29 Jul 2024
WHAT’S THE POINT?
Why Have a Website?
Begin with the end in mind
What’s the Point of Having a Website?
Fair question. I created my first blog in 2009. It was a failure. The intended purpose was to share photos and memories with family members. I tried to make it interesting, but my take-away was no matter how engaging I tried to be, family members wouldn’t take time to visit a family-photo website.
In 2010, I began working as a free-lance event photographer and soon began doing digital photo restorations. Needing a way to provide sharable sneak previews with clients, I took the failed family blog and turned it into an “Art of Recollection” portfolio site.
Then when life took an unexpected but delightful change – the arrival of our first grandbaby #theadorablechild – I no longer wanted to sit at the computer for hours on end doing photographic work for clients. I loved my clients. I loved working or them, but my priorities had shifted. I stopped doing work for others, and, now without purpose, my website languished.
Volunteer Technologist
In 2016, I began volunteering with Daughters of the American Revolution in the area of technology. I had a solid tech background beginning with bits and bytes and punch cards, continuing to WordPress and server-side support. I spent 7 years creating WordPress websites for local chapters of the DAR. In addition, I became the social media manager for a chapter and then part of a team managing social content for our state society.
That experience required careful thought and consideration to the purpose of websites.
Holiday Epiphany
I struggled with some of the content requirements defined by our national society. At the time I saw one primary reason to maintain a website presence: sales. DAR chapters don’t sell product. If we don’t sell product, then what’s the point of a website?
My husband was a CIO for a large non-profit and over the holidays that year, he suggested I read Driving Digital Strategy. Gradually, I began to see websites differently.
Website Purposes
There are different reasons for having a website. Sales is an obvious reason as is brand recognition and promotion. Promotional sites are like beautiful, attention-getting, glossy ads.
Another purpose is for the dissemination of information. Informational sites and more like pages with a table of contents and index.
I have no plans to sell either products or services. It isn’t necessary that I promote brand recognition. For months, I debated whether to even keep the website active.
Enter Instagram
When I started sharing family history information on Instagram in 2020, I did so after giving careful consideration to my reasons for making the effort. I took time to define my target audience, the type of content I thought would be engaging and sustainable, along with a clearly defined desired outcome.
And even though my family wasn’t especially interested in our family’s history, the pandemic was a good opportunity for me to make progress sorting and sifting the tubs of old family photos and memorabilia. I figured some of what I encountered through that process just might be interest family.
Since I knew family would not visit a website for information, I decided to try sharing on Instagram and see what happened. After all, our nextgen family were regular Instagram users, maybe if family history information magically appears in their feeds, on a platform they already use, maybe they will become interested. Surprisingly, that worked!
“To begin with the end in mind means to start with a clear understanding of your destination. It means to know where you’re going so that you better understand where you are now and so that the steps you take are always in the right direction.
~Stephen Covey, 7 Habits
With Instagram proving successful for family history “snacks”, I continued reevaluating my Art of Recollection website. I went through the same process of clarifying my target audience, content/purpose, and the desired outcome.
Begin with the end in mind
Beginning with the end in mind, I concluded the website will be successful if it organizes family history information in a manner than makes sense to future generations. It will be equally successful if those who become responsible for it in the future simply choose to export content and store it off line. It is somewhat like an index to the physical files and folders in my home as well as my cloud-based storage. This website provides context.
Therefore, success isn’t dependent on traffic or conversions. It isn’t driven by ads or sponsored content.
Definition of Success
Too often we define success by the number of followers we have, the amount of money we make, by prestige or by power. Success, at its most basic, is simply “the accomplishment of an aim or purpose.” My aim, my purpose for the website for Art of Recollection is to create a contextual, attractive, sometimes fun compilation of family history information. Some information is prepared to be public-facing. Some is reserved for family members.
I decided to consider Art of Recollection a success independent of traffic or conversions. Successful without being driven by ads or sponsored content. If I build a full-bodied informational website, providing interesting stories, photos, and links for those who will inherit my work; if I provide attractive, relational context for the genealogical information I’ve collected; if I have fun – well, that right there is success!
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