5 Pointers For Launching a (Writer) Website
Launching is not the beginning.
When scientists and engineers at NASA prepare for take off the countdown signifies way more than a practical procedure.
10, 9, 8, 7… Those numbers are pregnant with anticipation. The atmosphere is super charged. Everyone who had anything to do with the mission is hoping to see all their hard work defy gravity and break out of the earth’s atmosphere into the cosmos.
It’s scary.
Launching anything is scary because you don’t know if it will take off and become a success or if the engines will shut down.
It's a defining moment, for sure, but far from the first step.
The pre-launch activities, what happens behind the scenes is way more important than what happens on the stage. Backstage is where the wrestling and tweaking and planning and setup happens. Where no one’s watching and no one cares except you and your team. Do your thing there and then put it all on the stage.
That's why launching my website is much more than a career shift marker. I’m building an online asset that tells a story about how intentionally written content experiences impact your circles of influence. I'm creating a place where clients flock to have their brand narratives designed and told through articles, blog posts, stories and tailored editing.
Here are five insights that stood out during my website pre-launch:
1. Copy-and-Paste-Ready Content is a Life Saver
Doing the work beforehand means less hassle when it’s time to put content on your site. Of course you’ll need to tweak content as you go, but gathering all you want to say and the pictures you want to represent you at your debut saves valuable time. Think about what you want to show the world on launch day and write that stuff up in Google Docs. I write notes to myself everywhere: on napkins, in emails, in books so I have to remember to transfer my ideas to a central location. When you're ready to start putting up content you'll know where to find them.
2. Read...the Comments
The comments section is definitely a city in the Netherworld. Trolls, goblins and hobgoblins abound. But sometimes good stuff happens there. Audience engagement on the topics you care about can yield information that can help you make your site more user friendly or give you the tough motivation you need to meet your launch deadline. Like this comment from Shayna on a Location Rebel post:
“Exactly! Sometimes when I see aspiring bloggers/entrepreneurs/whatever with launch dates 6 months away because they’re still “planning” and trying to tweak everything to perfection, I want to shake them and say, “The hard part comes AFTER! Why not launch now and spend the next 6 months spreading the word? Plus, most of what you think you know about your market is probably wrong, but you’ll only discover that once you start actually trying to develop products and interacting with your audience, customers, and leads. I personally am terrified of the thought of spending months creating a product no one wants, so that’s why I take orders/payments first and make the product afterwards. If some people are at least willing to pay for version 1.0, I can at least get some remuneration as well as feedback to improve it and then market it further.”
The comment section is a good place for research, not just scathing opinions. In this one comment alone there's alot of food for thought:
1. Aim for proficiency, NOT perfection.
2. Your marketing plan gets better the more you interact with your audience... If you pay attention.
3. Don't be fooled. You're not alone. Everybody's afraid to start. Do it anyway.
3. Great Visuals Never Hurt
Great photos and artwork complement your written content. I think everyone knows that by now. But when you start the work of pairing visuals with your articles or posts that’s when things start to get technical and tedious (Why does there always seems to be a larger learning curve than you anticipate between planning and doing?). Technical because if you opt to use stock photos visual you need to be aware of the legal policies for using other people's images. And tedious because....editing anything is tedious, especially if you're editing your own photos.
Aside from desiring polished pics, you want photos that perfectly capture what you've written, but you can't always plan what you'll want or need. I suggest taking (and saving) random photos. Build your personal collection of interesting stock photos. You never know when a picture of your cousin's hairless dog will come in handy. Also, reach out to local visual artists and photographers. For instance, I came up with the concept and wrote the script for my about me video, but I needed someone to bring it to life and accomplish the look and feel I envisioned. I'm really proud of the result.
Don’t be afraid to invest in the professional look you want.
4. Feedback is Your Friend
Who liked getting back their paper marked up with red ink? Not me. In high school, I saw it as a sign of failure and extra work. But feedback is good. It really isn’t the end. I know that now. I’ve come a long way. Before my official website launch, I contacted a few people to literally critique the crap out of my website. Did you see any typos? Any visual anomalies? Anything that just doesn’t make sense? Telling me good stuff caresses my ego, but please point me to the trashy parts so I can fix them and launch a site that draws people. My reviewers had their own unique perspectives, and I found that their comments fell into one of three categories:
1. Content: The grammatical stuff - typos, missing words- can confuse and turn readers off. It makes reading a chore and nobody likes chores. When you're consistently reviewing and revising content your eyes begin to glaze over the errors. What you think you wrote is not what's actually there. It's good to have another set of eyes to help catch the stuff you've missed.
2. Aesthetics: This is the look and feel of each page and the site overall. The feedback forced me to rethink the placement of visuals and text. One reviewer asked me to consider adding more photos and personal touches like writing my hand-written signature rather than using a programmed font. A good mix of text and imagery keeps viewers engaged.
3. User Experience (UX): Is navigation seamless? Are there broken any links? Are you making all the information on your site accessible by giving viewers the steering wheel to navigate your browsing options? I paid special attention to comments on UX because a site that's difficult to navigate won't get too many return visitors.
If you're about to launch or you're in the process of revamping your site ask your reviewers about these key aspects of your website. But ultimately the decisions lie with you.
5. “Start! Punch Fear in the Face.”
That’s a line from Finish Strong, one of my favorite songs by Naomi Raine. Legacy-making is a messy process. But that's my goal. It’s full of making plans and getting them done instead of setting launch dates somewhere in the indefinite future and constantly pushing back deadlines. You’ve done the work. Now it’s time to get on the stage.
There’s no information shortage. There will always be something to learn and something to add. But, you’d be earning a magnificent “L” if you were always investing and never collecting.
It's time to launch.
