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Compile Brand Inspiration and Make a Great First Impression

Ladies and we are into set lesson six compile brand inspiration and make a great first impression in the previous lesson the psychology of marketing a k a what works and what doesn't we talked about building trust with consistency and how important that is the power of reciprocity in scarcity the questions you should ask to get high quality testimonials that do the selling for you so that one was a really important one now we're moving on to something that is also very important which is making a great first impression the objective is to compile brand inspiration determined whether or not your website is effective and how to change it if it isn't and start to change your online and offline presence so that it's visually consistent what you'll learn why you should compile brand inspiration and how to use it without copying because nobody wants to be the copycat easy immediate ways to improve your websites appearance examples of well design websites and why they work so well so that you...

can take those ideas and then apply them to your website the difference between a designer and developer and the do's and don'ts of hiring a website designer get lots of questions on this as if I am like the expert on hiring website designers I'm not I have worked with a few though however so I'm going to tell you from experience what I have found to be the do's and don'ts and the number one was st creative entrepreneurs make with their websites now here is the deal if you do not have a visually appealing website, then you're losing potential customers every single day and we're not exactly sure how many customers but probably a lot you might be losing hundreds or thousands of dollars worth of sales truly I have worked with lots of creative entrepreneurs and they come to me and they have this great product or service and I get really excited and they're saying nothing is working I have no sales I don't know what's going on and I look at their stuff and sometimes if it's a product based business sometimes it's the product photos that really are just not doing it justice whatsoever but often times it's the website the website is an issue and nobody trusts this brand because the website isn't that great and here's the thing lots of us don't know this stuff we don't know how to build a website it's really tricky everybody who has tried building their own website knows that it can become a really big pain in the butt really fast and you compress one or two buttons and then everything ends up looking crazy and so it's really hard I don't blame anybody who has a web site that doesn't look that great, but if you don't change it then you're not going to get anywhere and if you don't know what to look for when hiring someone to design or code your website, you could end up hiring the wrong person and wasting money, and if you're making the number one mistake entrepreneurs make with their websites, in my opinion, then you could be losing a lot of trust and credibility and trust and credibility are pretty much everything so let's start off by thinking about what brands do you want to be grouped with? What groups would what brands would you want to be mentioned with? And it does not have to be a competitor if somebody were to say, blacksburg bell, blacksburg bell is kind of like this, or has a feeling like this, what kind of brands would you want to be mentioned with, or even with competitors? If somebody were to say, for chris, somebody were to say this blogging bootcamp, you've got to take it toe, learn blogging you should get chris is bogging boot camp, so and so's this so and so's this and so and so's this who were those so and sos that you would want to be mentioned with? This is all in your this isn't your workbook on page fifty four, so I want you to think about what brands you want to be mentioned within group with and that information is critical because you want your website to be is nice as these other websites to get mentioned with these other brands you often have to elevate yourself because these air often dreamed dream brands like I would love to be mentioned with this brand in this brand in the sprint and it also gets you thinking about I should go check out their web sites and see what they're doing potentially use some of those ideas were going to talk about how to do that without copying. What do you guys think about? Have you ever mentioned me alongside another brand or if you were, are there any brands that come to mind that you would necessarily mentioned in the same sentence? I'm just going to say I think you cover so many different things that for me I'm like you're my go to person that I don't meant anew with anybody else you just your it's you so I love that I would mention you with creative life yeah or that that's a good point that's an awesome point yes terraced okay, yeah, I can see that my yes my absolutely my carly's from heart need blawg absolutely yeah and that makes me happy to be mentioned with any of those france that's exciting for me forty six point one percent of people say websites design is the number one criterion for discerning the credibility of the company my heart beat a little bit this's scary, right? Yeah, I read this and I was like, I need a redesign a sap I am at that point where I feel like I have outgrown my web site and I need a new one now that's my next staying on the checklist after creative live next it's going to be a new design it's gotten me really far and I've loved it for such a long time but we outgrow these things but yes, most people say a lot of people say it's the number one criterion for telling whether or not because if somebody comes to your website things aren't working it doesn't look quite right are they gonna go to your shopping cart and give you their credit card information? Do it, which means you're gonna lose sales and not really stinks especially when you're incredible business you just don't know how to design a website very well first impressions are critical, so I want to know what kind of first impression are you making with your website? What kind of first impression do you think you're making with your website? Jot it down, jotted down in your workbook and know that you've got five seconds to make a good first impression, so don't screw it up he's your son but not very one of the things you khun dio when you're watching at home is linked to your website in the private facebook group and ask for first impressions because often which I found to be very interesting we often think differently than what other people think when they get to our websites they pick out something else or they see something else that we don't necessarily even see anymore because we've been looking at our web sight day after day forever and ever and they see that one thing that other people are seeing that doesn't look very good and that if you switch it around it could be helpful. So go in the private facebook group put in your link and asked for feedback say what's the first impression you get with my website that is that can be so so, so helpful and it's free because you're the coolest private facebook group ever. All right, does everybody have their first impressions? I want to know from christine I want to know what you think you're the first impressions are for your website um I think bye website comes across as, uh a graphic design portfolio so it doesn't out of doesn't tell you immediately that I have a shop and I have products because you see and it's like, oh here's some projects that you know it's, a graphic designer and it's not really someone woz who sells okay, so now everybody else I want you guys to tell me what's your first impression of christine's website above the fold this is above the fold it's awesome, right? I mean it's really it's really a good website. However, I I do understand what you're saying, it's not quite quite clear that you sell stamps to me even though the stamps were there. I feel like it's because you're decorating something, so I think it's the photo? I think if you changed out the photo, if it would give off the same impression, but the impression that you want to get off, what do you guys think? I think it's beautiful, I like to see you. Yeah, I get the same impression that that you mentioned, but I think that where you say that you're a designer and you don't mention that year selling these products, I do love thee, often powered by caffeine and impromptu adventures, I love the line, I'm a designer letter memory keeper, frequent flyer often powered by caffeine and impromptu adventures. I love that line so much and I tell people all the time do not talk about yourselves first that is the wrong thing to do. However, there are exceptions to every rule and I feel like this is one of them because one it's really great it captured my attention and it breaks the pattern I'm not expecting to see something like that and it probably talks to it doesn't just talk about you like this is one of those things where on your ideal one of your ideal people right? And I'm all kinds of power by caffeine and impromptu adventures so you're talking about me and that's even more powerful because it's like I we have so much in common we're connected now you get me get you yeah yeah so I think if you switched out the image and maybe even added something to the top sentence it would give the impression that you want to give up however I think this is an amazing start I would go to your website and I would buy from you I think it looks very professional but in a not boring way okay, so cindy, what did you write down for this so and what first impression do you think they're what's jacobs I wrote down happy fun, playful, bright happy fun and laughter just more feelings because what I do comes from my feelings of doing arts yeah, yeah enough I was expecting those types of answer so you're right on track. All right? You guys tell us what are your first impressions of cindy's web site inviting? I feel very like welcome in her space almost like you're going to come over to her house right and craft with her pleas e I do I want to tell like a play I I want to jump into that picture. Yeah, yeah need to anybody else anything different? Tad so I think you are giving off the right first impression. Good, thanks, guy. So let's talk about how to get inspired without copying. You never, ever, ever want to look like another brand or kick confused with another brand? And not just because you don't want to copy another brand because I mean that that's its own issue right there. But when you're getting confused with other brands, let's never a good thing for your business, so you never want that, especially for yourself, like copying isn't cool let's not do it, but really it's not good for your business, either. So what you want to dio is not just look at one or two or three brands for inspiration, because then you end up kind of looking like them. Instead, the magic happens when you're looking at a bunch. When you're looking at ten, fifteen, twenty five, I see if you can get to twenty five brands that you love their websites and you can pull pieces from them. You're going to create something so unique, that's very you, because it's hard when you're designing a website to come up with something off the top of your head because we're not website designers. It's very difficult to tell somebody okay I want this or this or this lots of times I hear from website designers what happens if somebody comes to them and they say I want so and so's website or I want a mix of this person in this person's website the problem with that is it doesn't work it doesn't work however if you say I like so and so's navigation bar I like so and so that like that color peach I really am and drop drawn to and then over here on this website this turquoise I think the two of them together would be really pretty and I love the way that this person has their side bar set up and I love how this person has a testimonial scrolling through right here if you do that you're going to create something very unique and it's not going to look like you copy to anybody. So that is the magic of getting inspired by lots of brands. So on page fifty six start making a list of brands that inspire you visually with their websites or even their visual presence on social media doesn't even have to be necessarily about their website. You can get a lot of inspiration from going to a really pretty pinterest board or their instagram account and thinking about what do I really love about this what I really love about this you want to pick out what you love about each of them so that you can combine to make something unique and you're going to keep trying to make a list of this overtime. You don't have to make a list of everything right now, something that you can do after the lesson because it's helpful to be able to be at a computer and and look through and scroll through and look at different things. So let's talk about easy ways to improve your web site. The first one is to pick a clean, simple theme or design or template, whatever, whatever you call it or whatever your platform calls it, if you're not a designer, the worst mistake you can make us pick something that is crazy and that has all these moving parts that you have to then figure out how to work and put together if you are not hiring a designer, which lots of people in the very beginning, when they think about dropping three thousand dollars on a website design, it makes them feel like they shouldn't just not even start a business. If that's you and you need to do your own website, just stay simple and clean and you'll be okay eventually you'll grow and you'll probably want to hire a website designer and get something custom made, but if you stay with simple and clean, you'll be okay. Pick a theme that best matches the feel you're going for think about how do I want people to feel when they land on my website, we're bringing it back to the feelings, the feelings that you're creating, pick two or three fonts and colors and stick with them that makes everything feel consistent. It pulls everything together, gives it a professional feel without being professionally designed and make sure it's obvious what you dio, how you can help what you have to offer. Someone should be able to get a good idea of what your brand is about within five seconds landing on your site. Yes, no, and if they can, they're more likely to stick around if they can't, they're more likely to just leave even if it is your person. But if they're if they get the feeling that this is the right site, they'll stick around. Make sure it's clear how to navigate your website, clear navigation bar or if you don't have a navigation bar and people are just scrolling down, just make sure it's clear how people can get teo different things, get rid of clutter. If you're not a website designer, get rid of everything that does not need to be there that in and of itself will make it look so much better. Make use of white space it is your friend and if you can invest yet in a website something that can make your website look really nice is investing in professional photography getting a couple of head shots of yourself that air professionally done can make a huge difference design each page as if it's the on ly page someone has seen this is another really big with steak is that you're expecting people to land on your home page or you're welcome page and then navigate through your sight but you don't know where people are coming from there are people all over the internet linking two different pages on your website and so you want to make sure that each one is clear and is welcoming and is understandable if it's the first time somebody's getting to your site now I'm a well I'm a wordpress website kind of girl I love wordpress I've been using wordpress for over eight years I recommend it all the time and one of the main reasons is because you can pretty much do everything with it some platforms don't allow youto have an e commerce peace to your business you can't tell your own product some platforms you can't add a membership site and you might think well I don't want a membership site but what about down the line? If you do, then you have to move everything and it's a pain also one of the things I love about word presses that yu can install sub domains and so all of my courses and all of my membership sites are installed on sub domains they're not on separate sites which makes it really easy for me to set that stuff up so those are the reasons I really love wordpress over other things now again, people have different preferences so it's okay, if you like something else or you want to be on something else this is just my opinion and why I love it so I will show you uh a few examples of themes that are the type type of theme I'm talking about that you can use for your website if you're not a designer this is one from angie makes I love her themes I really really love her things and this is carraway and it's easy to go in and you plug in your own stuff and you put your own picture here and then you've got a simple clean website this is another one I picked because I thought this works well with creative entrepreneurs it's called emma daisy all of these air from angie makes just because I thought I would keep it simple and keep it the same brand and then one more this is one of my favorites the kinsey I think because it's got the watercolor I love it so much so use something like this that's already made for you, it's already been built for you. You just go in and plug in your information and it makes it easier. And then when you need custom things down the line, you can do custom things. Now often, if you really have big goals, big business goals, big monetary goals, you're probably going to need a customized website. One of these is not going to necessarily take you to the point where you want to go, but you got to start somewhere. All right? We have an example here of patty patty's example, and this is an example of how she has changed her logo and the header of her website here. And actually, amanda creek gave her some tips on what to do and how to change it. So amanda, will you share with us what you talked to her about? Sure, uh, before when I first saw patty's website, I saw that she kind of didn't really have a logo at all. She actually told me today that she called it the unload go. She named the file the unlucky on and I thought that was really funny because really, it's, just, you know, text on the page, there's, no. Styling to it all so when people would come to the page, I would imagine that they would just kind of gloss over it. And so when I was talking to her, I was thinking about for me like when I go into a bookstore and I'm looking at books, I actually pick up the books based on their cover and I think a lot of people dio because that's what grabs our attention right away so something has to draw you in and when they're looking at your logo and there's nothing there there's no branding there's no message than it kind of just fades away, you don't even see a message they're so with her I told her, you know, she needed to bring in some color she needed teo kind of to the direction with her brand altogether because there was nothing there, so we talked about it a little bit and she brought some colors to me and she had a ton of colors that we tried to narrow them down so that she doesn't have too many so it wouldn't be overwhelming and then we decided tio chew some elements toe add in there that airs and graphic elements and at first we were talking about what she wanted and she wanted to put in a bunny rabbit and we decided that maybe that's more of something that she could put in somewhere else in her products or something like that rather than in her logo because it didn't really make sense so we wanted to make it clear and not really compete with she has a mme dogs that she makes scarves and things for and what you want tokyo they're very cute and we didn't want the bunny rabbit to compete with the dogs on the websites, so she chose a few little cute see elements that kind of give that handmade type aspect and then we worked on how to draw people's eyes from one place of the logo to another and she actually made this logo herself based on I made her a little video of what she could dio and she took that and I thought, you know, this is possible so I can make something you know myself and she did a great job, I think yeah, yeah, I couldn't have done it without amanda and I was you talk about getting first impressions and so when we had our first meeting and she said, well, when I look at your sight, this is what I see and I was like, oh, well, that's not at all what I'm doing because she said, it looks like you're doing like high school senior photography and um she said, well, you know what guys there was here and and in my mind I'm going I I was trying to give her like a seasonal look with the three pictures um and then I was still confused because I was trying to do the photography and the knitting and it was like it's just too much pick something and go with that yeah that's what we did all right, I like that makes sense when you said senior photography yeah and I never saw that because you don't see it for yourself and it was like, wow, I never would have thought that said I wonder that's confusing to people and it's like you you mentioned something earlier about what I want to do all the colors and all the funds and oh yeah it's like I want to do it all so she really helped me to pull that back thank goodness for people like amanda yes, yes yeah, absolutely help yeah, it is much more clear and yeah, I love it. I think it looks in use. So here are some website tips that you may or may not have heard go back through your old block content and update links and calls to action. So lots of times at the end of our block posts we have people do something and sometimes it gets outdated you need to go back in and switch that stuff up because people are still going to your old block content and when that says something like for instance, I've had blood post that would say r s v p for build a successful creative block well, that was over a year ago, so that has to get switched up and changed so that people aren't confused when they're going back to your content, because then that also gives the impression that you're not you're not completely with it, you know, because things aren't always updated, linked to other block post within each block post, it helps to keep readers on your site, and it helps with s e l you want readers to stay around, so if you're linking to other things that make sense within each block post, it can really help increase the font size readability is a must so must often the font sizes too small that comes with whatever you've got going on and you need to increase it. We often think, oh, twelve point five will be fine, increase your font size a bit so that it makes it so that people can read or else they're gonna leave quicker because their eyes were going to be hurting and it looks like more overwhelming the tax looks more overwhelming. He used the squint test to make sure you're featuring the most important thing above the fold on your website, so whatever it is, you really want people to be concentrating on on your website when they get there stand back, squint a little bit and see if that is the main thing that pops out to you and a big logo wastes a lot of space on a website when you on ly have above the fold to make a first impression and you have a huge logo, it really detracts from everything else and it's often hard to tell what you d'oh especially if your logo isn't clear above the fold you gotta grab people's attention. So now I'm going to show you some web sites that I think work really well and why I think they work really well, we've got chris cars website and one of the things I say to people is don't have something huge at the top of the page this is one of the exceptions to the rules I wanted to share this because there are always exceptions to the rule. However, if you are going to make an exception to the rule, you need to get feedback from other people because just because you think it works well doesn't necessarily mean that it does so if you are making are you are breaking one of the rules of web site design get feedback chris cars what site works for so many reasons first, this photo of her is so inviting she's got her green juice she's in this truck and it makes you feel like you could be friends with her so having yourself on your website featured prominently can be a really great thing it makes people feel like they know you right away then her e mail opt in is right there and instead of saying something like submit it says hook me up personality details those things matter and then if you guys can see or not see there is a testimonial from oprah winfrey you got that that's all you need that's all you needed right there and it actually slides through she has won from dr oz she had I mean, she has a bunch of them and so she is really well known she's very successful and she is really good at what she does but she could have not featured the testimonial from oprah right there first thing on her website but why would you not? So if you get something really good from somebody that is a well known worldwide or just well known by your target market, it doesn't have to be somebody is biggest oprah put it on your website featurette the next one is nicole's classes I like this one because it's really simple and also it has a testimonial right at the top there I can't remember exactly how I stumbled upon this golden nugget of a website but my goodness I'd be nowhere near the place I am today without it using testimonials on your website makes you feel trustworthy immediately next up, we have hudson and bleaker, and they sell travel stuff like because magic cases, garment bags and jewelry cases, things like that. I just recently got a couple of things from them, and they're really fun brand, but this set up is not just their product, which I really like. I also really liked that about christine about the photo that you had the lifestyle kind of photo. I think it just needs to be switched around a bit, but that kind of photo works really well to draw people in where you're not just showing your product. This makes me feel like I want to take a trip, a weekend trip, and it gets me excited for travel, and I don't even really like to travel so that's pretty cool that it does that the next one is mai's website from heart made blawg, and her website works so well because she is an artist, an illustrator and her artwork is featured right there. Lots of times artists don't feature their work right away, which I think is silly when you're trying to bring people in and get the right to people em, so then she also has her opt in right there she's got a picture of herself, you want to get to know her, you want to hang out with her and she recently had a baby, and that was the block post that was up when I took this screenshot. So isn't that so adorable? The last one is marie for leo's website and her website works were for so many reasons she is the pro at this kind of staff, obviously so got to use her as an example. One she's got the picture of herself that's really inviting as well a lot there's lots of inviting pictures on these web site it's. Then she has an arrow pointing down to her often, so it immediately draws your eye in tow, opt in and get her thing. Then she's got her first block post here, but over she is featuring right away over here, her product, her latest product, and so that's something you can do as a service based business. Have your product or something going on that's recent in your business featured and then, of course, there's another there's, another oprah kind of testimonial right here, it's a picture of marie with oprah, and if so, if you have a picture with somebody who is really well known worldwide or within your target market, it can be good to use them on your website. Now we're going to show a couple of before pictures of tricia's website and amanda helped trish redesigned something's on her website and so I'm going to show you some before pictures and then I'm gonna invite amanda up and then we're gonna look at the after so this was the home page and she's got her jewelry here. This is the this is the design, your custom teeth page, home pages. This is the second. Ok, this is the welcome. Paige. Oh, welcome. Did you think trish? Okay, so tell that was confusing, right? That there were two home pages she didn't even know, actually, that she had two pages that showed up. So when I was looking through her website, I went to jules bye, trish dot com and that first lied that you showed came up, and then I was trying to go back to the home page, and I clicked on the welcome because that's, where the home page would be, and it came to this page, which that's what people would dio so she had basically to home pages, and she didn't even realize it was showing up like that. Well, when we're not well, we're not professionals at this. We don't realize that kind of stuff. Yeah, and then we've got her about paige, meet jules bye, trish, and then this is your design, your custom piece page, so these were people four shots and then amanda if you will come up and join me and we're gonna pull up tricia's website now we're gonna have the big reveal you guys it's gonna be so magical? Here we go this is the after look how beautiful isn't it so beautiful. Okay. Oh, so amanda, first walk us through what are some of the changes you made and why? Okay, the first thing I suggested was for her to actually send her jewelry to me in the mail so that we could get some product photos for her actually on a model because I think you know that's so important. So that's one of the first things that we did to make these images just kind of like pop out at you because she is a product based business if she doesn't have these images than you know, those little small ones weren't going to cut it, so we did that. That was the first thing on the home page. Okay, hold on time out for just a second. So, trish, we I know I had talked to you about featuring your jewelry because your jewelry look at look how gorgeous it looks. I mean, this is so beautiful and I had talked to you about that. What was the holdup with you being able to feature your jewellery and such a beautiful way on your website before without amanda um, well, the sliders are tricky for me because I had built the theme that I had started with actually was not a good thing for me. It was too complicated. The sliders are a problem coupled with myself being the photographer, it was hard to figure out the lighting, and I have a daughter. She could have been my model, but again, it was, um I guess, the self confidence to get out there and do it with my own camera with my own model, not really knowing what I was going to do. So that was a stalling point for may. Yeah, as with I think a lot of people would have this similar issue, and then I would have to edit, and I really don't enjoy editing. And that was good there's a whole package in there. Yeah. So it's easy just to keep it the way it a less okay. So another thing, her logo before she had this great thing in the background that I think kind of muddied it down and made it like you couldn't really see it that's one thing, and it was really big. I really, really think so. We kind of simplified that just by putting it up there by itself, without that great background, which looks amazing, I think that looks made itself just makes it it brings it kind of to a modern space whereas before it was kind of outdated type look exactly I love that point and then with her optima at the top she was trying to kota herself which props to you for trying to code it for you know a person who doesn't know what she's doing because you're not a designer or a developer than you know she did good for what she could dio but I actually suggested a plug in that she could use to make something really simply but also make it you look really beautiful can you tell us what the pluckiness it is? Um pop up ally by natalie lucy always want to say it wrong um but it's really a simple plug in to use it's really handy and you can put multiple if you get the pro version of it you can get multiple op tins in different places so you can have one of the top you could have won that pops up when you go to exit you can have one that comes up from the bottom there's a lot of options with it so I felt like it was not on ly good in terms of how it looked but also that it would give her flexibility within the rest of our website, so I suggested that and then if you school down we have down below her products we didn't put all of the products below like she had before we put just her recently added products below, so it'll just be the fresh ones that she just put in their into her shop. So that way, it's not like all of her products at once because when you scroll back to the top to wear her navigation bars, she has shop jewelry and she hasn't split up into categories. She has collections where you can go and you confined these different things that she makes, so why put them all on this home page and then have another place for you to click on them? It didn't make sense, so just kind of separating that and just having the recently posted one, so they always see the most recent stuff on the home page. So that's the main thing that we did on the home page, I also want to point out that amanda did this in one week's time one week most websites take months to create and so and when she says we this that she did, this is amanda, give yourself credit girl, all right? And then we also you also switched up the about mount doom you go to the about paige? She, um, had another picture that was so small that I I don't think you could even make out her features so she actually I I recommended take your daughter out or take somebody out with you and get some shots if you can't get a professional to do it. And so she did. She took her daughter out and her daughter took some pictures. She sent them to me so I could edit them. And then we put them on here. We would have such a pretty picture. It is. We would have made it even bigger, but it was a little bit blurry. So the bigger that you make it, the more blurry gets. So we just kept a little bit smaller. But we talked about april and I talked about maybe you getting some more. And we can make that picture bigger because it still seems a little small. So we did that. And then I I brought a new town. You take beautiful, beautiful. Thank you and she's very inviting her smile. So on this other side, she had her picture above, and then all the text below. So we put it into columns so that it's there's more of a flow to the page it's not like there's a picture than their text, then there's a picture than there's text, so having it side by side, it just brings things together and makes it less stagnant. So we also put some bolding to bring out some certain things that maybe will make people want teo just skim and read that part and then maybe go back and read more later then she gave me some more photos like this one in the middle to show that she does do this by hand, which I think is really great and brought some stuff out with color again we made like two columns, so that way it's not just the text and then a picture below we actually I told her take some pictures of you actually making the jewelry so she did this picture as well take this picture I don't know if you had your daughter do that or not you just did that yourself and it's on automatic yeah, so she got herself up there at least for announcing that way you know, people can see it's actually something that you d'oh not you know, you were just re selling something somebody else did and we put, you know, color throughout, I think, before she was lacking that there was no like headers, no color to kind of bring you in right to read certain parts so that over others yeah, so bolding breaking things up using white space using color especially the color that you're already using, making it feel really cohesive it feels more cohesive that way and it feels like you khun scan through it and get teo what you want to get teo yeah, I love it then the next one it would be the design your own and here again, it's just we brought in the color she gave me a few pictures again where there actual pictures of, you know, the process more than just the finished product and we put in some bolding, that sort of thing, so that way it's more scannable because nobody said seven reads every word at first they won't know until they're invested, right? Thinking about really buying, right? All right, well, bit how awesome is that go, tio we're even gonna give her a second round of a plot way if we can pull back up the slides, we're going to then talk about the bonus workbook that amanda also created for everybody. So this bonus workbook is called glam, your sight workbook and these are the pages of some of the sample pages inside of it, and it is a bonus with purchase and it's to help you design your website, so she also created this she's pretty great way love you all right, let's talk about hiring a website designer so we saw how trish was struggling to do it on her own I feel like we all struggle when I did it on my own I really was struggling and it's frustrating it's so frustrating so I say hire a designer before you're ready you're probably never going to feel completely ready. We we don't feel completely ready for most things so let's talk about what you need designer versus developer designer is someone who creates the design of your web site the look and feel of it picks the colors and fonts creates mock ups of what your sight will look like and a developer takes the design mock up and actually builds the website works with the coding so if you're designing your sight but you need someone to put it together and code it the new hire a developer let's talk about hiring a website, designer dues, cem, do's and don'ts and these can apply also to a coder, but really lots of people are hiring a website designer or somebody who's going to design and code and do the whole process for them. So look at the flutter of websites that you love to see if they include website designer information. I always do this when I see a website that is I love this website, I will look for the designer information just to add to my little list in case I want to contact them in the future to possibly help out with the website design, contact three designers and asked to chat about what you're looking for you can get a much better read on someone if you actually talked to them on skype her on the phone I have done this before and it makes a huge difference when my and I were hiring somebody to design our website for connecting the ops we got them we got we talked to different designers on skype and we got a really good feel for who was a right fit and who was not a right fit look on their websites for testimonials or ask for them an email one or two of their clients and ask what it was like to work with the designer because of course we used good testimonials on your website right? But see if you can contact them. I have had people contact me for things that I've said this person's great, you should take this person's course and they'll email me and say, can you tell me what you really think of this person's course? Because I'm really thinking about investing in it and I really want to know like was this testimonial for real or what was it really like inside or I've got this question and so I will explain I'm happy because I usually I only give testimonials for things that I love, so I'm happy to tell them oh yeah, it was great this is it would be good for you if this or this or this so contact a couple of the clients and say, hey, thinking about hiring so itself to design my website, what was it like to work with them? I'm sure people would be happy, teo answer, and then also look at our inn the designers portfolio, or are her clients still using the website that's in the portfolio? Or have they changed it? Make sure you will receive a copy of everything all your images and file so that you can update your site without that designer. Now, some designers don't give that, and if you I don't want teo, if you if you don't mind it, then fine, you can work with that person, but for me, it would be very important for me to have all of that so that I could go in and make changes if necessary. If that person isn't available, maybe they're on vacation and I have to make a change or if I end up working with somebody else down the line, no, your budget, no your budget, but also know that you often get what you pay for. So keep that in mind and go in with a plan no, the main objective of your website and each page on your website have a mood board on pinterest that you can share with the designer and show her this is what I like when you go to a website designer and you're like, I don't know anything, I bet that's very difficult to work with somebody, and it happens a lot doesn't know often when somebody doesn't know anything or they don't, they can't think of what they want when you do something, then they're like that's not what I want so ah lot of it is that preplanning, you know, you have to think through what you wanted to feel, you know, having that brand plan in place, and once you have that when you go to your web designer, it makes the process so much simpler and you can get it done much quicker. It's, easier on everybody, right? Yeah. And then I really believe in this higher slow fire fast when inter web site this is your online home. This is your everything you need to be working with somebody you trust so hire slowly really talked to these people. I know it can be like you want to jump in and you want to do it and you want to get going, but really talk to the person, get on skype for fifteen, twenty minutes and see and feel them out and ask them questions. We are mai and I once hired a website designer who told us she could do all of these things and then the very first time something happened that she needed to help us with that she couldn't do it we were like okay you're not the right person for us we're sorry but we're gonna have to work with somebody else because you told us he could do all of these things and now we're asking you to do them and you can't do them would have been different if she's like listen, I can do this and this and this but I can't really do this and this and this ask who's managing the project and doing the technical and design work if it's a team if it's a team of people you want to know are you the person doing it or is it somebody else? Because lots of times you might be talking to one person but somebody underneath of them is actually doing the work ask what happens if the design isn't quite right the first time how many rounds of changes do you get and ask how long you have to get the designer to fix any bugs because usually they're things that just aren't working exactly quite right or something looks a little bit off so how long do you have that they'll make changes for you and the don'ts make your decision on lee based on price because you get what you pay for often so don't make your decision just based on price you want to stay in your budget I mean you don't want to be going into debt teo get your website designed but don't make it just on price if you're hiring the cheapest cheapest person you'll probably get the cheapest cheapest design don't forget to sign a contract in project schedule and this is to help it safeguard yourself and the designer it's a good thing for both of you to have a contract don't rush to work with somebody because you want to get it over with and don't go in with unrealistic expectations it could take three months it's for a web site to get design coded launched even more can take a while so go in with realistic expectations because it's also really hard on the designer when you're like I need this tomorrow thank you all right can you guys guess what I would say the number one mistake creative entrepreneurs make with their websites can you guess what what you think it might be ok for not right they're not clear on what their product is that's a good one but it's not the number one mistake that I think that's that's high up there anybody else not having an often that's a good one too but it's not my number one those air up there in the top five both of those aaron top five all right, I'll tell you, putting ads on your website, uh, advertising other people's products. We're exposed teo, fifteen hundred to five thousand advertising messages a day that's a lot, so one, it means that we have learned how to ignore them. And two, it means that it irritates us and gets us frustrated and makes us feel like we're not going to trust that person. The last thing people want to see when they come to your website or sign up for email newsletter is hat I saw somebody recently who was saying, yeah, go ahead, put ads in your email newsletter, and I thought, so do it, please, please don't do it, because these people have given you their email address, and this is your opportunity to connect with your most loyal people, and then you're putting an ads, but for what reason? They're on ly a good idea, in my opinion, when your business is based on selling other people's products and usually blogging at least once a day. So the businesses that are built around advertising there, blogging one, two, three times a day and its high quality content and that's how they're getting thousands and thousands of readers, because you have to have thousands and thousands of readers in order to make it work financially, you annoy a reader and email subscriber. You get people to focus on other people stuff as opposed to years at least they're kind of splitting their focus, especially when there's like flashing ads or moving ads or I was just gonna say, if you have some buddies at their their clicking off your page, which is the last thing that you want people to do, you want people to stay there for as long as possible because that your home that's, it's like going into a store and looking at everything in the store you want people to do that? Yeah, exactly, yeah, absolutely, and it hardly ever makes sense financially, it really does it doesn't really, especially when you were trying to build a full time income and usually adds, bring in very little money for those of us who are not blogging one today, high quality content with thousands and thousands of raiders, it just doesn't make sense it's not worth the two hundred dollars, when you're first starting out, it can feel like, oh, but two hundred dollars would be really great, but in the long run it doesn't make sense sponsored posts have a similar effect. They make you seem less trustworthy, they make it seem as if the only reason you're talking about whatever it is is because you're making money from it when they do make sense is for podcasts people don't tend to mind them when they're in podcast so when you hear a podcast it starts and they're like this podcast has been sponsored by so and so check out so and so dot dot dot dot dot whatever it doesn't really bother people because it's just a little snippet and it's become one of those things that people even expect sometimes or let's say your beauty vlogger and you're using an eye shadow palette to create a makeup look sponsored by the company but again it takes away the trust a little bit I mean you're showing how it works and so people then if they like the eye makeup look they will probably buy it anyways but there's still that lack of trust because it's being sponsored sometimes affiliate things can have a similar effect or people trust it less because you're an affiliate I am on ly an affiliate of one thing and it's because I love it love it love it so much but I will even have people say do you really love it or not? Tell me the truth do you really love it and I'll say yes of course I really love it people that trust me will trust that and don't work it doesn't matter but you lose a little bit of trust so you only want to do these things when it makes sense for your business when it makes really good sense for your business you want to remain consistent with your branding online and with other marketing materials, like business cards, product packaging, et cetera. So think about is there anywhere in your business that things don't match, that your branding doesn't match, and how can you change it to be consistent? Because, again, we're always looking for those inconsistencies. Today's mission is to start a mood board on pinterest that will inspire your website design. So if you're thinking about designing your website, you're thinking about making changes to it. You're thinking about hiring website designer this is number one. Number two is the downloading complete the glam, your site work buck that amanda creek created. If you need to redesign your website or tweak your current design, and number three, is to share the link to your website and the facebook group, asking for feedback in first impressions.