Who is the Awesome Website Manifesto for?

It’s for everyone who has been thinking and talking and planning about starting an awesome website but hasn’t gotten started yet. Or has sorta-kinda started but doesn’t feel like they’ve gotten anywhere.

What is it about?

It’s a very short and simple guide on how to focus on the important stuff in your website.

It’s in PDF format. If you don’t have the Adobe Acrobat reader, you can download Adobe Acrobat for free. (It’s a very useful program to have, because PDFs are one of the few document formats that can be read no matter what kind of computer you’re using.)

How much does it cost?

It’s free; you don’t need to enter an email address (although if you want to keep receiving useful advice, we’d love to see you sign up on the homepage!)

What the heck is a manifesto, anyway?

A manifesto is a statement about how you want to change the world.

First there was the Cluetrain Manifesto. And Chris Guillebeau, not to be outdone, created TWO manifestos: A Brief Guide to World Domination and 279 Days to Overnight Success. Pam Slim’s book on Escape from Cubicle Nation is a manifesto. Dave Navarro from Rock Your Day and The Launch Coach has his More Time Now manifesto. Everyone I admire seems to have one of the dang things. (Those ones are all great, by the way. You should read them. But read this one first!)

So when Jonathan Fields (of the Fire Fly Manifesto, among other things) wrote about creating a valuable resource to start more conversations about the stuff we really care about… what else could we call it?

Is it any good?

See what people have said about it…

You’ve hit the feelings exactly, and you have loving, yet movement-provoking, solutions to them. – Birdy

CC, you’ve done an awesome job, not surprisingly … a manifesto full of info, personality, and joy in what you do.

Here’s the part of the content that I loved the best — that you put the horse before the cart where it belongs and said, hey, folks, figure out what you’re going to say, and THEN think about the tech part. How did you know that I haven’t written my stuff yet because I have spent so freaking much time messing about with trying out 17 themes and learning a little php and checking out the newest WP plug-ins and staring at the font porn at Typekit (maybe I like fonts more than some do, but there are people there crazier than me!)

Thank you, Catherine, for pointing the finger straight at me. Do you mind reminding me twice daily? – Sandy

I’m inspired & I *know* how to create my own websites – Alexia

Wow, Catherine! I’m SO inspired by this!!

What I LOVE here is that you wrote it directly TO the people you’re reaching out to and it has such a lovely conversational and “there, there, we understand” kind of tone to it. It’s incredibly inviting and compelling. Thanks for the inspiration! – Susan

Seriously, was so inspired by your wonderful piece that I ended up realizing that’s how I wanted my e-book on “The Five A’s & One R Path to Abundance” to go. Btw, love the ‘lather/rinse/repeat’ way of describing it. It really helped today, when Mike & I were starting to spend way too much time finding the ‘perfect’ theme. It made it so much easier to choose, knowing that if we really don’t like it… we can change it! - Birdy and Mike

Seriously, I love this. I always think Manifestos have to be this big document of self proclaimed righteousness…but yours is so COOL. Now I want to go make one. Srsly. – Sherice

Great work, Catherine, I’m so impressed! Not only did you actually do it, (major success right there!) it’s also very cool content, both inspiring and calming, and not only that, the design is clean, quirky and fun. Way to go! – Kathleen

I’m loving the Manifesto on several levels. Because it’s pretty and really good fun. And Lego is awesome. But mostly I’m loving that you’re not lecturing me on what I need to do or overwhelming me with with more stuff to worry about. You’re kicking my ass and inspiring me. People aren’t going to come back for doom and gloom and pressure and worry, but they will come back for this. Congratulations! – Frances

The Awesome Website Manifesto

Right-click on the picture and have a read!

If you get value from this manifesto, please help us to share it around. You can:

• Email the link to this page
• Mention it on Twitter or Facebook
• Send the PDF to your friends
• Tell us about it! There’s an open conversation here for people to discuss the manifesto, anything that’s blocking them from starting, and whatever else they want to talk about! We’d love to hear from you.