Your Homepage

You only get one chance to make a first impression.  Cliched but true. 

I've changed my home page a few times, mainly because I've added new products, signed up with Facebook and started this blog, but also to try and improve the navigation.  Forgive me if I repeat myself, but some things are important so I'll probably tell you about them more than once.  The size of your images is really important - apparently you'll only get 5 seconds before someone gives up if the page is still downloading, so pictures have got to be small. 

I'm not going to go into too much detail about how to achieve things.  This is more about what to consider.  If you want expert advice I suggest that you Google for information that discusses creating a website with more experience than I have.  Basic things I remember wishing I'd known from the outset was page width which seems to be 1024 px - works for both wide screens and people who still have the old square monitors.  It won't be perfect for everyone, but don't cater for one extreme or the other.  Something imbetween seems to make sense!

Thing about what appeals to you in a website.  Look at some you like or visit regularly.  Look at the competition!  If someone else has found a style that works, why reinvent it.  Copying is the sincerest form of flattery - as long as you don't indulge in blatant plagarism.

I looked at some websites or companies whose products I like for inspiration.  Cath Kidston (right) seems to be a runaway success.  I like Boden, Emma Bridgewater and sites like that, so I looked to see how they did their navigation, etc.  I thought about magazines I might want to appear in and what their style is. 

Bear in mind who your target audience is and how they might be used to navigating their way through websites.  But don't exclude others.  Most people are familiar with clicking on an image to take them through to T-shirts, but others like to have a clear navigation bar.  Give them both.  Don't clutter it up too much with words, but remember that robots read words, so make your page titles long, expansive and descriptive.  Think about the colour, font, images, movement (don't use flashy gizmos if it slows things down), etc.

If in doubt, keep it simple and as Coco Chanel (left) reputedly said, "take off one accessory before you leave the house". In other words, less is more.



Never forget your objectives.  If you want a visitor to buy, make it clear by telling them to 'click here to buy'.  And above all remember it's all about the visitor.  What you can do for them, why they will benefit from having your product or services.

Right from the word go you want to encourage interactivity - it will help with your SEO rankings and will make visitors feel valued.  Ask them to join a mailing list.  Offer subscribers services, etc that are only available to them.   You may have advice sheets, etc that they can download.  From the word go you are now building your data base who you can contact when you have news to share.

Get friends to test it out - if they can't navigate the first page you haven't achieved your goal.  Take criticism constructively - I know it's hard.  You spend hours working on something only for someone else to pour cold water over it, and they may not understand how difficult their suggestions are to implement, but they are only trying to help.  Anyone I know who has been on the receiving end of my defensive and pouting retorts - sorry.  I guess this is as close as I'll get to admitting I was wrong, you were right and I was grateful for your contribution even if I didn't appear to be at the time!

Seeing as how I've used a few pictures in this, I thought we could talk about pictures next time.  Taking your own.  Getting them done professionally and using photo libraries.

Creating the Website

As I said, I decided to use Serif WebPlus (now on x4 version) because it was inexpensive and has proved easy to use.  There are plenty of others I'm sure.  I also needed an e-commerce site which WebPlus could do for me.

First piece of advice - do take the time to read the user guide, watch the tutorial videos, etc.  It will save you time in the long run.  If you have lots of repetitive pages (very likely with an e-commerce site) then you don't want to have to keep replicating pages manually.  Use the 'insert page' option and copy the objects across. 

I didn't have this at the time, but UserEffect offer a very useful checklist to follow.  Beyond the initial list, it goes into quite a bit of detail and is an ideal reference point as you go about building your website.

The first thing I wanted to establish was my brand.  I'd got the name - CobWebKnits - partly because of the idea that spiders weave a cobweb, partly because my maiden name is Webb and obviously because I'm a knitwear designer.  I also decided to register as a limited company.  I looked for ages at ways of trying to protect the company name.  There were companies who offered to register it and safeguard it, but when I googled how this worked, a lot of complaints about these companies came up.  They don't appear to be able to do what they claim and you just pay for the privilege.

Don't forget that it's important you can use your company name as your domain name.  If you can't, you need to rethink, unless you have a clever domain name that easily connects with your business name.

So you need a domain name.  You can register with anyone and I.m not going to suggest loads of options.  I can only tell you who I used.  One piece of advice I did pick up at a Business Link seminar was to be sure that your host provider is located in the same country as you.  Can't exactly remember why, but apparently it's important. I did everything through Web Tapestry (upon some one else's recommendation) and I've found them to be very inexpensive, very good value for money and very easy to get support from.  You can search to see if your chosen domain name is available and, if it is, register it with them (very cheaply).  Apparently it should be easy to transfer your registration to a different company, should you wish to when the time comes to find a host, but I've heard tales of hassle so, if you can go straight to the host provider you intend to use.  Having helped a friend set up a website, we registered with WebTapestry and had no problems transferring it to Demon when the time came.  When you are ready to go live Web Tapestry offer various hosting packages.  I have a pretty large website for a 'cottage industry' and their Webmaster package is more than sufficient.

That's probably enough to be thinking about for the moment .... next time, the look of your homepage.

How you can set up an on-line business from home on your own having never run a business before.  Well, my theory is that ... if I can then you can too! 

I suppose the main reason I'm doing this blog is to help you go through the same process withouth having to jump through the same hoops I did in order to get my business set up and then to keep it running.  I'm not saying that any of the products or companies I have used are the best, but they have certainly allowed me to get started and, although I'll suggest what I've used, there's nothing to stop you looking around for other companies and products.  The internet's great for getting reviews.

I should probably introduce myself and my company first. 

My name is Su and a couple of years ago I reached a crossroads in my life. For fifteen years, I had happily fulfilled my life-long ambition, being a maths teacher and housemistress, but decided to give it all up to set up an online business selling baby hats.  I had decided that there was potential in turning a hobby into a business. In the boarding house I ran, I was always looking for projects or activities for the girls to enjoy; hence the creation of baby hats, an idea conjured up to teach the girls how to knit. I started making hats for friends’ babies and the feedback, even from strangers, suggesting I turn my passion into a business became too much to ignore. So, although by nature not a great risk taker, with encouragement from those around me I launched CobWebKnits.

 

First thing I would suggest you do if you live in England is to join Business Link.   It's totally free, they run some fantastic seminars (if you choose carefully) and it will give you plenty of ideas of how to try and move your business on. 

 

Having a great website is paramount to your success.  If, like me, you don't have any financial backing or abundant funding, you'll need to do it yourself and you can with very little money.  I started out with Serif's WebPlus 10, progressing onto x2 and currently x4 versions and I have no complaints with it.  In fact some friends were so impressed they asked me to build their website too - check out http://www.damoryvets.co.uk/. 

 

It's simple to follow their tutorials and soon you'll have set up your own site.  It takes time but it's got an e-commerce site (linked to PayPal amongst others) so you've got everything you need.  It will help you with Google Analytics, has some photo editing software (although I use Photoshop), and will pretty much do everything you need it to do to get started.  It does some whizz bangy graphics, but lots of people advise you to keep your site simple.  The 5 second first impression rule seems to ring true and if your site is still loading customers will leave it.  

 

 

But before you get too carried away - remember to have absolutely everything established before you even think of going live.  It took me a summer to get my website exactly how I wanted it to look and I've updated it a couple of times since. As soon as you want to start selling, you'll want to publicise the fact and there's nothing worse than not having a fully working website for people to look at.

 

Next time I'll tell you about what you need to consider when constructing your website.  Photos, text, T&Cs, distance selling rules, pricing, ..... etc.  Do feel free to ask questions.  I'll probably cover them in future blogs , but it's useful to know what you need answers to as well.

 

And above all, do have a go - you'll feel so thrilled that you've managed to create something yourself and it hasn't cost too much.