02/08/09 - Having a crack at design
Occasionally, when a member of my family needs a web presence of some sort, they contact me with what they need or an idea they have. Normally it’s a long process whereby I have to explain things like domains, hosting, what a ‘design’ or ‘mockup’ is (how that’s different to a functional webpage), what code is, what programming is (why it differs from static code and the fact I can’t do it), SEO etc.. These seem like simple things to most web-savvy people, but clearly not to others. To save costs for them, I normally do the design and coding myself, let them host on my server etc, all at no cost. I don’t usually offer design services (maybe sometimes), but if someone finds me and asks, I’ll do it. My family just think ‘he’s good with the internet’ and occasionally I get work through friends from local businesses. For them, the level of work I produce is good, so I don’t have a problem doing it for them, especially for free or at a low price. It’s a safe way to build up a portfolio, should I ever need to offer design services.
One of the first web design jobs I did for a family member, was this little number to promote an apartment for hire: Whitstable Apartment. This included SEO, advise on marketing etc. It gets quite a few leads through, for a minimally marketed website.
My latest family web venture is more interesting for me. My Uncle has written a book, or what he wants to turn into an eBook, on a niche not so widely covered on the web (or so he says!). This is interesting for me, because he has clearly done a lot of research and we’ve had some good ideas for marketing, SEO, sales etc. This is particularly exciting for me, because I’ve never marketed an eBook before, so it’s territory I’m new to, but would like to get some kind of experience in. One thing I have made clear to my Uncle is that we will not do the whole “Make £3,000 in 7 Days. Become A Millionaire.” kind of crap, with the big long letter and the signature at the end. That’s what he wanted to do initially, but I told him my feelings on such a site and I’m sure a great deal of you will feel the same way.
So far, I have mocked up a design:
(Perhaps subject to some revisions)
I have started coding it; you can take a peak if you want, but it’s not finished yet and I’ve noticed some bugs in other browsers which I haven’t got round to fixing yet: Coffee@Events HTML. Note my HTML/CSS isn’t ’super duper hey look I’ve put in all these fancy code snippets ’cause I’m cool’ kinda crap, but I don’t believe it’s at an unpresentable level (perhaps some of you will beg to differ!).
I’m doing everything as cheaply as possible, including possibly securing a free shopping cart license from a contact, free marketing techniques, etc. It’s a fun breath of relief for me; a nice fun side project that doesn’t have the pressure of possibly losing lots of money, for once. I’ll keep you updated with this, because the more my Uncle and I talk, the more possibilities I could turn this into more than just an ‘eBook selling website’ and could perhaps engineer some parts to make my own revenue from this.
If anyone has any experience in marketing/selling eBooks, by the way, please get in touch. Oh and of course, designers/coders, feel free to critique my work.
