Hello dearest, and welcome to Be Awesome Online.
We are generalists and write about all sorts of website-related topics here! Here’s some of the best posts to get your teeth into.
Actually, this seems to be turning itself into a colection of almost every single post we’ve written. I’m doing this best-of thing very badly!
Rock the tech stuff
Kevin and Catherine started this website talking almost solely about website technology, because we’re both IT geeks with a knack of explaining complex or intimidating subjects so that they’re easy to grasp.
The basics!
Websites aren’t for everybody – almost anyone can start a website. But not everyone should.
Websites are worth the pain – the cool stuff that happens when you have a rockin’ website.
Why your first website should be cheap – because websites are tricky and it’s better to make a cheap mistake than an expensive one…
How to choose a web hosting provider – simple guidelines and recommendations to help you choose a home for your website. Plus a code for the nice people we use!
How to choose a good domain name – the basics of choosing a domain name.
WordPress
What Is This WordPress You Speak Of, Earthling? – our website (and about 25,000,000 others) run on WordPress. But what is it?
Care and feeding of WordPress – now you’ve got it, you gotta look after it! Don’t worry, it’s not hard.
Making WordPress painless: Akismet – Want to make sure your website stays spam-free? Akismet (and Kevin’s useful video about it) is your buddy!
Making WordPress painless: Automatic Upgrade – Kevin demonstrates how to make WordPress look after its own upgrades. More secure, less annoying!
Ongoing rockitude
Test your website actions – because a broken form can cost you BIG.
Take a snapshot – so you can come back in three months and be impressed with how much you’ve improved!
Do some weeding – keep your content fresh and appealing.
Organize your email – Patrick tells us how to get some healthy email systems in place.
Automate something – save yourself time but making the tech do the work.
Tips On Dealing With Techies: Part One – some questions to suss out whether a tech consultant will be right for you.
Tips On Dealing With Techies: Part Two – more of the attributes to look for (and beware of)!
Set up Google Analytics – you can’t improve what you can’t measure. Easy-peasy website statistics are only five minutes away.
Check your colours – what does your website look like to colour-blind people?
Stop tweaking your design – the ultimate activity for when you don’t want to do real work. Quit that!
How Websites Work
It’s Catherine’s first ever videos! Ever wondered how websites actually work? Here’s an explanation that passes the Mum Litmus Test (Catherine’s mother is a smart woman who hates tech and is therefore a perfect test of whether something makes sense for laymen).
How Websites Work, Part 1: Servers and IP Addresses
How Websites Work, Part 2: Domain names
How WebSites Work, Part 3: HTML, CSS and frameworks
Catherine fell totally in love with Twitter this year. Here are a series of five-minute missions to get you started on Twitter if you want to join the fun.
Twitter: what is it and why should you care? – what Twitter does well and whether it will suit you.
Sign up to Twitter – let’s get started!
Follow 10 people on Twitter – start making connections.
Tweet, retweet and reply – now you’re talking! How to use each feature.
Update your Twitter profile – People are starting to find you. How do you describe yourself?
Test-drive a Twitter client – Tools that can make Twitter easier.
Define a Twitter strategy – now you have everything in place, it’s time to make sure you don’t “waste” time on Twitter!
Twitter bonus round: extra Twitter tips – a few other nifty bits-o-knowledge to improve your Twitter experience
Install TweetMeme – make it easy for other people to tweet your links
Reach your Right People
The great mystery: the fewer customers you have, the more customers you get – finding a very specific niche, and why you want to do it. Really.
Review your tagline – How a few well-chosen words can reassure your Right People that they’ve come to the right place.
Review your Contact Us page – build trust, and make it easy for people to give you money.
Comment on one blog post – why you should, and how to do it well.
Update your signature – writing a catchy and effective signature for your email and forum presence.
Perform the 3-second test – the simplest effective branding test for your website ever.
Update your About Us page – what About Us pages are really about, and how to write a good one.
Review your navigation – help your readers and improve your success. Good navigation matters.
Emphasize the important tasks – how design can help you win.
Survey your customers – is your website working?
Promote your website – stop your website from being a well-kept secret.
Defend yourself – you don’t know how awesome you are until you have to prove it…
Create a resource – help your people and give them a reson to come back!
Help one person – the power of one good deed.
Send one email – reach out and touch somebody. But not in a creepy way.
Offer to do a guest post – how to do it well, especially when you’re freaking out.
Balance your benefits – who does your work benefit, and are you riding for a fall?
Copywriting
Remember when you used to suck? – how to avoid the Curse of Knowledge and write for people who aren’t as expert as you are.
Test your readability – how accessible is your writing?
Enjoy your content – take a moment to realise just how spectacular you are at this!
Where do the ideas come from? – more specifically, where my ideas come from.
Find new ideas – simple inspiration sources for new ideas.
Go a bit crazy – shake things up and come up with some off-the-wall ideas.
Promote yourself – how to ask people to do the thing you’re hoping they’ll do.
Cut empty words – ruthless slash and burn pruning of your copy.
Admit an error – the power of apologising.
Say “I love you” – toughen up and get soft.
It IS all about you, a little – it’s got to be about you, too.
You can definitely criticise your competitors – write great copy by refusing to be That Guy.
You don’t have to be an expert – how to write before the doctorate arrives.
Change the goddamned world – any website can change the world.
We’re not all the same – how subtle cultural differences can have huge consequences.
The Vital Questions
Seven super-duper-effective questions to answer before you start (or refresh) your website:
Vital Question #1: Who is your customer? – the base requirements of your customers and a simple persona constructor
Vital Question #2: What does your customer want? – now you’ve figured out who to attract, start figuring out what would attract them!
Vital Question #3: What problem do you solve? – benefits, how not to be invisible, and problems in disguise.
Vital question #4: Why are you better? – how to be the one people turn to when they need a rubber walrus polisher.
Vital question #5: How are you different? – being delightfully different in ways that have nothing to do with your benefits
Vital question #6: What is your website for? – why are you spending all this time and money and how do you meet your goals?
Vital question #7: What is your website budget? – how much time, money and commitment do you have to spend?
Kick your mind in the butt
Choose the fun work – where I give you permission to only do the website building tasks you enjoy.
Define your mission – money isn’t a great motivator. Time to focus on stuff that is!
Do the icky stuff – time to stop putting off one much-avoided task. You’ll feel much better when it’s done.
Ask for advice – what to do when you can’t decide.
Methods are magical feathers – Systems are Dumbo’s magical feather. With the same flaws and benefits.
Reviews and recommendations
Review: Made to Stick – Catherine thinks this is a must-read book and in this video review she explains why.