A new website? Why?
Life is interesting. I recently lost a job of 6 years with a large corporation and tried my hand at the employment market. I managed to confirm a few things that I assumed were the case. Human resources and tech companies (especially startups) want to hire the best quality people they can for the least amount of money possible. So I am at a bit of a disadvantage being in the mid to later portion of my career looking for a more senior job that doesn’t exist in large quantities in my local market. I had some hits, but nothing stuck.
I approached several of my partner/clients about ramping up their activities and increasing their projects and related goals not really expecting that much would take off and I was pleasantly surprised by their interest and ambition. So now it seems that the next chapter of my professional life will be some independent, self-employed consulting. I’m a gun for hire!
So long story short, that’s why I am (re?-)launching my JPC website.
Building the website
I used the classic toolkit to put the website together. WordPress and some lovely themes from the ThemeForest marketplace (tracked down some reviews for good themes that have decent Google Pagespeed metrics). Also worked in Illustrator and Photoshop to refine my initial launch imagery. Connected Google Analytics of course and am in the process of spinning up some Social Media corporate pages for the JPC brand as well. Basically in the process of running with all the stuff I typically use to launch and build client brands. End to end took me probably 3 weeks of time, but maybe 17-20 hours of concerted effort.
A Well-Maintained Blog
That is the dream anyway. Blogs take time and effort to commit to, but I figure if it is good enough for my clients and partners to force them to work creating this content and building their organic visits via relevant keywords and content analysis then it should be good enough for me too.
Blogs vs Linkedin vs Medium
I think LinkedIn’s recent ramp-up in quality and adoption has been nothing but remarkable. A couple years ago LinkedIn was almost the “joke” of the social media networks. Now it is enjoying a whole new resurgence of relevance and so many thought leaders are using it as a place to share and magnify their influence. So I believe that LinkedIn is VERY relevant, but I also believe in keeping some of that content on properties that you own as opposed to serving LinkedIn in growing their market share. As with everything, I think it is worthwhile testing each platform and seeing what the results are
Takeaways for Web Entrepreneurs Launching Sites
I will share a few nuggets of what I consider wisdom:
- Launch Something! – don’t get caught up working on a monolithic website in drydock for weeks and weeks (months!) – get something out and start with that. It will never be “great enough” – so start with something
- Shop around for tools – there are so many options nowadays – you can save a lot of money on SEO, graphics tools, SEM, advertising management etc – Don’t just go with the classic, trusted and true platforms – manage your cash flow!
- Use SSL & caching & CDN – and test like crazy using Google Pagespeed and GTMetrix
- Get others to proofread your content for you – a little quality assurance goes a long way
- Seek out professional photographers for headshots – just because everyone has a great camera in their pocket doesn’t mean their photos are worth anything at all
Stay tuned for more content coming your way.
