Are you doomed to have a website that’s out of your control?

Ever go into an Indian restaurant, look at menu, and say, “This is just vegetables, meat, and spices! Couldn’t I just make this at home?”

Of course you could… but it would involve learning about Indian cuisine, tracking down a bunch of obscure spices, and experimenting long enough to make something that doesn’t taste like a burger in a blender.

Ever walk into a house and say, “This place is just wood, drywall, and carpet! Why don’t I just build my own house?”

Sure, you could… but it would take years of study to understand all that goes into making a house not fall over on your head. Not to mention weather-proof, comfortable, up to code, and not looking like pre-oil-discovery-Jed-Clampett lives there.

So yeah, sure, you could learn how to do all this web stuff on your own… after all, I did. And, it took me years. And, I was willing to learn three programming languages to do it. Not to mention all the little tricks of the trade that you only get by immersing yourself in a field over a long period of time.

The question you need to ask yourself is, “Can I take the time to learn all this stuff on my own… and do I even want to?” Or, would you rather be taught what you need to know to manage and customize your site (and more, if and when you want it), so you can spend your time doing what your actual business is about?

Because there’s a level of knowledge between novice and expert (it’s called “savvy”), and it’s not hard to get there pretty quickly. You can be taught enough to do what you want, but not spend so much time tracking down all that knowledge that it’s like having a second job.

When you sign up for a website, you’ll have access to the Training Library - video training presentations that will show you how to:

• How easy it is to add text, images, audio, and video to your site
• What you need to do to add new pages, articles, blog posts, etc. at any time
• The inner workings of your site’s settings, from categories to tags and beyond
• How updating the look of your site is easily done with the click of a button
• Get “behind the curtain” of your site to customize its internal functions, but only if and when you want to
• The simple ways to upgrade the functionality of your site, without knowing a lick of computer programming

Of course, when you receive your site, it will be pre-configured to work just as it is, right out of the box… the only thing you absolutely need to learn is how to add your personalized content. Anything above that is completely optional… but it’s there for you to pick and choose from as you like. And if there isn’t a training video available for what you’re wanting to learn, I’ll create one (assuming it’s possible).

But what if I can’t follow the video’s instructions?

Hey, that’s what email is for. Send me a message, and I’ll help you get unstuck.

To be honest, I’ve seen so many people have a website handed to them with no understanding whatsover of how to use it.

It’s like first-time parents of a newborn; babies don’t come with a training manual, or instructions about how to raise them into competent adults. You’re pretty much on your own.

But then, the parents reach out and get help from people who’ve been there before. They get their questions answered, and the kid grows up. One way or another, it all works out.

But websites aren’t babies; as a website owner, you can hide from your site (to your own detriment, of course). You can ignore it. And you can go on without ever really learning how to make the most of what you paid for.

I don’t want to see that happen with you, though… I’d like to see you have a website that you feel comfortable with, that you can make work for you and your business from the get-go.

I’m assuming going into this, when it comes to websites, you have zero, zilch, nada, the big donut hole so far (and if you have more, that’s fine, too; this is 100% adaptable). Starting from scratch, here’s what you get:

Set Up:

The foundational pieces, all put in place…

• I’ll fully configure your webhosting account, or help you choose one
• WordPress installed
• Your choice of theme installed
• Email account(s) set up, if you like
• RSS feed configured
• Feedburner account set up and configured
• RSS feed fully activated and integrated on your site

Customization:

Based on my experience as a webdesigner, there are a number of tweaks that will allow you to make the most of your site. This is all stuff that took me a long time to find, experiment with, and master, and are considered “advanced”, or “insider information” to most…”

• ‘Sandbox’-style body classes (allows you to customize just about anything you want)
• Custom CSS file, to protect your style customizations
• Multiple Plugins pre-installed, to handle everything from contact forms to Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to social bookmarking and more

Knowledge:

• Learn how to edit your site’s content
• create and edit pages, with text, images, and other media
• understand how all your pages fit together, and how to create a cohesive site
• understand how to add, edit, and optimize blog sections (categories, tags, archives, etc.)
• learn what a widget is, and how to use them
• Learn how to edit your site’s style through CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)
• Learn how to work “under the hood”, when need be, to edit your site
• what FTP is, when you need it, and how to best use it
• learn the basic “languages” your site is built with, such as HTML, PHP, and CSS
• customize your site’s layout by editing template files, including what to touch and what not to
• Learn how to add plugins to increase your site’s functionality
• Understand how to manage all the various aspects of your site

And don’t sweat it if a bunch of this doesn’t make sense! That’s what I’m here for. Everything will be simplified and explained in the Training Library, so you’ll be on your way to savviness in no time.

Because to tell you the truth, as much as I love being a webdesigner, my forte is really in teaching. Having been a teacher, workshop leader, and speaker for over a decade, I’ve got years of experience in teaching people how to grasp complex subjects easily.

And, in all the discussions I’ve had with other webdesigners, they’ve all agreed that there are precious few resources out there for people who need to learn how to control their websites… which is just about every small business owner I know of.