In our previous step, Step 2, you were challenged to stay active and network with other professionals in your field. By now, you should have an abundant source of resources to refer to and help shape his personal aspirations. You must have a collection of bookmarks of websites of colleagues and organizations.
You can really collect a lot of information in a short amount of time when it comes to the internet. So I recommend staying organized with your information from the start. If you keep track of your information in a notebook, adopt a method to keep it organized. Perhaps you have your notebook divided into topics, eg ‘references’, ‘organizations’, ‘peers’. If you’re bookmarking your referral information through your browser, organize your list by assigning it to folders. This option usually appears in the favorites menu, usually called “organize favorites”. Do what makes sense to you and it will help you easily retrieve the information you need in the future.
Organization doesn’t just stop at notebooks and bookmarks. It goes much deeper than that. Make sure to personally organize yourself before starting our next challenge. Clean up your work space. Take care of your priorities or any task you’ve been procrastinating on. The key here is to not only clear your physical space, but also your mental space.
Now we can start working on creating your collection. Your ‘collection’ will be the foundation of your purpose. If you are creating art, for example, it would be your artwork. If you are a writer, it would be a collection of your writing. If you intend to be a trader of another kind, that would be your product.
So the first question to ask yourself would be: do you have a collection? If so, now is the time to organize your work. Again, perhaps divide your collection into groups, organize your work by resemblance or by time frame. This can be done simply by creating categories and assigning your work to the appropriate header. This will help you set the stage for your web presence. Now it’s time to consider some of the sites you visited in our previous step. Think about which sites were easy to navigate and which sites were not. Did you like how a particular site was organized? What did you like about it? Apply your answers to your own concept of organization.
If you don’t have a collection, now is the time to work on acquiring one. Establishing a collection doesn’t happen overnight. So be patient with yourself and set realistic goals. My first website was created by a friend of mine when he lived in California, before I started designing my own site. The first collection was made up of only 13 works of art, but it was a start. Now, seven years later, I have a collection of around 160 paintings. You don’t need to have an extremely large collection of works or products to get started. One of the best things about opening a store on the web, unlike a physical store, you don’t have to have a huge product line. Okay, it helps, but it’s not always necessary. The key here is quality, not quantity.
Once you have created or organized your collection, you can now work on the information side of your collection. Assign names, titles or SKU numbers to your collection or product. Write descriptions for each piece or group. Be as informative and descriptive as you can. Put yourself in the shoes of the consumer or viewer and think about what information they would need to know to make an appropriate purchase decision. You don’t want to be lazy here at all. Your description not only helps your buyer, but also protects you as a seller. Describing your product or service honestly avoids any chance of surprise for your buyer. As a result, you should have fewer returns and refunds and more customer satisfaction.
Once you have developed your collection or product sheet, make a column for the price. Pricing can often be the most challenging task of web frontage design, primarily because you are being asked to price yourself and your own value. This is especially true if the services you provide are creative. A normal or typical marketing tactic is to research your competitors and get an idea of the market value of your product. If you’re working in a creative or freelance field, you can look for guilds that offer pricing guidelines.
After getting an overview or prices from others, you need to realistically estimate how much it will cost to perform your services. You want to consider the amount of time you spend on a project, the cost of materials, the tax you’ll have to pay, and the cost of shipping or transportation. Your cost may be very different from your competitors. Pricing is a personal choice and decision, so it should be based on what you think the item is worth. You want competitive prices, but worthy prices. The biggest mistake I see creative people make is underestimating their own prices. Buyers think they get what they pay for, so make your prices valuable to them.
Build confidence in your work, but back that confidence with experience and knowledge. Believe that what you are creating has value for more people than yourself. Most importantly, cheer up! Your enthusiasm will carry over into every area of your work. If you’re not excited, you need to go back to step 1 and reassess what your purpose is.
Your challenge for this month is to organize yourself in your personal and mental space, organize or create your collection and then write effective descriptions for your works or products. During this process, continue to network and continue to learn and you will develop your path…your purpose.