Effective websites, on the other hand–websites that transform frazzled strangers into interested prospects, prospects into customers, and finally, customers into raving fans–websites like these are far more rare. And as for effective websites built on impossibly small budgets?

They’re only slightly more common than four-leaf clovers growing on the dark side of a blue moon.

But not due to a lack of funds.

The fact is, most websites, regardless of budget, fail to perform because the people who created them skipped the three important tasks covered in this article, and instead, jumped straight into defining how they want their website to look.

Unfortunately, as most people end up learning the hard way, appearance isn’t nearly as crucial to your website’s success as:

• WHY the website needs to exist in the first place,
• HOW the message transmitted by the website differs from similar companies and providers in the market (e.g. the values, principles, and culture unique to your business), and
• WHAT functionality the website needs to perform on behalf of your business and the people who visit it.

Only after answering these questions should you concern yourself with details like appearance or navigation. While these components are very important (and we’ll be addressing them at length in future articles), they are layers comprising your website which should serve to amplify the core purpose and message of your business. Otherwise they are merely decoration without substance.

Understanding WHY?

Simon Sinek, in the TED-talk “Start With Why?” (named after his book of the same title) says that:

People don’t buy what you do, they buy WHY you do it. ~Simon Sinek

This “WHY” is your business’s reason for being. And since your website is a digitized representation of your business–an online avatar representing you and your team–your WHY? validates the existence of your website, too.

Defining HOW?

To Simon’s insightful quote above, I would only add that:

People don’t come back for what you do, they come back for HOW you do it.

Today customers want your business to do more than just solve their problem. They want to feel a connection with the people behind your business. They want to feel like their values and principles are reflected in the people who make the products they purchase and who deliver the services they enjoy. Your customers want their lifestyle and their possessions to affirm their identity and to validate what they believe about the world.

This requires that your products and/or services are consciously created in response to your business’s WHY? and that these products / services are shaped by your business’s HOW? Only then will the WHAT? even matter to potential customers.

Which means the creation of your website must also be guided by your unique WHY?, HOW?, and (only then) WHAT?

Tools & Resources

I created the tool below to guide you through the process of identifying your WHY? HOW? and WHAT? The WHY? and the HOW? are by far the most important. The WHAT? is meant to be very generic at this stage; it’s purpose is to ensure that the software we use to manage the website (covered in later articles) is adequate for the required functionality.

There’s a mind-map version in iThoughtsHD format for those of you who (like me) enjoy working on an iPad. I’ve also included a version for the popular XMind mind-mapping software, which runs on any platform and is free of charge. There’s also a plain-text, Markdown formatted version suitable for opening in a text editor or word processor, and finally, an OPML version for use in outlining software, or the many productivity tools that can import OPML:

Download The WHY? HOW? & WHAT? of Your Website

• iThoughtsHD for iPad version | with example data
• XMind mind-mapping for OSX, Windows, or Linux version | with example data
• Markdown / plain-text version | with example data
• OPML version | with example data

Below you’ll find an example of the results of this exercise, as provided by a small businesses owner in the koi pond & aquarium installation and maintenance business.

(Note: the responses have been edited for clarity and style, while preserving all the meaning and intent of the original. Also, the exercise is best carried out via a mind-mapping tool running on an iPad or other touch-screen devise. Pen and paper work fine, too, but mind-maps, unlike the backs of napkins, allow for easier manipulation of the prompts and answers–as well as the ability to export in multiple formats automatically.)

A Guided Questionnaire For Defining Your Website’s WHY? HOW? & WHAT?

WHY?

Q: Who and what does your business care about and why?

A: As a koi pond installation and maintenance business owner, I care about koi and other species of domesticated fish, and the homeowners who are drawn to take care of them and who want to incorporate koi in the surroundings. I care about koi and koi ponds because, not only are they beautiful, but they introduce a living, breathing, moving animal into an otherwise static yard or landscape. These fish also depend on their owners for food and protection, and so they are more than just a static “water feature,” but also, companions that remind us of the preciousness of life. Having derived so much enjoyment from koi, as well as having reaped the calming effects and serenity of koi ponds, it is natural for me to want to share this pastime with others of like mind. I also want to provide the happiest, healthiest environments possible for these special, long-lived fish and to do that I need to assist as many koi pond owners as possible with the cleanliness and maintenance of the ponds where their water loving pets live.

Q: What human endeavor or aspect of modern life matters to you / your business so much that it’s worth supporting in favor of other alternatives? Why?

A: Of all the labor intensive businesses that cater to homeowners that I feel qualified to run and manage, I chose a landscaping niche because I enjoy working outdoors and working with my hands. I chose to work with koi and koi ponds in favor of other landscaping work because I’ve enjoyed keeping fish since I was a child. I find it very satisfying when, over time, fish, lilies, and the other fauna and flora growing in a pond start to mature and to become a part of the landscape and local ecosystem. When plants die, they are simply dug out, composted, and replanted. But when a fish passes, especially a large koi, there’s a true sense of loss. Conversely, when it’s alive there’s also a real sense of responsibility experience by the owner, and me, the caretaker.

HOW?

Q: Among the people / businesses who provide products / services / experiences similar to yours, what values / principles do you prioritize more than they do? and how do these values / principles influence your product / service / customer experience in a meaningful way?

A: Among other landscaping and koi pond installation and maintenance businesses, we pride ourselves in prioritizing cleanliness above all else: a clean pond, clear equipment, clean workers, and a clean appearance. When everything inside a pond and that comes into contact with a pond is clean, it helps to ensure that everything is, and stays, healthy and beautiful. In addition to cleanliness, and as a way of promoting it, my business values hard work and communication. By communicating effectively with homeowners by business builds relationships, which makes it easier to share essential koi care and feeding knowledge, to recommend supplies, and to work together to provide a beautiful and healthy home for their wonderful fish who depend on us.

WHAT?

Q: What kinds of functions will the website need to perform?

• website will act primarily as a personal bio / business brochure that encourages visitor / prospect initiated contact or request for more information

• website will collect contact information for later follow up

• website will feature a portfolio showcasing past work / completed projects / successful events

• website will collect email addresses for an auto-responder series or newsletter

• website will collect phone numbers for individual callback by a human being / company representative

• website will feature content written specifically to rank for niche-relevant search phrases / keywords

• website will feature temporally relevant, frequently updated, newsworthy articles / blog posts

• website will feature educational, inspirational, or entertaining content

• website will feature text based articles / resources
• website will feature image based content
• website will feature mixed-media content

While these answers won’t necessarily end up on his business’s website verbatim, it shouldn’t be difficult to see how they will influence and shape every single piece of content and functionality that does.

Stay tuned for Part Three of this series! We’ll learn how to align the objectives of a customer with the objectives of a business in order to generate, prioritize, and sequence the content that will form the backbone of an effective website.

I’m not going to name the organization, because I haven’t gotten permission to mention my affiliation with them on this blog, and their specific identity doesn’t really matter, anyway. What does matter, is that it’s brought me into contact with a large number of small business owners who:

• desperately need an effective website and online presence,
• don’t have much of a budget,
• and are, in most cases, not very tech or web savvy.

These constraints alone are forcing me to be pretty creative in the solutions I’m able to recommend. Add to that the challenge of seeing up to six or seven clients a day, back-to-back, for only an hour-at-a-time, and very quickly you realize that many web industry best practices just aren’t an option–if for no other reason than there’s just not enough time to implement them for these business owners.

Spacing things out isn’t really ideal, either, because many of these clients are running out of cash, seeking loans, or coordinating with other vendors. If a typical site design process takes, say, eight hours to work through (and I’m pulling this rather conservative number out of the dark recesses of my nether regions), then clients who can only meet with me one day per week would have to invest two months just to end up with a set of actionable planning documents to guide the development of their website.

In the words of modern day knight errant, Jack Reacher: “That’s no kind of an option.” Especially since the grant that’s helping fund these consulting hours requires that we make significant progress on the revenue generating front for the businesses we serve.

…which is tough when their website either doesn’t exist, or doesn’t compare favorably to their competitors’ sites.

While there’s no shortage of website planning guides and tutorials available online, none of them are going to be of much use given these constraints. Trust me. I already checked.

So, with no “by the grace of Google option available,” that leaves me to create one from scratch.

Hence, this series of 8-10 articles on planning and building an effective website, on an impossible budget, with no programming or significant tech savvy required.

Now, because following along over the course of 6-8 articles will require a bit of a commitment, and I value your time, please take a moment to clarify exactly what you can expect to get out of this series before you dive in.

What This Series Provides

1. A simple way to think about and understand the major components that go into an effective website that doesn’t require an advanced degree in astrophysics or anti-climactic sub-temporal geo thermal hydro forming. (Think: “layers.” Like peeling an onion, only no tears.)
2. Exercises and worksheets that, when completed, will yield an actionable planning kit to guide the implementation of a website you won’t be embarrassed to send traffic to.
3. Specific recommendations, guidance, and strong opinions about which tools and technologies should be used to host and manage a website, and why these tools and technologies are superior to the crap often marketed to small business owners by large corporations with an agenda.
4. Warnings and timely “heads-up” reminders about often over-looked aspects of building and managing a website. Because doing stuff over is no fun.
5. Guidance on how to effectively (and affordably) interact with a web designer or developer should you need a little help implementing your website.

Who This Is For

First off, who it’s not for: if you have $5-10K+ to invest in a professionally designed website, or if you’ve already established a trusting relationship with a top-tier web professional or design firm, then this series isn’t for you.

(Then again, by reading through this guide you might discover that the web pros you thought were hot shit, aren’t, which is better than finding out after you’ve paid them.)

Likewise, if you are a top-tier web professional, or work for a web design firm, you probably know most of what I’ll cover in this series (and you’ll probably have your own, quite possibly more refined approach).

Instead, this guide is meant for someone who:

• would love to hire a top-notch agency to build or redesign their website, but doesn’t have the necessary budget

• has at least some money to invest in a website, but has to make the most of it

• and who needs an effective, full-featured website that, may not win any awards, but won’t embarrass them, either.
• (or someone, like me, responsible for helping people build quality websites–especially in the role of consultant)

Someone like a small business owner. Or a professional service provider, like an accountant or therapist.

(And because I’ve been accussed of being a little too “abstract” at times [guilty], I’m going to include examples drawn from the businesses of actual clients I’m meeting with, in order to better illustrate key points.)

I should point out that my favorite people in the entire world: authors, artists, and indie-creatives–will also find this series useful–but in order to keep things simple, and my word count as low as possible, I’ll be using more business vocabulary than usual for a Wordslinger resource, and most of the examples will feature business owners and people focused on selling a product. Hopefully that won’t scare anyone off who could benefit.

This guide also assumes that you want a website that you can update with new content and make simple changes to without needing to touch the underlying code or having to hire a programmer. (I mean, if you could afford to hire a programmer, then your budget wouldn’t be “impossible,” now would it? Nay! It would be, what we call in the business: ample.)

Next Time…

In Part Two I’ll cover:

• the importance of “STARTING WITH WHY,”
• how to indentify the explicit values that define and distinguish your business on the web,
• and how to quickly nail down the functionality required by your website so you can pick the simplest tools available that will still get the job done.

Plus: the little-known tool that puts the backs-of-napkins to shame.

1. Master the skills and technologies involved in the field of web design — fun stuff like HTML, CSS, Javascript, Photoshop, PHP, MySQL, Ruby On Rails, and the like — then go build your website.

2. Hire a reputable web professional to build your website. By far the best option, if you can afford it, as it will spare you countless hours and innumerable headaches, freeing up more time for you to write.

3. Do-It-Yourself by building your website on top of a low cost, user friendly, professionally designed platform that’s secure, point-and-click simple to customize & maintain, and tailored to the specific needs of a writer.

Participants in this workshop will experience Number Three first hand, in real-time. Instructor and SCWC Webmaster Jeremy Lee James (that’s me) will walk you through the process step-by-step, answering questions and helping you improve your website on the spot.

“Holy Hemingway, Batman! How Will This Work?”

Participants will need to sign-up for the Word(slinger)Press Writer’s Website + Web Hosting package at WriteClickHosting.com .

SCWC Exclusive: While normally this packaged service starts at $20 per month, Jeremy has agreed to let SD26 conferees test drive it for 50% off your first month’s hosting. Don’t like it, after the first month cancel your account with no further financial obligation. If you do like your new website — and we suspect you will — just pay the monthly hosting fee and you’re all set. The SCWC has no financial interest in this service either way.

If you’d like Jeremy to help work on your website during the workshop, you will need to bring a laptop with WiFi in order to connect to the internet. This is a rare opportunity to get a professional to work on your site at no extra cost (Jeremy’s consulting rates are $100 an hour).

For more information, please refer to the Southern California Writers’ Conference Website.

Lisa Angle of Ninety Degrees Media was kind enough to film and edit this video of the New Media Panel at the recent Santa Barbara, CA Writers Conference.

Marla Miller was the host, with panelists: Justine Musk of Tribal Writer, Philippa Burgess, and yours truly, Jeremy Lee James of Write Click Hosting.

Feedback is welcome. More updates coming soon.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Not only am I friendly, but I love helping fellow writers. So don’t be shy!

• identify and destroy small-return bullshit;
• shut off anything that’s noisier than it is useful;
• make brutally fast decisions about what I don’t need to be doing;
• avoid anything that feels like fake sincerity (esp. where it may touch money);
• demand personal focus on making good things;
• put a handful of real people near the center of everything.

All I know right now is that I want to do all of it better. Everything better. Better, better.” ~ Merlin Mann

Well said. I concur. Cheers! To “Better.”

Posted via email from Smoke Signals

Posted via email from Smoke Signals

So, so true.