Your first website with Dawn Studio, step by step

This walk-through builds a website for a made-up business, a cake shop called Sweet Mama in Kigali. Swap in your own. Every step works the same on a phone and on a laptop.

1. Write what you need

Go to dawnstackai.com and type into the box. The more of these you include, the closer the first version will be:

• What you sell, in your words: “birthday cakes, wedding cakes and cupcakes”.
• Where you are: “Kimihurura, Kigali”.
• Prices, if you are happy to show them: “birthday cakes from RWF 25,000”.
• How customers reach you: “they order on WhatsApp, 0788 000 000”.
• One thing that makes you different: “we deliver on Saturdays”.

For example:

A website for my cake shop Sweet Mama in Kimihurura, Kigali. We bake birthday cakes from RWF 25,000, wedding cakes and cupcakes. Customers order on WhatsApp, 0788 000 000, and we deliver on Saturdays.

Press Start. If you are not signed in yet, you sign in once first, with Google or an email link.

Write facts, not adjectives. “Delicious cakes made with love” tells Studio nothing it can put on a page. “Three sizes, vanilla or chocolate, order two days ahead” does. Studio will not invent a fact it does not have: if you leave out your hours, the site will not show hours. It will ask for them.

2. Answer the questions

Studio asks a few quick questions, and each one is a tap:

• Your business name. It fills this in from your words, so check the spelling.
• How customers reach you. Tick every way that works. The first one becomes the main button.
• How it should sound. Warm and friendly, plain and professional, and a few more, each with a sample line so you can hear the difference.
• Photos. Add photos of your cakes, your shop or your team. Photos taken on your phone are made smaller on your phone before they are sent, so a slow connection is fine. No photos yet? Search the free stock photos inside Studio, or skip this step.

If you already made something for the same business, Studio asks whether to use the same look and voice. Say yes and the new site matches the old one.

3. Pick a design

Studio shows you designs made for your business, each with its own layout, colours and type. Pick the one that feels most like you. If you cannot decide, press “Surprise me”.

The build starts. The first version takes a few minutes. You can follow along in the chat: Studio says what it is doing as it goes.

4. Change it by asking

When the first version appears beside the chat, look at it on your phone first. That is where most of your customers will see it.

Then ask for changes in plain words, one or two at a time:

• “Put the WhatsApp button at the top.”
• “Show the cake prices in a list, smallest first.”
• “Use the photo of the chocolate cake at the top.”
• “Make it sound less formal.”

A few things help:

• Say what, not how. “The prices are hard to find” works as well as a precise instruction.
• Answer Studio’s questions. When it needs something from you, it ends its reply with a question and tap answers, and lists what it is waiting for above the chat box.
• Try again is one tap. If a change came out wrong, press “Try again”. Studio takes that change out and makes it again.
• Check the cost. After each change, the chat shows what it cost, taken from your balance.

5. Publish

Press Publish. Choose your address: Studio suggests one from your business name, like sweet-mama.dawnstackai.com, and tells you straight away whether it is free. Some addresses are not available, such as names that look like a bank, a mobile-money service or a government office.

Once it is live, copy the address and share it: on your WhatsApp status, on your Instagram bio, on a sign in your shop. Every page carries a small “Made with Dawnstack” line at the bottom.

Changes you make after publishing are not public until you press Publish changes. You can also take the site offline at any time. The address stays yours.

What next

Make a flyer or a WhatsApp status post that matches your new site: see Flyers and WhatsApp status posts with Dawn Studio.