After years of using WordPress for my website, I switched to Showit 5.  Here’s why I switched and 9 things you need to know before switching to Showit.

First, let me say, I thought I was breaking up with WordPress.  I thought moving over to Showit was going to be the end of updating plugins and not having to worry about using WordPress for designing my webpages and blog.  I was wrong and right.

Showit a true drag and drop editor

I loved the way Showit is a true drag and drop editor and has a blog option.  I didn’t quite understand how the WordPress blog portion of Showit worked.   I anticipated it would become clearer as I understood more about the technology.

There are many stunning designs to select from

I tried the Showit 14-day free trial and liked it.  I quickly realized that I did not want to spend several weeks designing my site.  I used a design template from Megan Martin Creative.  It was clear she understood call-to-action marketing and knew how to create websites that took the user on a journey – from user to buyer.  The next couple of weeks was spent writing copy and finding the right images to use for the site.

You will be blogging in WordPress

When it came time to get more clarity around the blog, it became apparent that my current blog on WordPress was going to the blog within Showit.

That’s a good thing if you have lots of relevant content you wish to include as part of your new site.  If not, this is the time you will want to do some blog house cleaning. In addition, the highest tier of Showit allows for many of the plugins that you used in your WordPress blog to still be activated.  Great for plugin subscriptions that you already paid for and use (Think LeadPages, Scheduling, Yoast Premium, etc.)

9 things you need to know before you switch to Showit

1. You will be blogging in WordPress. 

• • If you already know how to use WordPress for blogging, this will be an easy transition for you.

2. The free and paid designs are great and are true drag and drop. 

• • Showit has free designs that you can use. They also have a great list of designers who have templates ready for you to customize.  You can play with the free version and try them out during your 14-day free trial period.  Using a paid template is as simple as purchasing the template and using a code within Showit – then the template becomes available for your use.

3. The learning curve is fast. 

• • I was able to figure most of the customization intuitively and Googled things I didn’t quite understand. My template also included a class that I watched when the site was 90% ready and then I went back and corrected a few things.  If you customized a template in WordPress, you should easily comprehend Showit.

4. Embed code works with some of the email providers.

• • Test your current email provider embed code during your 14-day free trial. I was able to integrate the embed code from Aweber into the site, so I imagine that most embed code from your email provider should work.

5. Check your current agreements before you purchase.

• • Be sure to know when your current website agreement ends, so you plan your finances better than I did. I was tied into a two-year agreement with GoDaddy for managed WordPress webhosting and was not able to get a refund for the balance of 2019 and 2020.  I will try again.

6. Review you existing plugins and services.

• • You may not need all the services you currently pay for. I was able to cancel LeadPages as creating landing pages in Showit is relatively easy. I didn’t need another service that was similar.  You can also make your landing page using plus sites, a feature Showit offers.

7. Update your blog before you migrate to Showit.

• • You will need to clean up your current blog before you migrate over to Showit. I removed at least 40% of my old content, made new categories and cleaned up my directories.  In order to avoid slowing my site down, I also got rid of old media files that were not being used. This was much needed blog maintenance, but, I wasn’t motivated to do it before.  With the new site, I wanted a simpler user experience.

8. Review all the costs before you purchase.

• • There are hidden fees you need to plan for:
    • Fonts in the template you purchase.
    • Instagram integration applet.
    • You pay for your template AND you pay for Showit.
    • Showit has very little icons, so you may need to purchase usage rights for additional icons. I used the Noun Project.  There are some free services out there, but you really want the embed code to make it work with your colours.
    • For people new to website creation, you will also need to budget for the following:
      • If you want your photos to work best with showit, using Blogstomp makes it easy. That’s another expense.  Highly recommend for any site you use.
      • You must have a privacy policy on your site. Another cost.  I used The Contract Shop.
      • You will need an email provider. Another cost and learning curve.
      • You will need to get Yoast Premium. It comes with Yoast, but Premium is what you need.  Thus, more costs.

9. You will still to understand design and some coding.

• • I was using an excellent WordPress theme called Total plus using a front-end editor called Visual Composer/WP Bakery. Even though the theme required no coding, the editor still required you think about the size of lines and boarders.  Showit still requires you to think about that too.  Having a designer do that for you saves you days, if not weeks.  Because I designed the most recent site myself, using Showit was so much easier to transition to as a platform.

What I like best about Showit

My favourite part of Showit is the canvas approach that allow you save the canvas and update as a master template.  You can also decide what will show up on a mobile device over a desktop experience.

I started the process of looking at Showit and did the free trial mid-February.  I purchased it once my trial ended.  In about 35 days, I was able to launch my new site with new content, new lead magnets, email sequences, new blog posts, and get clear on my service messages.  This includes testing, having an editor review it and having my business mentor give input and have my mastermind group give input.

Would I recommend Showit to others?

Yes!  I resisted working on my old site for way to long.  With Showit, I can’t wait to work on my site.  It’s actually fun.  And when I see an error, I can figure it out and when I can’t, the Showit team responds in the chat window with resources or specific guidance if I need it.

If you are looking for a way to love your site again, I’d recommend looking at Showit as a great solution.  Of course, you will want to consider the 9 things to know before you switch to Showit 5 and evaluate how they impact your decision to move forward.