photo by Chris Link
When Abby and I first started talking about ideas for serving craft industry professionals, we were kicking around the idea of a newsletter, a blog and maybe a conference down the road. We thought, no problem–we can set up WordPress and open a new Mailchimp account, and we’d be set (until we were ready to tackle the conference.) The more we talked to each other as well as friends and colleagues, however, the more complex the whole concept of the website became. We determined we needed:
- To be able to sign people up as members
- A blog that is available to everyone
- A journal that is only available to members
- Groups that are only available to members
- Forums that are available to members
- Forums that are available to non-members
- A directory of all our members
- A directory of all our members’ businesses
- Webinars
- A newsletter that goes to both members and non-members
To two bloggers who only have learn-as-you-go technical knowledge, it was a bit intimidating. We started looking at some site development companies and even got one estimate to build what we wanted–it was pricey! But that’s not the only thing that scared us away.
I’ve had my website built by professionals three times. Each time there were good things about it and I was, for the most part, happy with the end result. But the thing that has always been the most disappointing is that I am forever dependent on the developers. Little fixes, big fixes, understanding what each plugin does, wanting to make changes or add features, but not knowing how–it’s all frustrating. And understandably, after a developer has finished your site, they are busy with new projects. They don’t have a lot of time to do fixes or updates–it’s just not how they earn their living and I completely get that. As a site owner, however, it can leave you feeling vulnerable and beholden.
We know that the CIA website is going to have to change and grow with our organization–probably a little all the time and maybe a lot over the next couple of years. In order to have a better understanding and more control of the site, we decided to do as much as we could ourselves, and get help where we needed it.
What we did ourselves:
- Chose plugins/software: The first thing we did was select a membership software. We looked at over a dozen options and chose the one that best met our needs. We also researched and selected options for forums and groups. All of these are WordPress compatible because it is a platform with which we were both familiar.
- Chose a WordPress theme: We wanted to pick a theme with an overall look that we liked, that was easily customizable, and compatible with all our plugins. We selected the Divi theme by Elegant Themes because it had great reviews and a reputation for good customer service.
- Mapped out all the menus and pages.
- Wrote all the content and set up the forums.
- Set up all the plugins: Connecting the plugins with our Mailchimp list, setting up payment methods, choosing which features we’d need, determining how we wanted things to display, etc.–this is where you really get to know how things work!
- Took crafty photos: We created a library of a few dozen craft supply images that we can use on the main pages, as well a the journal covers.
What we hired other people to do:
- Plugin integration: The membership software we chose didn’t automatically work with the groups plugin we wanted to use, so we hired a developer to write yet another plugin to integrate them at the sign-up stage. He also expanded our member profiles to include business information, which is displayed in the Businesses directory.
- Website design: Lindsie Bergevin worked on the site colors, fonts, and page layout. She also customized some of the functionality of the plugins and the site theme. (Basically if a css or php file needed to be edited, we sent it to Lindsie.)
- Graphics: Nicole Stevenson produced all our hand-drawn graphics.
- Terms of Service: Our lawyer, Josh Barrett, wrote our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
All in all, we are very happy with the look and functionality of the site. The biggest downside is that it took ages longer than we anticipated, but I think the payoff of having a deep understanding of the way everything works makes it all worth it.
What about you? Have you built your own site or hired someone to do it? Good or bad experiences or words of warning?
I am so impressed with everything you’ve done on here! Setting up your own website can be rather stressful, but not only does it save money, but you also have a much better idea of how your site actually works! So later on when you want to change something, usually aesthetically, you know exactly what you need to adjust or look for in a new theme for example.
I am so impressed. I hit the wall when I even think about website and design, I don think that it’s in my make up to do it! But you ladies took on the challenge! I appreciate all of those extra long hours that you invested while doing it yourselves. Thanks again!
I’m struggling with this right now. I don’t know that I can afford to hire someone but the learning curve to do it myself is so steep it overwhelms me. My site is under construction, I need to make a decision soon!
Thanks so much for sharing your process with us, ladies! There are always so many different components to websites (way more than we anticipate!) that it can be so overwhelming, and it was really helpful to read about how you went about designing and developing it. I think it was definitely worth the wait – it looks terrific!
The website is so impressive, even more so now I know you did the majority of it yourselves.
Like many I started on blogger and then migrated to WP, I hired someone to do the migration and then a subsequent upgrade after that. I could have done it myself, but the time was the killer for me. I took the view that if problems came up (and little ones have) then I would research and learn that thing when it happened (just-in-time learning, rather than just-in-case learning). That way I’ve not spent time learning things that I may never use anyway.
That said, I think it’s fantastic all the the things you’ve learnt to do putting this site together. If someone said I need to put in a member’s only area in my site I would run screaming to my web designer!
I went to school for New Media Design and have had about 10 websites at this point. I’ve done everything from hard coding from scratch, paying good $$ for a solid WordPress backend, buying a cheaper WordPress backend, using Dreamweaver to code out and finally, Squarespace.
I feel like I’ve found the best of both worlds, Finally. I need to have control over a lot of things and since I’m educated in it, have a lot of needs when it comes to the interface of a website. However, I’m sick of the whole process of coding and I’m sick of building from scratch. It’s frankly a waste of my time. When we did Page + Pixel’s site, I decided to let go of a lot of things and to instead focus on content. So far, I’m very happy with that choice – so happy that I decided to re-do my personal photography website as well using Squarespace.
After all that, I’m happy to actually be using a backend that will be updated and kept for me, but that I can do lots of tweaking to.
I will NEVER hard code a site again. NEVER. I swear I have nightmares about making thumbnail images and renaming files…:)
The site looks good ladies. As long as the upkeep won’t be bothersome, there are benefits to doing it yourself. My biggest suggestion is to have a plan for scaling, so that you don’t catch yourself in trouble during times of large growth.
I started out learning on my own using WordPress. When I wanted an overhaul I saved and had someone make the changes I wanted. I feel as though I could have done much of it myself if I had the time, but it wasn’t where I wanted to spend my time.
I have mixed feelings about outsourcing. For the most part, I like the changes but it’s not 100% what I expected/wanted and now I feel trapped for the little things. I don’t plan to make any major changes soon, but most likely I will look at taking more control in the future.
I “made”/struggled though my first website but it was a struggle. I would avoid updating because it took so long to work out where I was up to, and relearn the process again.
So I outsourced a new website, and I love it. But it’s coded so I can’t update it myself and it costs every time I want to update. So am now thinking it needs to be redone again so I can update it myself.
Major pain.