AMYSA FIELD NOTES

Field notes for business owners

Practical writing on what a website should do for the business behind it, and on the work that still happens by phone.

A customer checking his phone at a shop counter while the owner waits, a price list between them

ANALYSIS5 min read

The Ten-Second Price Test: Can a Stranger Get a Real Number Off Your Website?

Most visitors want one thing before they will speak to you. If your website makes them phone to get it, a good number of them will not phone.

By Amysa · 20 August 2026

Read

A phone ringing on a workbench while a pair of hands keeps working on something else

ANALYSIS5 min read

The Phone Call Your Website Should Have Answered

Every answerable question that arrives by phone costs you twice: once in the time it takes, and once in the people who never bothered to ring.

By Amysa
13 August 2026

A hand-painted list of grocery prices in rand on a spaza shop wall beneath a corrugated roof

PROPOSAL5 min read

Publishing Your Prices, and Why Most Businesses Are Afraid To

The reasons for keeping prices off a website are real. Almost none of them survive contact with the way people actually buy.

By Amysa
6 August 2026

An empty shop with a To Let sign beside a busy shop with customers and produce crates on the pavement

ANALYSIS5 min read

A Beautiful Website Can Be Worth Nothing, and a Plain One Can Be Worth a Great Deal

Design is judged by what it makes easy. A site that looks expensive and does nothing is a brochure that cost more than a brochure.

By Amysa
30 July 2026

Someone marking up a printed page by hand, laptop open and ignored beside them

PROPOSAL5 min read

AI Drafts, Humans Decide: The Only Safe Way to Put AI on Your Website

AI on a business website is fine right up to the moment it answers a customer with something nobody checked.

By Amysa
23 July 2026

A hand resting on a closed filing cabinet drawer in a small office

BUILD5 min read

“Is My Customer Data Training Someone’s Model?” The Question to Ask Before You Sign

Before your customers’ enquiries go into a website with AI in it, one question deserves an answer in writing.

By Amysa
16 July 2026

A suburban guesthouse at night with one lit window

BUILD5 min read

The Booking That Happens at 21:40 on a Saturday

The most valuable hours on a small business website are the hours when nobody is at work.

By Amysa
9 July 2026

A dark shop interior after closing, one small lamp still on at the back

BUILD5 min read

What Happens to the Enquiry That Arrives After You Have Gone Home

An enquiry has a short life. The reply that goes out on Monday morning is often answering a question somebody else has already answered.

By Amysa
2 July 2026

A hardware shop owner and customer chatting at the entrance, with barred windows and a red toolbox inside

BUILD5 min read

Your Website Should Recognise Someone Who Has Been Here Before

Your staff recognise a regular at the door. Most business websites treat the fifth visit exactly like the first.

By Amysa
25 June 2026

A printed brochure lying unopened beside a filled-in paper order book

BUILD5 min read

A Website That Informs and a Website That Transacts Are Different Products

Most small business websites describe the business accurately and leave the visitor with nothing to do except phone.

By Amysa
18 June 2026

A phone, a notepad and a set of keys laid out on a worn workbench

CONTENT5 min read

Three Pillars, Not Thirty Ideas: Planning a Quarter of Content for Your Own Website

A quarter of writing needs a shape. Thirty ideas on a page is a pile, and piles do not get published.

By Amysa
11 June 2026

A tape measure extended across a workbench next to a half-finished job

ANALYSIS5 min read

Before and After Means Nothing Without a Baseline

A rebuild cannot honestly claim an improvement without a baseline. The measuring starts before anybody changes anything.

By Amysa
4 June 2026

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