Hey there, fellow non-designers! Micki right here, and I need to share my expertise utilizing Squarespace to create my private web site.
Confessions of a Non-Designer
Let’s be actual: I’m not a pure designer. I can recognize lovely design, however creating one thing gorgeous myself? That’s an totally totally different story. I truthfully have the design abilities of a potato, and this has adopted me by numerous features of life, together with the web sites I’ve tried to construct.
I’ve at all times admired superbly designed web sites, however as somebody who doesn’t think about herself a pure designer, I’ve struggled to create visually gorgeous websites myself. It’s not that I can’t acknowledge good design once I see it; I merely don’t have the innate capability to craft one thing lovely from scratch.
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Previous Web site Struggles
Charles and I’ve constructed dozens of internet sites through the years together with ones for ourselves, a couple of for firms and some for family and friends. A few of our hottest embrace this web site TheBarefootNomad, our recipe lavatory TheParentSpot, plus a couple of web sites devoted to serving to vacationers select the right journey insurance coverage (which we’ve since bought or shut down).
Regardless of our greatest efforts and numerous hours invested, none of those web sites turned out as superbly as we had envisioned. Any design enhancements we tried to make had been met with frustration and felt like an uphill battle. The issue has by no means been technical for us, extra of imaginative and prescient.
Discovering Squarespace
After our previous web site struggles, I noticed that having the proper instruments may simply make an enormous distinction. That’s why I made a decision to offer Squarespace a strive for my private web site, MickiKosman.com. I wished an area to share my journey as a journey author, entrepreneur, and storyteller, plus a spot to attach with my viewers in a inventive {and professional} means.
What’s Squarespace, Anyway?
So, you’ve doubtless heard of Squarespace, however what precisely is it?
In a nutshell, it’s an all-in-one platform for constructing web sites. It comes with a bunch of options like skilled templates, a drag-and-drop editor, a content material administration system, running a blog instruments, search engine optimisation stuff, e-commerce choices, and web site internet hosting. Mainly, it’s has a number of the issues that you must create a beautiful web site, multi function place.
Getting Began with Blueprint AI
Signing up for Squarespace was easy. I began with the free 14-day trial and performed round with the Blueprint AI design characteristic. It provided some useful design recommendations primarily based on my web site objectives.
What actually impressed me was Squarespace’s library of customizable templates. There have been loads of engaging designs to select from.
Customizing My Web site
Customizing my web site with Squarespace was a comparatively clean course of. The drag-and-drop interface and numerous options made it straightforward to personalize the design without having coding abilities. I might add, take away, and rearrange components on the web page with only a few clicks.
Discovering the Proper Photographs
One factor that may be time-consuming when constructing a web site is discovering the proper photos.
Squarespace helped with that by providing a collection of inventory photos along with the power to add my very own photographs. I used my very own photographs, however having inventory photographs available might positively save time and problem!
The Finish End result
Inside a few hours, I had a web site that I used to be proud of. Squarespace allowed me, a non-designer, to create a web site that was each visually interesting and purposeful. The built-in options like cell optimization, search engine optimisation instruments, and social media integration weren’t as obvious when designing it however as a web site proprietor, are all extraordinarily useful.
Templates That Look Fairly Darn Good
One factor that stood out to me about Squarespace was the templates. I’ve acquired to confess, they’re fairly straightforward on the eyes. They’ve acquired this clear, skilled vibe happening.
And the cool half is, you may simply choose certainly one of their templates, toss in your individual photographs and textual content, and your web site will look fairly polished. No design abilities wanted!
One other good factor concerning the templates is that they’re responsive. Which means they routinely modify to look good on totally different units, like tablets and telephones. It’s useful as a result of extra folks browse the online on their cell units today than laptops and desktops mixed.
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I used this attractive Waverly template to create my web site. You’ll be able to see a demo of the Waverly template I used right here at Squarespace. You’ll be able to customise types, add options of templates (and extra) while you begin a trial.
Customization Choices
With regards to styling your web site, Squarespace has a good variety of choices. You’ll be able to mess around with the fonts (which is nice should you’re choosy about typography like me), colours, sizes, button types, and all types of different design components. And you are able to do all of this with out touching any code, which is a aid for individuals who aren’t precisely tech wizards.
However, should you do occur to know your means round code, Squarespace does have a Customized CSS part the place you may add your individual coding magic.
Wish to browse some attractive designs? Get some inspiration from among the greatest
designs on the net at their design showcase right here.
Constructed-in Options
One factor to notice about Squarespace is that every thing is baked proper into the platform. You don’t need to go attempting to find plugins or extensions. It’s handy, nevertheless it additionally means you’re restricted to the options they provide.
That being stated, Squarespace does have a fairly good collection of options, particularly for bloggers and small companies. You’ll be able to simply add issues like a weblog, contact type, e-mail signup, picture galleries, occasion calendar, social media buttons, and even a buying cart for promoting merchandise or digital downloads.
Let’s Speak Cash
Now, let’s speak about pricing. Squarespace provides a free 14-day trial, so you may take a look at the waters and see if it’s the proper match for you. After that, you may select from 4 totally different plans: Primary, Core, Plus, or Superior.
If you happen to’re in Canada like me, you may see these plans labeled as Private, Enterprise, Commerce Primary, and Commerce Superior, which I imagine is just the outdated branding for a similar packages provided within the USA.
The Primary plan begins at simply $16 USD per 30 days should you go for annual billing, or $23 USD per 30 days should you desire to pay month-to-month. As what you are promoting grows, you may improve to higher-tier plans that provide much more options and instruments that can assist you succeed on-line.
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The Backside Line
So, is Squarespace the be-all, end-all of web site builders? It has its strengths, just like the engaging templates and built-in options, nevertheless it may not be the proper match for everybody if you’d like excessive flexibility or demand very out-of-the-box designs.
If you happen to’re on the lookout for a platform that’s straightforward to make use of and provides you a professional-looking web site with no ton of problem, Squarespace is certainly value testing.
However hey, that’s simply my two cents primarily based by myself expertise. Your mileage might differ!
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