Finalising the Site: Reimagining

The first design I created did not work as I had hoped and didn't look how I wanted it to.  Mainly it lacked consistency and the navigation did not please me as it seemed clunky and quie difficult.  I therefore started the site again using a different template that suited the theme much better.  Here are the updated screenshots...

This is my new logo I used a photograph from pixabay of the butterfly and then selected this on Photoshop and cut it out to place it on a transparent background - this was so that I could add it to any background without it looking odd.  I then changed the saturation using the adjustment layers to this grey as my whole site uses a grey and white colour palette for the design.

 I then recreated the homepage - I used the original image but softened the shades and tones to create a softer more mindful look.  I added the logo and created very simple navigation that was much cleaner and easier to use.

Although in this image teh shopping cart is still there I actually removed the embedded shop and will add this again when I have created the books that I would like to sell directly from here.  The shop here uses another site for fulfillment so I just added the widget as in my previous post.

I rewrote the About page and changed the image again using the shades of grey and white and this is much improved and more consistent.

I also changed the about page using the same technique and although I have not screenshotted it here I added a lightbox to ask people o subscribe and to agree to the privacy policy which pops up.  This still needs more work as I need to add the welcome letter that goes out automatically on sign up.

I then changed and edited the mobile view and this seems to be working well but I do need to do more UX testing on this to ensure that it does work as it should on all devices.

I have now made my site live although I would suggest it is still in the Beta stage but it is getting there and with a little more work could be great!

Next steps are social media, creating sales and reaching out to people through the site.

Finalising My Site: Making the Shop

I have spent the last two weeks trying to add ecommerce elements to my site - I wanted to use Redbubble however after two weeks of not getting any response after they deactivated my account I gave up and tried various other sites that could fulfil orders for clothing, mugs etc.  I managed finally to use (mostly) successfully Sundog.  This is my page on Sundog: Sunfrog.com/Zoeticmaster

The pages look like this:

I was quite pleased with these and only went with text designs to begin with although I have made graphic designs but the uploading of these has proved a little problematic so I will keep working on this.

This links to my site through a widget and again despite best efforts the widget was not keeping the link correctly to my products so I have had to contact support to fix this however I have at least now got a shop!

Adding Value & Logo

I have created a logo that looks like this...

I have also started to create some designs that I will be adding to Redbubble so that the website users can buy mugs, t-shirts, pillows, stickers etc

This is my first design ..

I will create more designs like these as these I think will add value and be something that people may wish to buy.

I think the logo is working and I think to create a stronger brand I have to keep working on designs and merchandise that will work with the brand and with the content I am creating for my site.

Creating a Quiz

So I created a quiz - which you can view here....

Stress & Anxiety Test

This has the questions however I want it to create points so that I can send out correct feedback and response to the user.  I am still working on how to do this so it really encourages the user to come back to the site!

Quizzes Online for Lead Generation

This week I spent many hours attempting to find a decent online quiz creator that I could use for lead generation.  As Josh Hayman states on Autogrow;

'The humble personality quiz is a perfect lead magnet for social media because it combines the shareable aspects that quizzes naturally possess with an opt-in form to bring in actual sales leads.'

and he is not the only one saying it - it is a fact that quizzes produce leads as people love to do quick quizzes on social media to find out something about themselves and by doing them are willing to give their email for quick quiz results which in turn generates leads.  Depending on how well you use social media and how you promote this you could potentially generate good traffic to your site and you also now can start sending out emails to these leads that actively bring people back to the site.

The problem I had was that I tried looking at many quiz generating sites and almost all wanted me to pay - this is not helpful as I am already paying for a website, domain name etc I do not want to incur more start up costs.  I looked at: Wufoo.com Typeform.com Quizzime and many more all of these had monthly costs - even Surveymonkey for businesses costs an eye watering sum that would effectively start to wipe out any small amounts that I make.  Therefore after much thought I decided to use Google forms as this is easy to embed in Wix, can be made to include email addresses and should be able to create a info graphic and results that would satisfy the target audience.

In my next post I will share the quiz and how I have created this ...


References

Hayman J. (2019 Marketo Blog: How to use quizzes successfully to generate leads [Online] Available from: https://blog.marketo.com/2015/12/how-to-use-quizzes-to-successfully-generate-leads.html (Accessed 5th may 2019)

Haynam J. (2019) Autogrow: How to make quizzes fro lead generation [Online] Available from: https://www.autogrow.co/how-to-make-a-quiz-for-lead-generation/ (Accessed 5th May 2019)

Creating my Site: About Page and Behind The Scenes

I have been busy setting up my Website - much of which is behind the scenes - I have set up 'Use of Cookies' tab and also completed the Privacy Policy so that this will come up as I am collecting data and this affects GDPR

I have also added a welcome letter that links to the subscribe box - this looks like this at the moment but does need some tweaking... this is just a test sent to my email.

I have now also added the About Page which I think looks good..

I am hoping that this will send the right message and will get people to engage with the site - I am planning on creating a quiz to help generate traffic as this is often a good way to get people on board..

Creating My Site: Zoetic Mindfulness

I began this journey before I even looked at websites with considering very carefully the name I wanted - i checked out the domain names available and the closest I could get to what I wanted was zoeticmindfulness.com.  I wanted a .com as this is the best.  Hendricks states in Forbes;

'A whole industry is dedicated to .com real estate, with moguls (aka cybersquatters) owning thousands of .com names, and selling them to budding entrepreneurs for a healthy return on investment. They buy generic domain names for $5 each and often resell them to companies for thousands, or even millions of dollars. Small companies with a bootstrapping mentality don't have the resources to purchase an expensive domain name. This often forces small business owners to buy a domain that's wordy, weird, or uses a .co, .net, .biz, or other irrelevant or sub-optimal top-level domain (TLD).' (Hendricks D. 09/04/15)

This is due to search optimisation all companies want their website at the top of the Google search - .com are most visible in searches and the public trust .com sites over other domain extensions as stated above. 

So I found a good name I have used mindfulness in the title as this hopefully captures the zeitgeist and the Zoetic is good as it relates to my name and means life and in this case 'living mindfulness' which (I think) is great!  

After I had my domain name I set up an email with this name and I began by choosing a template and started to create the look of my site:

I started with a image from pixabay and just adjusted this slightly on Photoshop changing it to Black and White and overexposing it slightly as I wanted it to give out pure white.  I added the title and will begin looking at the menu and what I really want to include on the site to get this started. I can't decide whether to use a personal approach or a more business approach on the About page. 


References

Hendricks D. (09/04/2015) Forbes: How Important is it for your website to be a .com? [Online] Available From: https://www.forbes.com/sites/drewhendricks/2015/04/09/how-important-is-it-for-your-website-to-be-a-com/#5aa3f09995d0 (Accessed 21/04/19)