WHAT I LEARNED ABOUT CREATING A WEBSITE
March 15, 2016
Gee, it has been almost a year since I last had an entry here!
Today I started a new Category and titled it "Free Gift Items". When you start a new page, it asks for photos. I quickly realized that I am going to have to go through all of my photo albums and upload the photos fresh from there. For the time being, just to let people know what *will* be available when I'm done, I went ahead and clicked them off the products list. ....The moral of the story here again is how valuable that wonderful spiral notebook is, because although it is going to be a long, tedious process (re-uploading hundreds of photos...), I know EXACTLY where to find those photos--which album and the photo number. It was the best, smartest, most time-saving thing I have done for creating this website.
I'm also going to be starting a totally new website for an organization called North Idaho Vendors Association. That one is going to be very different. I'm going to be working with A LOT of vendors to get their information and photos. Each one is going to have their own page, and I'm probably going to be helping them set up their own business Weebly site. A number of the vendors already have their own website. .....Anyway, I'll let you know what I learn doing that website too if it's noteworthy.
April 7, 2015
Now that I am getting into the busy season and preparing for months of shows, I will only be able to add new information here if time allows.... and that may be pretty scarce until sometime in winter.
One of my favorite, most important items to help me in my busy daily schedule is the Quo Vadis Executive Planner. I have been using this ultra efficient calendar book since 1982. It is a perfect, smaller square size and has everything I have ever needed to help "keep my act together". After the office supply store closed I had to find a new source for this gem. The best deal and service that I found out west here is from the European Paper Company in Colorado. I asked him if I could mention his company and the Quo Vadis Executive planner here on the website and he said yes, so here it is! I'm not being paid for mentioning it all, but the take-away from this is that it is very helpful to have something like this when you have a website and are trying to run a business.
(Latest entry dated February 9, 2015)
FIRST THINGS FIRST....
#1.... Buy a Spiral Notebook: This notebook is going to come in handy for a long, long time. It will also spare you precious time from having to go back to your computer and logging on to see if you remembered to do something, and it can also be used for your thoughts and ideas for the website. I started off using loose pieces of paper, then I had ideas or items scattered in several notebooks that I used for my business. --You're going to be writing things down sooner or later, and it is going to be a lot easier if you keep it all together in a notebook specifically for your website. If you fill up one notebook, no biggie.... get another and just number the outside of the notebook...#1, #2, etc. You might want to copy your photo codes, or whatever on the inside cardboard, etc. Whatever works for you....you'll find your way.
---If you have oodles of passwords, you may also want to write your password for your website down in the notebook, as well as your web address (the http: or https:). Obviously, this notebook should be kept in a safe, unobvious place. You may also want to be clever and write your password in the middle of the spiral notebook, and log subsequent passwords below it, because if you're wise, you will change your passwords fairly often.
You also might want to include the date you created/published the website, the domain name and if you purchased it on what date, and how much you will be paying, how often.
You may also want to write down the phone number, physical address, email/ contact address of the website and their hours of operation, including the time zone they operate in, just in case you ever need it.
---Decide how you're going to lay out your website. Here in your notebook you can scribble out your ideas and can refer back to them. Sometimes, you end up changing it a little, or a lot, but you'll find **your** best way as you go along anyway. This way, that great idea you had about how you wanted to lay out the whole website and the plans you have won't evaporate into oblivion, and you can keep working on it. Everyone has had times where you have a great idea and it's so great you figure there's no way you'd forget....and then you go and watch your favorite program or have to go somewhere and find out you can't remember how you were going to do it. I've had that happen a lot and it's sometimes such a bummer and sometimes so frustrating.
---Your spiral notebook is going to give you a lot a lot of sanity when it comes to photos and the information you included about each photo. I'll be covering that subject next.
---You could number the pages as you go along and create a "Table of Contents" on the inside cardboard of the notebook with the corresponding page numbers as you go along. This will also be an efficient way to find information you have written down.
#2. PHOTOS...Most people I know use digital cameras, including myself. If you're photographing small things, you'll want to use the macro setting (flower symbol) and experiment until you get what you want. Some cameras are obviously better and there are a lot of places on-line to check it out as well as your local camera places for info and advice. Some community colleges also have hobby-type classes and on-line classes. Some towns also have local camera clubs for hobbyists. There is also at least one on-line photography school. I'm going to put it on my "to-do" list to ask them if I can mention them or if a link can be done.
---It is best to have At least Two Memory Cards. One devoted specifically for your website and another for your personal life. Sometimes, life is life and you end up having to mix the two anyway. You have photos of a cousin's birthday party and photos of the items for your website. Either way, this is where you are going to give your notebook another hug for keeping your sanity in check.
Take a lot of photos of the same item from different angles and different lighting conditions. You may also want to photograph the items with different backgrounds or scenery.
---Before you upload your photos to the computer, delete the obviously BAD photos. This is going to save you a lot of time and memory space...and money.
Have at least one page to list all of the "codes" of your photos, and list only the codes on those pages. This will be your index, your reference to go back to year after year. You are going to be soooooo glad you did this!!!! You'll also appreciate having this page (or pages) located at or near the beginning of your spiral notebook. Have it somewhere you won't have to fish for it. You could also put a colored tab on it too, just like you would in a file cabinet, if you have the codes deeper in the notebook.
--- When you upload your photos to your computer, give it a short, descriptive name that represents what the majority of the photos are about. Then, IN YOUR SPIRAL NOTEBOOK, create a "code", an abbreviated "code" for that group (file) of photos you just named. For example, the descriptive name you gave the photos on the computer may be "Small Light-colored Plates". A possible "code" you could use could be "SmLCP". You're going to list the codes first, then the full name. As:
SmLCP=Small Light-colored Plates
The reason for this is, as you go along in life creating more photos, you're going to be filling up those memory cards and you're going to have several different items over time. If you have them coded, you'll know exactly where to start looking.
Now for the finer details about giving your photos an identification:
(As soon as you have taken your photos, you'll probably want to delete the ones that are obviously bad before you upload them.)
--- After you have uploaded them, go through them and turn them all so they are upright, in the correct position. You don't want to have items sideways or upside-down on your website. While you are turning them upside-right, here too you can weed out the ones you don't like. You can turn these sideways or upside-down so they can quickly be passed over when you are trying to make your final picks for the photos you're going to use.
---Once you have decided exactly which photos you're going to use, write down the number of that photo. If it shows it's photo number 127 in the Small Light-colored Plates album (file, etc.), your entry into your Spiral Notebook will be:
SmLCP-127
Doing this will be such a huge time-saving gift to yourself later on. You will never again have to search for exactly which photo it was that you spent all that time on during your selection process. Also, if you start your website with the free status and want to upgrade to the e-commerce level so you can sell those items, you're REALLY going to be glad you wrote them all down. I speak from experience, and I'll tell you why, coming up.
After you write down the code identifying that specific photograph, you'll want to jot down something specific about that Small Light-colored Plate. You could write the size, say 8" in diameter, Light Blue with an American Robin on it, and the price, $35. ---Now you know long after you've gotten off of the computer and you're working away, that you didn't forget to add that specific plate, that you have the size, the bird and the price all ready to add to your website. I have used different colors of pencils to mark each phase too, which I will also cover next.
#3. UPLOADING TO THE WEBSITE....
Now that you have your notebook and the photo's codes and their specific identifying features logged into your notebook, you're ready for some uninterrupted time to upload the photos to the website.
After you have created your "Greeting" page for the public or your intended audience/viewers, and have the website structured to your needs (Categories, Pages, format, etc....which I will cover later what I learned about that,,,,).....
It is a really good idea to have your logged in, editing website up AND your website up from the "outside" as seen by the public ***at the same time***. This way you can check the public's view of what it looks like from there, and if it uploaded successfully. If it didn't, you can easily reload it because you're actively still working on it. I've had experiences where I hit "PUBLISH" and it didn't show up on the website at all. A few times I hit "Publish" a number of times and it didn't show up...so in the end, this practice too can be a HUGE time-saver.
Before you log out of your "EDIT" function, make sure everything actually *did* upload to your website, by checking it on the "public" version (separate window) that you have up.
THIS IS ALSO A REALLY GOOD IDEA TO DO EACH TIME WITH E-COMMERCE TOO....
---If you use a non e-commerce option....
you can go ahead and just upload them as usual to your heart's content, adding the code for each photo and the description of each item. This way if someone calls you about that item, you will know exactly where to look for a photo of that item, thus avoiding the "Well, it kind of looks like..." conversation. It's also great if you want to reorder the item, make more, etc.
If you convert /upgrade to e-commerce..
You are going to be sooooo happy you wrote ALL of those codes down and ALL of that information, because..... you are going to have to RE-upload every single photo again, using the "Product" function, and consequently, you're going to have to RE-upload / type in ALL of the specific, identifying information about each item. That is EXACTLY what I had to do. === Only I **didn't** have the photo numbers written down or any codes, so I literally had to go thru a whole bunch of photo albums and thousands and thousands of photos and had to try and figure out all over again which photo it was that I selected and used. It took almost three weeks to do just that. I also had to try and remember what I wrote about each item. It was such a huge, time-consuming ordeal to have to do this. When you look at my website, and all of the hundreds of photos and information...it gives you a good idea. That's when I implemented the system I have been telling you about.
When I uploaded the **photo** to the website, I used a green colored pencil, underlining the code number of the photograph.
When I uploaded all of the **descriptive information** to the website, I used an orange colored pencil, by making an orange checkmark in front of the item's code number.
By doing this, you know both needs of that item have been uploaded to the website, and just by a glance you know which ones are done and which ones you still have to upload to the website.
ANOTHER great reason and use for those codes, is that you can use them as your SKU numbers on your products. Another great way for your customers to be able to communicate with you.
************************************************************************
Well, that's it for now.... I will be adding more information soon, specific to the BIG "little things" I have learned.... like how I unintentionally made a whole section that I worked hours on disappear into oblivion. I made one very small move and it happened in a split second. Also about how I accidentally created 404 Errors on my website....I could see them, but you couldn't....and many, many more tips of do's and don'ts.
J Liz Jewelry & More, Monday, December 29, 2014
Until next time...
#1.... Buy a Spiral Notebook: This notebook is going to come in handy for a long, long time. It will also spare you precious time from having to go back to your computer and logging on to see if you remembered to do something, and it can also be used for your thoughts and ideas for the website. I started off using loose pieces of paper, then I had ideas or items scattered in several notebooks that I used for my business. --You're going to be writing things down sooner or later, and it is going to be a lot easier if you keep it all together in a notebook specifically for your website. If you fill up one notebook, no biggie.... get another and just number the outside of the notebook...#1, #2, etc. You might want to copy your photo codes, or whatever on the inside cardboard, etc. Whatever works for you....you'll find your way.
---If you have oodles of passwords, you may also want to write your password for your website down in the notebook, as well as your web address (the http: or https:). Obviously, this notebook should be kept in a safe, unobvious place. You may also want to be clever and write your password in the middle of the spiral notebook, and log subsequent passwords below it, because if you're wise, you will change your passwords fairly often.
You also might want to include the date you created/published the website, the domain name and if you purchased it on what date, and how much you will be paying, how often.
You may also want to write down the phone number, physical address, email/ contact address of the website and their hours of operation, including the time zone they operate in, just in case you ever need it.
---Decide how you're going to lay out your website. Here in your notebook you can scribble out your ideas and can refer back to them. Sometimes, you end up changing it a little, or a lot, but you'll find **your** best way as you go along anyway. This way, that great idea you had about how you wanted to lay out the whole website and the plans you have won't evaporate into oblivion, and you can keep working on it. Everyone has had times where you have a great idea and it's so great you figure there's no way you'd forget....and then you go and watch your favorite program or have to go somewhere and find out you can't remember how you were going to do it. I've had that happen a lot and it's sometimes such a bummer and sometimes so frustrating.
---Your spiral notebook is going to give you a lot a lot of sanity when it comes to photos and the information you included about each photo. I'll be covering that subject next.
---You could number the pages as you go along and create a "Table of Contents" on the inside cardboard of the notebook with the corresponding page numbers as you go along. This will also be an efficient way to find information you have written down.
#2. PHOTOS...Most people I know use digital cameras, including myself. If you're photographing small things, you'll want to use the macro setting (flower symbol) and experiment until you get what you want. Some cameras are obviously better and there are a lot of places on-line to check it out as well as your local camera places for info and advice. Some community colleges also have hobby-type classes and on-line classes. Some towns also have local camera clubs for hobbyists. There is also at least one on-line photography school. I'm going to put it on my "to-do" list to ask them if I can mention them or if a link can be done.
---It is best to have At least Two Memory Cards. One devoted specifically for your website and another for your personal life. Sometimes, life is life and you end up having to mix the two anyway. You have photos of a cousin's birthday party and photos of the items for your website. Either way, this is where you are going to give your notebook another hug for keeping your sanity in check.
Take a lot of photos of the same item from different angles and different lighting conditions. You may also want to photograph the items with different backgrounds or scenery.
---Before you upload your photos to the computer, delete the obviously BAD photos. This is going to save you a lot of time and memory space...and money.
Have at least one page to list all of the "codes" of your photos, and list only the codes on those pages. This will be your index, your reference to go back to year after year. You are going to be soooooo glad you did this!!!! You'll also appreciate having this page (or pages) located at or near the beginning of your spiral notebook. Have it somewhere you won't have to fish for it. You could also put a colored tab on it too, just like you would in a file cabinet, if you have the codes deeper in the notebook.
--- When you upload your photos to your computer, give it a short, descriptive name that represents what the majority of the photos are about. Then, IN YOUR SPIRAL NOTEBOOK, create a "code", an abbreviated "code" for that group (file) of photos you just named. For example, the descriptive name you gave the photos on the computer may be "Small Light-colored Plates". A possible "code" you could use could be "SmLCP". You're going to list the codes first, then the full name. As:
SmLCP=Small Light-colored Plates
The reason for this is, as you go along in life creating more photos, you're going to be filling up those memory cards and you're going to have several different items over time. If you have them coded, you'll know exactly where to start looking.
Now for the finer details about giving your photos an identification:
(As soon as you have taken your photos, you'll probably want to delete the ones that are obviously bad before you upload them.)
--- After you have uploaded them, go through them and turn them all so they are upright, in the correct position. You don't want to have items sideways or upside-down on your website. While you are turning them upside-right, here too you can weed out the ones you don't like. You can turn these sideways or upside-down so they can quickly be passed over when you are trying to make your final picks for the photos you're going to use.
---Once you have decided exactly which photos you're going to use, write down the number of that photo. If it shows it's photo number 127 in the Small Light-colored Plates album (file, etc.), your entry into your Spiral Notebook will be:
SmLCP-127
Doing this will be such a huge time-saving gift to yourself later on. You will never again have to search for exactly which photo it was that you spent all that time on during your selection process. Also, if you start your website with the free status and want to upgrade to the e-commerce level so you can sell those items, you're REALLY going to be glad you wrote them all down. I speak from experience, and I'll tell you why, coming up.
After you write down the code identifying that specific photograph, you'll want to jot down something specific about that Small Light-colored Plate. You could write the size, say 8" in diameter, Light Blue with an American Robin on it, and the price, $35. ---Now you know long after you've gotten off of the computer and you're working away, that you didn't forget to add that specific plate, that you have the size, the bird and the price all ready to add to your website. I have used different colors of pencils to mark each phase too, which I will also cover next.
#3. UPLOADING TO THE WEBSITE....
Now that you have your notebook and the photo's codes and their specific identifying features logged into your notebook, you're ready for some uninterrupted time to upload the photos to the website.
After you have created your "Greeting" page for the public or your intended audience/viewers, and have the website structured to your needs (Categories, Pages, format, etc....which I will cover later what I learned about that,,,,).....
It is a really good idea to have your logged in, editing website up AND your website up from the "outside" as seen by the public ***at the same time***. This way you can check the public's view of what it looks like from there, and if it uploaded successfully. If it didn't, you can easily reload it because you're actively still working on it. I've had experiences where I hit "PUBLISH" and it didn't show up on the website at all. A few times I hit "Publish" a number of times and it didn't show up...so in the end, this practice too can be a HUGE time-saver.
Before you log out of your "EDIT" function, make sure everything actually *did* upload to your website, by checking it on the "public" version (separate window) that you have up.
THIS IS ALSO A REALLY GOOD IDEA TO DO EACH TIME WITH E-COMMERCE TOO....
---If you use a non e-commerce option....
you can go ahead and just upload them as usual to your heart's content, adding the code for each photo and the description of each item. This way if someone calls you about that item, you will know exactly where to look for a photo of that item, thus avoiding the "Well, it kind of looks like..." conversation. It's also great if you want to reorder the item, make more, etc.
If you convert /upgrade to e-commerce..
You are going to be sooooo happy you wrote ALL of those codes down and ALL of that information, because..... you are going to have to RE-upload every single photo again, using the "Product" function, and consequently, you're going to have to RE-upload / type in ALL of the specific, identifying information about each item. That is EXACTLY what I had to do. === Only I **didn't** have the photo numbers written down or any codes, so I literally had to go thru a whole bunch of photo albums and thousands and thousands of photos and had to try and figure out all over again which photo it was that I selected and used. It took almost three weeks to do just that. I also had to try and remember what I wrote about each item. It was such a huge, time-consuming ordeal to have to do this. When you look at my website, and all of the hundreds of photos and information...it gives you a good idea. That's when I implemented the system I have been telling you about.
When I uploaded the **photo** to the website, I used a green colored pencil, underlining the code number of the photograph.
When I uploaded all of the **descriptive information** to the website, I used an orange colored pencil, by making an orange checkmark in front of the item's code number.
By doing this, you know both needs of that item have been uploaded to the website, and just by a glance you know which ones are done and which ones you still have to upload to the website.
ANOTHER great reason and use for those codes, is that you can use them as your SKU numbers on your products. Another great way for your customers to be able to communicate with you.
************************************************************************
Well, that's it for now.... I will be adding more information soon, specific to the BIG "little things" I have learned.... like how I unintentionally made a whole section that I worked hours on disappear into oblivion. I made one very small move and it happened in a split second. Also about how I accidentally created 404 Errors on my website....I could see them, but you couldn't....and many, many more tips of do's and don'ts.
J Liz Jewelry & More, Monday, December 29, 2014
Until next time...
(February 9, 2015):
--- CRAWLING THINGS AND THE 404 ERROR...
When you publish a page to the website, or publish your website, it's not going to be visible to the public or search engines right away. It's going to take a few to several days for Google's bots and "spiders" to find and crawl across your pages. Sometime after they do, it is then in whichever search engine bots crawled across it, and will be found and visible to the public. That said.... I made a page or two in the early days of creating this website and published them. Then I got busy doing other things. Another day I got on the computer and again started working on this website, and I decided to fuse / join two pages into one, and to totally delete another. I gave the new page the same name, but with totally new material. ---When I did that, the pages that I deleted had already been "crawled on" and put out there in the world on the internet... Meaning... whenever anyone clicked onto those pages, they were given an Error. So far the only one I've seen is the "404 Error". ----------> The moral of the story is that if you're going to delete or change the title to a page, etc., do it ASAP, before the "Crawlers and bots" grab it and put it in their search engines.
Venues to Sell Your Work
I'm jumping way ahead in the chronological order of things here, but I just didn't want to forget about something very important I wanted to pass along to everyone.
The moral of this story is:
LOOK BEFORE YOU LEAP.... LOOK ****REAL GOOD**** BEFORE YOU LEAP!
Last week I was researching free and low-cost ways to market and sell my work. There was one company that seems to be very popular, and being that they say they sell all over the world, I just had to check it out. I went to their website and was reading so many great things, that I could hardly wait to join in. But, I figured, even with a popular, global company I should probably STILL "do my homework". (---Think of it this way.... sometimes there's a darker reason why they can afford so many ads or yachts, or whatever. Sometimes, some "take the money and run" and you can never seem to get any answer or refund, or whatever.)
Part of the "homework" is reading all of that boring stuff... their "Terms and Conditions" and all of the other fine print on their website. However many cups of coffee it takes, you need to stay coherent and pay attention. Some say that you're going to be giving them consent to copy your work or make similar pieces, some might say that if you have any credit with them and they terminate your presence on their site, that you forfeit the credit. Yeah.... that's not a good deal. I'd run from all of that.
Then, type into your Search bar.... "Complaints About _________" (Whichever company or website you want to check out.) You might see a lot of options that you can check out. You might also see BBB. It's important to note that a company pays a nominal fee to join the BBB. Whatever you do, just read as much as you can about a place before you dive in. ---Just this last weekend I saved myself from making a huge mistake, just by being diligent and slogging through all of the legal mumbo jumbo and looking into complaints. Sometimes some of those complaints are bogus or blown way out of reality, but if there are oodles of complaints, especially about the same thing.... you might want to heed it. That said.... there is a company that I purchase from every so often that has a lot of complaints about their service. It took a few years before I encountered a service problem, but they're a good legitimate company with great prices and so I do not hesitate to buy from them. "Everyone has a bad day" now and then, so I let it slide.
I do need to say that I am considering joining BBB just so that I AM registered, and so people have a place to check, and to have another place where I do really exist. When and if I do, I'll let you know what I learned about that too.
---Being that I am always so, so busy, I think I'm going to try and contribute something here once per month. That said, let's make this February's contribution! Next month I'm going to tell you about some great sources of information.... for Search Engines, public relations, marketing, etc.
--- CRAWLING THINGS AND THE 404 ERROR...
When you publish a page to the website, or publish your website, it's not going to be visible to the public or search engines right away. It's going to take a few to several days for Google's bots and "spiders" to find and crawl across your pages. Sometime after they do, it is then in whichever search engine bots crawled across it, and will be found and visible to the public. That said.... I made a page or two in the early days of creating this website and published them. Then I got busy doing other things. Another day I got on the computer and again started working on this website, and I decided to fuse / join two pages into one, and to totally delete another. I gave the new page the same name, but with totally new material. ---When I did that, the pages that I deleted had already been "crawled on" and put out there in the world on the internet... Meaning... whenever anyone clicked onto those pages, they were given an Error. So far the only one I've seen is the "404 Error". ----------> The moral of the story is that if you're going to delete or change the title to a page, etc., do it ASAP, before the "Crawlers and bots" grab it and put it in their search engines.
Venues to Sell Your Work
I'm jumping way ahead in the chronological order of things here, but I just didn't want to forget about something very important I wanted to pass along to everyone.
The moral of this story is:
LOOK BEFORE YOU LEAP.... LOOK ****REAL GOOD**** BEFORE YOU LEAP!
Last week I was researching free and low-cost ways to market and sell my work. There was one company that seems to be very popular, and being that they say they sell all over the world, I just had to check it out. I went to their website and was reading so many great things, that I could hardly wait to join in. But, I figured, even with a popular, global company I should probably STILL "do my homework". (---Think of it this way.... sometimes there's a darker reason why they can afford so many ads or yachts, or whatever. Sometimes, some "take the money and run" and you can never seem to get any answer or refund, or whatever.)
Part of the "homework" is reading all of that boring stuff... their "Terms and Conditions" and all of the other fine print on their website. However many cups of coffee it takes, you need to stay coherent and pay attention. Some say that you're going to be giving them consent to copy your work or make similar pieces, some might say that if you have any credit with them and they terminate your presence on their site, that you forfeit the credit. Yeah.... that's not a good deal. I'd run from all of that.
Then, type into your Search bar.... "Complaints About _________" (Whichever company or website you want to check out.) You might see a lot of options that you can check out. You might also see BBB. It's important to note that a company pays a nominal fee to join the BBB. Whatever you do, just read as much as you can about a place before you dive in. ---Just this last weekend I saved myself from making a huge mistake, just by being diligent and slogging through all of the legal mumbo jumbo and looking into complaints. Sometimes some of those complaints are bogus or blown way out of reality, but if there are oodles of complaints, especially about the same thing.... you might want to heed it. That said.... there is a company that I purchase from every so often that has a lot of complaints about their service. It took a few years before I encountered a service problem, but they're a good legitimate company with great prices and so I do not hesitate to buy from them. "Everyone has a bad day" now and then, so I let it slide.
I do need to say that I am considering joining BBB just so that I AM registered, and so people have a place to check, and to have another place where I do really exist. When and if I do, I'll let you know what I learned about that too.
---Being that I am always so, so busy, I think I'm going to try and contribute something here once per month. That said, let's make this February's contribution! Next month I'm going to tell you about some great sources of information.... for Search Engines, public relations, marketing, etc.