module five
Hi, it’s me again!
Module five is my favorite one because things will start to make sense and fall into place. This is what you will be working on:
I will explain more about copyright and using visual content for your website.
To Blog or not to Blog? A question you need to think about.
You're going to connect all your social media channels to your website.
...and connect your e-commerce to your offerings if you have them.
Be wild; that is how to clear the river. The river does not flow in polluted, we manage that. The river does not dry up, we block it. If we want to allow it its freedom, we have to allow our ideational lives to be let loose, to stream, letting anything come, initially censoring nothing. That is creative life. It is made up of divine paradox.”
— Clarissa Pinkola Estés
Visual content.
What’s the deal with copyright?
Copyright is a form of legal protection automatically provided to the authors of “original works of authorship,” including literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works. U.S. copyright law generally gives the author/creator or owner of an original creative work an exclusive right to:
- Reproduce (copy) or distribute the original work to the public.
- Create new works based upon the original work.
- Perform or display the work publicly.
Violation of one of these rights is called copyright infringement.
What types of works are protected by copyright?
Literary works
Music and lyrics
Dramatic works and music
Pantomimes and choreographic works
Photographs, graphics, paintings and sculptural works
Motion pictures and other audiovisual works
Video games and computer software
Audio recordings
Architectural works
So basically as soon as your idea (which is not copyrightable), is being express in a fixed form — as a digital painting, recorded song, or even scribbled on a napkin — it is automatically copyrighted if it is an original work of authorship.
Now social media has certainly caused some confusion around image rights, but copyright law is there to protect a photographer’s intellectual property and to prevent others taking the credit for their hard work. It’s great that people are now uploading their images via channels like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest, and we should celebrate such work by sharing/engaging with it, however it is vital to make sure the originator is credited.
In my personal opinion, sharing a info-graphic or quote picture on Facebook without giving credit is not really a big deal, we all do it every now and then. But I really advice that when you are sharing artwork like paintings, photography or poems on your social media to take the extra step and find and credit the owner. And when it comes to the photography for your website, make sure that you use your own photography, free stock photography or stock photography that you have paid for.
Do I need a disclaimer on my website?
Having a disclaimer on your website is always a good idea. Especially if you are going to be giving advice regarding health! There are lots of websites where you can create a disclaimer for free in less than a minute! You can check out the website I used by clicking here and create a disclaimer of your own.
How do I protect my own work?
When it comes to protecting your own artwork I would recommend that you always display a copyright notice like "Copyright © 2024 Your Name. All rights reserved” to your website.
To blog or not to blog?
I personally think that blogging is a great way to connect to your followers and to keep your website fresh and interesting with new material. If blogging is the right thing for you depends on a couple things.
Are you selling products or services on your website? Because if you are, you want people to come back to your website to check out your new awesome offerings. And blogging as a way to accomplish just that.
Will you be sending out a newsletter? If yes, you need to find a way to receive email addresses from your followers and your beautiful blog posts might be exactly what they want to receive in their mailbox.
Will your website be the main place to go when your followers want to see what you have been up to? If you are very active on social media, then you will probably have the most connections happening over there, or do you want your website to do most of the “talking.”
Do you have enough content to keep writing blog posts? It is important that if you commit to blogging, that you can keep up with writing new material. Two to four blog posts per month, or a weekly set day has been the sweet spot in my experience. So if you say yes to blogging, make sure that you can come up with new content.
And most importantly…do you like to write? This should actually be the first question you should ask yourself. If writing is not your thing, blogging is going to be challenging and I would recommend that you stick to writing smaller social media posts. But if you long to share your writing with the world, BLOG!
this is your online space
and you don’t have to stick to anyone’s rules or expectations
Time to write.
Things are getting real now. If you decided that blogging is your thing, then please take some time to write your very first blog post. Save it in a word file or text editor so you can publish it on your website on the day of your launch!
Connect with the world.
Now let's connect you to the outside world! I'm going to walk you through the steps to connect all your social media accounts to your squarespace website. If you are on another platform, google the tutorial to see how it’s done.
First log into your Squarespace account.
In the sidebar on the left click settings -> social links.
Click on the button "Connect link or email.”
Follow the instructions on your screen.
Do the same thing under “Third Party Tools.”
Connect to your bank account.
Stripe is a integrated payment program in Squarespace and in order to make use of the e-commerce (sell products or services) on your website you need to connect you bank account to Stripe. If someone orders something from your website, Stripe will then take care of the payment and transfer the money into you bank account. If you are going to take orders through your website, you can set up stripe by following the below instructions.
First log into your Squarespace account.
In the sidebar on the left click settings -> selling.
Click on the button "Payments" and follow the instructions.
Connected your bank account and other payment options of your choice.
Module Five Homework.
Your blog. If you decided to add a blog to your website, this is the moment to start thinking about content, topic ideas and have some writing sessions.
Your launch post. Write your first blog post geared towards the launch of your website.
Connect with the world. Connect all your social media platform links to your website.
Income stream setup. Connect your bank account to the website if you will be putting up offerings.
Offerings. Now write sales content for your offerings and create your store. This will be different for each platform, here is a walk-through for Squarespace.
