Join me there for more in the series “Websites that Work: Your Step-by-Step Design Guide to Bring Your Passion to Pages that Move People.” You’ll see the site go from plain to powerful and learn the step-by-step process to do it yourself.

You can reach more people and attract more money. I’ll show you how. Go to Heart of the Matter Design for more information and to take part.

Thanks for reading the Inspired Raw Design blog. I look forward to bringing you even more high impact information on how to get the best web design at my new site.

Best,
Caryn

Who’s Your Heart’s Desire?

No, not your dream date. Rather, the type of person you’d most like to work with. This could be your ideal client, the most important target for your nonprofit program or that dream funder. The purpose of defining your Heart’s Desire is so that your website speaks directly to her or him (I’ll use “her” going forward) and provides appealing information, features and visuals.

That helps you make the connection that starts a relationship. The better you address your Heart’s Desire’s needs, wants and wishes, the more enthusiastic she’ll be about taking action with you.

Not Everyone is Your Type

It can be hard to define your Heart’s Desire if you’re worried your excluding people. Don’t you want everyone to make the positive change you’re advocating, buy from your business or fund your nonprofit?

It isn’t likely to happen anyway. You may have heard the saying that you can’t be all things to all people. Guerilla marketing expert Jay Conrad Levinson says that defining who you’re going to reach out to means you’ll be “saying something to somebody instead of saying nothing to everybody.”

Make it Personal

Write about one person. That will help you understand and empathize with her more. You may need to write several Heart’s Desire profiles and then see what’s common and different across them.

Nonprofit pros, you’ll likely want profiles for the people you’re trying to reach with key programs, for funders and maybe even volunteers. You might need different profiles for a few key services or programs you offer if they serve very different people. Businesses may want more than one as well. If you’re a life coach for teens, for example, you’d have a profile for the teen and one for a parent.

You’ll look at what’s common across the profiles to help develop the shared areas of your website and then use the differences to really hone pages that speak to just one audience. And the good news is that defining your Heart’s Desire will strengthen the impact of all your communications and even your programs and services.

The point is to craft a story about people in a way that brings them to life for you… so you can bring your writing and site design to life for them. You might consider doing visualization, looking at photos, drawing or other creative means. If you’re part of an organization, who else might join you in this activity?

What to Include

Describe your Heart’s Desire across the areas below. Think through all the questions. If you get stuck on any question, come back to it or skip it.

1. Demographics

• Female / male
• Age
• Education
• Income
• Family status (partnered? kids?)
• Geographic location
• Type of work (including stay at home Mom)

2. Attitudes

How does this person view the world? What does she think is most important in life? What makes her happy? What worries her?

3. Day in the life

What does a typical day look like for this person? How much time does she spend working? What happens at home? In the office? What hobbies might she have?

4. Relative to what you’re doing

Where is your Heart’s Desire on the behavior you’re trying to motivate? This is potentially a very powerful way to think about your outreach. It’s usually easier to attract someone who’s already very interested in what you do vs. someone who’s not even thinking of it.

Example

I’ve volunteered to staff tables for vegetarian advocacy groups at health fairs and outside the museums in Washington, D.C. What a difference! At the health fairs, I had many people eager to ask questions and take the vegetarian starter kits. By the museums, there was much less interest and even some hostile response. If I only had a limited number of hours to spend, where was I likely to have more impact? So a Heart’s Desire characteristic for veg advocacy may be someone health-oriented who wants to make the change and needs help on how.

No person or organization has unlimited time or money. So as you develop your Heart’s Desire, think about who’s most likely to engage with you.

5. Web usage

How much does this person use the web? What for? Does she or he surf, seek community via forums or just search out very specific things? Is this a Facebook / Twitter user or not? Does she use the web at home or in an office? How fast is her connection?

Take Action

This activity is a crucial part of developing a high impact website. It’s not easy, but it can be fun.

Allow yourself time to draft and revisit. If you have someone who can review your Heart’s Desire and give you feedback, that’s best. And if you get writer’s block easily or are just having trouble getting started, a neat site called Write or Die will flash lights and make sounds to urge you to move along.

Want to see a complete example? The next entry in this series will share my Heart’s Desire for Heart of the Matter Design. Please join me there for more to-the-point information on designing websites that work.

The Inspired Raw Design is becoming Heart of the Matter Design.  I’ll cross-post the next entry here, but then you’ll need to read or subscribe at the new site. (Apparently search engines penalize you for posting identical content in multiple places.)

You’ll get the high impact information you expect at Heart of the Matter Design, but with a new focus on the straight scoop on creating effective web sites that help you reach more people and attract more money.

This article is the first in my new free series where you can follow the transition between the two sites and learn how to design your own powerful site.

Welcome to Websites that Work: Your Step-by-Step Design Guide to Bring Your Passion to Pages that Move People. Over the next 6 weeks, you’ll get step-by-step help to (re)design your website for success. And you’ll see Heart of the Matter Design go from a plain Jane to something wonderful.

If you’ve read my free ebook How to Avoid Costly Design Mistakes: 10 Questions You Must Answer BEFORE You Get Creative, you may remember the story of the bank board of directors that wanted a website up right away, even with just the bank’s logo. They didn’t get that it takes a lot more to have a website produce any results. (If you don’t have a site and you’ve just got to put up something… you can check out these “Coming Soon” page design examples.)

So what does it take? It takes a thoughtful process. Here are the steps we’ll cover.

1. Strategy – determine which people you’re trying to reach and why they’ll engage with you
2. Site objectives – identify what people want from your site and what you want it to do
3. Story – define the key message you’re trying to communicate
4. Survey – validate your assumptions before you build
5. System – decide what platform will be used to build the site
6. Search engines – optimize your site so that people are more likely to find it
7. Structure – organize the site so it’s easy to use
8. Substance – create the written and functional content
9. Style – choose layout, images, colors and fonts
10. Screening – test the site

“Style”, which people often think of as web design, is step 9! That’s because it’s only a small part of  a site that gets results. You can end up with a stunning site that doesn’t move people or to bring in money. And that can happen whether you do it yourself, get free or low cost help or even spend thousands of dollars.

We’ll spend more time on some steps than others. For example, this isn’t a technical how-to, so I’ll touch on the system issue briefly. Strategy is the crucial foundation for everything you do, so we’ll invest time to help you get what you need to support the rest of the process… and your success.

Step 1 – Strategy

What does “strategy” mean? I looked at some formal definitions that were clunky, so here’s what to remember.

Strategy involves looking within and beyond yourself to choose a path for success and then lining up what you do to make it happen.

We’ll use these activities help you set your strategy:

• Define your “Heart’s Desire” (which people you’d like to engage as clients, programs participants, funders, etc.)
• Describe how you take them from heartache to happiness
• Understand their alternatives
• Determine what’s going to make them come to you

To design an effective website, you need to be clear on what you do – services, programs, etc. The strategy work can help if you’re still resolving this question. Even if you’re well established, the process may help you adjust what you’re doing.

Action Step – Get the Most out of this Series

This process can have profound impact for your website and what you do. Of course, like any information, it’s only as good as the action you take. So to get the best results:

• Schedule. You’ll get three to five posts each week. When will you read them and complete the activities? The amount of time you’ll want varies, so you might read each one and then mark your calendar for follow-up.
• Take your time. Don’t feel you need to rush to follow the pace of the posts. If you want several weeks on the strategy section, do that. It will pay off many times over with a more effective site. This is especially important to if you’re starting the series after it’s started.
• Buddy up. It’s very helpful to get fresh perspective. Work with someone in your organization (if you’re part of one) or any colleague or friend. You might even invite someone to improve her or his website by going through the process with you.
• Participate. Leave a comment to share your thoughts and ask questions if you’re unsure about anything we’re doing.
• Save the Materials. You’ll likely want to refer back to much of what we’re covering. At some point after March 1st I’ll be removing the series, so why not print it out as we go?

Tomorrow: Define Your Heart’s Desire (part 1)

I’ll post tomorrow’s entry here as as well, so you can get more of a flavor for the series. Then I hope you’ll join me at Heart of the Matter Design.

You’re doing something that really matters in the world. To have more impact, you need to reach more people. And you need more money, both to sustain what you do and to do more of it.

So do you have a website that powerfully supports what matters? Whether you have a site that’s underperforming or you’re looking to build, you can. Your site can help you move people to action to create positive change in their lives and for the world. And it can help move your finances from sparse to solid to super.

Learn Effective Web Design and See a Site Done from Scratch – for FRE*E
Now you can understand and implement a step-by-step web design process that gets results. You’ll follow along from the all-important foundation of strategy through critical considerations such as story, site objectives, structure and more. Then you’ll get into style: the color, fonts and images… where many people – including designers – mistakenly start their efforts.

You’ll see how the process works from beginning to end as you watch the new Heart of the Matter Design site created from (almost) nothing. You’ll get ideas and tips for how to use the process to design your own compelling website. Think of how much easier it will be to put the steps to work when you can look at what someone else has done.

You could pay hundreds or even more than a thousand dollars for this kind of how-to help. And it would be easily worth it because of the impact it can have for you and your business or nonprofit.

But now you can get it for FRE*E with the new online series: Websites that Work: Your Step-by-Step Design Guide to Bring Your Passion to Pages that Move People

Go to http://www.HeartoftheMatterDesign.com now to see the (very boring) starting site and subscribe to the series posts, if you’d like. Get answers to questions you may have in the “About the Series” section there or read on here.

• The information will speak directly to inspired professionals in businesses and nonprofits that help people make positive changes.
• The series is geared to people and organizations that work primarily through services, programs, information and / or advocacy. It doesn’t matter if your actual work is primarily in-person vs. online.

If this doesn’t sound like you, you’re welcome to check out the series anyway. Most of the information will apply. But you won’t see specific discussion of considerations for e-commerce, entertainment sites, policy reform, etc.

But there are many heart-centered business professionals who are truly on a mission to help others, just as nonprofits have missions. And nonprofit leaders need to bring in funding to sustain and grow their organizations and their activities, as well as receive an income, just like businesses do. Plus many nonprofits offer fee-based programs and services that don’t look very different from what businesses offer.

Most of the information in this series applies across the board and where that’s not the case, you’ll see distinctions spelled out. Sometimes businesses and nonprofits use different language, so there may be a little translation back and forth. Because the series is about design, it won’t get into operational elements like shopping carts or membership databases where needs would likely diverge significantly.

• You can be creating a new site, expanding your blog or revisiting an existing site. You may be in the process now, starting shortly or even looking ahead to begin the work in a few months.
• You may be planning to do everything yourself or to work with a designer and / or programmer.
• The focus is on designing the site rather than building it, so it doesn’t matter what type of programming you’ll use.

The posts break down the process into chunks that you can more easily digest and implement. You’ll see the steps in the process, results for Heart of the Matter Design and tips to do it yourself. You’ll also watch the site evolve from its current uninviting design to something wonderful.

How long does this run? How long does it take to design a website?
The initial post will launch on Thursday, January 14th, but you can join at any time while the series runs. The information probably won’t stay up long after the series ends, however. It will be used to develop paid programs later this year. So if you want to learn this process for free, act now.

The goal is to have this site to a first phase for testing in about four to six weeks, so figure some time the second half of February. That’s actually aggressive, but there’s been some advance prep.

Take whatever time you need to get it right. That’s going to vary a lot based on where you are in your planning, how complex your site is, how much time you have to devote to it, etc.

What’s the catch? Sign-up required?
This is absolutely a no-obligation program. All you need to do is visit http://www.HeartoftheMatterDesign.com to follow along. I recommend you subscribe to the posts, so that you receive new information automatically.

I’d love for you to share your feedback and questions on the design process and what you think about the site I’m developing. But that’s also totally optional.

Any “fine print”?
No hidden details, but a few points so you’ll have a better sense of what you should and shouldn’t expect:

• This series is a well-thought out action-oriented blog. It’s not a formal instructional program, so you won’t get fancy handouts or pages of detail. But I believe you will get what you need for a better site.
• I’ll share a little bit about how I got my new site started, especially regarding Wordpress, but this isn’t a technical how-to.
• I welcome questions about how the process works. And if you’ve got a question specific to your site design process that I can answer easily and that will help others, I’d love to address it. But I won’t be doing extensive research or providing custom consulting as part of this fre*e series.

Why are you doing this?
I know there are a lot of small to mid-size businesses and nonprofits that are on a tight budget, especially these days. So since I’m redesigning my website anyway, why not share the experience and help people who are doing good things? You’ll get what you need to design a site that works. And as I mentioned, your feedback on what we’re doing here will be a big help to me. Plus I think we can have a lot of fun together.

Join me as I redo / replace the Inspired Raw Design website. I’ve decided to blog on the process, so you can see how it works. Whether you’re doing your own site or planning to work with a designer, you’ll get an introduction to the step-by-step process it takes to create a Website that gets results.

I’ll post an invitation next week with more details. I’ll be using some of the information to create paid products and group programs later in the year, so don’t miss your opportunity to get the scoop for free now. The blog series will start next week and continue for 4-6 weeks.

What could be better than starting 2010 with a Website that does more to support what you care about?

The entire customer experience you deliver creates your brand. If an organization provides poor quality programs or products, for example, no amount of communications creativity or strategy is likely to overcome that. But your name, logo, Website and other communications play a critical role in supporting your brand. Making the right choices can set you apart and attract people to you and what you do. That lets you do more good in the world and prosper financially.Let’s take a look at an example and at the end of this post, I’ll tell you about a new FREE opportunity to follow along with me to learn more about the process and how you can do it.

Branding in Website Design – Case Study
Michelle Master has a gourmet raw desserts business. Her goal is not only to serve raw foodies looking for fabulous treats but also to invite people not following this way of eating to experience the sweet potential. In her entry to my Inspired Response Web Design Giveaway, she emphasized that these are premium products, offering every bit of indulgence you would find in traditional high-end desserts. So what’s the recipe for a suitably delicious site?

Begin with Customer Expectations
Michelle’s target clientele includes foodies who enjoy the good things in life, as well as the restaurants and grocers that serve them. These people perceive value in uniqueness and high quality, and they’re willing to invest to get them. So while meeting those expectations begins with the desserts themselves, the Website needs to reflect the superior taste and ingredients of Michelle’s culinary creations.

Benchmark Sites on Impressions
Any good Web design project includes looking at sites for similar organizations. But often businesses or nonprofits in the same field follow a similar approach. So looking outside your field based on the impression you want to create can yield some exciting results.

For Michelle, I developed the concept of “Couture Desserts.” The idea is that just as high fashion is viewed as special compared to off-the-rack clothing, so will Michelle’s desserts rank above the normal – raw or non-raw. In looking at fashion sites, I saw that they are usually fairly plain, so that visitors focus on the clothing. Neutral colors, clean lines and minimal ornamentation are the norm.

Communicate the Feeling
I created initial sample pages for Michelle’s site. For better viewing see the home page draft online and also click on “Restaurant Desserts” in the top menu. (Online you’ll see a rotating image of Michelle, which will likely be dropped.)

Note how the layout, fonts, color and text all work together to produce an upscale, indulgent feeling. The site looks different from most raw foods sites. And of course the emphasis is on the desserts. Are you getting hungry yet?

How Well is Your Site Branded?
Take a look at your site and review the points we’ve covered:

• How well does your site meet customer expectations? What are people looking for from you and does the site deliver?
• Have you reviewed sites within and beyond your field to see what impressions they create and how they do that? What can you learn?
• What feelings do your layout, colors, fonts and content inspire? The best way to find out is to ask some of your visitors.

So let me ask you some questions. As you look at the concept for Michelle’s site, what works best for you? What could be better? Please share your comments. Be sure to note whether you’d consider yourself someone who’d likely be interested in premium raw desserts, so we understand your perspective. By sharing your ideas you’ll not only help Michelle and me, but you’ll also learn more about how and why people respond to Website branding.

If you’re lucky enough to be in the New York City area, try Michelle’s desserts at the restaurant Wallse or contact her at cocogazelle@gmail.com to order direct. She recently created raw pumpkin cheesecake tarts and a birthday cake for Vanessa Barg of Gnosis Chocolate.

Want to Learn How to Create Your Own Winning Website?
Join me for a free step-by-step blog series as I transform the Inspired Raw Design site into something new. You’ll see how I move from strategy to content to design… and how you can too! More details coming shortly.

Wrapping up the blog year with a special greeting. Use the player if you’d like to hear me read the poem to you.

Click here to download…

Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanzaa, Eid, Winter Solstice, all of the above or none of the above, I hope you’ll enjoy this holiday greeting loosely based on the poem “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas”:

‘Twas the night before Christmas and across many lands
Inspired pros were winding down daily demands
The conference calls were over, the ezines were sent,
The blogs were all written, the budget was spent.

Though Know More Marketing often operates into the night,
For once even Sylvia was turning off the light.
And elsewhere, seen blowing out holiday candles,
Were the hardworking people behind Certified Humane Raised & Handled.

ASPCA’s dashboard team had crunched the last number
And just settled in for some much-deserved slumber.
At PetSmart Charities, they’d also hit the bed sheets
With visions of excelling in forecasting spreadsheets.

At The Humane Society of the United States, the advocates prayed
That soon every pet would be neutered or spayed.
The Humane Research Council folks were getting their Zs,
While dreaming of Santa leaving brand new PCs.

For those who were restless, it was time to count sheep,
But out on the Internet the Websites never sleep,
So a mom taking a break from trimming the tree,
Could visit NourishingJourney.com to help her child with ADD.

If a dad wanted a life-enhancing present for mama,
He could check out the gifts available at Satiama.
And if it’s raw food instead of the usual they’d be wanting this year,
Who’d know where to start for some holiday cheer?

To Raw Pathways, The Raw Food Coach or Uncooking101,
Read Monkey Mike’s Raw Food Kitchen and they still wouldn’t be done,
Because raw food coaches and chefs – too many to name,
Are inspiring more people who will never be the same.

By eating this new way to gain health or lose weight,
They soon find their lives in a miraculous state.
And before they know it, to their amazement and awe,
They’ve made the transition to Living Magically on Raw.

So while Santa is known as the one who brings gifts
It’s really each of you who gives the world a needed lift.
With your talent, your energy and your awesome dedication
The good work you do is cause for celebration.

Animal protection, raw foods, coaching life or business choices,
Humane education, spirituality, you help others find voices.
Somehow you’ve been inspired by a very special call
To support well-being, meaningful lives or social justice for all.

A big thanks to those of you called on to support me,
Like Mike, Mom, Sherry, Karen, Lynita and Ann Marie,
Sandy, Zoe, Khalif, Sharon , Joel, Bert and Joan,
With my virtual team, I’m not doing this alone.

For you and yours I hope 2010 is the best,
And to all of my ezine readers, I hope next year brings success.
I’ve run out of rhymes, so now it’s time to say,
Happy holidays to all and to all a good day!

Red is also a color of attraction. Think of a red dress, red lipstick or red nail polish. More than just sexy or passionate, though, red can exude power, dynamism and energy. Honda, Lego, Toshiba, Canon and CNN all feature red in their brands.

Many food companies use red because it stimulates appetite. You see it all over McDonald’s, in signage, interiors, and as you reach into a carton of fries. KFC, Coca Cola, Nestle, and Kellogg’s also whet the appetite with red.

In fact, red is one of the most commonly used colors in branding, advertising and in many Websites because of these connotations.

Designing Your Website with Red

Red also creates the visual illusion of expanding and moving toward you, evoking a sensation of warmth that encourages people to linger. It also creates a sense of urgency. This makes the color red especially useful in advertisements or Websites to move the audience to take action, to click on a link or to buy. Think about how often in stores you see the word “SALE” in red against a white background.

While widely used in many advertisements and brand logos, red may appear aggressive or jarring in Websites meant to connote serenity, freshness, or cleanliness, like those for spa and health facilities. These sites benefit from cooler colors such as blue and green to convey their message.

Many sites that use red combine it with neutral colors, especially white, to make it easy on the eyes. Check out http://www.Target.com as an example. If not used as a brand color, red is often included in Websites to give emphasis.

The key to determining the suitability of red in your Website is its congruence to your theme or product. If your main message is conveyed by the symbolism of red, then, then heat up your Website and your results with this bold color.

I built the http://www.InspiredRaw.com site by myself with no prior training in html. At times it was fun and highly satisfying. And at times, quite frankly, it was time consuming and frustrating.

Recently I learned about the WordPress Blog Training Videos from Joel Williams, Blog Tech Guy. I bought them and was really impressed with the simple step-by-step from purchasing your domain to how to post pages and images to extra help on working with aweber. And don’t miss the section on back-ups, because site crashes do happen.

If you’re building a new site or want to save time and hassle managing the one you have while enhancing your capabilities, check out http://tinyurl.com/WPTraining. Joel also offers services to do the basic tech-y stuff that intimidate many of us such as installing Wordpress and plugins, establishing the RSS feed on your blog, and setting up Google Analytics to track your site stats. He’s only taking on new clients by referral, so if you’re interested in the start-up package, please let him know I sent you.

How much is your billable time worth? $75 an hour? $100 and hour? $200 an hour? Just do the math and I think you’ll see a very quick return on investment for the videos or Web / blog set-up. I don’t want to think about how much time and opportunity cost I had working on my site.

I will definitely be recommending the video series and the blog / site set-up services to new clients in 2010. Full disclosure that I enthusiastically joined the affiliate program on this one. As I’ve mentioned, I only recommend products I’ve tried and really believe can help your business. And I know that last week I said blog entries aren’t generally about promotion, but knowing that many of you are starting Websites and can really get help here, I consider it a public service announcement .

While I didn’t have any complaints with it, I wondered if there was anything better at a similarly moderate price point. Disappointed that Consumer Reports didn’t have any comparisons, I went to Amazon to check user ratings.

Seeking Quality and Value

What I was looking for was a model that would reliably do the job. I was pleased when I found good ratings for a reasonably priced juicer from Tribest. I’m familiar with Tribest because I’ve had the company’s personal blender for many years.

Tribest has created an image of quality for me. The blender is powerful for its size and has performed consistently.  I get periodic catalogs that look highly professional.

And comments at Amazon suggested the juicer would also be a well-made product (good example of the power of word-of-mouth marketing). I especially noted mentions that it was not made of plastic like the juicer I had. Plastic conveys flimsiness and inferiority, so the Tribest seemed superior.

It’s the Whole Package

And the good new is that’s true… at least based on the three times I’ve used it so far. But I had an odd experience with the user manual.

We’ve all seen funny instructions, usually with electronics or maybe kitchen tools that completely mangle the language or make no sense. In fact, I think we almost expect it these days. And this manual was nowhere near that level. There were just a few gaffes:

• A header that said, “Preparing the Citristar for” stopped there and it looked like “for” was partly covered by the white background of an image.
• An instruction stating, “Put the Juice Collector in place correctly” was laughable. No kidding, did they think I believed it was best to do it incorrectly? And how am I supposed to know exactly what correctly is supposed to be?
• The line “Recommend 15 seconds of operation followed by 15 seconds of rest” was an incomplete sentence. That’s not uncommon in promotional writing but for a manual it suggested a foreign writer with no editor.

These are small things. But together, they hurt my image of Tribest as a quality company. Didn’t they care enough about their offerings and about me as a customer to provide an excellent instruction manual?

Is Your Business Designed for Quality?

As an inspired professional, you care about what you do and the people you serve. You’re not about turning out substandard products just to turn a buck. I bet what you offer to help people is top-notch.

Does your design reflect that care and quality? Because just as the Tribest instructions affected me, your Website, ezine, logo, business card, program materials and other communications impact current and potential clients. They want to feel like they’re getting your best.

Take a look at your Website and other communications.

Do they represent the high-class, distinctive professional you are or do they look thrown together, amateurish or just like many others?

Does your text / copy help people understand the quality of the solutions you offer?

Is your writing grammatically acceptable and free of typos? As a horrible proofreader, I’m really sympathetic on this one. I use a pro to proof ebooks and sales pages, while my virtual assistant checks my blog and ezine (although I think I’m going to check on that now!).

Review what you’re putting out. Better yet, get some input from people who are current or potential clients.  Then prioritize where an investment in upgrading can really pay off in customer perception… and business growth. Because the juicy lesson is that quality sells.