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Brick No128: Confessions of an amateur web designer
By Matt Weston, Tuesday 25 January 2005 Jeremy Freeman sent this over on Friday, the first of several such emails about the new Business Bricks website: " Matt, the site is really done well and all credit to Mint Digital - good decent web standards. There is no way amateurs would be able to create a site like that themselves. I'm referring to Brick Nos 86 & 87! :)" The links, for posterity . . . Brick No86: A reader asks, "Who codes the BB website?" I reply, "Me." http://businessbricks.co.uk/brick86.shtml And Brick No87: Web Designers come out in force against my amateurish ways. If you can't spare the time to reread the Bricks, the newly "Minted" orange, red and white Business Bricks site is Mk3. Mk1 and Mk2 were made-at-home by yours truly, a self-confessed amateur, a self-taught DIY web designer. Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien. Just to be clear, I never said everyone should pick up a copy of Dreamweaver MX, sack the webby, and code HTML. The example of website design was specific to me, but the underlying point applies to all small business owners. Why I did it myself Jeremy is perfectly right. I, an amateur, couldn't have created a site like the one Mint Digital created for me. But if it hadn't been for the Mk1 and Mk2 prototypes, I know we, together, couldn't have created Mk3. As I explained in Brick No86, I taught myself pidgin-HTML in a few weeks, enough to build a simple, if Day-Glo site. It didn't win any design awards, but after much testing, tuning, and tweaking, it worked very well. Between Mk1 and Mk2 (an evolution not a revolution) I tripled the percentage of visitors who signed up to Business Bricks. If you get your hands dirty, you learn. In this case, the DIY approach was about bootstrapping, not tightfistedness. Bootstrapping means only doing things that pay for themselves. Tightfistedness means always taking the cheapest option. There is a real difference. Business Bricks Mk1 paid for itself, as did Mk2. When the time came to sit down with Mint Digital, we sat on the same side of the table. (You'll have to excuse the consultant speak. I'll be wearing baseball caps indoors next.) If I'd spoken to webbys pre-Mk1, the conversation would have been as in-depth as a script for Footballers' Wives. I wouldn't have understood what worked, and what didn't. I wouldn't have brought anything to the table. Bric-A-Brac A chance to tie up more than a few loose ends: (1) I take "amateur" as a compliment. This, by think-tank Demos, might explain why. (2) Desperately Seeking Feedback. Andy and Noam (of Mint Digital fame) would like to know what you think of the new Business Bricks site. You can post feedback by visiting the Mint Digital site and clicking the "Welcome Brickies!" link in the bottom right corner. (3) The Brickies Directory. If you're a Brickie, keep an eye out for another email from me later today. It tells you how to submit your entry in the directory. If you're not, why not? (4) Copy and paste fingers and thumbs. I gave you the wrong email address for Jay Nicklin of TrackSnack in last Tuesday's Brick The right address is jay@jackbrand.co.uk not .com. (5) And again. The heat of the site launch must have got the better of me on Friday. I gave you the wrong URL for the Reader Classifieds. If you want to book an ad, use this link. (6) Another book on referrals. Kate Whyman recommends "Get More Referrals Now!" by Bill Cates (yep, with a "C"). BC says you should build most of your business from referrals. Read all about it. Remember to sign up: back to top |
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