Creative Inspiration and Professional Development
In last week’s video, I talked about why you should use video to promote your business and how to build up confidence to put yourself on video.
To follow that up, I’m covering Hannah and Emily’s {from @flychicksoline} other topic request: what to vlog {video blog} about.
I hope you like today’s Valentine’s Day inspired background. I painted this to hang above my bed and thought it would make a great background for a video.
What to do…What to do?
Hannah and Emily from @flychicksonline requested that I talk about building confidence to vlog {video blog} and what to vlog about. Before delving into that, I talk about why you should use video to promote your business–and then I go into how you can build up your confidence to do it. Watch below to see what I have to say:
Do you have any tips for building up confidence to put yourself on video? Have you recently started using video? Were you nervous? Share any tips below!
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{Editor’s Note: This is a guest post from the lovely, Emily Thompson. Thank you, Emily, for helping us make our sites less cringe-inducing and making this post super fun–I laughed out loud multiple times!}
Being a web designer and developer has had a very serious adverse reaction on me. Completely unexpected. A serious drawback, indeed.
I have become a web snob.
What this means is that I sometimes find it hard to try a new restaurant if their website isn’t kickin’. I sometimes can’t bring myself to purchase something I feel I almost can’t live without (you know, like that third pair of black leather pumps) unless the site is easy to navigate. It’s a side effect that has limited my life’s choices. I find it hard to respect a company that doesn’t respect themselves or my field by hiring someone to make sure they’re putting their best face forward.
On the upside, it has definitely made me a better consultant and designer.
It also means I can give you leg up.
Following is a list of the top ten things about a website that will make cringe faster than the thought of anyone’s parents… you know. *cringe*
Disclaimer: This is a list of my own annoyances and opinions. It does not mean that if you use them then your site is evil. It just might make me cringe a bit.
Splash pages are a website trend that just won’t die. From a design point of view, I see the appeal. I do, promise. They are a chance to hit your visitors with the best of your design savvy and/or products.
On the other hand – the bigger hand – having a splash page adds a whole click to what your customer has to do to actually get to your goods. And that one whole click is not necessary. Or good. Not to mention the fact that animated splash pages can take much to long to load.
It’s all about usability, folks, and a splash page is not user-friendly. (That’s the developer in me talking, holding the weaker designer part back from contradicting.)
Die, please, splash page fad.
Speaking of animation, let me mention that they bug me. I will say that there are occasionally times when animations are cool, but only when they’re very understated. Very understated. But a good rule of thumb: don’t even try to toe that line.
Note: This does not apply to animated slide shows, which I think are great, but rather bobbly head dogs and other ridiculous nonsense. [Enters: memory of a nightmare of a site with a microwave telling me I should buy their pizza.]
Music is another of those nasty website trends that won’t just move on to a better place. Luckily, it has died out in most areas, but photography sites in particular can’t seem to let go.
My biggest issue? Just by having music on your site, you’re making your site inaccessible to a very large portion of people visiting your site from a library, office cubicle, classroom, or any other quiet place imaginable. They’ll load your page, hear the music, X it out immediately, blush, and duck their head. Do you really want to remove every one of those people from your potential client list?
Not to mention you’re totally interrupting my Beats Antique jam session. Not cool.
Want to add a ton of legitimacy to your site? All you have to do is be consistent. {Click to tweet that little nugget.} Use a single color for all non-linked text. Use the same font-size for all text. Make sure your list layouts are cohesive across all your pages. Really, it’s that simple. And it keeps my eye from twitching.
Rehitting on having a coherent style, do yourself and your readers/customers a favor and don’t get too font-happy. I know fonts are cool, trust me. I have a gazillion. But make yourself proud and use some self-control.
A good design guideline is to use 3-4. I usually try to stick to 3. And your logo fonts are included in this count.
Do yourself another favor and restrain from using cutesy fonts for your body text. That makes my eye twitch too, and is really hard to read for everyone else. Our eyes have been trained to read regular site fonts very easily, and they were chosen all those years ago because they are easy to read.
Unless there is a really good reason, like perhaps you’re from a society who can’t process text written with left or right justification, never ever publish all of your text as anything other than left-justified. Even if you think it looks kind of weird because the text is short, it looks even weirder to everyone who tries to read it.
And there’s a cultural reason for this that goes back hundreds of years before us (see ma, that linguistic anthropology class wasn’t totally useless). The English language, as well as hundreds others, are meant to be read with left-justification. You really want to challenge that?
The web is evolving into a place where shortness rules, which would make me much more happy with my 5’3” stature, if only that was the shortness that applied here. Folks have a shorter attention span than ever. What does this mean for you? Learn to summarize like a pro. Don’t say in 4 paragraphs what can be said in 4 sentences.
And learn to keep paragraphs short. (See what I did there?)
Folks don’t like lots of text, but they like pretty pictures. Pretty pictures with a cohesive style. Just wander around Pinterest. Who’s getting pinned most often? Those with awesome photos, obviously.
Photos can make or ruin your website. Put out $5000 for a new site? No one will look if your photos aren’t fab. Have a limited budget and can’t afford good photography AND an awesome site? Choose photography. {Click to tweet that little nugget.} No one will pay attention to your cheap template if they’re too busy drooling over your photographs. (And that’s a big deal for a web designer to say.)
Ah! Few things will get me frustrated with a site more than having to search for links, or being fooled into thinking a link isn’t a link.
Decide on a style for your link that heavily contrasts from you body text. This can be a new color or underlined, or both.
Now, don’t even think about underlining any other text so that it looks like a link when it’s not. If you use a lot of underlining, then choose a link style that is simply a contrasting color. And make sure it’s very contrasting. Choosing a link color that is eerily similar to your body text without underlining is a sure-fire way to make sure no one ever sees it.
Ok, I saved this one for last because it’s only half true, and because not making an exception makes me a massive hypocrite, as two of my own sites don’t have search functions.
When a site has a large amount of content (like a blog, or a site with lots of pages) a search function is so terribly necessary. Visitors are going to get frustrated and leave just out of principle, or maybe that’s just me.
However, if your site just has a few pages, which are very easily navigable, then a search function isn’t necessarily required, but it is still a pretty good rule of thumb.
To sum these up, remember one very important thing: usability before design. There are no clear laws of web design, as each site, audience, purpose is different, except for that one. I know, I know. My designer half is kicking and screaming inside. But it’s true. Don’t design for yourself, design for your audience. (And your audience is listening to their own tunes right now.)
I hope you can take some of these and use them in the design of your own blog or site. Maybe I even caught some of you in a place where you thought, “Omg, I totally do that,” and you’re now going to go fix it.
Goodness knows, the less I cringe, the happier I am.
Must Read: 10 Things About Your Site That Will Make Me Cringe by the lovely @emmarieDesigns http://bit.ly/vGBiaD Click to Tweet!
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Emily Thompson is a web designer/developer for her studio, emmarie Web Design. She also blogs at emmarie Designs and teaches small creative businesses how to start and grow their business online at Indie Shopography. When not designing and inspiring, she’s chasing her 3-year old daughter and/or boxer pup, or hiding from them both.
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Actually, I asked him to help me out. I’m pretty lucky, because my husband seriously cares about my business and he enjoys helping me with stuff {unless I get cranky and yell}. He also brings out the best in me and can make me laugh like no one else.
At the end of Rich, Happy, and Hot Live on Sunday evening, Mayi Carles and I met up with our super patient {they waited outside for about 45 minutes for us} significant others and had a delicious dinner. Then, we chatted for hours.
During that time, Kris {my man} decided it would be funny to show Mayi and her man some videos he had taken of me on Christmas morning opening presents. These weren’t your run-of-the-mill videos—let’s just put it that way. And, no, you won’t be seeing them. They are way too embarrassing. But, they caused Mayi to double over laughing. Then, she wanted to know why Kris hadn’t put them up on YouTube yet. His response: I like my life. I want to stay alive.
Anyways, Mayi insisted that I need to add bloopers at the end of some of my videos, so I did. Kris decided the “bloopers” would be called entertainment time which he didn’t mention to me until we were taping. You’ll see my reaction to this around the 2:17 mark.
1. Produce valuable content! You have to publish something that people want to read or watch.
2. Capture your readers with an email newsletter.
3. Call your readers to action to get them involved.
4. Market your blog like you market your creative business.
That’s it for today my friends. If you have any feedback {questions, topics you want me to cover, more advice on getting and keeping new blog readers}, I’d love to hear it in the comments below.
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You can build a beautifully designed site, add useful content, and wait around for months or years for readers and customers. You have to work to build a readership and customer base. It won’t happen just because you put together an online home for your biz.
That’s the bad news. But, don’t get discouraged—I’ve got some good news for you. If you’re willing to put in the work, you’ll definitely be rewarded.
Whenever you launch a new website or blog, you’re starting from zero. It can seem discouraging, especially when you compare yours to established blogs and websites. I’m going to tell you how to jump from zero readers to hundreds within two to three months, but this will only work if you do the work. I know this works, because it’s how I gained close to 1,000 readers within the first three months of launching Blacksburg Belle.
You can’t be surprised by a lack of interest in your new site if it’s unprofessional. Some things that make a website look unprofessional include: a banner/header that’s squished or incredibly large, too many fonts, too many colors, a cluttered sidebar, links that don’t work, lack of cohesion, poor design, and lackluster photos.
Before you think about launching your site, get feedback from other creative entrepreneurs that you trust. Ask them to give you some constructive criticism. Or, if at all possible, work with a web designer who will ensure that your site rocks. {I recommend Zoe Rooney!}
You also need to make sure that you have something worth showing on your site. For instance, if you have an amazing ecommerce site, but you’ve only added a couple products, you’ll want to wait until you fully stock your shop before you launch. If you worked with a designer to build a lovely blog but you don’t have any content on it, you want to add at least two weeks worth of blog posts so that people have something to read or watch when they get to your site.
You’ll want to have an about page that shows off your personality and brand, because that will probably be the most viewed page during your launch. People will want to know who you are and why they should care. If your about page completely bores them, you’re likely to lose them. Make sure you have a nice, professional photo of yourself on this page.
If you don’t make a plan and schedule things, your launch will probably have a really hard time taking off. First, decide what date you’re going to “launch” your new site. This is the date that you’re going to make your site public and start promoting it.
Give yourself time before the launch to prepare. I’d say that you’ll want at least two weeks to make preparations. If you want to land guest posts and interviews on other blogs, you’ll need time to contact those writers and editors, hear back from them, and then put together content for them. If you’re pitching blogs with large audiences, you’ll need even more time.
This is a must. I know some people get shy and scared off when I tell them that they need to pitch guest posts, interviews, and features to other bloggers, but it’s the best way to get new traffic to your site in a short amount of time. And, if you have a site that you’re proud of and a way to help another person’s audience by sharing your expertise, you shouldn’t let your fear hold you back.
Pick at least five blogs that have a similar target market or readership and send email pitches to those bloggers. For instance, if you sell modern handmade throw pillows, you would pitch features, guest posts, and interviews to design, modern, and creative blogs. You could pitch an interview to a blogger who features a new creative entrepreneur each week. You could pitch a guest post on designing a modern living room space on a budget to a design blogger. You could pitch a feature of your pillows on a blog that focuses on handmade products.
With almost all features and guest posts, you get to include a little bio paragraph. Make sure you announce the launch of your new website in that bio paragraph and invite readers to come check it out. If you’re doing an interview, make sure to include information about your new site.
Keep your pitches short, and include a link to your new site. Let the blogger know that you’re launching your new site, that you’d love to let her readers know about it through a guest post or interview, and why you think your site is a good fit for her readers. Make it easy for the blogger to say yes.
Right after I launched my blog, I led a blog series that helped me to connect with a lot of established bloggers in the handmade community. The blog series also connected a bunch of our readers. We all benefited from being a part of the series.
You can also connect with other bloggers through social media, commenting on their blogs, and interviewing them for your blog. Reach out and focus on building relationships. If you do, your readership and customer base will grow.
When you launch a new site and work really hard to get new eyes on it through guest posting and interviewing, the biggest mistake you can make is letting those new readers leave without making a lasting connection.
The best way to stay in contact with your readers is via an email newsletter. Many people still don’t know what RSS feeds are and many people will forget about your blog or site. We’re all busy, and we just forget about things. But, they won’t forget if you keep in contact with them via email. Almost everyone checks their email regularly.
Before you launch, make sure that you have a prominent email opt-in on your site. If you’re launching a blog, put that opt-in box in the upper right corner of your sidebar. Give your readers a reason to opt-in for your emails, and you’ll have a lot more people who opt-in.
***Thanks to Suzi Buchan for giving me this topic idea.
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Take me on a journey.
Tell me about the moment that you fell in love with your craft. Tell me about the struggles you’ve faced in your business. Tell me about the first sale you ever made.
Let me into your world—into your business. Add stories to your posts. Make them personal and unique.
Make your blog a different space from all other spaces. Be different.
Stop writing the same stuff as everyone else. Stop blogging just to blog. If you’ve seen the same topic covered over and over and you don’t have anything new to add, leave it alone for now.
If the rules don’t make sense, break them. It’s better to take a quick break from blogging than to publish junk that you’re not proud of.
Write with a purpose and a mission. If you do, your readers will connect with you. They’ll comment. They’ll follow you on Twitter and sign up for your newsletter. They’ll look forward to reading your posts. They’ll become loyal fans.
Make things worthwhile for your readers, and they’ll make blogging worthwhile for you.
xoxo
April
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I want every woman starting a creative business to feel empowered. I want her to take her excitement for her passion and turn it into something that makes her proud and makes her money. I want her to be able to spend the majority of her time on her art—not shuffling through resources and wasting time on stuff that doesn’t matter. That’s why I put together ARTrepreneur.
I enjoy taking the concepts from my background in therapy and helping women who feel overwhelmed, struggle with procrastination, and wrestle with multiple passions. I love to learn and experiment with business concepts and then teach them in a simple way so they’re easy to understand and easy to put into practice. That’s why I blog regularly.
I want to make big changes for women who have big dreams. I want to help women who struggle to get their unique, handmade products in front of the right people. That’s my why—the reason I do what I do.
This isn’t the easiest question to answer, but it’s incredibly important that you know the answer. It’s also important that your customers and target market know your answer. If they don’t, you’re in trouble. You’ll have a really hard time building a loyal customer base without sharing this information.
When the right people understand why you do what you do, they connect with you and your brand. It’s easier to make purchasing decisions and price doesn’t matter as much.
When my husband and I bought a new sofa and love seat, we looked at all of the brown sets. Then we narrowed down our options by sitting on them and seeing which ones were the most comfortable. Then we looked at the prices. We found a sofa and love seat on major sale, it was comfortable, and it was chocolate-colored. Perfect. We bought them because of the price. We knew our dogs would be laying on them, so we didn’t want to pay too much for them. I have no idea what company made them. I won’t look for other sofas made by the same company. I’m not a loyal customer.
Contrast that with Liz Lovely, a company that makes vegan and gluten-free cookies. Their mission statement is clear. They bake cookies with a higher purpose. They don’t cut corners, and they don’t prioritize profits over people or the planet. That’s a business that I can get behind and enjoy purchasing from. I had never ordered food online before ordering a batch of cookies from Liz Lovely. When I landed on their website, I read about their business and my mouth watered looking at their products. I was hooked and ordered cookies right then and there. I’ll be a loyal customer, ordering more than my fair share of the gluten-free chocolate chip cookies. It costs $3.99 plus shipping for two cookies, but it doesn’t matter. I would even buy them if they cost more.
Your purchases either depend on something like price, promotions, or fear OR they depend on loyalty, trust, and connection with the company’s purpose.
When someone new lands on your website, she should be able to figure out your “why” within seconds. It should be obvious in everything that you do. Put it in multiple places. Blog about it, include it on your about page, and make it clear in your shop announcement. Every blog post that you write and every product you put out there should somehow connect with your why. Otherwise, your purpose gets diluted, trust decreases, and your customers will be confused.
Blogging can seem simple from the outside.
You pick a name, set up a site, and start sharing your thoughts. But, anybody who’s tried blogging for their creative business knows that it’s not that simple.
It takes time, consistency, and a whole lot of other stuff to build a following and a successful blog.
Only you can decide to put the time and dedication into blogging regularly—BUT, I can help you out with the other stuff.
I’ve put together a one-time 60-minute class that’s affordable and gives you the information you need to start blogging successfully for your creative biz. If you’re interested in learning about the 10 Critical Factors That’ll Make Your Blog a Success or Hot Mess, you can check out the details here.
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After launching my group coaching program {and selling out} this month, I’ve gotten some emails from readers who wanted in—but pulled out their credit cards a little too late. When I first launched the group coaching program, I had a specific number of spots in mind, because I want to be able to give those customers a lot of individual attention.
So, I’m not opening it back up, but I will point you in the direction of some of my stuff you might not have read yet for more juicy advice on running a successful creative biz.
On average, I write 5-10 guest posts per month. Unless you’re internet stalking me, you might have missed some of these. And, these are some of the best—so I wanted to remind you that they are there for your reading pleasure!
Before you dive in, print off the downloadable worksheet {you must have Adobe Reader to view this worksheet–other Adobe programs won’t work!}. Cut along the dotted line, and use one of the quirky notes to jot down 3 actionable ideas from the articles that you can implement to improve your biz.
If you’re anything like me, you read a lot of blog posts that contain great information. Unless I plan to take action on something I read, I usually don’t do it. Instead, I think, “That’s a great idea! I’ll get around to that sometime next week.” Well, sometime next week never happens.
And, just learning something new doesn’t help—you’ve got to put it into action. When I realized that I do this, I came up with an alternative plan. Each morning when I sit down to read all the fabulous posts waiting for me in my Google reader, I’d try to write down 3 actionable tasks and then schedule them after I’m done reading. I thought I’d share my nifty idea with you, so you can benefit from it, too.
One of the most common questions I get from creative entrepreneurs when I’m consulting with them on their blogs is, “How do I get my readers to buy my stuff?”
In this post, I share the 3 main reasons why your readers never buy, and 4 tips to entice your readers to buy your stuff.
Do you want to promote your Etsy shop without a marketing budget? No problem.
In this post, I’ll tell you how.
Why should I read your blog out of the hundreds of thousands of blogs on the web? Why should I subscribe to yet another newsletter and another blog that will clog up my Google Reader?
If you don’t have specific answers to these questions, then you’re losing readers on a regular basis.
Do you want to know how to succeed as a creative entrepreneur? Well, there’s much more to it than I could possibly cover in one post—but, the most important step is making an out-freaking-standing product.
Your business needs to have a higher purpose behind it. It needs to be something your customers can talk about and share with others.
You don’t want to make one of these five biggest mistakes if you’re looking to increase your creative business sales through blogging.
After you’ve identified your ideal market, you need to attract those people to your creative business. Once you’ve gotten them in front of your products and services, they’re going to buy—because, they’re your ideal market. So, let’s make you some money.
I hope you enjoy!
Quick Note: I’m flying to New York on Monday, because I’m leading two workshops at the Etsy Success Symposium on Tuesday. So, I won’t be answering too many emails or responding to comments until I get back on Wednesday. If you’re going to be at this awesome, sold-out event, make sure to introduce yourself to me please! And, if you didn’t get a ticket in time or couldn’t make the trip, you can catch me on the live stream that you’ll be able to find here. I hope you join in on the fun.
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