We’re going to be talking about the difference between a DIY website, one that you do yourself using something like Wix or Squarespace or having a professional designer create a custom website for you.
There are a bunch of differences and I want you to know what they are so that as you’re making this decision you can go in with your eyes open.
And the special guest that I have for today is my friend and colleague, Nichole Betterley.
Nichole runs a company called NPoweredsites.com. Nichole, tell us a little bit about you.
Nichole Betterley: Thank you so much for inviting me on your podcast to begin with. I’m just, I’m so excited to be here and to talk with you about this. Actually, you were one of my very first clients and I just hold our relationship so specially in my heart.
I have a long history of loving technology and coming out of college I got a job as a developer at a big corporation. And like so many of my clients are, you know, after 11 years of that, I, I totally burnt out on that. And so now I’m corporate refugee.
And, I went on and didn’t quite know what to do. My husband and I started this little oatmeal business where we were making pre-packaged oatmeal, selling them at farmer’s markets and craft fairs.
I had to build the website so we could sell them online. And so, I went down this whole rigmarole of figuring all of that out and designing a site and setting up, you know, the ecommerce platform and everything. And I really, really loved doing that a heck of a lot more than I actually loved making the oatmeal!
And so, you know, that’s kinda how I fell into my calling here.
Early on as I was kind of searching around for what I wanted to do after my corporate life, I did take some coaching certification classes and I kind knew coaching itself wasn’t quite right for me, but I just loved the people. I loved the philosophy, you know, I loved getting coached myself.
And so, coaches just turned out to be, you know, an ideal client for me. I think I’ve blossomed from being just a developer and a designer to more of a consultant and a partner. I’m working with people now and I am just so grateful for where I’m at and what I get to do every day.
Rhonda Hess: Oh, that is such a fun story. It explains a lot. It’s funny, because I did not know that you had taken coach training.
I always recommend you to my clients because I’ve been through lots and lots of web designers and I’ve never found one nearly as good as you.
So tell us a little bit about who your favorite types of clients are to work with Nichole.
Nichole Betterley: Oh Gosh. You send me the best clients … coaches that work with you. It’s somebody who … the thing that I value the most … is the clarity that they have about their business. The clarity and the energy and the enthusiasm. So when somebody shows up and they are super sure about who they’re working with and what they’re helping them with and they’ve got that sparkle and that energy about them, that that just comes from knowing that you’re in the right place and, and, and you’re doing what you’re supposed to be doing. That is just, it’s contagious.
When I create a website with somebody, I really believe that we co-create the website, just like coaches co-create the outcome with their clients. And when somebody brings that sparkle with them, we end up with this really amazing website at the end because of what we brought together.
Rhonda Hess: I’m honored to hear that. I’m really glad you like the people that I send you. They like you. What I always hear back from them is: “I am like besties with Nichole already” after they first meet you. They are so enthused to work with you.
And there’s that real sense of partnership. I also feel really lucky that I get to be in on it to a certain degree because usually when my clients work with you, they’re still working with me. And so I get to see the first designs before they’re finalized. I get to see everything as it’s going along and it’s a very exciting unfolding.
What do you think makes a client winning coaching website?
Nichole Betterley:
- One of them is they’re talking to and about their client using their client’s language.
- The website’s not about the coach. I mean, almost the entire website is not about the coach.
- Even the About page really needs to connect with the client and the site visitor. The words and the branding, your company name, all of that immediately speaks to the client.
- And then the other big thing is there’s a clear next step And it’s not even usually contact me. It’s usually, that process of starting to interact with you and build that relationship with you.
- And, and then they’ve got things on the back end of that too, that continue that, that journey for the client. They have processes and systems in place, emails that go out that build that relationship, invitations that go out, they’re putting regular content out.
- On top of that, they’re out there in the world sending people, driving that traffic back to their website. So, it’s like a whole ecosystem that they start to build and have in place. And, and those are the sites that I see that actually work really well.
Rhonda Hess: That was beautifully said. And you’re totally in alignment with what I say to coaches as well. And what I have found is worked so well on my own website.
I’m very lucky that I continually get clients from my website, people I have never met before, hire me through my website
By the time I send my clients to you, Nichole, I’ve done 3 of the 4 phases of the work that I do with my clients.
So, there is a lot of prep that goes on before the web design process happens, before the content gets put on the page. And then that means that the content that’s put on the page is highly valuable. It has that piece of clarity you were talking about.
What’s the web platform that you prefer and why?
Nichole Betterley: I have been building websites almost exclusively on WordPress.
I occasionally have a client that will come to me who has a Wix or Squarespace site and wants support. And every now and again I’ll take them on because they need just little bits here and there. So I have experience with both of the platforms.
What I love about WordPress, it’s OPEN SOURCE software and what open source means is it’s free. The software itself is free. And it’s built almost entirely by this huge community of largely volunteer people who just love it so much that they give their time to it to build it up and support it and make it what it, what they want it to be.
It’s very much like coaching in a lot of ways it’s just the comradery of the people that are in it and the giving attitude that they have. There’s this whole community and they just put so much love and so much effort and energy into it and it’s grown and it continues to grow.
It powers over 1/3 of the websites on the Internet today, which, if you think about that, is just a phenomenal number of websites.
Just about anything you could imagine you want to do with your website, somebody has imagined it and built a solution for it. The software itself is free, but the ad-ons (plugins) are usually very reasonably priced. And so you can build an incredibly robust website that does e-commerce, membership sites, learning management for not that much money.
Whereas with, with sites like Squarespace and Wix, you are limited to what they offer you.
If you don’t use what they have provided a solution for, you’re having to build custom anyhow. It’s not very easy.
I just think we never know where our business is going to take us. And that’s one of the beautiful things about being an entrepreneur is you twist, you turn, you pivot. And I love the way that WordPress can do that too.
Why do you think it’s important for a coach’s website to be customizable?
What’s the advantage of hiring somebody like you over getting a Wix or Squarespace template and trying to figure it all out on yourself?
Nichole Betterley: I will tell you, I’ll admit straight out. I’m a total DIY person. I love do it yourself. Plumbing projects and electrical projects around my house. And just a couple of weeks ago I refinished my tabletop and so I get the DIY desire and I get why people want to do that and because I’m just right there with you.
But the templates that they offer, and you can do a lot of things with them, but the way I put it is … you’re trying to cram your business into somebody else’s template and your copy, your message into their template as opposed to building your website and your marketing engine around your message and having your website fit your message.
Having a customizable site just gives you — from an aesthetic point of view — you end up with a much more beautiful site because you’re not trying to cram this piece of copy here and, and find a picture that’s supposed to go right there.
It’s just so much less flexible and then the fact that it doesn’t grow with you.
You asked me a question … what do I do with people that come to me with those kinds of websites that they want my help to fix them? I just don’t even do that anymore because 9 times out of 10, we just need to start from scratch because it was going to be more expensive to fix and to shoehorn in an opt in form here where the site clearly doesn’t really want an opt in form. It’s not designed that way.
One of the things I do in design is pay attention to how your eye travels down the page and make sure that where your eye lands is where we want people to be looking.
Rhonda Hess: Well I really appreciate your point about loving DIY. I will tell you that for most of my clients that decide to DIY, it’s mostly about money. They don’t want to invest the money into hiring a web designer.
And while sometimes I think that’s just the choice you have … you’ve got to do that on your own. I will say that it does take something away from the coach as opposed to being one of these wonderful experiences where you learn something new that you’re going to be able to use again down the road.
I find that for most of my clients that DIY their website — who don’t already know what they’re doing — it actually becomes a heartbreak. It becomes this torturous sort of rabbit hole that they had no idea what they were going to experience and they’ve found it very hard to get the kind of support they need without shelling out a lot of money for consultant support.
And so in the long run they end up spending nearly as much as they would if they invested in a designer like you who is going to be kind and friendly.
And the other thing that happens is that when my clients decide to DIY their website, it means that for the time they’re working on their website, we’re not able to move forward on other tasks during the time we worked together. And so very often we don’t get to those other things. They’re sort of robbed of my support during that time.
There’s a mindset that goes with the idea of put your time and effort into things that you know how to do, that you have strengths for, and then be willing to reach out and in best in people who are experts to help you with the other things.
I’ve run my business that way from the get go and it has paid me back so many ways.
Nichole Betterley: Over the past 5 or 6 years, I have come to the very sharp realization that in a good website design your copy absolutely has to come first. And, I say that as a diehard designer and developer. I love the design step. I want to get in and start doing the pictures and the layouts and things like that.
But, if you don’t have good copy up front and we build the design around that good copy. If you don’t have that piece, you are starting 100 yards behind the start line at least. And you know, you’re starting in the hole.
And so clients that you send to me that you’ve worked with on their copy, it is so, so good that I’m able to offer a substantial, it’s like, I don’t know, more than 25% discount to the clients that you bring to me then what I charge somebody who walks in off the street. Because the person that walks in off the street … they might have a general sense of who their target audience is and what they’re helping them with.
We are usually starting from scratch on that copy. Yes, somebody who comes to me that hasn’t started with you and doesn’t have that incredibly strong foundation about what they’re doing in their business. They’re not clear about what their signature system is and what their freebie is that they’re going to offer. It’s just, it takes so much more time and so much more money.
I just am so grateful to what you provide them. And they come up with much better at websites at the end. It’s not as hard to get that website to be churning in new clients for them as it is when we’re starting from scratch.
Rhonda Hess: Yeah. When you mindfully put time and energy into your business rather than slap something up or follow the leader of the other coaches, you know, who may not really know what they’re doing … it’s just amazing the difference that can make.
And at the same time, I’ll just say that it’s all a developmental process. Everybody makes mistakes. Everybody has to do, do-overs. I have done many. It’s just all about how you like to roll.
It’s so great for me to have a colleague like you that I can send my clients to.
Nichole, I just want to thank you. This was so much fun. I wish we could just talk all day.
Nichole Betterley: Thank you!Rhonda Hess: Stay inspired and make things happen.