How to Write a Lovable Homepage: The Workbook
Right here, this is my favourite thing on this website. Probably because I invested so much in it. So many hours, so much learning. So many missteps made right. So many precious semi-colons. Oh, goodness, I loved mastering how to write a homepage!
Although I’m a professional writer and marketing strategist and a pretty smart cookie, with my own business I made all the mistakes I counsel my clients against. I toiled over my very first homepage and website. I didn’t have the money to bring in an outside expert, a fresh set of eyes. Now, it was well-written enough (I didn’t mess everything up) but all those carefully chosen words were designed to have the broadest appeal. I wanted to make my services and myself available to anyone who needed a hand. Entrepreneurs, we’re generous like that.
And I got lots of responses. People quickly began calling. Which was nice, right? Except for one thing: not all of them wanted to pay for my services. Many wanted to negotiate pricing. Some, well, we’re all friends here – I can tell you that some of these folks just weren’t doing things that turned me on. They weren’t fun to work with. They made work feel like…. work.
I was beat. Tired. And a little bit ticked off. And I rewrote my homepage. Ticked-offness is really good. I dared to get more specific. I deleted services that I didn’t love offering in order to focus on the ones I did. And things got better. A lot better.
That’s when I really got bold. I rewrote my homepage again, and this time was even more particular. Even more exclusive. I even included a wish list to describe the people I wanted to work with. I still get a high volume of work requests through my site but something amazing has happened (in addition to having to hire the world’s best Pink Elephant Welcome Ambassador, Jess, to help with the mail). Now, every person who writes me is someone I want to have tea with. Someone I can’t wait to work with. And someone who’s already 99% decided that she wants to work with me. I feel so blessed. So blessed. And I want you to have this experience too. Because otherwise, you’re going to fall out of love with your business, and I have a feeling you have a business worth loving.
If you’re struggling to attract clients, it’s going to be okay.
My homepage expertise came through a mix of Intuition and Science, Gut and Research, and 11 years spent writing for the web. There are lots of website writing books but few of them focus on the unique needs of entrepreneurs like you. People doing truly meaningful work. So if you’ve tried, but haven’t been successful yet, don’t lose heart.
How to Write a Lovable Homepage is for entrepreneurs who:
- are doing what they love but aren’t quite making a living yet (you’re not alone!)
- don’t have enough clients, or enough “right” clients
- want to surround themselves with only supportive, enthusiastic and loyal customers
- feel stuck or stressed when it comes to figuring out what to write
- aren’t always proud to share their websites
“I loved this e-book! It’s gorgeous, effective and fun. Once I got a hold of it I really couldn’t put it away; Carrie had me journalling, dreaming and crafting a new homepage that I was excited to share. Her simple yet powerful questions helped me to zoom in on who I love to work with, why what I do makes a difference, and how to clearly communicate to my clients that they have arrived at just the right place. How To Write A Lovable Homepage is fantastic.”
Your homepage is the second most important part of your business.
The only thing more important to your business than your homepage is you. That’s a lot of pressure but it’s also good news, because your homepage is also the easiest and least expensive aspect of your business to get right (with a few friendly nudges from a pink elephant). Giving your homepage a little love can make the most profound difference for your business.
If your homepage is missing important pieces, you risk:
- turning away the right clients (the ones who are looking for someone just like you)
- attracting the wrong clients (the ones looking for deep discounts or services you don’t want to offer)
- halting word-of-mouth marketing – visitors to your site who don’t understand or feel engaged by what you do can’t tell others about you
- sounding unprofessional or amateurish
- appearing as though your business is only a hobby
- losing credibility (this is important in all businesses but especially for those in healthcare where trust is so vital)
If your homepage has all the essential elements, you can expect to:
- attract the kinds of clients you love to work with
- hear from people who “get” you and WANT to invest in your business
- spend much less time weeding through e-mail from prospects who aren’t a good fit
- super-charge word-of-mouth marketing (because you’ve made it so easy to spread the word)
- spend less budget on other marketing initiatives (I don’t pay for any print advertising anymore and only occasionally run very low-cost online ads)
- make more money!
Not sure whether your homepage has all the right stuff? Take the free, 15-question Happy Homepage Quiz.
“I had to stop this workbook several times to squeal. It feels SO GOOD to finally sort these questions out. This workbook asked me exactly what I needed to be asked. I thought I already knew my business inside and out, but now I can see it so much more clearly. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant.”
How to Write a Lovable Homepage is really, really easy.
This workbook has the least number of short, sweet exercises you need to write your masterpiece. (We both know you’re too busy for fluff!)
You will easily-breezily:
- identify your ideal clients
- learn the 5 essential components of a super smart homepage (with a 6th bonus component for keeners)
- master a 6-step process that you can use again when writing almost anything promotional for your business
- write your new homepage
In addition to the homepage-writing exercises, the workbook has a few extra treats:
- basic design and layout tips to make your site as lovely as its new words
- suggestions for attractive website colour palettes (and how to choose your own)
- before and after homepage examples so you can see what other entrepreneurs have done
- a picture of Grace the kitten
“Thank you from the bottom of my heart! I can’t tell you how much this process has contributed to getting really clear about what I want to do, how I want to work and who I want to work with. I was the classic story of the cobbler’s children have no shoes.”
Get the workbook right now
I recommend printing out the exercise pages (we used as little colour as possible to save your ink) and heading to a favourite cafe. Book yourself two hours with those pages, a great pen, and a mug of something delicious. Schedule this date as soon as you receive the e-workbook, otherwise you might be tempted to procrastinate, and I really want you to use and love (!) and benefit from this book.
Over at Pink Elephant Creative, my fees to write a homepage are $1,200. You will save A LOT by doing this yourself, dear resourceful entrepreneurs. The goal of How to Write a Lovable Homepage is to make effective, persuasive, genuine content writing affordable for creative entrepreneurs who have more time than money (right now).
Because I know how stressful it can be to have a business that’s struggling and expenses that pile up, I wanted to offer three different price points (inspired by my friend and colleague, hippie marketing guru Tad Hargrave) so you can choose the amount that feels right for you. It is exactly the same workbook at $97, $127 and $147 but we’re working the honour system. If you can afford $147, awesome! If $97 is what you can spare, you got it! (Depending on your own pricing, if your new homepage sways even just one extra client to sign up, you’ll have covered your costs in a finger-snap!)
$147 lovable homepage workbook
$127 lovable homepage workbook
$97 lovable homepage workbook
p.s. When you make a purchase, you’ll be instantly zipped into a decidedly un-pretty shopping cart. So sorry about that, but it will get the job done.
p.p.s. I’m sure you wouldn’t dream of it, but the copyright of this workbook belongs to Pink Elephant Communications and author Carrie Klassen, so please don’t re-sell it or use it for commercial purposes. That’s bad karma, but also illegal. If you’re a professional who would like to use it with your own clients, that’s awesome! Please get in touch and we can talk feel-good licensing agreements. xo
“I had been wanting to update the La Sirena web page for months, but wasn’t quite sure where to start with all the ideas swirling around in my head. Carrie’s workbook was wonderful. At the end, all the pieces just fell into place and I was so inspired by what I’d written that it gave me a needed push forward with the business in general.”
Prefer a bit more hand-holding?
If you don’t trust yourself to follow through with the workbook on your own, check out the in-person homepage writing workshop (most often held in Toronto, but I do travel). You won’t get the design tips but you will get direct feedback from Carrie on your draft during the class, as well as from fellow entrepreneurs.
Already own the e-workbook and LOVE it?
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