The Client Who Wished For A Great Site

The Story Begins

Once upon a time,... actually pretty recently, a client reached out to me with the request to help him build a website that he had wanted to launch for several years but with the pace of his business and a lack of certainty about the total vision of it, he had basically just never got around to it. Sound familiar?

At one point he had hired someone to begin creating it for him but with very little direction on content and what the site should show, this contractor was unable to accomplish much and the site never was completed. When he began talking to me about the idea he seemed to be dispassionate about it, in large because he no longer was even sure that it could happen. Again, sound familiar?

In my experience, clients often don't know exactly what they want, this is normal and doesn't indicate anything negative about their person or business. The day-to-day operation of a company and the myriad of responsibilities that come along with it take priority and often times dreams, such as having a great website to promote the company, just fall into the category of 'someday'. That is the pain point.

The happy ending to a persistent problem

I am a huge enthusiast when it comes to challenges, in some odd way I enjoy the painful process of solving complex problems. Yep, I am strange like that! But it is what makes me really good at what I do. There's a process to the madness of solving unsolvable problems, it starts with listening and observing. So, with this client I began a short but intensive behind-the-scenes process of evaluating him and his business to the core.

Everything was important, personality type, industry, years of experience, target market, manner of speaking (your small business reflects this, think of the name you chose-that's YOUR words, you speaking!) Within a few short conversations and emails I had discerned what his dream was, even though he had not yet realized it in it's entirety. That's just what I do :) Starting with that I began planning content for his site. See my article- Helpful Tips To Get Started Building A Website
After I felt that I had reached a good level to begin with on content I started searching for the perfect theme (a theme is sort of a 'skin' that your website wears. It's what it looks like to viewers). After sorting through 5 or 6 themes I found the one that could be molded to represent his company perfectly. Then came the plug-ins and analytic tools. Finally, I was down to  the presentation stage and just needed to create a great logo for him. Done and Done!

Presentation went great, he was passionate again about the possibilities and after a few edits to content we completed the project! You don't have to know exactly what you want in order to get started. Dreams often start off in a fuzzy kind of way. Your iAdmin is here to learn what you want and get it done.

Sub Note:

Logos are absolutely important! People remember in images and attached ideas. You DO WANT an outstanding logo, even if it is just for business cards & letterhead & not your site. Here is the one I created for my company:

 

Disclaimer-I have permission from my client in this case to share his story

Helpful Tips To Get Started Building A Website

This is a process that you, as the client, can be as involved in, or not, as you like.

1. Web Hosting- in simple terms web hosting is the 'place' where your website resides and the server that supports it online. My personal favorite for being user friendly and affordable is HostGator.com
2. Domain Name- This is what your website will be called in the address bar and how people will find you. Example-my Domain name is iadmin4youandmore.com , you will want this to be easy to remember and as short as possible. There are steps to make sure that the domain name you want is available and once you own it, no one can use the same one. Read more on owning domain names here The Power Of Owning Your Own Domain
3. Content Planning- This is the stage that many people get stuck on. What do you want to say to your customers/clients? How much or little do they need to be entertained? Yes, really. Do you want everything to be public or should some of it be only accessible to registered users? NOTE-if you are already getting a headache thinking about this STOP and contact me now, I can handle everything!
4. Choosing a theme- this is fairly simple yet extremely important! The right theme gives the correct message, the wrong one and you end up looking junky or geared towards the wrong market.
5. SEO (Search Engine Optimizer)- in simple English an SEO works (or doesn't) according to how you use it. The biggest one out there is Google but you want to be found in all search engines like Bing, Yahoo and others too. Keywords are KEY! Without keywords in your site you could search until the sun turns gray and never find yourself online. Let me help with this! There are multiple ways to insert keywords in your site using categories, keywords, tags, slugs and, of course, plug-ins.
6. Customize Your theme- I actually do this as I go and not as a last step but if you are building a site by yourself this can be viewed as icing on the cake. Customizing is basically tweaking anything that you would like to appear differently and adding little changes that make the site speak more to your business. This can be adding a logo, changing menus, inserting images, etc.

Finally, Rather you choose to do this alone or with the expert help of your iadmin (ME!) try to keep in mind that this is an exciting adventure into a new territory, filled with possibility for growth and sustenance of your business. Have fun with it!