My Business Website

 Homepage 

For my website theme, I decided to go with a simplistic black and white colour palette, as this is what I saw quite frequently on other music blogs whilst doing my website research. I think it best reflects the professionalism of my site, while also offering some dynamics through the use of font effects and media. My homepage contains a headline with the 'newest' article -which is on a slideshow - another slideshow in the top strip promoting my latest issues, a brief 'about' section which has been placed on the homepage for easy access, some social media links to my business profiles, my logo in the upper left, a 'submissions' button to take you to the submissions page, and a contact strip, which is seen as you scroll down. I also decided to include a 'search; bar, so that content it easy to flick through and find.

Blog

My blog includes all my blog posts, which makes it the most important page on my site as this is the heart of the content. Although I haven't actually made any 'proper' blog posts yet, I used the template as a basis of what I plan to do with it and how I would like to lay it out. Therefore, all that is on this page are the blog posts, as I didn't think that placing anything else on this page would be necessary, as more details are on the other pages.

Contact

My 'contact' page is fairly straightforward, as contact information is already available on the homepage. I included a form which allows readers to submit questions or any general query, of which would be sent to my business email. As well as this, I included some information underneath which contains the company phone number and email, so that those who would like to ask more in-depth questions can either call or email directly, without using the form. Lastly, I also included a button linking to my company Twitter page, to add another form of communication and engagement with the audience in the form of social media, and also to support my social media presence and engagement as my target audience are among the younger generation.

Submissions

The submissions page is probably one of the most engaging pages in terms of audience engagement, as it allows readers to be able to submit their own posts/articles. The form contains boxes for a first name, email, nature of post and a brief overview of what their work includes. This would be sent to my business email, of which I would then communicate directly with the individual to discuss their article, whether or not I will accept it, and requirements that need to be met before publishing. I feel as though this is unique from other blogs as I did not see a submit option on many, if any of them. Plus, this is the most direct and effective way to engage with the audience and build a rapport with them.

Support Us/Donate

Lastly, I felt it was necessary to create a Donations page, due to the fact that financing will be extremely tough, especially in the early days of my business. This allows the audience to donate any amount of money to the business directly if they feel they want to support the blog. Funds from this would go towards my outcome, which includes paying for the website domain, and also saving to begin distributing merch and printed copies once a big enough community has been built. As well as this, I also plan to support some charity campaigns with funding the business will receive, in order to support brand positioning and therefore paint a good name for the business. 

Self-reflection

Looking over my website, I realise that the design can be quite bland to look at after a while, and so this is something that could use some improvement. Moreover, there isn't much use of branding in terms of my logo and themes, as the only appearance my logo makes is on the homepage as a small image. Thus, it will be necessary to distribute my logo throughout the website on other pages, to create a better brand recognition. Moreover, I will probably make it more centralised on the homepage, so that it is the first thing the audience will see when they click on the website I will also eventually add more content as I create posts on the blog, as at the moment I've put fake articles on the homepage and blog to set a guideline for what I would like to do eventually. Lastly, I need to include more media in the form of images and videos as the visual appeal of my site is lacking. Again, these are things that can be added as my business is more active. For example, if I do an interview, I could include a short clip from the interview on my homepage to add visual appeal and to also add more content.