Quick navigation:

• Why should you write blog posts in the first place
• How to write blog posts that resonate with people
• What to write about when you’re starting a blog
• A step-by-step writing process for your blog posts

We live in a world where the importance of written communication increased dramatically. We heavily rely on technology and digital contact. From the way we keep in touch with the dear ones to how we approach the people we admire and increase our chances to create a digital presence — we often use tools where writing is king.

For the past 10+ years, I’ve been wearing the communication and storytelling hat daily and put my writing to the test while working in multiple roles: freelancer, volunteer, marketer, copywriter, community builder. Along the way, I had a hard time finding reliable solutions regarding improving my writing skills and making the most out of them on the Internet.

After all the ups and downs I experienced, I managed to narrow down a few things that can help you start your blog and get over the stress of writing your first blog post.

What follows is not a rigid framework, so feel free to take whatever fits you. However, I encourage you to at least test some of the ideas before assuming that they will not work. You might be surprised. 

Why should you write blog posts in the first place

Keeping our communication in writing is far more convenient and comfortable since we can do it from our home, office, or on the road, compared to the effort of meeting a person face-to-face.

Writing is so integrated into our daily lives that we no longer question why we prefer this way of communication instead of others.

Writing is such a self-conscious act because it forces us to think: What do we believe in, so deeply, that we’ll write it down and share it with others?

— Claire Lew (@clairejlew) July 26, 2018

Even though writing short messages can help us transmit instant information to others, writing in-depth, long-form content comes with big advantages.

1. Writing can help you gain more clarity

Putting everything on paper (both digital and offline) helps you draw a clearer picture of your thoughts.

When you can observe what you wrote, it’s easier to find the red thread. You can take notes, underline repetitive snippets, and notice flaws and inconsistencies in your ideas.

2. Writing improves communication skills 

Having a chance to fine-tune your ideas, put order and articulate your thoughts will translate into better written (and verbal) communication skills.

Publishing your writing will put pressure (the good kind) on having a start and an end to your stories, being compelling, and making sure those on the other end understand you. This skill will come in handy in all aspects of your personal and professional life.

3. Your blog posts can bring people together

Expressing your ideas can impact the world and even change it for the better. Your unique point of view can attract people who share the same core values and want to join your community. Nothing beats the feeling of sharing a common understanding with other individuals.

Blog writing can also help you impact other people’s lives through your bold and courageous ideas. Your different perspectives can mobilize people towards a meaningful goal. Your words can capture attention and transform a bunch of random people into followers, believers, maybe even collaborators.

As a blogger, you need to be open-minded in understanding a wide range of arguments because it will help you craft better articles. It does not mean that you should start pleasing people and create blog posts that serve all kinds of needs. On the contrary, you should stick to your beliefs and interests.

4. Writing can be liberating

Writing is an act of freedom through which you can showcase the real you without strings attached. In so many senses, we live the best time of our lives. The simple act of having the chance to create a digital voice and spread your ideas means a lot.

People used this form of communication for a long time and continuously adjusted it to the needs of the time, from sending a letter from the war to writing pre-defined SMS. The need to express ourselves through writing lies within us and only gets stronger.

Writing is not just for storytellers, poets, copywriters, etc. No. We all have the potential to write amazing stories that say something about who we are. The ultimate goal of good writing is to put a piece of ourselves out there and invite others to take a look.

Next, I’ll share the main ideas to keep in mind when writing your first blog posts.

How to write blog posts that resonate with people

There’s a thin line between what you need to know to become better with writing blog posts and all the information on the Internet.

My recommendation is always to be authentic, trust your skills and shape your particular way of writing.

people always ask me how to be a better writer. my answer is always the same: read, read, READ. reading teaches by example, shows you the curiosity of others and is proven to increase brain function/connectivity.

— paul jarvis (@pjrvs) June 18, 2018

Practice makes perfect, as the saying goes, and it’s definitely true. What’s often left unsaid is that starting is the first step and often the hardest challenge.

Once you kick off and develop a writing habit, you will craft your skills and become a better blogger from one day to another.

As in life, the best results come with time, hard work, and determination, so don’t try to find shortcuts.

From my experience as a digital communicator, professional copywriter, and active storyteller, I dare to suggest a few writing tips you should consider.

If you start integrating them into your daily writing routine, you will write better articles on your blog and website and gain confidence and joy in doing it.

1. Use your speaking voice in writing

Create an emotional connection with the reader and guide him as a good old pal through the story. Write the way you talk, and don’t be afraid to be genuine in crafting every message.

People often feel that they have to adopt a persona when posting online, but that’s not true. Copying others will only create a dissonance between who you really are and youfrom the Internet. People are smart and feel fakeness, and once they observe that you are not credible, they will never come back.

2. Write with responsibility 

Be true to yourself and share from your own experience. Own it. No matter if you’re in your 20s, be brave to write about how you feel, about your hobbies, your struggles at the moment. Similar people will resonate with you.

Responsibility also means being transparent and honest regarding your blog posts. Don’t make things up, don’t cheat, don’t offer half-truths. Blogging is serious, and you should treat your audience accordingly, especially if you want to be more than yet another www out there.

3. Write for yourself first 

Express your personality and way of thinking through your writing. You are the first to read that blog post, so make sure it resonates with your inner why and aligns with your beliefs and values.

Don’t write it as if 1000 people will read it; write it like speaking with one person. If what you share is real and comes from your experience, your visitors will notice, and they will return in the future.

“I love meeting my readers, but I am so aware that the person who writes the books that they read is the best version of me — the most hopeful, the most helpful version of me. In my day-to-day life, I am as confused, & stupid, & pessimistic as anybody.” https://t.co/aug6SNQdrK

— Lucy Bellwood is on Tour (@LuBellWoo) June 22, 2018

Put yourself in their shoes and see how you feel: does the blog post feel authentic, reliable, meaningful, or is it just a bunch of lines without a clear goal?

What to write about when you’re starting a blog

You might think that there’s an answer for everything, so there’s nothing much left to cover. I beg to differ.

Even though it’s true that we are exposed to a massive load of information, it doesn’t mean that nuances are not important. In fact, we live a time where we genuinely need them.

Differences are the engine of the world, and once we accept and internalize them, we will definitely live more meaningful lives.

When it comes to blog posts, since you are in your early days, I have a few suggestions regarding how to pack your content.

Of course, there are far more, but I highly believe that you need to narrow the gap and start with just a limited set of options because it will give you direction and purpose. Constraints can be liberating.

1. Write personal stories

Share what makes you-you. Experiences, wins, failures, mistakes, beliefs —anything that says something meaningful about the person behind the scenes. 

If you are a creative person, be generous and write about your creative process, how you get things done, what keeps your wheels spinning, what brings you joy when things are hard to handle. Don’t shy away from sharing the downsides, struggles, and pain—others might go through similar experiences and need a helping hand.

2. Give a twist to common topics

If you are knowledgeable in a particular field, you might have a different perspective on things than the majority. Go ahead and share it with the world, and you might change the way people see or approach things.

Invest time and energy to pack everything to suit your style of writing. You might even be surprised to see that many people resonate with your approach.

3. Share bold statements

Showcase the values you stand for by writing opinionated articles. Boldly express your personality and invite people to share their own thoughts on the matter.

Document what you experience during the writing process because it will help you get a clear perspective on the next step and how you should continue publishing new blog posts.

A step-by-step writing process for your blog posts

First of all, good writing means good reading. There’s no other way around. People who don’t read a lot have a tough time writing well.

It’s the same principle that applies to other forms of creative work as well. Take photographers, for instance. Good artists travel, meet people in person, spend time in solitude, are active folks who have a deeper understanding of how the world works.

“Words have energy and power with the ability to help, to heal, to hinder, to hurt, to harm, to humiliate, and to humble.” — Yehuda Berg

A simple yet effective process to put the above advice in practice is to do the following exercise. Don’t overthink every single step from the bellow list; just go through it and see where it takes you.

1. Choose a topic that you are interested in or have know-how. It can be anything as long as you manifest excitement and a dose of genuine curiosity. Or, on the other hand, you gathered plenty of experience that could be useful for others.
2. Write one paragraph about your idea. This way, you have a summary at your fingertips, and you can get back to it during the process.
3. Define a clear structure to help you keep the red thread: 
   1. → Intro (the central idea that you will explore in the article),
   2. → Main sections (headings and the core message)
   3. → Conclusion (an insight you hope people will react to or sleep on)
4. Write a rough first draft. Don’t take it too seriously; just throw all the thoughts you have in mind related to the topic.
5. Edit what you wrote without mercy and get the garbage out. Read it out loud and see if it makes sense if you can cut some sidenotes, or maybe you can rephrase ideas and make them easier to grasp.
6. Go in-depth. Start adding layers of information to complete your ideas and make sure all match the red thread.
7. Ask for a second opinion. Give these pieces of content to close friends or family and ask them what made them memorable, touched them and how, and what was hard to understand or to follow. Kindly ask them to provide these answers in writing to help them articulate their thoughts.
8. Edit again. Try to integrate the feedback you received in the best possible way, without pleasing everyone or changing the main idea. It’s your call to filter and keep the must-have only.
9. Publish. Celebrate the fact that you published your first blog posts on your terms. Yaaay!

Writing is an excellent way of expressing your unique personality and a crucial skill you want to master on your blog. On top of that, it’s a form of freedom hard to beat by other forms of communication.

You can always explore new perspectives and discover a new world through writing digital content. It’s not a matter of how many words you use; it’s how you craft them to touch people’s hearts, as Seth Godin reminds us: “I wonder why anyone would hesitate to be generous with their writing.”

Want a blog where you can showcase your blog posts in style?

Check out our blogging WordPress themes and start shining.

Give it a go

The post How to write the first blog posts that resonate with people appeared first on Pixelgrade.

Working with creative entrepreneurs since 2011, when I started wearing the community builder hat, it soon became obvious that most of you are Jack of all trades.

You are in charge of a broad spectrum of activities—from creating the product (be it ceramics, soy candles, photography, recipes, videos, you name it) to paying taxes and bills, from building relationships to keeping up with your audience.

In just a few words: from what you love to what you loathe.

Why this is happening is a more extensive discussion that I’ll maybe tackle another time. However, it’s a fact that impacts both your potential and how you run and grow your business in the long haul.

Doing a lot of stuff dilutes the echo of your efforts, making you miss all kinds of opportunities. The same applies to everyone who’s juggling too many balls simultaneously. This trick should only happen at the Cirque du Soleil shows.

In this article, I aim to quickly untangle the core actions needed when reaching the phase of launching your website. I hope I’ll manage to help you become aware of both your constraints and opportunities so you can focus on the areas where you have control and knowledge and leave the rest aside.

But before diving into the nitty-gritty, let’s make sure we’re on the same table.

Launching a website means different things to different people

While there’s a variety of opinions (some backed with solid arguments, some not so powerful) about where to center your attention when launching your website, let’s be fair for a second. 

Everyone tries to push advice depending on the commercial interests they might have. 

If you read an article about this topic on an agency’s blog that sells SEO services, there are high chances they’ll highlight the importance of a good positioning on Google.

On the other hand, if you come across a resource from a freelancer-developer who’s creating websites for a living, you will hear quite often about mobile optimizations and performance, for instance. People preach their words, and that’s fine.

There’s no harm in such tactics since many of them are, in the end, valid. The information on these kinds of websites does not bring bad results or damage to your www.

What happens, on the contrary, is that you will soon feel overwhelmed. You will no longer know which way to go, which strategy fits your goals, which tools get the job done, and how. 

It’s not difficult to get there since your experience lies in crafting an innovative product or service, not unraveling the complicated avenues of digital marketing.

Remember how it feels to be responsible for too many things at once? Make yourself a favor, and don’t add more stuff to that pile. Choose to leave the badge of honor called Jack of all trades. It’s not an honor; it’s a trap.

Plus, a website is not something you do once and then never touch again. It’s a living thing that can be adapted, changed, remodeled, and most important, improved as times goes on. Even if you miss certain steps at launch, you can always go back and do better.

That said, there are a few things you need to keep in mind before turning the on switch for your website. These actions are valuable because they impact your visitors’ first experience and will set you up for success further down the road by making sure you have the right tools already in place.

Technical actions to improve the experience

1. Check your website’s navigation flow

Because your website was in development, it often happens to have links that direct users to the wrong pages. If, for example, your new website was on a subdomain (e.g., https://new.example.com), you might find that certain links (e.g., buttons from Services page, text links from the Footer or pages like Terms and Conditions) point to the subdomain instead of the main domain (https://example.com).

Other times, you might have changed your mind regarding the URL of a page (e.g., change it from /about-me to /about), but forget to update it everywhere you link to it.

Make sure the links get the reader where you want and pay extra attention to the links you’ve added inside your pages or blog posts—those can easily get overlooked.

It’s a quick fix but can it can mean the difference between someone sharing it to get the word out or becoming frustrated and forgeting about your www.

If you have an online shop, check the purchase flow from start to finish. Simulate what it would mean for a customer to browse your products, add them to the cart, remove/add new products, fill the details on the checkout page, and place an order. You might discover certain flaws in your purchase workflow or even opportunities to improve the experience for your future customers.

Do the same thing for all the forms and automated emails on your website. Replicate a regular visitor’s flow, from adding their email into the subscribe box or contact form, to getting a welcome email. Double-check that you’re capturing the submissions correctly across the board.

2. Optimize your website for fast loading

It can seem like a topic complicated for you since your skills lie elsewhere. But you don’t have to be tech-savvy to nail the basics of making your website load fast:

1. Optimize your images: huge images are almost always the culprit when it comes to slow websites and poor browsing experience. As a rule of thumb, use the .jpg format as much as possible (use .png only when transparency is necessary, e.g, in a logo), don’t upload pictures with a resolution above 2000px, and pass each image before uploading through tools like compressjpg.com or compresspng.com to lower their size. Read this article if you want to learn more about optimizing your images.
2. Leverage website caching: caching means temporarily storing part of your website in your visitor’s device so that it will load faster when they revisit your website. If your website is on WordPress, we recommend one of these two plugins: WPRocket (paid) or W3 Total Cache (free version). Their default options should be just fine for starters. We also wrote about website performance if you want to dig deeper.

3. Connect your website to an analytics service

You can go with Google Analytics—it’s the most popular solution with enough features to accommodate your website’s future growth. If you prefer privacy-focused software, you can go for Fathom (paid but with a lot of care towards privacy and customer experience) or Matomo (free and open-source tool if your website is on WordPress).

These solutions are great for measuring your website’s activity, understanding who your readers are, how much time they spend, and where. With time, you can start making decisions based on the traffic you get.

4. Setup the basics for proper search engine indexing

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is a vast domain within the marketing realm, and most people are scared to dive into it. And for the right reasons—while doing an SEO audit for Pixelgrade a while back, we spent about two weeks working on the action plan alone.

The good news is that you don’t have to do that at the beginning of your journey. All you have to do is check a few SEO settings to get started. From our own experience, here are the most vital things you need:

1. Use an SEO tool: if you’re using WordPress, install the Yoast SEO plugin and follow the configuration wizard (here’s a step-by-step tutorial). The best thing about this plugin is that the default settings are good enough for most websites. If your website is on another platform, check their documentation to see what you need to do.
2. Add your website to Google Search Console: again, this might sound daunting, but if you can figure out how to create a page on your website, you can nail this as well. With this tool, Google will index your website faster and discover potential errors along the way. If you follow these steps, you’ll have this up and running in no time.
3. Optimize title and meta descriptions for your top three pages (e.g., home page, shop page, services page). If, for example, you create personalized illustrations, make sure you add that to your home page title and mention it in the description. This helps people understand what’s your website about. You can do that using the Yoast SEO plugin—here’s a great video tutorial. 

5. Make sure you have technical help near

Even though you’ve tested everything, some things might go wrong right before or during your launch—software can break, nasty events can occur, so it’s best to have someone to rely on in such moments.

It can be a friend, or someone recommended to you who can jump in and patch things up in the event something fails. They should be aware of when you are launching your website to respond and take action quickly. If this option is not within your reach, you can choose a reliable hosting and WordPress theme provider because customer assistance should be enough for most cases.

To be safe, once you verified everything, don’t do any major updates on your websites (like theme or plugins)—sometimes updates can mess things up, and you don’t want that right before going live.

On the non-technical side, things can get fuzzy concerning where we should draw a line in the sand, but there a few must-do actions.

By going through these steps, you’ll be in good shape for launching your website successfully. The work does not stop here. It barely begins, so we encourage you to have an open attitude towards the suggestions from people visiting your website and buying your products and services.

As with many other endeavors, it takes time, energy, continuous iteration, and a learning curve to bring consistent results in the long run. It’s no piece of cake, but it’s not mission impossible either. It depends on your website’s role within your business and what kind of investment and commitment you are willing to put on the table.

If you reach this particular stage, it means that you will at least get the chance to finish the puzzle and celebrate the completion, which is a great feeling to have. If you don’t trust me, then feel free to read this story of a local business that successfully launched its new website during the pandemic.

Photo taken by Katerina Nedelcu at our office.

The post Checklist of actions before launching your website appeared first on Pixelgrade.

When it comes to websites, there’s no recipe to follow. But there are, indeed, good practices. And a lot of groundless advice, too. Knowing to make a difference between these implies a few different things.

On the one hand, experience. Building a website in the past will help you quickly grasp that some actions take you further while others freeze you. It’s not rocket science.

On the other hand, flexibility. We all write it down on our resumes and make a big fuss out of it, but, in reality, we’re far more stiff and opaque. In this context, I anchor flexibility into the willingness to make witty compromises.

Experience in building websites might not be your core skill. After all, you are the creative one passionate about your craft. A website is a way for you to tell your story, showcase your talent, and sell your services or products.

But have no worries. This article is here to help you settle the debate between content and design, so you cross the finish line sooner rather than later. And if you have to build a website in the past, trust me, it’s worth sticking by to see what you should improve the next time you adventure into such a feat.

Now a bit of a backstory.

Care and excellence are two of our core values (the third and last one is gratitude), and that makes my choice in how I’m going to pack this article simpler. I’m going to speak only from our direct ten years of experience in creating tools to build websites, so you can imagine that I will preach our mantras. Take it or leave it, but life is too short to keep thickening the existing bulls*it that’s on the Big Internet.

Speaking of experience, in the last eight months or so, I’ve been working closely with Andrei, my fellow marketer—in extenso with the entire Pixelgrade’s squad—to help local creatives build websites with Rosa 2, our flagship WordPress product. Why Rosa 2? Well, I’ll be honest: it’s the one in which we heavily invest our resources. On top of that, it’s also the most whimsical playground to start creating a website in style.

If you don’t trust me (we’re all a bit skeptical these days, it’s okay), read this particular story about how someone with fragile WordPress skills made the most out of our system and created a lovely digital space for her business.

Back to Andrei and I, I think it’s relevant to highlight that we’ve both worked in digital agencies, so we know a thing or two about the fuzzy line in the sand between this is what I want, and this is what you need. This combo proved highly efficient when interacting and helping our local community of creators build a digital home.

Please bear in mind that the following lines do not come from a place of romanticism before getting started. Quite the contrary. It’s from the land of pragmatism. 

Hear me out, amigo!

You can’t design your website while blindfolded

During my freelancing years and since I’ve been wearing the storyteller hat at Pixelgrade, I’ve learned quite soon that content comes first. Designers’ endeavor is to find smart ways to present the information in the best possible scenario, depending on the goal of that particular content. Not the other way around.

As the brilliant Paul Rand notes in Conversations with students:

Design is relationships. Design is a relationship between form and content.

Paul Rand

Most of the local businesses that collaborated with us to build up their websites were convinced that they should take care of the writing process at the end of the chain.

When the look-and-feel is over, when photos are uploaded when the perfect portrait picture is showcased. After that, they will get their flat white with coconut milk and less foam in a cup of latte and start typing with a bit of luck.

No, no, no.

Designers can’t work blindly. And WordPress themes can’t substitute for your lack of direction, even though they come with plenty of constraints to help you make fewer mistakes and focus on what you know best. At least ours do that and help people like you avoid useless headaches.

Have you ever considered a drag-and-drop website building solution that advertises pretty designs and endless freedom?

If you ever played with such tools, you know that there are moments when you feel like going to the mountains and scream until you faint. Design is not easy, especially when you are unsure what will fill in the blanks and the lorem ipsum.

Before spending countless hours making your visual obsession come true, often without solid arguments on the table, I kindly encourage you, again, to get comfortable and start writing.

Yeah, stop the bulls*it with all the procrastination, the writer’s block, and such. Seat down, my friend, and start typing.

Don’t know where to start? Let me give you a few hints.

1. Figure out what you want to accomplish with your website

Do you want people to read your blog articles and engage with your ideas? Do you want to sell your gorgeous candles flawlessly? Do you want to convince folks to fill your form to hop-in to your creative workshop?

Settle on one or a couple of main objectives for your website, and then move to the next step.

2. Be the same person in writing as in real life

Write as you speak is the best advice I could offer. It might sound frail, but it’s true. Copy-catting others, using cookie-cutter strategies, imitating the big players out there will only bring you damages.

And hey, trust is something hard to earn and easy to lose, so make sure you treasure it accordingly. The best approach to open this heavy door is by leading by example.

There’s no perfect approach to express your personality and showcase your work. It’s a trial-and-error, a continuous iteration, a permanent fine-tuning.

3. Figure out your target audience and speak their language

Start by considering how would your readers’ intentions and expectations look like. Imagine a specific scenario and try to grasp how they would express various needs and tailor the content to match them.

For example, if you’re a dreamer who sells soy candles and sharing a big chunk of your life with your Instagram audience, then manifest this kind of openness through your writing too. People want to find the same person behind the www.

Btw, I keep referring to this example because we lent a hand to a local entrepreneur build a website for these particular products, and OMG, they smell amazing!

In a nutshell, these takeaways are worth remembering:

1. There’s no such thing as design vs content; it’s a symbiosis, a tango if you want.
2. Design accommodates the content, which means you should start writing and stop blaming the look-and-feel for your lack of progress.
3. Expressing your personality will always be an adventure, so make sure you start with a first version and take it from there.

I’m not about putting writing on the podium or giving it more importance than needed. The content is king, and other hot slogans do nothing more than pressure people who want to build a website for their business.

I sincerely believe we need to start demystifying this craft as much as possible and encouraging people to write because all stories are worthy and deserve to be in the spotlight.

This posh yet glamorous approach towards writing keeps people away from sharing their narratives, which is, of course, a massive disservice for all of us.

When it comes to creating your website, content is the fuel that keeps the website’s engine up and running. Without it, you can’t reach the destination. So, are you ready to heat those rubbers?

The post Content or design: which comes first when creating your website? appeared first on Pixelgrade.

You might be a photographer who decides to sell their prints, a ceramist who creates vases, or a painter who turned their way of slowing down into products people want to hang on their walls. Once you get traction and see a genuine interest in want you make, the natural next step is to think about the best ways to present your products and sell them with ease.

Of course, getting traction usually means starting on social media. Still, we all know how easy things can get out of hand: multiple messages on various channels (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp), a difficult way of tracking your orders and filtering customers, and the pressure to answer those requests as soon as possible, no matter the time of day.

That’s why you are probably here, reading this article. You’re evaluating if building a website is the right way to go and want to figure out how to do it.

So, in my attempt to help, I’m going to walk you through these steps:

1. Why having a website is the right next step
2. What is WordPress and why you should consider it over alternatives
3. What are the basics of building a website
4. How a creative like you manages her small business with WordPress

Let’s make it happen!

Why you should build your website on WordPress

WordPress is an open-source content management system that allows people to create a website easily. It powers about 43.2% of all the websites, and the vast community around it helps it grow each day—either by contributing to the core code of WordPress or by expanding its functionality via plugins (for things like email marketing, e-commerce, payments, contact forms, etc.), and themes (to ensure your website looks top-notch).

There are, of course, other alternatives like Shopify, Squarespace, Wix, and more. They promise to deliver a more effortless website building experience while offering all the necessary parts in-house. Nothing comes without a learning curve and, since their software is closed source (meaning they have total control, you don’t want that, trust me!), the possibilities of broadening their functionality are limited.

This is especially true if you are not based in countries like the US, Canada, or the UK. Since few external developers can build on top of these platforms, you will often find yourself unable to integrate with the popular providers in your region (like payment processors, delivery services, etc.). Here, WordPress excels due to the power and size of its community, which means you will almost always find a solution for every need you have. 

On top of this, with WordPress, you own the website you built, and you can do whatever you want with it. Add as many things, tweak it however you want, remove what you don’t need. 

That’s not the case with the other solutions. They keep a tight lock on what you can do on their platform, which tools to choose, and how to adjust them. Fewer choices to make (an advantage for some) and less flexibility—you need to decide what matters to you.

What are the basics of building a WordPress website

The only difference between WordPress and the other website builders is that you need to find yourself a hosting—meaning a place where your website will be stored (similar to how you store files on a hard drive, to put it simply).

The good thing is that hosting providers have improved their services, and most come with WordPress pre-installed. GoDaddy, Bluehost, SiteGround, and A Small Orange are great solutions. Pick the pricing package that’s closest to your current needs, as you can always upgrade later on.

A domain name is also necessary, so people can know what to type in the address bar. This service is often one of the core offers of hosting companies, which means you can quickly get one while signing up for your hosting plan.

The most popular domain extension is .com, but if you don’t plan on addressing an international market, you can go with the top-level domain of your country (e.g., .de for Germany, .fr for French websites).

Next, you need to choose a WordPress theme that can shine a light on your business and product. Think of these as your website’s design baseline—similar to the templates offered by Squarespace and the likes. You can start with a free WordPress theme, but if you want a performant online shop, going premium is recommended to have all the bells and whistles.

What to keep in mind when choosing any provider is the company behind it. You will need customer support, and here is where not everyone is created equal. Choose the provider that seems to be there to help you when needed. Read their reviews to see what people have to say, send pre-sales questions with any concerns, check their social profiles. All in all, do a background check to learn if they’ll be there for you or not.

How a handmade soy candles business thrives on WordPress and Rosa2

I have the perfect example to prove my point.

In the next lines, I would like to present Andra, a creative person who decided to channel her creativity into making scented handmade soy candles. She started in 2016 and named her small business Flair Scent.

I’ve been a creative person since I was a little kid. I was always creating stuff from paper and cardboard, like pencil stands, photo frames, cards, jewelry, all kinds of crafts. Sometimes, when kids would call me to go out and play, I would say, “no, I want to play by myself.” But back then, I didn’t knew I was creative.

Andra from Flair Scent

Since she was a kid, she loved to surround her house with a pleasant smell, going as far as rating the best smelling apartments among her friends. Fast forward 15 years, finding a scented candle while on vacation made her rediscover her passion and think about making a similar product.

I was already a scented candle fan after discovering them on a trip to London, visiting my sister. Every time I went there, I would buy lots of scented candles because they were nowhere to be found in Romania. When I read the label of a candle, I saw that it was 100% soy wax. The next thing I did was order soy wax and some scents, but those ended up staying in the closet for almost a year.

Suddenly, for women’s day in Romania, desperate for some gifts for my boss and colleague, I took out the wax and the scents from the closet, some old cups I had around the house, used cotton strings as wicks, and that night I created my first scented candles. The next day I gave them as gifts, and they were very much appreciated. My boss was the first to tell me that I could sell them. Since then, I started testing types of soy wax, scents, wicks, pouring temperatures, and in August 2016, I started my own company.

Andra from Flair Scent

As demand increased, it was clear that the selling and presentation process needed to be streamlined, and continuing to sell via social media would not hold for long.

That’s when WordPress came to the stage, and she launched the first version of her website. As time went by, her business evolved, and it was clear that she needed a more robust solution. On top of that, she wanted a website that highlights her personality in style. She tried to put her vision out there and express it across the digital house, too. It’s what brought her to this place, after all.

Here’s when Rosa2, our best-selling WordPress theme, alongside the WooCommerce Add-on (a unique styling added the WooCommerce plugin needed for selling online) felt like the right choice.

With our customer support assistance, she redesigned the website and relaunched it just in time for the Christmas holiday season. Equipped with a theme built on the new block editor from WordPress, creating the pages was a breeze. Our customer support team came in handy when she hit roadblocks and didn’t shy away from recommending the best tools to get the job done.

Here’s the final result:

Although a daunting task at first, building your own website doesn’t have to be a complicated process if you have the right partners by your side.

Here’s what she has to say about the entire redesign process:

In October 2020, I won a European project, so the company got bigger; I had plans to open a physical store, I added a few employees to the team, so I felt the need to refresh everything, including the website. I have five employees now, and I feel this comes with great responsibility. It changes everything. From my bohemian way of living, all by myself, pouring candles at night, when I felt like it, talking to clients and packing candles by day, to learning how to work in a team, pouring candles with people around me, which never happened before. But it feels like the right thing to do, the right next step.

The new website is exactly what I envisioned, and I couldn’t have done it as fast without Pixelgrade’s support. You helped me launch it before the busiest time of the year—the Christmas holidays. The website worked flawlessly from day one, even when I got a surge in traffic. People congratulated me, saying that everything runs smooth and fast and that it looks amazing.

Now I can think about the next steps, like making an English version to sell across Europe, adding a dedicated page for workshop registration, and more.

Andra from Flair Scent

Building your own digital house should be seen not as a burden but as a natural evolution for your small creative businesses. Once you have it up and running, you’ll be surprised by the many possibilities that will open up to you.

It would be best if you remembered that the Internet tools of today had explicitly evolved to accommodate people no matter their digital literacy. All you need to do is pick the partners that speak to your values, prove that they can support you along the way, and you should be set for giving your website the best chance. It’s not the ultimate bulletproof since we live in such a dynamic and complex world, but it’s a route it’s worth taking.

If you were that courageous to open your creative side to the eyes and criticism of others by showcasing your work into the world, I’m sure you can handle building a website. You just have to start.

PS: Since selling with WordPress requires WooCommerce, the e-commerce plugin that powers 26% of all online stores, you might want to learn why you should consider WooCommerce for building an online store.

— Photo credits: George Mihăilă

The post How to sell your crafts online using WordPress appeared first on Pixelgrade.

Anyone who plans to build a website for his products or services aims for differentiation. We, as human beings, strive to feel unique. In so many senses, we are. There are plenty of nuances: from our culture to our backgrounds, from our experiences to our families, from our way of looking at the world to our approach to raising kids. Beauty lies, indeed, in diversity.

In 1980, Snyder & Fromkin, two writers and psychologists whose names have an echo among folks interested in the concept of uniqueness(they even invented a scale for measuring it), came up with something labeled as The Theory of Uniqueness.

Uniqueness theory deals with people’s emotional and behavioral reactions to information about their similarity to others. According to the theory, people find high levels of similarity and dissimilarity unpleasant and therefore seek to be moderately distinct from others. via

We tend to compare ourselves with others based on various attributes, such as personality traits, status, even opinions, and physical characteristics.

Sometimes, if we feel too alike in multiple areas, we experience threatening. We need to tango between being somehow similar, which comes with a comforting feeling of familiarity as well as being distinct, making us feel special.

This need translates as well in the digital realm. Each picture we share, article we publish, or Youtube video we distribute is a means to put ourselves out there to showcase our unique experiences, perspectives, or simply the things that match who we are. 

Of course, all of these taken individually are not unique. Many other people went to the exact place, read the same posts, or listened to the same music. However, we experience them differently. It’s almost impossible to grasp precisely, in the same way, our adventures or interests; therefore, we distinguish ourselves from the pack.

The same is applied when it comes to building a website for yourself or your business. You look around at various examples, create a mental list of the elements, colors, shapes, and ideas from all over the Internet and map out an image of what might make you stand out. 

One of the main challenges is that, at least with WordPress, the search begins with finding a theme that serves your vision.

How can something prebuilt (that many other people buy) make you feel special and get the right kind of attention?

Yes, it might check many if not all the boxes you have in mind, but the challenge still stands—can something predesigned make you shine?

Before jumping to specific examples of businesses from the same industry that have websites made with the same WordPress theme but look highly different (thus, your uniqueness is safe and sound), let me put some ducks in a row within the WordPress ecosystem. It’s essential to have a broader understanding to make the best decisions.

With these two takeaways in mind, I want to walk you through a few drooling food businesses within the same industry—restaurants. All of them use Rosa2, our flagship product, to present their work, products, services, philosophy, and team in a unique way.

They all started from the same demo and niche product and made a little extra effort to detach from it and adjust the WordPress theme to their personality and context.

It’s not about custom work, hiring designers or developers, nor it’s about spending countless hours in forums about website creation. All you will see it’s just a combination of the tools we offered out of the box and their mojo added into the mix.

You are a drop in the ocean, and to make ripples and keep momentum, you need to amplify your uniqueness in a sustainable manner.

Images and fonts can set you apart in a meaningful way

Often, when you want to build a website, you bend your mind to find the right ways to differentiate yourself. But in most cases, there’s a simple answer: choosing the right photos and fonts representing your business. Take the two examples below.

One of our clients is Bistro Biocity from Germany who welcomes its visitors with the screen below:

Without even reading about the ingredients used, their philosophy, or way of going things, you instantly understand the kind of meals they serve: healthy, rich in vegetables, balanced, full of nutrients.

Their choice of fonts provides hints on how they want to be perceived—modern, professional, set in doing things a certain way but playful and fun to be around. It doesn’t take long to scroll and see the same unique elements repeated with each block added to the page.

Now, let’s take a look at another website by our client Modesto from Denver, US:

By looking at the first image, you instantly feel the type of place Modesto is: fun, family and friends friendly, a place where you can eat great food, laugh out loud, and have a great time among a welcoming staff. You will feel comfortable the minute you walk in.

The font choice is also on point—it’s in line with the logo displayed at the top and overall vibe—loose, chill, relaxed, fun.

As you can see, even though both websites have a similar approach to the homepage, the things that set them apart make you overlook the fact that they (in essence) use the same WordPress editor blocks from Rosa2: the Hero of the Galaxy.

Even though the structure is similar (big background image with text on top), by adapting the fonts and images to who they are, these businesses manage to differentiate and communicate their unique way of doing things.

Colors and a bit of creativity can show your uniqueness

You might think that almost all restaurants need to display their menu online—and since it’s the same feature used by all customers who purchase Rosa2, the menus will look the same.

This is not true in the slightest. Although you get the same Food Menu block, adding your unique dishes can make room for a lot of creativity.

To illustrate my point, I’ve chosen Modesto’s website once again. Take a look at their menu:

The great choice of fonts instantly sets them apart and makes them unique. Combined with the background color, their menu gets even more pleasing to the eyes.

Besides that, with a bit of creativity, they created a colored marking system that highlights various details about their food. With a single glance, you can see which dishes are Gluten Free (marked GF), Vegetarian (marked with a V), or Gluten Free Upon Request (GFR).

Now let’s look at another customer—this time is Spice Room from Denver, US.

Honestly, at first glance, it’s hard to think that both Spice Room and Modesto use the same editor block at the core. The difference is almost palpable. 

Spice Room nailed the font choices, while the color combination and the highlights for certain food items make it easy to scan the menu. 

Another great way they stand out is by using a list of icons to signal various specifications about the food they serve.

With the help of a legend at the top, you can quickly skim through the menu and choose an item that matches your taste. Let’s say you are vegetarian—you don’t have to read all the ingredients to understand which is which. All you have to do is scan for the corresponding icon.

As you can see, with a bit of imagination, both businesses managed to use the same feature from Rosa2 to present their menu in a unique way and set themselves apart.

When it comes to the digital world, things come with higher stakes. We not only make comparisons with our colleagues, neighbors, family members but with the world out there.

Your website is no longer something to brag about within your local community or to put it down on your business card. It gained far more meaning. It’s on the world-wide-web, it’s searchable, it’s shared on social media, it’s linked, it’s part of a spiderweb. It has a bigger role in your business success, however you want to define it. 

So yeah, having the strong desire to build a website different and truly yours makes perfect sense, especially in the crowded digital field. The truth is that you are a drop in the ocean, and to make ripples and keep momentum, you need to amplify your uniqueness in a sustainable manner. This could mean to make a step further and put more of you out there. It might be enough.

Does Rosa 2 sound interesting?

Take a look and discover all the features packed into this versatile WordPress theme 👇

View Rosa 2

The post Can a niche WordPress theme help you build a unique website? appeared first on Pixelgrade.

Each context is particular as each story is unique. How you pack your About page can make or break the experience. The good thing about building a web page is that there are patterns (both for writing and visual representation) that you can identify and use depending on your needs. These patterns come with various challenges, but I hope this article can help overcome some of them.

There are plenty of scenarios in which you can find yourself when creating your About page. Maybe you are a blogger who shares your traveling passion, a solopreneur doing ceramics during the weekend, a psychologist running private sessions, or perhaps you have a small photo studio where you offer various creative services.

At Pixelgrade, we spend a lot of time skimming through websites of all kinds. I took those thousands of hours and used our experience to showcase five big particular team structures and sizes in which you might find yourself when writing the About page.

Read further to learn how to adjust the communication approach and support the message with a suitable visual representation. This way, you get the chance to put that fantastic story at work and grab the right kind of visitors.

Please remember that all the examples below are made using Rosa2 since it’s our most versatile product. You don’t need coding or design skills to make it happen, promise!

Let’s take one situation at a time and walk you through everything you need to know to create this particular page with ease and a bit of fun.

Quick navigation:

• About page for yourself
• About page for co-founders
• About page for small teams
• About page for team and collaborators
• About page for dedicated departments

About page for yourself

In other words, you’re alone, doing stuff by yourself. You can be an illustrator, a designer, a photographer, a videographer, a copywriter, a psychologist, you name it. You work as a solopreneur; you are responsible for your products, services, pricing, marketing, and so on. Jack of all trades, if you want.

In this particular case, the About page of your website demands hosting a story. Being the solo brain in charge of everything makes room for personality and creativity.

Don’t shy away from being personal in how you present your narrative. We live in a world where we’re exhausted by how similar the websites look and feel. Make sure you stand out from the crowd through a powerful story.

Don’t overreact, don’t show off, and, most importantly, don’t mislead your readers. Offer them details that make sense depending on the goal of your website. You don’t need to name everything you do to make a big fuss—coherence and consistency beat quantity and oversharing.

You can create such a page with Rosa2, our best-selling Wordpress theme since its launch. It’s easy to use, it comes with all the bells and whistles, and it guides you through the process of obtaining a result that makes you proud.

Here’s an example of how you can pack that story on the website:

About page for co-founders

If you find yourself in this situation, then it’s time to put together a shared story that strikes a chord. In the end, what made you kick off together? How do you fit? What are your complementary skills, and how do you make the most out of them? What are the values that keep the engine in motion?

Please bear in mind that answering the above questions should not exclude being personal and authentic. Not at all. You can still express your uniqueness through a story without putting your partner in the shadows.

One straightforward way to achieve a great result is to present yourself individually (put a name on the face) and then add some details that are relevant for both of you (a red thread). This is how the idea of a team walks into the spotlight.

Most of the companies made by two founders are pretty sterile. They are presented as a stand-alone scenario, where each of them is treated individually. But what about the commonalities? What you plan to achieve together is valuable for visitors to know. Treating the About page as a gateway towards shared identity can enhance the experience and make it memorable.

Here’s one way it can look:

About page for small teams

When expanding the team to three+ (and counting) members, you need to be a bit more strategic when presenting your squad. While the personal details still work and bring relevant information, it’s time to step up and name clearly who does what.

For instance, if you’re in an architecture studio, you might all be architects from the office. This does not mean that you do the same work, nor have a 100% overlap in skills and knowledge. One single person pays the salaries and the rent at the end of the day, right?

Display the roles or responsibilities in a way that’s easy to grasp for the visitor. People need to understand by the blink of an eye who does what, who leads who, who’s going to answer their questions.

If you present your squad without any hierarchy, it’s easy to produce confusion, even a lack of professionalism. The goal is not to put some people on a pedestal but to explain their roles behind the curtain.

It will save time and energy, especially if you create a contact page to direct visitors towards an outcome. If someone is writing about a new project, the person in the first contact line should take it from there. On the other hand, if someone reaches out for a summer internship, maybe it’s a different guy or gal who should respond at the end of the chain.

About page for your team and collaborators

This is usually true when you have a core team and a few steady collaborators. To keep the above example alive, I’ll add that collaborators should not be treated as second-class citizens, especially if you have long-term bonds and aim to keep nurturing them. Make this message crystal clear because it says something about how good you are at relationship-building. Hopefully, you already have this skill set in place.

You can keep the positioning of the core team sharp, draw a detailed profile, and add some flavor by listing the collaborators in a way that makes sense for your particular industry. One way to do it is by filling them into categories, such as marketing / operations / HR.

Regardless of how you operationalize, make sure you avoid being too creative. Before showing your outstanding copywriting or design skills, information has one crucial goal to achieve: clarity. When describing your marketing collaborations, save some energy and focus on what they do and what’s your approach to promoting products and services.

About page for dedicated departments

Reaching this point implies a few different things. On the one hand, it means that you have internal processes that make this flow of working run. On the other hand, it could imply that you want to direct your visitors and potential clients to the best people to help solve specific problems.

Having dedicated departments does not mean that you need 100 folks on your payroll. It can be eight souls, as we are, at Pixelgrade. We’re distributed in different areas, depending on our skills and job responsibilities.

For instance, even though our customer support zone comprises two people, it’s essential to mark it accordingly. In the end, Alin and Alex are in the tranches, replying to our customers’ requests, directing them to the best solution, going the extra mile to find better alternatives, and such. 

It’s easier for clients to make mental anchors directly to the people they are working with. It also helps them develop stronger relationships along the way. We have dozens of examples of customers who reached out to our guys and shared all kinds of stuff outside the professional area, from how things are going on their side of the world in terms of the pandemic to all sorts of travel tips and stories.

I wrote a stand-alone article on the storytelling challenges when creating your About page. If you have a hard time putting together a narrative that gets the job done (answers your visitor’s questions), make sure you give it a go.

The About page is a piece of the entire digital puzzle. It’s important to craft it in a way that showcases your current version of the story. If you’re a one-person show, then don’t pretend you’re a small company because people will soon realize and feel betrayed. Harmonize everything to your reality, and once it changes, make sure you update the page and the overall website, too. 

We need more such pages that are built with care towards the visitors. Less shamelessly self-promo that lacks meaning, and more authentic narratives that awake feelings and emotions. These are the hardest to forget or pass unnoticed, trust me.

Does Rosa 2 sound interesting?

Take a look and discover all the features packed into this versatile WordPress theme 👇

View Rosa 2

The post About page examples for different team structures appeared first on Pixelgrade.

As a small business, you might invest a lot of energy, time, and money in keeping momentum on your blog, yet you fail to achieve results and get people reading.

There are a few reasons why that happens. On the one hand, you might write about topics that make little sense for your audience. On the other, you might have trouble keeping up with the tempo, so the blog quickly turns into an abandoned ship that gets rusty with each passing day.

Since we craft WordPress solutions that help people build websites, we have first-hand experience working with many small businesses that create blogs: from restaurants, digital agencies, and architecture studios to NGOs, photographers, ceramic artists, you name it.

During the past ten years of working with such creative souls, we identified what works and what doesn’t when it comes to building a blog that aligns with your values and objectives.

In this article, I’ll guide you through identifying the blog posts that are most relevant to your audience, the next steps after publishing a post, and how to differentiate yourself and your business through your blog.

Let’s get to it.

Quick navigation:

1. Your company blog is not (just) a self-promo channel 
2. Have a clear intent behind your company blog
3. Writing the blog post is just the start

#2. Have a clear intent behind your company blog

There’s A LOT of content of all types out there. From Youtube videos to new Netflix shows almost every week, to blog posts and newsletters to social media posts—each of them fights for our attention.

People’s mental bandwidth is the most precious currency these days. Therefore, it’s important to:

Be thoughtful about what you publish

When there are so many things to do with our time, it’s important to choose the right places to spend our attention. Try to be crystal clear about what you have to offer, when you are offering it, and deliver on your promises.

And don’t think that more is always better. Your audience will be grateful for not overcrowding their mind and digital space with updates every day. They have more important things to do.

To make sure people understand what our blog is about, we created a dedicated blog post (pinned on the blog archive) in which we talk about why we run a blog, why we named it Upstairs, what we’ll be writing about, and what to expect while visiting it.

You might consider writing a similar statement piece to set the right expectations for your audience.

Speak from experience

We’re all tired of reading the same recycled content that floats around the Internet without providing a new perspective on things—“10 things to do this. 5 ways to change this.”

These types of articles don’t fly anymore.

If you want to stand out, make sure you share your expertise, your know-how, and the lessons you’ve learned along the way. Avoid copy-catting others just because they seem to attract more eyeballs. You’ll be the winner in the long term.

For example, when we wrote about how to create your website’s footer, we shared the actual process we went through on pixelgrade.com. This way, people can see that we put skin in the game and share only tried-and-tested advice.

Acknowledge your shortcomings

Your audience will appreciate honesty and transparency and would rather hear about your missteps than read glamorous pieces about how great you’re doing without sharing anything about the process and learnings that got you there. 

In the end, how much can you learn when everything seems to be flawless? Not much.

That’s why we never shy away from sharing the ups and downs we go through each year. Our goal is to provide insights into how a business evolves and maybe help others avoid our mistakes or, at least, know that they are not alone.

That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t write about your successes. Just be careful to bring value to the people reading it by offering advice and insights into how you did it, and you’re not just bragging.

Don’t be afraid to be bold

While it’s true that your writing should match your audience’s needs, that doesn’t mean that you cannot speak your truth out of fear of making some readers uncomfortable.

Own your voice to attract people who resonate with your approach.

We did the same when we spoke about what we think should change in the WordPress publishing and media world, and we found that many other people felt the same way.

We were the first to voice those problems, but they were felt throughout the entire industry. This article opened a bigger discussion inside the WordPress ecosystem and made our voice stronger.

Don’t write only about what you do and the things that your prospective customers might be interested in right before purchasing. I encourage you to go beyond your core work and explore complementary areas that touch on what you do.

Younger generations, in particular, put a lot of pressure on brands to be more open, more transparent, more ethical.

For example, suppose you are a graphic design agency; you can write about the creative process behind your brand collaborations. Many other independent artists are interested in this type of content, thus making you a great source of inspiration for your peers (and open a pool of people who would love to work for you).

Or you could write about the local community projects you are part of that bring you joy and fulfillment—these stories will show your human side and allow potential collaborations to know they’ll be working with someone that cares about the wellbeing of others.

Another interesting route is to create a blog that brings your products in the center without shoving them into people’s faces. One of our customers is MontanaCans, a German company that produces high-quality spraypaint, which runs a blog dedicated to helping people creatively personalize their home and surrounding using the spray paints they make.

In our case, we share a lot about the culture inside the team and about the local endeavors we take to fulfill our mission—to support people to have an impact in their communities. These narratives showcase our human side, the challenges we face, and how we practice what we preach.

Although not all of these articles will be very helpful for SEO per se (optimizing for search engines), they exist to paint visitors and potential customers a fuller picture of who is behind the scenes. They will learn how you do business, the values you stand for, what you aim to achieve, and how you want to impact the world. It’s far more valuable than any search engine optimization tactic.

Having a blog is a great way to build awareness, credibility and to make room in your audience’s mind as a possible solution to their problem. At the same time, each blog post acts as a way to (re)open the conversation and bring some light towards what you do and what you have to offer.

You can share a product presentation page so much until it becomes annoying. Still, a powerful story can reveal different perspectives around you and your business and attract new eyes to what you have to offer.

Plus, each article is an extra chance to create a liaison with your readers and generate a ripple effect. It’s easier to get mentions due to your unique perspective than to have your products promoted on other websites.

In the end, a blog means more eyeballs on you and more exposure opportunities. 

Who knows, maybe among those curious visitors, some will remember you and return to get some of the things you have to offer. A few could come back because they were impressed with a story you wrote, others because they get frank advice about overcoming specific challenges.

Embrace them all regardless of their why.

The post How to run a company blog that people want to read appeared first on Pixelgrade.

Day in and day out, I see a bunch of websites, I analyze them, I’m mesmerized by some folks’ bravery, but also sad when I notice how hard people focus on getting the visual elements just right while neglecting the importance of providing clarity with each new element and paragraph.

I’m not saying that the visual doesn’t matter. It can play a big role, and we know this since most of our customers say that we sell beautiful designs. However, the implications weigh only when they are helping you achieve certain goals on your website. And the best way to uncover your goals is by asking the right questions before creating your website.

We often have internal debates before writing an article about covering a specific topic within the website creation playground. It’s easy to throw all kinds of 12 steps to, but as marketers, we’re well aware that the value does not lie in lists but context and in-depth information. At the same time, we can’t mime a full-service agency. We’re a product company; they’re a service organization.

If you succeed in walking through all of this and take action before jumping into building your website blindly, we guarantee that you already went further than most.

Usually, independent creators (primarily one-person companies working in photography, ceramics, design, illustration, copywriting, etc.) want to speed up the process by using cookie-cutter strategies and miss the essential areas of creating a relevant and performant website in the long haul.

Prepare your notebook, and let’s do some serious work to smooth your way in the digital world.

Quick navigation:

• Business goals first, aesthetics second
• Questions to ask before creating your website
  • Questions to discover your needs
  • Questions to discover the needs of your audience
• Find a route that works for you

Business goals first, aesthetics second

As mentioned earlier, one misstep is focusing on the aesthetics that catch people’s eyes and forgetting about having a clear statement that answers why someone should do business with you. It’s commonly known as a value proposition, and the main goal is to make it crystal clear what’s in it for your visitors.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s proven that people first focus on the visual aspects of your website—it’s human nature to interpret images faster than text. But after the first 2.6 seconds, people’s attention will be on the key elements to quickly understand what you do and decide if you can help them or not.

Let’s take a few home page examples so you can better understand my point. First, take a look at the website below and try to guess what they’re doing.

If you are not familiar with the brand, at first glance, it seems like they are promoting a design class, so that must be it, right? Or maybe a community of creatives? It can be anything and something at the same time.

Oh well, the company is creating pencils and all other kinds of writing and drawing instruments. And they are quite successful at it with a business with a history of more than 100 years.

I’ll give them credit to the fact that their brand is probably big enough that they can play around on their website, but for most businesses out there, that’s not the case. On top of that, no matter how big or small, clarity is a value in itself. Don’t underestimate it.

Now let’s take another example. Take a look at the video below:

Once you read the headline, you’ll see that you don’t need to invest much effort to understand what their website is all about—helping you with the hassle of time tracking.

At the same time, they didn’t take shortcuts when it comes to visuals; instead, they used them to draw people’s attention and make them stay while completing the puzzle with a value proposition that clears the air and sets the right expectations for visitors.

If I were to go a step further, I would suggest being even clearer in the main headline by swapping the headline with the subtitle. That would look something like this:

As you can see, although visuals are important to get visitors to stay in the first few seconds, the text should be the one enticing them to stick around and browse other areas of the website.

Don’t go for catchy and fancy wording that raises more questions. Clarity first, creativity second.

The next thing you need to keep in mind is how your website answers the possible questions of your audience. If you want people to choose you and what you have to offer, you must provide and unravel those answers with each scroll of the page.

Take, for example, the presentation page for Rosa2, our WordPress theme. In it, we aim to showcase our product while alleviating fears by answering questions like:

• What can I build with this product?
• How can I customize it?
• Can it help me sell my products online?
• Do I get customer support?
• Can I translate it into my language?
• Will my website be performant if I use your product?
• Is it optimized for search engines?
• What websites have others built with this product?
• What do past customers say about this product?
• Are there any hidden costs that I should know about?
• Can I get my money back if I don’t find it a good fit after the purchase?

I know that getting to that place of clarity and providing answers to your audience’s biggest questions is no easy feat. That’s why it’s important to get your priorities straight while building a website.

Next, I’m going to walk you through some of the things that can help you come up with a value proposition that speaks to your audience’s needs.

Questions to ask before creating your website

As I mentioned earlier, the look and feel of your website needs to be followed by a clear message that explains why people should choose you.

Now it’s time to discover your goals and your visitor’s needs and wants so you can address them with each page you create. To do that, you must ask yourself and your audience the right questions before you even start creating your website.

1. Questions to discover your needs

If you want to build a website that speaks to who you are and helps you make something of it, you must first spend time thinking about your objectives.

This process is not a walk in the park, but the following list of questions can help you create a website on solid ground and uncover the core needs behind your business. From our experience of working with many creative entrepreneurs across the globe, we learned that it’s essential to make sure you don’t offer superficial answers. They will go against you.

1. What kind of website do you want to build?

Is it one where you showcase your portfolio? Or maybe you want to sell some of the products you make? Or perhaps writing is your core passion and what it to take center stage. Whatever it is, you must be clear about its purpose.

2. What business need do you want to cover with the website?

Do you want more customers for your photography business? Are you looking to generate more online sales or maybe build a personal brand around your writing?

No matter what it is, make sure you have it written down because your entire website should revolve around this objective and help you achieve it. With every page you build, section you add, or blog post you write, you must think about how it can get you closer to your goal. Only with this in mind can you turn your website into something alive and working for your dreams.

3. What is your target market?

Think about who are the people who will visit your website and are looking to get something from you. This is key, especially when you get down to write the content on your website. You must speak your audience’s language and make sure you meet their expectations.

Regardless of what you offer and however posh your audience might be, don’t get trapped into creative writing that brings no clarity. It not only makes people raise their eyebrows because they don’t understand the basics, and it will also frustrate them, thinking that you are fooling around.

4. What should people be able to accomplish on your website?

This can take many shapes and forms but focus on getting closer to achieving your goal. Depending on what your website is all about, the actions people should achieve can be booking a call, browsing your portfolio, learning about the people behind the curtain, purchasing your products, etc.

There can only be one primary action tied to your main goal and several secondary actions that address your visitors’ concerns.

Let’s say you are an architecture studio that builds houses, and your primary goal is for people to book a call. Think of how each page can help you get there. It can mean adding a “Book a call” button in the top navigation, footer, or at the end of each blog post.

As for secondary actions, these are the tools and features you need to address your visitor’s concerns. Continuing the example above, think of things like offering examples of projects, case studies people can read or download, testimonials from past customers, a newsletter or blog where you can showcase your expertise to allow people to build trust. 

Or, if people might wonder about your price ranges, you can go a step further and offer a simulation calculator where people can get a sense of what working with you might mean.

If you want to get an idea about the must-have pages your website needs, you can dive deeper by reading our blog post.

5. What are the other must-have features your website needs?

Certain features will allow you to publish the content the way you want and present yourself online on your terms. It’s better to figure out what those features are so you can start building your website with a bigger picture in mind.

For example, you might need integration with email services or payment providers, support for audio or video content, and so on.

Find a route that works for you

There are many blueprints and advice on the internet, but never forget that these are recommendations and not set in stone. 

You might not get it right from the first try, or there might be things you learn along the way that will influence how your website looks and feels.

It’s always best to take everything with a grain of salt and think about what you enjoy doing most and which are the products or projects that fit your values and way of building your business.

For example, people might expect to call you instead of email, but if you don’t want to spend your days on the phone and if the answers they seek require thinking time, make sure you clarify that with your website visitors.

Although some needs of your potential customers are valid, so are your own; you are the one who gets to decide how you want to do business or showcase yourself online. It does come with potential risks, but it can also mark your personality and brand.

At the same time, your website is not like a printed piece of paper that stays the same once it is out. The great thing about the digital world is that you can easily change things up when needed. Start from somewhere and constantly adjust on the way. You might not get it right from the first try, or there might be things you learn along the way that will influence how your website looks and feels.

We at Pixelgrade evolved a lot in the last few years—we discovered our values and made adjustments in the way we build our products, talk with our customers, or write online so that it matches with who we’ve become. We tried different ways of packaging our products that proved not to fit our customer’s expectations. That meant going back to the drawing board, analyzing our needs again, talking with our customers, and coming up with a more straightforward message that explains why people should choose us.

The same can be true for your website. Don’t settle for less. Put your business goals first, listen to your customers, find ways to alleviate their fears on your terms, and go beyond the eye-candy regarding photos, visual gimmicks, and overall design.

Every piece of content or feature from your website needs to help you reach your business goals, regardless of their nature: raising awareness, selling products and services, booking events, contacting and asking for an offer, nurturing a community, etc. 

In today’s world, where each of us spends so much time online, jumping from one www to another, most of your potential customers are well-informed and have developed a solid radar for bulls**t. If you’re not asking the right questions before creating your website, you won’t be able to be crystal clear and transparent right from the start, and people will just hit the little (x) in the corner of their browser.

The post Which questions to ask before creating your website appeared first on Pixelgrade.

I’m sure that, as a creative person, you understand the power of catching people’s attention—be it via your creative artwork, a product you created, a photo or video you captured, or a written story that awakens deep emotions in those who read it.

Having a newsletter is like having someone’s phone number that you can text at any time, with the added benefit of writing once and distributing the same message to a few dozens (or even millions) of people. This makes email a powerful tool and one of the few digital communication methods that directly connects your message to the person interested in hearing it.

Of course, I’m not the only one knowing this, and neither are you. Anyone’s email can easily get overwhelmed by people or companies with the same goal—distribute their message to those interested.

Long gone are the days in which getting an email was an excitement. Now the inbox seems to become more crowded and harder to navigate. That’s why creating a newsletter is no easy feat and should not be taken lightly.

For almost nine months, we helped local creative entrepreneurs create digital homes for their businesses. During our collaboration, I noticed a big drive in implementing a subscription box on their website. While this shows that they understand the power of direct communication, this drive was not accompanied by a strategy on why, what, how, and when they should communicate with those looking to hear from them.

Without a clear strategy, you can leave room for all sorts of interpretations and frustrations on both ends—yours and your subscribers.

In this article, I will provide some guidance to help avoid the same mistakes and start this adventure with the right tools and strategies under your belt.

One of the first things you should tackle before comparing email sending services is to…

Give your newsletter a clear purpose

I can safely say that this is one of the most important and most skipped steps in implementing a newsletter on a website. From my experience, often, people go directly to adding a subscription box with no clear promise or intention behind it.

Going forward in this manner can bring many headaches for you and for the people who, although unaware of what’s going to happen next, trust you with their email address and hit the subscribe button.

What’s likely going to happen is that you will soon start feeling the pressure of sending something to your subscribers without actually knowing what to send and what they expect. Constantly having in the back of your head that people expect a message from you can become a burden.

As for the people who manage to subscribe to a mysterious newsletter, they will be caught off guard when out of nowhere, and after god-knows how many months, an email from you pops in their inbox.

To avoid such scenarios, take a bit of time to think about what you want your newsletter to be about. People need a clear value proposition from you to make room in their already crowded inbox. Plus, having a clear purpose in mind can give you a clear direction and sets the right expectation from the get-go.

If you have a hard time deciding what your newsletter should be about, I encourage you to start from what you already know or do.

You can build a newsletter where you share your views on the industry you are activating in, or talk about your struggles and find others who relate; you can use it to keep people up to date with what you do, invite them into your world, and help them understand the passion and drive behind the scenes, or provide helpful tips and tricks for others looking to get into the field.

Whatever it is, I suggest to…

Start small and make sure it’s doable

Don’t go overboard with your plans, and don’t try to hit two many birds with one stone. Since this (probably) is new ground for you, it’s best to start with one purpose in mind and move up from that.

Make your life easier, and don’t complicate things. Although you might feel the need to talk about numerous things with your audience, overpromising can soon hurt your ability to deliver on those promises.

For example, at Pixelgrade, we created the Upstairs community as a place where creative people speak about their journey and where people can interact with one another and discuss similar experiences. We started with this goal in mind because Oana and I are the ones deeply involved and stories are closer to our heart—we know we can manage it by ourselves with small interventions from our team members.

The same can be with your newsletter—make it about one thing (at least initially) and be confident that you can handle it by yourself or have the right people around who can pitch in. This strategy allows you to be focused and ensures you can…

Tell people what to expect

Your audience needs to understand what they will receive and what’s expected of them in exchange for that email address. Stating your purpose loud and clear ensures everyone is on the same page.

The good thing is that, now that you tackled the steps I mentioned above, you can start outlining your promise to the website visitors you are looking to attract.

Start with detailing what you are going to send them via email. Be clear in your promise so there won’t be any misunderstandings. Don’t use complicated sentences that ultimately diffuse the message or make it harder to comprehend.

Next, make sure you explicitly mention when the newsletter is arriving in their inbox. Creating a time and frequency commitment will be helpful both ways—people will know when to expect to hear from you, and you’ll have a deadline and recurrence to keep you motivated.

To go a step further and give people a glimpse into your reasoning, it’s worth mentioning why you started this newsletter and what you want to achieve with it.

For example, let’s say you are creating handmade scented soy candles, similar to what Flair Scent does, one of our Rosa2 customers, and want to write a newsletter to share what’s it like to be a small creative business owner. During your time analysis, you realized that realistically speaking, you have can make it happen once a month.

Here’s what people can expect to read in the subscription box added on your website: “Once a month, I share details about the process and struggles I face when building my small business in the hopes that others find inspiration and learn from my mistakes.”

All you have to do next is get down to work while you…

Make sure it speaks to who you are

As with any writing endeavor, the main roadblock comes from actually sitting down and writing the content. A lot of questions might pop into your head: “How should I address my audience? Should I be friendly or formal? Where to start?”

Hard questions, indeed, but they have a straightforward answer—write the same way you talk. We’re written many times on this subject (I mentioned that stories are closer to our heart, didn’t I?) and even created an ebook on how to improve your writing style, but it all comes down to being true to who you are.

Let’s say you publish a picture on Instagram. To create more context, you start writing a few lines, outlining a story around that photo. Well, when it comes to writing your newsletter, you should most certainly use the same writing style and migrate it over to email.

There’s no need for using words, expressions, or tone of voice that’s not in tune with who you are. Doing that will cause two things:

1. your audience will see disconnection from your social media persona and the one in the emails, causing an inconsistent experience;
2. your newsletter will suffer long term because it will be hard to keep up with a style that doesn’t feel like you. Soon enough, you will reach writer’s block, and you’ll have a hard time keeping your promise.

Newsletters don’t just “live” on the internet isolated from everything else you do. It’s important to offer a consistent customer experience every step of the way and make sure the newsletter fits the overall design, writing style, and brand identity.

As long as you are true to yourself, sharing your thoughts with the world will become easier as time passes by, and the people interested in hearing from you will be able to find themselves in your stories.

Of course, all of this advice means nothing without an audience. Growing your list will be a long-term process, so…

Don’t get discouraged by the numbers

People use their email for all sorts of things: track and confirm online purchases, manage bills and subscriptions, read other newsletters, get notifications from different apps, communicate with other businesses or institutions, connect with like-minded people, apply for jobs, and the list goes on.

As you can imagine, your newsletter must convince people that what you have to say deserves its place among all the others. When you think about it this way, you soon realize that having 20 subscribers is a significant achievement. It means 20 people found you worthy of taking place in their (already crowded) inbox, and your thoughts deserving the hassle of having another email to manage.

The second thing your newsletter has to do is cut through the noise and convince people to read it time and time again. If you see a 15% open rate count it as a big achievement—you swayed a part of your audience to give your email a high enough importance on that given day.

Your newsletter is competing for attention, and these days attention is the number one currency in the digital world.

Every company, big and small, wants to get as much attention as possible out of any given day—Netflix wants you to keep watching, Facebook and Instagram to keep scrolling, Youtube to jump from one video to the other.

On top of all of these attention grabbers, there’s life with all its intricacies—working, spending time with family and friends, eating, exercising, and whatnot.

It’s easy to get discouraged when looking at the “competition,” but try to see the bigger picture. You managed to convince people that making room to read your emails among all that noise is worthwhile.

Although I’ve talked a lot about strategies, goals, audience, and so on, never forget to…

That was a lot. Let’s recap the main ideas to make sure we’re on the same page:

1. Start with a purpose in mind—give your newsletter a clear goal, and keep things narrow so you can be focused and motivated;
2. Make sure you can handle it—start by writing about things you are most comfortable with, and come naturally to you; don’t complicate things, or you risk bailing out early;
3. Commit and make sure it fits your schedule—running and maintaining a newsletter is no easy feat, so make sure right from the start that it’s something you can handle long term;
4. Be honest and upfront with what you have to offer—don’t just place a subscription box without providing context. Inform your website visitors about what they will get, when you are going to knock on their digital door, and why you are doing it. Clear the air to make sure everyone’s on the same page;
5. Match the newsletter to who you are—don’t create an alternate persona or put pressure in writing your newsletter a certain way just because you saw it somewhere else. By being yourself and writing the way you talk, you create a consistent experience for those who follow you, and that’s priceless;
6. Don’t obsess over the numbers—everyone’s email is flooded with information left and right, not to mention all the other services and areas of our lives that get our attention. Keep your eyes on sending out a newsletter you are proud of, and people will follow;
7. Play around with different ideas and see what sticks—avoid getting stuck into the same ways of doing things; your life can change, the things you did can no longer be sustainable, so don’t be afraid to adjust the course and have some fun along the way.

Newsletters are one of the most effective ways you can reach many people in a single shot. It also requires an action plan, commitment, drive, and, of course, other people interested in hearing from you.

The good thing is that if you start the journey equipped with the right tools and strategies, you will most certainly reach your goals. You just need to be patient and listen to feedback; after all, email opens a two-way communication channel.

The post Starting a newsletter on the right foundation appeared first on Pixelgrade.

As a community builder constantly investing in my learning curve, I felt first-hand the limitless power of relationships. For instance, within Upstairs Community, members help me keep the cadence of publishing new narratives every two weeks. It doesn’t happen out of the blue, that’s for sure. In fact, communication is what opened the gateway to nurture this tribe.

Due to an honest and authentic dialogue, I’ve been discovering new contributors, I’ve been bringing new members on board, I’ve been iterating on the core message. I’ve been keeping things in motion.

“Relationships move at the speed of trust, and social change moves at the speed of relationships.”

Jennifer Bailey

At Pixelgrade, though, things are more complex since the entire system looks like a mosaic. We use multiple communication channels, there are several touch-points with our customers, various audiences to serve, and quite a few marketplaces.

Things are not linear nor uniform. For the past five years, we’ve been heavily investing in places where we can control the experience. I know that control can send chills down your spine, but bear with me. I’m talking about the opportunity to get in touch with our customers and initiate a relationship in the best possible terms.

Having the chance to talk directly with our customers and address their needs and interests gives us room to start building relationships.

In this article, I walk you through how we shape relationships on our side of the world. While most of the tactics could be a good fit for your business, make sure you filter them through your own lenses and goals.

Let’s dive in.

An emotional customer relationship goes a long way

First of all, it’s good to know that we’re Latin people. We have a certain passion running through our veins. We put a lot of soul and intensity into what we’re doing. It’s, for sure, a huge chunk of what kept our wheels spinning in the last ten years at Pixelgrade.

Second of all, the understanding of how we want to treat our customers in the long haul evolved as years passed. If in the beginning, we were laser-focused on solving their problems as fast as possible and move to the next one, that’s not the case anymore. Today, we still help them make progress, but we’re interested in gluing the pieces to build a bigger picture, too. 

We’re keen to understand our customers’ business, motivations, even their set of values and beliefs.

On a local level, we’ve done that thoroughly with a couple of businesses operating in the hospitality industry. Once the pandemic kicked off, we made a public call offering to them build websites that reinforce their personality and keep things afloat.

To build a relationship with them, we had multiple online calls, tailored our customers’ assistance by offering 1:1 support (Andrei, my teammate, did a fantastic job), and crafted personalized videos to help them understand the intricacies needed to move fast and safe. We genuinely gave our best to help them succeed and stay in business.

On a global scale, here are a few actions that we consistently take to nurture an emotional bond:

• Extra help: we’ve given before getting by offering rock-solid solutions through customer support tickets, even though some of them had nothing to do with our products.
• Video calls: we tried to put a face to the name and run 1:1 discussions about how they make the most out of our work and help them achieve more.
• Educational content: we’ve been writing articles about struggles they’ve been facing to help people get unstuck and make progress in better conditions.
• Interviews: we’ve been showcasing their stories on our blog in a way that’s aligned with our values and overall approach in communication; the interview with Mark speaks for itself.
• Reviews: we designed a system that encourages honest feedback about our digital products to help upcoming customers make the best decisions for their interests.
• Community: every two weeks, we invite them to get some inspiration and plenty of hope by reading beautiful stories about other people’s challenges. They also have the opportunity to share their story and create connections with other community members. 

It’s too much, too little? I don’t know. But I’m well aware that’s part of who we are today and in alignment with our mission: to support people who want to make an impact in their communities.

It’s very clear you build up communities, from Oana’s passion when writing to the quality service I’ve received from you & Vlad. Anyone who uses your products has a great chance to make an impact because of your dedication to empowering others.

I’m developing a website right now with Rosa2 for a client who provides the voice-over, video production, and brand building for her Hispanic audience, the site will be completely in Spanish. Her clients need her, my job is to help make that happen because it’s important, and you enable me to do that.

It’s a crazy world, just know that you all are making an impact here in the San Francisco Bay Area, to bring quality products & services to people that need them. Thank you Alin, this is all real, and it does make a difference, great work by all!

Jeff, Pixelgrade customer

Outcomes come in many shapes and sizes, but I’ll tackle this area in the next lines, so get yourself comfortable.

You may think that we’re in a privileged position because we’re selling on a global scale, or we have exquisite know-how internally. That’s not the case. Everyone can learn to nail building relationships. However, few people are up for the challenge. Mainly because you can’t sign in and sign out from a relationship whenever you want. You can’t be the one talking the most and pretending that you’re also a great listener. It’s not credible to look after someone only when you have an interest and ask for a commitment in return.

Please allow me to offer some hints about how you can start nourishing customers’ liaisons on your terms.

Where to start in building customer relationships

While I don’t have any recipes or magic tricks, I have ten years under my belt as a community builder. Creating tribes is all about building relationships, so I hope my expertise is enough to, at least, give the following tactics a go.

1. Know your customers

Every healthy relationship starts with a lively desire to know each other, discover, and find valuable insights. Remember when you first fell in love and felt the need to spend vast amounts of time with your dear one? Well, you don’t need to go there, but make sure you invest time and energy in discovering your customers.

One way to do that is to try to connect on a personal level. Give it your best to find out not only why they purchased your product or service. Go in-depth and learn about how they like to spend time, what their passions are, how they integrate your product or service into their life, how, when, and why they “consume” your product or service.

2. Connect with your customers

Connections come in many flavors, so feel free to choose the one that fits you best. There’s no need to compromise yourself. Get involved in contexts and scenarios where you feel comfortable, on your terms.

For instance, you can behave like a host next time you have a discussion (online or offline) with your customers. Before going wild and asking the hard questions, invest in welcoming and helping them feel comfortable. They, too, are nervous and anxious, do not doubt that. In the end, they don’t do this often. Get some coffee and goodies (if you are doing it offline), ask how their day was, how much time they have at their disposal, and how they feel. At the same time, share what you are going through — once they hear that you are as nervous as them, they will relax more knowing that a real person is on the other side.

Small gestures go a long way.

3. Stay in touch with your customers

Meaningful relationships pass the test of time. The most consistent friendships I have are with people I know a few years back. Thus, time is not the only key ingredient. Doing stuff together, sharing the same interests and passions, contributing to similar causes, having alike values are also necessary.

Your involvement does not have to end once you deliver the service or ship the product to their door. In some ways, it’s just the beginning. You can follow up a few months later and ask how they’re enjoying your product or the changes your service made possible. Learn about the ups and downs, what are the first memories they have with your product. You can also share bits and pieces of your work, including improvements you’re working on, new products coming up, awards you got, or the charitable work you are involved in and how they contributed to that.

There are various approaches to keep building relationships with your customers. In many ways, you are already doing that without even knowing it. Maybe you slipped a bonus product into the shipping box, or sent a hand-written note thanking them for choosing you. It’s precisely the kind of gesture that makes the relationship better.

It does not mean that all liaisons are equal (there’s no such thing) or that you will invest no matter the outcomes. But make sure that as long as you’re there, you give it the best chances.

Sometimes, at Pixelgrade, we’re lucky enough and get the echoes turned into reality. We get heart-melting emails from our customers who told us we’re the best. We get great reviews that make us dance in the office. We get photographs and illustrations as a sign of appreciation. We get flowers and other beautiful gifts that manifest gratitude and camaraderie.

And sometimes, we don’t get any of these. And that’s okay. It just reminds us that building relationships is a long-term investment and way of thinking and behaving. As long as we know that and act accordingly, we’re up for nurturing liaisons that last and grow. In the end, beauty lies in bringing forces together to make a change for the better, right?

The post Solid customer relationships can set you apart appeared first on Pixelgrade.