Mistake #2: Not getting the content ready first

This series is all about the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make when creating a website. The second mistake is not getting your content ready first, before you start building your website.

When you build a website, you want to get your content ready first.

Why?

Building a website is a project. A rather significant project with a massive scope.

It usually isn’t something you can complete in a day or even a week. (I’ve done it but then I’ve done lots of websites.)

You want to break the project down into more manageable chunks: the content (what goes on the website) and the tech (the method for delivering it.)

Creating a website is not something you want to do too often. It is time consuming. It requires lots of thought and it requires that you make a lot of decisions.

You will most likely create multiple websites over your entrepreneurial life. Hopefully the one you create will grow change and adapt with you. Fortunately, starting from scratch isn’t usually necessary.

So many decisions

There are a lot of decisions to make and some decisions can take time to make.

Making decisions can be difficult for some people. Primarily because each decision feels so earth-shatteringly important. It might not be but it sure can feel that way in the moment.

The need to make the “right” decision adds even more pressure.

Then each decision builds on the one before. That is, if you are making them in a logical order. But how do you know what is the next logical decision you need to make?

Doing too much at once

Trying to build a website by learning the technology while creating the content is like drinking from a fire hose. It might get you a drink but it is rather overwhelming not to mention wet, messy and possibly painful.

Depending on your learning style and how tech savvy you are, learning tech can be easy, a chore, or completely overwhelming.

My favourite FarSide Cartoon was the one where the kid with the very small head asked the teacher “Can I be excused? My brain is full.”

Click here to see it on Google.

Learning anything challenging can feel like that. Trying to make decisions, learn something new and be creative all at once is hard.

Make it easier on yourself.

Focus on what to put on your website before you tackle the tech. It gives you the time to make the decisions and the time to be strategic in those decisions. It allows you the time to create and write, to focus on what your ideal clients want and need.