December 4, 2017

New Website

When I saw my brother this weekend, I mentioned that I was switching my website design to a new template. He didn’t seem shocked, surprised, or anything other than sarcastic. I have a problem. This is my second hosting site (currently on Squarespace and loving it) and my fifth or sixth template (I can’t even keep track anymore). Like, I said. I have a problem. When it comes to my website design, I have a problem with decision making.

Part of that means I have a problem deciding on an identity for my business. Most people don’t really understand this, but the intention is that Kiss My Scrubs will only be a subset of the overall The Accidental Housewife business. So I wanted a website that would give me a launching pad for that. I wanted a website that would give me a blog, a way to launch new subsets and new products, and a shop. Two years in, this is still my goal. Now I think I’m a little bit more focused, though.

Last week, I decided to pick a new Squarespace template for my site. I played with a lot of different templates, but they never looked as good for me as they do on the demo. Sad clown. Back to the Google and the generic, “best template for online store on Squarespace” search. And so on, and so on. Then, though, I figured it out. Kiss My Scrubs is primarily a store. I’m embarrassed it took me this long to realize that. All of this other stuff, the about me, the blog, the fun little asides, are important. They just aren’t as primary and they should be treated as such on the website.

The redesign is helping me to change a couple of other things as well. I realized that I had some of the truly terrible photos still up (and too many are still terrible). I realized that I was missing products because I launched four new products and their respective gift boxes after I had updated things last time. I have been focusing so hard on Etsy (please, please, please visit my shop!) and putting off my website.

This redesign is forcing me to think about the creative side of the layouts and the photos in new ways because my old template and the new template are quite different. Things that looked great in the old template look like, well, shit, in the new template and that won’t work. At all. How best to display my photos from Instagram, how to display my photo, how to reword my bio. All of these new considerations are forcing me to rethink and retool and revamp. Even after the launch, I will be rewriting the copy and retaking the photographs. Everything needs going over again and again. Which is totally fine and only a little disheartening.

As much as I like the market season, my exhausted introvert self is really looking forward to having this time to do this. To really focus on putting out the best digital footprint that I possibly can so that I can be a better seller. Exciting and tedious. Good times, right?

Yes, I know this is Photoshop. It's a major part of making the magic happen.

Here’s to enjoying the holidays instead of just surviving them. Again.

~Carmin