It’s fun to build a website!
… But also it can be a real time-sucker. If you have decided to build a website yourself, then keep reading to learn how to avoid the 3 most time-wasting mistakes.
If you read the first blog post in this series, you already:
- Understand the purpose of your website
- Have clarity on your content for at least the homepage and the about page
- Made a careful choice who gets to build your website
Still, a bit confused about what your website needs to truly engage your visitors? Clarity will get you on the right track from the beginning, so sign up for your freebie below where I explain it all:
Many new business owners try to build a website on their own… and they’ve told me their journey :). Here a collection of advice from their website building experience to help you save time and not turn your website project into a stressful version of “The NeverEnding Story”:
Mistake 1: Not breaking it down to manageable pieces
To build a website is a large project. Besides learning a lot of completely new techy stuff, you also have to learn how to write a copy that makes your visitors hang on the edge of their seats (ideally 😉 ).
For most of us, all of this is a brand-new area. Nobody teaches you the technical part in school, and the way we learned to write was the “proper way”, and not for the web. Writing for the web is much more personal and informal.
TIP: Make a time-plan, and do a bit every day! (Without getting too distracted from what you are supposed to do in your business)
Mistake 2: Trying to build your website all on your own
Ask an expert when you’re stuck! And do it before spending 5 hours (or days!) trying to figure something out (only to find out you don’t really like the result…). An expert might be able to show you or do it for you in 5 minutes. No kidding.
You might be familiar with this:
- Wasting hours and days playing with settings and new weird code language
- Spending non-quality time with Google to try to find answers and searching numerous forums for help
- Trying to learn tech vocabulary that seems only to be explained by even more tech vocabulary
Free resource: Website vocabulary for the clueless
TIP: Ask! You can do it! 😉
Mistake 3: Make it perfect before launch
This is a challenge, especially for us ladies. We over-prepare and never feel ready. It can be hard to get around, but one strategy is to prioritize preparing the parts of your website that matter most to your potential clients:
- A homepage that grabs their attention
- An about page that makes them like you, and feels that you are the person to help them
- A way to contact you
Since the attention span online is very short most website visitors don’t read through every piece of content you have, so the remaining bits and pieces, like the task of adding the smaller details of your services, your blog, your perfect design and images you can prepare in parallel with the more important task of looking for your first clients.
The truth is that you might want to change much of this information later anyway. As you get your first clients and learn first-hand what is most important to them, and what they need, you will most probably keep tweaking your content to adapt to “real-life client” (vs. the “imaginary client” before you get started).
TIP: Get over it! Yes, you can start looking for clients without a perfectionist perfect website.
If all the time people spend on their website was actually spent on looking for paying clients… They would be rich by now. (Ok, maybe not rich, but at least making a living off their business 🙂 )
What’s your story? Did you try to build your website yourself? What advice can you give to other brave website beginners? Let me know in the comments below.
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