But no sooner has one obstacle been overcome, the next looms. And it's more terrifying and less appealing then Pinterest boards, Facebook reach and Twitter #@lingo.... Technology: WP plug-ins, API keys, video embedding, HTML codes, autoresponders, downloads and uploads. Not to mention passwords for every breathe I take.
Google is my IT tutor, my know-it-all mentor. I Google everything techy and it inevitable tells me to watch a YouTube tutorial. I watch endless videos of clever, techy people zipping their mouse across the screen, clicking methodically and instructively. Easy. Simple. Just do this step, then do that step. Done.
Last week, I needed a simple WordPress plug-in to be installed. I decided not to use my actual web developer, but to try out a web company who will "tweak" your site. No contracts, you pay by the "tweak". Seemed fool-proof. To cut a long story short, it was a stressful nightmare for 7 days.
Ok - I can do this myself instead. So, I asked Google and YouTube. I tried installing the WordPress opt-in box to the My Bespoke Chair homepage myself. It's a little dialogue box that appears inviting you to sign up for a newsletter. Nice companies offer you a thank you gift. We're nice; we give you $300 off your perfect chair when you sign up for our newsletter. Then fortnightly, we'll email you a pretty newsletter packed with useful interior design tips, special offers and behind-the-scenes news.
I digress...
It went horribly wrong. The site seemed to crash. When I typed in the URL I saw something like this. My reaction frightened the children. I thought I was going to die.
I made a frantic, embarrassed call to my actual web developer, Matt - at 9pm on a Friday night. Miraculously, he answered, listened patiently and non-judgementally to my choked ramblings...then fixed it in a flash. Back to his beer and NCIS on the TV (I made that bit up)
Lessons learnt: It's OK and necessary to be in charge of your own back-end CMS. Adding new text, pages, images, keeping the site's content fresh and tweaking here and there. WordPress is brilliant and easy to use, even on a site as complex as My Bespoke Chair. But just because everything is "figure-outable" through Google, YouTube and other sites, doesn't mean you should. A wrongly placed < > and you're doomed. Leave the fiddly stuff to your web developer and stick with what you're excellent at.
Until I can employ an IT/web manager in-house, I shall never again cheat on my web designer and developer. You always get caught....
(go see the finished result here and sign up....I'm very happy now and it's already proving a success with new subscriber sign-ups increasing)
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