Website Planning

WebsitePlanning.com is a series of free online video tutorials designed to help you develop an effective website plan. By communicating your goals clearly to your web developer, you will avoid disasters, save time and acquire a website that achieves your goals.

Hi, my name is Richard Pearce and I have been building websites since 1995. Back then there was no web development training and no obvious career path but there was a ton of work. I got started by accident when working for a retail store in Sydney, Australia.  The owners asked me to develop what was to become one of the first retail websites in the country and I seemed to find the right approach straight from the start. I’m no artist and when I look back at the site I am embarrassed by my amateur design skills but it worked for a different reason that is still vitally important to understand today. Content. We included loads of product detail which helped answer customers’ questions before they asked and built credibility for the store. Orders started pouring in from around the world and I found a new career.

At first, building websites was fun. But as the complexity of sites progressed, I found that I was doing a whole lot more work, for less money. There were several problems; the time it took going back and forth to the client, changes in functionality, errors in functionality and so forth. I put this down to “the nature of the business” for a while but when it got to the point where the more I took on, the more I lost, something serious had to be done.

Like most developers, my process included an initial meeting, proposal, sitemap and then the development. But when I had a good look at this, it became clear that more was needed. And that’s when I started to started to spend much more time on planning. I discovered that projects progressed smoothly, sites performed better, clients were happier.

I produced this site to help you avoid the disasters that I used to face. Some projects I was involved in turned out to be complete disasters and I want you to avoid this from happening to you. The training is free and all you need to watch the video is your normal web browser. Do the following to get started:

1. Register here
2. Check your email and click the link as indicated
3. Login to the site using the Login box at the top left of this page
4. Go to the first lesson. The video will start playing automatically but note that it may take a while to start depending on the speed of your Internet connection

If you don’t see any videos after you login, please visit Adobe to get the latest copy of the free Flash player
I hope you get a lot from these lessons and when you’re finished, drop me an email to let me know what you thought of the training.

Richard Pearce