Building Your Own Site? A Few Strong Words...

This post is aimed squarely at those people who are business owners, having a go at making their business website whilst having little or even no web design experience. Amazing tools such as Realmac Software's RapidWeaver, Karelia's Sandvox or maybe Wordpress (plus many more) make this more possible than ever. I have been responsible for quite a few answers to questions on boards like Realmac Software Forums and get pushed further and further towards the following collection of thoughts. They may well be viewed as harsh, but that's not the aim. I really want people to use their time in the most productive manner possible.
The General Issue.
Business owners doing their own website building, should really focus in the right place. They worry about trying to take on a designer at their own game, with little or no experience, whilst having simple access to awesome design from some amazing RapidWeaver, Sandvox or Wordpress theme developers.
Do you seriously think that's something you can beat these people at? I really don't, honestly. The placing of 'this image here, and a bit more space there' is unlikely to be what will make your site successful at what you need it to be. That part is all about pleasing yourself, not your visitors. The website should be there for your visitors. Do you buy in all the stock for a shop that you like regardless of whether it sells? No, you look at what your visitor's are going to want to buy, and try and make sure that's what you have.
Don't always spend your time working from a 'blank sheet of paper' approach when you really don't need to. People are afraid of themes. Why? Someone else might have a site that looks similar somewhere on the web, but does that actually matter? When was the last time you visited a website and thought "I'd like this if I hadn't seen something like this before"? I'd suggest virtually never! If someone makes a website look incredibly close to a huge site like Amazon, eBay (you really don't want to do that anyway do you?!), Apple or the BBC, then maybe that would notice to some. But that's really where it stops.
So, what should you be focusing on then?....
CONTENT!
I know I'm shouting with the styling of the title above, but I seriously feel like I need to!! This is the very things a business owner knows about their business, and can really get into their site. They know what their customers are looking for and/or buy, and what information or goods they are therefore trying to give access to. Get your mind solidly on this, and use a generally good looking theme, and you'll do better than putting your efforts into competing on the design front where you will not be at your strongest. Keep your site easy to use. So many strangely awkward sites are made by people struggling to get something close to some image they had in their head without the skills to even know whether their ideas are a practical target in the first place.
Put much time into the content that will attract visitors and keep them there. Imagine yourself as a customer visiting. You know what they normally are looking for don't you? Think how they would use your website to get that information, and supply the info and make it easy to find. Try not to concentrate on 'telling them what you want them to think', it's close to being the web equivalent of shouting at them! If you can furnish your customers with what they want in an easy way that makes the experience positive for them, you have happy customers with a positive view of your business.
Now, isn't that the point of your website in the first place?