Stella Orange, WORDSMITH Marketing strategy & copywriting to make your cash register sing

Your website is NOT the kitchen sink

Why do you suggest that I quit putting EVERYTHING on my website?

Before I start rubbing some of you the wrong way, now is the perfect time to make a distinction between two kinds of stubborn.

Now, Stella is stubborn. Just ask her mama, her papa, and her sweetheart. Stubborn, stubborn, stubborn. Like a mule who won’t do anything without a sugar-coated carrot and a pat on the rump.

On my good days, it’s because I have a vision. I stick to my guns because I trust my gut, and know what’s me, and what’s not. This is good stubborn. It protects me from all kinds of distraction that would blow me off course. Saying no to what’s not for me leaves room to say yes to the stuff that is. (As one of my clients puts it: “I get the tingles in my body when I know something’s right.”)

But let’s be real here: I can also be the other kind of stubborn, too. The kind of stubborn that doesn’t help me create what I want to see, to be, or to experience. As a business owner, this kind of stubborn is chloroform. It knocks you out, leaving you vulnerable to pickpockets.

Pickpockets who take all your money and leave you there, broke, confused and jaded.

So if you’re stubborn, too, believe me, I get it. All that said, I look at more websites in my day than most normal people should. And there’s something I’m seeing out there that I want you to be aware of.

It’s the “everything and the kitchen sink” website.

I do this… and this… and this… the website says.

I work with these people… and these other people… and these people, too!

I make art and I also make money and I also have these 5 other projects and causes that you should read about, too!

I help people live their abundance and work on their money mindset and clean their garages and eat better and attract the relationships of their dreams!

As I point this out to business owners, some admit that they’ve been having a hard time figuring out how to arrange the info on their site so that it’s easy for people to say “yes! I get it. I want it. You're the one to provide it. Where do I sign up?"

Others, however, are just plain stubborn (Hi, there!) and I get the sense they are more attached to their story than they are to having a bonafide, money-making, people-helping, soul-fulfilling business.

So, you know those anonymous services where you can have someone else tell a coworker that they need to start wearing deodorant?

This article is like that for people who’s websites are cluttered and wild-eyed with all the different possibilities. (It's also helping me vent.)

So if this is you, want to know what happens when we go to your website? We have no clue how you can help us, and what you want us to do. You look scattered, unfocused. Your stubbornness is getting in the way of us knowing how to work with you.

The remedy? Curate your website. Only list programs that you are currently enrolling--and ideally, have them all connected to ONE THEME (money. love. career. marketing. wellness.) Have an “easily digestible” tagline, that doesn’t try to cram everything into one run-on sentence that defies common sense.

Be aware of the imagery and metaphors you routinely evoke—especially on your homepage---and don’t change horses mid-stream. This confuses us, if only subconsciously. Separate out the different “divisions” of your business into different areas of your site (e.g. don’t list corporate programs with coaching for couples). Have a clear “call to action” (hey, maybe several!) that shows us how we can get started with you. We're actually grateful when you make this calm, clear and easy to do.

And on a final note, rest assured. Your website isn’t a complete record of who you are and what you do for—and with—others. It’s not a total fingerprint of your personality or skill set. Hallelujah, what a relief!

What your website *is* is just your basecamp for marketing online. Like a real, live basecamp on the side of a mountain, it needs to be well-run, well-organized, and feed the people living there—however temporary--so they can prepare for the hike skyward.

Mighty thanks to dictay2000's flickr photostream for the kitchen sink.