Are you a fan of cheesecake, apple pie or chocolate chip cookies? My mouth waters just thinking about them. But I’ve had bad desserts. Maybe the baker wasn’t really a master of his trade or the ingredients were not entered in the right quantity, or maybe the process wasn’t followed quite right. If you’ve ever substituted baking powder for baking soda or vice versa you’ll know exactly what I mean. Yuck!
The reason I’m catering to your taste buds is because I often use baking a cake as an analogy for building a website. Ingredients, process and human interaction all work together to create the finished product and a flaw in any one can dramatically affect the outcome. Let me explain.
The ingredients are the most important part of a website and that’s where you come in. It’s your business and you know it best. Who is more suited to provide the content than you? Who knows your customers better than you do? No one. But one of the most common errors made is relying on your web designer to provide the content of your website for you. The second most common mistake is not providing enough information.
Don’t underestimate your knowledge. We all go through our daily routines never thinking twice about things we do on a regular basis. But would you ask a random person to fulfill your daily tasks with just a handful of information? No way!
It’s the same when asking your web designer to fill in the blanks of your website. You know your products or services best. You know your customers and competition. So dig deep, access those important reservoirs of knowledge that only you know and put them in words. There is no limit to how much information you can share on the internet. The more information (ingredients), the more cake. And everyone loves cake!
So now you have some quality ingredients. The economy is tough and everyone is looking to save money by doing things themselves. Now, I know my way around the kitchen to a point but I also know that there are others that are much more adept and can accomplish tasks faster and more efficiently in this arena. If I was trying to impress others I would call on my mom. She’s definitely a master at baking.
The same holds true in our website analogy. Your purpose is to impress others enough to buy your products or services. With the right ingredients a web master can create something that will do just that and he/she can likely do it much faster and with better results.
That’s not to say you can’t be of any more assistance. Learning about the process can help everyone involved. I hope to share some of those things in my next article. Stay tuned.
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