Website Design - Let's Get Them In The Door!

How are you coming along with your thoughts on who you are building your website for? Once you have that in place, the next step is conceiving your design to fit that customer. As you decide on the look, feel, theme, style and color scheme for your website, remember to keep that customer in the front of your mind. Even have the list you made up on the table in front of you.

Now, as you get to know your customer better, you can even pause, close your eyes, think and envision that customer walking up to the front of your store, looking at your windows and reading your sign on your door. The following should help you as you design your homepage.

Let's get them in that door!

What do they see that makes them smile, nod their head and open the door? Once they’re inside, what will they find, how will they find it? What kind of help do you offer them? Do they’re eyes light up and get excited about what’s inside, because of the bright colours of pink, green and purple, or do they feel comfortable, relaxed and linger to browse, because of the warmth of the browns, beiges and deep blues?

Do they like the fact that a great bargain is right up front for them to grab, or is it that your best seller was easy to find and purchase? Maybe they appreciate finding something unique and different so easily and they know their friends don’t have it yet! Perhaps it’s because they were put at ease because you assured them first and foremost about quality and service.

Again, I’ve given you a lot to think about as you move through these exercises. As you design your home page, keep these things in mind and give your customer a layout, navigation, theme and colour scheme that THEY want to see.

You will want to keep in mind the amount of text (welcoming to your customer) and graphics, (initial showing of your products) will be displayed on this page, as you work on the layout.

Feel free to post if you have any questions, need assistance or want to pass on some ideas or thoughts you had while working on your website. I love to hear from you!

Web Design – Your Customers’ Perspective

As we work our way through the basics of a productive and useful website, one of the most important things to keep in mind is that your website is not for you, but for your customers. Keeping this is perspective will help you design a website that your customers actually use and will produce sales for you.

Your customer is THE major player in the productivity of your website. After all, the number one reason for your website is to have customers who use it to buy your products.

I find that it helps if you think of your website as a virtual store. You have this store in one huge sucker of a mall – the internet – and as your customer window shops – does an internet search – how are you going to entice them to choose your website over your competitions’ to make their final purchase?

Your website needs to appeal and offer what that customer wants and needs. As they shop through the internet mall, they locate candywrappers (like a Google search) and they arrive at the end of the mall that has all the candywrapper businesses, right beside each one. As they walk through (click on the links) and look at the front of each store (open your webpage), your job is to make sure they want to come in (go through your navigation to find the product they want and buy).

The catch is that they can only see your front windows that display some of your merchandise and your front door, which has a sign giving a brief description of what’s inside. They can’t see everything that’s on your shelves inside. They have to go in to see everything and have your store clerk explain about these wonderful products. How do you get them inside your door, instead of someone elses’?

The answer is that you have to know your customer. You need to know them in the same way that you know exactly what to buy your sister for her birthday. You know what she wants, the exact colour, what size and how much to spend.

Who is your ideal customer? Who are you trying to sell your products to? What age are they, are they married, if so, do they have kids, if so, how many, what age, etc. How much do they make, what is their lifestyle, do they work, if so, for someone else or for themselves? How often and why do they purchase your products, what do they use them for?

As an example: Some candywrappers’ ideal customer is a young, married mom, who has 3 kids, between the ages of 5 and 15, she makes over $50,000 a year and has an active social life. She works long hours, so between the kids’ activities and work, doesn’t have much time for planning those social events she hosts. She looks for new ideas that will bring great comments from her friends and she has a little friendly competition going, to see if they can outdo each other at kids parties, adult socials and when playing host at fundraising events.

So, this person is looking something unique, unusual and can be made to her specifications for her event. So, being able to choose customization features should be emphasized. She doesn’t have much time on her hands, so she won’t spend much time looking. Therefore, ease of use if a major factor and being able to find things quickly is what she’s looking for. She needs products for everything from kids’ parties to major, adult events, so lots of variety in one place works best for her. Finally, she also perceives quality with price, as she wants to outdo/impress her friends, so if she conceives that something is cheap, she’ll move on. Therefore, lowest price is not necessarily what she is looking for.

Bottom line is high quality, moderate to high price, quick and easy to use, plus a variety of unique ideas will get her to buy.

Now, you try, who are you building your website for?

Websites that Work

This is the beginning of a series of posts, newsletters and shows on Wrap'n Radio on making a website that works. By "works" I mean that it functions properly, as well as does the work for you of bringing in customers and actually having sales.

I know of quite a few candy wrappers who have websites that don't make sales. I've heard from others who have asked if the expense of a website is worth it, or if they really can have enough sales to make it worthwhile. To both, I say Yes!

The information, tips and ideas will take you through the steps from first concept, right through to uploading and even some seo (search engine optimization). Even though I will start at the beginning, those who already have a website will find it interesting as well. As you read through the different exercises, it's a great time for you to pause and asses the effectiveness of your own website and see if there are some modifications that made it more efficient, productive and profitable.

Let's begin with your first steps in designing a website. The first step actually needs to be done either at your desk or dining room table. You need to organize your website before you do anything on-line.

Always remember through the entire process of designing, creating and modifying your website that it’s not actually for YOU, it’s for YOUR CUSTOMERS. Your website may be appealing or look cute to you, but how will it look at the kind of customer you are trying to attract? So, throughout this exercise, look at your website through your customers' eyes and keep that in mind as you work.

Your website is your store. Think about that as you go through the rest of this article and follow the suggestions it contains. Remember to call in to Wrap’n Radio Sunday afternoon at 4 pm Eastern Time, during the Websites That Work series, where I discuss these concepts and will answer any of your questions.

But first, take the time to sit down with different colors of paper. On white paper, write down every product you want to sell through your website. Each product should be on a different piece of paper. Now think about how you want to organize your page to display these products.

Whether it be by product type, season, occasion, price range, whatever it is you think you want to do. Keep in mind as you go through this exercise of how your prospective customers will find these products. Are they all going to be listed on your homepage? Do you want links leading from say a candle page to matching candle holders? As you work with the pieces of paper, organizing them as outlined below, don’t forget that you have to make headings for your homepage, maybe price list page, ordering page (although most people make it easy on a customer to order directly on the same page as the product they wish to order). As the number of pages grow, the different connotations can become endless. So, let’s take a look at the process.

Write each of these headings on a different colored piece of paper (i.e. if by product type blue would be hats, green would be gloves, red would be shoes, etc.). Then lay your headings out and place the products that match each of those headings underneath them.

This where you can do some planning. If there are too many under one heading, how can you reorganize that? Does the list look overly-long if you have a lot of one type of product in many different colors or styles? Try re-organizing using different headings. Use different colors for seasons maybe and see how that works. This may take some time, shuffling of papers around in different set-ups for different categories and lot of reorganizing again and again until you are satisfied with what you see.

Once you have completed this task, you have conquered a major step in your website designing stage. Now you have in front of you exactly how your website should come together. With the navigation decided upon, the next step is content, such as what you want your customers to see, read and use your website.

Through this series, we will discuss wording, text placement, graphics placement, colors, theme, style – have fun!

Now, I'm sure that a lot of you will have questions as you work your way through this and the following exercises. That precise why it will be the subject on Wrap’n Radio as we go through this series together.

So, tune into Wrap'n Radio each Sunday afternoon, beginning at 4:00 pm Eastern time and call in if you have any questions or need help to clarify anything we’ve covered. Each caller will receive a FREE CJ’s candy wrapper set just for asking a question!

Join Skype to talk on Wrap'n Radio for FREE

Skype is the perfect way to listen and interact with my radio show. As long as you have a computer, speakers and a microphone, you're good to go -- and it's FREE!

That's right, so every Friday at 4 pm Eastern time, as I host an internet radio show for candy wrapper professionals, you can call in for FREE and get on the radio!

We talk about wrapping, business ideas, internet issues, websites and anything to do with personalized products.

It is a completely interactive radio show, so plan on joining us by calling in. We've even made everything easy for you. Simply visit my website CJ's Graphics then click on the BlogTalkRadio button to the left for more information about the show and to sign up for reminders, so you don't miss a thing.

Then, click on the flashing Skype information to the left on that same page, to sign up for Skype. Now you can talk to me for free from anywhere in the world. You read right, Skype will allow you to call me for free.

So, sign up, talk it up, it's completely FREE and fun to participate!

Listen Up to Wrap'N Radio!

Yup, you correctly. Beginning on February 4th and every Sunday after that, I will be hosting my very own internet radio show for candy wrappers! It's called Wrap'n Radio.This is an interactive, call in show, where I'll talk about the things that matter most to candy wrappers.

You simply listen on your computer and call in to talk - neat isn't it?

So, link to my radio by clicking on the BlogTalkRadio link to the right side of this page . I think it's about time that candy wrappers had their own, there's so much out there for other kinds of business.

So, I'll be looking for talkers and co-hosts on different subjects and think of how you can market this to your customers. Put on your website "As featured on Wrap'n Radio"

Who made that decision for you?

Taking charge of your business, of your life, of what happens to you from this day forward sounds like a daunting task, but it doesn't have to be. The hardest and most important part is realizing that where you are now in your life, the type of job, the business, your life, has all been the result of decisions you have made in the past.

Oh sure, there are always outside influences and others doing things that may have impeded you, but they actually didn't have anything to do with your outcome so far. Why? Because it's not what they said or did or didn't do that made the difference, it's YOU, how you reacted to it, how you decided to left it influence you.

This is your first step and it's the biggie. Taking responsibility, true, real responsibility for where you are now.

Have you ever heard that money attracts money, that "s/he gets all the breaks", or people are lucky? They really do actually attract what you call breaks or luck. Know why? Because they really and truly, in their heart BELIEVE they deserve it. Hey, they do and so do you!

It is true. Whatever energy you give to the world, the world gives back. So, let's say you're having a bad day. How do you handle it? Grumpy, telling everyone you're having a bad day, when things go wrong, you keep dropping things, bumping into things, etc., you curse, swear, getting angrier? NO You drop something, pick it up, be totally conscious with everything you do that day, hum a happy tune (even if it's just in your head). You get the idea, it's all how YOU CHOOSE to handle it, react to it, take control and make it go the way you want it to.

This is true for absolutely everything in your life. So, with this in mind, stop, think, backtrack from where you are now to the decisions that brought you here. Include those things that you believe influenced you or even made the decision for you. Did they really, or did you let them? You let them, be honest with yourself, because even inaction and letting others "do it" to or for you is your decision. Include your personal life, your business's direction, growth or lack of growth.

Now, remember, this is the hardest part, but soooo important. Be absolutely honest with yourself (no one else is going to see this, but it's important that you do). As you go through your list and look at the influences and decisions that brought you here that, until now, you believed were beyond your control, think of and write down exactly how YOU actually made that happen. Also remember, some of these are good experiences and decisions. Keep track of those as well, be proud of them.

OK, go think, ponder and write. You will not believe how much power you really have over the supposed "accidents" in life.

I challenge YOU!

I know there are literally thousands of you out there that have that sinking feeling that the success you want is never going to come, that you're working harder and longer, but can't seem to garner the praise or accumulate the customers you think should have been flocking your way.

You know what, I doubt it's your products. They're probably great! I truly believe that honesty is the best policy, especially with yourself. I don't care what you tell others, or me, but you absolutely, positively HAVE to be honest with yourself.

YOU are in total and complete charge of your success. No one is going to hand it to you, no one is going to knock on your door and say, here, let me take over and make it easy for you, no one is going to give you step by step by step instructions on where your starting point is and the finished line is, where you will be done, completely successful, without a care in the world.

Uh, uh, it's not going to happen, honey, so that leaves you, just you, to make it happen for you. Now that doesn't necessarily mean that you are alone, that doesn't necessarily mean that you cannot ask for help, opinions, advice, etc. What it means is, that if you take the time to attend a business chat, if you take the time to post on a messageboard, if you take the time to ask for and receive information, then use it the chat, messageboard and advice. Use it to the full extent you can, use it as it was mean to be used when given to you.

I challenge you to take control of your own destiny and make it happen for yourself.

Never Quit. "Don't ever, ever quit. Recognize that stopping now, regrouping to try a new approach isn't quitting. If you quit you'll regret it forever. —Rudy Ruettiger

There are very straightforward, common sense steps you can take, to accomplish this in any aspect of your life.

Join me, beginning with a live chat on November 9, 2006 and realize that YOU can make things happen, good things, great things. YOU control your limits and find out why there really aren't any for you to hold you back.

Send me an e-mail to postmaster@cjscandywraps.com, to register NOW. Make no excuses, go get what you want!

Do you ever feel like running faster doesn't mean you're catching up?

OK, so between kids, the house, creating, taking orders, puting them together, shipping and, well, life in general, I sometimes feel like I'm slowly slipping behind and I need to speed up my process.

I know that going faster is not necessarily better, but things just jumped at me and wow! we're moving along at a pretty fast clip now! And all I can think of is that I need to keep up.

So, I made a decision to get help. I'm looking at different scenarios, like software to help me organize, list management, autoresponders, equipment to mass produce of items and I'm going to try a VA again.

There's got to be a way to run this more efficiently.

I need to spend more time with the kids, enjoy everything that's part of my family life right now. I really enjoy what I'm doing, in fact it's great fun! I just need to work it more efficiently and do what I said I would do ....... manage a successful business that allows me to do what I want when I want with my family.

I'll get there, I know I will!