After my first year in business, I started to think about ways I could expand my offers. There’s a solid pipeline from custom website design to template shop, especially in the Squarespace world, so I started planning something around that.
My design process fit in very well with a template shop - I create 3 homepage options for every custom client, leaving 2 homepage rejects left behind. I always thought those could be a jumping off point for a template, but every time I started to expand it, I lost interest.
I’ve been trying to work on a template shop for a couple of years now, and I’m putting it down.
It doesn’t feel right with what I’m seeing in how people use their websites.
There’s so much noise out there in the business world, most of it telling you that you need a website. I do agree with that (I mean, it’s what I do).
But there’s not much telling you how to keep your website aligned to your business.
There’s not much telling you how to know if it’s working, if your investment was worth it, when to update it, how to know if you’re updating the right thing - basically web designers in general don’t do a great job teaching our clients how to fully use their site in their business.
We teach you how to update an image or text, but not what to say, how to look to your own business foundations for the answer, how to stay on top of accessibility and SEO.
I’ve been ignoring my template shop because beautiful website templates still don’t answer any of those questions.
Instead, I’ve been working on a done-with-you program to teach business owners how to use their website in their business.
It’s called Site Seen, and I’m opening it up for beta.
Site Seen is for business owners who have a website - or have been putting off - but don’t feel like it’s doing anything. It's for people who want to understand how their website fits into their marketing, why leads aren't coming from it, and find themselves having to sell really hard on consultation calls instead of having a mutual vibe check on working together.
It’s open to 6 people and one spot is already snagged.
If your website feels like a pretty brochure instead of something that truly drives clients for you, I’d love to have you in this beta program. You'll leave with a site that actually explains what you do and who it's for, clearly enough that sales calls turn into a vibe check instead of a pitch.