This blog post marks the end of my Web Design Tools class, so I'd like to share my impressions.
Before I take a class, I always research it pretty thoroughly. I look up the syllabus if available, and if it's not, I look for a syllabus from the same instructor in a previous semester. I had a good idea of what this class would be like going into it.
Based on the class material, I knew that we'd learn things I already knew, or could easily learn through my own research, but I didn't want to take the class to learn anything. I wanted to take it to DO something.
I've read about creating websites for years. I own four domains. I've read and bookmarked instructions on creating a web store. But I've never done any of it. I wanted to take this class so that I was responsible for actually creating a website. For that, this class was incredibly effective.
I appreciate that the class is geared toward the end result, not how you get there. If you can find an easy way to accomplish your goal, go with it. I'm obsessed with efficiency (to a point that I inefficiently think too long about the most efficient way to do something!), so I really enjoy that approach. I found Wix and used it for almost everything this class required. Wix doesn't require anything but an HTML5 compatible browser. With only a browser, I was able to make a pretty good looking and entirely functional website in a minimal amount of time.
The biggest thing I learned in this class is how easy and cheap it is to create a website nowadays, even for a novice. I'd encourage any business owner to take this class, because it's a relatively small time and cost investment for knowledge and practice that can earn and save them a lot of money.
Saturday, November 9, 2013
Finished....for now
Sam's website is finally "finished." I add the quotations, because a website should never be considered finished, it's always evolving. As Cheers grows and evolves, and as external forces (like technology) does the same, the site should always be updated.
But, for now, Sam's site is in a good place. As I said in one of my earlier posts, I like minimalistic design, but I'm just not good at it. I'm glad I was able to find the template I was on Wix. As one last touch that's sure to attract visitors, I added a mobile-optimized version of the site. This allows people who come upon the site on a mobile phone to view the site more easily.
Here's the full site:
And the web-optimized version:
You can see that the web-optimized version has all of the same content as the full site, but is easier to view and navigate on a phone. The menu across the bottom in the first image allows the user to call us, email us, navigate to Cheers, or go to the Facebook page in a single tap.
Sam's primary goal with this website is to retain customers and attract potential customers. We want to make it very easy for new customers to stumbleupon cheers. Anybody who finds us through a Google search will be able to call or navigate to Cheers in one tap of their phone.
But, for now, Sam's site is in a good place. As I said in one of my earlier posts, I like minimalistic design, but I'm just not good at it. I'm glad I was able to find the template I was on Wix. As one last touch that's sure to attract visitors, I added a mobile-optimized version of the site. This allows people who come upon the site on a mobile phone to view the site more easily.
Here's the full site:
And the web-optimized version:
You can see that the web-optimized version has all of the same content as the full site, but is easier to view and navigate on a phone. The menu across the bottom in the first image allows the user to call us, email us, navigate to Cheers, or go to the Facebook page in a single tap.
Sam's primary goal with this website is to retain customers and attract potential customers. We want to make it very easy for new customers to stumbleupon cheers. Anybody who finds us through a Google search will be able to call or navigate to Cheers in one tap of their phone.
Wednesday, October 30, 2013
CHA-CHING!
It's finally time for this website to make some money. Unfortunately, it's through selling beer mugs and t-shirts, so I won't see a dime of it.
Because this website isn't the focus of Sam's business, we're keeping our inventory simple. He's going to sell the same merchandise he does in his bar, so it's t-shirts, mugs, and an iPhone case.
We looked at several payment solutions. Because Sam has a bar to run, he doesn't want to spend all of his time managing website sales. To simplify things, we used the built-in Shopping feature of Wix.com. The Wix Shopping Cart has the #1 feature we wanted, payments through PayPal.
With PayPal, they will process all of the payments and Sam won't have to do anything on that front. He has enough financial transactions to manage every day of the week in his bar, he doesn't need to compound his troubles with online sales as well. PayPal will also assume the transactional risk and they have a huge user base with payment information on file, so that makes it more convenient for people to purchase something on the site. Users won't have to fumble around for their credit card and worry about entering it into a site they don't trust.
Using the built in Shopping Cart also ensures that the transactions are secure. I'm doing this for free, so I don't want to be Sam's security expert as well!
Here is a link to the store on our site.
(Disclosure: Wix will not activate the store to accept payments until you convert your site to an eCommerce site. I have not converted my site, so the shopping cart will not actually process payments)
Because this website isn't the focus of Sam's business, we're keeping our inventory simple. He's going to sell the same merchandise he does in his bar, so it's t-shirts, mugs, and an iPhone case.
We looked at several payment solutions. Because Sam has a bar to run, he doesn't want to spend all of his time managing website sales. To simplify things, we used the built-in Shopping feature of Wix.com. The Wix Shopping Cart has the #1 feature we wanted, payments through PayPal.
With PayPal, they will process all of the payments and Sam won't have to do anything on that front. He has enough financial transactions to manage every day of the week in his bar, he doesn't need to compound his troubles with online sales as well. PayPal will also assume the transactional risk and they have a huge user base with payment information on file, so that makes it more convenient for people to purchase something on the site. Users won't have to fumble around for their credit card and worry about entering it into a site they don't trust.
Using the built in Shopping Cart also ensures that the transactions are secure. I'm doing this for free, so I don't want to be Sam's security expert as well!
Here is a link to the store on our site.
(Disclosure: Wix will not activate the store to accept payments until you convert your site to an eCommerce site. I have not converted my site, so the shopping cart will not actually process payments)
Get Interactive!
I think Sam's site is coming along nicely. One of the key elements that Sam and I discussed was website interaction. A website can be beautiful, but if you don't add any interactive components, visitors will not feel a connection to the site and will be unlikely to return.
For our interactive component, we decided to add a social element. People go to a bar for two reasons. The most obvious reason is to drink alcohol, but the biggest reason is to socialize. If somebody just wants a drink, they can buy alcohol anywhere and drink at home.
To add our social element, I created a Facebook Page and Google+ Page for Cheers. I had recommended these sites to Sam in our initial discussion. We tied these two sites to a social widget from Tint that is supplied in the Wix.com App Market.
This widget doesn't update as quickly as I'd like, but you have to pay for faster updates, and I've let you all know how cheap Sam is. The widget displays posts from Facebook and Google+, and users can click on a post to repost it to Facebook or Twitter.
I've also added links to both pages in the site footer, so they're easily accessible.
Here's a direct link to the social widget on the site.
Thursday, October 10, 2013
If I build it, will they come?
I've made good progress on Sam's website, but that doesn't do any good if nobody can find the site. Time to work on SEO (search engine optimization).
This is another place where Wix made things easy. They have a SEO option that does the work for me. They register the site with Google and I just have to create my SEO title and description.
I changed the title tag to "Cheers Bar | Beer & Good Times | Frisco, TX". It's helpful to include the name, keywords, and the location.
I also updated the meta description tag to "Cheers is the perfect bar in Frisco, Texas to celebrate with friends, or make new ones over cold beer and good food". This is under 150 characters so it does not get truncated.
At the recommendation of Matt Cutts, Google Engineer, I did not add any meta keywords. Google does not scan these, so it's pointless to use this meta tag.
If you'd like to see the progress of the site, you can find it at http://je7979.wix.com/cheers.
*******Out of character disclosure*********
If this were for a real business, I would create Twitter, Google+, and Facebook accounts for the business and cross post to all three.
I may experiment with that, but it feels a little weird creating these accounts for a fake business. I'd hate for somebody to try to visit my business and realize that nothing is at that location!
This is another place where Wix made things easy. They have a SEO option that does the work for me. They register the site with Google and I just have to create my SEO title and description.
I changed the title tag to "Cheers Bar | Beer & Good Times | Frisco, TX". It's helpful to include the name, keywords, and the location.
I also updated the meta description tag to "Cheers is the perfect bar in Frisco, Texas to celebrate with friends, or make new ones over cold beer and good food". This is under 150 characters so it does not get truncated.
At the recommendation of Matt Cutts, Google Engineer, I did not add any meta keywords. Google does not scan these, so it's pointless to use this meta tag.
If you'd like to see the progress of the site, you can find it at http://je7979.wix.com/cheers.
*******Out of character disclosure*********
If this were for a real business, I would create Twitter, Google+, and Facebook accounts for the business and cross post to all three.
I may experiment with that, but it feels a little weird creating these accounts for a fake business. I'd hate for somebody to try to visit my business and realize that nothing is at that location!
Wednesday, October 9, 2013
Change is unavoidable
As I expected when I wrote my post a week ago, I've made some big changes to the plan. I laid out in that post how I would be using 000webhost.com to host Cheers' website. That's no longer the case. Here's why...
I'm not a graphic designer, I'll readily admit that, and I'm not good at website layout. To compensate for my shortcomings, I decided to look for a good website template. As I searched the web, I found a PERFECT template for Cheers' website. Unfortunately, the template is tied to Wix.com and can only be used on their site. I started to look around at Wix and decided that their free hosting will work for our needs.
It turns out, Wix is a great site that fits our needs. I was ready to use Kompozer to edit my site and FileZilla to upload to the FTP. Wix covers all of that. I selected a template and can do all of my editing in the browser and publish immediately.
As of now, I've made a lot of progress building Cheers' site through Wix, and they'll host it for free. I still have to fill out much of the site, but you can find it at http://je7979.wix.com/cheers.
I'm not a graphic designer, I'll readily admit that, and I'm not good at website layout. To compensate for my shortcomings, I decided to look for a good website template. As I searched the web, I found a PERFECT template for Cheers' website. Unfortunately, the template is tied to Wix.com and can only be used on their site. I started to look around at Wix and decided that their free hosting will work for our needs.
It turns out, Wix is a great site that fits our needs. I was ready to use Kompozer to edit my site and FileZilla to upload to the FTP. Wix covers all of that. I selected a template and can do all of my editing in the browser and publish immediately.
As of now, I've made a lot of progress building Cheers' site through Wix, and they'll host it for free. I still have to fill out much of the site, but you can find it at http://je7979.wix.com/cheers.
Wednesday, October 2, 2013
I have my first "job"
My first blog post was about my brother, Sam, purchasing a bar and starting up an online presence. While Sam loved my idea for Facebook and Google+ pages, he's also a smart business man and doesn't want to take any half measures. Part of being a smart business man is realizing that he has a brother that he can blackmail into creating his full website for free. He's also cheap, so we'll be using a free web hosting site.
I covered the different digital presences and how they apply to Sam's bar in my first blog post. Here are the types of digital presences that we determined are good for Sam:
Brochure - Provides information about his bar.
Informational - Updates on events.
Media - Pictures and Video of what's happening at Cheers.
Data Gathering - Customers can sign up for a mailing list.
Interaction - This is on the roadmap, but we may just depend on Facebook and G+ to provide it.
eCommerce - We'd love to make money selling shirts, mugs, and shot glasses.
Promotional - Promotion is the whole purpose of this site.
I'm still a novice web developer, so I won't be getting too fancy with Sam's website. I'd like to keep it simple. I've scoped out the competition and here are a few sites (not all for bars) that I think can inspire our design. I really love "clean," minimalist design, so I wish I was better at it!
http://nakedcitybrewing.com/
http://www.nuevo-aurich.de/
http://www.giannis-steakhouse.com/
http://www.karlyngroup.com/
http://g2geogeske.com/
http://jamrestaurant.com/
After looking at these sites and assessing my skill level, simple is the way to go. I've determined nine pages that we'll start with.
Home
About - To learn the story of Sam and Cheers
Location - A map of where to find Cheers
Contact - How people can reach Cheers
Beer - A list of the beers Cheers serves
Food - The food menu
Events - Upcoming events at Cheers
Mail list - The mail list to receive updates and offers from Cheers
Store - Where customers can purchase Cheers branded merchandise
Now we just have to figure out where we want to host this site. As I wrote earlier, Sam is cheap, so free is our only option. Here are the web hosts I've looked at so far, based on the list that was provided to us in my Web Design Tools class and my own searching.
000webhost.com - This site comes recommended by commenters on my favorite blog (lifehacker.com) where the commenters are usually more helpful than most internet commenters. Their free hosting gives you 1500 MB of disk space and 100 GB data transfers per month. That looks like a good choice.
50webs.com - This is the #1 free host on the list I linked above. They're an option, but they only provide 500 MB of disk space and 5 GB of data transfers per month for free. This is way less than 000webhost.
AwardSpace.com - This is the #2 free host on the list. Their free hosting only gives you 250 MB of disk space and 5 GB of data transfers. Once again, this pales in comparison to 000webhost.com.
DreamHost.com - If I were going with a paid option, I would likely choose DreamHost. They were selected as the best web host by the readers of Lifehacker. Unfortunately, Sam is cheap, so they are out of the equation.
I'm going to read up in my Web Design Tools class to see what my classmates prefer, but I believe my choice will be 000webhost.com. It offers the most bang for Sam's buck (ha ha) and comes recommended by actual users. Of course, this is a very nimble project that we're working on, so if this web host rubs me the wrong way I can always jump to another!
I covered the different digital presences and how they apply to Sam's bar in my first blog post. Here are the types of digital presences that we determined are good for Sam:
Brochure - Provides information about his bar.
Informational - Updates on events.
Media - Pictures and Video of what's happening at Cheers.
Data Gathering - Customers can sign up for a mailing list.
Interaction - This is on the roadmap, but we may just depend on Facebook and G+ to provide it.
eCommerce - We'd love to make money selling shirts, mugs, and shot glasses.
Promotional - Promotion is the whole purpose of this site.
I'm still a novice web developer, so I won't be getting too fancy with Sam's website. I'd like to keep it simple. I've scoped out the competition and here are a few sites (not all for bars) that I think can inspire our design. I really love "clean," minimalist design, so I wish I was better at it!
http://nakedcitybrewing.com/
http://www.nuevo-aurich.de/
http://www.giannis-steakhouse.com/
http://www.karlyngroup.com/
http://g2geogeske.com/
http://jamrestaurant.com/
After looking at these sites and assessing my skill level, simple is the way to go. I've determined nine pages that we'll start with.
Home
About - To learn the story of Sam and Cheers
Location - A map of where to find Cheers
Contact - How people can reach Cheers
Beer - A list of the beers Cheers serves
Food - The food menu
Events - Upcoming events at Cheers
Mail list - The mail list to receive updates and offers from Cheers
Store - Where customers can purchase Cheers branded merchandise
Now we just have to figure out where we want to host this site. As I wrote earlier, Sam is cheap, so free is our only option. Here are the web hosts I've looked at so far, based on the list that was provided to us in my Web Design Tools class and my own searching.
000webhost.com - This site comes recommended by commenters on my favorite blog (lifehacker.com) where the commenters are usually more helpful than most internet commenters. Their free hosting gives you 1500 MB of disk space and 100 GB data transfers per month. That looks like a good choice.
50webs.com - This is the #1 free host on the list I linked above. They're an option, but they only provide 500 MB of disk space and 5 GB of data transfers per month for free. This is way less than 000webhost.
AwardSpace.com - This is the #2 free host on the list. Their free hosting only gives you 250 MB of disk space and 5 GB of data transfers. Once again, this pales in comparison to 000webhost.com.
DreamHost.com - If I were going with a paid option, I would likely choose DreamHost. They were selected as the best web host by the readers of Lifehacker. Unfortunately, Sam is cheap, so they are out of the equation.
I'm going to read up in my Web Design Tools class to see what my classmates prefer, but I believe my choice will be 000webhost.com. It offers the most bang for Sam's buck (ha ha) and comes recommended by actual users. Of course, this is a very nimble project that we're working on, so if this web host rubs me the wrong way I can always jump to another!
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