Auto news on Youtube Dec 15 2018

Hey everyone, my name is Aja Dang

and I have a YouTube channel called Aja Dang

where we talk about everything

from finances, student loan debt,

to body issues, to skincare, natural beauty

and just overall how to feel really good about yourself.

I've had my website with Squarespace for a couple years now

and throughout the years,

my website, as well as my career,

has changed and evolved and now,

I need something totally different

than what I needed when I first launched my website.

Currently, I needed a website

that not only shows off photography,

but also shares my favorite product recommendations,

has an awesome, easy to navigate storefront

and also has a way for my followers to connect with me.

I recently started to sell merchandise on my website

and I needed an online store

that not only was easy to navigate

but showed off my products in a premium way

as well as explaining that proceeds

of the sales of my products

go to some of my favorite charities

and Squarespace is the perfect all in one platform

to display all of these.

Your website should be an extension of you

and feature everything you want to show your audience.

If you're looking to jump into online commerce,

you absolutely need an online store

that allows you to sell your products

while representing your style, brand

and vision to the world.

This is exactly why Squarespace

was perfect for my online store.

I wanted a website that gives visitors a glimpse of who I am

and what my brand is while allowing me

to sell my products, update inventory,

manage orders, stay in touch with my audience

and keep an eye on the data Squarespace analytics gives me

about my website.

Squarespace offers all of these tools and more

and it all starts with choosing the right template.

Squarespace offers such beautiful templates to get started,

that no matter what industry your business is in,

they have the perfect template for you.

If you head over to squarespace.com/templates/online-stores,

you can see for yourself.

Now my website it the template Marta

and I love it, but please makes sure

to choose one that fits you best.

The template is just a starting point

and if you decided later on that another template fits

your online store slightly better,

you can easily switch at any point.

I wanted my visitors to be able to navigate

through my site quickly without having them click

on a lot of pages.

That's why my website utilizes the Index Page feature

from Squarespace and here's how to build it.

Navigate to your home menu and click Pages.

Click the plus icon and then click Index.

Give your Index a title and hit enter.

Hover over the Index and click the gear icon

to adjust the Index's page settings.

Within the page's panel, click the plus icon

within your Index.

Here's where you add any images or blocks

that you want to show your visitors

from the moment they land on your site.

Within my homepage Index is an Image Block

for A Woman's Worth.

I go into more detail later in the video

but this was created by making an Image Block,

uploading a photo and selecting the Overlap feature

in the Design tab.

A button was added that takes the visitor directly

to my online store.

So the index can act as a preview

for the larger features of the site.

Site Styles, also known as the Style Editor,

is a great tool to learn early on

so the tone of your site is established,

allowing you to focus on the content of your site later.

Choosing the right template gets you started

but tweaking elements in the Site Styles panel

is where your website really starts to come to life.

For example, I really wanted a classical looking font

for my logo and other places across my site.

That's why the font Minerva Modern was chosen.

I think it looks like the spread of a fashion magazine

while keeping everything simple and stylish.

You see my name at the top of the page?

I want to make it a little more prominent.

Now don't let all the options

in the Site Styles panel freak you out.

It's a good thing you have so much control over

all of your elements.

What's even better is that Squarespace makes it easier

for the users to quickly navigate

to the elements they want to change.

Watch this.

When my name is clicked, those design elements appear

in the panel so I find it faster.

Now that the element is clicked,

adjusting the size of the font

is very simple and straightforward.

Make sure to explore Site Styles when building your website.

Now once you get the hang of Site Styles,

you can make changes to other elements

of your site's appearance.

You can copy and paste certain colors

to make sure the color scheme is carried across the site.

You can change the fonts and spacing of certain headings.

Just so you know,

different templates offer different options

in the Sites Style's panel.

Squarespace offers great ways

to control several aspects of your site

but minimizes the work involved in doing it.

All right, now let's shift to the main focus

of this video, showing you how to build an online store.

Squarespace makes it very easy

to add products to your online store.

It doesn't matter if you're selling a physical product,

digital product, service product, or even a gift card.

Squarespace has you and your business covered.

What you want to do is create a products page

to display all of the items you plan on selling.

In order to do this, in your home menu,

click Pages and then click the plus icon

to add the Products page.

Select Products from the menu.

Give your Products page a title and then hit enter.

There are actually two different ways

to add products to sell.

The first is adding them directly to the Products page,

which is what we'll do be doing

but you can also add them to the Inventory panel

which we'll go over in just a little bit.

On your products page, click the plus icon

and select what kind of product it is.

Since my site sells tee shirts, this is a physical product.

In the next window,

you are able to supply all the information

about your item in one place to get it ready to sell.

In the item tab, you can add images

of your product,

the title,

price,

and description.

If you want to include multiple angles,

Squarespace allows you to upload multiple images

for the product.

Within this window, you can add Tags and Categories

to organize all of your products.

This way, visitors can navigate to other items you sell

by clicking on a category navigation link

or by searching for a tag.

More than likely, you have at least one

or more social media accounts attached

to you or your business.

Squarespace allows you to connect your social media accounts

on this window so whenever you add a product,

all of your followers know it immediately.

We'll get to connecting social media in just a bit.

When you're ready, you can hit save and publish.

Once published, this sets the product

as available for purchase.

Earlier I mentioned that there was another way

to add products to your product pages

and that's through your Inventory panel.

It is helpful if you have more than one product page

at this point, so you're gonna go ahead

and create a new one real fast.

Just like before, in the home menu,

click Pages and then click the plus icon

to add the Products page.

Give your Products page a different title

and then hit enter.

Now go back to the home menu and click Inventory.

This is a great tool to manage all

of your inventory across your entire store.

Click on add product and select

which product page your product will be added to.

Just like before, all you need to do is follow the steps

and fill out all of the information about your product.

Even though Squarespace makes it easy

for your customers to checkout,

I wanna go over a few things really fast

so you're aware of the options you have at your fingertips.

You can add a Mailing List option to checkout

so customers can stay subscribed

to any updates about your business.

You can enable Express Checkout.

This way, a customer can go directly to checkout

on each item, rather than adding it to a cart.

You can even change where your customers

are directed on your site

if they click the "Continue Shopping" link.

To make sure everything is working properly

and to get an idea of what checkout

will be like for your customers,

you can go into Test Mode.

In your home menu, click Payments.

Click on Test Mode so the toggle is on

and then click Save.

When you add a product to your cart and go to checkout,

Test Mode will appear in the banner

and a test credit card number will automatically populate.

Go through the necessary steps to complete the order

and you can then see it in your Orders panel.

When you're done, go back to the home menu,

click Settings, then Payments,

and Test Mode to make sure to click the toggle off.

Then click Save.

Each time a customer orders something

from your Squarespace online store,

you'll get a notification via email

or you can download the Squarespace commerce app

to get push notifications to your phone.

These notifications will include the billing information,

shipping information, item details

and any information submitted through product

or checkout forms.

To manage your order, go to Home Menu

and click Commerce, then click Orders.

Once you find the order, click to open it.

When your order has been sent,

you can hit Mark Fulfilled.

Squarespace offers an automatic email option

to send to your customers, notifying them

that the order has been fulfilled.

To do this, leave "Send Order Fulfilled Notification" checked

and the email will be sent immediately.

If the order is a physical product,

this is where you can include a tracking number

so your customer knows when to expect delivery.

I cannot stress this enough

but every person with a Squarespace site

has a tool that they might not be aware of

and that is Analytics.

Squarespace offers their users super detailed information

about the visitors that come to their website

and how they interact with your online store.

Go to the home menu and select Analytics.

Here's where you can find out how many visitors you've had,

if these visitors are new or returning,

which of your pages gets the most hits,

what's the most popular content on your site and more.

The data that Analytics provides

can help target new audiences

and help maintain the audiences

that are already coming to your site.

One of my favorite things is clicking on Geography

so I can see where visitors are based

and this lets me know just how far the Aja Dang brand

is reaching in the world.

You can increase your website's visibility

by using Squarespace's Search Engine Optimization,

also known as SEO.

A good way to think about it is what terms

or keywords would you use when looking online

for something specific and then work from there.

Once you have a list of keywords that could drive traffic

to your site through a search engine,

consider placing them naturally in text

that provides relevant details about the site.

If you are a business selling online

and in a physical location,

make sure you list your business address on your site.

You can do this in more than one way.

The first is through Map Blocks.

On a page, click an insert point

and select Map from the menu.

From here, a map displays.

This allows you to add an exact address

which is represented on the map shown.

You can also add your business address

through the business information window.

Go to the home menu, click Settings,

and then Business Information.

From here, you can add the name

and address in the fields provided.

The address added here will appear

in your order emails sent to customers.

Incorporating social media into your Squarespace site

is very simple.

It's great to add an Instagram block to my page

so whenever I upload something new to Instagram,

my website is automatically updated

without me having to manually add a photo.

The first thing you'll need to do

is head on over to your home menu and click Settings.

Click on Connected Accounts and then Connect Account.

Select Instagram from the social accounts menu

and from there, you'll need

to login using your Instagram username and password.

Just so you know, you can do the same thing

with your Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr,

LinkedIn, Facebook and even Snapchat accounts.

Once you have your Instagram account connected,

go to the page where you want

to feature your Instagram photos.

Select an insert point

and scroll down the menu to Social Blocks.

There, you select Instagram and click.

Squarespace has done a great job

of giving options for how these photos are displayed.

In the Design tab, there are four options:

Slideshow,

Carousel,

Grid,

and Stacked.

Let's say you want your visitors to go directly

to your social media pages

instead of viewing them as blocks on your site.

For example, on my site, there are different image blocks

that link directly to my Twitter,

Instagram and YouTube accounts.

This is done with Click-Through URLs.

Go to a page and click an insert point

and then click Image Block from the menu.

Upload or add your image in the window

and then click the Design tab.

Scroll to Click-Through URL

and add the URL link you want your visitors directed to.

If you want the link to pop-up in a new window,

make sure you click the "Open in New Window" option.

Click apply and now the photos you add

to your site are active.

That's it!

Believe me, I know building a website

might seem super intimidating

but throughout this process, I want you to have fun

and I also want you to know

that you can build the website of your dreams.

You just need to play around

with some of Squarespace's features to get there.

Now head over to Squarespace's YouTube channel

at youtube.com/squarespace

to learn more about Squarespace

and how they can help you get started on your own website

and if you currently have a website using Squarespace,

share that with us in the comment section.

I'm sure your website will inspire a whole bunch of people

to launch theirs.

If you wanna hangout with me more,

head over to my YouTube channel,

youtube.com/ajadang.

Click the subscribe button, not only on my channel

but also on Squarespace's channel

to keep up to date on all our uploaded videos.

Squarespace, thank you so much

for allowing me to share my website

and my process with your viewers

and I hope this video inspires some of you all

to build your dream website.

Thanks for watching.

Bye.