Bringing Mae Flowers

It’s time for some shameless self-promotion.

My new business’s website is finally live after 6 weeks of work. I even posted by business’s first official blog post! I’m happy to have gotten this far, but it feels like there’s so much left to do. I still have to troubleshoot the checkout system, add more products and categories, internal links, new/better content- and that’s just the build itself! Then there is the traffic to think of: the SEO, advertising, external links… it’s all so overwhelming.

It makes me wonder if I’ll ever be “done”.

As a writer, I’ve found that I rarely feel that I’m done editing. It always feels like there’s room to improve. There’s always a better metaphor, a better plot pace, a more descriptive word- it never feels done. That’s how I feel about the site. Yes, the site is up, and it gets the job done, but it still feels like a draft.

Maybe I should leave it be for now.

Just like writers have to put down the pen and leave a manuscript to sit for a while before they start editing, I feel like I should leave the site alone for a little bit. Of course I’ll still manage the business side of things (orders, products, marketing etc.) but I should leave the site’s build alone for a while. It’s literally what I’d recommend to my clients in CRO- to let go of your personal bias and feelings about the site’s design. It’s easy to say from a 3rd party perspective, but it’s very different when it’s your work. Now that the shoe is on the other good, I’m having a hard time letting it go.

Content comes first.

The purpose of writing a draft is to get the story told. The point is to get everything on the page, and get some semblance of structure. I’m trying to think of my website the same way: the purpose of the site right now is to get the scaffolding in place. If a draft just has to be written in order to be good, then a website just needs to be built to be good. If that’s the case, I can live with the less than perfect site.