Are you ready to get a website that works?

You’re doing something that really matters in the world. To have more impact, you need to reach more people. And you need more money, both to sustain what you do and to do more of it.

So do you have a website that powerfully supports what matters? Whether you have a site that’s underperforming or you’re looking to build, you can. Your site can help you move people to action to create positive change in their lives and for the world. And it can help move your finances from sparse to solid to super.

Learn Effective Web Design and See a Site Done from Scratch – for FRE*E
Now you can understand and implement a step-by-step web design process that gets results. You’ll follow along from the all-important foundation of strategy through critical considerations such as story, site objectives, structure and more. Then you’ll get into style: the color, fonts and images… where many people – including designers – mistakenly start their efforts.

You’ll see how the process works from beginning to end as you watch the new Heart of the Matter Design site created from (almost) nothing. You’ll get ideas and tips for how to use the process to design your own compelling website. Think of how much easier it will be to put the steps to work when you can look at what someone else has done.

You could pay hundreds or even more than a thousand dollars for this kind of how-to help. And it would be easily worth it because of the impact it can have for you and your business or nonprofit.

But now you can get it for FRE*E with the new online series: Websites that Work: Your Step-by-Step Design Guide to Bring Your Passion to Pages that Move People

Go to http://www.HeartoftheMatterDesign.com now to see the (very boring) starting site and subscribe to the series posts, if you’d like. Get answers to questions you may have in the “About the Series” section there or read on here.

• The information will speak directly to inspired professionals in businesses and nonprofits that help people make positive changes.
• The series is geared to people and organizations that work primarily through services, programs, information and / or advocacy. It doesn’t matter if your actual work is primarily in-person vs. online.

If this doesn’t sound like you, you’re welcome to check out the series anyway. Most of the information will apply. But you won’t see specific discussion of considerations for e-commerce, entertainment sites, policy reform, etc.

But there are many heart-centered business professionals who are truly on a mission to help others, just as nonprofits have missions. And nonprofit leaders need to bring in funding to sustain and grow their organizations and their activities, as well as receive an income, just like businesses do. Plus many nonprofits offer fee-based programs and services that don’t look very different from what businesses offer.

Most of the information in this series applies across the board and where that’s not the case, you’ll see distinctions spelled out. Sometimes businesses and nonprofits use different language, so there may be a little translation back and forth. Because the series is about design, it won’t get into operational elements like shopping carts or membership databases where needs would likely diverge significantly.

• You can be creating a new site, expanding your blog or revisiting an existing site. You may be in the process now, starting shortly or even looking ahead to begin the work in a few months.
• You may be planning to do everything yourself or to work with a designer and / or programmer.
• The focus is on designing the site rather than building it, so it doesn’t matter what type of programming you’ll use.

The posts break down the process into chunks that you can more easily digest and implement. You’ll see the steps in the process, results for Heart of the Matter Design and tips to do it yourself. You’ll also watch the site evolve from its current uninviting design to something wonderful.

How long does this run? How long does it take to design a website?
The initial post will launch on Thursday, January 14th, but you can join at any time while the series runs. The information probably won’t stay up long after the series ends, however. It will be used to develop paid programs later this year. So if you want to learn this process for free, act now.

The goal is to have this site to a first phase for testing in about four to six weeks, so figure some time the second half of February. That’s actually aggressive, but there’s been some advance prep.

Take whatever time you need to get it right. That’s going to vary a lot based on where you are in your planning, how complex your site is, how much time you have to devote to it, etc.

What’s the catch? Sign-up required?
This is absolutely a no-obligation program. All you need to do is visit http://www.HeartoftheMatterDesign.com to follow along. I recommend you subscribe to the posts, so that you receive new information automatically.

I’d love for you to share your feedback and questions on the design process and what you think about the site I’m developing. But that’s also totally optional.

Any “fine print”?
No hidden details, but a few points so you’ll have a better sense of what you should and shouldn’t expect:

• This series is a well-thought out action-oriented blog. It’s not a formal instructional program, so you won’t get fancy handouts or pages of detail. But I believe you will get what you need for a better site.
• I’ll share a little bit about how I got my new site started, especially regarding Wordpress, but this isn’t a technical how-to.
• I welcome questions about how the process works. And if you’ve got a question specific to your site design process that I can answer easily and that will help others, I’d love to address it. But I won’t be doing extensive research or providing custom consulting as part of this fre*e series.

Why are you doing this?
I know there are a lot of small to mid-size businesses and nonprofits that are on a tight budget, especially these days. So since I’m redesigning my website anyway, why not share the experience and help people who are doing good things? You’ll get what you need to design a site that works. And as I mentioned, your feedback on what we’re doing here will be a big help to me. Plus I think we can have a lot of fun together.