Mar 3, 2014
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Websites for the Rest of Us
Big businesses are willing to pay skilled professionals to give them the extra edge. But what about the folks that are somewhere in between? What about the wedding photographer, the in-home online retailer, or the local rock band? These days it’s so easy to do pretty good work with little to no training, especially thanks to drag and drop platforms like Weebly and Wix. This takes a lot of the technical side out of things, but there are a few skills that you’ll need to make the most of your self-run website or blog:
1. Fantastic Writing
If you manage to write something that is relevant, catchy or impactful enough, thousands of social network users will do your marketing for you! Having a well written blog attached to your site will boost your SEO and help you connect to your audience.
2. Great Photography
With things like Pinterest and Instagram, a solo act in any industry can make great photos the center of their marketing campaign. Think of all the pinners that scour the Internet for great shots of their favorite things! Plus, beautiful photography just makes a site more attractive!
3. Basic Adobe CC Skills
If you want to make the most of your photography, or go the extra mile and create video content (a great idea!), you’re going to need some basic knowledge of the Adobe Creative Cloud programs. This will help you customize your content and give it some flavor that will give you an edge over monotonous websites.
4. An Eye for Good Design
There are a lot of good templates that will get you started, but if you don’t know what a good layout looks like, you won’t be able to do much customization. Look at other sites that you like. Consider sketching out the layout. Make note of the font and color choices. Then do likewise, but with your own personal flare.
5. Reaching Your Audience
Perhaps the first and most important step is to identify your target audience. Figure out what they need to see in your site in order to have interest. YOU might love your site, but if your audience doesn’t, it’s a waste of time and money.
It’s crazy to see how many skills a person needs these days! As a college student, I have seen how sometimes that one random graphic design class that you took that one time can be the most useful thing you’ve ever learned!