This article is what a Doctor would call MED. A minimum effective dose.
You can spend the best part of forever building and tweaking a website. We like quick and dirty. Not like that.
We want you to spend the minimum amount of time and money on getting an EFFECTIVE website online so you can spend the rest of your time getting customers and making profit. You can than return to your website to tweak it and LEVEL UP when you’ve got cash in the bank.
So you think you need a website for your business. First question, do you?
You might not – plenty of people run a successful business from a Facebook page (remember though, Facebook own your customer list, you don’t). What you need is a destination where people can find out more and take action to buy.
If you think you need a website, what does society say we need to do? That’s it, pay someone else to do it. Why? Do you know how much people charge to build websites?!
Henry from the Rebel team used to work in a web design company, making websites for small businesses and start-ups, a bit like you probably! The problem was the price… they were building and selling websites for £3000 or more and for what?
Do you think that spending £3000 guarantees you customers?
You might’ve heard the expression ‘build it and they will come’. When it comes to websites, it’s not true. Build it and no one comes. In June 2014 the number of websites worldwide passed 1 billion and that number is now fast approaching 2 billion. What makes you think yours will be found? And when people find it (because you’ve somehow dragged them there by their face, metaphorically speaking of course) what do they need to see?
Alan spent £1000 on his first website but got zero customers so he spent a bit more on the second and paid £1500. What do you think happened? Yes, you’re right, nothing. £2500 later and no customers.
What did Alan do next?
He built his own, this time for free! With the launch of the Rebel Business School, Alan created an account on Weebly (now Square). He built a website for free, published it straight away (Simon then stayed up all night correcting the grammar) and started sending the link to potential customers. Did it work? Well we’re still here.
The two main reasons why you might be shifting in your seat
REASON #1: Won’t a free website look less professional?
We used to think that too. Until Tony from Somerset, UK won blue chip clients using a free website that took him two hours to build and helped him earn six figures. And frankly the website didn’t even look that great. The thing is, free website builders have really evolved so now you can easily make your websites look really good.
Also, don’t buy your domain yet! You can have your free version out there for a while first – not many people will see it anyway. If someone sent us cash every time a start-up changed their mind about their name, business type, target customer etc in the first year, we’d be gazillionaires. Stay agile, flexible, and solvent. It’s easy to waste thousands on websites, domains, and hosting and you don’t need to (just ask Simon and Alan).
REASON #2: I am not that crazy about computers.
When Trevor came to our event in Kent, UK he shook when he opened the laptop screen because he’d been telling himself for 30 years he’s crap with computers.
When Dai came to our event in Wales, UK he hated his laptop so much he took it out in the garden and shot it.
They built their own websites with the help of a strong coffee. If they can, so can you.
Steps to a minimal website with maximum effect
- Start building for free
The first thing you’re going to need to do is to find a website builder that you like and want to use. We have used Weebly (now called Square) and Wix and in the past. Now we use Canva as it’s the easiest to use, and a great all in one tool meaning you can create your social media posts, flyers and even edit videos all in one place! But there are loads out there for you to try.
Basing these guidelines on Canva (other builders operate differently), once your account is set up, you will be faced with a selection of things you can create. Type in website to find the website builder. - Borrow with pride
Much easier to be inspired by others, than dream up from scratch. Find some websites you like the look of that aim to reach the same kind of customer you’re going for. Ignore the worst bits, take the best bits and borrow their best ideas (without blatantly stealing stuff – you need your own pictures and text – more on that later). - Make a one-page website and PRESS PUBLISH
Include a photo and/or video clip, a strong call to action (email me, call me now, etc) get people’s attention by adding something they’ll find interesting and make them say “Wow – I want that!” THEN PRESS PUBLISH!
Avoid the paralysis trap. Press publish straight away! No one will see it yet. That will give you a sense of urgency to get things done. - Have a look at it on your phone
You can expect 60% of your traffic to come from mobile phones and tablets and depending on who your customer is, it could be more! You might need to adjust your layout so it doesn’t look like a dog’s breakfast on a phone. - Send people to it!
Send your website link to everyone you know and ask for their help to make it better. Involve your friends, family and potential customers in building your business – you’ll build trust and find it easier to sell to them, or you can get them to tell others. - Improve as you go
Most people want their website to look perfect straight away but the reality is, it will never be finished. We’ve been going for years and we still make daily changes.
How do I make a free website using free online editors?
Of course, with a ‘free’ website, they are going to try their hardest to make you get your wallet out. When With a free Canva website, you will have a ‘Sub Domain’ of Canva e.g. myfreewebsite.my.canva.site. Does this matter?
Like we mentioned earlier, Tony made £100,000 in his first year using a free website. It does not make a difference. If the content is killer and the marketing is magic, customers will not even notice! Canva will also put their branding in the footer of your website but who the hell scrolls to the bottom of a webpage these days?
So now we’ve covered that, let’s dive right in!
Step 1 – Getting Started
Your first step is getting signed up to Canva and playing around with the editor on the site.
Here’s a quick guide we’ve put together to help you get started:
If you want to use a website builder other than Canva, we have a few guides below:
Note: Website builders update often, so be aware that the building process may look different from how it’s described in the guide.
This will get you set up to experiment. That’s how we want you to see this… just like any skill it takes time, practice, and patience to learn.
TOP TIP: If the buttons don’t work how you want or things start getting glitchy, click the browser refresh button.
Step 2 – Add Your Content
What is your business? What do you do?
Step into your customers shoes. What would they need to know about who you are and what you do to make it easy for them to buy from you.
TOP TIP: Less is more. Remember that people are lazy and busy. We don’t want to be reading paragraphs upon paragraphs of text on your website.
The only things you need on your website are as follows:
- People need to know what you do
- Why you do it/ why are you different/ why is it valuable?
- What you need them to do next.
TOP TIP: If you’re stuck with what to write experiment with using an AI tool like ChatGPT to help. Remember to put it into your own words.
That is it. Once you have that, you have a website that can drive your business.
It’s helpful to have other bits on there like contact forms, maps, address, phone numbers, etc. but it all depends on what your customer is going to want to see. And that is the answer to all of your questions: Who’s your customer?
- Do I need a map on my website? Who’s your customer?
- Do I need video? Probably but who’s your customer?
- Do I need my phone number? Who’s your customer?
Good enough is good enough.
You can create business with a one-page website. Spend more time meeting, chatting, and building relationships with customers; the website will be powerful enough in whatever state it’s in. As we’ve mentioned already, people will not just stumble across your website, you need to tell them about it.
TOP TIP: USE GREAT PICTURES! You can make an average website look fantastic by using great pictures, but a brilliant website will look rubbish with bad pictures. You can get great looking stock photos for free from websites like pexels.com.
Step 3 – Publish that mother!
When you press publish you will be given the option to pick a domain name. This does not have to be your business name; it could just be your business in the simplest terms, e.g. if your business is called “Luscious Cakes” and you’re based in London your domain could be “londoncakes.my.canva.site.”
TOP TIP: Don’t make it too long and think about what your customers will be searching for – there’ll be some clues!
This is the part where people hesitate… publishing. Let me make it not so scary.
What happens when you publish your website?
- No one will find it
- No one will see it
- If someone does, they might buy something…
- Now it’s published, what does that make you do? Panic. “Now it’s out there, I need to get it finished!”
There is no reason you shouldn’t be publishing your website and getting it out there. How will you ever know if it works if you don’t?
Final Thoughts
If we could leave you with a final word to the wise it would be this:
Spend more time marketing your business and telling people about your website than you do building it.
A good website will never be finished so don’t try to rush it to the end. As good as your content may be, your marketing has to be 10x better.
