Fiddle & Fettle's Building a Website Guide

Copy

The writing of copy for many can be the most difficult part. It's not always easy to write about yourself, your company, it's services or products. But never fear help is at hand with the services of a copy writer.

Some larger design agencies actually employ their own copy writers to help with this. Others will be able to recommend one they work with if they don't do it themselves.

A copy writer will talk through with you and make notes about the contents you want on your website. Also the tone in which you want it said, such as corporate & formal or casual & friendly. They will then be able to write your contents for you or take your written content notes and edit them into copy.

Photo's

Photo's for your website can be either. Ones provided by you / a professional photographer or a stock image service. As most smart phones take photos more than adequate for web use nowadays, you could keep your cost down by taking your own.

If budget isn't a problem or you need help with setting and lighting your products. Then a professional photographer will be well worth the money. If you're lucky your designer may provide this service too. But be sure and check all terms & conditions of use plus copyright ownership. Of any professionally taken image before putting them on the web.

If you don't have a product or premises to take photo's of don't worry there are many services offering 1000's of stock image photo's available. Where you either pay a fix price per photo, a monthly subscription or many offer some images free. You will need to check the terms of use of any photo's provided. With regards to how and where they give permission to use it. Also be aware they can change these terms or remove the use of a photo at anytime.

Images

Creative images are another way to create interest on your website. Some design agencies have their own graphic designers who can provide bespoke graphics. From small icons to full page .svg pictures ( Scalable Vector Graphics ). SVG's have the ability to re-size well on different screen sizes. A very important feature as the majority of people use mobile devices to surf the web nowadays. SVG's also have the added ability to be animated. Though be aware that this can create a slower working page when more bell and whistles are added to it.

Always check that your images have been correctly resized for purpose. As this will also cause page loading problems too.

As you can see above Tom has been collecting content ideas already on his pin board. Including written notes, recipes, photo's and sketches. Some of these he already owned or wrote himself. Some are inspirational things he liked from the internet, magazines and advertising leaflets.

He's currently looking into having a photographer come to his shop to take pictures of his bakery and products. He's also decided to have a go and write his own words for now and see how far he can get with a little help from me.