Suddenly it’s February…
Busy January… so let’s just kick off the new year a little late!
Previously...
At the end of 2022 I handed over a new site for Source Elements Academy.
Source Elements Academy provides in-depth online courses to Source Elements customers and staff.
Due to my audio background, I had been involved in Source Elements Academy since 2021. Before creating the newest version of this site I had been writing course content and quizzes, creating technical diagrams and slides, and you can even spot me in a couple of educational videos if you know where to look.
The new site makes it easier for students to find their online courses and view their progress, and its now easier and more cost effective for the company to maintain this website in-house.
Currently...
During January I’ve begun new website projects with:
- an Auckland event production company
- a Canterbury scenic camera site
- a Tauranga Orchard
- and my own business Easy Web Things
Introducing...
I’d like to introduce Easy Web Things new Social Media Manager, Mosaic the Office Cat.
Mosaic has been a hard working Office Cat since I began working remotely at the start of the pandemic.
When I started Easy Web Things this year, she was very keen to be promoted to the role of Social Media Manager.
She is looking forward to engaging with other office cats online, and maybe even a few humans as well.
Thank You....
Thank you to Michelle at Maglev Studios for the Easy Web Things logo design!
It’s been great fun working with Michelle, she is an awesome and experienced graphic designer among her many other skills, and I will be trying to involve her in as many future projects as I can.
If you need a new website this year, get in touch!
Follow us on social media to enjoy the adventures of Mosaic the Office Cat as she takes on her first Social Media Manager job:
– Blogged by Kristie
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You may be wondering, should you make your own website?
Perhaps on Squarespace, Wix, Weebly, WordPress, Shopify or any of the other many products that allow you to create your own site?
It really is a fair question.
And the answer is…
It depends!
The pro’s:
- Most platforms are easy enough to learn
- You can put together a website yourself quite cheaply
The cons;
- You have to invest a reasonable amount of time to do a decent job
- The cost of putting your own valuable time into a website instead of working on your business, will likely outweigh the savings in the long run
- If you only run one simple website in your spare time, you don’t build a wealth of experience to draw on when it comes to optimising and troubleshooting
- You need to constantly be learning about websites and stay up to date with changes in technology and the ever changing environment that is the wonderful internet
So if you have a lot of free time, sure it can’t hurt to give it a go. Having any website might be better than nothing at all.
But if you’re a busy business owner, it is probably a good idea to get someone else to do it! Bonus points if you get them to manage it too.
Tips for building your own website:
But what if you really really want to build that site yourself and you have more spare time than spare money?
Go for it! Have fun with it! I think making websites is fun, and I hope you do to. And here’s three important tips:
- Think of what your customers need from your website, and make whatever that is, easy to find. Your phone number? Your location? Your email address? A quote request form? Online store? Online booking? Whatever it is they most need, make it easy to find.
- People visit websites more on mobiles than desktop computers these days, so make sure your site is responsive, and looks great and functions well on multiple kinds of phones, various tablets, laptops, Windows and Mac computers, and all the most popular browsers.
- People and search engines both prefer websites that are human friendly. Keywords are important for being found online by search engines, but you should also make sure your site loads quickly, has great accessibility, and is easy to navigate.
Tips for site design…
You’ll see that my list didn’t say “make sure it looks like the fanciest most artistic website ever”. Thats because spectacular design is nice, but takes a lot of work to get right. Simple is good.
If your customer is trying to get hold of you what they really care about is finding that contact info quickly and easily.
And if your customer wants to buy something from you online, they want that to be quick and easy too.
Making things pretty is lovely, but your customers are coming to your website to achieve a purpose, not to be stunned by your sites design. Keep it simple.
And of course I have to go on to say they don’t want to be put off by your sites looks either, so if you don’t want to spend time learning colour theory, go monochrome with one accent colour.
Go now, you’re all set, have a great adventure!
And if the fun eventually wears thin and running your website becomes just another chore, remember…
Don’t panic… We’re here to help!
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A lot of small and even medium-sized businesses, are trapped in a place where they don’t really have the time to manage their website themselves, and they can’t quite justify employing staff just for this purpose.
I see websites that haven’t had a style update in years, websites that don’t work well on phones, websites where you have to click through 10 pages to find a contact phone number, websites that have been hacked because security updates have been neglected, websites that haven’t kept with the current requirements for search engines. Websites covered in horrible third-party ads, distracting from the genuine products and services people are supplying. Websites optimised for old-school SEO requirements and not real human customers.
Different businesses have different website requirements, and thats why we work closely with you to determine your needs.
Someone running a small local service business, such as a lawn-mowing business, might only require a single page that lets customers know their contact details, areas they cover, and approximate price information.
Another business may benefit from providing customers with a way to book appointments, minimising the time the business needs to spend on the phone taking appointments. A hair salon is a classic example of this.
Some companies might need online stores. These are becoming easier to use and more and more popular, and many customers appreciate the ease these provide.
Larger companies may need to provide appointment booking, customer support chat, quote request forms, online stores, documentation, online learning, and more. We can research what will make your life easier, and your customers lives easier.
If you can make your customers experience with your business easy and low stress, they are more likely to recommend you to others, and to become repeat customers.
Giving your customers a pleasant web experience, is an easy improvement to make when you work with us.
We will be free to begin taking on new clients in 2023.
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Still 6 weeks till launch, at least.
Ensuring the news page is easy to use and functional.
The weather has been lovely. Yesterday was very sunny, and then it rained just enough that I didn’t need to water the garden.
I’m currently working on finishing a learning management site for a client before the end of the year, once that is done, I will have more spare time to take on new projects. It’s very exciting!
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Hello world,
Oh lovely world,
This is the first post upon the news page.
Yet there is no news yet, other than that, soon…
There will be.