Freelance Dietitians Factsheets. Building a Professional Website. then. What makes you different?

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1 A professional website can be part of your marketing toolkit, and the doorway to your freelance services. But how do you design a website? Before you tackle that question, you need to consider the following: 1. Have a good look at websites from other Freelance Dietitians. The best way to find websites from your colleagues (and possibly competition!) is to access their web links on their profiles at or use an internet search engine to find other freelancers in your field of interest. Note what you like and do not like about these websites. 2. Have a look at websites from other nutrition professionals and organisations. Again, compare and contrast what you like and do not like about these websites. 3. Analyse a. what it is you are selling (eg, your services) b. your potential market (eg, who you are selling to) c. their needs/requirements (eg, what products/services do they need/want) then 4. Do a needs assessment, either personally (with community groups, organisations or individuals) or by analysing trends online through Social Media 1. Determine the answers to these questions: a. what do people want? b. what are they willing to pay for? c. how much are they willing to pay? d. can you package services for them (eg, one initial consultation with 2 follow-ups)? e. where is convenient for them to meet you online or in-person? 5. Build your Business Plan 2 around this needs assessment. Once you know the target market for your services, review the websites you liked and gather ideas for developing your own website to promote and market your services. To USP or not to USP: Know what your Unique Selling Point (USP) is, and design your services around what makes you different from other freelance nutrition professionals. For example, if you have specialist skills in weight management for adults, determine the potential market in the place you will be working by liaising with GPs, community groups and neighbourhoods. Find out what weight management services they have used before, what they think they need, what they are willing to pay and how often they might use your service. Differentiate 1 P a gyourself e by offering a unique service, and ensure that your USP is the core of your website. However, you should realise that true USPs are very rare there will always be someone selling something similar to you. What makes you different?

2 If you are really keen to develop your own website from scratch, you can take a course online or one offered at local community centres or colleges. The following steps provide guidance for developing your own website 3 : 1. Get Your Domain Name 2. Choose a Web Host and Sign Up for an Account 3. Design your Web Pages This is the name you want to give your website. You will have to pay an annual fee to a registrar for the right to use that name. Research this thoroughly (try: to get the best advice you can to register your domain name. Domain name disputes can arise, so make the best effort you can to ensure your right to use this name is watertight. Nominet ( ) manages.uk domains. NOTE: A domain name will NOT protect your brand. See for further details about how to choose and protect your own brand. A web host is a company that has many computers connected to the internet. An account with a web host gives your website a home. After you sign up for a web hosting account, you will need to point your domain to that account on your web host. There is much advice available online to help you get started, so take time to sift through it all. You can do this yourself or hire a web designer to do it for you. Once you get a basic website live onto the web, fine-tune it as you go, and learn by experience. If you design your own web pages, use a commercial or free web editor, available by searching online for one that suits your needs. An integral part of web design is search engine readiness, so see #6 below for details about search engine optimisation (SEO). You will also need to consider a content management system (CMS). WordPress is the most popular CMS because it is adaptable to your own needs. WordPress has a modular design that enables you to change and move things around easily. The main features of WordPress include: *the ability to add widgets to sidebars and other parts of your site *the ability to add or schedule new blog posts *the availability of plug-ins. (Plug-ins are software components that add specific abilities to a larger software application. They are commonly used in web browsers to play video, scan for viruses, display new file types (like Adobe Flash Player, QuickTime and Java Applets), and can be used to run an online store with a shopping cart or basket.) *an extensive number of customisable themes *good Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) based on your selected keywords for bringing clients to your website Other CMSinclude: *Joomla: more complicated than WordPress, but more powerful 2 P a g e

3 *Drupal: not as popular but a it is a clean, well-functioning CMS *Tumblr: has good free templates (better ones will cost) These three CMS are all free, and usually included in hosting packages. Custom Websites are built by programmers, and they are as good as the programmer. You must have a good budget and a very specific need to consider a custom-built website. Also in your design you should determine whether you need or want links to Social Media sites such as Linked In, Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon, RSS feeds, YouTube, Digg and others being developed as you read this. (Further details are available in Factsheet #4 Making Social Media Work for You.) Analytics: this is the measurement of behaviour of visitors to a website. How many visit in a month? A week? A day? Why are they visiting? How did they get to your site? By knowing what information is necessary for your website, you can add analytics tools (availability dependent upon which web host and design you use) to help you get the data you need to keep visitors coming to your site. Look carefully at the existing work of developers and designers. Consider who their clients are, and click through their websites, especially if they have a market and business size similar to yours. If the web page layouts look similar, you are looking at templates. If your budget it tight templates are fine, but consider how you wish to be seen by potential clients. Always go for the more professional look. Use a tried and tested web developer, and realise that your neighbour s teenager might not design the most professional website for you. As with most things in business, you get what you pay for. 4. Costs How long is a piece of string? If you develop your own site from templates, you will have to consider the time it takes to develop your site, and there will likely be a monthly fee, upwards from 15/month. If you have a custom site developed, you can pay 5000 or more for design and development alone, and you will need to consider running costs, updates and maintenance. This depends upon the server/hosting requirements and the scope (needs/wants/size/function), plus plug-ins, add-ons (such as extensions and themes for software applications), and anything else you do to jazz up your site and make it stand out. 5. Testing your Website 6. Earning Money This should be done throughout your web design cycle. You will need to test your web pages as you design them in the major browsers: the latest versions of Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Safari, and Chrome. If you want to improve your chances that your website will work in future versions of all web browsers, consider validating the code for your web pages by checking that the underlying code of your web page (called HTML or CSS ) have no syntax errors. There are numerous free web page validators that can do this. If you are selling products or services, you might wish to collect credit card information, so know how to accept credit cards on your website. You can also add an order form and/or a PayPal button. If you need advertisers for your website, lists of advertisers and affiliate programmes can be searched online. Those companies are always alert for new web publishers to display their advertisements. 3 P a g e

4 7. Getting Your Site Noticed When your site is ready, you can submit it to general search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo, or to a myriad of specialist search engines. If your site is already linked to by other websites (eg, our own ), you may not even need to submit it to these search engines. You can also promote your website on your business card, through press releases or via news sites and feeds, blogs and other social media, like Facebook, Linked In, Twitter and via apps like TweetDeck (a personal browser connecting you to social network contacts). In this age of smartphones and tablets, make your website user-friendly by NOT having huge image files which will slow down website loading on these devices. A slow website could harm your search engine ratings. Ensure you use responsive design to make changes to fit a specific screen size so your website can be viewed everywhere! Finally, you need to consider access to your website by disabled users. According to a report by the Danish Center for Accessibility, as many as 25% of the world s Internet users have some sort of visual, auditory or mobility disability. 4 Web designers in the UK should be aware that the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) mandates web sites be accessible by visually and physically disabled persons. Web designers have an obligation to make their clients web sites available and accessible to anyone who wishes to visit. By considering your disabled users, you increase your potential service market. All the above being said, if you don t wish to start from scratch yourself, you can hire a web developer and/or designer who will do it all for you. Web designers names or companies are usually found at the bottom of a web page, so if you find a site you like, contact the developer. Ask your friends and colleagues who they use, and get feedback from them as to any difficulties they might be having with their sites. Development costs vary upon how many web pages you have and how interactive (images, flash, multimedia) your site is. Do not forget about long-term maintenance of your website. Changes and updates will need to be made over time, so having a monthly contract with your web developer can make good business sense. 4 P a g e

5 WORDS TO THE WISE: In the 2010 National Feelancers Day survey findings, clients ranked website and/or online presence as the least important factor when selecting a freelancer. What then were the most important factors? 1. Qualifications 2. Price/cost of your services 3. Evidence of training Accordingly, bear this in mind when choosing your web presence. Your most valuable asset is YOU what you represent and what services you can offer potential clients. Remember: A flashy, expensive website cannot make you better than you are, and a cheaplooking website takes away from who you are. A smart, concise website can be an effective complement to your overall marketing approach. References: 1. See Factsheet #4 Making Social Media Work For You 2. See Factsheet #1 Building Your Business Plan 3. See 4. See (section: Guide to Accessible Web Design) August P a g e