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Launching Some Ugly Sites
November 15, 2005
I'm posting about this more for myself than anything, although I'd definitely be interested to hear if anyone else ever goes through this dilemma, and what you do about it.
I have a handful of sites that I've been itching to put online for the past six weeks now. One of them is absolutely lovely, so it's a no-brainer. More a matter of time than anything else. A couple of them have professionally designed headers and while I haven't been able to get the templates exactly the way I'd like, still, they look okay.
Then I've got a handful of ugly ones. Ironically, these are going to be my "big" sites. Maybe not so ironic - I want to hand these over to a designer for a professional look, which is why they're ugly right now. Very little work has been done on them.
It's these ugly ones that I simply HAVE to get online. The sooner I can get them up, and indexed, the sooner things will happen. These sites are all blogs, so once I get them up it means I can start posting to them. Get them indexed, and keep growing them. And then I can start thinking about getting them designed right.
My problem is, it simply hurts to put these templates online. Logically, knowing how busy the designers I use are, I'm not going to be able to get the designs for them until the new year. Logically, getting them up now, and spidered, and indexed, and filled with content is the best thing to do.
As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, it's been about six weeks now. I know I'm dragging my heels on these sites because they simply don't look that great. They're ugly!
I'm going to try to get at least one online this weekend. I'll report back here to let you all know whether I actually do it or not.
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Posted by BJ at 11:20 PM in Niche Marketing, Website Design | Permalink
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Comments
This is something I sort of struggle with too. Should I buy a domain name, install Wordpress, and have a blog sit there for months with a generic template, or do I simply wait until I have the time to do it all right?
In the meantime, I don't write the content because I don't have the website.
Posted by: Jacob | Nov 16, 2005 8:16:06 AM
You are not alone BJ.
I have the same problem myself when launching a new site...I actually have 3 sites sitting in queue (my NaNoWriMo site is one) that I simply won't do anything with until it has a nice design surrounding it.
I've actually developed a pretty decent system for that problem. I find I generally have more time to write content than design on some days, so I have about 5 notebooks (I prefer to write in the traditional sense) for each of my important websites and one for my general articles.
In my downtime, I'll take a few minutes here and there to jot down a thought or a whole article and then when I have time, I'll work on the design for the site.
It may seem wacky to some people and even a bit disorganized, but it works for me...and I don't feel guilty about putting off the content and blaming it on the site not being online...the content *is* getting done and sometimes I'll just post it in draft mode if I'm using blogging software. :)
Posted by: Teli | Nov 16, 2005 10:15:46 AM
"In the meantime, I don't write the content because I don't have the website." Jacob, this is it exactly for me! It's all that "in the meantime" stuff - I'm a pretty fast writer, and I do have bits of time during the day where it would be quite easy to post a few things, if there was somewhere to post those things to.
Teli, don't you find that things start building up if you don't have your site already online, ready to receive the content? That would be my problem - I already have more than enough content lying around, and I find if I don't have somewhere to put it all, it just builds and builds until it feels insurmountable to actually get all of my stuff online.
Posted by: BJ | Nov 16, 2005 11:24:05 AM
Good topic. Chicken or Egg? I fall into this same trap often. What I'm working on is a "simple" template that doesn't look bad, is pretty simple but still unique to me. I'll use this template to launch the site and as I add content and see how the site actually performs I'll revisit it design wise. There is a certain amount of effort I'm willing to put into a site and if it doesn't have a certain amount of return then I write if off.
New sites also tend to suffer in silence. Despite the best design and content, the site lanquishes unfound in the SERP's, so your pretty much talking to yourself anyway, so I wouldn't worry so much about people finding you walking around naked, so to speak ;)
I try to follow a simple philosophy, and I have the logo for it taped to my monitor to remind me "Just Do It". Nike couldn't be more right!
Posted by: chrispian | Nov 16, 2005 3:08:13 PM
Hi BJ,
Have you checked out "ready" made templates?
For example, www.boxedart.com or if you are using word press, some of the wordPress ready made templates?
Terry
Posted by: Terry | Nov 16, 2005 3:20:47 PM
I haven't actually been working on a set of templates that will do for an initial launch - that's a good idea, Chris. What I have done, however, is developed certain headers that are font-based, so that I can re-use them within the same site for individual niche sites(I've got a bunch of "big" sites I want to develop). Fixing up a one-size-fits-all (at least to begin with) type of template is a good idea.
Terry, thanks so much for reminding me about the pre-made Wordpress templates. You know, I'd forgotten about them. They're not a bad solution, while I'm waiting to get a site professionally designed.
Posted by: BJ | Nov 16, 2005 3:30:32 PM
