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Greetings!
Success is often achieved by those who don't know that failure is inevitable. - A.Eisen
How true! If someone had told me at the onset of my entrepreneurial endeavor that I would encounter copious amounts of setbacks, I would have quit before I started. Luckily I forged ahead. My monumental failures have been integral in my overall success: my "quick and simple" website took over a year to build and my attempt to alleviate stress only compounded it when seeking administrative assistance. We're often told to listen to our gut feeling, but self-doubt, loyalty to others and an aversion to conflict causes us to stumble along, deaf to the screaming voice in our heads telling us to quit while we're ahead.
Read on to see how I am turning the marathon that was my website into a seamless web solution for clients and how I am making the best of a bad administration situation.
Amy Perzan Merrill
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Design Tip #51:
Measure Your Success | |
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Wayward Web Job Yields Fascinating Results
Spinning a negative web project into a learning experience was the only way to turn a series of failures into an overall success
After I finally let go of my original, unsuccessful website project, I found powerful web solutions for a fraction of the price. How incredible is that? Not only does it directly benefit me, but also my clients. From my experience, I decided that WordPress is the best way to go: it's easy, expandable, and affordable. With WordPress, you get a plethora of free plug-ins that can keep your site fully integrated with social media and make updating your site easier. It also gives you control over your site and it's future development. And you can't get more affordable than free, which WordPress is. When selecting your WordPress theme, the main things to consider are: - Support - Does the developer offer forms and documentation to support the theme?
- Widgets - Think social media icons; check which content areas allow them.
- Layout - Look at how the "containers" or content blocks layout. For example, where is the main navigation? Is there a right sidebar, a left sidebar, or both?
- Is the theme sponsored? This may mean that there are areas of the footer that you can't change.
Remember that with free themes there are limitations. A designer with HTML knowledge can help you surpass these limitations to create the perfect site for your business. If you're having a designer or a developer help with your site, don't concern yourself with color and graphics as these elements are easily changed. Plugins exist for galleries, live feeds, etc. If you're going it alone, do seek a theme that suits your taste and/or corporate identity. |
Hired Help Hinders Production
To move on from a disastrous business decision meant finding the silver lining that surely encompassed it
 When I brought on an office manager/bookkeeper, I trusted her touted scope of ability and gave her free reign of this end of my business. Unfortunately, it wasn't until many months later when I began to review my financials for 2009 that I realized how completely messed up everything was. Although the immediate outcome of this situation was less than ideal, it was a great training exercise for me. I spun a lot of positives from this negative experience: - I was thankful that I endured this experience while my business is still small.
- I learned that while I can delegate tasks, I couldn't hand over the running of my business.
- I need to check in and manage my staff and their work, even on the tasks that I despise doing.
- In order to achieve success you must first define it. I was lacking clear and measurable goals which made it hard for my employee to establish direction and impossible for me to measure her success along the way.
I've been running my own business for almost a decade now and I've learned that from every minor setback, comes a greater success. |
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Customer Q&A
1) If I choose to go with a new host that works well with WordPress, does my email have to be re-setup?
For email, you would keep all of your addresses but you'd have to update incoming and outgoing servers within your email program (ie outlook). You may experience up to 72 hours downtime, though this is rare. However, always account for this downtime and start the transfer on a Friday to avoid business interruption.
2) Does Meringue's Bronze hosting offer website tracking to monitor hits and visits on a monthly and daily basis?
What I recommend for tracking traffic to your site is Google Analytics. There is a free plugin that we like to install for use on Wordpress sites. You just have to sign up for your free Google Analytics account, send us the code and we do the rest. This is an excellent tool that not only tracks hits, but where they're coming from and more. We like this tool so much, in fact, that we include it as a standard plugin with our Wordpress Web package.
3) How many email addresses can I have with the Bronze hosting package?
The Bronze hosting package includes up to 15 email addresses. |
Still feeling confused by web development? Then let Meringue give you the training and support you need to set up your site quickly and affordably with our new WordPress web package for $999! We'll create a web banner and customize a theme that perfectly depicts your business, while also incorporating the appropriate content of your company and constructing a layout for four additional pages. Inclusive of your flat rate, we'll utilize any appropriate plug-ins and will ensure that your site gets published and goes live. Are you paying more than $100 per year for web hosting? If so, you could be paying too much. Ask us about converting your existing site to a WordPress site. The transfer is cheaper than you think and could pay for itself in reduced hosting fees in less than two years! Email me to find out how we can customize a solution for you. |
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Amy Perzan Merrill is a graphic designer in Calgary, Alberta. Her company, Meringue 3.14, specializes in creative branding and cost-effective print solutions for small business. For more great tips on how you can turn your material into powerful marketing and communication tools, subscribe to "Designer", Amy's monthly ezine.
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