Ebook Preview: The Countdown Method, Chapter 2
Note: What follows is a draft of Chapter 2 from my upcoming ebook called The Countdown Method: How to DIY a Website You Love Without Losing Your Mind.
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By now we know why we need a great website, and the components that make up an effective website. But how do we actually go about building such a thing? And how do we do it without breaking the bank or working through weeks and months of stress?
Put simply: We use the Countdown Method.
What is the Countdown Method?
Building a website is like assembling a jigsaw puzzle. There are pieces we know we want to use — pictures, info about our offers, a form, some links, an about pages... the list goes on and on — but how they fit together isn’t immediately clear.
So we set off to start building with whatever feels easiest, usually discovering at some point that what we’re building isn’t quite matching the picture we’d imagined for it in our minds.
At this point, we’re left with two options: Take the puzzle apart and start again, or convince ourselves that the picture looks good enough as it is. And unfortunately the second choice — settling — is the one I see made most often.
When it comes to jigsaw puzzles, there are approaches that can make them easier to solve:
Start with edge pieces, building a border
Group similarly colored pieces
Focus on small sections at a time
In the same way, when it comes to building websites, there’s an approach we can take that simplifies the whole process and makes our success a lot more likely.
I call it the Countdown Method.
The Countdown Method is a progressive approach to creating a great website. It:
Starts broad, then gets more specific
Is based on simple, repeatable systems that you can plug into
Is specifically designed for solopreneurs and experts
The Countdown Method works by focusing on the big picture first, then progressively narrowing down (or counting down, if you will) to smaller components that make up the site. Here’s what it looks like in practice:
Determine the Pages the site will have
For each page, choose what Sections will be included
For each section, decide what Elements will be used
And just like a rocket countdown, after 3...2...1... comes a launch!
What makes the Countdown Method super effective is there are a limited number of pages, sections, and elements to choose from. So rather than looking at a blank canvas and wondering where to start, all you need to do is think about the components that will make up your site, starting with the broadest of strokes.
Pages
When its comes to deciding what pages to include, there are five core pages every coaching, consulting, or speaking site should include:
Home
About Me
Offer(s)
Contact
Booking
If your site only had those five pages, you’d be in great shape. Of course, there are some optional additional pages you can consider including:
Blog
Downloadable Resources
Landing Page(s)
Events
Social Media Links page
“Kitchen Sink” pages (404 page, thank you pages, privacy policy)
In the next chapter, we’ll review each of these pages, looking at what each page should achieve and — for optional pages — how to decide if they’re worth including.
Once we know what pages our site will include, it’s like we’ve got the edge pieces of our puzzle assembled. We know the frame that we’ll be working within. Next up, we want to think about our sections.
Sections
Just like we’d focus on a specific area of a jigsaw puzzle at any given time, now we’ll narrow down our focus on a page-by-page level.
Every web page you’ve ever visited is simply made up of sections. Creating a brilliant web page just comes down to deciding what sections to include and what order to include them in.
Within the Countdown Method, there are just eight sections that you can combine to create any type of page:
Hero
Problem and/or Solution
Outcomes
Offer(s)
Process
About Me
Authority
Call to Action
In Chapter 4, we’ll dive into what each of these sections look like and how to combine them in different order to create different types of web pages.
And once we know what sections we want to include in each page, the final step is to determine what elements will be included in each section.
Elements
When we break down our sections, they’re really just collections of elements. There are eight element types that can be combined in any order to create different page sections.
Those elements are:
Headings
Subheadings
Body Text
Content Boxes
CTA Buttons
Images
Videos
Feeds (Blog, Events)
The great news is that there are a limited number of ways we can combine these elements to create different sections.
Counting down to launch
To recap: We start our countdown broadly, deciding what pages to include on our site. Then we focus down a bit, going page by page and thinking about the sections that will make up each page. Finally, we focus down further on the individual elements that make up each section.
By the time we’re done, we’ve got a thoughtfully designed website, the puzzle solved. With our countdown complete, we’re ready to launch an amazing website!
Whether this sounds overly simple or overwhelming, keep reading — we’re about to dive in and break down each step in detail.
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