In knitting when something goes wrong, knitters have three options…
Start again, Frog it, or ignore it.
How the knitter decides to proceed once they’ve discovered the problem depends on three factors:
- How far they are into the project
- Who the project is for
- How bad the error is
I knit. I also build websites. Bear with me, it’ll all make sense in a minute.
Let’s say you’ve built something for yourself. A website.
You’ve invested time, money, and a ridiculous number of Google searches into it and it feels like the site just doesn’t reflect the effort you put into it. There are broken links, pictures are showing in the wrong places and no one seems to be able to figure how to contact you.
In other words, it doesn’t do what it says on the tin.
When that happens, it’s important to remember – you can only learn what you don’t like or what doesn’t work by trying it first.
Take time out to reflect on what exactly you’re not happy about. Then rather than throw the baby out with the bath water, make a list of all the things you do love, and another of the things you don’t love about your website. Then make a bucket list of everything you want your website to be.
THEN figure out the purpose of the website for you and for your target audience. Maybe you’re trying to generate money (or sales) from your site or generate enquiries for offline sales (i.e. publicising a book you’ve published)?
The direction you take with your website depends on what your number one aim is. Once you’ve figured out what you want, figure out how you can help your visitor to benefit from whatever you are selling – be it advice, a physical product or a service.
Once you’ve figured out exactly what you want, and you’ve completed your bucket list, set some BHAGs (Big Hairy Audacious Goals) for your site.
Visualise that destination and start the journey – but – and here’s the important part – take one step at a time so you can see what is working.
If you’re in the middle of rethinking your website, set yourself the challenge of completing one task a day (try and keep each task to between 10 and 30 minutes in time so it doesn’t feel overwhelming). You’d be surprised at how different your website will be within a month.
In other words, unless you’ve decided to do something completely unrelated to what you were doing before now, Frog it, and most importantly, START NOW!!!
Let me know in the comments what you’re frogging today. I’ll mostly likely be able to help.
