This post is brought to you courtesy of Vanessa Rothwell from Your Online Success
As a speaker looking to get a website set up to develop an online presence to support your speaking business, here are the important factors you should consider. In this article we are going to take a look at the components of your website.
What type of domain and hosting account do I need?
Every speaker should have a website in their own name just like Joey has www.JoannaMartin.com.au. So if you have not yet got your own name as a domain, I highly recommend you get that registered. This allows people who hear about you, to search for you online and easily find you via your web site.
Also take a look at your audience – Are they only in the country of your residence ie. Australia or the UK? Or do you have an International audience covering the USA and other countries? For the best rankings in Google, you should have a .com.au domain for an Australian audience, a .co.uk for a UK audience, and a .com domain for an international audience.
Similarly with hosting, although there are many cheap hosting accounts in the USA, its better (from the perspective of Google) to host your web site in your home country if you are targeting your audience there. This allows you to be found easier in searches.
What type of website or software do I need?
These days the more dynamic your web site is (more easily changeable), the better success you will have as search engines love new content. One of the best website systems to use is WordPress. It is easy to use and you can get many different plugins (extra pieces of software) that will enhance your website functionality, and many of them are FREE! WordPress is also a blogging software which allows you to write regular articles to engage and build a relationship with your audience.
And Google loves this as it means more content!
Although you can start easily with a blog site on wordpress.com or blogger.com, these sites are not owned by you, and if you don’t comply with their terms in some way, they could easily shut you down, plus you have less control on the website appearance. It is better to have WordPress installed on your own domain and hosting server (available from wordpress.org) which means you own the site and can have customised exactly to your needs.
You also need to look at the purpose of your website and where you are going with it as to how much money you should spend. If you know that you will be building a business around your niche or topic and will be needing your website and the software behind it to fully support your business, you may be better to spend a little more upfront to have a web site that grows with your business, and has all the functionality you need, rather than something that will have limited functions.
What should go on my website?
There are 2 main areas you need to consider when planning out your website:
Design
Your design should be clean and the colours and images should represent what you are about. It should portray the look and feel of your business. As a speaker, on a website with your own name, you might also have a picture of you incorporated in the design. Many people get hung up on wanting to first make sure their branding or logo is created and they have everything perfect before they get started. It is important to just start! You can always update your design or logo at a later stage.
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Content
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when people come to your site, depending on the type of website you are creating, this could be an intro to your business, an opt-in page, or a blogging page. Whatever you have, it needs to be enticing to either get people to take the next step with you or to keep coming back to your site. More on this next week.I hope you have enjoyed this article on Taking The Confusion Out Of Getting A Website. This is only the tip of the iceberg, so if you would like more information please see my free 10-part video series at www.YouronlineSuccess.com.au which comes with a free, no-obligation, 20 minute consultation with me about your needs.
found your site on del.icio.us today and really liked it.. i bookmarked it and will be back to check it out some more later
Thx for this great information that you are shareing with us
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Groucho Marx – “I chased a woman for almost two years only to discover her tastes were exactly like mine – we were both crazy about girls.”
Nice post! This thank you note was sent to tell you how much we appreciate your thoughtfulness.