IntroductionWelcome| 00:00 | (Music playing)
| | 00:03 | Hi! I am Jen Kramer and welcome to
CMS Website Strategy and Planning.
| | 00:08 | In this course, we will study the
difference between Business Strategy, Website
| | 00:12 | Strategy and User Strategy
and how they support each other.
| | 00:17 | We will consider your target audience
for the website and analyze how different
| | 00:21 | personas can influence the
design outcome of a website.
| | 00:24 | Then we will learn the key questions to ask
when identifying a client's wants and needs.
| | 00:30 | Planning the client's website with
long-term maintenance in mind is a key
| | 00:34 | objective and we will talk
about how to do that successfully.
| | 00:37 | We will weigh the benefits and
drawbacks of developing a static website versus
| | 00:42 | using a content management system, and
take a look at Web 2.0 functionality that
| | 00:47 | facilitates two-way web
communications by way of blogging, Facebook,
| | 00:52 | Twitter and Photo Galleries.
| | 00:55 | From there, we will piece together the
site map that outlines the website content
| | 00:59 | and provides the final blue-
print for creating the design.
| | 01:02 | The most successful websites I have seen
are ones where the web designer understood
| | 01:08 | the client's web strategy before
they started to build the website.
| | 01:12 | So let's get started with
Website Strategy and Planning.
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1. Before We Talk About Colors, Let's Talk About Your BusinessWhat is business strategy?| 00:00 | We hear so much about Business Strategy.
| | 00:03 | What does that mean?
| | 00:04 | I just want to make some
money and get rich quick.
| | 00:06 | Isn't that my strategy?
| | 00:09 | Much as we might all like to get rich
quick, and as much as that might be part of
| | 00:13 | our business, most businesses and
organizations have a bit more to say about why
| | 00:17 | they are in business.
| | 00:18 | Business Strategy covers the mission
of the organization, its vision, how it
| | 00:23 | conducts business, its plan for the
future, the markets in which it competes and
| | 00:29 | the people it serves.
| | 00:31 | Your client should be able to
tell you their business strategy.
| | 00:34 | If they don't have one, it's a good
idea to have them think about that strategy
| | 00:38 | a bit before starting to build a website.
| | 00:40 | After all, the website
doesn't drive the business strategy.
| | 00:44 | The website is a piece of the puzzle of
the implementation of the business strategy.
| | 00:50 | You should ask your client some
key questions about their business.
| | 00:53 | What product or service are you selling?
| | 00:55 | Who are your competitors?
| | 00:58 | Who are your customers or clients?
| | 01:00 | What is your competitive advantage
in offering that product or service?
| | 01:04 | Why are you better than your competitors?
| | 01:07 | Where will your company be in five years?
| | 01:09 | Does your company have a mission or
vision statement, or do you have a
| | 01:13 | statement of company values?
| | 01:15 | How are you marketing your business?
| | 01:17 | Notice not one of those questions had
to do with the website or what shade of
| | 01:21 | blue they'd like in the logo.
| | 01:23 | These are all fundamental
questions to understanding a business.
| | 01:27 | If your client has unclear services or
ill-defined products, no idea who their
| | 01:32 | competitors are and if they're not
sure who's going to buy this product, a
| | 01:36 | website isn't really going to help them at all.
| | 01:38 | In fact, they're just throwing away their money.
| | 01:41 | You'll also want to get a
good sense of who your client is.
| | 01:45 | Sometimes this is the
business owner or senior manager.
| | 01:49 | Sometimes it's the head of the marketing
department and other times, it may be a
| | 01:53 | committee of people.
| | 01:54 | Understand where the website
fits into their job priorities.
| | 01:58 | Its unlikely the client hired you to
build this site if they have a full-time IT
| | 02:03 | staff or webmaster working for them.
| | 02:05 | If it is a business owner who's just
launching a business, they may not have the
| | 02:10 | time to update the site regularly.
| | 02:12 | They budget for maintaining the site as
well as how much they have to spend on
| | 02:16 | the initial site redesign and you'll
want to understand who specifically will
| | 02:21 | maintain that site and what
their technical skill set is.
| | 02:25 | Understanding your client's business
strategy will give you lots of insights
| | 02:28 | into how a website should be
constructed to market to potential customers and
| | 02:33 | clients effectively.
| | 02:34 | You'll better understand your client's
strengths, which you can show in the best
| | 02:38 | light while minimizing their weaknesses.
| | 02:40 | You will start to think about good
tools to include on the website that will be
| | 02:45 | effectively used and will
support that business strategy.
| | 02:48 | You'll also get a sense of how much time is
available to maintain a completed website.
| | 02:53 | There is no sense in including
technologies that require constant maintenance if
| | 02:58 | they don't have time to keep them up-to-date.
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| Interviewing the client| 00:00 | (Music playing)
| | 00:04 | Hansel: Thank you so very much for
taking the time to meet with me.
| | 00:07 | I just love my site, but
it's just not doing it for me.
| | 00:11 | It gets me all the usual FTD
business, but I am so tired of canned
| | 00:15 | flower arrangements.
| | 00:16 | I mean, I am a pretty good designer.
| | 00:19 | I want to let my inner artist out.
| | 00:21 | Why can't I get more weddings,
big corporate events, movie premieres
| | 00:24 | and celebrity parties?
| | 00:25 | Jen: I am sure I can help with that.
| | 00:28 | Tell me about your
business. What's happening now?
| | 00:31 | What do you like and what do
you want to change?
| | 00:33 | Hansel: I am really busy at the major flower
holidays, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day,
| | 00:39 | June wedding season, less busy the other months.
| | 00:42 | I need more work to fill out those in-
betweens and I want more creative work and
| | 00:47 | more design work and I'd like to
feature our designers a little more.
| | 00:52 | Jen: So, what would make the perfect design
job for you and your designers?
| | 00:56 | Hansel: You know, I would love a client
with a real eye art for art.
| | 00:59 | Money isn't the issue, but doing it
right is absolutely everything for me.
| | 01:04 | They should like their event to be classic
and understated with just enough flowers.
| | 01:09 | Maybe it's a lovely bride whose father
will pay for anything for his little girl
| | 01:13 | or maybe I can get a steady view of the
local studio for their premieres or some
| | 01:18 | corporate Christmas parties would be great.
| | 01:20 | Jen: Sounds like a wide variety of work.
| | 01:22 | Are there any jobs you wouldn't take?
| | 01:24 | Hansel: Hmm. Good question!
| | 01:27 | I don't think I'd be interested in
doing flowers for an oil company party.
| | 01:30 | Don't get me wrong, they pay well
and there are lots of them here in
| | 01:33 | Southern California,
| | 01:34 | but I have real passion for the environment.
| | 01:37 | I try and buy most of my flowers
locally, so they don't have to be flown in.
| | 01:40 | Over 80% of the flowers in my
store were grown somewhere here in
| | 01:44 | Southern California.
| | 01:45 | It makes my flowers a little more
expensive, but our carbon footprint is much
| | 01:50 | smaller than most florists.
| | 01:52 | Jen: Interesting! That environmental
angle is a real differentiator.
| | 01:56 | Let's take a peek at your current website.
| | 01:59 | What does the site say about you?
| | 02:00 | Hansel: Yeah, it says I can build a lot of
standard bouquets for $20 to a $100.
| | 02:05 | But that's not the market I want to be in.
| | 02:06 | I really want to emphasize the custom
arrangements that go with the season
| | 02:10 | and our local growers.
| | 02:12 | We dig that stuff in LA.
| | 02:14 | Jen: Let's got back to your website.
| | 02:16 | I am going to pull up the Events page.
| | 02:18 | That's the one with the weddings, right? Hm.
| | 02:21 | Looks like, we might have a
little work to do here.
| | 02:24 | Hansel: Yeah, the events page doesn't say much, does it?
| | 02:27 | But I still really want people to call me.
| | 02:29 | I feel like I sell my expertise so much
better over the phone than on a website.
| | 02:33 | I am a people person, you know?
| | 02:35 | Jen: You know, I agree.
| | 02:37 | I think that communicating that you
really understand each client and that
| | 02:41 | you want to help them personally to make
their event absolutely perfect is important.
| | 02:45 | Why don't you tell me about
your other designers?
| | 02:48 | Hansel: Well, there is my business partner Petal Jones.
| | 02:51 | She's a flower symbolism expert.
| | 02:53 | She knows exactly what kinds of
flowers to pick to send subtle messages.
| | 02:58 | Everyone knows that red roses mean
love, but did you know that sunflowers
| | 03:01 | stand for adoration.
| | 03:03 | And then there is Raul Diaz,
the go-to guy for the
| | 03:05 | Quincea?era celebrations,
| | 03:07 | you know, the coming-of-age party.
| | 03:09 | They are really big out here in LA and
he knows just how to make those girls and
| | 03:13 | their families feel really special.
| | 03:16 | Jen: That flower symbolism
stuff is an interesting angle.
| | 03:19 | Maybe we can play that up somewhere on the site.
| | 03:21 | Do you have any big
competitors out there right now?
| | 03:24 | Hansel: Oh yeah, Movie Star Flowers
always seem to get the movie premieres.
| | 03:28 | I should would like to beat them sometime.
| | 03:31 | And of course, I would like to win
over a few more wedding planners, since they
| | 03:34 | can bring some big events to me.
| | 03:36 | Jen: Okay. I will be sure to take a look at
the website for Movie Star Flowers.
| | 03:40 | Other than your current Hansel and
Petal website, do you have any other
| | 03:44 | marketing materials?
| | 03:45 | Hansel: Well, I mean, I have got a few brochures
that I can leave around and the sign on
| | 03:49 | my shop and business cards, of
course, but that's really about it.
| | 03:54 | She asked some great questions and
questions I wouldn't think really are
| | 03:57 | necessary for building a website.
| | 04:00 | I mean, I understand she needs to
know what kind of products we build, but
| | 04:03 | questions about our competitors and
how to build competitive advantages?
| | 04:06 | Questions about our customers make sense.
| | 04:08 | I mean, after all, the website is
kind of for the customers in the first
| | 04:11 | place, but not only the customers we have today,
but the customers we want to have tomorrow.
| | 04:15 | And then really diving into what is
our vision, what do we want to do and
| | 04:19 | what's important to us?
| | 04:21 | Petal and I have some really strong
feelings and it was good to see that she was
| | 04:24 | integrating those into our website.
| | 04:25 | I am really excited to see how we
can integrate this new website into our
| | 04:29 | already existing marketing campaigns.
| | 04:31 | It will be awesome to see a website
that works for us today and also in
| | 04:35 | the future.
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| Who is your target audience?| 00:00 | As part of the business strategy,
your client should know who is buying
| | 00:04 | their product or service.
| | 00:05 | They should also know who should be
interested in talking with them about
| | 00:09 | their product or service.
| | 00:11 | Those people who are not yet
customers but have an interest or need in the
| | 00:15 | product or service you are offering
are called the Target Audience.
| | 00:19 | Target Audiences are people who
visit your website, or who you would like
| | 00:23 | to visit your website.
| | 00:25 | They break down along geographic,
technological and demographic guidelines.
| | 00:31 | Understanding the Target Audience
means knowing what these key constituents
| | 00:34 | want from your business.
| | 00:36 | Some business owners will tell you
that everyone is their target audience,
| | 00:41 | because everyone needs this product or service.
| | 00:44 | That's not really true.
| | 00:47 | Your service is too expensive for
someone, too far away for someone else, or not
| | 00:52 | needed for another person.
| | 00:54 | Everyone is not the answer.
| | 00:57 | Let's take a look at geographic issues.
| | 01:00 | Are your potential customers
geographically constrained?
| | 01:04 | If you own a lawn care business and you
are located in Ventura California, it's
| | 01:10 | unlikely you travel all the way
to Oregon to do lawn care work.
| | 01:14 | You might not even travel to
Los Angeles, only an hour away.
| | 01:18 | Furthermore, a lawn care business
doesn't necessarily sell well on a website.
| | 01:24 | You might own a bakery with a single location.
| | 01:27 | People in the surrounding neighborhood
would do business with you, but perhaps
| | 01:30 | your cookies are world-famous.
| | 01:33 | Cookies might ship well enough that
you could offer them on your website and
| | 01:37 | ship them across the country.
| | 01:39 | It's unlikely you would ship fresh
bread though, since that's really only
| | 01:43 | fresh for a day or two.
| | 01:45 | Cookies have a longer shelf-life.
| | 01:48 | Keep in mind that some
businesses are international.
| | 01:50 | Do you need to serve multiple
countries or languages? Let's, next,
| | 01:54 | take a look at the technological issues.
| | 01:57 | I am from New Hampshire,
very near the Vermont border.
| | 02:00 | We are always
technologically challenged in my area.
| | 02:03 | We often have trouble getting a
cell phone signal consistently.
| | 02:07 | Broadband Internet access is available
in our big towns like Brattleboro with
| | 02:11 | 10,000 people and Keene with 20,000 people,
| | 02:15 | but it's completely unavailable
just 10 to 15 miles from there.
| | 02:20 | Many people use dial-up, because that's
the only Internet access that exists or
| | 02:25 | they use satellite service.
| | 02:27 | If your target audience is in my
area, you may want to think about this
| | 02:31 | bandwidth issue, when building your website.
| | 02:34 | There are also some technological
considerations associated with the age of
| | 02:37 | your target audience.
| | 02:39 | Typically, older people are more likely to have
older computers, if they have a computer at all.
| | 02:45 | Young people likely have more
modern computers, cell phones, iPods and
| | 02:52 | other technologies.
| | 02:53 | If the average age of your target
user is 60, it's much less likely that a
| | 02:59 | mobile phone compatible website is
important versus a website with a target
| | 03:04 | user age of 25 or 30.
| | 03:05 | Think about the platforms
your target user might be using.
| | 03:10 | If you are an airline website, a
mobile phone site is very important.
| | 03:15 | Internet access is still spotty in airports.
| | 03:18 | It's either nonexistence or it might be
available for a fee, and there are a few
| | 03:23 | now that are carrying free wireless.
| | 03:25 | A frequent traveler can always get a
cell signal in an airport, but the Internet
| | 03:30 | just isn't reliable.
| | 03:31 | They might access the airline site,
with their phone for just that reason.
| | 03:36 | Other sites have no real reason to
spend the money on a mobile phone site,
| | 03:39 | at least, not just yet.
| | 03:41 | Finally, think about the
disabilities of your users.
| | 03:45 | Websites that are built to be
accessible will also be accessible for your
| | 03:49 | number one blind user, Google, and that
means that you will also have better
| | 03:54 | search engine optimization for your website.
| | 03:57 | Finally, let's look at demographic issues.
| | 04:00 | How old or young are your users?
| | 04:02 | Are they mostly men or
women, or are they evenly split?
| | 04:06 | Is your website targeting children?
| | 04:08 | Be aware that there are special rules that
may apply to you, if you do target children.
| | 04:13 | Where do these people live? What
problems are they trying to solve with your
| | 04:17 | products or services? How much money do
they make? Are they strapped for cash,
| | 04:23 | strapped for time or both?
What are their values?
| | 04:27 | There are many demographic questions
you can ask about your Target Audience.
| | 04:31 | The more information you have, the more
reliably you can predict buying patterns
| | 04:36 | and what kind of marketing is most effective.
| | 04:39 | Now let's take a look at Hansel
and Petal and their target audience.
| | 04:43 | First of all, Hansel and Petal is
definitely geographically constrained.
| | 04:48 | They love local flowers and so they are
not going to be serving San Francisco.
| | 04:53 | They will be serving primarily the Los
Angeles area, although that's still quite large.
| | 04:58 | Technologically speaking, they're
going after big money and big clients.
| | 05:03 | It's likely there are no technical
constraints on their target audience like the
| | 05:07 | non-availability of broadband.
| | 05:09 | Since their audience has plenty of
money, it's likely they can pay for
| | 05:13 | broadband, mobile phones and
other types of technologies.
| | 05:17 | The users might be a little older,
since they have lots of money.
| | 05:20 | Probably, they are just going to want
some information on the website and then
| | 05:24 | give Hansel and Petal a
call to get more information.
| | 05:28 | The placement of the phone number on the
website, therefore, will be very important.
| | 05:32 | Finally, some demographic information.
We know that men tend to buy lots of
| | 05:36 | flowers for their wives and girlfriends,
| | 05:38 | but this is a different target market.
| | 05:40 | Wedding planners and corporate
event planners are largely a woman
| | 05:44 | dominated industry.
| | 05:45 | Most of these women are between 30 and 55.
| | 05:48 | Therefore, this is more of a
business-to-business model as opposed to a
| | 05:52 | business-to-consumer model.
| | 05:54 | If you get a wedding planner on your
side, you'll get plenty of brides rather
| | 05:59 | than focusing on getting those
brides to do business with you directly.
| | 06:03 | These demanding Hansel and Petal
clients want lots of attention to detail,
| | 06:08 | careful planning and on-time
delivery is absolutely critical.
| | 06:12 | Roughly 25% of the market is Spanish-
speaking and one floral designer is
| | 06:19 | indeed fluent in Spanish.
| | 06:21 | So we might want to think about
a Spanish portion of the website.
| | 06:24 | As you can see, the more information
you know about your Target Audience, the
| | 06:28 | more effective your website will become.
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| Thinking about personas| 00:00 | Clearly, some target audiences
are more important than others.
| | 00:04 | The usual rule of thumb in business is
the 80/20 rule, 80% of your business will
| | 00:09 | come from 20% of your customers.
| | 00:12 | You need to make sure you understand
that 20% very well, and you're getting them
| | 00:16 | exactly what they need.
| | 00:18 | But what about the other 80%?
| | 00:21 | Some of those audiences are groups
you'll want to grow, because you think your
| | 00:25 | service or product is a
good match for their needs.
| | 00:28 | Other audiences have very specific needs
that might be well served on a website.
| | 00:34 | You can start to understand
these groups by humanizing them.
| | 00:37 | One this is done is via personas.
| | 00:41 | A persona is a fictitious person, who
represents a composite of a number of
| | 00:47 | traits of a given user combined.
| | 00:49 | They can be helpful for thinking about what's
required on the website and how it would work.
| | 00:54 | For example, let's think about a hotel website.
| | 00:58 | One typical user is a business
person who travels frequently.
| | 01:02 | They want to get into website, get a rate,
book a room and get out quickly. That
| | 01:08 | is, of course, a very important market
for the travel industry and someone who
| | 01:12 | must be well served on travel websites.
| | 01:15 | An atypical user is one who might
not be addressed as a large part of the
| | 01:20 | target audience, but may have some very
specific needs that must be addressed.
| | 01:25 | For example, if you were in a wheelchair,
you might still need to book a hotel room.
| | 01:31 | However, you need to make sure you can
get an accessible room, so that you can
| | 01:35 | use the sink, take a shower
and get in and out of bed easily.
| | 01:39 | Not just any room in the hotel
will work for you and not all hotels
| | 01:44 | offer accessible rooms.
| | 01:46 | Of course, hotels want to grow their
business, many hotels have conference rooms
| | 01:51 | they'd like to fill regularly. They
need to reach out to conference organizers
| | 01:56 | and make sure they know that the
hotel has those facilities available.
| | 02:01 | They might want to talk about food,
Internet access and what office supplies are
| | 02:06 | available, such as screens,
projectors, flip charts and pens.
| | 02:11 | Alternatively, the hotel might
want to grow its casual traveler base.
| | 02:15 | Grandparents always want to visit their
grandchildren, but sometimes they don't
| | 02:20 | live in the same town.
| | 02:21 | Perhaps the grandchildren live in
a small house with no room for the
| | 02:25 | grandparents to spend the night, or
maybe the grandparents just like to sleep
| | 02:29 | late in the morning.
| | 02:30 | Senior citizens frequently have
time, money and motivation to travel.
| | 02:35 | So, they are a great group for a hotel to reach.
| | 02:38 | Now let's think about how a
persona might apply to Hansel & Petal.
| | 02:43 | We've developed three personas
in the case of Hansel & Petal.
| | 02:46 | One is a wedding planner, one is a
corporate planner and one is an atypical
| | 02:52 | user, a restaurant owner.
| | 02:54 | First of all the Wedding Planner.
| | 02:56 | Ashley: Hi! I am Ashley, I am 32 and I have been
doing wedding planning since I was 24.
| | 03:01 | I got started when I planned my own wedding.
| | 03:03 | My best friend asked me to help her with her
wedding and then my business grew from there.
| | 03:08 | I now employ two other planners and we
work on approximately five to six weddings at a
| | 03:13 | time, at various stages of completion.
| | 03:16 | Since my job is to make a bride's
dream come true, I have many details
| | 03:20 | to tend to, including venues, the
cake, the flowers, ministers, music,
| | 03:25 | favors, food, and so much more.
| | 03:28 | I prefer to work with partners that
I've worked with many times before.
| | 03:32 | I like knowing I can count on my
partners to simply get the job done.
| | 03:36 | Lately, I've been more into a niche of serving
brides who really care about the environment.
| | 03:42 | That's why it's so important to me
to find local vendors who also care
| | 03:47 | about the environment.
| | 03:48 | Jen: Second, let's take our corporate planner.
| | 03:51 | Ron: Hi! I am Ron, I work at a large bank in LA and
several times a year, the bank has big meetings,
| | 03:59 | senior staff members, board of directors,
shareholder meetings that kind of stuff.
| | 04:04 | And when these things come along, I
am the one that coordinates the travel
| | 04:07 | arrangements, the hotel, the meals, the
workspace, all of that, and I always have some
| | 04:12 | greenery brought in.
| | 04:13 | Now, I don't want to own these plants.
| | 04:15 | I am not going to take care of them.
| | 04:16 | I don't even want to hire
somebody to take care of them. Oh!
| | 04:20 | And I like to have big
bouquets on the banquet tables too.
| | 04:24 | I don't know anything about flowers or plants.
| | 04:26 | I just know they make the place look good.
| | 04:27 | I am great at logistics, but what I
want with these plants and greeneries, I want
| | 04:32 | to call somebody, have them come out
to the site, decide what's going to make it
| | 04:36 | look good and deliver on time.
| | 04:39 | They do that, I'm a happy camper.
| | 04:42 | Jen: Finally, our restaurant owner.
| | 04:44 | Mary: Hi! I am Mary and I own Mary's
Garden restaurant in downtown LA.
| | 04:48 | I am proud to say it's an All-Vegan restaurant.
| | 04:50 | I am very aware of my client's beliefs
and why they come to see me frequently,
| | 04:55 | as I have many of those beliefs to myself.
| | 04:57 | I've practiced for a long time to
make vegan food that is delicious and the
| | 05:01 | fact that my values compliment
those of my clients is an added bonus.
| | 05:05 | Mary's Garden got its name from all
of the greenery in the restaurant, in
| | 05:08 | addition to the all-vegan menu.
| | 05:10 | As my restaurant gains in popularity,
making sure the plants stay watered,
| | 05:14 | trimmed and looking
healthy is very important to me.
| | 05:17 | I also want fresh long-lasting
flowers for the tables, preferably in season,
| | 05:21 | and preferably local.
| | 05:23 | I would like to bundle the greenery
service with the flowers to have one bill
| | 05:26 | and save a little money.
| | 05:28 | Jen: A persona will help put a name in a face
on your important target audience groups.
| | 05:33 | They provide a useful metric,
when planning a website.
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| How can Web 2.0 support your business strategy?| 00:00 | Every element of your website should
support, in some way, the business strategy
| | 00:05 | and the target audience you want to attract.
| | 00:07 | Jared Spool of User Interface
Engineering and Alan Cooper of Cooper talk about
| | 00:13 | the Dancing Bear philosophy of web design.
| | 00:15 | If a bear started dancing,
we would all be amazed.
| | 00:19 | How cool is that, that a bear can dance?
| | 00:21 | But if you think about it, bears
aren't particularly good dancers.
| | 00:25 | The only reason we find it amazing is
because we didn't know bears could dance.
| | 00:30 | Likewise, there are some very cool
technologies out there floating around
| | 00:34 | begging to be included on your website, but
just because you can, doesn't mean you should.
| | 00:40 | Each widget should solve a
specific strategic problem and we use the
| | 00:45 | word generically to apply to any type of
technology you might include on your website.
| | 00:50 | For example, photo galleries are very popular.
| | 00:54 | People love to look at pictures.
| | 00:56 | However, on your business website, do
you really need to post pictures of the
| | 01:01 | latest Christmas party?
| | 01:02 | Perhaps you can post these on your
intranet, but not on the public website.
| | 01:07 | Let's think about Hansel & Petal and
what types of widgets they might use to
| | 01:12 | support their website.
| | 01:13 | A photo gallery is actually a
very good match for Hansel & Petal.
| | 01:17 | They can use it to show
sample pictures of events.
| | 01:20 | They should have a few pictures of a
wedding, a corporate party, a Christmas
| | 01:24 | party, some photos of a
restaurant, a banquet and more.
| | 01:29 | This gives a sense of the breadth of
offerings from Hansel & Petal and some
| | 01:33 | ideas of the types of markets they serve well.
| | 01:37 | They should also include a
description of each event.
| | 01:40 | Well, it may be obvious that a certain
picture is a picture of a wedding,
| | 01:44 | it's always nice to talk about the size
of the wedding, how many guests attended
| | 01:49 | and other details, so people get an
idea when thinking about their own event
| | 01:54 | that they're planning.
| | 01:55 | Photos on the homepage would also
be a good addition to this website.
| | 01:59 | Preferably, these photos should have
smiling and happy people with lots of flowers.
| | 02:05 | Once again, we would probably want to
feature some weddings, some board meetings,
| | 02:10 | maybe a fundraiser dinner, and
certainly a restaurant full of people.
| | 02:14 | We had decided to include a
blog on the website as well.
| | 02:17 | As you saw in the earlier movie,
Kirk Hansel is very passionate about
| | 02:21 | environmentally-friendly flowers.
| | 02:24 | A blog is a great way for Kirk to talk
about what flowers are in season and talk
| | 02:30 | extensively about the environmental
impact of the flower business and how to be
| | 02:34 | greener with flowers.
| | 02:36 | It's also a great opportunity for him to
post a photo of a recent event and talk
| | 02:41 | about the story behind that particular event.
| | 02:44 | Finally, an electronic newsletter would
be a great addition to this website.
| | 02:48 | It will be a monthly mailing, which will
remind people about time-specific events.
| | 02:53 | For example, Christmas is coming up,
time to plan your Christmas party or
| | 02:58 | perhaps it's getting to be time for
graduation, birthdays are always in season.
| | 03:03 | This newsletter could also talk about
what flowers are in season right now.
| | 03:07 | The newsletter can also be used to
drive traffic to certain posts in the blog
| | 03:12 | and when people arrive in the blog,
they're likely to look at other areas of
| | 03:15 | the website as well.
| | 03:17 | Not all features have to be included
on this website. For example, Hansel &
| | 03:22 | Petal should probably set up a Facebook page.
| | 03:24 | Facebook reaches a younger
demographic and more women.
| | 03:28 | So, this is a good way to
reach wedding planners and brides.
| | 03:31 | It's also a great way for happy
customers to post their own testimonials about
| | 03:36 | Hansel & Petal's legendary
service, in their own words.
| | 03:39 | Hansel & Petal might also consider
using Twitter for tweeting their late
| | 03:44 | breaking specials, which might tie
in very nicely with their other side of
| | 03:49 | the bouquet business.
| | 03:50 | For example, if an event has some
leftover flowers, they could quickly assemble
| | 03:56 | a discounted bouquet and tweak
that has a limited time offer.
| | 04:00 | It's also, a great way to get rid of
flowers that are getting just a little bit old.
| | 04:05 | Keep mind that you should not be
adding just any kind of widget to your
| | 04:09 | website for any reason.
| | 04:11 | Every single widget that you add to
your website should match something in
| | 04:15 | the business strategy.
| | 04:17 | As long as you keep that in mind as
you're adding features and functionality to
| | 04:21 | your website, your website won't be
overly cluttered with a bunch of tools that
| | 04:26 | aren't necessarily serving any
purpose than being dancing bears.
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| How is the web site going to be maintained?| 00:00 | All too frequently, clients get
focused on getting the website out there.
| | 00:04 | Launch day comes and everyone celebrates.
| | 00:08 | All too soon though, the
client forgets about the website.
| | 00:11 | It sits there, unloved, and out of date,
because no one thought through what those
| | 00:17 | updates might be and how they would occur.
| | 00:20 | Some updates are straightforward
and easy for your client to make, or at
| | 00:24 | least they should be.
| | 00:25 | For example, if your client has a blog,
being able to create new blog posts
| | 00:31 | without a high level of technical
proficiency is a must for that blog software.
| | 00:36 | However, if your client has never
worked with a computer before, perhaps asking
| | 00:40 | them to make blog posts is not a good idea.
| | 00:44 | Other updates may be more difficult
depending on the technological solution you
| | 00:48 | choose for building your website.
| | 00:50 | Talk with your client about what they
anticipate will change weekly, monthly,
| | 00:55 | quarterly, yearly and almost never, then
figure out if they have the technical
| | 01:01 | ability level to do the
weekly and the monthly updates.
| | 01:05 | And that you have a technological
solution, to match those needs quarterly,
| | 01:10 | yearly and almost never
updates can be firmed out to you.
| | 01:15 | The client does need to make sure that
he has the time to make those regular
| | 01:19 | updates or he needs to pay you to do them
and they need to have the money to do that.
| | 01:25 | Make sure your client understands
that the website is an ongoing expense in
| | 01:30 | terms of renewing domain names and
hosting software licenses, if applicable, and
| | 01:36 | other changes that might need to happen,
| | 01:37 | for example, new
functionality or software upgrades.
| | 01:41 | A website is never a one-time expense.
| | 01:46 | Thinking about Hansel & Petal, Kirk
Hansel is pretty good on his computer.
| | 01:50 | He knows some Word and does e-mail
and absolutely loves Facebook.
| | 01:54 | Of course, he's going to need some
training on the Content Management System,
| | 02:00 | but he'll be okay with keeping the site going.
| | 02:03 | He's very, very excited about the blog and
the opportunity to talk about green flowers.
| | 02:09 | I will have to do the general upgrades
for this website and I need to remember
| | 02:13 | to include that cost in my web hosting fee.
| | 02:16 | Knowing what maintenance will be
required for the site in advance will drive
| | 02:20 | which technologies you
choose to solve those problems.
| | 02:24 | The last thing you want is to pick hard-to-
use or cloogy software that your client hates.
| | 02:30 | If that's the case, they will
wind up thinking ill of you too.
| | 02:34 | Do your homework, and
you'll get a much happier ending.
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| How will you measure success?| 00:00 | Dr. Stephen Covey, in his book, The 7 Habits
of Highly Effective People, states that
| | 00:05 | one of the habits of successful people
is how they begin with the end in mind.
| | 00:10 | We've been doing that throughout this
chapter, thinking about who will use the
| | 00:14 | website, who will maintain it,
and how those updates happen.
| | 00:18 | We also need to think about what a
successful website is like and how we'll no
| | 00:23 | success has happened.
| | 00:25 | If web developers think about measuring
success, and frequently they don't, they
| | 00:30 | simply suggest using Google
Analytics for the website.
| | 00:34 | Google Analytics is important.
| | 00:36 | It measures who is coming to your
website, what they're doing on the site, and
| | 00:41 | where they leave the website.
| | 00:43 | It can be tied in with online
advertising campaigns in Google AdWords.
| | 00:49 | But Google Analytics only goes so
far and the results can be misleading.
| | 00:54 | Once I had a client, who had an average
site visit dip from 15 minutes to 5
| | 01:00 | minutes after a site redesign.
| | 01:02 | He initially thought that was a very bad thing.
| | 01:06 | The site was no longer
engaging and people were leaving.
| | 01:09 | I argued that that was not the case at all.
| | 01:12 | The old site was so obfuscated that it took
users a long time to figure out what they needed.
| | 01:18 | The new site was easier to navigate so they
got in and they got out much more quickly.
| | 01:24 | Who was right?
| | 01:25 | You'll only know with user testing.
| | 01:28 | There are other ways of measuring success.
| | 01:30 | For example, phone calls about store
hours and location drop because it's easier
| | 01:37 | to find on a website, measure by
tracking this by people who answer the phone.
| | 01:43 | Let's think about Hansel & Petal.
| | 01:45 | Kirk Hansel instructs all people
taking phone calls to ask, "How did you hear
| | 01:50 | about us?" and, "Did you look at our
website before you called today?"
| | 01:55 | They email him the answers that they get,
while talking to these potential clients.
| | 02:00 | Hansel also wants to book 12 weddings in
the next six months, or two weddings a month.
| | 02:06 | Normally, they book one
wedding every other month.
| | 02:09 | He also wants to contact 50 midsized
local businesses and convert at least five
| | 02:15 | customers over the next year.
| | 02:17 | For the website, he wants to see
people filling in the contact form more
| | 02:22 | frequently and making calls,
having already looked at the site.
| | 02:26 | He'd like to have at least 100 fans in
the next month on Facebook and he'd like
| | 02:31 | to get at least 200 Twitter followers.
| | 02:33 | He plans on researching wedding
planners and following them on Twitter as
| | 02:37 | well as following the LA Convention
Center and some prominent logistics
| | 02:42 | planners in the movie industry.
| | 02:45 | Begin with the end in mind.
| | 02:47 | Know what success looks like before you
start so you know how to measure it in the end.
| | 02:52 | Google Analytics is a useful tool
for measuring traffic patterns, but it's
| | 02:57 | not your only metric.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
2. What Technology Is Right for Your Site?Getting specific about technology| 00:00 | Now that we know exactly what kinds of
functionalities are required to make the
| | 00:04 | site work with the business strategy,
it's time to start thinking about exactly
| | 00:08 | which functionalities those are.
| | 00:10 | For example, we know we need a blog and
a photo gallery, but which blog and which
| | 00:17 | photo gallery, and what about the
press releases the client will be posting?
| | 00:21 | Ideally, these functionalities are
available under a single platform.
| | 00:25 | Clients don't want to go one place to
do the blog, another place to do the
| | 00:29 | photos, and a third-place to do press releases.
| | 00:32 | Ideally, the client can log in one place
and complete all the required tasks there.
| | 00:38 | Sometimes, you might find
technologies the client thinks they need, but
| | 00:43 | perhaps they really don't.
| | 00:45 | A client does not need an event calendar if
they only have a handful of events each year.
| | 00:50 | If they have one event a month,
it starts to make more sense.
| | 00:55 | Social media is an important part of
the site, potentially, depending on the
| | 00:58 | market they wish to reach.
| | 01:00 | Is a Facebook page required?
| | 01:02 | Should they be on Twitter?
| | 01:04 | Remember, this all takes time,
| | 01:06 | so if they don't have the manpower
to keep up with that Facebook page or
| | 01:10 | to tweet a little bit now and then, perhaps
they should skip those social networking tools.
| | 01:14 | Given Hansel's love of Facebook, we
created a Facebook fan page where happy
| | 01:21 | clients could post their photos of
beautiful flowers at their events.
| | 01:25 | This was a good way to reach
brides in their 20s and early 30s.
| | 01:29 | The website would be built with Joomla!,
an open-source content management system.
| | 01:33 | Jen suggested a Joomla!
| | 01:35 | photo gallery component to use for
the site and it would be easy to set up
| | 01:38 | the blog in the Joomla! framework as well.
| | 01:40 | Hansel would have a single login for Joomla!
| | 01:43 | and a second one for Facebook.
| | 01:45 | Then we discussed whether we should have a
single website with all of the bouquets
| | 01:50 | as well as the event planning or
whether we should break it into two websites.
| | 01:55 | The advantage of putting everything in a
single website is that it's all in the same place.
| | 02:00 | The site has already been up for a
while and it's been indexed by Google.
| | 02:04 | However, the target audience for $100
bouquets is very, very different than
| | 02:10 | $10,000 floral extravaganzas.
| | 02:13 | Those audiences have very different
needs and it's hard to combine those needs
| | 02:17 | into a single website.
| | 02:19 | If we broke the website into two
separate sites, you could talk to each audience
| | 02:24 | directly on those sites.
| | 02:26 | But unfortunately, it does
mean two websites to maintain.
| | 02:30 | It takes a while to work up the
awareness in Google of the second site, as well.
| | 02:35 | Ultimately, we decided to split out
the event services from the bouquet site.
| | 02:40 | They felt that the bouquets
detracted, somewhat, from the message of
| | 02:44 | complete customization.
| | 02:46 | Also, since people want to spend
different amounts of money, say, $20 for
| | 02:51 | flowers for their wife one evening or
$2,000 flowers for a wedding, we wanted to
| | 02:57 | home the message
specifically for the higher end market.
| | 03:00 | The new website address will be
events.hanselandpeatal.com and the bouquet site
| | 03:06 | will be to be www.hanselandpeatal.com.
| | 03:09 | We'll have a link from the bouquet site
to the event site, but not a major link
| | 03:13 | from the event site to the bouquet site.
| | 03:15 | We'll just put a small
subtle link in the footer.
| | 03:18 | Since you did your homework earlier and
you decided which functionalities were
| | 03:23 | a good fit with the business strategy,
by the time you get to this point,
| | 03:26 | picking up the technology to drive
those functionalities is a relatively
| | 03:30 | straightforward process.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Understanding static web sites vs. CMS-driven web sites| 00:00 | There are two common ways to build
websites for your clients these days.
| | 00:04 | One is a standard static website
and the other is a website using a
| | 00:08 | content management system.
| | 00:10 | For many years, we built our websites
using Static Systems, such as Adobe Dreamweaver.
| | 00:16 | These sites were relatively
straightforward to build and content management
| | 00:20 | systems ran into the six figures
and were just prohibitively expensive.
| | 00:25 | Now we have some wonderful open-
source content management systems available
| | 00:29 | to us for free download, including
Joomla!, Drupal, WordPress and hundreds of others.
| | 00:37 | So we ask ourselves, "Which is better
for our particular client?" and the correct
| | 00:42 | answer, as always, is, "It depends."
| | 00:46 | Static websites have a few positives.
| | 00:49 | First of all, they are very
inexpensive and quick to put together and they
| | 00:52 | require no special kind of web hosting.
| | 00:55 | Unfortunately, static websites are
very difficult for your clients to update
| | 01:00 | without knowledge of HTML, CSS, and FTP.
| | 01:04 | It is true that such products as Adobe
Contribute are available for updating a
| | 01:09 | Dreamweaver-based website.
| | 01:11 | However, Contribute does cost money.
| | 01:14 | Your client must pay some amount of money to
have the software running on their computer.
| | 01:18 | Static websites also do not
support Web 2.0 tools very well.
| | 01:23 | They are strictly designed to
display text on a webpage and not be
| | 01:27 | terribly interactive.
| | 01:29 | Content management system sites are also
very quick to build and the updates are
| | 01:34 | very easy for a client.
| | 01:36 | They don't need to know HTML and they
don't need to know FTP and in order to
| | 01:41 | update the website, all they
need is a web browser and a log-in.
| | 01:45 | Web 2.0 tools are supported by all
of the content management systems.
| | 01:50 | It's very easy to add a blog, a photo
gallery, a calendar, a shopping cart and
| | 01:56 | many, many other types of technology.
| | 01:59 | The content, once in a database, is
very portable and you can move it around
| | 02:03 | between content management systems if
you know how to work with databases and
| | 02:07 | there are many, many free
open-source choices out there.
| | 02:10 | lynda.com offers training for Joomla!, Drupal,
and WordPress, available on other titles.
| | 02:18 | However, when you're working with a
content management system website, you will
| | 02:22 | need more specific web hosting.
| | 02:24 | There are some very specific
requirements for these content management systems.
| | 02:28 | So, you will need to make sure that you
have the right version of PHP, the right
| | 02:32 | version of MySQL and the right web
server running in the hosting environment.
| | 02:38 | The site can cost more upfront for
your client because they can be a little
| | 02:42 | more complicated to configure than a
static website and since you're running a
| | 02:46 | content management system, these sites
are hacked more often than a static website.
| | 02:51 | Now let's think about Hansel & Petal.
| | 02:54 | Given the Hansel's love of Facebook and
how excited he is about a blog, a static
| | 02:59 | website really doesn't make a lot of sense.
| | 03:01 | He really needs the ability to
change that website, at least weekly, and
| | 03:05 | possibly even daily.
| | 03:07 | We have decided to go with Joomla!
| | 03:08 | since that's the content
management system that I know well.
| | 03:12 | Building website with Joomla!
| | 03:13 | will also give us the ability
to build with the future in mind.
| | 03:17 | We can easily add to this
website going forward, with new social
| | 03:20 | networking tools if we wish.
| | 03:22 | So once you have put together your
business strategy and you understand which
| | 03:26 | technologies you'll need to drive the
website, making the choice between a
| | 03:30 | static and a CMS driven website
should be relatively easy to do.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Comparing CMS software| 00:00 | As you know by now, I'm a big fan of
Joomla!, but if you have never built a
| | 00:04 | website with a content management
system before, you may be wondering which
| | 00:08 | content management system is right for you.
| | 00:10 | cmsmatrix.org, the website we are
looking at now, is a great tool for comparing
| | 00:16 | content management systems.
| | 00:18 | Most of these are open-source and free.
| | 00:20 | The site works as follows.
| | 00:22 | Let's say I want to compare
Drupal, WordPress, and Joomla!
| | 00:25 | So I am going to scroll down the screen,
I'll find Drupal somewhere down here.
| | 00:32 | Drupal. Then I look for Joomla!
| | 00:38 | and then I'll look for WordPress.
| | 00:40 | As you can see, there are many, many
content management systems you can compare.
| | 00:48 | Then, once you have selected your
content management systems, you can compare
| | 00:52 | them and as you see here, we
are comparing Drupal 6.10, Joomla!
| | 01:00 | 1.5.10 and WordPress 2.2.1.
| | 01:06 | The release dates are
located at the top of the page.
| | 01:09 | Note that this is a fairly old version of
WordPress that we are comparing from 2007.
| | 01:14 | This will tell you a little bit about
the server, the database and what types of
| | 01:19 | features and functionality
each one of these packages has.
| | 01:24 | Keep in mind that this comparison chart
doesn't show you all of the information
| | 01:28 | you need to consider when thinking
about a content management system.
| | 01:30 | You need a content management system
that you can learn very quickly, but also
| | 01:35 | that your client can use easily.
| | 01:37 | If you are learning a content
management system for the first time, you'll want
| | 01:41 | to pick one that has lots of books and
training videos available and possibly
| | 01:46 | even a college class.
| | 01:48 | You want to be sure that the software
is surrounded by a strong and committed
| | 01:53 | online community, that they answer
questions, and there are forums, and that
| | 01:58 | they are a community of people who are
actively contributing extensions to the project.
| | 02:04 | You'll also need to make sure that
there's a good team of people who are
| | 02:06 | revising and building the
new version of the software.
| | 02:09 | Make sure that the cost of the
software is within your client's budget.
| | 02:13 | If you're using open-source content
management systems, the price is usually
| | 02:17 | free, so that should be well
within your client's budget.
| | 02:21 | You may also want to look
for local support in your area.
| | 02:24 | Is there a user group that covers
your content management system of
| | 02:28 | choice that's nearby?
| | 02:30 | If there isn't, why don't you start one?
| | 02:32 | Your local colleges or universities
might be teaching a specific content
| | 02:35 | management system as well.
| | 02:37 | If so, cultivate some friendships and
relationships with those people, so that
| | 02:41 | you can call in them for help or to
supplement your own skill set, and of course,
| | 02:45 | maybe those people will
pass you a little work as well.
| | 02:48 | WordPress, Drupal and Joomla!
| | 02:50 | are the three big names in the open-
source content management system community
| | 02:54 | at this time and all three have
training videos available here at lynda.com.
| | 02:59 | At this point, these are the three
platforms that I would look at very carefully.
| | 03:03 | Obviously, there are thousands of other
content management systems out there and
| | 03:07 | they're coming along, but they're not
nearly as well established as Drupal,
| | 03:11 | Joomla!, and WordPress.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Comparing CMS supporting technologies| 00:00 | Whether you build a static site or
a CMS based site, you may need some
| | 00:04 | additional functionality
to make your website work.
| | 00:07 | In Dreamweaver, we have
extensions that are available for download.
| | 00:11 | Most content management systems offer a
similar functionality. How do you choose
| | 00:15 | the right extension for your needs?
| | 00:18 | As you know, I love Joomla!
| | 00:20 | and in Joomla!, there is
something called the Joomla!
| | 00:22 | Extension Directory, or the JED,
that's listing a series of GPL
| | 00:26 | compliant extensions.
| | 00:29 | GPL is a type of open-source
software licensing that Joomla!
| | 00:32 | endorses and uses for its own software,
so it lists extensions that also follow
| | 00:37 | the same licensing scheme.
| | 00:39 | This is a wonderful
place to research extensions.
| | 00:42 | As you can see on the screen, there are
over 3540 extensions today and there is
| | 00:48 | probably more by the
time you look at this movie.
| | 00:51 | Ideally, we want to find extensions
that are well established, are regularly
| | 00:55 | updated, have good user ratings, seem
to have reasonable support and we want
| | 01:01 | to make sure we read through the comments to
make sure that the bad doesn't outweigh the good.
| | 01:06 | One of the pieces of functionality that
Hansel & Petal needs is a photo gallery.
| | 01:11 | So on the left side of the page where
you see the Categories, I am going to
| | 01:15 | scroll down to Photos & Images.
| | 01:19 | Within the Photos & Images category, I
am going to go to the subcategory for
| | 01:23 | Photo Gallery and here, within the Photo
Gallery area, I can read about all kinds
| | 01:31 | of great photo galleries
that are available for Joomla!
| | 01:33 | I am going to take a look at this
one here, the Simple Image Gallery.
| | 01:39 | The reason I am looking in Simple
Image Gallery is I am familiar with the
| | 01:42 | developer, JoomlaWorks, which is based in
Greece and I have used this extension before.
| | 01:49 | Note here in this particular
listing, we have a Popular icon by it.
| | 01:54 | The Popular icon on the Joomla!
| | 01:56 | extension site means that it
gets over 150 page views a day.
| | 02:00 | So there is a lot of interest
in this particular extension.
| | 02:03 | Note that it was last
updated on November 29th, 2008.
| | 02:08 | That was almost a year ago.
| | 02:09 | So, we might want to look a little
bit more closely to make sure that
| | 02:14 | JoomlaWorks is still in business and is
still updating this particular extension
| | 02:18 | and writing other extensions.
| | 02:19 | I know that that's actually true
because I have worked with them before.
| | 02:22 | Clicking on the link will take me into
more information about Simple Image Gallery.
| | 02:29 | This talks about the compatibility
with the various versions of Joomla!
| | 02:33 | In this case, it is compatible
with both Version 1.0 and Version 1.5.
| | 02:39 | Over 240 people have voted for this
extension and they have rated it four stars
| | 02:44 | on average, which is great.
| | 02:46 | So, that tells us that people
think highly of this extension.
| | 02:49 | It has been around for a while since it was
added to the directory in December of 2006.
| | 02:56 | You can read through the information
that they talk about how the extension
| | 03:00 | works and then we can
scroll down to the Reviews.
| | 03:04 | So here are some three-star reviews
and a four-star review and these are
| | 03:09 | fairly recent dates.
| | 03:12 | As we scroll through here, we largely
see four-star and five-star reviews.
| | 03:19 | Nobody looks like they are terribly
unhappy with this extension over the past year.
| | 03:26 | So, this is probably a good one to try.
| | 03:29 | As you can see, we can go to a demo
page and see how the Simple Image Gallery
| | 03:33 | works, we are also able to
download it and install it in Joomla!
| | 03:37 | To learn more about how to install
extensions for Joomla!, make sure you take
| | 03:41 | a look at our Joomla 1.5 Essentials training
videos in the lynda.com Training Video Library.
| | 03:47 | Researching extensions is very important.
| | 03:49 | You want to make sure that you get high-
quality extensions that will serve your
| | 03:54 | client well, are easy to use and are
maintained so that they don't become
| | 03:59 | security risks to your website.
| | 04:01 | A website like the Joomla!
| | 04:02 | Extensions Directory gives you a lot
of information so that you can make good
| | 04:05 | decisions as to which technologies
you want to include on your website.
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| Thinking about web hosting and developer web maintenance| 00:00 | Now that you've chosen a Content
Management System, in this case Joomla!, it
| | 00:04 | does have specific requirements for hosting.
| | 00:07 | You'll also need to think about
how upgrades and backups are going to
| | 00:10 | happen with Joomla!.
| | 00:12 | Upgrades and backups are generally going to
be your responsibility as the web developer.
| | 00:18 | First, upgrades. If upgrades aren't done,
the site is going to go out-of-date and
| | 00:23 | become more vulnerable to hackers.
| | 00:25 | Some Content Management Systems offer
a very easy way to get upgrades done.
| | 00:29 | For example, with Joomla!, there's an
extension called the Joomla! Updater, which
| | 00:34 | offers a very easy way to upgrade your
site from, say, Joomla 1.5.14 to Joomla
| | 00:42 | 1.5.15, a security release.
| | 00:46 | Using Joomla! Updater is actually simple
enough that your client could do it on their own,
| | 00:51 | but could you trust your client to do it?
| | 00:54 | Unfortunately, you usually can't.
| | 00:56 | Doing these types of upgrades are not
very high on your client's priority list.
| | 01:00 | So, I recommend that you take
responsibility for doing the upgrades for Joomla
| | 01:06 | for all of your clients.
| | 01:07 | Fold the cost of doing those upgrades
into your hosting fee, rather than billing
| | 01:12 | the client individually
every time an upgrade happens.
| | 01:15 | Another thing you need to be
concerned with are backups.
| | 01:19 | Make sure you find out about your host
backup procedures. How long are backups
| | 01:23 | kept? How are they accessible? How
long would it take the host to roll back to
| | 01:29 | the backed-up version of your site?
| | 01:30 | It is very wise to have two backups
available to you that you, as the end-user,
| | 01:36 | can access, not just
backups for the hosting company.
| | 01:39 | Look for a weekly backup, which is
frequently made on Sunday and kept until the
| | 01:44 | following Sunday, as well as a daily backup.
| | 01:47 | The daily backup may get overwritten each day.
| | 01:50 | You may want to make your own more
frequent backups and download them to
| | 01:54 | your hard drive as well.
| | 01:55 | Your Control panel software for the web
hosting company usually offers some type
| | 02:00 | of utility for making those backups
and you could use that, or there may be an
| | 02:04 | extension that your
Content Management System offers.
| | 02:07 | For example, in Joomla!, there's a great
third-party extension called JoomlaPack
| | 02:13 | that will back up your Joomla! website,
both the database and PHP files, into a
| | 02:18 | single package that you can
download to your hard drive.
| | 02:21 | When picking out your web hosting,
you'll have several choices of types of
| | 02:25 | hosting to choose from.
| | 02:27 | Typically, you will encounter Shared
Hosting, Dedicated Hosting, a Virtual
| | 02:31 | Private Server or a Reseller Plan, and you are
probably wondering which one is right for you.
| | 02:37 | So first of all you have to
understand what each of those terms mean.
| | 02:41 | Shared Hosting means that there is
hundreds or even thousands of websites all on
| | 02:46 | the same web server, and this is
web server in the hardware sense.
| | 02:50 | It typically has very cheap pricing,
so anytime you see web hosting for five
| | 02:55 | or six dollars a month, you can almost bet your
money on the fact that that is Shared Hosting.
| | 03:00 | The big advantage with Shared
Hosting is it is very inexpensive.
| | 03:04 | But the downside is when you share your
web server with so many other websites,
| | 03:10 | your website may crawl, in other words
it may not go very quickly because there
| | 03:14 | is other websites that are
competing for the server's resources.
| | 03:17 | It is also potentially more
vulnerable to being hacked because if there is
| | 03:22 | thousands of websites on one server,
you have no guarantee that all of those
| | 03:26 | sites are being upgraded in a timely manner.
| | 03:29 | Dedicated Hosting means that your one
website is the only one on that piece
| | 03:34 | of server hardware.
| | 03:36 | The positive side is that your
website is the only one drawing on the
| | 03:39 | server's resources.
| | 03:41 | It doesn't have to share with anyone.
| | 03:43 | However, Dedicated Hosting is very
expensive, usually prohibitively expensive for
| | 03:48 | a small business website.
| | 03:50 | A great compromise between Shared
Hosting, which is cheap but very crowded, and
| | 03:56 | Dedicated Hosting, which is very
expensive, is the virtual Private Server.
| | 04:00 | In this case, you are sharing the
server hardware with other customers, but you
| | 04:05 | have your own virtual environment with
access to the root of that web server.
| | 04:10 | You are walled off from the other
clients on the machine and you have some
| | 04:15 | dedicated time for the server CPU.
| | 04:18 | Other clients on that web server
don't make your site run slowly.
| | 04:22 | Only the sites that are within your
particular VPS affect the website times.
| | 04:28 | Finally, you may encounter a Reseller Plan.
| | 04:31 | A Reseller Plan means you buy a chunk
of disk space that you can resell pieces
| | 04:35 | of it to your various clients.
| | 04:38 | You can combine the word reseller
with any of the above terms so there are
| | 04:42 | resellers of Shared Hosting, resellers
of Dedicated Hosting, and resellers of
| | 04:47 | Virtual Private Servers.
| | 04:49 | If you become a reseller of a Virtual
Private Server, that is a great way to go.
| | 04:54 | You know your content management system
will run under you are Virtual Private
| | 04:57 | Server or VPS, and you can resell
space to your clients from there.
| | 05:02 | The host is always configured the same
way so you don't have to fight with it to
| | 05:06 | get your Content Management System installed.
| | 05:09 | Make sure you have enough clients
and that you charge them enough to have
| | 05:13 | hosting to at least pay
for itself when you sign up.
| | 05:16 | That way, your own
website you can host for free.
| | 05:19 | In this case, I sold some
hosting space to Hansel and Petal.
| | 05:23 | I have my own Virtual Private Server,
and I am reseller so I sold them a
| | 05:28 | piece of my disk space.
| | 05:30 | Having all of my clients together on my
own Virtual Private Server means that I
| | 05:35 | can run through all of my accounts
quickly to get upgrades done and that my
| | 05:39 | backups are all centralized in one location.
| | 05:42 | Remember that static websites can
generally be hosted anywhere while a Content
| | 05:47 | Management System has very
specific technological requirements.
| | 05:52 | Make sure you have a plan for
upgrades and backups of your client's website
| | 05:57 | and make sure you understand what you
are looking at when you go shopping for
| | 06:01 | web hosting.
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|
|
3. Organizing the ProjectDo you need some help?| 00:01 | No one is good at everything, so it is
likely you will need some help somewhere.
| | 00:05 | Where might you need help in the
graphic design and development process of
| | 00:09 | building your website?
| | 00:10 | I always need help with graphic design.
| | 00:12 | I need someone to make things pretty
and someone with a sense of color and
| | 00:16 | layout and most of all, I need someone
who understands when the client says,
| | 00:21 | "Can you jazz that up a little bit?"
| | 00:23 | That just does not compute for me,
but it always seems to make sense to my
| | 00:27 | graphic designer friends.
| | 00:29 | You might need a developer.
| | 00:31 | A developer is someone who knows
databases and programming and scripting
| | 00:35 | languages, like PHP and JavaScript and so forth.
| | 00:39 | Developers can build custom extensions
for your Content Management System and
| | 00:43 | they may know something about web
hosting or Content Management installation.
| | 00:47 | They are incredibly helpful people to
have on your staff and available to call
| | 00:52 | on when you need them.
| | 00:53 | You may need an HTML and CSS guru,
someone who can take that graphic design and
| | 00:59 | convert it to some kind of
content management system template.
| | 01:03 | This is actually my area of expertise,
so I usually do that part myself.
| | 01:07 | Finally, you might need someone
with another area of expertise.
| | 01:12 | Perhaps you need a photographer, a
writer, a project manager or any one of a
| | 01:16 | number of other items for your website.
| | 01:19 | The question, as always, is where
can you find good help these days?
| | 01:24 | Network in your local area. User
group meetings are a wonderful place to go
| | 01:28 | because you can meet people
with complementary skills.
| | 01:31 | There is a number of business
networking organizations such as the Rotary,
| | 01:35 | BNI, the Chamber of Commerce and many other
groups that might be available in your area.
| | 01:42 | You may also look into your
graphic designer, your developer or your
| | 01:46 | photographer as a subcontractor.
| | 01:49 | That means they are someone that you
pay to work for you and help with the
| | 01:53 | project rather than working for the client.
| | 01:55 | They are not an employee.
| | 01:57 | In this case, you are hiring them for a
specific job to complete and that's it.
| | 02:01 | The positive of doing subcontracting is
that you brand everything as your own,
| | 02:07 | instead of the work feeling
more like more patch work.
| | 02:10 | You can also mark up the
work of the graphic designer.
| | 02:13 | The downside, though, can be quite significant.
| | 02:16 | If your client stiffs you and
doesn't pay you, you still have to pay
| | 02:20 | your graphic designer.
| | 02:21 | In order to avoid this as a big, big
problem, make sure you get some money
| | 02:26 | upfront, before the work starts, so
that you are sure you have some money on
| | 02:30 | hand to pay your subcontractors.
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| Pulling together pricing| 00:00 | Now that you have an idea of the size
and the scope of the website you are
| | 00:03 | planning, it is finally
time to think about cost.
| | 00:07 | First of all, you should
determine your hourly rate.
| | 00:10 | The website we are
looking at is FreelanceSwitch.
| | 00:13 | This is a wonderful tool for
determining your hourly rate.
| | 00:16 | It'll take you about 5 to 20 minutes to work
with this website to determine your hourly rate.
| | 00:22 | In step one, you're going to calculate
your business costs, things like your
| | 00:25 | rent, software costs, insurance, legal
fees, accounting, computers and so forth.
| | 00:31 | Second, you are going to think about
your own personal expenses, what you pay
| | 00:35 | in rent or mortgage, how much you
want to save for retirement, all of your
| | 00:39 | other various expenses.
| | 00:41 | Then you want to think about how
many hours you can actually bill.
| | 00:44 | Remember that we don't work 365 days a year,
although I must confess sometimes it feels like it.
| | 00:50 | You're going to work some
number of days per week.
| | 00:53 | You'll need to figure in your own
vacation and sick and personal days
| | 00:57 | and religious holidays.
| | 00:58 | And you are going to come up with some
amount of time that you can actually bill.
| | 01:02 | It is worth thinking about how much
time you can actually bill because the
| | 01:05 | answer is never 100%.
| | 01:07 | Remember that you are going to spend
time talking to potential clients, which
| | 01:11 | is not billable work.
| | 01:12 | You may spend some time watching
lynda.com videos to learn new techniques and
| | 01:17 | that will be time that you will spend
working, but again you can't bill for.
| | 01:20 | Once you have completed this calculator,
it will tell you your ideal hourly rate.
| | 01:26 | So ideally it is what you can get from
your client and how much you'll need to
| | 01:30 | break even just pay your bills.
| | 01:32 | Keep in mind this calculator does
not factor in your experience level.
| | 01:36 | So, the hourly rate that this
calculator gives you is a starting point.
| | 01:40 | If you have a lot of experience, you may
want to charge a little more and if you
| | 01:43 | have less experience you may
want to charge a little less.
| | 01:46 | You also want to take a look at what
other people in your area are charging.
| | 01:51 | Some parts of the country, such as the
Northeast, tend to be more expensive,
| | 01:55 | while other parts of the country, such
as the Southwest, tend to have lower
| | 01:59 | prices for web designers.
| | 02:01 | Generally speaking, if your hourly rate
is very cheap or very, very expensive,
| | 02:06 | you might lose some business.
| | 02:07 | Let me just say that again, if your
hourly rate is too low, you may lose business
| | 02:13 | because people may doubt
the quality of your work.
| | 02:15 | So, make sure you charge what you are worth.
| | 02:18 | Once you know your rate, you'll
need to pull together your costs.
| | 02:22 | Gather your quotes from your
subcontractors. Make sure you include any pricing
| | 02:27 | for software or fonts or photos that
you're going need to buy, think about the
| | 02:31 | pricing for your hosting and domain
names and anything else that might cost
| | 02:35 | money to put the site together.
| | 02:37 | That includes extensions for
your Content Management System.
| | 02:40 | Some of these may have a
price associated with them.
| | 02:43 | These are costs you must pass on to your client.
| | 02:46 | You can consider marking them up, in
other words, take the cost plus some
| | 02:49 | percentage to bill the client, or you
can just keep the cost at your own cost.
| | 02:55 | Then you are going to need to
figure in your hours for planning, building,
| | 02:58 | debugging, communications
and training for this website.
| | 03:02 | In general, roughly 30% of the total
time on the project will be spent in
| | 03:06 | project management, in communications mostly.
| | 03:08 | It might be easy as to figure out
hours for everything else and then add 30%
| | 03:14 | for the communications.
| | 03:16 | Total everything up and you should have a
reasonable fixed price estimate for a website.
| | 03:20 | Track your hours as you are working on the
project, even if you are working for a fixed rate.
| | 03:26 | This will help you hone your
estimates and they will get better and better
| | 03:30 | the more websites you quote.
| | 03:32 | Make sure your subcontractors are very
clear as to how they are getting paid,
| | 03:36 | whether they are getting paid in any
fixed price for their work or whether they
| | 03:40 | will be paid hourly.
| | 03:42 | You'll also need to
negotiate with your client as well.
| | 03:45 | If their specification for the website
changes, then the pricing may also need
| | 03:49 | to change for your website.
| | 03:51 | In general, it is easiest to manage if
you are working on a fixed price contract.
| | 03:56 | But in order to do that you need to
make sure that the website specification
| | 04:00 | is very, very clear.
| | 04:02 | In the case of Hansel and Petal, I
got a quote from a graphic designer, a
| | 04:06 | photographer and for a writer. I
put together a quote with some options.
| | 04:11 | For example, they could choose a
custom template designed by the graphic
| | 04:15 | designer, which will be recommended
because that will give them a very
| | 04:19 | personal graphic design that's exactly
what they want, or to save money, they
| | 04:24 | could go with a commercially
available template that I could download and
| | 04:27 | install for Joomla.
| | 04:28 | That's much less expensive,
most templates run $30 to $50.
| | 04:33 | They need to consider whether they
wanted custom crafted content, versus they
| | 04:37 | wrote their own content and someone
edited it or they could have just written
| | 04:42 | the content and I'll just post it.
| | 04:44 | That's the cheapest option.
| | 04:46 | But if they are writing the content, and
I am just posting it, then I post their
| | 04:49 | typos and their misspelling
and poorly written sentences.
| | 04:53 | It is usually well worth it to pay for
editing, if not for custom crafted content.
| | 04:59 | Finally, think very carefully
about the pictures for the website.
| | 05:04 | Many people own a digital camera and
many people feel that they can take their
| | 05:07 | own pictures for their own website.
| | 05:09 | But remember that people are making
buying decisions based on those photographs.
| | 05:14 | If they wind up being of poor quality,
people may not be inclined to buy your
| | 05:18 | products because the
photos don't look very good.
| | 05:21 | Investing in a professional photographer
is well worth the money, particularly on
| | 05:26 | e-commerce websites where people are
making buying decisions based on photos and
| | 05:31 | for very high-end websites, such
as the Hansel and Petal website.
| | 05:35 | Pricing can be tricky when figuring
out a website, but if you follow the
| | 05:38 | recommendations I've given you here,
it should be a matter of filling in a
| | 05:42 | few blanks.
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| Integrating pricing into the proposal| 00:01 | Pricing can be the
trickiest part of your business.
| | 00:04 | Typically, a web professional follows one of
two paths for providing pricing to their client.
| | 00:09 | You can provide pricing as a fixed price,
or a fixed set of services or you can
| | 00:14 | provide an hourly rate with
a more nebulous set of tasks.
| | 00:18 | Generally speaking, the client will
prefer to go with a fixed price contract
| | 00:23 | because then they'll know exactly
how much it will cost in the end.
| | 00:27 | Some contractors will also do a
variation on those pricing schemes.
| | 00:31 | For example, you can provide a top
price, meaning the work will be no more
| | 00:36 | than the given price.
| | 00:38 | Others will sell a block
of hours to complete a task.
| | 00:41 | For example, they'll give a fixed
price for 20 hours of work, which may
| | 00:45 | represent a discount over
their normal hourly rate.
| | 00:48 | It's good to tie that price to a
specific set of detailed tasks you will
| | 00:53 | complete, so there are no surprises later.
| | 00:56 | The proposal is designed to
spell out exactly what tasks you will
| | 00:59 | complete, what tasks the client will complete,
and the timelines and pricing for the project.
| | 01:05 | I always ask my client what
their budget is for the project.
| | 01:09 | Frequently, the client will either decline to
say or they won't know what their budget is.
| | 01:14 | When working with small businesses,
nonprofits and startups, it's best to give
| | 01:19 | some flexibility in the proposal,
| | 01:21 | so they can bend this to
what their budget actually is.
| | 01:25 | I like to have flexible pricing for my client.
| | 01:27 | For example, I'll state that the client
must pick a scheme for the template, for
| | 01:32 | the website, but they could pick a
commercially available template for not much
| | 01:36 | money or they could pick a fully
customized template for much more money.
| | 01:41 | When I write a proposal, I
include the following items.
| | 01:44 | First, I provide an overview of what
needs to be done with the website and what
| | 01:49 | problems need to be solved, such as a
site redesign, increasing site traffic
| | 01:53 | through search engine optimization,
improving the graphic design of the site, or
| | 01:58 | moving a site from a static site
to a Content Management System.
| | 02:02 | Next, I spell out briefly what I will
provide, such as a graphical redesign of
| | 02:07 | the site, a photo gallery, configuring the
Content Management System, debugging and so forth.
| | 02:13 | I also spell out what the client will
provide, including content, photos, a site
| | 02:18 | map, or specific logins
to hosting or domain names.
| | 02:22 | Next comes the quotation, spelling out
each deliverable in as much detail as
| | 02:27 | possible along with pricing for each option.
| | 02:29 | For example, I'll state that the graphic
design will talk to the client to get a
| | 02:34 | sense of the branding and the
client's likes and dislikes.
| | 02:37 | The designer will then produce three
very different possible looks for the
| | 02:41 | website followed by two rounds
of revisions for a given price.
| | 02:46 | I'll follow the same pattern for
all of the other services required.
| | 02:50 | If you are specifically excluding
anything from the quote, spell that out as well.
| | 02:54 | For example, the client
might already have a domain name.
| | 02:58 | So, your quote does not
include purchasing one for them.
| | 03:01 | This section might also include
additional services they could add if they
| | 03:05 | wanted, such as hosting, search
engine optimization services, or content
| | 03:10 | writing and editing.
| | 03:11 | I typically also include a line that
says anything beyond the scope of this
| | 03:15 | quote is doable at my normal hourly rate.
| | 03:18 | Be sure to include a payment schedule.
| | 03:21 | This is how the client will pay
you for the work you complete.
| | 03:24 | If you have sub-contractors, you
should definitely ask for some money
| | 03:27 | before work begins.
| | 03:29 | It's common to ask for as much as
half of the total upfront before the work
| | 03:34 | begins and then the balance,
just before the site launches.
| | 03:38 | Unfortunately, there are clients
who will decide not to pay you.
| | 03:41 | Hopefully, those clients are few
and far between, but it does happen.
| | 03:46 | The best way to prevent that from
happening is to ask for money upfront,
| | 03:50 | then hold the site until the client
provides their final payment before you
| | 03:53 | launch the website.
| | 03:55 | It might sound harsh, but
unfortunately, when you launch the site without
| | 03:59 | payment, sometimes you wind up
not getting that final check.
| | 04:03 | There are some notable exceptions.
| | 04:05 | Most government and university web jobs
will not permit money upfront for a project.
| | 04:10 | However, in my experience, you
can always get paid for your work in
| | 04:14 | these environments.
| | 04:15 | Although the check can be very slow in arriving.
| | 04:18 | Lastly, include a short biography
about you and your subcontractors.
| | 04:23 | It's nice to give your client a little
bit of your professional background so
| | 04:27 | they know who they are hiring.
| | 04:28 | Be sure to include any certifications or
degrees you have, as well as any special
| | 04:33 | awards or accolades.
| | 04:35 | Putting together a proposal and
pricing can be one of the trickier aspects of
| | 04:38 | running your web design business.
| | 04:40 | Be sure you're very clear about what
you will provide to the client and what
| | 04:44 | they need to get you to
have a successful web project.
| | 04:48 | When you communicate clear expectations
and clear deliverables, you're on a path
| | 04:52 | to a successful web project.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Determining and communicating milestones| 00:00 | At a minimum, you and your client
are building this website together.
| | 00:05 | You may also have subcontractors or partners
involved in the process. Who is doing what?
| | 00:10 | When does it need to be done so
that you can hit that launch date?
| | 00:13 | When is the launch date, anyway?
| | 00:16 | How do you keep track of all this stuff?
| | 00:19 | First of all, what is the launch date?
| | 00:22 | It's a very good conversation to
have with your client right up front.
| | 00:25 | Is that tied to a specific event?
| | 00:27 | Frequently, website launches will be
tied to a product release, or a trade show,
| | 00:32 | a mailing, or some other big event.
| | 00:35 | It doesn't have to be tied to
a big event like that though.
| | 00:38 | But if you do have a major trade show
that's coming up for your client, you
| | 00:42 | absolutely want to make sure
that the website is out by then.
| | 00:45 | So what you'll do is you will work
backwards from that launch date with time
| | 00:49 | estimates of each deliverable
to develop those milestones.
| | 00:53 | So for example, let's say that the
site launches three months from today.
| | 00:58 | That means that the site needs about a
week to have sign off to make sure that
| | 01:02 | your client has approved it.
| | 01:04 | Then we'll need to make sure
that we have some time to debug it.
| | 01:07 | That'll take about two weeks.
| | 01:09 | Custom Template Generation and the CMS
configuration work will take about six weeks.
| | 01:14 | Graphic Design is going to take about two
weeks and our strategy work will take about a week.
| | 01:20 | That's 12 weeks total.
| | 01:22 | The proposal should spell out what the
client provides and what you are delivering.
| | 01:27 | Give your client drop-dead dates
for delivering things like content.
| | 01:32 | Make it very clear that if they don't
deliver on time, what impact that will
| | 01:37 | have on final delivery of the website.
| | 01:39 | In the above case, the client must
deliver content one month from today.
| | 01:44 | Late content will push the launch date out.
| | 01:47 | You can always look like
a hero later if you want.
| | 01:50 | Look, I got your content
in place anyway. Hurray!
| | 01:54 | But never promise to deliver on the original
date if the client delivers their pieces late.
| | 01:59 | You'll also want to stay on top of
your subcontractors and make sure they
| | 02:03 | are delivering on time.
| | 02:04 | In order to communicate milestones, some
project managers like Microsoft Project
| | 02:11 | or they'll use Open Source
Project Management tools.
| | 02:14 | Some people like Basecamp, and there are
many, many other options that are out there.
| | 02:19 | Personally, I like to keep my
project management tools very, very simple.
| | 02:23 | I just like to use Google Docs, which
makes sharing a spreadsheet very, very
| | 02:28 | easy and I can communicate delivery dates
effectively to my client and my subcontractors.
| | 02:34 | For Hansel and Petal, I'm going to give
delivery dates to my graphic designer,
| | 02:39 | my photographer, and my writer.
| | 02:41 | I also need to make it very clear to
Kirk Hansel that he needs to make sure he
| | 02:45 | delivers all of his pieces on time.
| | 02:48 | Otherwise, we might miss our launch date.
| | 02:51 | Clear communication is vital
to making these milestones go.
| | 02:55 | So talk to your client, send them an
e-mail with the dates in it, and then send
| | 03:00 | them a link to the spreadsheet.
| | 03:01 | This will make it very, very clear what
all of the dates are that they need to
| | 03:05 | deliver pieces of the website.
| | 03:08 | Regardless of what tool you use to
communicate milestones and deadlines to
| | 03:12 | your client and your subcontractors, make sure
that you communicate clearly all of the dates
| | 03:18 | so that all of the materials come to
you on time, so that you can get your
| | 03:22 | website out and launched in time
for that very important trade show or
| | 03:26 | product release.
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|
|
4. Organizing Content and GraphicsWhat is a site map?| 00:00 | A Site Map is an outline of what
information is included on your website.
| | 00:05 | It covers the navigation options on the
site and how they relate to each other.
| | 00:09 | It can be pretty, designed in Illustrator,
Visio, Inspiration or some other tool.
| | 00:15 | Or it can be a simple bulleted
list, designed in Microsoft Word.
| | 00:19 | You may have heard the term 'Site
Map'used in another context.
| | 00:23 | A Site Map is also a list of links
that you might see on some websites.
| | 00:28 | A Site Map link is typically found in
the footer of the website, but it may be
| | 00:33 | in other locations as well.
| | 00:35 | Site Maps on the website are a great way for
a search engine to visit and index your pages,
| | 00:42 | so it's a good feature to include.
| | 00:44 | That type of Site Map is the
output of the Site Map you plan from the
| | 00:49 | beginning with your client.
| | 00:50 | The point of the Site Map is to
think about all of the items required to
| | 00:54 | put your site together.
| | 00:56 | Some clients will want to give you a
Site Map that they've developed, while
| | 01:00 | other clients will want some
assistance in developing it.
| | 01:03 | You could just develop your Site Map on
your own, guessing at what type of pages
| | 01:07 | are best for this client.
| | 01:09 | You'll already have some ideas, having
discussed the business strategy with the
| | 01:13 | client, and you'll already know some
types of technology you'll include, such
| | 01:17 | as a blog, photo gallery, a Facebook link,
and more, in the case of Hansel and Petal.
| | 01:24 | Some clients will just start sending
over content and they expect you to
| | 01:28 | organize it when it arrives.
| | 01:30 | That can work for a smaller site, but it
doesn't work so well for a larger site.
| | 01:35 | Ideally, you'll plan the content first
then assign navigation links, based on
| | 01:41 | what type of content you're expecting to get.
| | 01:44 | A great way to get buy in from the
client is to use a Sticky Note exercise.
| | 01:49 | Right down a bunch of ideas on Sticky
Notes, then group them together, and
| | 01:53 | give them titles.
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| Redesign: Evaluating ROT on your site| 00:00 | If this is a redesign project, look at
the content on the current website.
| | 00:05 | What is Redundant, Outdated or Trivial? Or ROT?
| | 00:10 | What is good content? What is missing?
| | 00:13 | And is that missing stuff
represented in the Site Map that you just
| | 00:17 | developed with your client?
| | 00:19 | It may be possible to recycle some
of this content into the new website.
| | 00:24 | It's very easy for websites
to get hopelessly outdated.
| | 00:28 | Over the life of a website, employees
come and go, messages are repeated in
| | 00:33 | various places on the website,
but not quite in the same way.
| | 00:38 | Things are forgotten and the
site overall slips in quality.
| | 00:42 | A redesign is a great time to
reevaluate what's on the current site.
| | 00:47 | Some people are initially inclined to
throw away 100% of the content and condemn
| | 00:53 | their old site as horrible.
| | 00:55 | While others just want to recycle everything.
| | 00:58 | The truth is usually somewhere in the middle.
| | 01:00 | It's better to evaluate what's on
the site and see what can be salvaged.
| | 01:05 | It saves time and money and the
evaluation doesn't take that long.
| | 01:09 | When looking for ROT, here's what to look for.
| | 01:12 | First, look for Redundant content.
| | 01:15 | That's anything that's repeated on the website.
| | 01:18 | That could be entire pages of information
or saying the same thing over and over again.
| | 01:25 | Say your message once in one location
and link to it from everywhere else for
| | 01:30 | ease of maintenance.
| | 01:32 | That's one of the big advantages of a
Content Management System, which allows
| | 01:36 | you to do this quite easily. Outdated content.
| | 01:40 | Content does get old and it should be removed.
| | 01:44 | Identify services and products the
company no longer offers and remove them.
| | 01:49 | You may want to pull old press releases as well.
| | 01:52 | Typically, organizations do not need
to keep those press releases on the
| | 01:56 | website past a year or two,
| | 01:58 | unless there's a compelling strategic
reason to do otherwise. And the Trivial.
| | 02:04 | Steve Krug, in his terrific book Don't
Make Me think, says that happy talk must die.
| | 02:11 | Things like, "Welcome to our
website!" are just wastes of words.
| | 02:17 | Of course you're welcome to the website.
Strip out all of that happy talk and
| | 02:23 | keep the content to the business in hand.
| | 02:25 | Respect your visitor's time and
give them just what they need.
| | 02:30 | Evaluating your website for ROT,
Redundant, Outdated, and Trivial content,
| | 02:35 | doesn't take very long and you may
find some gems of content to include on
| | 02:40 | your new website.
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| Starting a content tracking spreadsheet| 00:00 | I would like to use a Spreadsheet
for tracking content on my website.
| | 00:04 | The easiest way for everyone to
consistently access the same version of that
| | 00:08 | Spreadsheet is to use Google Documents.
| | 00:11 | This is a free service at Google,
which offers Spreadsheets, Word processing
| | 00:16 | documents, and much more.
| | 00:18 | Google Documents, or Google Docs, allows
you to share a Spreadsheet between you,
| | 00:24 | your client, all of your subcontractors
and anyone else who might be interested.
| | 00:29 | This way, you won't have to worry about who
has the most recent copy of your Spreadsheet.
| | 00:34 | Furthermore, everyone can access
it and update it quickly and easily.
| | 00:39 | From the Google homepage, if you look
under the link for more, go down to choose
| | 00:45 | the Documents option.
| | 00:47 | And this will put you on the Documents homepage.
| | 00:50 | You'll need to sign in to access Google Docs.
| | 00:54 | If you don't have a Google account,
you can create one by clicking on to Get
| | 00:59 | started button down at
the bottom of your screen.
| | 01:02 | Otherwise, Sign in.
| | 01:04 | You have a Google account if you have
Gmail, Google Analytics, or some other
| | 01:09 | Google service that you use.
| | 01:10 | All right, so we're looking at
the screen here for Google Docs.
| | 01:21 | What we are going to do now
is create a new Spreadsheet.
| | 01:25 | We are going to do that by going over here to
the left, and saying Create new>Spreadsheet.
| | 01:30 | This should look fairly familiar to you
if you've worked with programs such as
| | 01:34 | Microsoft Excel, and it works
very much the same sort of way.
| | 01:38 | What we are going to do is we are going
to create several columns in our Site Map.
| | 01:43 | First of all, we're going to put in a
number to identify each item from our Site Map.
| | 01:49 | In our second column, we're going to
put in the name of that navigation item.
| | 01:54 | In the third column, we are going to
put in the person who is responsible for
| | 01:58 | this piece of content, in other words,
it's the person who's going to write the
| | 02:02 | content, edit the content or
otherwise create the content.
| | 02:06 | Then we are going to put in a column
describing where the content is coming from.
| | 02:12 | Is it coming from an existing page on
the current website? Is it coming from a
| | 02:17 | brochure, or is somebody writing
it completely from scratch?
| | 02:22 | And we are also going to put in a
date for when the content is due.
| | 02:29 | Now that we've created those headers
for our Spreadsheet, we will start to type
| | 02:32 | in the items from our Site Map.
| | 02:35 | Item number one is the Home page.
| | 02:39 | The people responsible for the content
on the home page will be Hansel and Petal.
| | 02:45 | It's going to come from a number of
different places. There will be Most recent
| | 02:49 | blog entry, there will be a recent photo,
and some brief description text packed
| | 02:59 | with keywords for the search engines.
| | 03:02 | The due date for delivery, we have already
figured out, will be about six weeks from now.
| | 03:12 | Now we will type in the
second item for our navigation.
| | 03:16 | Navigation item number two
will be Your Special Event.
| | 03:23 | Your Special Event has some sub-
navigation associated with it.
| | 03:27 | There is Weddings, Corporate
Functions, and other events.
| | 03:31 | Each of those items also has sub-navigation.
| | 03:34 | I am going to show you how to put in
each of those without filling out the full
| | 03:38 | spreadsheet, so that you can see
how to put in each navigation item.
| | 03:43 | Weddings is going to be item number 2.1.
| | 03:46 | In other words, it's the first
item under the second navigation item.
| | 03:51 | Weddings has two items underneath
of it, one is For Brides, and one is
| | 03:56 | For Wedding Planners.
| | 03:57 | So our first one, For Brides,
will have the number 2.1.1.
| | 04:04 | It's the first item under the first
item, under the second navigation item.
| | 04:09 | And For Wedding Planners,
the number is 2.1.2. Okay.
| | 04:20 | Now we are going to Corporate Functions.
| | 04:23 | The number for Corporate Functions is 2.2,
because this is under the second main
| | 04:29 | navigation item and it's the
second sub-navigation item.
| | 04:32 | We will continue in this way for the
other items under Your Special Event.
| | 04:39 | As you might expect, commitment to the
environment would be our third navigation
| | 04:43 | item, while restaurant service is our
fourth navigation item, and things will
| | 04:48 | continue in that way.
| | 04:50 | Finally, we will want to make
sure we save this spreadsheet.
| | 04:53 | The Save button is located in
the upper right-hand corner.
| | 04:57 | If I click Save, it will ask me what
I'd like to save the Spreadsheet as.
| | 05:01 | This will be our content plan for
hansel and petal, and I'll say OK.
| | 05:08 | Finally, I'll want to share this
spreadsheet with Kirk Hansel and Petal Jones so
| | 05:14 | that they know what's going on
while they're working on the website.
| | 05:19 | In order to share this document, I'm
going to go to the Share button up here, in
| | 05:23 | the upper right-hand corner, and click it.
| | 05:25 | It will ask me if I want to
Invite people to share the document.
| | 05:30 | I'm going to choose that, and I
can type in an e-mail address.
| | 05:39 | I can also type in a message.
| | 05:42 | This is the content plan I
mentioned on the phone earlier today.
| | 05:54 | And I will Send that.
| | 05:57 | Now I can access this document as
can Hansel at hanselandpetal.com.
| | 06:02 | I am going to Save and Close.
| | 06:04 | I am going to go ahead and finish
typing in my Site Map now off-line.
| | 06:10 | You go ahead and finish typing in your Site
Map for your client in your Google Document.
| | 06:15 | Google documents is a great way to
share documents with your client and your
| | 06:19 | subcontractors without
worrying about version control.
| | 06:23 | This is a great way to track all the
content in your website, who is providing
| | 06:28 | it, and the date that content is due.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Adding keywords and descriptions| 00:00 | The biggest mistake most clients make
is to think they can do search engine
| | 00:04 | optimization well after site launch.
| | 00:06 | Unfortunately, by then, it's too late.
| | 00:10 | Search engine optimization needs
to start in the redesign process.
| | 00:14 | Each page should have a list of
identified keywords. Like a fourth-grade
| | 00:18 | writing assignment, use each of those
words in a sentence, maybe two to three
| | 00:22 | times per page on your site.
| | 00:24 | Also, list them in the Meta keywords.
| | 00:27 | The Meta description is used by Google
to describe your site in the search results,
| | 00:31 | so you want to also make
sure this is well-crafted.
| | 00:34 | What are the Meta keywords and then
Meta descriptions for the pages in the
| | 00:39 | Hansel and Petal website?
| | 00:41 | What keywords should be worked into the content?
| | 00:43 | Identifying keywords is
relatively straightforward.
| | 00:46 | Think about what terms best describe
what is happening on your page and what
| | 00:51 | people might type into a
search engine to find the page.
| | 00:54 | Tools like Wordtracker and Google's
Keyword tool are great for determining how
| | 01:00 | often certain terms are searched for.
| | 01:02 | It can also suggest good keywords to
include on your pages in your content.
| | 01:07 | We are looking at the Google Keyword
website at www.googlekeywordtool.com
| | 01:17 | and you'll notice the box up here,
in the upper left-hand corner for the
| | 01:21 | Google Keyword tool.
| | 01:24 | This is where you can research
keywords for any page of your website.
| | 01:28 | What we are going to do is generate some
ideas for keywords to use on a particular page.
| | 01:35 | So let's say we want to look for
flowers, weddings, and Los Angeles.
| | 01:45 | We are going to type in our little
special characters to prove that we are
| | 01:49 | humans and we are going
to say Get keyword ideas.
| | 01:57 | Down here at the bottom of the web page,
we will see how many times each of these
| | 02:01 | keywords are used when doing searches on Google.
| | 02:04 | For example, the term flowers, the
very first thing on this list, was searched
| | 02:10 | millions and millions of
times in September, and globally.
| | 02:14 | Weddings was another word we typed in and we
can see how many times that was searched for.
| | 02:20 | Then what this tool does is start to
combine the words 'flowers' and 'wedding' in a
| | 02:25 | bunch of different ways, and also Los
Angeles weddings is also in our list.
| | 02:31 | So, this will give you some ideas of
types of phrases that you might wish to
| | 02:34 | include on your content.
| | 02:37 | Just because there are millions and
millions of searches for a particular phrase
| | 02:41 | doesn't necessarily mean you
should include it on your page.
| | 02:45 | The fact that 16 million people have
searched for flowers may actually be a drawback.
| | 02:51 | You want them to search for your
specific kinds of flowers, flowers for
| | 02:55 | weddings in Los Angeles.
| | 02:59 | If you have a page that already has
content on it, you can search for the
| | 03:04 | Website content option here.
| | 03:07 | The Website content option allows
Google to analyze one of the pages on
| | 03:12 | your website and it will identify special
keywords that appear frequently on that page.
| | 03:20 | You can then purchase ad words
advertising for that web page based on those
| | 03:24 | keywords and your ad should do
very well in the ad words listings.
| | 03:29 | Now let's think about Meta descriptions.
| | 03:31 | Earlier I did a search for kayak and
boat and I pulled up a page full of results.
| | 03:37 | The Meta description is used
on this particular search page.
| | 03:41 | It displays right after the link.
| | 03:44 | So here is the link, this blue underlined text.
| | 03:47 | And the text right after that, which
is black, is the text that is typically
| | 03:52 | driven by the Meta description on your website.
| | 03:55 | Each page should include this
description with a compelling reason to click
| | 03:59 | through to the full page of the website.
| | 04:02 | So the inflatable kayak specialists here,
The Boat People, are your source for
| | 04:07 | new or used inflatable kayaks, canoes,
whitewater river rafts and all other
| | 04:11 | gear necessary to make
your paddling adventures safe.
| | 04:14 | If I click through this link, you
will see we go to their website and it is
| | 04:18 | exactly what we expected.
| | 04:20 | Now that we know how important keywords
and descriptions are to our content, we
| | 04:24 | need to add these to our content spreadsheet.
| | 04:27 | So, I am going to go back to Google Docs.
| | 04:30 | This is the document that we
developed in the previous video.
| | 04:33 | If you are not already in your Google
Document, you may want to log in and start
| | 04:38 | to edit your spreadsheet again.
| | 04:40 | I filled in the document with all of
the information from the previous video.
| | 04:45 | Now, I am going to add two more columns.
One will be for keywords, and one will
| | 04:51 | be for descriptions.
| | 04:54 | Under any of these pages, I can then
type in keywords that will help drive
| | 04:58 | traffic to the website.
| | 05:00 | This will help Hansel know that these
are keywords he should be using in the
| | 05:04 | design of his content for
this particular web page.
| | 05:08 | So perhaps for your special event I
want to use the words 'flowers', 'weddings',
| | 05:16 | 'party' and 'board meeting'.
| | 05:20 | A description for this page might be
something like, "Hansel & Petal are LA's
| | 05:30 | "flower specialists for your big event.
| | 05:37 | "We feature flowers for weddings,
corporate functions, board meetings,
| | 05:49 | "holiday parties, and more."
| | 05:54 | We don't want to go too long. As you saw with
our previous example of a Meta description,
| | 06:00 | it actually got cut off in the Google
search results and it didn't fully display.
| | 06:05 | So, you want to keep your
descriptions short and to the point.
| | 06:09 | Now I could go through and I could
fill in these descriptions for each one of
| | 06:12 | these content items, or I could leave
them to the person who is responsible for
| | 06:16 | writing the content for the web page.
| | 06:19 | Just like when you write a term
paper, the last thing you write is the
| | 06:23 | introductory paragraph and the
conclusion, you may want to save writing your
| | 06:27 | Meta description until after you have
actually written the content for the web page,
| | 06:32 | so that you can clearly write a short
concise Meta description for that page.
| | 06:37 | Planning keywords ahead of time leads
to stronger content and better search
| | 06:41 | engine optimization results.
| | 06:43 | It doesn't add a lot of time to the process,
| | 06:46 | since you will want to make sure your content
is loaded with great keywords for best results.
| | 06:51 | Be sure to write concise, compelling
descriptions as well, so you can drive lots
| | 06:56 | of traffic from search engines to your website.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Adding and tracking images and supporting files| 00:00 | If there are specific photos or
drawings associated with the content, or if the
| | 00:03 | page requires a PDF or other supporting
documents, this can also be included on
| | 00:09 | the content spreadsheet.
| | 00:11 | How big are the images? Where do they go?
And is there a special treatment for
| | 00:15 | them? How are they being delivered?
| | 00:18 | All of these questions are important
and should be addressed in spreadsheet.
| | 00:21 | For example, Hansel and Petal are
thinking about having their Corporate
| | 00:27 | Functions webpage look just like this.
| | 00:30 | Note the three small
images here inside the design.
| | 00:35 | Notice that they are all about the same
width, but some are taller than the others.
| | 00:39 | The designer here very specifically
showed what it would be like to have some
| | 00:44 | images that were taller and some
images that were shorter along with a little
| | 00:48 | bit of text next to it.
| | 00:50 | Some clients are very bothered by
different size photos, whereas other clients,
| | 00:55 | it doesn't bother them at all.
| | 00:57 | Some clients may say that the Rent
Greenery item down at the bottom needs more
| | 01:02 | content to feel more balanced than it does now,
| | 01:05 | but the designer is trying to
show possibilities in this comp.
| | 01:09 | In any case, what you should tell your
client is that for the pictures on this
| | 01:14 | particular webpage, you need to be
sure to specify the width of each of the
| | 01:18 | photos and I would specify the height of
the Rent Greenery photo so that, perhaps,
| | 01:24 | is the maximum height for a photo in
that position, and you may wish to make it
| | 01:29 | clear what the height is for the smaller photos.
| | 01:32 | That way the client understands the range of
photo sizes that are possible for this webpage.
| | 01:37 | If we had images that were going in a
header or a column in this design, which
| | 01:41 | we don't in this particular mockup, but
if we did, we would want to be sure to
| | 01:46 | communicate those exact
dimensions that would be required.
| | 01:49 | Likewise, sometimes there are PDFs,
Word documents, PowerPoint files and so
| | 01:54 | forth that are associated
with a particular webpage.
| | 01:58 | These can all be treated like images
in that they should have a certain place
| | 02:02 | on the website, they are stored
somewhere on your hard drive, and they need to
| | 02:06 | be under a certain file size to be useful.
| | 02:09 | So let's go ahead and set up our
spreadsheet so that we can track these images
| | 02:13 | and files that are coming in.
| | 02:14 | We are going to add a few
columns to our spreadsheet.
| | 02:18 | First of all, we are going to add a
column called Supporting file names.
| | 02:23 | We will add a column
describing the location on the webpage.
| | 02:28 | This is likely to be a short
description, something like left column, right
| | 02:32 | column, content area,
header or something like that.
| | 02:35 | File location, so we know where on
the hard drive we have saved the file.
| | 02:41 | A column called Arriving by, so that
we know whether to expect the file by
| | 02:46 | e-mail or by DVD, and the Person responsible.
| | 02:53 | Sometimes the Person responsible
is not the same as the person who is
| | 02:56 | responsible for the content.
| | 02:58 | It may, in fact, be the same person,
but for example, if you are expecting
| | 03:03 | three images for a particular content
page, it may be the responsibility of the
| | 03:07 | graphic designer to deliver those images
and not the person who is writing the content.
| | 03:12 | That's why we have a separate column for that.
| | 03:13 | I am going to check my e-mail and see if I
have any files that have arrived for this website.
| | 03:19 | Over here in my Gmail, I see that Petal Jones
has sent me some files for the Wedding page.
| | 03:25 | I am going to go ahead and open the e-mail.
| | 03:27 | It says, "Hi Jen, please see the
attached photo and brochure for the
| | 03:31 | wedding events page."
| | 03:33 | So, she would like to include a specific
picture to be used on that page as well
| | 03:37 | as a PDF, which will tell more
information about their wedding services.
| | 03:43 | I am going to go ahead and save these
attachments individually by clicking
| | 03:47 | the Download button.
| | 03:48 | If I click the Download All Attachments
button in Gmail, this will zip together
| | 03:53 | all the attachments and save them
as a zipped file. I don't want that.
| | 03:56 | I'd like to have the individual
photos and the individual PDF instead.
| | 04:00 | So, I am going to click the Download
button and I am going to download this to
| | 04:06 | the location on my hard drive that I
have set up for my Hansel and Petal assets.
| | 04:11 | And I am going to repeat that process for
the PDF, saving the file to my hard drive.
| | 04:19 | Now we are going to go back to our
webpage and I am going to find my row of
| | 04:25 | information here about weddings.
| | 04:27 | I have highlighted that row by
clicking on the number on the left hand column
| | 04:31 | here and I am going to go to these
Supporting file names column and I am going
| | 04:37 | to type in the names of the
files that I just downloaded.
| | 04:40 | That was red rose 01.jpg
and wedding brochure.pdf.
| | 04:51 | The location on the webpage, the rose
will go in the content area, and the PDF
| | 04:59 | is a link from within the content.
| | 05:05 | The file location for these assets
where I have saved them is going to be on my
| | 05:10 | hard drive, and I save everything to
My Documents folder on my computer.
| | 05:15 | Inside of My Documents folder, I have
a folder called Hansel and Petal and
| | 05:20 | that's where I am putting all of my assets.
| | 05:23 | Those particular assets just happened to arrive.
| | 05:26 | They arrived in my e-mail.
| | 05:28 | It is possible that Hansel and Petal
might put together a whole CD of images and
| | 05:32 | send that to me later and I may want to
mark off that some of the things arrived
| | 05:37 | by CD, so that I would
know to refer to a CD later.
| | 05:41 | Since this particular set of assets
arrived by e-mail, I'll make a note of that
| | 05:45 | as well in case I need to
go refer back to that e-mail.
| | 05:48 | And the Person responsible in this
case happened to be the same person who is
| | 05:51 | responsible for the content, Petal Jones.
| | 05:55 | It may seem like you are taking
an awful lot of time to track the
| | 05:58 | supporting content upfront.
| | 06:01 | You might be inclined to throw all of
your photos and PDFs in a folder on your
| | 06:04 | hard drive and forget about them until
you need them or even worse, just leave
| | 06:08 | them in your e-mail.
| | 06:09 | However, you are likely to do just
that, forget about them, causing you to
| | 06:13 | do extra work later.
| | 06:15 | Tracking them in the spreadsheet
will save you from floundering to find a
| | 06:19 | specific image the client
wants on a certain page of content.
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| Ending with the home page| 00:00 | The homepage is traditionally where your
client will want to start working on this project,
| | 00:04 | right after they talk with you about color
choices, instead of starting with strategy.
| | 00:09 | However, you should think of the
homepage as the cover of a book or the
| | 00:14 | introductory paragraph to a research paper.
| | 00:17 | It's one of the last things you should work on.
| | 00:20 | Get clear on what's happening inside the
site and hone your message there first.
| | 00:24 | Once it's clear what's happening within
the site, then go back and think about
| | 00:29 | what elements should be on the homepage.
| | 00:31 | Some clients claim they want a clean
home page in which there is very little
| | 00:35 | content at all and just maybe a lot of photos.
| | 00:40 | This works for some very image-heavy
clients, like architecture firms, fashion
| | 00:45 | sites, and other sites where
photos tell the whole story.
| | 00:49 | However, for most sites, a series of
photos doesn't work well at all, at least
| | 00:54 | as the only element of the homepage.
| | 00:57 | For search engines, you'll want to
include some keyword rich text that clearly
| | 01:02 | spells out what the site is and what it does.
| | 01:05 | That text will also help
some first-time visitors.
| | 01:09 | You may want some content that turns
over frequently to keep the homepage fresh.
| | 01:14 | Good options are your most recent blog
post, your most recent news post, or a
| | 01:19 | recent photo posted from your photo gallery.
| | 01:22 | You may want to feature a product
or service on the homepage as well.
| | 01:26 | In the case of Hansel & Petal, they've
been working hard with a graphic designer
| | 01:31 | and they have come up with a
homepage design that looks like this.
| | 01:34 | Across the top is the keyword
rich text that I just described.
| | 01:39 | It's a brief introduction with a
link to Read more, if you wish, along with
| | 01:43 | some sample photographs.
| | 01:45 | Underneath, is a blog posting from Kirk
Hansel, about a recent pink centerpiece
| | 01:50 | that he created for one of his favorite clients.
| | 01:54 | Over on the right-hand side is a
photo from their photo gallery.
| | 01:58 | In this case, it's a
flower on some restaurant plates.
| | 02:01 | We are also including some
information about how to sign up for their
| | 02:05 | newsletter and we're featuring a call-out
linking to their commitment on the environment.
| | 02:11 | This will link to keen on
green page in the main navigation.
| | 02:15 | It would have been very hard to design
this homepage without designing all of
| | 02:19 | the inside pages first.
| | 02:21 | We wouldn't know that we would
have a blog that we could draw from to
| | 02:24 | put content on the home page, nor
would we know that we had a photo
| | 02:28 | gallery available to us.
| | 02:30 | Because Content Management Systems
make it easy to include content from other
| | 02:34 | areas of your website, it makes sense
to design your homepage last, after you've
| | 02:39 | thought about all of the
other pages on your website.
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ConclusionGoodbye| 00:00 | Now you have a plan in place
for your website. Congratulations!
| | 00:04 | Since you completely understand what
you're going to build, it should be a
| | 00:07 | relatively straightforward process.
| | 00:10 | Now you may need to go beef up
your skills for building websites by
| | 00:14 | watching some other lynda.com titles, maybe
about Dreamweaver or a Content Management System.
| | 00:20 | Site planning is extremely important.
| | 00:22 | No matter what kind of site you're
building, or how big or small it is, a plan
| | 00:27 | is never a waste of time.
| | 00:29 | It will always save you time in the end
because ultimately, the questions you've
| | 00:34 | learned to ask here must be asked eventually.
| | 00:37 | It's much easier to ask them before the
coding starts than having to go back and
| | 00:41 | re-code everything over and over again.
| | 00:46 | You save yourself hours of headaches
later by planning before building your site.
| | 00:51 | It also allows you an opportunity to
find out what each addition to the site
| | 00:55 | does strategically and how it
supports your client's goals and objectives.
| | 01:00 | Gives these tips a try on
your next website project.
| | 01:04 | Once you get used to the process, you
will never be able to go back to your old
| | 01:08 | way of building a website.
| | 01:10 | I'd like to give special thanks to
Angela Buraglia and Fatima Anes for all of
| | 01:16 | their wonderful help with the
graphic designs used in this title.
| | 01:20 | I'd also like to thank Kirk Warner for
playing the part of Kirk Hansel in this
| | 01:25 | title and I'd really like to thank
Samara Iodice, my fabulous producer, without whom
| | 01:32 | this title would have not been nearly so great.
| | 01:35 | Thank you all so much for watching.
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