Make a website | BrisbaneSalesTrainer

Websites. What goes in it?

The Upside of websites

A website (unlike your Social Media account) cannot be shut-down. A website makes you legit and is read by serious buyers

The downside of websites

Most websites are 'salesy', so people may avoid them

The solution

Have a one page website. With lots of helpful info (Content Marketing) not salesy stuff

Copy this website if you want

Have your name in your web address. Because it's personal, YOU are the business. Now you’re the only contact (meaning new clients know they will never have to ‘deal’ with anyone else). brilliant!

Make a 1 page website (a few scrolls long) with a few subpages. Just like this one. Don’t use a menu because you're not Woolworths

Menus are useless because

menus don’t display well on mobile phones
words in menus mean different things to different people
most solos have too many pages on their sites anyway
Usability (ease of navigation) is bad on most websites. No menu, helps avoids this problem

Have a short video with your face in it (talking to camera for at least a few seconds) because

YOU are the service
your competitors won’t, they’re too scared
it builds trust - you ‘meet’ them, without meeting
yes you’ll be nervous and that’s a good thing – it’s authentic

Words are often left-until-last when making a website. Don’t let this happen to you. And make sure the reader hears ‘your voice’ and style, not a wishy-washy “I’m the best!”, professionalism.

Your websites should make

your service easy-to-understand. Niching does this.
you an expert with Content Marketing
You easy-to-contact. Get Personal. Your face. Your interests / background. This is your 'brand voice'. Tiered pricing to reduce risk. Free information then a $50 service, then a $350 service. Your location builds trust. List your country (it's a global economy), city and suburb. Don't worry about having a home office and meeting in a cafe. Clients don't care; they just want solutions. Make your phone / email easy-to-find. Use "next day reply" to encourage contact

Your ABOUT ME page is more popular than you think.

Because before people trust your service, they need to trust YOU.

The ONE THING your competitors CANNOT do, is copy YOU. So, promote YOU. Your opinion, interests, style, beliefs and background

Example: Cafes that only post food photos on Instagram. WE CAN GET FOOD ANYWHERE. What's the vibe? Community noticeboard? International magazines? Newspapers? Sponsor the local footy team? Back garden patio? Mulch their waste? Eco practices? Photos and stories of local suppliers?

Graphic Design - don't drown your message in it. The purpose of hiring a Graphic Designer is deliver clarity. Not to win them a Graphic Design award, by selling you a BEAUTIFUL but hard to use website. (Yes, I learnt the hard way).

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation). 5 reasons to not be bothered as a solo

Search Engines use a

secret rulebook (algorithm)
that constantly changes
that makes you compete with millions of other businesses on planet earth.
These businesses all have more time than you, to rank higher.
And these businesses all have more money than you, to rank higher

All the information on this website is more important than SEO

Websites. Buy or DiY?

Wordpress, Wix or Squarespace? or ...

Up until about 2015 you needed to know coding (computer language) to make a website.

Right-click on any website and select 'inspect' to see what coding looks like. Yes, worse than a doctors hand writing

Now there are no-code web builders like Wix, Squarespace and others.... Meaning you drag and drop 'text boxes' into place and type the words in ... easy. Well easy-ish

Wordpress is also a no-code builder BUT if you want more functionality it's more like a low-code builder

I paid to have Wordpess site built for me but found it too difficult to maintain. Small changes were easy, but bigger changes were not so easy because I needed to use coding.

Wordpress is sort-of free. You buy parts of it and other parts are free

So I researched 2 DiY options, Wix and Squarespace and Wix came out slightly ahead.

Both have a free option, but this means you web address will be long, with a confusing name.

However free is still a good option to 'play' with and you can upgrade later. Is 'free' unprofessional? Maybe it is. But a free site with great content beats an expensive site that's garbage.

Maybe start with a free one and upgrade when you want to

Currently my Wix website (you're looking at it) costs me $200AUD a year. A bit more if you allow customers to pay you through it. Avoid platform-payment-options for the time being and maybe forever, because you want relationships with your clients not 'transactions'

I found Wix relatively easy to use. However, I did have some very basic graphic design experience - there's always drama though. For example the mobile site version doesn't look exactly the same (you have to do some 'tidying up').

A couple of times I've brushed the keyboard and the site disappeared and the 'undo' button didn't fix it, so I had to go into site 'history' and restore a version from a few minutes ago.

If you're not committed to learning some design fundamentals I wouldn't recommend making your own site. You can pay a Wix affiliate (a website designer that specialises in building Wix sites) to make a website for you (they are listed on the Wix website) from memory it was $500 - $1000..

All-in-all I'm happy with Wix. There is something very fulfilling about building and controlling your own website.

Another great thing about a website with all your info and articles is when a 'cracker' contacts you and want you to work for free, wants discounted work or to pick-your-brain, you can direct them to your website to read all your free helpful info, then call you back. They never do

Should you hire a Graphic Designer.

If you can find a good one - YES

However

I hired one, 3 times.

The first one made me a beautiful site. But my clients found it hard to use. He won a design award for it. That didn't help me though.

Second guy - same thing

The third guy over charged me (I worked that out later). And when I needed help, he would take 1/2/3 weeks to answer my emails and wasn't very helpful. I just assumed he would be cool to answer simple emails every couple of months - NOT. And then he quit being a graphic designer, so no more help.

Study other websites

Especially your competition. What do you dis/like about their site? What have they left out, have too much of? The feel of your site is a part of your Brand. My site (the one you're looking at) is low on design because I'm more of a direct communicator / I'll help you solve a problem quickly rather bamboozle you ;-)

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