Here are 6 major things I learned during my large-scale website redesign process.
1. It’s important for me to have the right person managing the tech side of website design.
Because I’m incorporating a TRIBE membership into my website this time around, I needed a person with experience managing all the pieces that go into that.
Jacquie at White Space Design is doing a great job for me, even though I’m in Minnesota and she’s in Australia.
2. It helps me to look at other people’s websites to get inspiration.
My favorite inspiration came from MichaelHyatt.com and StartAWildfire.com.
What I noticed on each of these sites was simplicity, clarity, and carefully placed calls to action.
3. It helps me to think of a website as a series of boxes stacked on top of each other.
The top box is most important. It needs to immediately answer the question every website visitor will be asking: “What life change am I going to get—if I stay on this site for 9 seconds?”
This is funny when I think of it—but it’s true!
My top box will say, “Set your kids up to graduate college debt-free and move directly into careers they excel at and love. (Even if they don’t get a single scholarship.)”
I already know—this is an empowerment promise that parents love.
4. For me, the first step on website redesign starts with pencil and paper.
I start by sketching out what I want each website “box” to look like, using a separate 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper for designing each box. This gives me lots of room to write, draw, erase, reconsider, and write again.
(You can see how I sweated over just the revamp of the speaking box alone, here.)
As I do all this, I give careful thought to what I want my viewer’s experience to be as they visit my website.
I want each visitor to immediately know, “Here’s the exciting destination Jeannie takes me to. This is why she’s qualified to be my guide. Here’s my first easy step in getting to her exciting destination, and here’s my second easy step. Here’s what else Jeannie does for me when the need arises.”
5. I take photos of my 8 1/2 x 11 sketches, and I email the photos to my tech person.
She builds what I’m asking for, puts her own professional touches on it, and then invites me to preview it.
6. I comb through what she’s showing me, making clear notes about changes in one or two very long emails.
This time, creating the change notes took me two days!
I’m incredibly excited about this new version of my website!
You can be among the first to see my entire new website when it rolls out by subscribing to my free weekly email newsletter now.
Got kids? You need clear, step-by-step help with the whole debt-free college process from beginning to end.
It takes only 7 hours to read my book:
You can see more than 85 reviews of the book on Amazon by going to:
(Tell your friends.)
You can see why financial planners and wealth managers love LAUNCH, here.
You can see the top 9 questions parents are asking me about LAUNCH, here.
Read just one chapter of LAUNCH every 1–3 months while your child’s in middle school and high school, and you’ll know every viable strategy for debt-free college at exactly the right time to implement it.
And if your child’s already well past middle school? That’s OK; you can run to catch up. But the process of getting your kids through college debt-free goes more smoothly the earlier you start it—especially if you’re not planning to save up any money to pay for college.
What about you? What are your thoughts and feelings about website design?
Comment below or LIKE Jeannie Burlowski Author on Facebook, find this post on that page, and let’s talk about it there.
Who is Jeannie Burlowski?
Jeannie is a full-time academic strategist, author, speaker, and podcast host. Her writing, speaking, and podcasting help parents set their kids up to graduate college debt-free and move directly into careers they excel at and love. Her work has been featured in publications such as The Huffington Post, USA Today, NerdWallet, and US News and World Report, and on CBS News.
Jeannie also helps students apply to law, medical, business, and grad school at her website GetIntoMedSchool.com. You can follow her on Twitter @JBurlowski.