Today is part 2 of our series “Creating a Website (for the Non-Techie)”. If you missed last week, make sure to read the into here.

One of the absolute most valuable steps I took in pre-planning for my website was becoming a student of others’ websites. I was creating my new website on a very limited budget, so I took on the burden of being very clear about what I wanted before I contracted with my techie geniuses (an intro to them is coming in a few weeks).

I visited each site with a pen and paper by my side, ready to take copious notes on features I liked from each site. These are the kinds of sites I visited:

• Other speakers  I admire.
• Industry leaders (publishers, literary agents, marketing gurus, etc)
• Sites of speakers at bloggers’ conferences such as Allume (I figured if these folks are speaking at a bloggers’ conference they know what they’re talking about! I got some genius ideas from their sites.)

**If you want to see other sites I visited, please join us on Facebook or Twitter this week. My intern, Michaela, is visiting some of them right now. She’s going to lead you on a little tour! (To join us on FB or Twitter, click the icons above.)

I went through each of my “study sites” with a fine-toothed comb. I studied every page for both content, layout and visual design. For each site, I listed elements I loved. When I was finished, I had a page covered with notes. Here are some questions to ask as you tour websites:

• What is the color palette? Is this a palette I like or would use?
• What style is the photography? Casual? Business?
• What is the layout of the home page? What does that layout say about the emphasis of the site? (ie. True bloggers usually have their blog as their homepage. Because I have a love-hate relationship with blogging:), I decided to minimize its importance on my site this time.)
• Is each page laid out identically or differently?
• What is in the sidebar of each page?
• How is video/media used?
• What resources are offered? What are “take aways” from the site?
• Can I identify the “why” of the website owner?

My goal in studying these sites was to learn as much as possible from people who are using the internet effectively. Many of the people on my list are professional marketers or have marketers working for them, and since I don’t, I wanted to glean what I could from the experts.

One point I want to emphasis is that it was never my intention to copy or replicate another site too closely. One example would be an element I love on Renee Swope’s website. She included photo albums that I just love. She’s used them to connect with people on a personal level as well as to show the different roles she carries–wife, mom, speaker….

I wanted to do something similar using the power of photography without copying her unique idea exactly. I tried to use lots of photography on my site showing the different sides of my personality, and I want to include more family shots, event pics, etc over time. So use people’s concepts, but I encourage you to make your site as unique as possible. Imitation may be the sincerest form flattery, but you don’t want to leave anyone with a bad taste in their mouth. Besides, it’s your unique perspective that will capture others’ attention!

Next week I’ll share a step to create a powerful tool for communication with your techies. In the mean time, would you share a site you love and what you learned from it? I’d love for us to have our own tour here. At the end of our series, we’ll do a Mr. Linky tour so you can show us your website. Can’t wait!

Amy

Last fall was one of the busiest ministry seasons ever, and in the midst of it all I launched a new personal website. In retrospect, I should have planned a little more space for such a big project, but I didn’t realize how much mental space the work would take on my part. In the next 8 weeks, I’m going to write about steps to creating your own blog or website.

I need to start by saying that although I know more than I used to about using my computer,  I’m still a relative non-techie. So this series is officially titled “Creating a Website (for the Non-Techie).

Here’s what I’m afraid of. I’m afraid some of you are going to check out because you’ve already got a website or you don’t have and/or don’t want a website. Can I ask you to hang in there with me? I am going to attempt to write helpful posts for those of you in the process as well as the other two groups.

This week I’m going to give you a simple assignment. Before you ever start picking color palettes, having professional photography done or writing bio content, I want to challenge you to ask yourself some basic questions:

• Why do I want or need a website?
• Why do I want people to come to my website?

There are lots of people talking about seeking your personal “why”, but I believe the champion of this concept is Simon Sinek author of . To grasp the concept and hear a great message, I urge you to take a little time to watch .

Identifying the why for your website is absolutely crucial for building a foundation for your vision. Without your why, you’ll be adrift without a vision. My friend and Next Step client Cheri Gregory helps tremendously to find our why by giving us some key questions to ask ourselves. In the paragraphs above, I’ve referred to this process of finding your why as “simple”. I think it’s worth saying that it might be simple, but it’s certainly not easy. This process of finding the why for your website will need to be steeped in prayer, time and reflection.

Once you’ve found it, use your why to work toward developing a tagline . You can click here, and here to get more instruction. Writing a tagline is a process with much more powerful purpose than simply having the product of a tagline. It will cement your why for your ministry and website and give you clarity and purpose.

I’d love for us to use this spot as a forum to discuss as you work toward creating or updating your website. Feel free to ask each other questions, share tips or tell  us about your discovery of your why!

For those of you just starting a website…This week pray about your personal why and please share here.

For those of you with a website…Do you know the why of your website? Can visitors tell what it is?

For those of you without a website…Do you know the why of your ministry? Is it apparent in your messages?

Last scary questions…Would you visit my new website and weigh in? Can you tell what my why is?

Amy