MeTeech #009 - Novice no more.
This is the article I wish I had when I started my business. I’ve learnt this stuff over a long period of time and if you’re in the same boat, I hope it’ll be helpful for you.
Also, if this is your first experience of meteech.com, read here for more context.
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In this article I talk about gaining experience in 3 different areas:
Designing logos.
Social Media Marketing.
Building websites.
While I’m no expert, I feel like finally, I am a novice no more.
A New Logo
You may have seen the new MeTeech logo in the thumbnail of this article. Here are a few pictures to show you my efforts in development:
Adobe Illustrator
I accomplished this using a software called ‘Adobe Illustrator’. This is the industry standard for vector graphics - which means it’s good for designing logos.
If you would like to do as I did, I’d recommend getting yourself familiar with the software using tutorials on YouTube. Type in “Illustrator Logo” and click the first thing you find interesting and follow along. This doesn’t have to be the final logo, it doesn’t have to be perfect at all, think of it as practice. Once you’ve done two or three videos, grab a pencil and mess around with some ideas on paper and go from there. - Remember YouTube is your best friend here.
Social Media Marketing
The most prominent social media for MeTeech right now is definitely Instagram. The reason being it’s the most popular social media among people in my target market and it’s also the most familiar to me.
Starting the Instagram page was immediately a great success. I posted a video of myself and this really blew up! - Within a couple of days it had thousands of views, right now it’s over 4,000 views! However, I had a hard time thinking of what to post next.
Then one day, the idea came to me to make some posts like this:
These posts are meant to mimic the posts that will be shared on meteech.com - They have a title, some general info and a link to the study resource in question.
Specifically, I had some boxes I wanted to tick for MeTeech:
I wanted to make regular posts.
I wanted to provide value.
I wanted people to understand the ethos of MeTeech.
I also came up with two very suitable hashtags to represent the brand of MeTeech: #thishelpedme and #studysharing.
Websites
I have experience building websites on two different platforms: Squarespace and WordPress. (Also, Medium.com for a small amount of time but I won’t be discussing that here.)
Squarespace
The website you’re reading this on was originally built using a platform called Squarespace. It isn’t much but since September, I’ve been writing some blog style content at least once a week and I’ve built a few pages of content over those months.
Aside from the technical details, I definitely feel that the habit of creating content on a regular basis is really beneficial to me. I was recommended this habit in this video by YouTuber Ali Abdaal I have not regretted taking the plunge. I’ll talk about this more in another article.
WordPress
I am building meteech.com using a platform called WordPress. This was after I had gained some experience with Squarespace.
Somewhat confusingly, WordPress has two different sides to it: Wordpress.com is similar to Squarespace while wordpress.org is something entirely different: It has a more technical, ‘back-end’ style customisation.
Here’s an infographic I found to explain the difference. Click here.
Anyhow, I was specifically advised to go for wordpress.org and I blindly went along with that piece of wisdom. - I can really see why now. Particularly in my experience having used both Squarespace and WordPress to build a website the pros and cons are very clear to me:
Comparing the two
I have to say, with both of these websites, there is not a single bit of coding knowledge required which is brilliant.
With websites like Squarespace, the hosting and themes are all taken care of for you and it’s great for posting content on a personal website. However, it will cost you around £10 a month for the most basic membership (if you pay annually) and more desirable features will cost a significant upgrade.
Secondly, the customizability is very limited so you’re quite boxed in with the creative freedom of the website. You can’t move things around freely, it’s very basic and there are no third-party plug-ins. It can be a pain to use sometimes.
On the other hand, on WordPress, you’re given complete freedom in customization. It’s a little more effort to set up your own hosting but it’s almost always cheaper than Squarespace. A simple YouTube search: “WordPress tutorial” and you are well on your way. I found this tutorial very helpful at the start:
Verdict
If you would like to have more control over hosting and customising the website in general then WordPress is the better option.
If you would like a platform purely for writing, for example, your blog, and you don’t want to think much about customising too much beyond that, then Squarespace is your best bet.
The winner? For me, hands down, it’s got to be WordPress.
Conclusions
All in all, I’ve come to see that starting a business is a multi-faceted ordeal. You must develop many different skills in many different areas and there is certainly much more to talk about, perhaps in another article.
Designing a logo was something I kept coming back to until I knew I was happy with it. It’s an arbitrary thing. I will say, you’ll get more and more confident the more you experiment.
The hard part about social media is thinking of what to post. Do some research: Find where your target market exists online. Think about what you want to tell them. Provide them with value.
Building websites can seem daunting but have a look at some tutorials and you’ll have all the information you need. Just like the logo, it won’t be perfect from the start. It’s a work in progress and you’ll soon have something you’re proud of.
A lot of this stuff was frustratingly slow to learn and I wish I had some kind of manual to go by back when I started. If you’re in the same boat I was in, I hope this article helps you.
