Last night I was invited to speak at Creative Sydney - a festival celebrating the wealth and diversity of the city’s creative talents.  It was at the beautiful Museum of Contemporary Art where I used to spend my days admiring the art.

When I arrived to an empty room of 350 seats, the nerves started to settle in.

Empty room at the Museum of Contemporary Art

I was then introduced to the other speakers and we had drink to calm the nerves.

Talking to other speakers before the discussion began

Crowd quickly arrives.

Crowd arrives

It was finally my turn to speak and as the spotlight turned to me, it was all systems go.  I explained my role and what Picaholic is all about.

Introduction slide for Picaholic

Then discussed 6 main factors that are vital to your website - which we at Picaholic adhere to.

1. Compelling – The first thing your site needs to be is compelling.  If your site does not leave an impression, your audience will not be interested in hearing from you in person.

Make your website compelling

2. Easy to use - Many creatives fall into the trap that their site needs to be complicated in order to make it engaging.  In reality, users hate guessing, they’re there to see your work - so let them get to it quickly and easily.

Websites should be easy to use

3. Search Engine Friendly - A site that cannot be indexed by major search engines such as Google and Yahoo is simply not a site.  A good site will allow you to index more than just your domain.  It should allow you to index every page as well as all the content within it.

Search engine friendly websites

4. Browser and Screen Compatible - With so many browsers and screen sizes on the market, its important that your site is designed to be optimized on all browsers and different screen sizes.  This is were Flash is an ideal platform as it is compatible with all browsers and its functionality can allow to resize for each screen size.

Websites should all be browser & screen compatible

5. Mobile Enabled - With the popularity of phones such as the iPhone and Blackberry, many of your visitors could potentially visit your site on their mobile, so its vital that your site is mobile enabled.

Websites viewed on mobile phones

6. Integration with live feeds and social media sites - Social Media sites offer powerful marketing opportunities, but most creative people find it difficult to figure out an entrance point from a professional perspective.  Therefore, integration with Social Media sites offers an easy way to let your fans know what you do for money and lets them engage with your content either on your site or on your social page.

Integration with live feeds and social media

It got to the end of the discussion and it was amazing to see the response from the crowd.  I left some flyers behind which went like hotcakes!

A big thank you to everyone at Creative Sydney, it was an amazing experience to be a part of.  If anyone wants to know more information about the event, click here.