My recommendations are what I consider the absolute basic things that you need to do as you start working with WordPress. There are a lot more things that you might consider doing and that others have recommended doing – Cenay Nailer in particular recommends 22 things that you should do after installing WordPress, while over at Pro Blog Design they recommend 10 things to do.

A lot of the things that others recommend I’ll find myself doing later in the design and development process. I don’t think they necessarily need to be done the very first time you log in to your WordPress admin panel, which is the perspective I’m coming from.

So without further ado, here’s my list of 8 basic things that you should do right after installing WordPress.

1. Change the admin password

After you’ve installed WordPress and configured the installation, WordPress gives you an automatically generated password to use the first time you log in. This should be a no-brainer, but make sure to change that password to something that you can remember easier.

Never changed a password before in WordPress? It’s quite simple – just go to the Users panel, click on the “admin” user, and scroll down the page to where you can change your password.

2. Enable permalinks

By default, WordPress generates a link using database strings – http://www.example.com/?p=N, for example. It’s not the most usable or SEO-friendly format, which is why most people choose to enable permalinks. That way, links will appear a lot nicer – http://www.example.com/about/, for example.

To enable permalinks, you need to upload an HTACCESS file to the root level of your website, and then give it read and write (0666) permissions, which you can easily do with most FTP programs. Then, go to Settings > Permalinks to enable them in any of the given formats or customize them in your own format.

For more information, including what an HTACCESS file is, read through the “Using Permalinks” page in the WordPress codex.

3. Activate the Akismet plugin

Akisment is plugin that is highly recommended for use on your WordPress website – so highly recommended, in fact, that it’s already included when you first install WordPress onto your server. It blocks spam comments from appearing on your website, which is a big concern, especially if you have comments enabled on your website.

When you activate Akismet, you need a WordPress API key in order to complete the activation. You can get one by registering your WordPress website at WordPress.com, which is different than WordPress.org.

4. Upload and activate plugins

Now might be a good time to install any plugins that you know you’ll need on your WordPress website. You can always add more or remove any at a later time, and of course there will probably still be some configuration that you’ll need to do in order to get everything working properly on your website.

If you’re new to WordPress and don’t know what plugins to install, take a look through my list of essential plugins for your WordPress website or blog for ideas.

5. Customize the login screen

I’ve written elsewhere about the benefits of customizing the WordPress login screen, and it’s something that I like to do for any clients that I build a WordPress website for. It helps make it easier for them to use WordPress, and is a little extra touch that can go a long way towards making the administrative experience more personal.

The method I detailed involves working with the PHP and CSS files that come with the WordPress installation. That’s fine to do if you want a fancier login screen, but the drawback to it is that when you upgrade your WordPress installation, you’ll lose all that work.

I found a nice plugin called WP Custom Login Form Image that I started using instead, which lets you customize the image that you’ll see on the WordPress login screen. This way, my clients will still see their logo on the login screen, no matter how many times the version of WordPress changes.

Why do this here? Because it’s a simple touch that might otherwise be overlooked later on, I think it’s just best to do it in the beginning.

6.  Change the default category

WordPress sets up a default category for your posts called “Uncategorized”. If you don’t want that to display the word “Uncategorized” to display on your website though, you might want to consider changing the name of the category.

This is generally a good idea to do because you never know when you might forget to select a category for your posts – it’s happened to me before, and I personally don’t like seeing “Uncategorized” display as a category on my blog.

There are two ways of doing this, both simple to do:

• Rename “Uncategorized” – You can edit the name of the “Uncategorized” category like you can any other. Simply go to Posts > Categories, and then edit the category name to whatever you want it to be.
• Choose another category as your default – Create a new category with a name of your choosing, and then go to Settings > Writing. Towards the top of the page you’ll see a drop-down menu where you can change the default category to the one you created.

7. Upload your theme files

Now that you’ve taken care of some of the preliminary settings, you’ll want to upload your theme files so that you can really start to design your website.

Use an FTP program of your choosing to upload the theme files to the wpcontent > themes folder. Then, go to Appearance > Themes, and activate that particular theme.

If you’re using an already-developed theme, then your WordPress website should pretty much be good to go. If you’re a designer, this is where you can start developing and testing your design.

8. Make theme files writable

When I’m creating a WordPress theme, I create the files in Adobe Dreamweaver, and then upload them via FTP to the server. After the website is launched and the responsibility for it gets turned over to the client, I have to think in their shoes. Not all them have Dreamweaver or want to use FTP, so they’ll need a way to update those files on occasion.

That’s where the theme editor in WordPress comes in – which in my mind is one of the more underrated tools in WordPress. This is the spot where someone can edit a particular theme file without needing any special software on their computers. (It just assumes that they have a working knowledge of PHP and CSS.)

The one trick is that you need to give write permissions to your theme files in order for them to be editable in the theme editor. You can do this the same way that you do with your HTACCESS file when enabling permalinks.

Thoughts?

After you install WordPress, what are some of the things that you do to get it set up? Are there things you do that are different for a client’s WordPress website as opposed to your own WordPress website? And finally, is there anything that you think should be on this list that I didn’t include?

Share your thoughts with everyone on these questions and more by leaving a comment below!

While some of these things fall into what I would call basic design practices that should always be done, others are what I think of as the little extra touches the designer can do to make a website that much better.

No matter what you call them, what everything on this list has in common is that they’re extra value that clients are receiving for their financial investment. It’s something that I communicate to them when giving a cost estimate for their project because it shows both how I’ll be spending the time and what they’re getting for what they’re paying.

See how many of these things you do when working on a website for a client – and if you’re not doing them, consider adding them to your regular design process.

Design and Navigation

• Create an error page – You may have checked every single link on your website, but it’s still inevitable that some visitors will type a URL wrong or somehow get to a page that doesn’t exist. A custom 404 error page will help your users find what they’re looking for when that happens.
• Add a favicon – Favicons are the little icons that you see at the top of a browser window and in your bookmarks list. They’re a great finishing touch for any website to have, and can even have some small usability benefits – great reasons for why websites should always use favicons.
• Validate the site markup – Make sure your website adheres to web standards before you launch. Validated websites load faster, better, and on more web browsers, and are also “future proof” in the sense that all web browsers will handle the website as you designed it.
• Cross-browser test – Your website should look and functions the same in all of the major web browsers and on all of the popular operating systems. Most of the popular cross-browser testing tools, such as Browser Shots, also test your website in various screen resolutions as well.

Server Optimization

• Resize images accordingly - If you’re calling an image from the server and the image files is really large even though it’s being displayed much smaller, resizing ahead of time will speed up the load time of that page, and help keep the amount of server space you’re using up at a minimum.
• Put javascript in the footer – If you’re calling external Javascript within your website, putting them in the header means that the server will try to load them first before loading your content. Putting them in the footer loads the content first before fetching the script – much more desirable.
• Clean up server of working files – While developing a website, I often find myself with extra files on the server that I had used at some point but am not using any longer. I delete those unnecessary files so that what’s on the server is only what’s being used somewhere on the website.

Search Engine Optimization

• Generate a sitemap – Creating a sitemap is useful for your users as a navigation tool, but for the search engines perspective it will help them find new content on your website faster than by relying on their crawler to find it. This will help you get more of content noticed and more links followed.
• Submit URL to search engines – If you’re launching a new website, the search engines won’t know about it unless you tell them to come and crawl your website. This one of the simple steps to bolster SEO on your website, so at a minimum submit the URL to Google, Yahoo, and MSN.
• Create a robots.txt file – This file tells the search engine spiders what they can and can’t crawl on your website. If you don’t want them to look at certain directories, this is where you would specify that. One way this might be useful for SEO is as a way to avoid duplicate content on your website.

Content

• Proofread your content one last time – There’s no excuse for spelling or grammar mistakes on a website. If you’ve written content for a website, such as links, intro text, etc., having extra eyes looking at it to make sure everything sounds good and is written properly will make sure any errors are caught.
• Check for broken links one last time – You can spend all the time in the world making your website as great as possible, but if you have broken links on it, the website looks bad. Before you launch, click through all the links on the website to verify that everything works properly.
• Set up Google analytics – Understanding what content your visitors are looking at on your website is absolutely essential in order to make it as effective as possible. Google Analytics is not only free, but incredibly popular and easy to use, which is why I use it on all my client websites.

Thoughts?

Is there anything that I didn’t list here that your normally do when you launch a new website for a client? Share your thoughts with everyone by leaving a comment below!

One of my big selling points about why I want to build a client’s website in WordPress is because it is so easy to use. The last thing I want is to have the client be dissatisfied with the website I gave them because they find don’t find WordPress to be that way. That makes me look bad, and dissatisfied customers generally don’t lead to repeat business or give out referrals to others.

Here are the things that I do to make it easier for my clients to use WordPress.

Customize the login screen

There are a number of reasons as to why you should customize the WordPress login screen, which I covered in a separate article on the topic. But the main one that applies here is the sense of familiarity that you can give a client from the very first moment that they go to manage their content. And since first impressions are everything, not only is it a nice touch on your part as the designer, it’s a potentially invaluable change you should make.

De-Clutter the dashboard

In WordPress 2.7, when you first log in you’ll see the administrative dashboard with all the options for what is displayed on the screen. Fortunately, you can customize what will appear, which is a nice feature that came along in this version of WordPress. Just click on the “Screen Options” tab in the top right corner of the page to make your choices.

Most users who aren’t technically savvy don’t care about such things as WordPress development blog updates, the latest plugins, etc., so you can safely remove them from the dashboard. The goal is to set up the dashboard so that when the client logs in, they’re not overwhelmed with unnecessary information (which might make them intimidated about using WordPress), but rather will see a clean dashboard with only the information they need to see on it.

Create separate users

If multiple people within your client’s business or organization are going to post content, then you’ll need to set up multiple user accounts so that each person can post content on their own. Make sure to select their user level accordingly so that they can only do what they’re supposed to; for a good explanation of the different user levels, read through the page on the topic in the WordPress codex.

The other reason you’ll want to do this is to separate the purely technical and administrative functions (managing plugins, overall site settings, etc.) from the purely content-related. What you’ll end up with is the default admin log-in, which could be used by whomever is managing the website as a whole, and then the separate user log-ins.

Just don’t forget to give a list with all of the user ID’ s and passwords to the client, so that they can distribute them accordingly.

Advise them of updates/upgrades

Working with WordPress means that there will occasionally be the need to upgrade something on their website – either a plugin or the actual version of WordPress itself. Although upgrades aren’t necessarily a bad thing, from a client’s perspective they might get nervous that what they’ve grown accustomed to doing will change.

The release of WordPress 2.7 is a perfect example, especially since it brought such a dramatic change to the administrative experience from previous versions of WordPress. When there are major changes that will be taking place, it’s a good idea to let them know ahead of time so that they’re aware of what’s going on and what, if anything, will change. (You don’t necessarily have to do this for every time a plugin needs upgrading.)

There is a business benefit to this as well. Keeping them updated after you turn the website over to them shows that you’re not just dropping it in their lap and running. Doing so gives them the impression that you’re thinking about them as your client even if you’re not working directly with them at the moment – a sentiment that might go a long way in the future.

Install the proper plugins

If there are any plugins that you know of that will make it easier for them to do something they need to on the administrative side, make sure to install those in addition to the plugins that function only on the actual website. The WordPress Database Backup is a great example; installing it and showing them how to use it could save tons of headaches later on.

Teach them to use it

This is the probably the most essential thing you can do when turning over a WordPress website to a client. Making the transition to a content management system can seem overwhelming at first, especially for those people who aren’t technically savvy or have never done it before.

You need to do everything you can to help ease your client into it and to show them how easy it is to use. Make sure that you show them (and by them, I mean anyone who will be using WordPress) everything that they’ll need to know in order to use WordPress as they intend to. I prefer to do this in-person if possible, since it’s much easier to teach something on the computer to someone when you can see it with them as they do.

While you should always be there if your client has questions, you might also want to provide them with some online resources that they can turn to for answers in addition to turning to you. That way, they won’t always have to come to you for answers to simple questions, but at the same time, they’ll know that if they can’t easily find the answer to something, you’re there for them to turn to.

Just make sure that you build this teaching time into your overall price quote, and that the client knows that it is as much a service that you’re being compensated for as the actual website is.

Thoughts?

If you build WordPress websites often for clients, what are some of your suggestions for how to make it as easy as possible for them to use? Share your ideas with everyone by leaving a comment below!

There are a lot of resources out there for customizing your login in previous versions of WordPress, but not a lot of resources for working within WordPress 2.7+. So, what I want to do here is use my custom login screen as a way to illustrate how I achieved that look, and what files you need to use in particular.

Why customize the WordPress login?

I’ll cover how to go about customizing your WordPress login screen in a bit, but for now I want to answer the big question you might be having – why would you want to customize it? Here are a few reasons:

• Familiarity for multiple users – A lot of clients may have multiple people posting or administering content in WordPress on their website. Creating a custom login screen with the organization’s or website’s logo in it will let all of them know that they’re in the right spot when they go to post new content, while reminding them of just who they’re posting for.
• You care about their experience too – Creating a custom login screen shows your clients that by including these small touches, you’re thinking about their experiences administering the website as much as you are about what their users experience while visiting the website.
• Extend your branding – On many blogs, people might be required to log in before they can post a comment. As the person running the website, customizing the login screen extends your branding so that those people get a continuous sense of your business as they progress from the actual website through to the admin area.

If you’re looking for some inspiration, the actual design theme of the website should be a good starting point. But you might also want to check out this Flickr gallery of custom WordPress logins for some great examples of what other designers have done.

How to create a custom WordPress login

I wanted to have my WordPress login look like a natural extension of my website, and I think I achieved that look. Here is what my WordPress login screen looks like:

How did I do that? There were two things I had to do – make a minor change to the page itself, and then update the CSS file that governs how the page looks. Let’s go through each one in more detail.

(Note: the following two sections are more technical in nature than I normally write about, and are intended for WordPress designers and developers who understand this stuff.)

Step 1: Update the actual page

Normally I’m not one for updating component pages of the WordPress installation, but when I was styling my form I noticed that some of my styles weren’t taking effect as I wanted them to – in particular, the field labels in my login form. I’m labeling this as step 1 because by doing this first, the new styles that you’re implementing in step 2 will work properly.

You can find the actual login file, called wp-login.php, in your root directory, or whatever directory you have WordPress installed in on your website.

When you open up the file and scroll through it, you’ll notice that there are three separate areas within the page. That’s because this page doesn’t just show the login screen – it also shows the screen if you’ve forgotten your password or are registering as a new user.

In either case though, there is a little quirk to how all those forms are coded on the page. By default, this is how the field labels and input fields are coded:

<p><label><?php _e('Username') ?><br />
<input type="text" name="user_login" id="user_login" class="input" value="<?php echo attribute_escape(stripslashes($user_login)); ?>" size="20" tabindex="10" />
</label></p>
<p><label><?php _e('E-mail') ?><br />
<input type="text" name="user_email" id="user_email" class="input" value="<?php echo attribute_escape(stripslashes($user_email)); ?>" size="25" tabindex="20" />
</label></p>

The best way to explain the problem with this is to use my form as an example again. I wanted to add a few pixels of margin to the top of my input fields so that there would be a bit of visual separation between the field label and the actual input field itself. Because the <label> tag is closed after the input field, that extra margin would be visible after the input field, not after the label as I had intended.

All you have to do to fix this is update the page so it looks like this:

<label><?php _e('Username:') ?></label>
<input type="text" name="log" id="user_login" class="input" value="<?php echo $user_login; ?>" size="20" tabindex="10" />
<label><?php _e('Password:') ?></label>
<input type="password" name="pwd" id="user_pass" class="input" value="" size="20" tabindex="20" />

See the difference? You’re closing the label tag after the actual words that will appear above the input field, not after the input field itself. Once you do that, your new styles will work properly. (You can also leave in the <p> tags if you choose to, but I don’t find them necessary because I can add in the proper margins in my CSS.)

Make sure that you do the same thing in the two other spots within the file where this is the case. Just scroll through the file and you’ll see them.

Step 2: Update the CSS

Now that you’ve made the necessary changes to the actual login page, you can go ahead and start styling it. In WordPress 2.7+, how the login screen looks is determined by the login.css file, which can be found in your /wp-admin/css/ directory.

Swap out the logo

One of the first things that I did when I created the login screen above was to swap out my logo for the WordPress logo, which appears as the default. Look for the following line within the login.css file:

h1 a {
background: url(../images/logo-login.png) no-repeat top center;
width: 326px;
height:75px;
text-indent: -9999px;
overflow: hidden;
padding-bottom:5px;
display: block;
}

So in order for your logo to appear instead of the default WordPress logo, you can either save your image as logo-login.png and upload it to the /wp-admin/images/ directory, or you can save the image under a file name of your choosing, and then just update the CSS instead.

One thing to note: make sure to adjust the height accordingly so that it reflects how tall your image actually is. Otherwise, if it’s taller than the default 63 pixels, it will get cut off.

Recommendation: If you don’t have time to completely style the login page and had to choose one thing from here to do, this would be it. By swapping out the logo, you’re accomplishing all three of the points I mentioned above, albeit in a more basic way than by completely styling the login form.

Update the page background

To update the page background, look for this line in your CSS:

body {
border-top-width: 30px;
border-top-style: solid;
font: 11px "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Arial, "Bitstream Vera Sans", sans-serif;
}

Just update it with whatever image or color you’re choosing to use as your background, and you’re all set – almost.

One thing I noticed is that when you update your <body> style, it leaves a lot of white space at the bottom of the page. I don’t think that looks good, so you need to add this into the CSS in order to get the color or background image to take up the whole browser screen:

html {
height:100%;
}

Style the login form

Once you set the new logo and background, it’s just a matter of styling the actual login form. Look for this line in the login.css file:

form {
margin-left: 8px;
padding: 16px 16px 40px 16px;
font-weight: normal;
-moz-border-radius: 11px;
-khtml-border-radius: 11px;
-webkit-border-radius: 11px;
border-radius: 5px;
background: #fff;
border: 1px solid #e5e5e5;
-moz-box-shadow: rgba(200,200,200,1) 0 4px 18px;
-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(200,200,200,1) 0 4px 18px;
-khtml-box-shadow: rgba(200,200,200,1) 0 4px 18px;
box-shadow: rgba(200,200,200,1) 0 4px 18px;
}

This is the code that determines how the actual form area looks, so start styling away to get it to look how you want. There are also separate styles defined for the form input fields, field labels, and field buttons, so you’ll have to style those as well to achieve the look you want.

One final thing to keep in mind

When you upgrade to a newer version of WordPress in the future, that new version will over-write these changes, and your login screen will revert to how it comes by default. This can definitely be a problem if you’re using WordPress 2.7+ because those versions will automatically update themselves when newer releases become available. But, if you save your files somewhere, you should be able to easily recreate the login screen without any problems.

Normally this problem would be solved with plugins, but I haven’t had any luck in finding any WordPress plugins that will do this. If anyone knows of one, share in the comments below.

Thoughts?

So now that you know more about customizing the WordPress login screen, if you have a WordPress-based website, give it a shot yourself and see if you have any success with it. If you want to share your WordPress login pages, leave the link in a comment below, and I’ll compile them for everyone to see.

If you’ve had any success doing this for clients, post a comment too and let everyone know how customizing the login has been received by the client.

In the year or so that I’ve been in business for myself, I’ve continually looked to improve both my design abilities and how I communicate to potential clients the ways that my knowledge can benefit them. I’ve been making great progress on both fronts, but I’d really like to thank you especially, because it wasn’t until I saw your work that I became totally confident in my abilities in both areas.

A few months ago I approached the dental practice I go to with some thoughts I had about improving their website through a redesign. Their website at the time was in pretty rough shape and badly in need of improvement. The main dentist there told me that they had just contracted with you for the project, since you specialize in websites for dental practices. I wished him the best of luck on the project, and said that I looked forward to seeing their new website when it was ready.

I was thinking about that conversation this weekend. Since it had taken place 3-4 months ago, I figured that the new website would be launched by now. I did a quick Google search and confirmed that I was right – it had indeed been launched.

See, I specialize in creating custom websites for my clients that not only look great, but are also highly functional from both a usability and an SEO perspective. I like to talk to my clients and get a sense of who they are and what they need before I build them a website. I don’t think those are high standards to meet, and I thought that most other web designers shared a commitment to those ideas as well. But as I learned from seeing your work, that’s not always the case.

For a small business like this dental practice, the website that you gave them doesn’t truly meet their needs. I really believe that a redesign should be a big improvement over what it is replacing, but in this instance, I would even go so far as to say that it is a step backwards from their previous website.

Some of the things you did really stuck with me – in particular:

• Not taking advantage of their former #1 Google ranking for “dentist Chicago” - I’m sure you already know how difficult it is to optimize a website for generic keywords and have good results with them. Their previous website already already did that for them, even if those benefits weren’t intentional or they didn’t know how or why that was happening. Now, when you do a search for those terms, their practice isn’t anywhere near the first results page anymore.
• Not using their existing URL – For some reason the new website was created at a separate URL than the old one – www.their-website-url.com instead of www.theirwebsiteurl.com. But both URLs are still appearing in Google search results, so it will make people wonder which website is accurate. If I were some random person searching for a dentist and had to think about the difference between the two, you can bet I would just keep searching rather than stick around to find out the answer.
• Not creating a custom design - It’s very obvious after a few clicks through the website that the design is based on a template. That’s fine I suppose, although it’s not something I would personally choose to do for a client. On top of that, there are a lot of basic things that just look sloppy – such as the alignment on your list items, for example. Sloppiness can give people the impression that the business is unprofessional – which is probably not what they want to convey.
• Not understanding the role that colors have on a website - This particular dental practice markets itself as a dental spa. What that means, I’m still not quite sure, even though I’ve been going there for almost 4 years; I just know they offer a free shoulder massage after I get my teeth cleaned. But in any case, for a business that markets itself as such, I would have chosen colors that were much more reflective of what they are all about – perhaps colors that convey a sense of relaxation and ease, such as light blues and greens. I’m afraid that the dark purple and grey combination that you gave them just doesn’t give off that vibe.
• Not styling your links so it’s obvious what is a link and what isn’t - Website users associate blue words as links, so the way you styled words for emphasis in the headers and content gives the impression that those words are links, even if they aren’t. If you would have chosen another color for emphasis and used blue for your links instead of the dark red you used instead, it would have gone a long way towards making the text links as usable as possible.
• Not making it easy to find their address - You put “Northside of Chicago” in the top right area of the header, which is valuable real estate on a website. As a visitor, it’s good to have of where the practice is located in the city – but since the north side is somewhat/sort of a big area, it would have been more useful if you told me their address in that spot instead. Instead, you put the address in a place that’s more difficult to find and where I have to scroll down to find it.
• Not making the home page useful – Their business offers some unique services, so it would be useful to visitors to tell them on the home page what exactly they offer that differentiates theirs from a regular dental office. You could have put links to those services that they get the most business from, for example. Filling one-third of the home page with a lifestyle graphic strikes me as unnecessary, especially if you could could convey those emotions through a better design and color scheme, as I mentioned above.
• Not making it easy to find what it is they do - The procedures and services offered at their practice is why they’re in the business in the first place, so you want people to know about these things in as many ways as possible on the website. Making a list out of the almost 40 different things that are offered and only making it available from within the sidebar of their procedures section just doesn’t cut it. Neither does not alphabetizing or sorting the list in any way either. Next time, perhaps organize those links by categories or some other way to make it much more user-friendly.

Still with me? Good, because I’d like to thank you for everything that you did, however poorly it was done.

Why would I want to thank you for all of these things that I would do differently? It’s quite simple actually. As a web designer who is still perfecting my craft, it’s often helpful to get a sense of what not to do on a website so that I know what to do when I design my own. And by looking at your work, you just gave me the perfect example of what not to design when designing a website for a client.

Call me an idealist, but I believe that when we, as web designers, work with clients, we have a responsibility to deliver more than just the product that they are paying us for. We have a responsibility to really work with them so that they understand two main things – how:

1. Having a great website can really help their business
2. The unique knowledge that we have is necessary to achieve those benefits

That is the value proposition for why clients hire you. I know it’s mine, and it’s also why I am so committed to good design, usability, and SEO. All three are vital to a successful website, and a successful website can be vital to their long-term success. It’s up to us to incorporate these three concepts and to do a good job at doing so. I don’t know about you, but if I ever delivered a website to a client like the one that you delivered, I would not be able to call myself a professional any longer.

For my own success, I truly believe that being able to communicate these two points to our clients – and doing so in terms that they understand – is what really convinces people to hire me and what will ultimately make me successful as a web designer.

I hope that you feel the same way, and that you take these comments constructively as a way to improve the product that you deliver on future projects.

Sincerely,

Addicott Web

P.S. Next time I’m at the dentist, I’m going to follow up with them about their new website, and am planning to present some of my suggestions to truly improve their website. I hope I can show them that they don’t necessarily need to hire a firm specializing in a particular niche market in order to have a great website. They just need someone who is committed to creating a website that reflects their purpose and is fashioned with good design, usability, and SEO in mind. That is what will really benefit their business in the long run.

My business is almost entirely dependent on word-of-mouth referrals, so making sure that as many my friends and contacts as possible know about Addicott Web is crucial. The vast majority of my social network is on Facebook already, so it’s the perfect way for me to reach a broad audience.

What are the two approaches?

There are two tools that Facebook offers that can be used to market your business: groups and pages.

The differences between groups and pages are subtle, and average Facebook users probably don’t notice how they are different. In fact, I didn’t realize the difference myself, even after I started looking into which to use – which is how I ended up creating a group before I realized the error of my ways and created a page instead.

So why did I ultimately decide to use a Facebook page instead of a group? Simply put, because pages offer more flexibility to post such things as:

• Customer reviews of my work
• Recent blog posts through the RSS application
• Connections to pages of my clients

But groups can have their benefits too – just not for my purposes. Here is a quick table that summarizes the differences between the two tools:

Facebook Groups

Facebook groups can be created for just about anything. They are typically used as gathering places for people who share a common interest, support a common cause, or participated in some program or event together.

Why might you want to use a group to market your business?

• Administration – As the group administrator, you can easily send messages to group members, making it easier to communicate with them about your business.
• Familiarity – Facebook pages are relatively new, only having debuted in the last year or so, but groups have been around since the start. Because of that, people are a lot more familiar with groups and how to join and use them than they are with pages.

But there can be some drawbacks to using a group, such as:

• Not widely accessible – Groups are only visible to Facebook members, so someone who’s doing a search on Facebook won’t be able to see it unless they have a profile and are logged in.
• No extra applications – You can’t extra features to Facebook groups – what you see is what you get, which is generally the bare-bones stuff such as discussion boards, a wall, photo gallery, and basic administrative features.
• Need to visit regularly – If you post a message to the group’s wall, you won’t see if or when someone responded to what you wrote unless you go back and visit often. This can be a big drawback if you want to facilitate a flowing conversation.
• Less visibility on people’s profiles – When you join a group, it gets added to a long list of the other groups that you’re already a member of – and one that isn’t bulleted and lists the groups in no particular order to boot. If someone has a lot of groups that they’re a member of, it’s not easy to find yours amongst everything else.

Facebook Pages

As I detailed in another post on this topic, pages were created to allow people to connect with brands or famous artists. Pages can be created by anyone for any group, person, or business, although generally only an official representative of that business or person is allowed to maintain a page for that group or individual.

One of the biggest differences from a group is that you don’t become a “member” like you do of a group; rather, you are a “fan” of the page.

There are a lot more benefits to using a page versus using a group, such as:

• Are widely accessible – Pages can be seen and found on the wider Internet to people who aren’t members of Facebook, so you do gain wider exposure in that sense. But even so, you have to be a member of Facebook to interact with the group.
• Applications are available – As the page administrator, you can add applications to your page, similar to the way you can add applications to your Facebook profile. For example, on Addicott Web’s Facebook page, I’ve added an application that imports my RSS feed from my blog and displays my new posts whenever I post something to my blog.
• Tracking – Facebook has provided page administrators a tool that lets them know how many visitors that they’re getting.
• Better visibility – On your profile page, groups are displayed at the bottom with an image associated with that group next to it. The presentation and use of an image means that you get better visibility on their profile, making it easier for them (and others) to find your page.
• Actions are documented – If a fan of your page takes action on it, such as writing on your wall or posting a video, their actions will be documented on the news feeds of their personal pages. Their friends will see the news feeds and if curious, check out your page – giving you more exposure.

There are still a few drawbacks though, including:

• No mass invitations – If you want to invite people to become fans of your page, you can’t send invitations to large groups of people like can with a group. I’ve encountered this problem myself and it is quite frustrating.
• Less familiarity – Longtime Facebook users might still be less familiar with pages than they are with groups. In general though I think this is becoming less of a concern, so I wouldn’t factor this into your decision between the two.
• Messages might get less attention – As the page administrator you can send an update to your fans, but they might not notice it. Rather than appearing in their inbox, it gets displayed on the side of a user’s homepage – a less prominent spot that is unlikely to grab their attention.

Thoughts?

So now that you know the difference between Facebook groups and pages, which would you use to promote your business, or that of a business or organization you work for or with?

If you’re a small business owner and already use a Facebook group or page to market yourself, which approach do you use and why? Is it working for you?

Share your thoughts with everyone on both of these questions and more by filling out the comment form below!

Wrong! Unfortunately, if that’s your business plan, then you’re not going to be very successful long-term. Taking any and all business that comes your way can – and inevitably, will – only take you so far.

Which is why I’ve decided that as I begin my second year in business, it’s long overdue to create a business plan around how I answer questions such as:

• What areas am I interested in?
• What skills am I good at?
• Who needs the services I can offer?
• Are there things I should know how to do?
• What kind of projects am I willing to do?

Why you should refine your focus…

Why do I think that won’t you be successful in the long-run if you do a little bit of everything?

Because if your business plan is to “specialize” in doing a little bit of everything, then what is it that you’re specializing in? Why should someone hire you over another business that actually specializes in what they’re looking for?

There are so many areas of expertise within the web industry. You have web designers, web developers, usability experts, web marketers, web developers, social media experts, SEO specialists, content developers – the list goes on and on. So how can you possibly specialize in doing everything that all of those people do? You can’t – and you won’t, even if you try to.

…but not refine it too much

Don’t get me wrong though – I’m not saying that you should have such a small focus that you don’t have at least a working knowledge of these others areas. In fact, you’ll often hear complaints along the lines of, “I wish the marketing people were on the same page as the web developers” – so having at least a basic understanding of other areas within the web-world is important when working with a larger web team.

When I started out, I knew that in order to be successful as a web designer, I needed to be very knowledgeable about web design and its components (colors, typography, etc.). What I’ve come to realize over the last year is that I also need to be knowledgeable about many other areas of expertise that make a big impact on my designs – areas such as usability, SEO, accessibility, etc.

Do I need to be an expert practitioner in each of those areas? No. But I do need to know enough about each of them to:

• Know how those considerations will factor into my designs
• Be able to answer questions about them when clients ask me
• Talk about them confidently and knowledgeably
• Offer tips on incorporating some of the minimum best practices

Know what services you can offer…

Once you know what your areas of expertise are, it becomes slightly easier to start defining the services that you can offer clients – or in simpler terms, what you can make money on.

If you’re in business for yourself, then this is also a matter of recognizing your strengths and playing to them. Are you really good at integrating databases into a website? Then become a web developer. Are you good at creating catchphrases and techniques to grab people’s attention on a website? Then perhaps web marketing is for you. You begin to see the picture.

…and who might need them

An important question that you’ll also want to ask yourself at this point is, where is there a need for these skills? What you’re doing here is trying to understand what your market is and who your potential customers are. If you can find a niche market, even better, but that can be very difficult to do.

Knowing who your clients are can also help you know what services you should offer, or if you don’t already, then what skills you should learn to do. If you get a lot of questions about e-mail marketing campaigns from your existing clients but don’t already offer that as a service, perhaps it’s worth learning about so that you can offer it. When you’re able to offer the services that your clients (or those in your market) need, you’re giving them even more of an incentive to work with you.

Know when to turn down work…

People who aren’t web-savvy often don’t know the difference between the various disciplines that web professionals work in. Within the last year I’ve had a lot of friends or family say to me, “you work in websites – so-and-so needs a website, you should talk to them”. While I definitely appreciate the referrals, just because someone is looking for a website doesn’t mean they’re looking for one that I’m able to give them give my skill-set.

What I’m getting at is that you need to know when you should turn down a project. I know it’s not easy to do, and I say that from personal experience. But if after talking to your clients and getting a real sense of what they want and need (and there’s a difference), if you can’t give that to them, then you’re wasting both their time and yours.

I worked on two projects this year that didn’t end up coming to fruition, and it wasn’t until afterward that I realized that what I was able to offer them and am good at wasn’t what they really wanted. I couldn’t say no. Instead of telling them I could do what they wanted, what I should have said to them was:

“Thank you for talking to me about your project. Based on our conversation, what you’re looking as I understand it is  something that I don’t specialize in and am not able to give you. Because of that, I’ll have to turn down this project.”

Being honest with a potential client never hurt anyone – and in fact, they might really appreciate it. Even if they might be annoyed at first that you met with them for an hour but can’t help them, they’ll be less annoyed than if you start working on the project and end up having to scrap it because you’re giving them what they want.

…how to recognize the difference between “want” and “need”…

Of course, part of my job is to help people understand their needs vis-a-vis a website – that’s why they’re asking me to talk to them about it in the first place. As a professional, I can make recommendations differently if what they describe their needs are doesn’t match up with what they want. (For example, they might “want” a sleek Flash website when they really “need” something more basic.)

People don’t always have an appreciation for the intricacies of websites, such as what might really meet their needs. So just because someone is talking to you about work you might not specialize in, it might not be worth abandoning before you really know why they want what they’re asking for.

This is especially the case if someone comes to you and says something like, “I really like that website – I want mine to be like that”. Then they clearly need some guidance, and it’s your job to help them clearly understand what really meets their needs and why. It might be that the website they like would do exactly that, which is fine – but if it isn’t, then you need to tell them that. You’re the professional, after all, and if they want a professional opinion, they’ll listen to what you’re saying.

…and what work you don’t want to do

Along the same lines, you have to determine what kinds of project you’re willing to take on. For example, I only want to work on website designs/redesigns, consulting projects, or maintenance. Within those specific areas, I want to do work such as:

• WordPress-based websites
• Static websites
• HTML newsletter creation
• Content consultation
• SEO – organic/keyword consulting
• Blogs
• Site maintenance
• Template design
• Redesigning a website

By starting to focus in on the type of work you want to do, if someone asks you “do you do this?”, you’ll be able to tell them right away if you do or don’t. For example, I know that I don’t want to do “busy work”, even if it does help pay the bills. It’s just not something that interests me, and I don’t feel that it will help me grow as a designer.

One thing to note: don’t be too quick to turn down work. Even if you know what you want to do and are being asked about something you don’t do, sometimes it can be a smart move to do something outside your comfort zone. You never know where it might lead to.

So before you make such decisions, think carefully about what you might get out of that work, and if the pros outweigh the cons, then it might be worth considering.

Success is a journey, so start walking

Everything that I mentioned are things that people and businesses are constantly thinking about, refining, and changing. For someone first starting out in business, the answers to the questions I posed aren’t going to come to you right away. But have patience – if you’re successful, then they will.

This can be a lot to think about, but these decisions are essential to the long-term growth and success of your business. Think about them before it’s too late, because otherwise, you won’t get very far at all.

Please keep in mind that I’m not trying to brag here about anything I’ve accomplished. I’m writing this to give me a chance to reflect, but also to give people the sense that anything is possible when you work hard and put your mind to it.

That was then…

When I started Addicott Web, I had only designed very basic websites before, and it had been a few years since I had created those, so my knowledge of how to create a website using modern techniques was lacking. For the most part my experience until then had been maintaining and working with websites that other people had created.

At the time, I didn’t know whether this new business would make it or not. But I had a sense deep down that I could do this – although admittedly, my confidence at the time was still a little shaky.

Want a brief snapshot of where Addicott Web was when I first started it? I didn’t:

• Have many clients, let alone a portfolio – Back then I was still primarily known for the site maintenance work that I was doing for the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism. I had only begun to talk to CityPAC about their website, who would ultimately become my first client.
• Have much of a website – Addicott Web’s first website was very basic and used mostly stock images and text that no one really read anyways. I remember spending so much time pouring through the content on it too, trying to fine-tune everything. It had almost no focus on usability or SEO, but it was better than nothing, and at least it gave me something to refer people to.
• Know what anything about blogs – Starting a blog was the furthest thing on my mind a year ago, so I definitely had no idea about how to write for blogs, how to promote your blog, or that I had a particular voice for how I wrote.
• Know how to communicate and interact with clients – I had no formal documents or processes set up for how to work with clients, and was doing everything on the fly. As an example, I was still using invoices that I typed out in Microsoft Word each month, and e-mailed from my personal Yahoo! account.

What a difference a year makes…

Initial learning curves are always steep, and mine was definitely no exception to that rule. Although I feel that I’ve learned and grown a lot as a web designer and a businessman, with only one year of business under my belt, I know that I’m only in the middle of that curve and still have a lot to learn.

It’s taken a lot of work to have come this far. I try to learn as much as I can about anything and everything related to web design and being in business for yourself from wherever I could. And it’s beginning to pay off. I’m feeling more and more accustomed to these concepts from seeing them so often – to the point where I can now talk and write about them with confidence, and in the case of how to interact with clients, actually implement them with my own clients.

Amongst everything I’ve accomplished and learned, I now have:

• A good-sized portfolio – I’ve worked on 8 different websites in 2008, which includes all the projects in my portfolio, as well as Addicott Web’s website and one other that is launching imminently. This gives me quite a selection of work to show prospective clients, and reassures them that they are hiring someone who other people have worked with successfully.
• Standardized ways to communicate with clients – I’ve created a whole range of materials to help me work with clients easier, more efficiently, and more professionally. I use Freshbooks for my invoicing, and I have web design questionnaires, letterhead, CD labels, envelopes, form letters, contracts, and much more all ready to go when I need to use it. And of course, all of them are nicely branded with the Addicott logo and contact information.
• A website that I’m proud of – I went through two intermediate designs before I finally settled on the current one. That was back in July, and since then, I’m really comfortable with it overall. I don’t foresee making major changes any time soon, other than slight usability or SEO-friendly modifications here and there.
• Started a successful blog – It took me a while to find my voice and focus in on specific topics that I could write about and provide useful information on. I’m also still learning such things as how to write a blog post, how often to write, etc., but those will always be a work in progress. I did have a few bright notes to the year – three of my blog posts got a ton of attention, which is definitely helping me to get the Addicott Web name out there even more.

Most importantly of all, over the past year I’ve finally found my sense of purpose and direction. I now know that this is my profession, and that based on how this year has gone, I can be successful at this. I’m hoping I’ll be successful enough so that I can turn Addicott Web into my full-time job, which is my long-term goal for the business.

Knowing both of those things is what continually fuels my confidence that I am offering a unique service to people. This is essential in everything that I do, from marketing to client interactions to actual design implementation.

Looking to the Future

Where do I want to be a year from now?

I want to have learned new things. I want to have written even more about the topics I do. I want to have helped even more clients make great websites for their business or organization. And most importantly, I want to look back and say that I have gone even further down this path towards making Addicott Web successful and towards being in business for myself.

I hope that you’re able to do the same things – either personally or professionally, or both – and that your 2009 is just as successful as well.

Happy new year!

What is my goal in doing this? Simply put, it’s just another way to help people – either in my network, or on Facebook in general (since pages will display in global search results within Facebook) – find out more information about my business, which in turn might hopefully lead to new clients and new projects.

What Is a Facebook Page?

For those who aren’t familiar with pages on Facebook, the help section on the topic describes pages like this:

“Facebook created Pages when we noticed that people were trying to connect with brands and famous artists in ways that didn’t quite work on Facebook. We created Pages to offer you a way to accurately represent on Facebook what’s important to you in real life. Facebook Pages help you discover new artists, businesses, and brands as well as connect with those you already love. Not only can you connect with your favorite artists and businesses, but now you also can show your friends what you care about and recommend by adding Pages to your personal profile. Please note that only the official representative of an artist or business is allowed to maintain a Page for that figure.”

How to Create a Facebook Page

It was actually somewhat confusing trying to find information on how to go about creating a page. I ended up doing a Google search about it – since Google has the answer for everything – where I found the right page right away. (For those of you who would like to create a Facebook page of your own, you can visit their “Create a Page” tool.)

When you create a page, there are all sorts of fields, widgets, and applications that you can use. Here are the ones that I think are the most important:

• Information – You can enter in basic information in this area, but there is also an application called “Extended Information” that allows you to fill in much more detailed information. I have yet to do this on my page, but I’m planning on doing it. The “Information” field as is doesn’t give you much room to work with, and I’d like to be able to put some more information about Addicott Web for people to see it.
• Photos – This was particularly useful for me because it is basically serving as a portfolio of my work. I posted screenshots of the websites that I’ve designed, and copied the details about each project into the caption for the photo.
• Notes – This section is useful as well because I can import my RSS feed into it, so that any blog posts that I write are automatically updated here as well. Again – it’s just another opportunity to read what I’m writing, comment on it, and get exposure to Addicott Web.

I’ve also left some of the other standard areas up on the page, such as the Discussion Board, Reviews, etc. A number of my clients are in my network on Facebook, so I hope that these areas will come in handy either when working with them, or to help continue our relationship once the project is complete.

Here is what Addicott Web’s Facebook page looks like:

Do You Have a Facebook Page?

So now that I’ve shown you how I’m promoting my business on Facebook, if you have a business, would you create a page as well? Or do you already have one, and have any insights or tips for improvement that you would like to share? Use the comments form below to share them!

Today I came across a comprehensive list of resources to help you improve how you work with your clients. It was put together by Christian over at the Smiley Cat web design blog, and since I thought it was such a great list, I wanted to share it with my readers. The list has a ton of great links on a variety of useful topics, such as:

• Understanding clients
• Communicating with clients
• The client relationship
• Your process
• Dealing with difficult clients
• Getting paid
• Legal stuff
• And more…

You can view the full list here.