My website is born!
I referred in a previous blog to the fact that I've dropped off the WA radar lately. I wanted to show you what has been occupying me for about twelve hours a day for the past several weeks. It is not finished, it is not perfect, but if I wait until it ticks those two boxes I'll be a REALLY old lady and I just don't have that sort of time. So here it is in its imperfect glory...
I have gnashed many teeth and stamped many feet in birthing this baby. I have never used Wordpress before (and the relationship is still strained) and I have certainly never had an ecommerce site or integrated PayPal. I have pushed myself to the limits of my knowledge of Adobe Illustrator and then crashed through. I have learned how to set up, create and upload print-ready artwork from my own original drawings. And I have turned down two paying jobs because they would have taken me away from this task to which I am committed. For someone who hates dealing in uncertainties I have deliberately pushed myself out the door of my comfort zone and locked it behind me. Dr John Demartini says that a person grows most in that place between comfort and discomfort... which, if it is true, means that I have been growing like a freakin weed lately!
The site is far from finished and so far has only two products - well one actually because they are a physical and a digital version of the same thing. I haven't yet worked out how to include an optin page nor given any thought to my offering or my call to action. I know I will include reviews and links to other products but I haven't had time to sort out any affiliate programs yet. I have a whole bunch of freebies to include once I work out how to upload them and integrate them into my optin process. I have to write and stockpile enough blog posts to last the next six months so I am free to create another 300-odd original designs to go in my next nine book titles. I need to watch more videos on keywords and SEO because I'm sure my site is all but invisible at the moment.
And I figure if I strap a broom to my back I can sweep the floor at the same time.
1.22am. My new bedtime. GMG out.
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Hi there Gayle
You've learned and done so much that you deserve a big pat on the back, as well as a gorgeous Man Friday to come along and sweep your floor for you ;-)
I've had a quick look at your site and there's a few little things I noticed that you could do in not much time at all.....
At the bottom of your home and about me pages you should have a call to action phrase for people to leave you comments and the comments box and comments clearly visible to readers at the bottom....you can have the comments so they read as most recent first or last.
You should change the order of your pages so that they read myaccount/shop/cart/review/checkout from left to right so that they flow sequentially.
You should remove the Privacy Policy tab from the top menu and either just leave on at the bottom or hide it under another tab, the about me one perhaps, so that it only appears when somebody hovers over it.
Within the Privacy Policy text, I don't think that email address works....it should be something like info@colourmyday.com.au
You should consider having a site map on a separate page and make sure it is showing on your top menu.
That should be enough to contend with for now, hope you don't mind me giving you a couple of pointers. If you're not sure how to do those things, ask the question in the q box at the top of your profile page or drop me a pm and I'll go through them with you.
All in all a great start, I love your simple yet catchy domain name and I think you'll do very well.
Mark
Mark thank you SO much for the above feedback. It is like gold! At this stage I am like someone in the spin cycle of a washing machine - only coming up for air now and then and basically not having a clue which direction I'm facing most of the time. :-) I have to say, though, that it's becoming a little more familiar every day. It's sort of like learning a new language. I figure I'll wake up one day and suddenly be able to understand what everyone's talking about! In the meantime I'll go through each of your suggestions and action them one by one. I've found that's the best way to tackle an enormous job. If it looks too hard one simply never begins.
My next step is to optimise my site. The whole point of the training on WA is about using keywords, optimising our sites and attracting the most visitors and while I understand little bits of it quite well, when it comes to having a global understanding I'm still lost. I am enormously grateful to people like yourself for offering help so generously.
Thanks again Mark - talk again soon! :-)
Gayle, what gives me such tremendous satisfaction is seeing somebody like yourself, with your enthusiasm, taking on new things and giving it all they've got.
I'm very happy to help whenever needed and to the extent of my ability (that's not very far to be fair, hahaha).
Any time you need help with any of the stuff I talked about, just come back to me...no sweat!!
Mark
Hey again Mark - just wanted to let you know that I used your suggestions like a To Do list and am ticking them off one by one. Some of the tasks I was able to do easily but I'm still trying to figure out the Call to Action thing and the site map. I am also anxious to get an opt-in box seeing as "it's all in the list" and mine is currently non-existent! Will sit down with some more of Kyle's videos and smack this brain into awakeness.
Way to go Gayle........have a great and productive weekend.
Mark