#172: 7 A-Has About Our New Website Launch

Welcome back to another episode of the course creation incubator. Podcast I’m your host, Gina Onativia here to get you excited about your course, creation and your marketing and help you build up the course-based business of your dreams. Now, I’ve been promising to talk about my new website launch for a while. Now I think a couple of episodes. And the time is here because we’ve officially launched a new website feeling like there’s still little tics that we’ve got to fix, and we’ve got to go through it. But it’s a process. And got the team together to talk about some of our Ahas and some distinctions. So you can shortcut your website. Success. I don’t want you making the same mistakes that I did. I want you creating landing pages and your website with ease and moving forward with confidence. So I’m gonna talk about 7 Ahas, we’re gonna dive right into it today in terms of what I learned in building our new website. Now, it had been a while since I built a website guys for myself, It’s been about 9 years since I built the website from scratch. We’ve done updates along the way. But it really needed to be redone. I’ve talked about this on previous episodes that we got attacked and the old website. By the way, the old host continues to get attacked as I record this, and as we launch the new site, so I want to talk today about some of the learnings that we’ve had along the way to help you.

First and foremost, it’s having a vision of where you want to take your website. So if you want to do something from scratch. Why do you want to do something from scratch? Are you pivoting your brand? Maybe you’re starting your business from scratch? Then that makes sense for us. We were pivoting the brand a little bit. We’re not just talking about courses anymore. We offer digital strategy. We offer marketing strategy. I’ve always offered marketing strategy as part of my bigger done for you packages, but never as a separate scope, and came to the realization working with my business coaches and my sounding boards. Why aren’t we offering this as a separate scope, as a separate package? That’s why I’ve started to pivot more of as a digital strategist. I’m still a course consultant and a course creator proud of it, but just offering that digital strategy and having that on the website was a big part of where we wanted to go. And with that vision, I want you to have a core copy. Doc, where you have the wow statement, your declaration on front of your site front and center. If you go to the new site, you can see that. Then a couple of benefit statements and what’s in it for them? And then I thought, through, Ok, what do I really want to offer now, in terms of my packages in terms of my courses. So thinking through all those pieces, and then, once you solidify that core document, everything else falls into place. Anytime you’re looking at creating new copy for posts, or for emails, or whatever it is. That’s your core document. So that’s Aha, number one, starting with that vision. And then the core document that supports that vision.

Aha! Number 2 is to find a trusted guide to get you started. So I know enough about websites I know about copy and design flow messaging. But when it comes to the back end. I don’t really know a lot of what I’m talking about, because it starts to get technical. And this is where I look for experts who know more than me. Right? We want to find coaches and experts who can guide us along. That’s why people hire us for done for you. Right? Because I know the course creation system. I know the marketing system. I can shortcut your success. So when it comes to backend of websites. I’m not the expert, and that’s great. So my friend Ashley actually helped me with this, and Ashley is a longtime colleague, and Ashley is one of those people who never has a bad day. You need to have at least one or 2 of those people in your life who just has a great attitude about everything, and she always just picks me up even when I’m feeling grumpy. So Ashley really helped me, and I really want to give her a shout out with this episode because the site went down or the site got attacked, she said. Let’s still go with WordPress because she gave me options. Right? So I’ve got lead pages. I’ve got Kajabi. I could have built my website out on Kajabi or lead pages. We ultimately went with WordPress. Again, because we love the SEO because we love how we could set up our podcast pages. And Ashley recommended flywheel, which is a hosting service which is really great. I’ll link to that in the show notes. She helped me with that, and then she helped me with a template. So that’s the thing. She helped me get started, because again, I know how to go into a WordPress backend and do edits and do tweaks. I know how to do copy and graphics and things like that. But just that idea of getting started. I felt really overwhelmed when the site got attacked. I was like, Okay, it’s time for a new site, probably time for a new host. Where do I go? Ashley stepped in. So, finding that trusted guide to get you started is huge.

All right. Aha, number 3 know what you will need going into this. So I’ve already mentioned some of these pieces. You’re going to need one copy, 2 graphics, 3 development at a minimum. And that’s if you want to get scrappy. So, let’s break this down a little bit, because I had a done for you client who reached out to me because, she said, I want to redo my own website, and it’s the season, right? So you could hire an agency agencies are gonna be more expensive, or you could do more of hire some help. So it’s like, I think there’s 3 tiers, right? So an agency

Expensive. Then I’ll get a little bit of help, and then, Diy, some of it. That’s the second tier, I would say, and then the third is like Diy it, but maybe just to Aha, number 2, you find your Ashley to get you started and set up some of the back end for you and help you figure out what’s working now, cause that’s the other thing. Ashley knows what’s working now.

And what’s on trend, or what’s a great host like? I don’t know that. So I sought out somebody who really knew their stuff. So, thinking through what you’re going to need. So for copy, for example, are you going to write the copy? Are you going to get a little bit of help graphics? Are you going to get some help on Upwork? For example, we’re gonna talk about more about graphics in a minute

Development. So, we ended up having Ashley start us off and then getting a developer off of Upwork. And we had to give very specific instructions to get it done. So how are you going to get each of these areas done? And what will you need so copy graphics and development. I’m missing other pieces here.

But just as a baseline, Aha! Number 4, comes from my new digital marketing assistant, David, who is talking about. He’s a really great graphics Creator. He does video and does different multimedia. So David wrote to me and said, Ok, prep graphics ahead of time getting them all ready like your banners, your icons, or other visual elements. Thinking through what you want to include in the site and prepping that early will make things way smoother for your developers and your designers. Here’s another point from David. Don’t forget the details in the graphics. It’s not just about banners. Icons matter a lot, too. So think through how you can use icons or different design elements throughout your website. He’s talking about resources. You can use Shutterstock or free icons.IO. He’s also wants to mention the free copy right safe options, like Unsplash and Pexels. We will list these all in the show notes. So you have your resources. And then finally he said, streamline your design process with all those elements, graphics, designs, icons prepped. And at your fingertips you’ll make the website building process not just faster, but also way more efficient. So that’s really great. So think through all these graphic elements that you can have fun with again, you can get some leverage. You can get some help with those. If this is not your wheelhouse, as if this is not your expertise.

Aha, number 5, when working with a developer, be crystal clear about what you need. And guys, I learned this the hard way, because I was not crystal clear. And listen. I’m rushing through things all the time. It drives my husband crazy. My coach talks to me about it all the time, Gina, you need to be more clear with your communication, even though I’m a communication expert. There’s the irony. But in terms of working with the developer, especially somebody you’re working with who’s international. You need to be clear on your instructions sometimes I’ll leave little things out thinking that. Oh, they’ll pick up the nuance. They’re not going to pick up the nuance guys when you’re hiring like a high-end agency. They will anticipate your needs, and they will fill the holes and they will run within. That’s what you’re paying for when you’re grabbing somebody off of, say, Upwork. They’re highly skilled. But there might be a bit of a communication challenge. So, for example, I told my developer that I wanted to go live, and I wanted to replace the new. I didn’t say, please replace the new website. I said, Hey, we’d like to go live with the new page, or I’d like to go live today, something like that, something that I thought was clear. But now, looking back was more vague. The developer thought. I was talking about the podcast I’d like to go live with this podcast early. We go live on Wednesday. And I said, I wanted to go live on Tuesday about the new website didn’t go live.

Then actually, Ashley and a friend, Sin came in to make the website live. But because I didn’t communicate clearly. I didn’t get my outcome. So, being explicit. And and this with changes as well. And updates like we’d go to certain pages, take screenshots, create a table and a Google Doc, do it side by side. Take a screenshot of what you want to change, and then right next to it, like the copy, just be as explicit as possible, especially when there might be a communication barrier.

 Aha! Number 6. If you’re migrating your site like, if you’re updating, things will break. It’s just part of life. And it’s Ok. So we went with a different host. So we created a site from Scratch with a different host. So everything that was living on my old site was then broken. So all the links and the opt-ins and all kinds of goodness we’re still discovering what’s broken broke because we moved from one host to another, and the links didn’t match up. The pretty links didn’t match up everything else. So pretty links are just a way to make your links look pretty like. Instead of having a lead page link, I would have a course creation boutique com checklist so all kinds of things broke. And that’s okay. So I do encourage you to have a system of your opt-in pages and your links, and where your guides and things like that are. So when it does come time to updating your website, you have a record of those, and you’re not just finding things out that are broken.

So we’re going through it, and we’re systematically updating it. And it’s going to be great. And it is great. But just know you could be more proactive than myself about that.

All right. Our seventh and final Aha is, you might not do it until you commit to it. And I’m just speaking from experience. Because I’ve been talking for a long time about updating the website on this podcast months, 9 months. And I didn’t commit to it till I had to. I had to be reactive instead of proactive, which I do not like it. It forced my hand because I got attacked. The old website got attacked. I’d rather you guys be proactive. So commit to a date. Maybe you’re going to do a talk or you’re going to go inside a Facebook group and teach something, whatever it is. Make a public commitment that prompts you to update your site right? Same thing with like your opt-ins and your landing pages. If you have an opportunity.

And it’s a great time for you to pivot. That’s the time for you to set up your landing pages or update your website. Don’t be reactive. Look something positive that encourages you to meet a deadline. So I wish I had done that. And now I’ll learn from the past, and hopefully be more proactive. But there’s Aha! So there was ups and downs in terms of this process. But again I could not be more pleased with the result.  I’m so thankful for my team, for David, for Rona, for Ashley coming in and helping us out for all of our developers who helped us. So if you have any questions about this process, I would love to answer them. You could hit me up on Instagram or LinkedIn. If this podcast episode has made an impact on you. I’d love for you to leave me a review. Until next time? Go, create, be you, and be brilliant and get it done.