and us immediately. To see an example of how Loom works, watch below…

Vimeo

A great alternative to YouTube is Vimeo. They have a free plan, which only allows you to upload a small number of videos per week. If you need more, their cheapest plan is quite affordable at £6 per month at the time of writing. Unlike YouTube, Vimeo won’t advertise other content.

Wistia

Another tool we’ve been using, which offers professional, attractive designs is Wistia. At the time of writing, it’s $99 a month for about 10 videos, which is a lot more than what we originally paid for a few years ago.

The tool certainly comes with a higher price tag. But if you have the budget, if video plays a huge part in your business, and if you require the professional look this software offers, Wistia gives you an extra edge.

3. Email marketing

Another tool you might need to integrate with your website when growing your business is an email marketing tool. Companies like MailChimp or ConvertKit allow you to build a database of customers by capturing contact information for people who visit your website. Through email marketing, you can build better relationships with your customers (or potential customers) and contact them and market to them on a regular basis.

But which one is right for you?

MailChimp

You can have a free account with MailChimp for your first 2,000 subscribers. The functionality of the free version is limited. But if you’re just starting out with email marketing, the software probably has everything you need.

ConvertKit

We now use ConvertKit, which, at the time of writing, comes with a $29 a month price tag. Their interface is modern, clean, and very easy to use. It enables us to group our subscribers into lists. So we know whether people might be interested in a website redesign, in joining our membership, or having a website critique, for example. Plus, with our plan, we get additional support from ConvertKit, which is always handy.

Keap (used to be Infusionsoft)

Another piece of software that a lot of online marketers recommend is Keap, which used to be known as Infusionsoft. Plans start at around $99 a month at the time of writing. So it’s quite an expensive tool if you’re just starting out, have a small number of subscribers on your list, and don’t need access to complex functionality. The software is definitely more sophisticated, so if you need to set up complicated marketing funnels, it might be the one for you.

4. Website design

Another important element to consider when taking your business to the next level is design. At some point, you might need more control over the design elements of your website, even if you had your website professionally designed. And for this,  you might want to consider using a page builder.

Page builders allow you to build on an existing theme or template and with drag-and-drop functionality. You can add or amend design features in minutes, especially if you don’t know any coding and feel that what’s the standard WordPress editor functionality may be too basic and bland.

We don’t normally, but a lot of website designers use page builders nowadays. With a page builder, you can literally create design elements and templates in minutes. And the added advantage is that the website owner can then use the same page builder and continue to make changes themselves.

We shared more information about page builders over on our post How much does it cost to build your WordPress website? If you’re interested, go check it out!

Elementor

Elementor (affiliate link) is the page builder we recommend to all our members inside the Make Your Mark Online membership. It has a free version with basic features, but the Premium version will give you everything you’ll ever need. With just a bit of practice, you can add pricing tables, testimonials, quotes, and create attractive pages in a matter of minutes.

Other alternatives to Elementor are:

• Thrive Themes, which starts at around $67 per year at the time of writing.
• And Beaver Builder. This is a more advanced page builder (with a steeper learning curve) and is used by a lot of developers.

5. Taking bookings on your website 

Do you want to start taking bookings through your website? A tool a lot of our clients use is Calendly. It allows you to set up your diary, block times out, and allocate times to certain appointments, so your prospective clients can book directly into the tool.

If you run discovery calls, coaching calls, or other consultancy appointments, you can manage your diary without having to go back and forth exchanging endless emails with your clients. If you upgrade to the paid-for version, you can then set up different types of appointments with different durations and take payments through your website. We use a similar tool called Acuity Scheduling.

Alternatively, you can install a booking plugin onto your website and integrate it with a payment provider like PayPal or Stripe. A popular online booking and scheduling plugin that comes highly recommended is Bookly.

6. Taking payments on your website

And last but not least, if you’re a service-based business and need a way to take payments through your website for online programmes, courses, or memberships, for example, you can set up products on your website for your services or packages. You then sell them in the same way you would on an eCommerce website that sells physical products.

If you want to see an example of this, check out our Website Critique service on our website. When you buy the product directly from our website, you get an email confirmation of booking and payment, and within 7 days, you get the actual video with the critique. And an invoice is automatically generated, so you don’t have to remember to do this manually.

PayPal and Stripe

When it comes to payment providers, the most popular options are PayPal and Stripe. If you have a PayPal account, you can set up a ‘Pay Now’ button on your website in minutes. Stripe is also easy to use and has cheaper fees than PayPal. Just make sure you have an SSL certificate installed on your website that allows you to capture customer card details.

Other payment providers

If you’re looking for something with more functionality, another option is Sam Cart, a shopping cart system that processes customer transactions on their website. And they have awesome checkout pages!

We use a tool called Thrive Cart, which, with an upfront fee of approximately £500 is quite expensive. But it allows us to set up quick sales pages, send people the link, and take payments via credit or debit card. So if you don’t want to use PayPal or Stripe or add buttons to your website, Thrive Cart is a solid, robust tool that ensures your customers’ data is secure.

And finally, you can install a shopping cart plugin to your website, like WooCommerce, which allows you to set up virtual products through your website shop.

Would you like us to help you with your website? 

If you’re ready to improve the experience you provide to your existing and prospective customers and position yourself as an expert in your field, we have plenty more advice and tips to share with you! if you’re after a WordPress website that ranks, gets you traffic, and delivers you more sales, we’ve got what you need.

It’s time you stop faffing about with your website and make changes that will help you close more sales. If this sounds like music to your ears, come and check out our signature membership, Make Your Mark Online. With our easy-to-use and edit page templates, our video courses, our weekly live Q&A and a private Slack group, we’re here to help you get results through your website. Come and check it out!

Martin & Lyndsay

The post The best website tools we use to help save time and money appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

The decision to have our first website professionally designed cost us our business. And we don’t want anyone else to make the mistakes we made!

Unfortunately, we’re not unique. Many business owners we speak to have had a bad experience with a web design agency.

So here’s what we did (or didn’t do) and what you should do instead.

Our first business

About 8-9 years ago, we both had full-time jobs and a dream to live the entrepreneurial lifestyle.

So we started a business on the side.

We spent all our spare time (mainly evenings and weekends) building our online business – selling cushions and home furnishing on eBay and at the odd local event. Yes, Martin was actually a pretty good cushion salesman.

It wasn’t easy, especially when we were both working full time, but we loved it. So when the time felt right, we decided to take things one step further and invest in a professionally-designed website.

We had big plans.

We wanted our own online shop that people could buy from, no matter where they were in the world.

Hiring a web designer

Decision made, we didn’t waste any time. Instead of asking around for recommendations from friends and family, we looked at a few local businesses and hired the web designer with the best-looking website.

We paid £1,400 for the job (which at the time was all the money we had in the world), and he built an all-singing-all-dancing online shop that would make us millionaires.

Financially, this was a real struggle for us. With money tied up in stock sitting idle in our spare room, we had put everything we had into this one investment.

It wasn’t a great position to be in. But we were young and excited and we had a vision!

Can you blame us?

But things went horribly wrong.

The mistakes we made with our first website

1. We didn’t do enough research before hiring a web designer

Hiring the web design agency with the glossiest website is a mistake we see a lot of people make.

Don’t get us wrong – we hired a nice guy, and we enjoyed the process of working with him. But had we done our homework, we probably would have gone with someone else.

Why? Because he wasn’t the right fit. We needed a cheap website that showed us

2. We chose the wrong platform (Content management system) for our needs

At the time, we didn’t even know you could build a website on different platforms!

And unsurprisingly, (considering we had skipped the research part of the process) we found ourselves with a website built on OpenCart – a platform we found really hard to get to grips with.

Little things, like organising postage, for example, felt really complicated. And we had to spend a lot of time and effort learning things to just get it to work for us.

Plus, we hadn’t realised we didn’t have the experience or expertise to be able to update our own website. And teaching us how to update and optimise our newly-built website wasn’t something our web designer offered.

But the real point is – we didn’t ask! And we didn’t ask because we didn’t know we’d need training and support!

Also, as we later found out (when we eventually heard about this thing called search engine optimisation) that OpenCart isn’t the best when it comes to SEO. (And that’s a big part of why we now only build websites on WordPress!).

So in hindsight, we would have definitely hired a different agency to build us a website on a platform that was right for us.

But we hadn’t done our homework, so we didn’t know!

3. We adopted a build-it-and-they-will-come mindset

Big mistake.

We thought we had it all figured out.

We’d just need to throw money at this amazing web designer with the glossy-looking website, and people from all over the world would flock to our website.

We’d make lots of money.

The end.

Except that’s not how it works at all.

People didn’t come.

Because we didn’t realise that once your website is made, you need to start driving traffic to it.

And unfortunately, with our capital tied up in stock and our savings used up for the website, we had nothing left. We didn’t have another penny to invest.

When we eventually asked our web designer to help us with SEO, his monthly quote was completely out of our reach.

Plus, it’s only after our website was built that we realised our business was operating in a very competitive niche/.

We were selling products that were available on big websites, like Amazon and eBay (and probably thousands of others). And we had no way of differentiating ourselves – we hadn’t given our visitors any reason to buy from us!

Not to mention that competing on price against the biggest online giants on the market meant we had no profit margin. And that just wasn’t sustainable, especially when we had exposed ourselves financially in such a big way.

And that’s when the realisation hit us.

We were not going to be millionaires and live on a beach, sipping cocktails after all.

Not while selling cushions online anyway.

4. We thought building a website was the end goal

We hadn’t realised how much work it would take to build AND grow a website.

And we made the mistake of thinking that the website was everything – the end goal. Instead, we should have seen it as the beginning of our business.

Your website is the heart of your business.

But you’ve got to pump blood to it.

And that’s web traffic.

Once your website is live, how are you going to market yourself? Because your website is really just the starting point, and we didn’t know that!

5. We got too excited about our business

We loved our business so much that we put our heart and soul into it – we went to the extent of naming our cushions! To tell you the truth, we were so enthusiastic about our products that we wrongly assumed the whole world would be!

The bottom line is that we had fun with it, and we were really excited. But it meant we let our hearts rule our heads, even when it came to big business decisions like hiring a web designer!

6. We obsessed over the details

Instead of looking at the bigger picture, we focused on the details – literally down the colour and size of each button!

But with no website visitors, the details were pretty useless.

So what should you do instead?

1. Download our Website Buyer’s Guide

We learnt so much from this experience that we vowed we’d help other people avoid all the traps we fell into.

So we created our Website Buyer’s Guide, for anyone who is thinking of getting a new website or having their re-designed. You can download for free here. It’s our gift to you to help you avoid the costly mistakes we made.

2. Do your research before you buy

Find out what platform is right for your needs before you buy.

Consider things like:

• Is the platform easy to optimise for search? Will I need help with this or is it something I can do by myself?
• Will I be able to update and maintain my website once it’s live? Who will make changes and how?
• Will I need training and support? And if so, who will provide that help?

3. If you’re brand new in business, DIY your website

There are times when hiring a web designer is the right choice. But there are times and situations where it definitely isn’t.

If you’re brand new in business and haven’t tested the viability of your idea and model yet, you should DIY your own website. All you need at the start might be something like Shopify or a WordPress template.

And if you’re struggling, try to find someone who will help you move forward one step at the time, much like we do in our membership, Make Your Mark Online.

If you want to find out more about why you shouldn’t hire a web designer when you’re brand new in business, listen to our podcast episode: Should you DIY your website?

And when your business is established and you have regular customers and clients, by all means, consider hiring a web designer if that’s the right move for you.

4. Focus on driving traffic to your website

Once your website is live, that’s when the real work starts. Because even if your website looks amazing, you can’t convert traffic if you don’t have any!

So get the blood to the heart.

And you do this by:

• Creating and executing a content marketing strategy.
• Optimising your website for SEO.
• Engaging in social media marketing and/or email marketing.

If you want to convert traffic, you have to drive that traffic in first! And if you’re unsure about how to start, keep things simple. Think about what your buyers might want. Write helpful blog posts and promote the heck out of them.

5. Don’t invest in something you can’t afford

If you have to put your last pennies into something (a website or anything else), it’s probably not the right time to invest. We really struggled financially as a result of hiring a web designer at the wrong time for our business.

And eventually, this decision cost us our business.

So when making business decisions, and especially big buying decisions, try to use your head instead of your heart!

Would you like our help as you create your own website?  

So there you have it – the honest mistakes we made on our first website. If you enjoyed this blog post, you can also listen to our podcast episode 9 – Why our website failed miserably.

We learnt a lot from the experience, and that’s what led us to where we are today. We understand what you’re going through at the very early stages of your business, and we can help you avoid the mistakes we made.

If you want to find out more about the ways we help, check out our membership Make Your Mark Online, where we can support you in creating a website you can be proud of.

Martin & Lyndsay

The post 6 Mistakes To Avoid When Hiring a Web Designer (and What To Do Instead) appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

And we find this really sad because we have friends who are great web designers and who are constantly looking at ways to improve their clients’ websites. Yet, so many business owners have horrible experiences with web design. Does it mean the industry is full of ‘bad agencies’?

Probably not.

It’s more to do with the fact that business owners struggle to find the right web design agency for their needs. 

And sadly, that’s why this industry has such a bad reputation. It’s easy to hire an agency because of their ‘wow factor’. We make buying decisions based on their glossy website and fancy offices.

But what if the big agency with the comfy chairs and the shiny coffee machine isn’t the right fit for your business?

Why we aren’t right for some people

Not all web designers are clear about who their ideal clients are, and that doesn’t help consumers who are looking to make an informed choice and pick an agency that works for them!

That’s why we’re so passionate about using our copy and our content to spell out who we’re right for and who we’re not right for. Take this blog post – 10 Reasons We’re Not the Right Fit For You, as an example.

We’re probably a ‘bad agency’ for some people. If someone isn’t prepared to work on their website once it’s live and expects us to write copy and blog posts, change images for them, etc. then we’re not for them.

Because that’s not what we do.

And that makes us a bad choice for that particular client.

As an agency, we are right for people who are quite proactive, want to learn, don’t mind getting their hands dirty and are happy for us to provide them with remote support through training videos and emails. We’re the perfect agency for some people, and a terrible agency for others.

Why big web design agencies aren’t right for some people

Equally, a big agency with an amazing portfolio who will charge tens of thousands of pounds might not be right for someone with a small local business.

To give you an example, we once spoke to a florist who had her website designed by a big agency who worked with the likes of the BBC and Cadbury. They were industry leaders. And of course, this lady’s website turned out to be amazing (and very expensive!).

But in hindsight, she told us she’d have rather hired a freelance web designer because all she needed was a great-looking website that ranked her locally for her keywords. And the agency she hired didn’t help with that – they were almost too big for her business and her needs.

If you’re a small business (with a smaller budget), you’re better off hiring a web designer who cares about your business and will take the time to ask you exactly what you want to achieve with your website.

So, if you’re in the market for a new website or a website re-design, how do you know which web design agency is right for you?

How to Find the Right Agency For You

1. Be clear on what you need from your website

First of all, what kind of support do you expect from a web design agency? Do you want to work with a big fancy agency or a local freelancer?

Both are fine. There’s no right or wrong here – as long as you understand the differences between the various options and the pros and cons of each.

So start by identifying what’s important to you, for example,

• Do you want to rank highly in search results? Then you need an agency with SEO knowledge.
• Are you a luxury brand, and do you need your website to be all about the design? Then find an agency that fits the bill for that, with previous experience of dealing with luxury designers
• Are you a total technophobe and would find it helpful to have lots of face-to-face time with a web designer? A local freelancer might be best for you.

If you want some help in identifying your needs when it comes to creating or re-designing your website, download our FREE Website Buyer’s Guide. It’s an impartial guide that we created to help you find a web designer that’s right for you.

And if you want to hear about the time when we made a bad buying decision by hiring a designer who wasn’t right for us, listen to our podcast episode: Why our first website failed miserably!

But what other signs should you watch out for before you go ahead and hire a web design agency?

2. Stay clear of web agencies with a bad website

This sounds quite obvious, but an agency with a bad website probably won’t be right for you!

So don’t hire them! Even if you’re friends or if someone you know recommended them to you because they are friends! (Or even family!). If their website isn’t great, chances are they won’t know how to design a great one for you.

3. Make sure you are given access to the backend of your website

You need to have access to the backend of your website.

So before you hire anyone, make sure that the agency gives you full access to the backend (or Content Management System) of your website.

Even if you’re not yet sure how to navigate your way around it, you can always learn. And having access will definitely work better (and be cheaper) for you in the long run. You just don’t want to be in a situation where your web designer quotes you a ridiculous amount of money whenever you have to make a tiny change to your website!

If that happens, you’ll be angry. And you’d have a right to be!

4. Watch out for the web designers who use a lot of jargon

So you’ve been researching web design agencies, and their websites are full of talk about HTML, CSS, and PHP.

Great.

You conclude that having a website is technical and confusing, so you’re better off just handing it all over to these guys who sound like they know what they’re talking about.

Stay. Away. From. them.

They might (or might not) know how to build websites. But their copy is telling something else – they have no respect for you. Because they choose to ‘explain’ things in a way that makes no sense to you!

And you know what?

There’s no need to use jargony language at all – we don’t do it! Just have a look at our website, we’re not writing to impress our peers or confuse you, we try to explain things in a way that’s easy to understand.

We have no interest in wasting precious space on our website using words that mean nothing to our prospective clients. For us, it’s a missed opportunity to connect with our visitors and tell them exactly who we’re right for and who we’re not right for.

5. Beware of those who don’t want to show their face

Have you ever noticed how a lot of businesses seem to hide behind their website and never show their face? We call them hermits. And we feel so passionate about this that we even wrote a blog post a while ago called Show us your face.

We always recommend to website owners that you use professional images of yourself on your website as it helps you to build trust and authority with your audience. You can read more about this in our blog post What is the B.R.A.N.D. website framework.

Think about it. As a consumer, don’t you find it difficult to make a buying decision when you can’t see the person you’re going to be working with?

We find this very off-putting. Why hide? What’s so bad about being able to put a face to a name?

Of course, not having photos of themselves on their website doesn’t mean a web designer isn’t good. Maybe, just like a lot of business owners out there, they’re a bit shy about putting photos of themselves on their website. That’s all.

Just beware of this and do some more research to make sure you’re clear on who you’re hiring for the job.

6. Big or small doesn’t matter, as long as they meet your needs

Equally, we’ve seen plenty of examples of people who started their business from their kitchen table (nothing wrong with that!) who then went on to plaster their websites with stock images of shiny offices and big teams – essentially making themselves look much bigger than what they are.

There’s no need for that. And most people are genuine and honest about who they are and who they’re not, but not everyone is, so just be careful.

If you need a huge company or even just a team, don’t get caught out by one guy in his basement trying to be all things!

7. Stay away from obscure Content Management Systems

What will your web designer build your website on?

You may have heard of WordPress, Magento, Shopify, or Joomla, for example. These are common Content Management Systems.

So if the web designers you’re thinking of hiring use a specialist and obscure Content Management System you haven’t heard of before, do some more research! You don’t want to be in a situation where you’re fully reliant on your agency to support you.

The reason why we only use WordPress is that it’s the most popular and well-trusted Content Mangement System. If you need help with something and for some reason, we’re not immediately available, you can still find answers and resources on the internet. But if your website is built on a rare platform, you may struggle with that!

8. Avoid a web designer with a questionable portfolio

One of the first things we suggest you do when researching web designers is to look at their portfolio to get a sense for:

• what level they’re working at,
• what kind of websites they’re designing,
• and what kind of industries they specialise in.

A word of warning on this though.

If the web designers you’re considering tick a lot of boxes, but you’re not convinced about their portfolio, get in touch and ask them for more examples of their work.

We know from personal experience that keeping your portfolio up to date is time-consuming – we have a lot of websites we’ve built over the last few months that don’t feature on our site because we haven’t had time to add them. So do reach out to a prospective web designer if you want to see more of their work – they’ll be happy to oblige.

9. Watch out for web designers who don’t offer a discovery phase

If an agency or a freelancer doesn’t factor in how they’re going to find out more about:

• your business,
• your target audience,
• what you want to achieve from your website,
• and what kind of goals you have for your business,

stay well clear!

We have what we call a ‘discovery phase’ where we delve into all our new clients’ businesses. We get to know a lot about them during this process, and it’s the only way we get to design a great website for somebody.

So if a web designer doesn’t offer this service, consider this a warning sign that they aren’t invested in your business.

The price you pay will have a lot to do with this too. The agency you hire for £500 might not even know what a discovery phase is. And in a way, that’s understandable – the price tag doesn’t cover for that! But the agency that charges £5,000+ should get to know you as a vital element to the web design process.

10. Be wary of the agency that doesn’t put their prices on their website

We are huge believers in putting prices on your website.

Yes, projects and requirements vary and so do prices. That’s why we use a minimum package price on our websitethat our potential clients can use as an indicator. We even publicly write about the process we use to come up with our prices! Head over to our blog post Why We’re Increasing Our Web Design Prices to find out more.

But a lot of web designers won’t display prices on their website.

And while that’s not in itself an indicator of a bad web designer, you’ll want to get a quote quite early on in your research. The worst thing any business can do is to make you jump through hoops to find out their prices. What happens when you find out that the price is way over your budget? What a waste of your time (and theirs)!

So stay away from anyone who’s putting pressure on you to have several discovery calls before they give you a quote! They’re probably trying to make you feel so invested in the process that you won’t be able to say no to them. It’s an old-school sales technique that no longer works. And frankly, it shows that the other person doesn’t respect your time.

So how exactly do you find someone who’s right for you?

We’ve given you a lot of pointers to avoid picking the wrong web design agency for your needs. But how do you find one that is good for you?

Ultimately, and above everything else we’ve mentioned, look for someone who:

• cares about helping you move your business forward,
• you can trust and connect with,
• you see yourself having a good working relationship with.

We find this always happens with our clients. We get so close to their business that we end up getting to know them really well. And that’s both a pleasure and an honour.

Would you like us to help you with your website?

We are passionate about helping business owners build and grow successful websites. We also understand that people might have questions and concerns as they get into this process for the first time. Or maybe because they’ve had an awful experience in the past!

• That’s why we don’t use code or jargon.
• That’s why we are open and honest about the type of web agency we are.
• We are transparent about the type of clients that are right for us and those who aren’t.
• And that’s why we publish our prices on our website.

We want people to be able to make informed decisions.

So if you’re looking for a web design agency who cares about your needs and your business, and you think we may be right for you, get in touch!

Martin & Lyndsay

The post How to Avoid Hiring a Bad Web Design Agency appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

You do that with a Big, Bold Statement.

Often called your ‘Value Proposition’ or ‘You statement’, the Big, Bold Statement is what it says on the tin. It’s the big, bold message you publish on your website for your visitors to see. It defines exactly what you do so your users know they’re in the right place.

Why is it important to have a Big, Bold Statement on your website?

We review a lot of websites in our FREE Facebook group. And one of the main issues we come across is that business owners find it really difficult to explain what they do.

It’s important to remember that your visitors (i.e. your potential customers and clients) won’t initially be spending a lot of time on your website. You only have 3 to 4 seconds to make an impression!

So you need a clear, defining Big, Bold Statement that helps them work out:

• where they are,
• what services you offer,
• whether you have the solution to their problem,
• and whether they should stay or hit the back button!

So your job is to make who you are and what you do abundantly clear to your website visitors. Explain it so clearly that a 5-year-old would get it.

Seriously.

Don’t make your web visitors spend any brain calories trying to work out what you do. It’s not a puzzle. And they don’t win a prize. So don’t be vague or fluffy with your Big, Bold Statement!

Where should the Big, Bold Statement go on your website and how long should it be? 

Your Big, Bold Statement only needs to be a few words long – 10-15 words at the most. That’s because people need to immediately, at a glance, be able to understand what you do.

And it should sit in the top third of your website.

This section of your website is also referred to as:

• ‘above the fold’,
• ‘the top third’ or ‘the first third’,
• the ‘slider section’,
• or the ‘feature area’.

We call it the hero section. And it’s the first thing you see when you get onto any website before you have to scroll down the page to see the rest.

That’s where you want your Big, Bold Statement to go.

So how do you put together a Big, Bold Statement?

Here are 9 ways to help you do just that.

1) Ask a Question

This method works no matter what industry or business you’re in, but let’s use an example to explain what we mean.

Let’s say you’re a speaking coach – you help people with their presentations and with speaking on stage.

If you use the question method, your Big, Bold Statement could be something like:

Does the thought of public speaking make you want to cry?

Your question immediately draws your website visitors in. By asking it, you’re telling your audience you understand the issue they’re facing, and at the same time, you’re illustrating what you do.

When coming up with the question to ask, speak directly to your visitors – remember that it’s about them.

Ask the question you know your ideal customers have been asking themselves. You want them to nod in agreement as they read it.

2) State a Promise

Can you make your ideal customers or clients a promise? Going back to our speaking coach example, you could use:

Feel more confident on stage in five weeks or less.

or even,

The only speaking course you’ll ever need.

Now, that is a promise.

It’s Big, and it’s Bold.

It allows you to explain what you do by promising something to your visitors. It’s your way of standing your ground as the expert you are.

Just be mindful of not falling into the trap of using fluffy marketing lingo though! One of the biggest mistakes we see people make with their Big, Bold Statement is that the language is too vague.

“I can make you prosper.”

is a promise. But it doesn’t tell your readers the first thing about what it is you help them with!

3) Use your Unique Identifier

What makes you unique? Do you have a niche? A Unique Selling Point, or USP? Something that allows you to differentiate yourself from your competitors and specifically describes your products and services?

Then find that ‘thing’ and feature it in your Big, Bold Statement.

Say, for example, that you have your own methods of teaching people. Your Big, Bold Statement could be something along the lines of:

I am the creator of the seven-minute speaking formula.

This doesn’t just tell your visitors what you do. It also gives you a valuable edge that makes your people perk up and listen.

4) Create a Power Statement

This is the type of Big, Bold Statement we use on our own website.

Make your mark online.

This is our Power Statement, and (in case you hadn’t noticed) it’s also the name of our podcast and our membership!

Underneath that, we’ve added a ‘supporting statement’ that reads:

a website you can be proud of.

Let’s break it down for a second.

With our Power Statement, we aim to appeal to our ideal clients (people who want to make their mark online) by triggering emotion in them. The supporting statement helps us clarify how we do this – by helping them build websites.

Our Big, Bold Statement speaks directly to our ideal clients by evoking emotion. And at the same time, it provides the clarity our ideal clients need to understand what we do.

That’s why this method is so powerful.

However, out of all the methods we teach, we find this is the one people struggle with the most, as it’s easy to fall into the trap of being too vague.

So our speaking coach may want to say something like:

Make them believe. 

It’s powerful, it’s emotional, and it’s likely to stop you in your tracks. But without a supporting statement, it doesn’t really say what our coach does.

So they might want to add:

 turning mediocre presentations into magnificent ones.

or even,

public speaking training for CEOs.

That’s how you get the perfect combination of emotion and clarity. When you get this right, a Big, Bold Statement that’s based on a Powerful + Supporting Statement can be extremely effective.

5) Use a Customer Testimonial

Did a client give you an amazing testimonial that perfectly sums up what you do? Then why not use that, word-by-word, as your Big, Bold Statement?

For us, this could be something like:

The best website I could have ever dreamed of.

Our speaking coach could use:

I’ve never felt so happy after leaving the stage.

or,

Public speaking has never felt so achievable.

As long as the testimonial is clear and specific enough (and tells people what you do), this emotive approach can work really well.

Up until recently, Chris Marr of Content Marketing Academy used a testimonial on his website, CMA Live, and it was this:

The best marketing conference I’ve been to in 25 years.

Isn’t that perfect? It tells you immediately what you’re getting but also gives you enough social proof to help you make an informed buying decision.

6) The Exact Statement

Just say exactly what it is that you do – it’s as simple as that.

Using our speaking coach as an example again, they could say:

Public speaking, training, and workshops.

It’s obvious. It’s simple. And it’s effective.

But it also makes it abundantly clear what it is you do.

Just stating the facts is much better than going for something too complicated that could potentially end up confusing people. It may not be the fanciest of approaches, so if you’re pressed for time, just do this first, and then go back and refine your Big, Bold Statement later when you have a better idea.

7) Who You Help

The original idea for this particular method of coming up with a Big, Bold Statement came from Michael Port and his book Book Yourself Solid. And it’s as simple as answering this question – who do you help and what do you help them do?

The speaking coach in our example would say:

We help CEOs master public speaking.

or,

Helping academics to deliver memorable presentations.

This is a particularly great way of illustrating what you do if you have a niche. When your ideal customer or client lands on your website and sees this, they’re going to feel really special. And that’s all you can ask for!

8) Who You Help+

With this method, you’re combining the Power Statement with the Who You Help statement to enhance it and clarify it.

Our speaking coach could use:

We help CEOs deliver outstanding presentations that inspire action.

So with this Big, Bold Statement, you’re telling someone what you’re helping them with (‘deliver outstanding presentations’), but you’re also letting them know how helping them will affect them (they will be able to ‘inspire action’).

That additional bit at the end (the ‘plus statement’) is impactful. It adds that extra punch which gets people in the heart (in a totally good way!).

9) The Guarantee

Do you offer a guarantee with your services? Not every business does, but if you have the right kind of product, this can be a good way for you to come up with your Big, Bold Statement.

Here’s what our speaking coach might say:

Deliver outstanding presentations or your money back.

This works because it gives your visitors confidence. If you’re prepared to stand behind your product in such a big way that you’ll give money back if they don’t get results, whatever you sell must be pretty good!

So which method is right for you?

There’s no right and wrong here. Jot down a few ideas, try a few methods, and test your Big, Bold Statement out.

Ask your friends and family, check with your followers on social media, or ask your email subscribers what resonates with them the most.

Remember that your Big, Bold Statement isn’t set in stone – you can always change it when you come up with a better one.

Would you like our help? 

You may have got your big, bold statement sorted, but what about the rest of your homepage? Download our homepage blueprint for personal brands, which tells you EXACTLY what to put on your homepage.

Better still, if you want our help, week in and week out, as you build your personal brand website, check out our membership, Make Your Mark Online (or MYMO, as our members call it!). You’ll get access to our best advice and to our thriving community as well. What’s there not to like?!

And if you’d like to hear us talk about how to come up with your Big, Bold Statement in more details, go and check out our podcast episode Why You Need a Big, Bold Statement and How to Create One.

Martin & Lyndsay

The post 9 Ways to Create a Big, Bold Statement for Your Personal Brand Website appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

Our B.R.A.N.D. framework for Personal Brands

We’ve come up with a simple way to explain what a perfect personal brand website should look like. It’s a framework we use to create every single website we build. And we call it the B.R.A.N.D. framework.

You do not have to be a techie to follow this framework, in fact, we created it with non-techies in mind.

B.R.A.N.D. is an acronym and is based on 5 core areas that each website should have:

1. B for Build trust.
2. R for Relevancy.
3. A for Authority.
4. N for Noteworthy.
5. D for Direction.

So let’s break down every single area in more details.

1. Build trust using your website

Building trust is the first and most important aspect of the entire framework. We need to trust the people we buy from. If your visitors don’t trust you, they’re not going to stick around long enough to buy from you.

It’s as simple as that.

So when someone lands on your website for the first time, they’re probably going to ask themselves a few questions. Things like:

• Do these people know what they’re talking about?
• Will they try to sell me something?
• Does this website look secure?

Your job is to reassure your visitors. And you do that by building trust.

So how do you actually build trust with your audience through your website?

1.1 Building Trust: Branding 

Does your website look and feel like a nice place to be? Does it ‘look the part’? In other words, is your website ‘aesthetically pleasing’?

Now, when you’re building a website yourself this can be difficult. After all, you’re not a designer, right? How can you design a beautiful website if you don’t have the skills?

The likelihood is, you’re website is not going to look the same as a website designed by a professional agency BUT this does not mean your website won’t be successful.

In this case, we recommend you find a good WordPress theme that you like (there are thousands out there) and stick within the parameters of the theme. I.e. don’t change too much! What you want is something clean and professional.

You can edit fonts and colours to match your branding. You can add your logo. And, most importantly, you’ll be able to add your images and text which will really help you stand out.

Ultimately, this is about avoiding a crappy looking website that looks like the 90s threw up on the page. No one trusts those websites! So, keep it simple, stick to a theme and use other methods to stand out!

Example of Good Website Branding

It’s no secret that we love Col Grey’s work. His website is a great example of good branding – bold, memorable colours, consistency of fonts and text, plenty of white space, great use of shapes and consistent use of images.

You instantly feel at ease on Col’s website. You know you’re in the hands of a professional. 

1.2 Building Trust: Images

One of the best ways of making your reader feel at ease is by using images of yourself on your website.

But a lot of people feel nervous about using their face on their website. Will it make you look egotistical? Or self-absorbed? 

Hell no!

The purpose of having your image on your website is so your reader can see who they’re potentially going to work with/invest in. It’s for their benefit, not yours. You’re not self-centred for putting your images on your website. Far from it.

Using images of yourself and your team throughout your website gives the reader a sense of who you are. We actually recommend business owners invest in professional photography BEFORE they invest thousands and thousands on a website. It’s amazing what you can do with a half decent theme and some good photographs.

We’ve written an article with some tips on how to get some amazing photographs for your website.

Example of Good Website Imagery

We love Teresa’s images on her website. As soon as you land on her homepage you feel at ease and welcomed by Teresa. It automatically builds trust and a connection.

1.3 Building Trust: Testimonials and Case Studies

Do you have any testimonials or case studies that tell a story? Testimonials and case studies can be a great tool to help you build trust with your audience. Remember though, your visitors know that testimonials can be manufactured. So don’t share testimonials that simply say how good you are! (We know you are!)

Instead, feature examples of customers or clients who came with you with a problem and experienced a transformation as a direct result of buying your products or services.

If you want to find out more about how to get great testimonials from your clients, head over to our blog post How to get client testimonials for your website. Or you can listen to episode 17 of the Make Your Mark Online podcast.

Example of Good Website Testimonials

Chris Marr, at Content Marketing Academy, features fantastic testimonials on his website. They aren’t just the standard ‘Love it’ testimonials, they are real stories and experiences that give detailed results.

1.4 Building Trust: Security 

And last but not least, in order to build that trust with your visitors, make your website is fast and secure. If your website takes over 3 seconds to load, your visitors may get impatient or suspicious. They’ll be wondering whether they’re being re-directed elsewhere and asking themselves why it’s taking so long. More often than not, they won’t wait for your page to load.

They’ll click the back button.

So get yourself a nice speedy website. If you’d like to buy a speed up service, we recommend TechCrunch.

Also, get an SSL certificate to make sure your website is secure. And by all means, always comply with any applicable mandatory requirements, including GDPR or privacy policy, for example. Tell people what you’re going to do with their data (i.e. you won’t sell it the highest bidder!)

2. Relevancy and why it’s so important for your website

When someone visits your website,

• are they clear on what you do?
• Can they see how relevant you are to them?
• Can they see how you can help them get from A to B? Solve a problem they have?
• And can they immediately tell whether you’ve helped people like them in the past?

If your visitors don’t understand how you can help them, they won’t stay on your website long enough to listen to what you have to say.

People don’t want to waste their time.

And you don’t want to waste yours, so get to the point quickly and show your ideal customers and clients exactly what it is that you do.

Show them that you’re relevant to them.

Here’s how.

2.1 Relevancy: Your Big Bold Statement

A big, bold statement is the first sentence or phrase someone will see when they land on your website. It’s usually situated in the first third of your homepage, and it’s where you should clearly state what it is that you do. If you don’t do this right, your visitors won’t know whether they’re in the right place.

Your big, bold statement doesn’t have to be overly creative or clever. In fact, sometimes it’s best to avoid this and just clearly state what it is you do.

If you want to find out more about what Big Bold Statement, you can listen to episode 5 of the Make Your Mark Online podcast – Why You Need a Big Bold Statement and How to Create One.

Example of Good Big, Bold Statement 

Mike and Callie at Membership Guys are so clear about what they offer and who they help. Take this big, bold statement you see as soon as you land on their website ‘Proven Practical advice for successful memberships’ – couldn’t be more clear!

2.2 Relevancy: Images and photos

We already mentioned photos and images in the context of building trust with your audience. But photos can also go a long way to show your readers that they’re in the right place and allow them to connect with you.

Take us, for example. Some people might want to work with a huge agency with a big team. They can clearly see from the get-go that there are two of us. They’ll know straight away that we’re not right for them.

A lot of people use stock photos to try to hide who they are, but using images makes it clear whether you’re the right fit for your end-user.

Example of good images and photos

We love Sara’s images on her website. She shows herself in her home office at her laptop and drinking coffee, looking very relaxed and so approachable! These images show the reader immediately shows the reader who Sara is and what she does.

2.3 Relevancy: Testimonials and Case Studies 

Testimonials and case studies might help you build trust, but they also show the reader the type of clients you work with. So if you’re targetting well-known speakers, make sure you only feature them in your testimonials and case studies! It’s also a good idea to cull old testimonials that might not be a reflection of who you work with anymore.

Example of a good case study/testimonial

We love Lauren Pearman’s case studies such as this one. Lauren puts the focus on her client, not herself. She talks about what they want to achieve and how she helps them do this through photography. But best of all, Lauren shows exactly who her ideal clients are through her case studies. It’s very clear to see the types of people that she works with.

2.4 Relevancy: Website Copy 

One of the best and most obvious ways to convey to reader what it is you do and how you help is through your website copy. But it’s amazing how many people get this wrong. They focus on ‘fluff’ – when they were established, the entire work history to date, or they use generic terms like ‘we’re professional and friendly’.

Your copy should focus on the reader, not you. It should show them who you work with (and who you don’t work with), and it should people how you help and why it’s beneficial for them to hire you.

Example of good website copy 

John Espirian is the king of good website copy and making the complex, simple. In the example above, you can see how John helps solve a problem for his clients with the phrase, ‘Let’s help your clients go from “umm, what?” to “ahh, I get it now”. There’s no ‘extra fat’ in John’s copy, it’s concise and most importantly, it demonstrates to the reader who he is, what he does and how he helps.

3. Authority building for your personal brand

Being seen as an authority in your field or niche is fundamental because, in order to buy from you, people need to see you as an expert.

People want to know things like:

• Are you qualified to help them?
• Can you be trusted?
• Have you got any proof of things you’ve done in the past?
• Is working with you a safe investment of their money?

So how do you build authority on your website?

3.1 Authority: Big Hero image

We talked about images before. They can help with trust and relevancy, but also with authority.

If you’re a speaker, use images of yourself speaking on stage, for example. If you’re an author, have a photo of yourself signing books.

Use that Big Hero image on the home page of your website wisely – it’s a great opportunity to tell your website visitors that you’re an authority.

Example of a good authority image

Love him or hate him Gary V does showcase his authority in this image on his website. His back is turned away from the reader, which gives us a full view of an engaged audience. It speaks to his authority.

3.2 Authority: Media badges and social proof

Have you been featured on The Guardian, the BBC, or the Huffington Post? Have you appeared in a well-known podcast?

Then add those media badges to your website.

This tells your audience that you’ve received ‘the stamp of approval’ from well-recognised sources, and it will help you build trust with your website visitors more easily.

Similarly, if you have a good number of subscribers on your email list, you could add a section on your website that includes something along the lines of: “Join another 500 like-minded business owners who are already on our list”.

This boosts your social proof and makes you come across as trustworthy.

Example of good social proof

Amy Landino is an international speaker and YouTube expert. Her website does a great job at reflecting her level of expertise and authority. Amy uses the logos above subtly on her website, but it works to show what an authority she is. We also like how she’s worded it ‘Brands Who Trust Amy’. Nicely done!

3.3 Authority: Signature Programmes 

If you offer any sort of coaching or consulting, then having your own ‘signature programmes’ can really help you be seen as an authority. These programmes are your proven steps to success. They’re based around your experience and what’s worked for you and what hasn’t. And they’re usually given a name that’s unique to you.

Example of good signature programmes

Janet Murray delivers her own signature programmes that help people build their audience and grow their business. She named the above programme ‘The build your audience’ programme. Only Janet offers this unique programme and with it all the training and resources. Having your own proven programme such as this one helps show your authority in your industry.

4. Noteworthy

• Are you noticeable and memorable?
• Interesting and entertaining?
• When people land on your website, how will you make sure they stay long enough to listen to what you’re saying?
• Can people relate to you?

Because that’s all we all look for – human connection. And if your visitors can’t connect with you, they’ll just find someone else to connect with.

Truth is, you’re not going to be loved by everybody.

But that’s fine because you don’t want everybody to be your customer. You just want a selected few.

So how are you going to use your website to relate to your ideal customers and clients on a one-to-one level? How are you going to show people that you’re noteworthy?

4.1 Noteworthy: Your Tone of Voice

What’s your personality?

One of the biggest mistakes people make with their website copy is making it boring and stuffy. A lot of people get their personalities across on social media, but when it comes to web copy they go formal.

Make sure you show people who you are. Yes, not everyone will love you, but it doesn’t matter about the people that don’t like you. They aren’t your customers.

If you’re still struggling with this, check out our article on how to create your tone of voice.

Example of Good Tone of Voice

We love Amy’s site from Joy Junkie. You can immediately get a sense of who she is from her copy. Her personality just shines through and you will remember her! She writes very much like she might talk and it feels like you’re having a real conversation with her when you read her words.

4.2 Noteworthy: Your story 

Do you have an interesting story to tell? One that your readers will connect with? If so, then your story is definitely going to help you to stand out and make you memorable.

So make sure you tell your story well – don’t be scared of adding a bit of character and personality to it.

But make sure it’s a genuine story too. A lot of people feel the pressure to tell something amazing. But keep it simple and real. None of this I had $1 in my pocket and now I’m a millionaire with a Lambo crap.

Example of a Good Story

Patt Flynn tells his story of how he started Smart Passive Income. What we love about this story is that it’s humble, simple and something we can all relate to. Patt talks about how he struggled in his career after the 2008 economic crash. He talks about how he set up his business so he could be closer to his family and work around them. There’s no ego in his story. And no Lamborghinis!

4.3 Noteworthy: Images and videos

By now, you’ll have noticed that images come up a lot when talking about the features a great website should have. That’s because they are a key element for creating a great personal brand website. Use them to be memorable and stand out and create a sense of who you are.

Think about your brand values – are you fun, cheeky, humourous, serious? Let this show through your photography and use props if you want to help you.

Example of a Good Personal Brand Photography

Andrew and Pete nail their brand. Everything they are is reflected across their website, and in particular in their photography. Their photos are fun, relaxed and relatable, just like Andrew and Pete themselves!

4.4 Noteworthy: Colours 

Your brand colours are often what will make you memorable. There are many things to consider before choosing your brand colours…

• Who you are and what you stand for – for example if innovation is your thing you wouldn’t pick something super traditional looking like maroon
• What your competition does – sometimes, it’s good to go against the grain of your competition (think someone with expertise in plants going pink rather than green!) But this is a risk. It will make you memorable but sometimes it works and sometimes not!
• Colour psychology – red symbolises passion or danger, pink symbolises femininity or happiness. Think about what the colours could mean to your audience before you choose them.

Example of a Good Personal Brand Colours

When I go to conferences and say I’m from Jammy Digital, I often hear people reply, ‘You’re the guys with that green and pink website, right?’ Yup! Our weird combo of bright colours does make us memorable to a lot of people. They’re also very much a reflection of us and our brand.

4.5 Noteworthy: Your Opinions 

We all have our own opinions about industry, right? We work in it every day and we live and breathe what we do. Sometimes, you might go against the grain of your industry or work in a unique way with your clients. Part of you brand values might be honest and transparancy. In which case, stating clearly how you work or what makes you different can work well. It makes you memourable and unique.

A Good Example of Sharing Your Opinions

I always remember this website from A Little Bit of Something. They really do get their feelings across on their website (and we can certainly relate!) Again, some people might hate this, but it doesn’t matter, because their target audience will love it. It creates strong emotions either way. Remember, it’s better to be loved and hated rather than forgotten.

5. Direction

Direction is the last piece of the puzzle and the fifth component of the B.R.A.N.D. framework.

If you want your website to perform well, you need to consider how you’re directing people from page to page. Because if your visitors don’t know what to do next, they’re going to do nothing.

Or click that dreaded back button.

When people land on your website, they want to know things like:

• What do I do next?
• Where do I start?
• How do I get in touch?
• What services do you offer?

We’ve written more about how you can use your Home page as the ‘reception area’ of your website, directing people to where they need to go, especially if you have more than one audience. Check out our blog post How to Appeal to More Than One Audience Using Your Website.

So here’s what you can do to help people navigate your website easily.

5.1 Direction: Menu items 

Use obvious phrases on your menu items to help your readers go where they need to go. Don’t call your menu items something vague or obscure that people aren’t familiar with like ‘my journey’ for ‘blog’ – you’ll just end up confusing them!

Example of Good Menu Structure

Amy’s website is so easy to use and follow. Amy has clearly thought about the pathway her end-user will follow. Amy has a simple and clean menu structure, no obscure names or complicated dropdowns.

5:2 Direction: Buttons and Calls To Action (CTAs)

Use colourful buttons and clear Calls To Action or CTAs. Make sure your CTAs are prominent and enticing and include them in the body of your content as well. If you’re going to ask your readers for their email address in exchange for some in-depth content, for example, the best time to ask them is while they’re consuming your content.

But also use language and tone of voice that helps you direct people to where you want them to go in a non-intrusive way. Use words like ‘get’ and ‘grab’, for example, when you’re asking people to download a free resource. Or ‘click here’ to help hop onto the next page on your website.

Example of Good Buttons and Calls to Action (CTAs)

Ann Handley makes it really clear what you need to here. There are four clear pathways to her services, each with a bold-coloured button to click. This may seem obvious, but it’s amazing how many websites get this wrong!

5.3 Direction: Promo Area on Your Homepage

The ‘promo area’ of your homepage is usually under the big hero section. It features 3 or 4 different options for your end-user to choose. This could be your services, blog, about page etc. You’re the best person to decide what goes here, but it’s a great way of directing people from your home page to the next page.

As we’ve said before, think of your home page as the ‘reception area’ of your website. People will visit the home page looking for more info about your services, your blog, your contact page – and your job is to direct people there.

Example of a Good Promo Area

When we worked with Janet Murray, she did a great job of streamlining what she offered and coming up with three key areas for her audience to visit on her website. We created this within the promo area. It creates a clear path of where to go.

5.4 Direction: A Learning Centre 

For those with a lot of content or content on different formats – such as blog posts, video and a podcast, a learning centre can prove helpful to your visitor. Instead of trailing through all of your content or only seeing your most recent content, a learning centre allows you to search through content easily. You can break down content via the format, the topic, the date published, your most popular pieces etc.

We wrote a more in-depth article about how to create a learning centre here.

Example of a Good Learning Centre

Pete at Meaningful Money has had over a million downloads of his podcast which has spanned over 14 seasons! He really did need a learning centre for the amount of amazing content he produces. Now, it’s much easier for his readers to find what they are looking for.

5.5 Direction: Contact information

And last (but certainly not least!) have visible contact information for your business. If you rely on people getting in touch with you over the phone, have your phone number at the top of the page and a button that says, ‘Get in touch with us’. Make sure it’s mobile friendly too, so people can just click on the number and call you straight from mobile.

Would you like some help to build your own personal brand website? 

So this is our B.R.A.N.D. website framework. We use religiously to build personal brand websites for our clients. But we also share this framework inside our signature membership, Make Your Mark Online, where we help personal brands build and grow a successful business website. All the videos in our membership library are based on these 5 key components. And this framework can work for any website, not just personal brands.

So if you want to find out more about each individual area of the B.R.A.N.D. framework and understand how it can apply to you, check out our membership community. The doors are currently open, and it’s been amazing to see so many of our members get great results with their websites since they joined in October last year.

If you enjoyed this post, you can also listen to our podcast episode How to create the Perfect Personal Brand Website (ep 30).

Martin & Lyndsay

The post The Ultimate Guide to Creating a Personal Brand Website (with examples) appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

How do you feel about your website? Do you find yourself sharing the link and then caveating that with: “Oh, don’t look at the home page – I need to update it”? Or, “I know I need to improve it, but I haven’t had the chance yet”? I did. In fact, forget that. For the first few months after creating my website, I didn’t even tell anyone it even existed! I didn’t have a countdown or do a big launch. I did nothing. In fact, I secretly hoped no one stumbled upon it (by accident) and realised I didn’t know what I was doing! But then I joined the Make Your Mark Online membership, and things have been quite different since.

Here’s how I felt about my website before joining the membership

Before I found Martin and Lyndsay and their free Facebook community, I had literally spent months online, looking for a suitable WordPress theme and researching hosting solutions. Once I got that all sorted, I spent weeks making changes to the template – thinking on my feet about what went where and how I’d word it all. I really struggled to define my offers, design my website, and write my own copy all at the same time.

The result? I ended up feeling overwhelmed and stupid. I was clearly stumbling in the dark here – blatantly making it up as I went along. And I honestly had no idea whether any of what I’d done was any good. So I continued to keep my website well under wraps.

Until one day LinkedIn decided to inform me that Martin, who I’d come across in another membership, had officially joined forces with the other half of the Jammy Digital team, his wife Lyndsay. And they were offering free website critiques. (I mean, how cool is that?!). Terrified, I decided it was either this or nothing. This was my chance. I knew I wouldn’t get it back, so I jumped at the opportunity and put my half-baked website up for review. (Through gritted teeth and with one eye closed, obvs).

My free website critique

My website critique went much better than I had expected, but the mindblowing thing for me was that within 10 minutes, both Martin and Lyndsay had given me some great, actionable advice. About things I wouldn’t have known I needed to change. Things I didn’t even know were things. Did you know it’s best to have all your menu items in one line? Did you know you’ve got to really think carefully about what goes ‘above the fold’? Actually, wait, did you know what ‘above the fold’ even means?! ‘Cos I certainly didn’t!

Why I joined the Make Your Mark Online (MYMO) membership

In the months that followed, Martin and Lyndsay continued turning up, week in and week out, offering people free website critiques. And I started to notice a theme – they were really quick to pinpoint where a website needed improvement. They knew their stuff. And they weren’t just talking about design or copy – they were giving out tips on branding, positioning, user experience, photography. You name it. And the penny dropped – I realised my website could do a lot more for me.

Around the same time, Martin and Lyndsay also started their podcast, and that’s when I totally fell in love with these guys. I had had the pleasure of attending some of Martin’s training on WordPress and SEO in the past, and I knew he has this beautiful way of explaining complicated and technical things really easily, in a way that’s engaging and makes you want to listen and learn. And Lyndsay comes with a huge amount of knowledge and expertise around copywriting and marketing, not to mention a contagious dose of genuine positivity and fun. Put these two together, and I’d just listen to them all day! (When’s the Martin&Lyndsay Show starting, Guys?)

So when the doors to the membership opened, I knew I wanted to join. It was really that easy.

But… just like any other small business owner out there, I need to be careful with my expenses. So I still had some questions:

• Could I really afford another membership?
• Would I make use of it?
• Would I get a return on my investment?

And do you know what convinced me? This blog post: Concerns you might have about joining our membership. It didn’t just totally hit the mark with me. It also proved (once again) that Martin and Lyndsay know what they’re doing.

My mind was made.

Joining really was a no-brainer.

Video Review of the Make Your Mark Online Membership

Some of the wins I experienced since joining the membership

And I know made the right choice! The membership has really exceeded my expectations, not just in terms of quality and content. Martin and Lyndsay genuinely care about you and the success of your business. They always go the extra mile to help and add value.
So here’s what I’ve done since joining the MYMO membership.

• I got clearer on the products and services I sell and re-structured, re-designed, and re-wrote most of my web pages.
• I created a pricing table as a direct result of Martin and Lyndsay’s advice, which allowed me to remove a huge amount of text from my website and improve the user experience.
• My website isn’t a source of shame anymore – I’m proud of it! I’ve received tons of great feedback on how professional it looks! And I’ve had clients telling me that my website was what convinced them to start working with me! (Whoop!)
• I recorded and shared a video a day inside the community – something I’d been carefully avoiding for years!
• I met a great mix of supportive professionals (mainly personal brand entrepreneurs) in different industries and at different stages of their business. (Super useful!)
• And last but not least, I started to drive traffic to my website and convert some of this traffic into email subscribers, which is a great personal achievement! (If you’re a small business owner, you’ll know how good this feels!)

The best thing? I’ve had fun in the process!

Your website is never finished

As Martin and Lyndsay always say, “your website is never finished.” (Can you believe theirs isn’t either?). For me, this is just the beginning. I’m excited at the thought of how much better my website will look a year from now. And I’m confident that as my business develops and grows, with Martin and Lyndsay and all the MYMO members on my side, my website will too. I’m definitely a proud member of this community (and don’t tell these guys), but I won’t be going anywhere for a very long time!

Now, before Martin and Lyndsay think I’ve turned into a right ol’ stalker, let me leave you with just one thought.

Why you SHOULD join the MYMO community

If you have a website you’re not happy with, if the thought of making tweaks to it makes you want to run the other way, or if you ever feel like you don’t know what you’re doing when it comes to your website but you’re not ready to hire a web designer yet, you’re going to get a huge amount of help and support inside this membership.

Being a personal brand entrepreneur can be hard at times – there’s only one of you, and you can’t possibly be an expert at everything! Joining the MYMO membership allows you to directly tap into Martin and Lyndsay’s knowledge and expertise – and all the other members’ too!

Plus, it’s a fun place to be, and I honestly think that Martin and Lyndsay are some of the most genuine and caring people you’ll find online. They’re real, relatable people who care about the success of their clients.

What’s not to love, right?

So, will you be joining us?

FIND OUT MORE

About Sara

Sara Bussandri

The post Should you join the Make Your Mark Online membership? Honest Review appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

Over the past 10 years, we’ve tried hundreds (probably thousands) of tools that help us and our clients improve their websites and processes.

Some tools are fantastic, helping us save time and money. Others, are terrible, taking ages to wrap your head around or costing too much for your business.

So in this podcast episode, we’ll be running through our favourite tools that we use all the time to improve your website and business.

In this episode, we’ll cover…

• • The best tools to create images and graphics for your website
  • The best video hosting software
  • The best email marketing tools
  • Our favourite page builders
  • The best tools for taking bookings over your website
  • The best tools for taking payments over your website

Resources

Make Your Mark Online Membership 

Facebook Group

Time Stamps: In a rush? Get to the section you need to below!

1.52 – Why are we talking about ego?
2.42 – Why personal brands fall into the ‘ego’ trap
4.02- Your about page is not about you
6.57 – Be careful of the word ‘newsletter’
10.21 – Using silly names for normal stuff
13.36 – Caring more about aesthetics than anything else
16.57 – Thinking too much about your competitors
20.04 – Using your blog as a promotional tool

Useful Resources and Links

Membership Community 

Free Facebook Community

What To Do Next

Thanks for listening to our episode. If you found this episode useful, please feel free to share it via social media using the links above.

If you want to know about search engine optimisation (SEO), website conversions, content marketing and website copy, then join our FREE Facebook Group.

We would love it if you subscribed to our podcast and left us an honest review. This helps us reach more people and produce more podcast episodes.

If you have any questions about this episode or you want us to cover something new, then contact us on hello@jammydigital.com or leave a comment at the bottom of the page!

• • Join Our Facebook Group
  • Subscribe and review
  • Contact Us

Martin Huntbach

Web designer & marketer for small businesses. Martin is an experienced search engine and web design specialist, with over a decade of experience working with large corporations to small businesses.

jammydigital.com

The post Ep 21 – The best tools to improve your website appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

We’re all human. And sometimes being human means our egos can get the better of us.

Generally, it’s okay when this happens. We can keep ourselves in check and try to be better people.

BUT, what happens when our egos creep into our business and, more specifically, our websites?

In this podcast episode, we’ll be going through our top ego-driven, website faux-pas that will drive your end-user insane!

In this episode, we’ll cover…

• • Your about page is not about you!
  • Why you should steer clear of the word ‘newsletter’
  • Using silly names for normal stuff
  • Looking pretty is way more important than user-experience, right?
  • When your website is for your competitors
  • Using a blog as a promotional tool

Resources

Make Your Mark Online Membership 

Facebook Group

Time Stamps: In a rush? Get to the section you need to below!

1.52 – Why are we talking about ego?
2.42 – Why personal brands fall into the ‘ego’ trap
4.02- Your about page is not about you
6.57 – Be careful of the word ‘newsletter’
10.21 – Using silly names for normal stuff
13.36 – Caring more about aesthetics than anything else
16.57 – Thinking too much about your competitors
20.04 – Using your blog as a promotional tool

Useful Resources and Links

Membership Community 

Free Facebook Community

What To Do Next

Thanks for listening to our episode. If you found this episode useful, please feel free to share it via social media using the links above.

If you want to know about search engine optimisation (SEO), website conversions, content marketing and website copy, then join our FREE Facebook Group.

We would love it if you subscribed to our podcast and left us an honest review. This helps us reach more people and produce more podcast episodes.

If you have any questions about this episode or you want us to cover something new, then contact us on hello@jammydigital.com or leave a comment at the bottom of the page!

• • Join Our Facebook Group
  • Subscribe and review
  • Contact Us

Episode Transcript Below

Welcome to episode 20 of the Make Your Mark Online podcast. Today, we’re going to be talking about how your ego can stop you from having a successful website. But before we get into the show, this podcast is sponsored by the Make Your Mark Online membership. This is our signature membership community, where we help personal brands build and grow a successful business website. The doors for the membership are currently closed, but you can check out the details at the MakeYourMarkOnline.net website, and you can join the wait list, and we’ll notify you as soon as we open the doors again in January.

Now, just before we get into the show, we just wanted to let you know that this is actually the end of season one of the podcast, as Lyndsay is now going off on mat leave.

I am, yes. And you’re going to be all by yourself, aren’t you?

I am, yeah. It’s going to be lonely.

It’s going to be lonely for you.

Yeah. But we felt that this would be a nice place to break up the episodes so that I can take it from here as a solo show for a few months until you come back next year.

Yes. And I’m hoping the listeners don’t double while you’re doing your solo show.

That would be really embarrassing, wouldn’t it?

It would, really.

We just can’t get enough of this manc accent.

Yeah. Get rid of her.

But we are actually continuing straight on with season two on the podcast, so there won’t be any gaps. So it’ll just be the next episode next week as normal, but it will just be yours truly instead of the both of us.

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

So yeah, let’s get into the show.

So Lyndsay, this episode is all about ego.

It is.

It’s an interesting topic.

Yeah, it is interesting because I think we can all have a bit of ego from time to time, and we all are human, and sometimes ego creeps in. But sometimes, it creeps into our websites, and this can actually make them less successful, and it can kind of harm your conversions and things like that. So yeah, that’s why it’s quite a good topic to talk about I think.

Yeah. I think you’re right. And I think it’s when we forget about the end user mor than anything else.

Yeah.

And you see it a lot on websites these days, and we focus on ourselves and our business rather than our potential customers.

Yeah, definitely. That’s pretty much the nail on the head of when ego creeps into our websites, and as Martin always says, your website is not about you.

No, absolutely.

So I have to say, this is actually something that impacts a lot of personal brands. When you’re a personal brand, it’s tempting to make everything about yourself. You’re selling you, which I get, so it’s quite difficult not to. But we can easily fall into the trap of kind of making everything about ourselves and our brand and kind of forgetting about that end user. So it’s quite a difficult one for personal brands, I think.

Yeah, it’s definitely a difficult balance, I think, isn’t it?

Definitely.

And it’s not just personal brands, as well. Big businesses also fall fowl of this, as well. It tends to be there’s a certain arrogance of being a big business or a larger business. Big business websites also tend to make quite a lot of mistakes with their website, too.

Yeah, definitely. It’s not just the little guys that, like you said, fall fowl of it. It is big businesses as well, so we see countless examples of this when we are just browsing the web all the time, and it kind of irritates us, doesn’t it? So yeah, it’s not just the little guys. Definitely not.

Okay. So from all of our research and all of the websites we’ve reviewed over the years, big businesses and small businesses, have we got a list of things that we can do to make sure that we kind of leave our ego at the door?

Yeah, I think the first thing that we constantly talk about is about your “about” page, and a lot of businesses make their “about” page just about themselves, and I get why because you think “about us”, “about me” is just going to be about you, and you see this sort of start of the page that says, “I graduated in 1984 with this thing, and I did this, and I’ve done that, and I am brilliant.” And it can kind of put your end users off, really. They’re not going to be interested in that information. Yes, they want to know you’re qualified and things like that, but that “about” page is just either going to be really boring for them or it’s just going to turn them off and make them think you’re a bit of a big head.

Yeah, but I don’t think it’s your fault a lot of the time, as our listener. I don’t think it’s your fault because people say, “About me. This is about us. This is our “about” page.” And this is the one page where you think that you can actually talk a little bit about yourself and not your customer’s problems, but that’s not true, actually.

No.

You don’t have a lot of wiggle room on this one. But yeah, the “about” page actually is one of the busiest pages on your website. It’s one of the pages that draws in a lot of traffic. So yes, it’s okay to be about you a little bit, but more than anything you have to remember that if somebody’s clicking on your “about” page, they still want to do business with you, and by having a big block of text saying all about you, it does put an extra barrier into play, in the waves, doesn’t it?

Yeah, definitely, definitely. And I think, yeah, you’re right, maybe sometimes it doesn’t come from a place of ego, it’s just a case of, “I’m unsure of what to put on this page, and I’m just going to talk about myself for the next paragraphs.” But yeah, I think that it just comes across as very self-centered when we just talk about ourselves on our “about” page. I’m not saying don’t talk about yourself at all, but you need to put the onus really on the end user, and more make it about how you can help them. We actually have an episode, a podcast episode about how to write an “about” page, and I’ll put that in the show notes because that explains it quite clearly in there. But that’s a big, epic one, really, that we talk about quite a lot, where your ego can creep in, and you can end up just being quite self-focused.

Yeah.

Particularly on that page. And as Martin said, it’s quite an important page on your website. It’s usually well trafficked, so you want to make sure you’re taking advantage of it and actually getting people to do something, and connecting with people, and getting them to actually convert into a customer or lead on that page, not just talking about yourself.

Yeah. It is important because every page on your website is a sales page.

Exactly.

Okay. So what’s next, and what else are we doing out there that may cause our ego to get in the way of getting customers and leads?

Yeah, another thing people do that really bugs us. This is just a big, giant episode of things that bug us. Is that people offer a newsletter-

Oh, that old [inaudible 00:07:08]

Yeah. People offer a newsletter. Sometimes it comes as a pop-up, which is like a double whammy of joy.

It’s like a double [crosstalk 00:07:16] around your face.

And I get why people do this, I do. A lot of people offer just a newsletter in exchange for someone’s email address, and sometimes you just say, “Sign up to my newsletter.” Sometimes we say, “Sign up to my newsletter and get my latest news.” Or thoughts, or whatever it is. But you have to think, how much do people really care about your latest news? Do people care that we got a new office plan this week? Probably not. I don’t know. And I think, yeah, I think newsletter just isn’t good enough really to get someone’s email address. You have to be respectful of someone’s personal information. If you’re requesting that information, you kind of have to give something in exchange for that. You can’t just say, “Sign up to my newsletter.” Because at the end of the day, people probably don’t care. It’s your ego coming into that, I think.

Yeah, and we’re not saying that you can’t tell people about your business and what you’ve been up to, but the idea of a newsletter and you saying the word newsletter makes it feel like it’s just going to be a bulletin about you and about what you’ve been up to.

Yeah.

So we’re not talking about, you don’t have to not tell people what you’ve been up to. It’s great to learn more about you and about how you run your business and let everybody get to know who you are, but try to avoid using the word newsletter because I just think it’s becoming … there’s a negative effect that it’s having out there, so you’ve got to be careful. When I see the word newsletter, I think I’m going to sign up, and I’m going to learn about what you think about things and what are your thoughts and feelings, and it’s very internal rather than thinking about your customers. So just something to be aware of I think [inaudible 00:09:09].

Yeah, definitely. And actually, some businesses offer really, really good stuff. They offer really good stuff in emails every week, but they just call it a newsletter, and I think if they called it something else, I think they would find that conversions on that call to action a lot better, definitely. But yeah, just newsletter, like Martin said just sounds like it’s going to be just about you and your company and what’s going on in your life, which is fine to talk about, but you don’t want to be talking about it all the time. So to get people’s email address, yes, I think you either need to give something away for free, something meaty in exchange for their email address or just reword what the actual newsletter is.

Yeah. Unless you’re famous like Ann Handley and Chris Kroeger and these people that just from saying newsletter, it’s like, “Oh, I’d actually like to know what they’ve been up to. I’d actually like to know if Chris has got a new video game playing on.” But again, we’re not all at that same level.

No.

So you have to think about your customers more than you think about yourself.

Yes, definitely, definitely.

Okay, so what else are we doing? What else are we doing that’s infuriating you today?

This is great. This is a great eight and a half month pregnant episode. Just rip into things. Another one would be using silly names on websites for normal stuff.

Oh God, yes.

It really, really irritates me. If I see the words “My Journey” instead of “About” on a homepage menu, I’ll go insane. Yeah, I think people have this idea of wanting to be kind of quirky and different, so they give things different names. I’ve seen “blog” called “growth zone”, I’ve seen all sorts of different things.

Yeah, or “our stories” as the blog. And I’m like, what?

“Our stories”, yes. That was a strange one.

That’s the most egotistical thing I think I’ve ever seen on a website. Crazy.

Yeah, I think it is. It is very much like that. And it’s a mistake that a lot of people do make because they want to be different, but if you think about it from the end user’s point of view, and I think this is the point that we keep making, it’s that they know immediately what “about” is, they know immediately what “blog” is, and they can easily get to those pages, and they don’t have to think about it. Whereas, if it says “my journey” or “my stories”, that doesn’t make any sense really to anyone.

Yeah. Imagine if you were to walk into a shop and they changed the aisles. Rather than “dairy”, they said “cow stuff”. That’s the worst example I’ve ever used in anything.

That’s terrible.

Okay, so “vegetables” is “plant stuff”, and you’ve just got to kind of figure it out for yourself.

I actually would like to shop there.

I know. That’s our next business. Settled that. But you see what we’re saying. It’s about not letting your visitors think, like, why are you making them jump through hoops to access information that they already know, like, and trust, you know what I mean?

Yeah, exactly, exactly.

We wouldn’t change the name “website”. We could just introduce a new way to say website, but it’s like, what’s the point? People know what it is.

And I think this is the thing of, like, big businesses do this a lot we find as well. They kind of use this weird terminology, and there’s absolutely no reason for doing so.

You’re still laughing at “cow stuff”?

I’m still laughing at “cow stuff”, you’ve made me giggle too much. So I think, yes, I think stick to the normal names for things, make it easier for your end users, and try not to be different and unique in that sense. It doesn’t mean in your actual copy you can’t be yourself and reflect your brand, but I think when you’re naming pages and things like that, try to stick to the normal stuff, really, rather than using “cow stuff”.

Yeah. Don’t forget about SCO as well, because if you have a service page where you offer, and we’ve said this before about, let’s just say that you’re a solicitor, and you offer will writing or whatever, and you decide to call it something completely different, then people searching online won’t be able to find it because they know the terminology that they’re used to.

Exactly.

So it’s kind of a negative impact in terms of traffic as well.

Yeah, definitely. So I think further on with this is a lot of businesses care more about how their website looks than user experience.

This happens a lot.

It does happen a lot. We see this with luxury brands all the time. So they use … if you go onto many luxury brand websites, they use really small text-

They do do that. Why?

It’s really difficult to read. They do.

Why is that just a luxury brands thing? It seems to be, doesn’t it?

I don’t know, they just … I don’t know whether the customers just have really good eyesight.

Yeah.

I don’t know.

30/30 vision.

It’s not aimed at us. We wear glasses. We’re not good enough for these luxury brands. I’m really not sure. I mean, I went on a luxury brand website today to try and look at this, and also their product descriptions are terrible. There was one who was advertising a suit for 3000 pounds, and the product description had six words.

I’ll buy two, please.

And I get, you don’t want words to reflect badly on your organization, to look ugly on the page, but people might want to know a little bit more when they’re spending 3000 pounds on a suit.

Might do.

I don’t know. Maybe.

Or maybe you want to live life on the dangerous side, you’re just like, “Yeah, it’s 3000 pound, and I don’t really understand what this is about, I can’t really see it because the text is too small, but yeah, let’s do it.”

Yeah, let’s do it. I think a lot of things like art, luxury brands, those-

Even photography-

Photography, yes.

It’s generally more-

Image based.

Imaged based, and branding. And what you’re saying really is that branding sometimes and design can get in the way of user experience when really we should be using users to come up with design. How a website’s built and constructed and looks should be based around your target audience, otherwise, it’s just about you, and that’s where the ego comes in.

Yeah, exactly. If you want a good example of this, Apple, their website is quite a good example of a website that is both beautiful, but also thinks about their users as well. They do it quite, quite well, and it is possible. You have to get that balance right, I totally understand that. It’s not good to have an ugly, user friendly website, but I think you have to think about your end user. If you have something so beautiful, websites aren’t a piece of art, they’re not there to be looked at. They’re there to actually do something, so don’t try and get so hung up on how it looks to much so that the end users are the ones that suffer really.

Yeah, no, that’s a great point, and I think it’s a fairly common thing. Especially when you’re building the website as well. This happens a lot because you’re thinking a lot about how you want to be perceived and what people will think, what your friends and family will think when they see your website, and you want it to look amazing. But while you’re thinking like that, you’re not thinking about your customers or the people that are going to give you money. And in some cases, you’re thinking about your competitors, which is very strange.

Yeah, definitely. And that actually leads us on to the next point actually, which is businesses that think about their competitors too much.

True, yeah. It does impact-

It does.

The way we think about our websites.

Yeah, and a lot of businesses do this. We know from working with businesses and talking to businesses that they are, a lot of them are quite bothered around, “Such a body’s got this thing, and such a body does this thing, and we’ve got to be better, we’ve got to do this, and we’ve got to do that.” And there’s a lot of focus on what your competitors do, particularly in our industry, so web design.

Definitely.

Web designers are terrible because we use sort of jargony language and try and look like we know exactly what we’re talking about and use really technical terms and try and show off in front of each other.

Exactly. Like PHP and having all these little weird languages on your website to try and appeal to your customers in the hopes that they’re going to be baffled and they’re going to buy from you because you know more than them is such an outdated way of looking at a website, and that’s what a lot of web designers do. We talk a lot about people in other industries. We talk about accountants and the way that they use their language, and sometimes they come across stuffy, and we talk about … we don’t want to leave web designers out of it because they do a lot of really bad stuff as well. So when we use examples sometimes, we might tend to focus on certain industries, but we’re not the best, the web design industry is one of the worst for this.

And I think sometimes it can be a bit like, “Well, we know what we’re doing, so you probably don’t understand any of this.”

So you shut up and sit in a corner and just give us your money.

Give me money, yeah, and I will do what I can do. Whereas I think there’s arrogance about it, but pretty much anyone who wants to apply themselves, could be a website, it could be an accountant, it could be any of these things, you can learn it, and there’s no need to be arrogant about it really, so we try to explain things in as simple language as possible, and I think that’s something you should do on your website. I don’t know, someone famous, I think it was Einstein, he said something like, “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t know it well enough.” Or something like that, which is true. You’ve got to explain it in terms of how your end user is going to understand it.

But it’s just such a difficult one because even now, even though we’ve tried to dedicate a hundred percent of our efforts in creating content for our customers, you still get in the back of your mind an idea for a blog post that is, this is going to make us look great with our competitors, and it’s difficult to get out of that role, but it is important, and when you do get the thought, “I’ve got a great idea for a podcast episode or a blog post.” Just ask yourself, did you come up with the idea because it will make you feel better, and it will make you look good with your peers and your competitors, or are you creating that piece of content because it’s going to help educate your customers or help make them into a potential customer like a lead or a sale?

Yeah, exactly, and that’s a really good point. And I think the final thing is when businesses just use their blog as a promotional tool. That really, really grates on me.

Yeah, much like the newsletter, isn’t it?

Yeah, it is. It’s so irritating. There’s a web design company that’s relatively [inaudible 00:20:09] to us, and their blog is just, “This is the awards won this week. This is who we’ve hired this week. This is the new client we took on this week.”

Office makeover.

Yeah, “Office makeover this week.” And it is just, why would anyone be interested in that? I just don’t understand it at all. I mean, they’re sort of aiming at bigger corporations, but I still think, you’re still speaking to someone, and it doesn’t mean that you can just show off about yourself. It’s unbelievable ego really that comes into that. A blog should be there to educate your end user, provide helpful content, and it doesn’t mean that you can’t try to get leads from that, we’re not saying that, definitely the opposite, but it definitely shouldn’t be there just to shout about yourselves because it’s just boring.

Yeah, exactly. And we don’t want you to not think about your experiences and your stories because we recently started introducing a little bit more about the internal running of our business as well, but we always do it from a customer point of view. So for instance, the last podcast that we released this week was how much money we had made from doing free website critiques. Now, on the face of it, that looks like a very egotistical blog post.

It did feel that way when I was writing it.

And we were a little bit concerned about publishing it, which is why it took us two or three weeks to hit the publish button. But an actual fact we were thinking about, how can this help our customers create better content? How can this help our visitors think about marketing in different way and how it works, and what can they learn from our experiences? And if we’d have blogged about every recent award that we’d won or our latest bean bag in our office, then how does that help anyone? So I’m not saying you can’t do it, you can’t talk about your experiences in your business, but think about the customer’s spin.

Yeah, definitely.

And I just want to add one more to this, actually because we’ve not mentioned it, but it’s about your logo.

Oh, the logo.

I can’t believe we missed it.

I need it nine foot, Martin.

Yeah. Actually, can you make people scroll down so that they have to get to the actual content because I want my logo so big.

Right. Logo is amazing.

Yeah. Make my logo bigger. No, this is just something that we get asked a lot, and we do joke about it quite a lot, but so many businesses still have a big logo. Someone recently hired us to redesign just their homepage because they had a current website, they were getting lots of visitors, but it wasn’t converting, so they had hired us to just design a homepage and then give it to their development team so that they can build it, and the only thing that they changed was the logo. Everything else was pixel by pixel perfect, exactly as we’d designed it so that we can increase conversions, but you know that she’s … this customer had obviously just said, “Actually, can you just make my logo bigger?” And it changed the entire design, really. It just pushed everything else down, and everything else was not in the right proportion. And I get that she was proud of her logo, but it does get in the way, and it’s important to remember that when someone’s on your website, they don’t really care about the name of your business or your brand. They just want you to help them buy from them. They just want your support as well.

Yeah. Definitely, absolutely, I agree. So I think in conclusion, what we’re trying to say is just think about who your customers are and what they actually need from your website and from you, and try to be a bit humble on your website. Try and think, okay, so what does my end user actually want from me? Do they want a huge logo and a blog that just talks about the awards I won? Or do they want something more? And just really just about helping people and not at all hyping yourself up, really. I think that’s what your website should be about, definitely.

Yeah. Fantastic. Well, I hope you found this episode useful. I know that we can all find ways to improve our websites and leave ego at the door. If you didn’t already know, we have a free Facebook group. We’d love you to join. If you go to JammyDigital.com/Facebook, we do regular training, we do free website critiques, and we’d love to help you improve your website as well. So that’s it for today’s episode and season one of the Make Your Mark Online podcast.

I’m going to miss everyone.

I know. I know, but I will see you next week for the start of season two of the Make Your Mark Online podcast. I’ll see you then.

Martin Huntbach

Web designer & marketer for small businesses. Martin is an experienced search engine and web design specialist, with over a decade of experience working with large corporations to small businesses.

jammydigital.com

The post Ep 20 – How your ego can damage your website appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

Designing a website yourself can be a lonely and overwhelming process. You’ve got to figure out hosting, domain names, themes, plugins, content management systems as well as write new copy, figure out the design and get new images.

It’s no wonder when we speak to people, they tell us they’ve been working on their websites for months or even years.

We get it. Even as web designers we still question ourselves and take time making decisions.

In this episode, we’re going to tell you how to best avoid website overwhelm and make sure you get a good website up and working as quickly as possible.

In this episode, we’ll cover…

• • How choosing a good theme can make or break your website
  • Keeping it simple so your head doesn’t explode!
  • How to cheaply seek the help of a ‘techie’ for those annoying bits
  • The research you need to do before jumping into DIY websites that will save you so much time and money
  • Where to get answers to your questions
  • Where to find support from others

Resources

Make Your Mark Online Membership 

Facebook Group

Time Stamps: In a rush? Get to the section you need to below!

4.49 – What kind of images do you need on your website?
7.10 – Showing your personality through photographs
8.53- Think about your surroundings
5.15 – What kind of testimonial should you be looking for?
10.32 – Creating your own stock photographs
11.15 – Think about your location
12.03 – Think about your outfits

Useful Resources and Links

Membership Community 

Free Facebook Community

World Class Communication

What To Do Next

Thanks for listening to our episode. If you found this episode useful, please feel free to share it via social media using the links above.

If you want to know about search engine optimisation (SEO), website conversions, content marketing and website copy, then join our FREE Facebook Group.

We would love it if you subscribed to our podcast and left us an honest review. This helps us reach more people and produce more podcast episodes.

If you have any questions about this episode or you want us to cover something new, then contact us on hello@jammydigital.com or leave a comment at the bottom of the page!

• • Join Our Facebook Group
  • Subscribe and review
  • Contact Us

Episode Transcript Below

Welcome to episode 19 of the Make Your Mark Online Podcast. Today we’re going to be talking about how to avoid overwhelm when building your website. But before we get into the show, this podcast is sponsored by the Make Your Mark Online Membership. This is our signature membership community where we help personal brands build and grow a successful business website. The doors for membership are now closed, but you can check out the details at MakeYourMarkOnline.net. You can join the wait list and we’ll notify you as soon as we open the doors again in January. Let’s get on with the show. So Martin, overwhelm. Why are we talking about overwhelm?

Well, I think it’s inevitable when you are doing most things in your business. When it’s something new, when it’s something slightly more technical than you’re used to, it’s very easy to see why so many people get overwhelmed by it. We get overwhelmed by it. We do this stuff all the time, but when we take on new clients, new websites, different features, it’s okay to feel overwhelm sometimes because it’s just natural. If we feel overwhelmed, then anybody else building their own website should see it as a normal kind of day-to-day thing that happens, but people let it stop them in their tracks and it can feel really frustrating.

I think we speak to a lot of people who say actually building a website, they think it’s quite say to begin with. You know, you see things like Wix and Divi and it kind of looks really easy on the videos. Then when you actually come down to it, it can be a real struggle. People have a real battle with it, don’t they? Yeah, it’s very, very easy to get overwhelmed with it all, isn’t it?

Yeah. It’s so frustrating sometimes. You’re trying to get a plugin to work. You’re trying to get something to your theme to set up. Even with WordPress, you install your theme and you want it to just look amazing as it does on the demo, but it doesn’t. You have to actually do something to make it work, to make it look good. At every stage throughout building your website, there’s a chance you might feel out of your depth and feel overwhelmed, but that’s the same, like I said, for techies as well. If it’s new, if it’s new in general, then it’ll take you a while to get used to it.

It does require a little bit more patience especially because like you say, when you see these videos online and it’s like, “Oh, I’m a celebrity and I can build a Wix website in 10 seconds,” like shut up. You don’t do anything yourself.

Martin loves those adverts.

I have dartboards of all of the actors that Wix hire. It’s even more infuriating because my football club, Manchester City, are sponsored by Wix, which is just like a knife in the back. It’s not nice.

Do you think the players themselves set up their website?

Oh yeah. Every one of them.

Definitely.

Sergio Aguero clicking around, building his own website. I’m sure he does that.

Definitely.

It’s infuriating because everybody else says it’s so easy. You see all these amazing websites. Your friend might not be a great web designer, but they may have a great website. Maybe they’ve chosen a theme and you’re like, “Well, it was so easy for them,” but it’s not. It’s not easy. Someone once said something like “don’t judge your backstage by somebody’s front stage.” What they do in public might not always seem that easy. I think sometimes we’re all victims of that. We all sometimes think, “Well, they’re doing great things and their website looks amazing. How have they done it? They don’t know that much more than me,” but it’s because everybody struggles. They just don’t talk about it a lot.

Yeah, definitely. Do you have a few tips then that will help people avoid this overwhelm where possible?

Yes. We’ve given a few tips, one of which is to choose a good theme with great support. If you’re building your own website, chances are you’re going to use a template or a theme of some sort. It’s really important that you find one that’s got great reviews. It’s got good feedback. There is a support desk, and there’s people there to help you if you struggle. That’s quickly the worst thing in the world is when you get a theme and you just paid for it and you’ve spent hours trying to decide what theme you get. Then you buy it and you install it and you just don’t know what you’re doing. That can be really frustrating and it can quickly make you feel overwhelmed.

A lot of things as well. They come with like documents before you buy them, don’t they? These manuals of how to use it and things like that. It’s always good to look for those as well.

Sometimes we get excited when we see something, we just want to buy it before doing all the research and that’s where that comes in handy. Especially if you’re buying from a legitimate company, check on the documentation. See if there’s a demo. See if you can actually test out the theme before you actually buy it. Log in to kind of a demo portal and play around with it a little bit. I’m the worst for this. I’ll see something that kind of remotely does what I need it to and then I’ll just buy it before doing the research. But look …

You are the worst at this.

I am.

I can concur with that.

Lyndsay, I bought the wrong thing. Can you get a refund? I don’t think so. There’s got like a lot of like plugins and stuff that we’ve never used before that we’ve paid for. Ridiculous.

I’m one of those people that read the instructions for about six hours. We’re kind of both of extremes. We kind of meet in the middle though and that works.

Yeah, exactly. But if you do find a template that has great support, that can solve so many problems. Just by sending off a message at 8 o’clock at night, by morning you might actually have an answer to that question while you can get on with some other stuff in the meantime.

Definitely. Also look at where the template is from. I made this mistake once with actually a plugin. The guy was in New Zealand and then we kept having to wait 14 hours. It was just a nightmare. It was great, but yeah, that was a nightmare because 14 hours in our business is like forever. Well, it is for me. I’m very impatient, so yeah. Do actually look at where it’s from to see how quickly you’ll get an answer back.

There’s plenty of reviews online as well. Just do your research when it comes to your theme because it’s so important that you don’t want to make a bad buying decision when it comes to your theme.

Okay. What else is there? There’s obviously to look at the theme and support. What other things can we do to avoid overwhelm?

One thing is a little bit of a mindset shift actually. It’s in regards to how complicated or simple it is. We always recommend that you try to keep your website as simple as possible. I don’t mean basic black and white with no styling whatsoever. I’m just talking about when there’s an opportunity to keep things more simple and get things done quicker, that is nine times out of 10 the best option. We can always make it a little bit better. Your website’s never going to stop improving. It’s just you need to finish your website, get it out, and then make improvements once it’s live.

We’ve seen people actually just dwell over the tiniest insignificant kind of little hover effects and these fancy little features that somebody else has got on their website and you want on yours. Don’t do it. It is literally the biggest time suck and it can be the death of your project completely because people just spends two years building a website. Every time you speak to them, “How’s the website coming along,” “Yes, it’s coming. It’s still coming,” but they’ve not have anything to show for it. In the meantime, they’ve not got a website. They’ve not got leads coming through and that’s a problem. Your website needs to be up and live and out there as quickly as physically possible.

By keeping it simple and having that simple mindset when it comes to you designing your website, as long as you’ve got that key core information that people need, things that we’ve spoken about before in previous episodes like the big bold statement, like having your call to action buttons quite high up and quite prominent and your service is visible, as long as you do the basics, then the design to a certain extent doesn’t matter that much on the first round of getting your website up. Then you can make improvements as you go.

Yeah, definitely. I think that’s the point, isn’t it? It’s about making improvements as you go, but trying to just keep it simple and get something up straight away out there. Advertise is what you do in the right way and getting the basics right from the beginning. Definitely.

Exactly. This leads us on actually to the next point, which is when you really do need help, when you really do need a feature installed in your website, something that you can’t do, then seek the help of a techie. Now not just any techie. Techie, not Trekkie. We’re Star Wars fans and we’ll have none of that here.

Trekkies might be able to help.

We’ll have none of that here. Anyway, if you are struggling and you’re trying to do something, I mean … We had Rachel, one of our members, ask in the forum actually, “I can change words and images on my website, but I’m not sure about moving buttons and actually the design elements. What can I do?” We actually suggest that you have a look on Upwork or a freelancing website, maybe even Fiverr, to see if there’s anyone who specializes in that theme. I think it was Divi.

Yeah, I think for her it was quite easy because it was Divi and there were plenty of really good Divi sort of developers out there on perhaps Upwork. Yeah, she doesn’t need to spend a lot just to …

You’re talking $10, $20 the most to solve a problem-

Yeah. Yeah. Potentially.

… that you really, really need to solve. You shouldn’t have to do that a lot because not everything that you do needs to be that complicated, but there are a few things where you might need help. For Rachel, that was exactly what she needed.

It’s that time versus money issue, isn’t it? I mean you could spend all the time in the world trying to figure it out. But if it’s just going to take $20, $30 to solve that problem in five minutes for someone else to do it, then that’s going to be better for your business and you can start focusing on other things, more important things in your business that will move you forward definitely.

It absolutely will stop you in your tracks and it will make you feel overwhelmed if you’re trying to do this complicated thing. When you search for it on Google and you get this really complicated blog post where it’s telling you to go into your FTP and change this code and add this snippet of code and then something happens and your website goes down, like all that is really scary even for me.

Even for us, yeah.

You’ve got to be careful with your websites. We’re all susceptible to having your website go down or deleting something that you shouldn’t. It is sometimes necessary. Just stick to the basics and then hire someone if you really, really need some extra support.

Definitely. Okay. So what else can we be doing then?

Well, you spoke about this a little bit. It’s about doing your research. This doesn’t just to do with the theme. This is things like plugins. This is things like content management systems. If you want to use WordPress, you want to use Shopify, if you want to use something else, then do your research. It’s also the same for things like your email marketing system. Even tools like Canva, for instance. Do your research before you actually start downloading and actually creating new accounts and just signing up to stuff without actually doing your research. Because you can sign up to something and it’s like, “Oh, it’s a free trial. I might as well do it,” but then you get …

An hours gone by and you’re trying to set up an email marketing tool and you’ve not even got your big bold statement done on your website. You’re thinking so far ahead before you actually decide what’s important, what can I do to keep my website simple. I’ve got my theme. I’m trying to keep it simple. Then you go down a rabbit hole and we got the plugins and themes and content management systems and you’ve wasted all that time. It’s best to know what you want to do first and then do your research before you start delving into the tools.

Yeah, definitely. I think a good thing to remember is what is insanely popular. This is why we use WordPress for all our websites is because if we got hit by a bus, our clients would be able to google any problem and no doubt someone on the internet will be the answer to that problem because WordPress is so popular. Same with Shopify or with Canva or that email marketing software like MailChimp or ConvertKit, those kind of things. If they are well-know, if people trust them, if they’ve got good reviews and you’ve done that research beforehand, the likelihood is you’re going to be able to find quick solutions to your problems. If you use something a little bit out there that hasn’t been heard of before, maybe …

Even if it’s cheaper.

Even if it’s cheaper.

This is the point, don’t always go with the cheapest option-

Exactly. Exactly.

… just to save money when another tool might actually be built a lot better. It might be quicker to get something done. You might be able to go live sooner rather than you try and do everything for free and then spend a year trying to hook it all up because there’s no support. This is the same with free plugins, free templates, even cheap, really, really cheap freelancers. You’re not going to get everything you need to. You just need to do your research and don’t be afraid to put your hand in your pocket if it’s a ton here and there.

Yeah, definitely.

Another thing as well is, and this again is more of a mindset thing, when you are thinking about yourself and you’re thinking about your website and it’s easy to see how you can become overwhelmed, just try and remember that this is not for you. This website is not yours. It’s for your customers. This is something that we’ve been talking about a lot recently. It’s the fact that when you think about your customers as the audience and you only think about them and you think about what questions are they going to ask, what questions are they looking for online, then it’s easy to see how you can create a quick and easy website and get it live sooner rather than later.

But when you’re thinking about yourself and all the fancy features, then it does get a little bit more complicated and more time consuming. That’s when you can go down these rabbit holes. Try and remember that. Actually stick it on your wall in front of your computer and think that my website might belong to me, but it’s not mine. It’s for my customers. That is so important that people understand that.

I think people get very wrapped up in what their competition is doing. Oh, they’ve got a fancy hover feature. I want one of those. Really it’s about them and they’re not thinking about their customers. I can honestly say hand in heart that I hardly spend anytime thinking about who our competition is or going on their websites at all. It just doesn’t take a penny of our mindset, does it, because we know that that’s not going to be productive. We have to focus on what our clients or potential clients will be asking when they’re on our website, what do they actually need. Don’t start looking at your competition and thinking about, “Okay. Well, I need a Whizzy thing because they’ve got this Whizzy thing,” and that kind of thing.

This is why people make so many mistakes when it comes to websites because they end up copying people, “Oh, they’ve got a slider image. I want a slider image. They’ve got like a Twitter feed in the bottom of their homepage. I want a Twitter feed.” We go down a road that we shouldn’t be going down anyway. Never mind, “I just want this fancy feature,” that’s when we do start actually looking at competitors and trying to get what they’ve got. Yeah, it’s a great point actually.

Absolutely.

Okay. The next thing is actually really important. This is how we grew our business a few years ago. This was kind of the biggest shift that we made and it was to find a community, a supportive community, that can help move your business forward. Not just your website, not just a “I’m going to join a WordPress group,” actually join a community that’s going to help move your business forward, get your website live quicker. Maybe join an accountability group and actually have people around you that are going to move you in the right direction. There’s nothing worst than feeling alone when it comes to running a business. It’s even worse if you’re trying to do the techie stuff yourself.

You could ask a question in a forum that you’re a part of, this could be a paid community, it could be a free community, that you could spend eight hours trying to solve. Well, somebody else has already solved that problem. Find some communities that you can be a part of, whether it’s paid communities or free communities. We’ve got people in our community that ask questions all the time because they know that we’ll probably know the answer or somebody else in the community will have. They don’t have to spend all that time, an entire Sunday given up because they can’t get this plugin to work.

It makes you feel so much better, doesn’t it, when you got other people in the same boat and you’ve got experts to ask that are willing to help. It makes such a huge difference in your business. We’re part of … I don’t know how many communities we’ve got.

Like too many. Like five or six maybe.

Be our friends. Yeah, five or six communities. Honestly it makes a massive difference in our business because yeah, like you said, you can just ask that question and someone will know the answer.

We get great content ideas from this as well. On the flip side, we were talking a minute ago about having your website work for your customers and not just for you, it’s great when you’re in a community and somebody asks a question that you know the answer to and you’re like, “Actually I’ve answered this so many times myself to my own clients. I’m actually going to write a blog post about it.” A lot of the content ideas that we get are questions that we see other people ask as part of forums and communities as well.

People don’t just go in their normal Facebook page or Twitter and just say, “I’m struggling to get this plugin to work or why is my website not showing up in Google,” but they do ask those questions in sort of niche industry specific communities.

Definitely. Okay. What’s the final thing then what we can be doing to avoid overwhelm?

This is really important. This is to get a good host. A good reliable company to host your website. Not just somebody that can do it for the cheapest, but somebody who actually offers great support. We get people contacting us all the time saying, “Oh, we’ve been with this company for a few years now, but the website keeps going down and the support is really bad. Can you point us in the right direction? Can you help us? Can we move the website to you guys,” even though we don’t host websites. We don’t have a server in our back bedroom. We actually use companies to host as well. It’s just that because we’ve seen the good, bad and the ugly, people come to us and ask the question.

We do have a few companies we recommend, but more than anything, it’s about finding someone that’s going to be beneficial to you. If you have thousands and thousands of visitors coming to your website, then do some research about who the best person is to use. If you’re just starting a brand new website for instance, then we might have somebody else to recommend as a host. It’s all about finding someone that has a great support desk, somebody that can be there, someone who’s got live chat. They can pick up the phone and cal them if your website goes down. That should always be your first point of call and that would help you overcome that overwhelm if you are struggling because something has gone wrong.

Yeah, because you can guarantee you’re going to get overwhelmed very quickly if your website has gone down. We’ve seen it when people have launched major things. They’ve got thousands of visitors to their website. This one always annoys me as well. I think it annoys me because I think you pointed it out to me. When companies say, “Oh, we were so popular our website went down,” I’m like, “Mate, that’s not a good thing.”

Yeah. What is that about?

Like, “I’m really pleased I’ve lost all these sales. Woo hoo.”

I know. That’s like a badge of honor, ain’t it?

Yeah. We always find really strange. We just kind of shake our heads like get a good host then. You’re clearly not investing in a good host. That shows you up really. It’s not a good thing if your website goes down during a major launch. Yeah, I think it’s just something that you have to look at, invest, in do your research. But yeah, like Martin said, think about things like live … Live chat with hosts is just wonderful. If you can just speak to them and someone is there a minute later just replying to you and helping you, either they’ll solve the problem or just show you how to solve it, that’s just so incredibly powerful because it can save you so much time and so much stress as well.

I mean you’ve got to understand that when you’re building your own website, you’re the one who has to think about the domain name and where that is. You’ve got a domain name with one company. You’ve got your host with another. You might have your emails with somebody else. That’s why it’s great having a great reliable host because you can actually just contact them and actually say, “This is the situation. What do I need to do?” If you’re submitting a support ticket and they don’t get back to you for 48 hours and you want it to launch on Friday night, then it’s going to be tricky. That’s why it’s so important. We do have a company to recommend.

If you go to jammydigital.com/hosting, feel free to contact us and we’ll send you a tutorial video as well on that. It’s just a case of what’s best for you I think more than anything. But yeah, you do need a good host. Part of the reason a lot of websites get hacked as well is because of hosts. Again that’s another reason you might get overwhelmed. Okay, my website’s been hacked. What do I do now? Where do I start?

Why is my website in Russian?

I don’t remember selling these products. What’s this?

What are these dodgy things?

Getting a good host will prevent a lot of the ability for somebody to hack, but you can also install a software. You can get pretty cheap software from a good host that will scan your website for any malware and malicious kind of viruses and stuff like that. You don’t want to be overwhelmed by it, which is why you need to get a good host.

Yeah, definitely. Definitely.

That’s pretty much it. There’s a few things there that should help you avoid overwhelm. I’m sure there’s plenty of other things as well, but for you, it’s about growing your business. You are the business owner or you’re the marketing inside a business. It’s about you thinking about promoting your products and services, reaching your audience, and making sure that they’re becoming inquiries rather than just visitors. That’s what you should be thinking about. Not the technical stuff. Not your hosting and your domain name stuff. Yes, you might have to do it, but seek help when you need to and do your research.

I think the point is as well is that we’re not actually saying that you have to invest a lot to avoid overwhelm. If you are new to business and you think, “Well, I can’t do that because I’m just on my own. I’m just starting out. I haven’t got much money,” like Martin said, you can hire people off Upwork for quite cheap. Just go for a reliable host that’s well-known. You’ve got that chat support. These things don’t cost a lot of money-

No.

… but they are worth it because it will save you so, so much time and then you can go ahead and build your business. I hope you found this episode useful. Everyone has struggled with this in the past. Hopefully now you can use a few of tips to help you overcome it. If you didn’t already know, we do have a free Facebook group. We’d love you to join. Head over to jammydigital.com/facebook. We do training, free website critiques, and we’d love to help you get better results from your websites. Feel free to join and say hello. That’s it for today’s episode. We’ll see you next time on the Mark Your Mark Online Podcast.

The post Ep 19 – How to avoid overwhelm when building your website appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

Choosing your domain name can take forever!

Should you have your name as your domain name?

Should you use your business name as your domain name?

Or even, should you include a keyword within your domain name?

It can be tricky. In this podcast episode, we go through the pros and cons of different domain names and which ones are right for you and your business.

In this episode, we’ll cover…

• The pros and cons of using your business name as your domain name
• The pros and cons of using your business name as your domain name
• The pros and cons of using a keyword within your domain name
• Our favourite method for choosing a domain name

Time Stamps: In a rush? Get to the section you need to below!

1.40 – What are the options available to you when choosing domain names
3.40- Why would you use your name as your domain name?
6.10 – What are the downsides to having your name as your domain name?
8.37 – Why would you use your business name as your domain name?
11.18 – What are the downsides of having your business name as your domain name?
14.39 – Should you use keywords in your domain name?
16.34 – The downsides of using keywords within your domain name
18.25 – What’s our favourite method for picking a domain name?

Useful Resources and Links

Waitlist for Membership Community

Content Marketing Academy

Smart Passive Income

Marie Forleo

What To Do Next

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Episode Transcript Below

Welcome to episode 11 of the Make Your Mark online podcast. Today we’re going to be talking about how to choose a domain name for your website. Before we get into the episode, this podcast is sponsored by the Make Your Mark online membership. This is our signature membership community where we help personal brands build and grow a successful business website. It will be launching on the first of October and we’d love for you to check it out. We currently have a wait list you can sign up to, if you go to jammydigital.com/wait. We will only be opening the doors for two weeks at its lowest ever price, so don’t miss out. Okay, let’s get on with the show.

Today we’re talking about domains. This is something that’s really important, isn’t it Martin, for all businesses?

Yes, of course. I mean if you want a website you’re going to have to, at some point, buy a domain name or hundreds of domains that you never use, which is exactly what we’ve done [crosstalk 00:01:09].

Yes, Martin’s got loads.

Oh, God. For some reason I just keep renewing them every year. It’s like-

You do.

I’m really going to start-

I get the invoices. I’m aware.

The craziest business ideas that we had five years ago and for some reason we’re still buying domain names.

Yes.

Well, we’re actually talking about your main domain name, so what you’ll actually use for your core personal brand business website. It’s really important because there are a few different ways you can go about this, which is exactly why we decided to have a chat about it.

What kinds of different domain names could you choose?

Okay, so when it comes to domains then for personal brands, what are the ways that you can go about it? What options are available?

Okay, so there are three main things that we see people do with domains. The first thing is you actually use your name, so martinhuntbach.com or lyndsaycambridge.com. A few of the highly successful entrepreneurs out there, like Marie Forleo, uses her name within her domain name. Chris Ducker, he uses his name. It just means that you’re essentially taking your name and you’re the personal brand, so that’s what I’m going to have and whatever it is dot com, dot call it UK, dot net but it’s your name. That’s one option that you have.

Another option would be to use your business name. For instance that’s what we decided to do, Jammydigital.com. Although technically it’s not a personal brand type business, lots of other personal brands decide to use a business name like Pat Flynn, for instance, has Smart Passive Income. Chris Marr has the Content Marketing Academy. That is a fairly common way to go as well.

The third option isn’t used as much but it used occasionally. It’s where people decide to use a keyword. Potentially something that somebody might search for on Google and you actually use that word as your domain name. Now I’m not sure this is exactly what Mark Schaefer has done with his website businessgrow.com, but potentially he could have used MarkSchaefer.com or he could have used MarkSchaefersolutions.com if that’s his business name. For whatever reason some people decide to try to include a keyword within that domain. You do see it fairly frequently with local businesses, web design companies. I’ll just use WebDesign.com or WebDesignBlackpool.com. You do see it from time to time and occasionally with personal brands as well. Those are the three potential options you have available.

Why would you use your name as your domain name?

Let’s break it down then. What are the best options? Why would you use your name, for example, as your domain name? What are the advantages of doing that?

Well it’s a lot easier to remember somebody’s name. If you bump into someone at a conference, for instance, or a local networking event people generally remember people more than they remember business names. It’s just more memorable and that’s a great thing that you can do if you use your business name, people can actually refer to you when they’re making recommendations or check out this person. It makes it a lot easier to find you online.

Yes definitely, and it’s a good point that you say that actually because whenever I Google Pat Flynn I always put into Google Pat Flynn, I never actually put in Smart Passive Income. Not that I forget it, I know actually that that’s his business name, I know that it’s his domain name, but for some reason just psychologically I think I just Google Pat Flynn because yes I remember his face and his name. Yes, it’s much, much more memorable. That’s a really good point.

Yes definitely

What are the other reasons someone might use their name as their domain name?

Well it’s easy to change business direction. We know from our own experience that we’ve changed our business quite a lot in the past five years, and sometimes you offer one service, you might offer something else, and if you use your name as your domain name it’s quite easy to make that transition and nobody bats an eyelid. If one day you decide that you’re no longer a SEI expert, you’re a web design expert, then nobody would know because you got your name as your domain name. If you decide to sell houses one day nobody would bat an eyelid, well they might do, but generally speaking it’s not going to raise any red flags if you decide to change your business direction because your name is something that you own and you keep, and you can take it in whichever business direction you want. It’s more adaptable.

Yes, that’s very, very true actually. Yes because, say for example Chris Marr, Content Marketing Academy, he for some strange reason decided he wanted to do social media management instead. Then Content Marketing Academy wouldn’t make sense obviously as his domain name. Whereas if his name was ChrisMarr.com then he would be able to change direction. That’s just an example, but yes it’s a really, really good point actually that you can sort of change direction quite easily. Which I supposed if you’re new to business we noticed that when we were quite new to business that we changed quite a lot at the beginning so that’s always quite a good advantage, isn’t it that you have that sort of flexibility really and space to move without sort of feeling restrained just by something simple, by your domain name.

What are the downsides of having your name as your domain name?

Yes exactly, but there are a few negatives to potentially having your name as your domain. For instance it would be quite difficult for the likes of Chris Ducker and Marie Forleo to sell their website if they ever decided to pack it all in and do something else because their name is their domain name. Unless you find somebody else with the exact same name, that offers the same services, and has a similar reputation, it’s going to be fairly difficult if not impossible for you to sell a domain with your name and have somebody else take over it. That’s one of the downsides to it, it’s not saleable.

Another reason is that it’s not immediately clear what it is that you offer.

Yes.

If you use your name MartinHuntbach.com or whatever, it’s not immediately clear how that person can benefit. For instance, we have Jammy Digital as our name and it’s kind of digital. We’ve included the word digital in it so you can kind of start to think about what it might be.

Yes.

Whereas if we only used our name then it’s not going to be clear at all, I could be doing anything.

I suppose the advantage of having the flexibility of having to move around in your business is also a bit of a disadvantage because then it’s kind of not really clear what you do.

Exactly.

Yes, so that’s kind of the downside of it really.

Yes exactly, and it can make it even more difficult using your name as a domain if people struggle to spell it or if they struggle to say it like our names, for instance.

Like MartinHuntbach.com.

Exactly. I actually do have MartinHuntbach.com but it just acts as bit of a landing page.

No one’s going to be able to spell that.

Nobody’s going to be able … Exactly, which is part of the reason why I didn’t decide to build my brand on my name. It’d be great if I had a nice comfortable name that everybody could spell and say without kind of cocking the head to one side and saying, “What? What did they just say?”

That’s an interesting one actually because you bought MartinHuntbach.com and originally it was you started the business, but I actually joined and now sort of co-own. If you’d have put MartinHuntbach.com that would have been really difficult kind of transition.

It would have.

Why would you use your business name as your domain name?

I’d have just been plus Lyndsay, the end of it. That’s also a really good point actually. Sometimes if other people join your business that can be a sort of downside to just having one name, although it’s probably quite rare. Yes, that’s a really good point as well. What about the business name then? This is fairly common for personal brands too. What are the benefits of that?

The first thing is that it’s very saleable. We’ve already discussed this in the previous point. If you have a business name as your domain name, then somebody else can buy your business off you in the future, they can buy a domain name that’s linked to a business because it’s not linked to a person. Generally speaking you’d probably get a lot more money if you ever did decide to sell a business. For instance, Pat Flynn, I know that he has the domain name PatFlynn.com, but he has now built his brand around Smart Passive Income. He could potentially sell that for a lot more than he could if he just used PatFlynn.com. People might buy it for the domain name quality, they might buy it because of the amount of traffic he’s got, but definitely going to count in his favor because he’s using SmartPassiveIncome.com, it’s a lot easier to sell.

Yes, it’s a really good point actually. I think a good example of this is actually from Martin Lewis who had MoneySavingExpert.com and he sold it recently, in the last couple of years, for a lot of money.

Millions and millions.

Millions and millions of pounds. Perhaps if he was called MartinLewis.com rather than Money Saving Expert it might not have been as easy to sell, so that’s a really, really good point actually. I suppose it depends if we want to sell or if we think we’re going to sell in the future.

Exactly, you just never know. You never know, and the thing is is technically speaking Money Saving Expert is definitely still Martin Lewis. When you say Money Saving Expert, you might not know it if you’re not in the UK, but he advises people on how to save money and how to save money on bills and whatever. He is deeply ingrained within Martin Lewis, the Money Saving Expert. They actually, when they bought it, they actually hired him, I believe. He knows how it works. He then got paid even more money for working with them. Yes, swings a round about.

If you can build Money Saving Expert.

Yes.

If you can build that business you’re golden.

Exactly.

What are some other good reasons to use your business name as your domain name?

Well I mean you can really make it clear what you do. That example, for instance, Money Saving Expert you know pretty much exactly what you’re going to get.

Yes.

Whereas with MartinLewis.com you’re not sure. It could be an insurance broker, it could want to fix your roof, you just don’t know. That’s the thing really. A major benefit is you potentially can explain a little bit more about what you do rather than just using your name, which can be a bit cryptic sometimes.

Why would someone not use their business name as their domain name?

Okay then, so why might we not use our business name as our domain name?

Okay, so if you use a business name it does actually tie you in. When we said before that you can change your business direction with your name, you can’t do that as much, especially if you’ve got something like Smart Passive Income. If you decide to change your business it does tie you into a niche or whatever kind of industry. Sometimes you can have quite a broad explanation and that gives you a little bit more wiggle room, but if you want to dramatically change it, it does kind of tie you in, which can be frustrating.

Yes, I think that’s a really good point actually because when we set up Jammy Digital we offered SEO, we offered web design, I think we offered social media logo design, everything in the world. It all at least fell under the umbrella of digital, so we’ve slowly got rid of some of those services, but it didn’t actually matter because it was quite a broad word that we used, digital, which covers all our things. Whereas if we wanted to be estate agents then that’s obviously not going to work, but at least it was broad enough to begin with where we could kind of move around a little bit in at least our niche, which was digital marketing.

Yes absolutely.

That’s a good point. Are there any other reasons why someone might not want to use their business name as their domain name?

Occasionally when you have a business name as your domain name it can be a little bit less personal. It’s not as easy to connect with somebody, especially if they’re a personal brand. I can refer to you by your name. I want to build a little bit more rapport with you. I might consume some of your content. It’s just not as easy if you use a business name, but again there are pros and cons to it, but that’s one thing that we’ve found.

Yes definitely. I think they are obviously things you can do to kind of combat that. I think there are quite a few examples. I know Pete Matthew comes to mind. He runs Meaningful Money, so that’s his … Obviously business name is his domain name, but a lot of people know Pete Matthew because he puts so much effort into his podcast, into his content marketing. I think it’s about yes, if you’re going to sort of use your business name as your domain name then you kind of have to put yourself forward as well for a lot of it. It’s the same with Chris Marr at the Content Marketing Academy. Everyone knows him just as much as they know CMA, Content Marketing Academy. You kind of just have to make sure you ramp up that effort really in terms of content marketing and getting yourself out there and putting yourself out there and your face out there.

Exactly, and another thing that you might potentially find if you use a business name is that like Lyndsay said before, it can actually be quite difficult for people to find you. When you were searching for Pat Flynn, which is naturally what people do, they’ll remember a name, they’ll remember a face, and they go and type into Google. If your business name is your domain name then it kind of takes somebody a split second to work out okay, which result do I click on here?

Yes.

Because if someone types in your name-

Your Twitter comes up.

Exactly.

Yes, all sorts of things come up. Yes, that’s a really good point.

Your actual website might be knocked down the rankings a little bit. It might be on the first page but it might be the fourth or fifth one, which takes people an extra second or two to find your website, which can be frustrating.

Should you have a keyword in your domain name?

Yes definitely. Okay, so what about the last one then, which was using keywords in your domain? Is that a good idea?

I understand the appeal with this one. I understand that if you are a public speaking coach, for instance, and you have PublicSpeakingCoach.com then the appeal is that okay, when people type that into Google they’re going to get to my website. In reality that used to be the case, it used to be easier to rank higher on search engines for a keyword if you had it in your domain name, but it’s not the case anymore. It actually does have some weight, but not as much as it used to. I generally wouldn’t recommend this one unless there’s a real reason for it, but I’m yet to find one. One of the main pros is the fact that it does offer some weight but not enough for me to decide to build my entire website on it.

Okay, so I mean I know that it’s not one that you’re very keen on but are there any other reasons why someone might just want to use a keyword in their domain?

Yes, obviously you’ll make it abundantly clear what it is that you do. I mean if we chose, for instance, Web Design Blackpool then people know what they’re going to get. It’s immediately clear, it wouldn’t be immediately clear if somebody used their name. There’s that I suppose.

Do you think this is quite good for businesses then that are very, very local, quite small local businesses? Do you think it would be suitable for that? I mean I’m trying to find some good points of using this, sort of Accountants Blackpool or Web Design Manchester. Is there any kind of good stuff coming out of it?

What are the disadvantages of using a keyword in your domain name?

It depends really on how much competition you have. There’s still an argument to say that if there’s no other accountants in Blackpool that know anything about SEO, just by buying that domain name and adding some content to your website you might potentially rank highly on the first page of Google. Yes, but there’s so many websites popping up all over the place now that there’s too much in regards to SEO and branding are going to add more than just stuffing your keyword within your domain. I would say that this one is not so great of an option, but I do see people do it, which is why we wanted to include it. More often than not it can be a bit confusing. I mean if you search for somebody online you want their name to pop up or at least their business name. It’s kind of like three layers deep. It’s not the name of the person, it’s also not the business that they run, but it’s something else and it just looks a bit spammy I think in this day and age.

Yes definitely. I think it looks a little bit old fashioned as well, doesn’t it? Just not very professional. Yes, I absolutely agree with that.

Also it ties you in. You can’t get away from it. If you’re stuffing WebDesignBlackpool.com into your domain name and you decide to move house in five years to Manchester then it’s not really going to work. You kind of shot yourself in the foot a little bit there.

Yes, plus it just you just so … It’s just kind of boring if I’m honest. I mean imagine if our domain name wasn’t Martin Huntbach or MartinandLyndsay.com, it wasn’t JammyDigital.com, it was web design Manchester.

Oh God.

It just doesn’t excite anyone, does it?

No.

It’s just really boring.

No, exactly.

We can definitely see the bad points on that one, can’t we?

Exactly, but some people do still ask that question, “Is it best if I pop the keywords in my domain?” Ninety-nine times out of 100 we say no. It’s far better to choose a domain with your name or your business name.

What’s our favourite domain name option for personal brands?

What’s the best option then? Have you got a favorite personally?

Where possible I think you should try to use your name. Again taking everything into account, the pros and cons, and I think that the benefits far outweigh the negatives when it comes to choosing a domain name and including your name. The fact that you can change direction, the fact that you can brand yourself as much as you like, and it doesn’t actually take anything away from your name and your business. Again, including your business name has it’s benefits, but for personal brands people search for you online. People will recommend you. People won’t always remember the name of your business. It all depends if you want to sell it further down the line. If that’s your main objective then by all means. I would always choose to go with a brandable thing, whether that’s branding you or branding a business name, there are pros and cons to each and there’s no clear defined answer that’s going to work for everybody. Generally speaking if I was to go out by myself and want to build a business behind my knowledge and my experience I would generally build it behind MartinHuntbach.com.

Okay, that’s really interesting. Even if you couldn’t spell Huntbach.

The thing is you still have people refer people to you. People hear us on podcasts, people see us speak at local workshops, and people read guest posts. People will naturally find your name and there’s lots of people on the internet who have more complicated names to spell but they still make it work, especially if you’ve got the full weight of your business behind it. It’s still a great idea. I do understand the appeal of a Smart Passive Income, for instance.

Yes.

You can still do it, and like I say, if you go all in on it people will closely link the business name with your name and that’s fine if you can find that balance, but more often than not the best case scenario for most personal brands is to actually just put your name behind it. There is one last thing that I wanted to say, which is even if you decide to go for a business name domain name, you should still buy your name. I mean I did it. I didn’t intend to use it originally. We’ve got LyndsayCambridge.com. It’s the best thing to do is even if you decide to go with a business buy the domain name. You can set up forwarding, so you can actually if somebody does type your name into the address bar at the top of the page you could potentially redirect people to your main website. Especially if you decide to use it in the future just get it, pay the 10 pound a year, whatever it is, and then just store it. If you don’t decide to use it then that’s fine, but I would always recommend buying it.

Yes, it’s a really, really good point actually. We have MartinHuntbach.com, LyndsayCambridge.com, don’t visit LyndsayCambridge.com. There’s some really crap videos on there.

Now everyone’s going to visit.

That sounds actually really dodgy. It’s just some videos doing book reviews, not very exciting I’m afraid. Yes, that’s a really, really good point. Buy your name as your domain name. It’s always good to have that anyway because you don’t know when it’s going to be useful. I actually read, I forgot where I read it, but people are buying their children’s name as their domain names and then give … I don’t know if Martin might be doing that, [inaudible 00:21:38].

Thought I’d buy it today. Thought I’d buy it today.

Don’t worry Huntbach will be available, it’ll be fine.

It will be.

It’ll be available, we don’t need to spend 10 pound a year until he’s 18 and needs it or whatever. Yes, people actually do, they’re starting to buy their children’s names, the domain name.

Crazy.

The Make Your Mark Online Membership

Because in the future you don’t know when they’re going to need it. Yes, that’s a really, really interesting one. That was a really, really good episode actually on how to choose your domain name, episode 11 there. Just before you go I just wanted to remind you that our wait list is up for our Make Your Mark online membership community. Pop your name and email address in there and you’ll be signed up to the wait list, that’s when you can join us at the lowest ever price. We have confirmed the price now, it will be $29 per month or $290 each year.

How cheap is that?

It’s very cheap.

So cheap.

Cheap, but that will be a limited price Martin. It will only last two weeks that price and then it will be going up after that. Get your name down quickly, make sure you join us for that really, really low price offer. Thanks for listening.

Martin & Lyndsay

The post Ep 11 – How to choose a domain name for your website appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.