I originally set up my website back in 2019 as a blog. I’m interested in craft for well-being (knitting has got me through a few periods of poor mental health) and I wanted to chat about it. At the time I was making and selling a few random craft bits and was also a consultant for a direct sales company so it gave me somewhere to chat about that as well.

First up I tried one of the well known templated websites and I lasted about two hours! I’ve done some very limited Html and used a few  content management systems but this so called it’s so easy to build a website just wasn’t for me.

I did some research and chatted to friends and settled on WordPress because anything that has that many users can’t be all bad can it? I also chose Elementor as my theme, again because I knew someone that used it a bit so could help out now and again.

I niched my business down to focus on crystals and self-care products in mid 2021. I was gradually finding more to talk about as it’s something I’m very passionate about. I was paying an annual fee to a third party website to sell through, I wasn’t getting any sales and as my products had changed they were no longer considered appropriate.

Around the same time, early 2022 I did one of Holly’s website challenges. I got some really good feedback, I learned lots and it really gave me the push I needed. I needed to work on my branding, it just didn’t work and it looked like a blog trying to morph into a full website.

I am paying to host it after all. I reworked my branding (although I still tinker with some colours from time to time) and took the step to add a WooCommerce shop. With support from an amazing power hour with Holly, lots of reading and a few tantrums I did it, that feeling when that first order from my shop that I’d built came through was incredible.

I was amazed with my score but it has given me some clear areas that I need to work on, despite using a cache plug-in it can be slow and I need to develop a back link strategy. I go live in my Facebook group regularly so I’m gradually downloading all the videos and created my own YouTube channel so am linking to my videos to provide a learning zone. I’ve also asked a couple of ‘critical friends’ to have an explore and give me some feedback on usability. Oh, and I will be making saleable links on Pinterest once another friend has got hers all working so I can pick her brain.

However, if I had my time over I would have a Simply Sites built for me giving me more opportunity to build the content and focus less on the tech.