When Kevin and I started Be Awesome Online, we had plenty of ideas about products and services we could offer. I had one particular one I really wanted to do, but I didn’t have the connections to fill in a couple of my expertise gaps. (This was a year ago, when I knew none of you. How much changes in a year!) Sadly, I let it fall away and mourned the little idea that couldn’t.
photo credit: andrewasmith
Then a month ago, the idea popped up again, insistent and even more urgent than before. Hey, it said. I’m ready now. You’re ready now. We could totally rock this! Oh, and here’s ten awesome improvements I’ve made for you to get excited about.
Game on!
Ideas aren’t like babies
When you start the baby-making process, it becomes inevitable. The baby grows and grows until it’s done.
Ideas are more like seeds. If all the conditions are good, they’ll start growing right away until you have delicious fruit. But if the soil is too dry, or it’s too hot? The seed waits, underground and invisible. It waits as long as it has to. And when the rains start up again, it germinates and starts to grow.
Your ideas work the same way. So you sow a huge number of them, give them the best conditions you can, and accept which ones grow and which ones don’t. Your especial darlings may not germinate this year, or any year. But if you keep looking after the garden, you’re still gonna find enough to eat.
Now that I’ve strained that metaphor enough, do you want to hear about this idea?
An awesome how-to series
I’m working on a course that will teach delightful weirdos how to start a website from scratch.
First, we’ll cover the strategy: how to choose and speak to your Right People, define your unique awesomeness, and set some measurable goals for the website.
Second, content creation: the basics of web copywriting, video, audio, and how to find your voice in all of them.
Then, and only then, we’ll tackle the tech. How to start a WordPress-driven website, find or adjust the perfect theme, add shopping carts and autoresponders, the whole enchilada (with a number of nifty people on standby who can do the heavy lifting for a reasonable fee).
Each week there will be a new set of screencasts walking you through the steps (mostly from yours truly, but with the occasional guest lecturer), some spectacular workbooks, and an interview with a nifty expert. It’ll be friendly to the newest of new starters, but people who are struggling with their website and want to revamp would find it handy too.
The course will go for four months, and at the end you will own a TOTALLY GLORIOUS website.
Oh, and because working alone is hard and lonely, there will be special discounts to encourage people to join as a team. Yes! I love the idea of small groups who can support each other through the process and make a consortium of fantastic websites.
The course doesn’t have a name yet. I’m calling it Almost Everything You Need to Know About Starting an Awesome Website as a (very long) placeholder.
Want to know more? Tell me in the comments!
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