The Basics, Why You Need A Professional Website
Hello and good morning! I sure hope you are having a great day ma’am or sir! I always like to start out my blog posts with something personal, and genuine, a large part of my business model is really getting to know my clients and allowing them to get to know me. Spring has sprung in Kentucky and the Nashville area, but I turned on the gas heat a few minutes ago, it’s so cozy in my living space, with a nice warm cup of coffee. Let’s get settled in and talk about websites, one of my favorite subjects for many years now. The comments on this post are open so please let us know you were here by leaving one!
As many of you may already know, one of my favorite books is The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey, a particular part coming to mind is habit 6 which is “synergize”. I don’t need to tell you, our modern day life in American can be and often is exhausting, between our digital and physical worlds there is always something to do when we are driven for success, a debt free lifestyle, continuing education, plus health and fitness. Four “quadrants of renewal” are outlined in habit 6, inside one of them is our mind, and renewing our mind calls for reading, writing, learning, and studying. I love renewal and synergy!
As far as we know, for the very first time in human history, you or I, or anyone with a computer and internet access has the unique incredible ability to communicate with literally the rest of the entire planet. Isn’t this just totally amazing? I believe it is! I see websites falling into literally two distinct categories, business or personal, one is for profit and money, the other for leisure. No matter what type you are interested in creating and maintaining, content is going to be needed to create and build pages, in other words someone will need to write the words, haha!! The content gives your visitor the ability to “frame” you or your business.
See, if nothing more, your website, or the one you might be planning, gives you a valid reason to write. Successful people, that is those who do well with money, and of course finances are only one component of success, they read on average 60 entire books a year! Hard to imagine reading that much but they do, we can all take a valuable lesson from this habit they share in common. English is one of the most difficult languages in the world, even with two years at the university level I still learn and relearn it daily, and practice makes perfect so I try to devote some time to it every morning.
I get it, you may be thinking, “yea Marc but I have social media and Facebook, everyone is already logged in to and hanging out there, and I leave comments, and nobody would visit my website”. Those thoughts and feelings are valid, but when when we are on social media someone else dictates what we can’t and can’t say or do, they can quickly and easily block you, lock you out of an account, moderate your content or posts and comments, or outright ban you for life! With your own business or personal website you are in charge, yes there are still some limitations and terms of use of course but for the most part you can do as you please.
The importance of a business website can’t be understated, now please listen up, this part is extremely critical. I have heard it said that, “a website is the front door to your business”, I totally agree. The average American spends about 6 hours a day online now, they are consistently and habitually glued to websites, having fun, making new friends, and purchasing products. Consumers are spending money, visiting, reading, searching, looking, wondering, wanting answers to problems, desiring solutions to questions, filling needs and finishing tasks, and so much more.
Imagination is another part of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, part of habit 1 which is to be proactive. Designing and building your website gives you the chance to cultivate and exercise your creativity and imagination, or if you are working on networking with new clients and would rather a professional do it for you, that’s where I come in, see. Either way, you or one of your team members will be involved in the project, be it the actual structure and building out of each page with elements and blocks, or the creation of the content. It takes vision to be successful, dedication and commitment, and I will help you along the way.
I also see work falling into two categories, offline and online. Some people now days sit online all day and work, for eight full hours they look at screens, none of their duties or job requirements take them offline, then there are those who don’t log in, ever. For many people it might be a combination of both, online part of the day and then offline to do other tasks or projects, and as far as health is concerned I tend to think this is best. When on our feet too much we may get exhausted, especially older people, and they say sitting is the new smoking, so we need to move our bodies as much as we can. Either way websites are usually involved in most projects now.
Let’s think of access, a website is there 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, always open, like a billboard on the side of a freeway. You have the ability to “direct traffic” to your site, there are many ways to accomplish this. If you are in business, why not take advantage of it?? Yesterday I was on the phone with a relator, I simply asked him for his website address and domain name, I wanted to see his picture and get to know him some. The instant I asked for it, he begin to get somewhat anxious, because they had been “having trouble” with it. A fine example of why they need to hire a professional such as myself to help them get it all straight and working properly.
One of the parts of what I will call the “common average business model” in America now days, is to tell the customer or client how “easy” everything is, I see this as a very bad way of doing business, I really do. The internet and world wide web, networking systems and computers together, LANs and WANs and routers and servers, web pages and websites, along with website hosting, is highly complex and involved, it takes decades of experience to become proficient with it. If we tell the clint it’s “easy”, then that’s not the truth, they may become disappointed, then feel as if they were lied to, this is what you don’t want as a business owner or company.
I am an entrepreneur, an investor, a self employed business owner, and have been off and on since I was a child, I was born into this type of family. Perhaps you feel as if you aren’t being paid what you are worth as an employee, well, you can change all of that, by starting your own small business or mom and pop shop. Maybe you simply want to blog, writing and sharing with family and friends online. Either way, a website opens up contact with the entire planet! Anyone who doesn’t take websites very serious isn’t thinking deeply enough about them, despite the fact they are probably using them all day every day!
In closing, a website gives you the chance write and exercise your literary skills, it is the front door to your business or personal life, you could sell things online and have a shopping cart, and it gives us a break from social media and the often chaotic lack of boundaries there. If you have the capitol to invest, and don’t wish to learn how to do it yourself, then hire an experienced web architect such as myself, this will give you more free time to network with potential clients, land accounts, get projects and jobs, and really lift your business off the ground. Without a website we send a message which says we didn’t want to invest in our own business, and that’s the last thing we want the client to think!
Learning about your website and or how they work, is the same thing as learning about how your house and or car operate and are built, it will absolutely save you tons of time and or money, not to mention frustration, even if someone else is doing the work for you. I am Marc White USN-RET, a very seasoned IT professional, I would be more than happy to assist you ma’am or sir with your next IT project, or reworking one that didn’t turn out as you had expected. Thank you so much for being here and reading, please feel free to leave a comment. Have a great day and God bless you!
Respectfully,
Marc William White USN-RET MCP CEO