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It’s easier than you think to create your own crafty website
What’s the point of making beautiful greeting cards and crafty projects if you can’t show them off to people? Well these days, thanks to fab new software from Mr Site, it’s easier than ever to put your designs online for the whole world to see.
The award winning ‘Takeaway Website’ includes absolutely everything you need to create a professionally designed ‘dot com’ website. Whether you want to use it for an online business, craft club, or just to show off all your latest crafty makes, even beginners won’t have trouble using this fantastic jargon-free software. Simply select a professional design from the hundreds available, drop in your own pictures, text, logos, music and videos and you’re done!
Or if you want to take your business to the next level, check out the Takeaway Website Pro. As well as all the standard features, it also includes ‘Site Boost’, which helps give your website a higher ranking in search engines, visitor statistics, an advanced shopping cart, and a business stationery tool to allow you to create business cards, compliment slips and professionally headed paper to match your site.
But even with all this fab software, what’s the best way to make a success of your website? Stuart Spice, Director and Co-founder of Mr Site reveals his secrets:
1. Design it Right
Making sure you have a great looking and easy to use site is no mean feat. Below are some of the key things you should remember:
• Use consistent colours with good contrast on a solid background. Red text on a green background for example is a big no no.
• Make sure text isn’t any smaller than size 12. Anything smaller and reading glasses and eye strain will become order of the day for your visitors.
• Keep the animations to a minimum. The days when people were impressed by an opening animation or a spinning logo are long gone.
2. Keep your Web Name Simple
It may be a temptation to have a very descriptive web address, but shorter names are far more memorable.
• Keep it short – up to 15 letters maximum. A lot of the shortest names are already taken, but be creative and you’ll find the one you want.
• Avoid hard to spell words – jewellery (or jewelry) is spelt different ways in the US and UK. Words like this are best avoided if possible.
3. Don’t Write Reams and Reams
• Write no more than one paragraph of content on your homepage.
• Writing copy heavy pages is fine, but only once the visitor is interested. Keep heavy content deeper within the website.
4. Don’t Plagiarise
If you steal images or text off the web, you WILL be found out and sued. This sounds harsh, but it happens to website owners all the time. Follow these tips to avoid litigation:
• Write your own copy. It’s certainly more work than a quick copy/paste job, but you’ll be safe in the knowledge you’re 100% legit.
• Never use images you find on the web. Many of these have been licensed or stolen from elsewhere. Unless you want a license summons from stock libraries for several thousands of pounds per image, then stick to licence free sources such as Stock Exchange (www.sxc.hu), or iStockPhoto (www.istockphoto.com) where you can buy images starting from £1.
• Don’t put copyrighted music on your site. Just having a music jukebox on your web page rattling out your favourite Dolly Parton track is enough to get you in hot water. Only use license free music, or music you own the copyright to.
5. Keep your Website Up-to-Date
Sites that never change are a real let down. Not only will this kill off repeat visitors but you’ll also be penalised by Google and other major search engines for having stale content.
• Update as regularly as possible, but every two weeks should be just fine.
• Add a news page to your site, documenting the latest news and events. Not everyone will read this but it will be good for your search engine listing.
• Regularly updated websites are rewarded with higher positions on Google and other key search engines. So if you want to get better listings, keep the content fresh.
We have FIVE copies of Mr Site’s Takeaway Website, worth £34.99 each, to give away! For your chance to win, click here.
For more information, to order online, or to find stockists in your area visit www.mrsite.com
