Digital Masters - Growing Your Web Dev Business: Recent Episodes
Marisa VanSkiver, Captain Coder
Are you struggling to get the prices for websites you need to be profitable? Do you feel like you’re constantly fighting to be the lowest bid so you’ll be picked? What can you do to have the freedom and revenue you’ve always wanted? Each week, I’ll take you through actionable strategies I’ve learned in my 16+ years of building websites and digital marketing that will allow you to add value and recurring revenue to your own business. You’ll stop hearing price objections and you’ll be able to increase your price points with every proposal you send.
You want your website to make you money, right?
Of course you do! If you want your website to generate revenue, it needs to be set up to convert.
How do you do that?
You have compelling copy that leads them to some kind of action.
One of the best ways to write copy that converts is to focus on accessibility and inclusion. When your copy speaks to everyone, you can reach your entire audience.
Let’s break down how to improve your copy and increase conversions.
MENTIONED RESOURCES:
- Free Buyer Persona Template
- Hemingway
- Grammarly
FREE RESOURCE: Create Accessible Content
Follow me on Instagram: @captaincoder
If you’re in marketing, you’ve probably heard people talk about how your website needs to comply with ADA standards.
Web accessibility isn’t just a buzzword. It’s a practice that everyone in the marketing world should follow—for their websites, social media, and all marketing.
To be blunt, making your content more accessible can be an investment. Many businesses have put it off, thinking that it doesn’t really “apply” to them.
That’s not the case. Providing an excellent experience for all of your customers is incredibly important.
And yet, I understand that you have to go to your boss and get the budget to transform your website and invest in new processes.
In today’s episode, we’re breaking down the business case for web accessibility, including:
- What web accessibility is
- Why web accessibility matters to your business
- The cost of getting accessible
- Making it a priority
MENTIONED RESOURCES:
FREE RESOURCE: Create Accessible Content
Follow me on Instagram: @captaincoder
For a business like yours, your website is your storefront, pitch, and even the gateway to building trust with potential clients.
I’ve been building websites for decades, but distilling an entire business into just a few pages is hard.
You want your potential customers to be able to learn enough about your business that they know who they might be working with, make it easy for them to reach out and start a relationship, and get steady new traffic from Google.
How can you possibly organize all of that information?
In this guide, we’ll dive into the six essential website pages you need to craft a compelling online presence. We'll explore how each page contributes to attracting, educating, and converting leads, ultimately turning website visitors into loyal customers.
MENTIONED RESOURCES:
Get a Privacy Policy template
FREE RESOURCE: Create accessible content easily
Follow me on Instagram: @captaincoder
Imagine a website that perfectly integrates with your marketing strategy and drives more leads. Does that feel impossible?
It can be hard, especially when today’s trend seems to be cookie-cutter themes and everyone’s websites look the same.
But what your website looks like matters. According to Stanford University, 75% of people judge a company's credibility based on its website's design.
Do you want to risk your reputation and sales because you took a shortcut with a popular template?
I didn’t think so.
Ditch the theme everyone else is using. A custom WordPress website is an investment that delivers significant ROI through improved SEO, web accessibility, flexibility, security, and a unique brand experience.
In this post, we’ll cover:
The ROI of a custom WordPress website
How its advanced security protects your brand and customers
And the power of a unique online presence
FREE RESOURCE: Create accessible content easily
Follow me on Instagram: @captaincoder
AI has made it easy to add some personalization to our marketing, be more efficient (which is great when you’re a one-person team), and create content far more quickly than we might have been used to.
But how do we use AI and still keep that human touch?
I’m not sure there will ever be a day that our use of AI doesn’t need oversight. After all, it’s only as good as the people training it. That can lead to biases, misunderstandings, and false information (or as Chat GPT calls them, “hallucinations.”)
Let’s break down how you can use AI to make your life easier but use it responsibly.
MENTIONED RESOURCES:
Google Gemini
Surfer SEO
RankIQ
Brand Voice Chat GPT Process
FREE RESOURCE: Create Content in Minutes with AI
Follow me on Instagram: @captaincoder
Can everyone use your website and the content you create, or are you excluding up to 27% of your audience?
When you focus on creating content that all people can access, regardless of their abilities, you’re working to improve your web accessibility. On the flip side, when you don’t follow some basic best practices, you’re not just excluding potential customers; you’re putting your business at legal risk.
Just a chilling fact for you - there were thousands of lawsuits filed against website owners last year for accessibility issues.
How can you improve your web accessibility and ensure your content is user-friendly every time (and get that lawsuit target off your back)?
The sad reality is that it’s a pretty simple process to make vast improvements to your website accessibility, and yet it gets neglected far too often.
Let’s break down five steps you should take when creating content for your website.
MENTIONED RESOURCES:
AHrefs ALT Text Tool
Wordcounter.net
Grammarly
WebAim’s free contrast checker
Captions App
Rev.com
Pave PDF
FREE RESOURCE: Create Accessible Content
Follow me on Instagram: @captaincoder
Have you heard this lately: “We need more leads.”
In marketing, we often focus on getting new leads and customers into your business, but what about the leads you already have? It’s time to think about boosting your customer retention and bringing them back over and over again.
Keeping happy customers is the best way to grow a business. Repeat customers spend an average of 67% more than new customers and it’s five times more expensive to get new customers than it is to retain the ones we have.
So why aren’t we taking care of our customers and selling them more?
Let’s break down five strategies you can implement in your business to cultivate customer loyalty.
FREE RESOURCE: Get more leads from your website
Follow me on Instagram: @captaincoder
Have you been asking yourself whether or not you’re cut out for entrepreneurship? Fun fact - everyone is cut out for it - if they want to be.
I know that choosing to run your own business is not the easiest decision. Honestly, I think being a small business owner is one of the hardest things any of us could choose to do. But if you have a solid vision for your business and what entrepreneurship will look like to you, it becomes a whole lot easier.
In this episode, Liz Wolfe and I are unpacking everything you need to keep in mind when you’re running your new business.
You’ll learn:
- Her own unusual journey into entrepreneurship
- What most new entrepreneurs get wrong
- The four entrepreneur personality types
- Where new entrepreneurs should start
- Liz’s system for new entrepreneurs
- Why visioning works
- How to start on your own
MENTIONED RESOURCES:
Liz’s CEO Personality Quiz - https://lizwolfecoaching.com/resources/quiz/
Brendon Burchard The Millionaire Messenger - https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Messenger-Difference-Fortune-Sharing/dp/1451665997/
Mrs. Space Cadet video - https://www.tiktok.com/@mrs.space.cadet/video/7339671823715503406
FREE RESOURCE: Get more leads from your website
Follow me on Instagram: @captaincoder
Having a blog for your business is a great way to bring targeted traffic to your website. However, the average blog (without AI assistance) takes about 5-6 hours to write and get on your website.
Want to get the most out of that investment? It’s time to repurpose your blog articles.
Repurposing, or transforming your blog content into other formats like social media snippets, infographics, or videos, allows you to extend its reach, engage diverse audiences across different channels, and maximize the value you get from your initial investment.
How do you break up a long blog post and make it palatable for these other platforms so you get reach?
Let’s take a look at six ways we can do just that, including:
- Turning into audio
- Making a video
- How to make it multiple social posts
- Using it for an email
- Creating downloadable resources
- And transforming it into a visual asset
MENTIONED RESOURCES:
Streamyard
Descript
FREE RESOURCE: Get more leads from your website
Follow me on Instagram: @captaincoder
The first result on Google gets 39.8% of the clicks, but that can feel like an impossible task in 2024. There’s so much competition.
But there’s one thing you might be overlooking because it feels like “no one reads them” anymore - blogging.
Blogging has long been and still is one of the most effective ways to improve your SEO and climb the Google rankings.
Let’s talk about how you can make blogging an effective tool in your SEO belt.
In this episode, we’re breaking down:
The magic of SEO
How blogging supercharges SEO
5 steps to writing blogs that rank
And a freebie to get you started
MENTIONED RESOURCES:
Episode 79 - SEO Secrets that Generate Revenue
AHrefs free Keyword Generator
FREE RESOURCE: Write blogs that rank checklist
Follow me on Instagram: @captaincoder
On a scale of one to “Why did I start a business,” how burned out are you right now?
You started your business because you were GREAT at what you do. But you didn’t start it because you wanted to do all the admin work of running your business.
Many entrepreneurs and business owners are convinced that even though they hate it, no one can do things in their business quite like they can.
Want to love your business AND scale it? It’s time to delegate the things that are sucking the life out of you.
Cathy Baillargeon and I are opening up your mind to the many possibilities that you have in getting help in your business.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
- The signs it’s time to delegate
- Common excuses to not
- How a VA differs from employees
- Common delegation misunderstandings (and why they’re wrong)
- How to make delegation easier
- The hidden value of delegation
- What you can get help with
- And the real results of asking for help
MENTIONED RESOURCES:
Virtual Cathy
Virtual Cathy on Instagram
Virtual Cathy on Facebook
Virtual Cathy YouTube
The E-Myth Revisited
FREE RESOURCE: Get more leads from your website
Follow me on Instagram: @captaincoder
Unless you have a monopoly in what you do or you never want to grow your business beyond where you are right now, you need a website.
Even if you’re rocking sales with DMs and simple landing pages, you need a website that builds trust in your business.
Don’t believe me? I get it. I talk to people all day long who think they don’t need a website anymore.
But let me tell you - without one, you’re putting your business at risk.
Let’s break down the 4 big reasons you still need a website, including:
- It’s your home online - that you own
- How it builds trust - even with referrals
- How it can bring people to you
- And act as your silent salesperson
MENTIONED RESOURCES:
Captain Coder Podcast - Ep 079
Captain Coder Podcast - Ep 081
FREE RESOURCE: Get more leads from your website
Follow me on Instagram: @captaincoder
Are people buying from your website? Selling online - even when you’re selling services - requires high-converting sales pages.
Unlike many of the pages on your website, a sales page attempts to convert someone from a mere visitor to actual revenue.
How do you take someone from voyeur to willing to hand over some of their cold-hard cash? You have to take them through a process that ends with them signing up to be your client.
That also means your sales pages need to convert and generate revenue.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
- The key elements to a sales page
- How to dial in your messaging
- How to have your other clients sell for you
- How to make purchasing seamless
- How to use design to your advantage
- How bonuses give you a boost
- And real-world statistics of what’s possible
MENTIONED RESOURCES:
AHRefs Keyword Generator
FREE Canva Template - Dream Client Persona
Leads Growth Strategy Workshop
FREE RESOURCE: Get more leads from your website
Follow me on Instagram: @captaincoder
How do you keep growing and achieve sustainable growth online? How do those big gurus making a million plus keep their business growing, getting in front of more and more people?
You need to follow the same best practices they do.
If you want your business to grow online, it’s not about the tactics. It’s about the underlying choices of “why” you choose to do what you do.
The online world changes so fast that something that worked last week might not work tomorrow. But if you have a roadmap that tells you how to think, you’ll be able to make those shifts with confidence.
Want to know what you need to do? Let’s unpack the basic roadmap to sustainable growth online.
In this episode, you’ll learn how to:
- Get your ideal customer’s attention
- Express your unique value
- Show off the transformations you achieve
- Build trust
- And connect on a human level
MENTIONED RESOURCES:
Your Leads Growth Strategy Roadmap
Episode 78 - 5 Powerful Tactics to Attract Your Dream Clients
Free Buyer Persona Canva Template
FREE RESOURCE: Get more leads from your website
Follow me on Instagram: @captaincoder
Have you been putting SEO on the back burner because it feels like it’s too hard to mess with?
Let me tell you the secret about SEO - it’s one of the easiest things you can do for your business. It just takes a little bit of time but that’s well worth the investment.
Generating consistent revenue in your business is possible when you’re investing a bit of time and energy into your SEO.
In this episode, SEO expert Lauren Gaggioli and I are unpacking everything you need to know to start SEO with your business and the small, next best steps you need to take to make this all a reality.
You’ll learn:
- Lauren’s background in SEO
- How Google drives revenue through SEO
- The biggest misunderstandings
- The time it will take for SEO to work
- How you can implement SEO in your business
- How to choose keywords
- The competition you need to understand
- How to link everything internally
- And the foundation you need
MENTIONED RESOURCES:
Find Lauren Gaggioli online
Lauren’s DIY Website Audit
AHrefs Keyword Generator Tool
Google Search Console
Bing Webmaster Tools
FREE RESOURCE: Get more leads from your website
Follow me on Instagram: @captaincoder
Do you often find yourself working with clients that just aren’t the best fit for you but you take them because revenue is important? What if I told you that you could attract your dream clients instead?
I know that might sound fanciful if you’ve been building your business for a while, but it doesn’t have to be a fantasy.
You can attract the right leads and your dream clients to your business.
In this episode, we’re going to discuss:
- How to get clear on who you’re helping
- The best way to get their attention
- Getting them to take the next step
- Meeting them in their space online
- And shortcutting the Know, Like, and Trust factor
Let’s dive into five powerful tactics that will transform your business.
MENTIONED RESOURCES:
Episode 77: How to Cut Through the Noise in 2024
Buyer Persona Canva Template
FREE RESOURCE: Get more leads from your website
Follow me on Instagram: @captaincoder
I can’t tell you how much doom and gloom I’ve seen about the state of marketing in 2024. With the shifts from AI, changes to Google’s algorithm, and the continued push to privacy (which means losing some data), I see a lot of experts claim that it’s going to become impossible to market effectively.
What are they all forgetting?
There are real, actual human beings on the other side of your marketing efforts.
Online marketing has never been about trying to scam Google’s algorithm or have a video go viral. It’s always been about talking to your dream clients and getting them to pay attention to you so they’ll buy from you.
Rant aside, there is a real issue of needing to cut through all of the noise in the world and get their attention.
How do you do that?
In this episode, we’re going to cover:
- The process to follow to get their attention
- How to keep it
- How to build trust
- Be more memorable
- And how to get in front of new audiences
MENTIONED RESOURCES:
Episode 58: One Key Traffic Tactic You’re Missing
Episode 67: Unlocking the Earning Power of Email Marketing
FREE RESOURCE: Get more leads from your website
Follow me on Instagram: @captaincoder
No one is honest about how it looks to run a business.
Often, we see the shiny numbers of “Oh, I’m a 6 figure business owner", but we don’t share the reality of what running that business is.
Growth doesn’t just happen overnight. Honestly, it’s easy to get distracted by something that doesn’t help grow your business, get some shiny object syndrome, and have some lulls you didn’t expect.
But you know what? We often don’t look at the victories as we should either.
I’ll be honest - I don’t often love sharing the ins and outs of my own business.
But today, I’m reflecting on some things that went right - and some things that didn’t go to plan.
FREE RESOURCE: Get more leads from your website
Follow me on Instagram: @captaincoder
A website should be an investment in your business, which means it absolutely should offer some kind of return.
The way that many customers find us is so varied these days. They see us on social media, then maybe get an email, read a blog, or listen to a podcast before they may ever really explore our websites.
Then of course some get to your website organically through Google and other search engines.
With every customer coming to us through a myriad of ways, how do you know if your website is working for your business as a silent salesperson?
There are several factors you should be paying attention to, including:
- How many people are visiting your website
- Where they’re coming from
- What they’re doing once they get there
- How it feels inside your business
- The questions you need to ask to set clear goals for your website
Let’s dive into what matters.
MENTIONED RESOURCES:
Google Analytics
Google Search Console
FREE RESOURCE: Get more leads from your website
Follow me on Instagram: @captaincoder
Can everyone - and I do mean everyone - use your website?
What a lot of business owners don’t understand is that there are common website trends that make it harder for some individuals to use their websites.
That means you’re excluding a potentially huge chunk of your target audience - up to 27%. That’s the exact opposite of what you want to do right?
The good news is that having an accessible website is not only possible, it’s easy to make your website more accessible for everyone.
Today, we’re going to cover 5 easy ways to make your website more accessible, including:
- Writing good ALT descriptions and how to add them
- How to make links clear to everyone
- Choosing the right color combinations
- How to simplify your website copy to be readable
- And making video and audio content accessible
MENTIONED RESOURCES:
- Captain Coder Website Audit for Accessibility
- Rev.com
- WebAim Contrast Checker
- Wordcounter.net
- Grammarly
FREE RESOURCE: Get more leads from your website
Follow me on Instagram: @captaincoder
If you’ve been in business longer than 5 minutes, you know that there are a lot of things to pay attention to. It’s so easy for many of these things to hit the back burner throughout the year and even cause problems the longer you go without taking care of them.
As this year winds down, this is a great chance to take a few simple steps to prep your marketing for 2024.
Let’s take a look at the 7 steps you should take now to clean up your marketing and get ready for the new year!
In this episode, we’ll cover:
- The data you need to look at
- Talking to your dream client
- How to review your goals
- The marketing pieces you need to clean up
- And how to plan your marketing strategy for 2024
MENTIONED RESOURCES:
Leads Growth Strategy
How to Get Your Dream Client’s Attention
Unlocking the Earning Power of Email Marketing
FREE RESOURCE: Get more leads from your website
Follow me on Instagram: @captaincoder
Hear a lot about marketing funnels but have no idea what that means?
Online experts often talk about funnels and how they can help your business grow, but they very often break it down so you understand where to start.
Here’s why this is so frustrating to me - funnels don’t have to be overly complicated and they can be incredibly powerful to help you turn prospects into customers.
With a marketing funnel, you can improve your customer engagement, increase your conversion rates, and bring more people to your business.
So how does this all work?
In this episode we’ll cover:
- What a marketing funnel is
- How to market to each stage of a funnel
- The types of content you need at each stage
- Marketing funnel examples
- Ideas for your own business
- And how to keep customers coming back
FREE RESOURCE: Get more leads from your website
Follow me on Instagram: @captaincoder
Where do you find people online that want to work with you?
One of the easiest traps to fall into when you’re a service-based business is to rely on referrals only. While referrals can bring you some of the best-fit clients, you can’t control how consistently they come in.
Take control of your leads and get the right people to your business - all with online strategies.
In this week’s podcast, I’m teaching you six ways you can drive more leads into your business, including:
- How to set everything up to convert those leads
- Where to focus your long-term strategy
- How to get in front of a new audience
- Ways to effectively network online
Let’s break down some of the best ways to get out of your box and get people to your business - consistently.
MENTIONED RESOURCES:
Episode 49: How to Get Your Dream Client’s Attention
FREE RESOURCE: Get more leads from your website
Follow me on Instagram: @captaincoder
Know you need a website, but you have no idea where you should put it?
You’ve probably heard that Wix is easy, or Squarespace gives you beautiful templates, or you found a template that you like for ShowIt, or that WordPress is the best for SEO and flexibility (but has a steeper learning curve).
So which one do you go with anyway?
Where you build your website matters.
We’re going to break down the biggest pros and cons of each of these website builders and platforms, including:
- The costs
- The flexibility
- The features
- SEO benefits
- Web Accessibility
- And more of each platform
You’ll be able to go into your choice feeling confident that you’ll get what you need - right now.
FREE RESOURCE: Website Builder Comparison chart
Follow me on Instagram: @captaincoder
An optimized website can help you grow your service-based business online, bringing in new leads and sales on autopilot. But how do you get people to come to your website in the first place?
While you can use social media, email marketing, and ads to drive people to your website, you don’t want to have to work all the time to get those new leads.
That’s where SEO comes in!
When you want your website to generate leads and sales for your business, especially as someone who provides services for your clients, you need new people to visit your website regularly via search engines.
Today, we’re going to cover:
- The power of SEO
- How to optimize your website for SEO
- Creating free Google accounts to improve SEO
- How to get others to link to your website
- And how to build your SEO authority
These tips will help you improve your website’s ranking in search results, attract more visitors, and boost your bottom line.
MENTIONED RESOURCES:
- Google Search Console
- Google My Business
FREE RESOURCE: Get more leads from your website
Follow me on Instagram: @captaincoder
Can you still get good results with organic social media?
That’s the big question that Ania of Ask Ania Media and I are discussing in this wide-ranging episode.
No ad budgets needed here! If you want to get the most out of your time on Instagram, this episode is perfect for you.
We’re Gonna Dive Into:
[05:07]: The importance of organic traffic and storytelling
[06:11]: What the algorithm really wants from you
[08:11]: The role of emotion in a world of AI
[11:12] The mix of content your audience wants
[13:34]: How to stop their scroll
[17:28]: How to use calls to action
[23:40]: How to drive traffic to your website and landing pages
[34:02]: The power of stories
Mentioned Resources:
Ask Ania Media
AAM on Instagram
AAM on TikTok
Email marketing is one of the most cost-effective ways to grow your service-based business. Are you ignoring it?
For many of us, we believe that “no one” opens emails so why should we send them.
But email marketing has one of the best ROI potentials for any digital marketing method out there. In fact, email marketing has the potential to drive an impressive $36 for every dollar you spend.
When you’re ignoring emails in your business, you’re leaving money on the table.
So how can you as a service-based business unlock the earning potential of email marketing in your own business?
We’ll cover:
- The power of email marketing
- What you need to send emails
- How to get people on your list
- And how to keep them connected
MENTIONED RESOURCES:
Episode 45 - Grow Your Email List with a Lead Capture People Actually Want to Download
ConvertKit
FREE RESOURCE: Get more leads from your website
Follow me on Instagram: @captaincoder
Trying to build your service-based business online? Your website has to convert.
As a service-based business, your website has to convince your potential customers that not only can you solve their problems, but that they need to spend a lot of their money with you.
More than that, your website should be an investment. An investment that should at some point, generate revenue for you.
If you want your website to generate leads and sales for your service-based business, then you absolutely need these 5 key elements.
We’ll dive into:
- Writing in your customers’ lingo
- How to put benefits first
- Backing up your claims
- Building easy calls to action
- And getting those leads who aren’t quite ready
MENTIONED RESOURCES:
Episode 45 - Grow Your Email List with a Lead Capture People Actually Want to Download
Episode 65 - 3 Ways to Build Trust with Your Website Visitors
FREE RESOURCE: Get more leads from your website
Follow me on Instagram: @captaincoder
What’s the one thing that can kill a lead or a sale on your website before you even get a chance at that conversion? The critical factor that can undermine your entire marketing strategy and the beautiful website you just designed?
It’s a lack of trust.
When someone makes a decision to work with you, it’s not the quality of your service, your pricing, or even the visual appeal of your website.
It's their belief in your ability to deliver the service and promises you’re making. If your prospect doesn’t feel confident that you will actually follow through with what you’re promising, they’ll head back to Google and find someone else to help them.
How can you quickly build trust with your website visitors?
You need to add some social proof to your website.
Let’s break down what that looks like and three simple steps you can take to add trust to yours.
Mentioned Resources:
Get More Leads from Your Website
Episode 40 - Press Jockey
Julia Taylor, founder of GeekPack, took her self-taught love of coding and created a business that works to get more non-traditional people into tech.
In this wide-ranging conversation, Julia and I dive into what it means to create a mission-focused company. From starting GeekPack and understanding her bigger purpose, to how she builds a profitable business and keeps her team on board with their overall calling.
Plus, she talks through how their mission keeps them going through the tougher days, the power of community, and how she personally stays on top of everything as an entrepreneur and leader.
Creating content can feel like a giant chore. Every day, it’s a new post, a new blog, a new Reel to create.
The machines and algorithms just keep telling you to create more, more, more.
Worse, the “experts” are out there telling you that you need to create 3 videos per day to stand out, release a podcast, video, and blog weekly, and you have to be in your stories all. of. the. time.
Oh, and don’t forget those email blasts!
If this is already making you tired, that’s honestly the correct reaction.
What most of the experts don’t tell you is that they have a team of people and a system helping them to churn out all of this marketing content.
How can you, with yourself and a VA, create excellent marketing content without burning you out?
Let’s talk about that.
Mentioned Resources:
Get More Leads from Your Website
You’re great at what you do and so you thought, “I’m going to go out and do that for myself.”
Then the reality of having to get clients settles in and it can seem incredibly hard to grow your business.
Can I be honest?
I was stuck in that pattern for years. Over 10 years in fact.
What finally worked and “clicked” three years ago?
It wasn’t anything I did or could learn.
There are so many misconceptions about marketing. Especially for those of us doing our best to bootstrap and grow our business, it can be all too easy to piece together what we find online and try to figure it out on our own.
The reality? Strategies that worked for someone else might not work for you. That’s because your business is different and unique to you.
But another reason that rarely works?
To adopt a marketing strategy, you need to understand how it worked for them and how to tweak it to work for you.
All too often, business owners don’t understand marketing basics to allow them to tweak a strategy. And honestly, there are a lot of mistaken ideas about marketing.
These common misconceptions about digital marketing often hinder your success in growing your business online.
Here’s what you need to look out for and how to improve your own marketing.
Not many people can take a blank canvas and create a beautiful website. Believe me, it took me years of observation and practice to start seeing how a design could come together.
While I know that not everyone can afford to hire a professional web design agency for their first site or even an update, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t have a beautiful website either.
If you’re trying to DIY your website just a little bit longer and aren’t satisfied with how everything has come together (but you can’t quite put your finger on what’s wrong), I’ve got some tips for you.
These 5 web design secrets are ones that very few professionals would share with you (and they’re even issues I see in some professionally designed websites).
Ready to take your website from blah to beautiful?
Picking out the colors you want to use in your business can be an incredibly personal experience. You’re choosing how you want people to see your business, how they feel when they come to your website or view your social media, and you’re expressing something about your unique business.
Choosing colors, however, can’t just be about what you think looks good.
Did you know that the colors you choose can actually exclude customers from interacting with your business?
One of the easiest ways to make your digital presence more accessible is to be mindful of the colors you’re using - especially on your website.
Given that 1 in 4 adults live with some kind of disability, you have to be mindful that your website and everything you create online can be used by everyone.
And yes, that means even the colors you choose to use in your business.
In this episode, learn what you need to know to choose colors that are accessible for everyone.
Mentioned Resources:
- WebAim Contrast Checker
- Captain Coder Website Audits
Do you think that a website can’t do anything for your business? I’m going to tell you a dirty little secret that most agencies won’t tell you - building a website is not a magic fix to your online presence.
I often hear from my customers that they built a website and “nothing happened.”
Well of course not.
This isn’t Field of Dreams. You can’t just build a website and hope that people will come to it.
You have to bring people back to your website over and over again.
There are many ways you can drive people to your website to (hopefully) get them to convert and become a lead or customer.
But in my nearly twenty years in this industry, I often see business owners missing this one key tactic to drive continual traffic to their websites.
Mentioned Resources:
Create 90 Days of Content Cheatsheet
Are your ideal customers spending more than a few seconds looking at your website?
I’m talking - don't fill out a single form, schedule a call, or even make it off of your homepage.
If you feel like your website does nothing for your business, it’s because you’re not actually telling the people who visit your website how to work with you.
Today, we’re going to learn the strategies that keep customers on your website and actually get them to take action.
Hint: it’s all about clear communication.
Mentioned Resources:
Find Gaps with a Website Audit
One of the best sales tools that you can use as a service-based business might surprise you. It’s trust.
When your potential customers feel like they can trust you, they’re far more likely to buy from you.
Building trust - or credibility - with your clients is easy when they can see you and shake your hand. You’re a real person! You have a real office they can visit!
But what about building trust with your online audience? How do you build trust with someone who has to interact with you in a totally different way?
If you want your entire sales process to be easier and get more leads, then you may need to take a look and see if you’re doing these 5 things that help build trust in your business.
You have a website and you know that you want to get leads from that website. But how do you get people to visit it? You need to optimize it for SEO.
Your website can be the best lead-generator for your business when it’s not only built correctly but built to bring in traffic and the right people from Google.
If you’re looking to get more clicks, attract high-quality leads, and grow your business, then you need to unlock the power of SEO to boost your website.
Listen now if you want to know what to do to make that possible.
Mentioned Resources:
- Google Search Console
- Captain Coder Google Search Console Guide
- SEO Website Audit
Do you have a solid plan to grow your business? Did you create an actual business plan with where you saw your growth going, or did you sort of wing it because you were an expert in the service you’re providing your clients?
There’s not really a wrong answer here. I’m not sure I know that many entrepreneurs actually put together a full business plan as you might learn in college.
Your business honestly tends to grow in ways you might not have been able to foresee, too. Creating a plan can seem, well, like a wasted effort.
But it’s super hard to grow your business when you don’t have a clear marketing plan either.
Let’s talk about why your sales have been struggling (hint: it’s because you don’t have a clear plan).
The great thing about AI and products like ChatGPT is that they can make our lives easier, giving us more time to connect with our audience.
The problem? It can actually prevent us from forming those connections up front.
In today’s episode, Rachel Allen of Bolt From the Blue Copywriting joins me to talk about how we can use ChatGPT effectively but still maintain that important human connection with our audience.
We’ll dive into:
[3:40]: The AI “Apocalypse”
[6:19]: How ChatGPT works
[7:49]: What ChatGPT is great for
[14:08]: The problems you need to keep in mind
[22:21]: Human focused marketing
[29:34]: Safety concerns with ChatGPT
Listen to this conversation and you’ll walk away with how to use ChatGPT effectively while not creating a disconnect with your audience in the long-run.
Mentioned Resources:
Bolt from the Blue Copywriting - Website
Bolt from the Blue on Instagram
Bolt from the Blue on Facebook
My Cheatsheet to Make Content Creation easy with ChatGPT
Last week I officially hit 3 years in business as Captain Coder!
When I started Captain Coder in the middle of a pandemic, I had a pretty strong vision for what I wanted to create.
But the reality of running a business is that things are going to change.
I’m not sure any business grows exactly how the founders imagined it from the start.
Whether you’ve just started on your own entrepreneurial journey or you’ve been doing this awhile, you’re going to find new things that surprise you all of the time.
For me, some of the biggest things I’ve learned revolve around my mindset. It’s crazy to think about, but changing how I viewed things took me from struggling to building a six-figure business.
Let’s dive into three mindset shifts I’ve had to make to create the business I always wanted (and that are going to help me keep pushing forward).
Are you keeping 25% of your customers from working with you?
You might not know it, but that could be exactly what’s happening if you don’t prioritize #DigitalAccessibility.
Ensuring everyone can interact with your website and your content online means that you’ll reach your entire audience and won’t exclude people from working with you.
In today’s episode of the #CaptainCoderPodcast, we’re revisiting a special interview with one of my best friends from college.
We discuss her journey with the disability community and how she’s learned how important it is to make the internet accessible.
Listen now on your favorite podcast app to learn exactly what you’re doing to exclude an entire community.
Being an entrepreneur means that we get to pursue the things that we want and we tell ourselves what to do.
The problem with that is we can often forget something else we’d planned on doing before, or we choose the new “shiny” thing to avoid the harder piece in our business that actually needs attention.
And of course, sometimes that new shiny thing just seems like a lot more fun to play with than anything else we’re currently working on.
Shiny object syndrome can actually be one of the biggest challenges that derail your business. It can not only cause you to waste time and money, but it can lead to frustrated team members and missing out on key goals you set for yourself.
How can you tackle it and keep yourself from getting distracted?
Find out in this week's episode!
Mentioned Resource:
- Captain Coder Digital Strategy Intensive
- Captain Coder Podcast Ep 049
Have you been struggling to get your dream client’s attention?
I want you to picture this scenario: you’re scaling your service-based business, helping only the people you want to help with their services. Your clients respect you, pay their bills on time, and you’re able to help them because they’re exactly who you should be working with.
Sound a bit far-fetched?
I get it. When you first start your business you often find yourself taking any and every client you can just to get paid.
But what if you could get your dream client’s attention and get them to actually buy from you?
One of the hardest things about growing your business online is competing with all the noise in the online space and actually getting the attention of your dream clients.
In this week’s episode of the #CaptainCoderPodcast, we’re talking about how to cut through that noise and start landing leads from your dream clients.
Listen now at the link in my bio.
If you want more leads and sales, then you need to read this.
For most service-based businesses, our number one resource of new sales is referrals, but you can’t control how often those come in.
What do you do when you need to generate steady leads and sales for your business so you have control over whether or not you can scale?
The answer is not posting more often on social media.
The truth is that your #1 leads generator should never be a platform that you don’t own or have any real control over.
It should be your website.
In this week's episode of the #CaptainCoderPodcast, I'll tell you exactly why you’ve probably been putting the emphasis on the wrong parts of your marketing.
You’re probably neglecting this big thing in your business.
Website engagement.
It’s not all about social media. In fact, social engagement is great, but what really leads to sales is how much your dream client interacts with your website.
When your ideal customer is actually spending time on your website, you know that you’re providing something that they actually want to look at.
But the average amount of time someone spends on a service-based business’s website is less than 2 minutes!
Improve that and your sales with these 10 ways to increase your engagement in today’s episode of the #CaptainCoderPodcast.
Listen now at the link in my bio or on your favorite podcast app.
The real secret to marketing online isn’t really a secret at all. In fact, it’s what we all know is a best practice but is hard to do so we look for other shortcuts.
But nothing can beat creating regular content that provides free and useful information to your audience. It not only helps to attract new clients, but it can also keep your current clients around for longer.
And yet, who has time to create something new and fresh every week? Where even do you get your ideas for that content?
Well, thanks to AI tools like Chat GPT, you can break out of your content creation rut and create 90 days of weekly content topics and even outlines in a matter of minutes.
Grab your free cheatsheet for this episode at captcoder.com!
Want to get one of the best ROIs you can get in marketing?
I’m talking $42 back for every dollar you spend.
The answer might surprise you - it’s email marketing!
Having a healthy email list can be the key to growing your business online the easiest way possible.
The key to growing your email list?
A lead magnet your ideal customer can’t wait to download!
Learn how to create a lead magnet that will actually get opt-ins in today’s episode of the #CaptainCoderPodcast.
Listen now on your favorite podcast app or at the link in my bio.
Imagine this scenario: your ideal customer went to their fellow entrepreneurs and friends and asked if anyone knew a “good” accountant, graphic designer, lawyer, social media manager, etc (insert-your-service-based-business-here).
That ideal customer was given your name and three other people that they were told were all excellent. To help them decide whom they might want to work with, they visit all of your websites to get a feel for who you are.
The About Us page (or Our Story page, depending on your personal preference) is literally the place to show how you stand out amongst the competition.
But I see a lot of my clients make a few similar mistakes and leave some important details off of their About pages.
How can you create an About page that can help take that ideal customer from investigating to ready to buy?
Today we’re going to dive into some Dos and Don’ts and the best way to approach your About page
And pro tip: it’s not all about you.
You started your business in part to make more money and remove that income cap a normal 9 to 5 job puts on you. And then tax time comes around and you have sticker shock.
Been there, my friend.
If you’re tired of having an unexpected IRS bill every April and want to learn how you can keep more of your income, then today’s episode of the #CaptainCoderPodcast is for you!
I sit down with @wendybarlincpa to learn how we as business owners can keep more of our hard-earned money.
Tune in on your favorite podcast app or at the link in my bio.
When you work with clients one-on-one, you know that inevitably you’re always chasing that next sale. You need to keep that stream flowing so that you know that your business is going to keep growing.
A steady source of leads helps you to know that you’re going to have some predictability in your business. This helps you to make better financial and hiring decisions and better predict your growth.
Especially when you’re growing your service-based business online, you need to have something in your arsenal a bit more powerful and predictable than referrals.
It’s time to take some control over your business and fill your inbox with qualified leads so you can grow your business.
Do you dream of spending more time growing your business and taking a vacation once in awhile?
AI might just be your ticket to saving hours in your day and making those things a reality!
You have far too much on your plate to not take advantage of time-saving products.
In today’s episode, I talk you through a few of the most popular ways you can save time (and maybe even some money) using AI tools.
Listen now at the link in my bio or on your favorite podcast app!
Have you ever visited a competitor's website or another business in your industry and noticed that they have media mentions from prestigious organizations such as Forbes, Entrepreneur, and Mashable? You’ve probably sat there and wondered - how did they do that? And how can I get media coverage like that?
In today's episode, I’m joined by Cahill Camden, the CEO of Press Jockey. He's not only gonna talk to us about the things that you need to know (and be prepared for) if you want to go out and get media and press for your small business, but talk to us about a really cool new tool available to you.
The best part?
It makes getting press coverage easy for anyone. No stellar media contacts required.
Throughout this episode, we cover:
[4:43] Who press is really for and why it’s important for your business
[9:09] What’s really limiting your press coverage
[12:01] How you can connect with journalists looking for your expertise
[15:32] How to pitch yourself
[24:27] How Press Jockey works and how to use it
Mentioned Resources:
- Press Jockey
- Press Jockey - Facebook
- Press Jockey - Twitter
- Press Jockey - YouTube
Are you cutting out 25% of your total possible audience?
If you’re not focusing on web accessibility you are!
Web accessibility basically means that we design and build websites so that everyone can access and navigate them, no matter what their abilities are.
Not only is providing an accessible website to your customers just the right thing to do but it’s also required by law in many countries.
Why aren’t all websites accessible if it’s required by law? Well, the short answer is that building a website to be accessible can require a bit more time, a somewhat unique skill set, and can require a bit of an investment.
But the best way to do web accessibility right is to prioritize it from the beginning.
In today’s episode, we’ll chat about not only why web accessibility matters, but how you can set yourself up for success from the word go.
Mentioned Resources:
- Rev.com
- WebAim’s Contrast Checker
- WAVE
- Captain Coder Website Audits
Got a WordPress website? You may be a target for hackers.
WordPress powers 43% of the internet, which makes it a huge target for bad people.
If you have a WordPress website, you need to be thinking about security, full stop.
Luckily for you, there are some simple steps you can take to make your website more secure and keep those hackers out!
Head to your favorite podcast app and listen to the latest episode of the #CaptainCoderPodcast to discover how to keep your WordPress safe.
As a solopreneur and especially as a service provider who created your business because you’re good at what you do, you might feel like it’s impossible to delegate out your main job functions.
I know how you feel. I code websites a very specific way and know that it could be hard to teach that.
But not delegating out tasks and trying to wear all of the hats is a quick trip to burnout city.
If you’re new to delegating and just thinking about bringing on your first team member, or simply if this is your weak point like it is mine, I’d love to share with you a few tips my business coach and other experts have tried to hammer into my head as I’ve worked to grow my business without burning out.
Mentioned Resources
ClickUp
ScribeHow
I get it - you want quick results.. You just want to grow your business so that your income is stable, you get that freedom you’ve been looking for, and you can have better control over your time.
I know that it’s easy for a DIY business owner to get suckered into some marketing “hacks” that they think will solve all their problems. Shiny Facebook Ads or posts in groups tell you that they made THOUSANDS of dollars following these systems!
But what can actually happen when you use any of these tactics? You can end up destroying your brand, reputation, and even violating the law.
Today, we’re going to cover the worst offenders and the ones that if someone tells you to try them, then you need to run away as fast as possible.
Only about 10% of your followers will actually see that newest Instagram post.
Want to get your content in front of a larger audience?
You might be ready to run some ads on Instagram!
Ads can be a great way to get in front of more people - and more people who really want to hear from you.
In today’s episode, I’m going to walk you through whether or not you’re actually ready to run ads on Instagram, the decisions you need to make before starting an online advertising campaign, and the steps you should take to make your money go further.
If you want to make blog writing a better habit (and improve your website in your search rankings), then there is a new tool on the market that you’ve probably heard a lot about.
Chat GPT.
I know, I’m a bit of a creation purist. Why am I talking about ChatGPT? Because I recognize that it can be a tool to help you write on a schedule and higher-quality content without having to go hire someone to do it.
Especially if you’re in the DIY part of your business, ChatGPT could be an easy solution for you.
But let me just preface this by saying that it’s a tool; you don’t want to let it do the work for you.
Today, I’m breaking down how you can add this one to your own personal arsenal to make your life a little easier.
How do you know when the time is right for you to rebuild or even refresh your website?
Refreshing your website doesn’t have to be a huge overhaul. It can literally be a bit of a “spring cleaning” that you take in stages to make it more manageable (and a better fit for your budget).
In today’s episode, I’m going to take you behind the scenes of these two website refresh projects and tell you exactly why we decided to make the switch, how we got to that conclusion, and even what steps we took to refresh (because both were very different).
You started your service-based business because you’re amazing at what you do. Doing the job you love isn’t what makes being an entrepreneur difficult. It’s finding the clients to work with you and pay your rates.
The biggest trap that I see a lot of new business owners fall into is thinking that they’re going to find all of their clients through Instagram or other social media channels.
While it’s possible to build a decent base of clients that way, you’re running a lot of risks.
So how do you attract more clients to your business?
In today’s episode, we’re going to cover several ways that you can attract new clients to your business.
Even if you’re a solopreneur now, do you have a goal to grow and scale your business? You’ve got to protect that business!
In this week’s episode of the Captain Coder Podcast, I talk with Mairin of Solivagant Legal. An expert in crafting the right contracts for online businesses (and their websites), Mairin is not your typical attorney.
A digital nomad who loves to travel (which we talk about in this episode), she’s truly living the type of business she helps her customers create.
Throughout this episode, we cover:
- [5:34] Mairin’s own journey to finding what worked best for her in her career (hint, it’s not in an attorney’s office!)
- [11:12] How she helps online businesses protect their businesses
- [16:10] Setting clear boundaries and guidelines for your clients (and a client she helped make more $$)
- [20:45] Getting that legal protection without breaking the bank
- [34:05] Protecting your business on social media platforms
- [44:14] Setting payment terms to make sure you get paid
- [46:46] Protecting your clients’ information
- [53:16] Having the right legal policies for your website
- [58:26] When you should trademark your brand (hint, it’s soon!)
Want your website to generate leads and revenue for your business?
You need to bring the right people to it!
Facts: even the biggest companies in the world have to continuously work to bring new people to their websites and keep their traffic numbers high.
In today’s episode, I’m sharing my 7 favorite (and free!) ways to drive traffic to your website.
A few months ago, a friend tagged me in a post requesting website professionals to be interviewed for a live show.
I responded back to the author and noted that my favorite thing to talk about in those opportunities was digital accessibility.
He messaged back to politely say that they were “focused on more standard web design topics and not something that niche.”
Niche?
Making an accessible website for everyone to use is niche?
I’m about to go on a rant today, but all web design should start with digital accessibility.
Hey service-based business owner - do you often wish you had more hours in the day?
Have you hit an income cap because you simply don’t have time to take on other clients?
Are you wondering whether or not it’s time to hire?
You’ve probably hit what many of us service providers do. I like to call it a “time ceiling.”
It IS possible to scale your service business and grow it - without having to hire a huge team. In fact, you should implement these things before you hire anyone.
I’m talking about implementing some automations in your business.
In today’s episode of the #CaptainCoderPodcast, I’m taking you through my top 5 automation tips.
Listen now at the link in my bio or on your favorite podcast app.
Can your website actually make you money?
It better!
Whether you DIY’d your website on your own or hired a professional to do it for you, you’ve invested time and money into it.
It’s your home online, after all.
If you feel like your website just isn’t turning a profit for you though, I’ve got a few things you can change to make it better and see that real ROI.
Have you ever tried to drive someplace new and not use Google Maps?
I’m going to guess that’s a negative.
You know that if you want to actually end up at your destination that you have to have a guide to get you there.
That’s the same way it is for your business!
If you want to grow – and scale – at a steady rate, you cannot wing it. You need a map to get you there.
Creating a digital marketing plan only takes a few hours of your time and yet it can save you HOURS and even DAYS throughout the year. You’ll be able to have everything set up for what you want to accomplish in 2023 and you’ll find quarterly, monthly, and weekly planning far easier.
Plus, you’ll stop asking yourself what you need to post on social every single day.
If you’re ready to save time and work smarter not harder, it’s time to dig in.
Grab Your Workbook
I have a quick question for you. When I say the phrase “using marketing data” do you get a little scared?
Do you kind of want to hit back and not think about it?
Hey, I get it!
I may be a coder but my natural skillset is heavily creative, not logic. I joke to my accountant mom all the time that I don’t understand why she actually likes her job.
But something she’s said to me a few times over the years holds true for marketing data, too.
“Numbers tell a story.”
Do you want to stop spending all of your time trying to market your business?
Frankly, trying to market your business can feel very overwhelming.
There are so many platforms to worry about, so much content to create, and just the general feeling like you’re missing something if you’re not following the latest trends.
But I promise that it doesn’t have to be that way!
Creating your marketing content can be a far more seamless process than you might think.
In today’s episode of the Captain Coder Podcast, Krissy Buck and I take you through the ways that you can make content creation a breeze.
You'll learn how to:
- Encourage your audience to create content for you
- Engage with your audience to create those authentic connections and conversations
- Use other people to promote your service for you
- Create one anchor piece of content (video)
- Break up your that anchor content so it can be reused and repurposed across multiple platforms
- Repeat that content for the best effectiveness
Looking for that latest magic marketing shortcut?
I’ve got bad news for you.
It doesn’t really exist.
You may be missing out on the number one marketing tool for your business, though.
This marketing tactic is so powerful that it can even drive as much as two thirds of your marketing efforts forward.
Want to know what it is?
Check out today’s episode!
One hurdle in creating digital marketing pieces for a lot of business owners is finding images they can use - and that they actually like.
It can be expensive to have photos shot for you by a professional, and maybe you need an image of a cityscape or something nowhere near you.
The problem with just going to Google Images?
You’re probably violating copyright laws and you’re putting your business and your content at risk.
There are better ways to source images to use throughout your marketing - legally!
Episode Show Notes and Links
Have you thought about adding a digital course to your business?
As a service provider, chances are you'd like to add some steady, recurring revenue to your bottom line so you're not always chasing that next sale, that next client. Taking your unique expertise and wrapping it up in an online course is a great way to add a different kind of service to your business.
Before you say you can't do that or there are too many digital courses out there, the online education industry is expected to boom to $198.9 BILLION by 2030. Now is the perfect time to get started.
In today's episode, I walk you through a few options you have to add one to your existing website.
Mentioned Resources
- LearnDash
- WooCommerce Memberships
- Sensei Pro
If you don’t follow the right steps, launching a new website can actually cause you a lot of problems.
Suddenly things can be broken that worked before, Google may not reflect the updated information, and worse, you can lose customers because something doesn’t work right.
How do you protect yourself against the common mistakes that can happen during a site launch?
Checklists my friend!
The Captain Coder team utilizes a 3 page checklist of things that we check on every single website we take live.
In today’s episode of the Captain Coder podcast, I'm distilling my top 6 things you should be checking before you take your new website live.
Mentioned Resources:
- Solivagant Legal Website Policies
- Redirection plugin
- Facebook Debugger
- Twitter Validator
- LinkedIn Post Inspector
- Google Search Console
Have you been trying to grow your online business and have struggled?
You need to build up that trust factor, girl!
Building trust online is very different from how you build trust with your local community.
Think about it. You’re trying to not only get people to believe you can help solve their problems, you’re just trying to get them to believe that you’re actually real.
There are some shortcuts to help you build up that Trust factor quickly, even if you're just starting out.
In today’s episode, I break down three ways you can add trust to your online business - quickly.
Working with clients one on one can be tough.
Does this situation sound familiar to you?
You’re maxed out. You’re not making the money you thought you would and you’re not necessarily getting the freedom you pictured when you started your business either.
Is there any hope for that to be better?
One of the best things you can do for yourself and your business’s growth is to do something I honestly struggle with all of the time.
Find some help.
What does that look like?
Ready to upgrade your DIY website to one someone else builds for you?
Hiring a web designer can be great because you no longer have to worry about making those updates yourself and you can finally get a website you’re proud of.
But how do you pick the right web designer from the seemingly endless supply of them on the internet?
I put together 6 vital questions you should ask any web design agency you are thinking about hiring to ensure that they’re looking out for the most important part of the process.
Your business’s growth.
Why did you start your business?
Have you ever stopped to write this out - or even fully flesh out your answer?
And no, the answer probably isn’t for more money, flexibility, and freedom, because let’s be real - it can take years to get to that point in your business.
Today, I’m going to take you through why discovering your why can be one of the most powerful investments you can make in your own business and I’ll even give you the questions to ask yourself to find your answer.
When you build a website, especially when you spend money to have a website professionally built, you want it to last.
You don't want to spend thousands of dollars just to turn around and spend the money again in just a couple of years and do it all over again.
In today's episode, you'll learn how to future-proof your website by using the best platform you can possibly use for that purpose.
Mentioned Resources:
Yoast SEO
WP Engine
Running paid ads through Google, Facebook, and other online platforms can help you accelerate your marketing and leads generation.
Paid ads on digital platforms can feel pretty overwhelming and unless you set up everything correctly, can end up costing you more money than they should or need to.
But here's the secret - you can do everything on your ads to optimize them, set up everything the way that Facebook or Google loves, but unless you've done the work on your website first, it won't matter much.
Today, I'm going to show you exactly how to improve your website to get the most out of your paid ads.
Mentioned Resources:Google Page Speed
Google Analytics
WPEngine
I did it! I took my week remote and the time away from my standard day to day.
I feel like my week disconnected from my norm was 100% effective.
But did I actually hit the goals of everything I planned?
Listen in to see how I improved my boundaries, created better habits, and got my business groove back.
Tell me - do you actually treat your business the way you should?
Focusing on your business's growth and health should be your number one priority, but when you're a service provider, you're often getting caught up in your clients' businesses instead.
These last few weeks especially have been a doozy for me. I have goals and visions that I want to enact in my business, but I don't take the time.
So this week, I'm doing something slightly drastic and I'm sharing what it is with you.
Where are your warmest leads coming from?
They’re coming from Google!
When someone is searching for your services through Google, they’re actively looking for a solution to their problems. They want to find someone just like you.
Is your website optimized to be included in those search results?
In today’s episode, get my 5 best tips to improve your ranking on Google.
Mentioned Resources:
WPEngine
Yoast SEO
By not making your online content accessible, you're excluding 25% of the population in the U.S. alone.
Today's episode of The Captain Coder podcast is incredibly special to me. I have one of my best friends from college on to talk about her journey with the disability community and how she's learned how important it is to make the Internet accessible.
Fair warning - this is a longer episode. But I promise you, if you tune in, you're going to be moved, you may tear up a little, and you're definitely going to learn exactly what you're doing that can be excluding an entire community and why it matters that we don't do that anymore.
Can you be a business owner and be an introvert?
When you think of famous entrepreneurs, you might think they’re all extroverts. They have no problems talking to people, going out and selling their products and services, and getting to know more people who can push their business forward.
But I promise you, you don’t have to be an extrovert to succeed in business.
In fact, some hugely successful entrepreneurs are self-declared introverts - Bill Gates, Elon Musk, even digital marketing experts like Amy Porterfield.
It is totally possible to be a successful entrepreneur and rewrite the rules for what you think it’ll take to be successful.
In today’s episode, we’ll cover a few ways you can compete with your extroverted counterparts without wearing yourself out.
When you first started your service business, you were mostly worried about getting clients and keeping your costs low. Right?
One of the great things about starting a done-for-you service business is that you can start your own business with little to no overhead.
Keeping costs low and business simple often means a lot of business owners start with creating social media accounts and don’t prioritize getting a website.
Why is that a problem?
In today’s episode, I’m going to show you why this is the number one mistake I see service providers make in the first couple of years of their business.
Has your business stagnated? Do you feel like you’ve gotten to a certain point where you just don’t know how to grow your business?
You probably have great ideas for your business, but without the right systems in place, they remain just ideas.
If you want to start scaling your business without the overwhelm, let me introduce you to my own secret weapon - Erin Taylor of Lunimae Strategies.
In this episode of the podcast, Erin and I got deep into systems and how they help your business grow.
Throughout the episode we discuss:
- 03:37 - Why you need processes in your business
- 06:05 - What happens when you don’t have the right processes
- 06:50 - Systems help your employees/contractors
- 13:09 - Creating processes to support your boundaries and decrease overwhelm
- 20:50 - Getting immediate relief in your business
One in four adults in the US have some sort of disability and control $500 billion in disposable income.
Does your online content reach them - at all?
Chances are, there are some tweaks you need to make to the content you’re creating on social media and within your website to be inclusive to everyone.
Ensuring your digital content is inclusive is also called digital accessibility.
In today’s episode, I’m going to teach you exactly what digital accessibility is, why it matters to you and your business, and a few simple tweaks you can make to start being more inclusive.
Mentioned Resources:
- Register for Accessibility Summer Camp
- WAVE from WebAim
- WebAim Contrast Checker
- Rev Transcriptions
- Captain Coder Accessibility Audits
Your ideal customer lives on Google. In fact, that’s where they’re at when they’re the most ready to buy. The most ready to sign up for a discovery call or even a service directly.
How do you capture the attention of your dream customers when they’re on Google searching for someone to help them? You know you’d be the perfect fit, but how do you even get your foot in that SEO door?
In today’s episode, we’re going to learn 8 easy steps you can take to improve your SEO now. SEO is a long-term process, but you can optimize your website to not only perform better on Google, but to capture the attention of those who are searching for answers on Google.
Mentioned Resources
- Google Search Console
- Yoast SEO Plugin
- WP Engine Hosting
- Talking to Ideal Customer Episode
Stop creating content no one reads or listens to.
If you consistently put out content but feel like it falls on deaf ears - well, it probably is.
You can’t get consistent leads and revenue when you talk to no one, so start attracting your ideal customer now!
How do you do that?
By speaking their lingo - not your own technical jargon.
In today’s podcast, learn how you can go from 0 downloads to a list of raving fans that keep coming back for more content.
Mentioned Resources:
- Jargon Thesaurus Freebie
- Google Ads Keyword Planner
- Moz Keyword Explorer
- SEMRush
- Ahrefs
Do you provide high ticket offers? As a coach or consultant, you know that you need to get people on the phone (or a video call) in order to turn that lead into a sale.
Filling up your calendar with discovery calls can be the key to exploding your online business. It’s the best way to introduce someone to your business, build a relationship with your leads, and make sure you’re the right fit to help them.
And yet your calendar stays pretty empty.
How do you turn that around?
You can book more discovery sessions by implementing just one simple thing into your business.
In today's episode, we're going to learn how YOU can change one thing and get more discovery calls on your calendar.
Mentioned Resources:5 Ways to Book More Discovery Calls
DM Me on Instagram
Does your ideal customer visit your website and yet do nothing once they’ve landed there?
I’m talking - don't fill out a single form, schedule a call, or even make it off of your homepage.
If you feel like your website does nothing for your business, it’s because you’re not actually telling the people who visit your website how to work with you.
Today, we’re going to learn the strategies that keep customers on your website and actually get them to take action.
Hint: it’s all about clear communication.
Mentioned Resources:
Episode Overview
Book a Discovery Call
Has your business run comfortably on referrals but now those leads are starting to dry up?
You can’t capture leads when they don’t have anywhere to go and learn more about you and your business - in a single easy place.
They don’t want to hunt for that information through your Instagram feed.
When you run your business online, your business needs a home online.
This week, I’m going to teach you exactly how you can capture those leads and not miss out on a huge revenue stream with your own marketing foundation.
Have you been banging your head against your desk wondering how to charge for a website? After all, customers don't see the value, right?
In our world, we're often feeling like we're fighting for the lowest bid and yet we know that that is not the way to build a profitable business.
You know the customer, you understand what they need, and you know you can help them, but we often get caught up in price.
"We should charge this, but will they pay it?"
In this episode, we're going to talk about how exactly to charge for a website.
Let's start earning our actual worth as web designers and developers.
Grab the Website Project Pricing Calculator for Free
Track your time
Have you been wanting to add new habits to your daily routine and you're just absolutely struggling?
I've always been a routine person. I've been taking daily asthma medications since I was 16 and if I don't follow the same basic routine every day, I might forget to take that medication.
But even though I like routines, adding new habits that I know will help me can be hard.
Creating healthy daily habits can aid in growing your business, getting your mindset right, and even improving that little thing we all neglect - work/life balance.
Today, I'm going to walk you through the trick I recently used to create an entirely new morning and evening routine, help me getting better sleep, and start my day not already stressed.
Plus, I'm giving away free sample pages of my journaling process that works!
Grab my journal pages
Have you been running your web design business for a while, but you don't know why your customers don't stick with you for years after years?
A lot of businesses seek out a new company when it's time to redo their website right?
It doesn't have to be that way! You can delight your customers to a point that they'll be unable to imagine going anywhere else. When they need that redo, you can be the first one they talk to.
While you can do a lot to keep your customers happy after you launch their websites, a lot of their initial impressions are going to come in the first few days and weeks of you building their website.
It's hard to undo a bad first impression, after all.
I've had countless clients come to me after a bad experience and complain about these very issues. If you want to provide stellar customer care, get referrals, and keep your clients, you really just need to avoid doing these 6 things.
Ready to make creating your marketing content feel like a breeze?
There is a way to make it all easier, I swear!
Last week, we broke down your other options for digital marketing beyond social media.
In today’s episode, I’m going to walk you through how to put that plan into action the easiest way possible by batching your content and breaking it up into multiple pieces.
There’s no reason for you to be asking yourself on a daily basis what you’re going to talk about. In fact, if you follow this method, you can get your entire month’s marketing done in just a few hours in one shot instead of a few hours every week or even an hour a day.
Grab the freebie!
Don't miss the freebie!
Today, we're going to step away from talking about helping clients and focus on building your own website agency.
You do your own marketing right? You're working hard to find new clients, attract people to you, and land those high-dollar clients.
While you might be going to job boards or answering RFPs, I know a lot of agency owners will work on building up their own digital marketing.
When that's not your area of expertise, I find that a lot of people default to social media.
Even for my students in my digital marketing class at Wichita State, it's a common misconception that social media is the be all end all for marketing online.
Not only is social media not your only outlet, it's dangerous to put all your eggs in that basket.
In today's episode, I'm going to outline why you may want to focus on more than just social media and then give you some alternatives that you can add into your digital marketing plan. (And hint - it's actually pretty easy to expand out and include these!)
Growing a business is hard. Growing a web design and development business can be a special kind of difficult.
Want to know a shortcut to improving your marketing's effectiveness, increasing your leads, and getting a better connection up front with your prospects?
Inject some humanity into your marketing!
I know, this sounds a bit crazy. You're selling a service to a business, right? Yes, but behind every decision is at least one decision maker who is, well, human.
In today's episode, I'm going to walk you through what adding some humanity into your marketing looks like, how you can connect to those essential human needs, and how you can change up your own marketing to improve the leads you're getting.
Mentioned Resources:
Episode 32 - Discovering What Your Target Audience Wants
Episode 39 - 7 Mistakes Web Designers Make with Social Media
Marketing Rebellion by Mark Schaeffer
Have you ever wondered what it might be like to be a woman in tech? It was International Women's Day yesterday, March 8, so I thought it would be the perfect time to share my experiences.
When I first started to learn to code, it was 2000, I was 13, and most people were still using Yahoo instead of Google.
I've always been self-taught, so my experiences in tech don't come from classes like some might, but I've also been working as a web developer since I was 18.
Let me preface this all by saying that I know that I've been very lucky in my journey. I've had wonderful mentors, leaders, and jobs where I "missed out" on a lot of the more negative experiences some of my female peers.
But my journey also hasn't been all sunshine and roses, either.
Donate to Girls Who Code
If you're helping clients create the content for their website, you have to do the necessary keyword research. After all, if no one is searching for the way you're talking about things, you won't get that organic traffic.
Keyword research for on-page SEO can feel overwhelming, though. It's hard to know where to start and frankly, a lot of us get bogged down in trying to please Google.
But that's not what keyword research is even about. Google isn't performing those searches - the customer is.
In today's episode, I'm going to walk you through the basics of determining the keywords you should use on clients' websites, how to do the competitive research, and how to use keyword research tools to refine your strategy.
This can get a bit technical, but I'm going to break it down to be easy to get started. This is the perfect episode to have your Notes app or a notebook handy, so take a second and grab something to write on.
Mentioned ResourcesGoogle Keyword Planner
SpyFu
Moz Keyword Explorer
Ahrefs Site Explorer
The main goal of any website is to drive conversions of some kind. If you want to command the premium fees for the websites you're building, you have to be providing the value that matches those fees. About the only way that you can provide value with website design and development? Make it convert!
For many of your customers, conversions can be direct product sales. But if you're working with service providers, coaches, or even local businesses, a conversion might be defined a little differently. For many of my clients, conversions can look like getting a contact form, a phone call, or a person walking through their front doors.
You can't just throw a website up and hope it converts. You have to follow proven steps that take a browser from cold lead to interested buyer.
While a lot of that is done through the copy (we talked about how to write website copy that sells in episode 9), there are plenty of things you can do with the design of the site to increase and improve conversions.
Especially if you're not a trained graphic designer, this episode will help you to create websites that sell with just a few simple design tips.
Make sure you listen all the way to the end, because #7 is my absolute best tip for improving conversions.
Mentioned Resources:Contrast Checker - https://webaim.org/resources/contrastchecker/
This episode is definitely geared more for the web developers, but it's certainly applicable to anyone who's building websites.
There's a trend in our job market right now to stick to what's on our "responsibilities" list. With web developers, that means we think we code and we only code.
We get told to specialize and not learn too much because we can't be a jack of all trades or we'll be a master of none.
You know what, that's kind of bullshit.
There's a lot to be said for specializing and this all depends on the career path you really want for yourself. However, in today's episode, I'm going to get a bit personal and talk about my own dev journey and how my non-conventional approach has not only positively impacted my career and earning potential, but how it's made me a better web developer.
We're about to get a little personal and I've got some tangents to follow but I swear it's worth it. You ready?
So you want to charge more money for the websites that you're building? Then you know that you have to provide the value to be able to charge more.
Well, you should be anyway.
We talked in episode 40 about adding value to the websites you're building and the first thing on that list was to improve your upfront planning.
Yea, the super boring part of any web design process (and I love planning!).
But, doing the upfront work does a lot to improve the websites you're building and helps you to have happier customers, so it's all worth it I swear.
Today, we're going to dive a bit deeper into that planning process and talk about how you can create one of the first steps to any website build - the sitemap.
Deciding on a website's structure with a sitemap not only makes your job easier because it's all laid out upfront, but it helps your customer feel aligned with the process and help to clarify the site's goals.
Ready to learn the most effective way to create a sitemap?
Mentioned Resources:Search Engine Journal URL Structure Guide
You're probably a web designer and web developer because you like the work, but isn't it nice when the work is actually profitable?
There are a lot of web design business gurus on the market. I'm certainly not the only one trying to help website agencies make more money and provide a better product. But what I typically hear from those other "experts" is that you should simply charge more money for the websites you're building. That's how you become more profitable. That's it. Just raise your prices.
While yes, I think Wix, SquareSpace, and other DIY builders have certainly made us as an industry race to the bottom a bit, we can't just ask for more money if we're not providing more value than those DIY website builders.
The biggest problems I see with these gurus? They tell you to charge more money and add more value, but they rarely tell you how.
Well today, I'm going to take you through 8 ways you can add more value to the websites you're building so that you can charge more. Not only can you raise your prices, but you'll be raising the level of customer service you're providing and improving the results your customers get with their websites. That can mean more recurring revenue and more referrals for you. Frankly, that's all a win win win to me.
Let's dive in.
Resources
- Episode 35 - Writing Website Copy
- Episode 30 - Web Accessibility
- Bootstrap Responsive Framework
Does social media and posting for your web design just utterly baffle you?
One of the things I hear the most from students is that they're never sure how to talk about themselves. When you're working for a company and you have some emotional distance, social media management can be a lot easier. But how do you talk about a business that is 100% about you? Especially in the beginning when it is just you?
After all, your web design business is your baby. And if you're a freelancer, a lot of it is about YOU and what you do for your customers. That can be really hard to separate and talk about, especially if you're an introvert. Bragging just feels wrong, right?
You're not alone. In fact, one of the main reasons I started this podcast was because I saw a lot of my fellow web designers and developers making a ton of mistakes on social media. We tend to default to what we know and don't get out of our heads.
In today's episode, I'm going to take you through the top 7 mistakes I see other web designers make on social media and give you a few tips on how to fix that in your own business.
Not only will you be able to avoid these mistakes moving forward, you'll have more confidence in your social media strategy and posting consistently will become a lot easier.
Helpful Past EpisodesEpisode 32 - Discovering What Your Target Audience Wants
Episode 33 - No One Cares How You Build a Website
Last week in episode 37, we talked about where you can find web design clients.
The problem is, now that you've found them, how do you actually make those sales?
I'm certainly no sales professional. I am, quite frankly, an awkward, stereotypical web developer who's never been the best an interpersonal communications.
But my sales closure rate is ridiculously high.
Want to know exactly what I do to improve my sales rates?
In today's episode, I'm going to break down exactly how I run my sales communications and sales calls that get me from a browsing to a yes and the top 3 things that I do every time that work like magic.
Whether you’re new to freelancing as a web designer or web developer, or you’ve been doing this for a minute, you know that one of the toughest parts isn’t doing the job you love. It’s finding the clients to work with you and pay your rates.
We’ve talked a lot in this podcast about how to take care of clients, but I bet a few of you have been asking back – “Yea, that’s great, but where do I find people to begin with?”
In today’s episode, I’m going to take you through a few options in how to network and find clients, even in a COVID-affected world. Let me be frank – some of these methods take time for them to turn into business for you. However, if you do a few of these, you’ll build a few revenue streams to gain clients.
And in case you’re wondering if it works, I’ve made more money in the last eighteen months as Captain Coder than I ever have in any other position or agency (even the full service agency I co-owned).
Let’s dive in.
It's the first week of 2022 and chances are you told yourself this is going to be "your" year. This is the year your business grows. This is the year you start to scale.
This is the year you're going to get your shit together.
Look, if you're a web designer or even a developer, chances are that you might be a bit on the creative side. And creatives, well, we're not so great with the whole organizational, processes thing.
In the years I've been in business, not being great with the processes and or treating my business like the actual business it is is the reason I've failed before. I tried to freelance years ago, and I could never get to a consistent revenue.
Because I wasn't treating my business like a business.
One thing you can do to improve all that? Implementing some processes - or Standard Operating Procedures - into your business.
Let's talk about building websites for other businesses.
Chances are, you started building websites for one of two reasons - you either like to code and love creating a full project, or you're a designer who had clients asking for websites.
The thing is, no matter if you're a web developer who turned to freelance or a graphic designer who creates websites for their clients, you're doing them a huge disservice if you're not taking care of this one big thing.
The website copy.
Your client doesn't know how to get you copy for their website. They might know their business, but they likely have no idea how to translate that into effective website copy that's geared for SEO and conversions.
In today's episode, we're going to talk about why the copy matters so damn much, how to write copy that sells, and what you can do about it in your own business. Ready? Let's go!
One of the most common questions that gets asked by new website freelancers are “What should I charge?”
Especially if you’ve worked mostly for other companies or you’re just relatively new to the industry, it can be hard to know what your price points should be.
After all, if you look on job boards like Upwork (where you’re competing against people from all over the world), customers want to pay as little as $500 and upwards of $10,000 for a website.
Where exactly do you fit in?
In today’s episode, I’m going to walk you through the seven factors you need to take into account with pricing your websites and then the options to charge for those websites you’re building.
Want to hear a secret that no customer will tell you?
They really don't care how you do what you do. It's true!
In fact, they really only care about what they actually understand - what they're going to get out of how you do what you do.
Here's the somewhat sad truth about humanity - we really just care about ourselves. Our problems, our needs, our businesses. While yes, it can be great that you're using PHP to make their website, they don't care. They don't care if their website runs off the latest javascript library either. They do care, however, what the website you're building is going to do for their business.
In today's episode, I'm going to break down exactly what your customers care about and how you can communicate to them in a way that will improve your sales and even your reviews. Let's get started.
Do you ever feel like the content you're creating is falling on deaf ears?
I think one of the hardest concepts in marketing to grasp is how to speak to an ideal customer, target audience, following a buyer persona - whatever you want to call it.
It's literally the first thing I take my students through during our Digital Marketing class because if you're not speaking to the right people, all of your other marketing efforts are a bit moot.
But where in the world do you even begin with creating a persona and following through on that?
Today, I'm going to take you through the exact steps to create a buyer persona, decide on the pieces that you need, the right things to focus on with your personas, and how to discover what your target audience actually wants. The best part? This process will work for your own business and when you help clients with their websites and marketing.
Mentioned Resources:Hubspot Interview Questions
Buzzsumo
As "user friendly" website builder programs like Wix and SquareSpace have grown in popularity, it probably feels like it's almost impossible to find someone willing to pay more than a few hundred dollars for you to build them a website. But that doesn't have to be the case.
In fact, I consistently charge clients thousands of dollars to build them a website and I rarely get pushback on my prices.
Want to know how I do it? Of course you do!
I'm going to walk you through the common objections you'll face from prospects and how to answer them; what you're actually creating for them (hint, it's not necessarily a website); how to work for the right clients, and how you can communicate your overall value to capture those prospects.
I believe so strongly in building websites following digital accessibility best practices that I literally made it the second episode of this podcast.
But I taught digital accessibility to my MBA students just a couple of weeks ago, and I noticed some common misconceptions around the concept itself and why it's important.
I also noticed that most of my students cared less about building an inclusive website and more about what building a website that way could do for them.
That's not terribly surprising is it? After all, don't most of us just care mostly about what something can do for us?
Sadly, the answer to that is yes.
As we enter the final month of the year, I thought it was a good time to cover this again and talk about what Digital Accessibility does for you and the businesses you help. After all, when you're following best practices for accessibility online, you're doing a ton to improve your overall UX and on-page SEO, too.
It's worth the time investment, I promise.
Mentioned Resources:
- Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG)
- Moz Article on Anchor Text
- Generic Link Text Guide
- Rev - Transcript & CC Generator
I’m going to go on a bit of a rant today, but I promise if you listen all the way to the end, you’re going to learn the number one way to improve your sales and repeat customers.
Literally, the number one thing that has kept my clients coming back to me, referring me to their friends and contacts, and giving me great reviews.
Want to know what that is?
Of course you do!
Listen to today's episode to find out.
When you’re building a website for a client, there’s a lot of things you need to think about. Their objectives and goals with the website, whether they need to make direct sales or get more calls, how they intend to earn an ROI for their investment – all things that you have to keep in mind before you build.
But the cool thing about a website is that it can do more for a business than just be a sales and marketing tool.
It can also help to automate processes in a business and make that small business owner’s life just a little bit easier.
When you work hard to make your client’s life easier, well, I don’t have to tell you that that can turn them into an incredibly grateful client that becomes a referral machine.
But mostly, it’s about giving your clients the ability to get more out of their website. If you’re taking the time to rebuild a website, now is the perfect time to find ways to help simplify your client’s life and provide better customer service interactions through simple automations.
The best part? Most of the items you automate can be done relatively easily, especially if you’re building within a WordPress website.
I’m going to break down for you just what you can automate and the questions you need to ask your client to decide what they need for their own businesses.
There was a younger developer in one of my Facebook groups a few weeks ago. She was expressing frustration that her clients “didn’t understand” that they needed to provide her the copy and tell her exactly what they wanted her to build. She’s just the web developer who’s going to build it for them.
Oh sweet honey child, if only that were true.
In today's episode, I'm going to break down what your responsibility as "website builder" really is and what you can do to get there.
Do you put a lot of care into your own projects for clients, but often find yourself neglecting those same processes when it comes to your own?
I'll admit, I'm 100% guilty of that. I'm starting a new project for myself that I'm hoping to have live by the end of the year, and I decided that I needed to follow my standard process. But not only that, improve on it!
That got me to thinking. As I work through this personal website redesign, what decisions need to be made or thought about before you write a single line of code, think about a design, or write any copy?
Let's dive in to the 3 key decisions you'll need to make and think about before you build a website. And the best part? These decisions will set you up for website success like nothing else.
When someone comes to you to build a website, you're the expert. But what does that mean about more complex issues like privacy compliance laws? Are you in charge of that or is your client?
There are multiple privacy laws in effect throughout the world, and most of them all boil down to one thing – being able to opt out of having our personal data and behavior being tracked across the internet.
Consumers want to feel like they have some privacy left online. Honestly, while us marketers and website designers and developers are concerned about data loss, we should be more concerned with providing great customer service.
That includes allowing people to opt-out of being tracked. Making these shifts today, and allowing your browsers to have this level of control over their data, will only work to build their trust.
In this episode, we’re going to explore what exactly should be on your plate, 3 easy steps you can take to make a website compliant, and what your client can be responsible for, or at least help you out with.
Mentioned Resources:
- GDPR Cookie Consent plugin
- Solivagant Legal Privacy Policy templates
If you've been building websites for any length of time, chances are you've had a client ask you about running Google and/or Facebook ads.
After all, running paid ads through Google, Facebook, and other online platforms can help you accelerate your clients' marketing and leads generation.
Unfortunately, paid ads on digital platforms can feel pretty overwhelming and unless you set up everything correctly, can end up costing more money than they should or need to.
But here's the secret - you can do everything on the ads themselves to optimize them, set up everything the way that Facebook or Google loves, but unless you've done the work on the destination website first, it won't matter much.
In this week's episode, I'm going to take you through exactly the work you need to do before you start that next ad campaign.
Mentioned Resources
- Google Page Speed
- WP Engine
- Autoptimize
Were you or a client personally victimized by the Facebook shutdown of 2021?
Chances are, the largest social media sites being down for several hours affected your own business and also your clients'. Ads stopped running, posts couldn't be published, and some companies lost their entire web presence because they rely only on Facebook and Instagram to do business.
Which is the biggest mistake a business can make.
In this week's episode, learn how you can protect yours and your clients' businesses from being affected by the whims of a social media giant.
The age old debate in marketing has long been how do you switch up your strategies when you're a B2B company or a B2C one.
If you're dealing with businesses as your main customers, surely that's so incredibly different than when you're selling directly to a consumer, right?
Well, frankly, that's kind of wrong.
Cause the thing is, whether you're a B2B brand or a B2C one, your customers all have one thing in common - they're human.
In this week's episode, learn the real differences between B2B and B2C marketing and how you can connect with your target audience in an authentic, human way.
Want to hear a secret?
Everyone, at times, finds digital marketing overwhelming.
While in theory it sounds great to learn about social media marketing, video, content marketing, email marketing, websites, SEO, and more, what it can do is cause overwhelm.
There are so many options to choose from. There are so many opinions, so many methods, so many things changing every. single. second.
In today's episode, I'm going to talk you through why it's OK that you don't know everything and how to combat the overwhelm that comes with an industry that changes by the second.
When we think of stories, we think of heroes and larger than life moments. We think of fictional characters and people we might want to be like. But how in the world does that translate to a brand and marketing?
That’s actually one of the hardest parts about storytelling when it comes to marketing. You have to take this seemingly inhuman thing – a company – and give it humanity that we can and want to connect to.
If you’ve been struggling with how to create your own brand story, knowing what you need to do, and how you want to present your own brand, let me help.
In today's episode, I walk you through how to find the main components in your brand story, what your goals should be in telling your brand story, and how to craft your own.
Want to learn how to put together a simple content marketing strategy? I'll take you through step by step how to create your own, all in less than a 15 minute episode!
With the advent of social media and all of the digital channels where we spend our time, we can get bombarded with marketing messages.
We also have an increasing amount of control over our interruptions. To earn eyeballs as marketers, we simply have to create better content (easier said than done, I'm well aware).
But in this episode, I'll walk you through exactly what research you need to do, how to think in your target audience's terms, and how to choose the content you should be publishing.
Get out a pen and paper and let's dive in!
Have you ever wondered how some websites have those rich results on Google?
You know, where they are answering a question, or showcasing a review, or even have their hours listed right under their search result.
The answer? Schema!
If you have clients who want to know how their competitors' search results have more information than their own, this episode is for you.
Mentioned Resources:
Schema.org
Structured Data Markup Helper
Structured Data Testing Tool
Do you find yourself launching websites for clients and they call you annoyed that they “can’t find it” within a couple of hours or days?
We don’t have a lot of control over when Google will index a website. And while you can do a lot to help Google find that website you just launched by how you build and structure it, there’s an awesome shortcut to make that all work much faster and get listed on Google in a matter of hours instead of weeks.
Want to know what it is?
In this week's episode, I'm going to introduce you to your favorite new tool. And bonus! It's completely free!
Mentioned Resources:
Google Search Console
Yoast SEO
When I started developing websites professionally 16 years ago, I only had to worry about a couple of screen sizes. Most monitors came in roughly the same size and we didn't have to even think about phones.
Now, we have so many devices to plan for that when you develop a website you're managing multiple breakpoints.
But if you haven't made the switch to mobile-first design yet, you're at the risk of being behind a pretty big curve.
Designing mobile first isn't just about following the industry's trends, either. Let me walk you through five big reasons why you should be designing and developing websites mobile-first.
A website on its own will not bring customers in droves.
A poorly built website is, frankly, just a waste of money.
Unless you build a website that has the components it needs to actually convert browsers into buyers, a website won't do much for your clients.In my 16 (really 20, but let’s not get into that) years of building websites, the key pieces that make a website go from present to great haven’t really changed a whole lot.
While yes, technology and some best practices have and will continue to change, the focus with each of these components is making the journey for the customer as easy as possible from first search impression through their entire experience throughout your website. And after all, that simple strategy doesn’t care what you build the website in.
So what components do you need to create a website that actually converts and can work as a marketing machine? Let's dive in to my top 10.
If you have any agency experience, you know how long it takes to build a website matters to your boss’s bottom line. At one of my first agencies, we were budgeted about 40 hours for a full website (WordPress, custom coded theme, probably 5-10 pages and blog). That 40 hours was just development; by the time it reached the dev team, the copy had already been approved and the main designs created and ready for us.
But even then, I felt like 40 hours was a long time to build one website. That’s when I started to refine my own processes to figure out how to build a better website faster. After all, I was repeating a lot of the same work even though the websites were wildly different.
Over the last 7 years, I’ve found the trick that works for me and I’d love to take you through how I spin up a new dev site and get it built faster – sometimes in less than 15 hours for a full, mutli-page website. And buckle in, because this is some major tea I’m about to spill.
Ok, bear with me here. I understand the concern many of you have about fully turning over the keys of a website to a customer.
In the years I’ve been a web developer (16 or so), I’ve heard everything from customers from “I have no clue” or “I don’t have access to that” or “My other web developer handled that, but now they won’t answer my emails.”
When a business doesn’t have control over their foundational marketing piece, i.e. their website, that’s very bad news for me. However, this is a way for you to strike a happy medium of giving them control without worrying about them breaking that site you spend so many hours creating.
So how do I walk that balance of giving a client control and empowering them to make changes to their own website (without touching a line of code or breaking it)? I'll break down my entire process - from discovery through training - to show you exactly how it can work for you and still add to your bottom line.
Mentioned ReferencesAdvanced Custom Fields
Video User Manuals
If you're like me at all, you probably want to build websites faster every time you build one.
After all, time is money and a fast build means a higher profit margin - especially if you charge a flat rate fee.
I've learned through years of building hundreds of websites that the key to building fast and building for the best UX is the same answer - consistency.
In this episode, learn:
- Why consistency is the golden rule of design
- How it improves UX
- What you need to keep consistent within the websites you build
- How to extend it throughout your marketing
- And how it speeds up a website build (= higher profits!)
If you’re not worried about the page speed of the sites you’re building, you should be. Most of us won’t wait very long for a site to load – research says we have about 3 seconds before our users will go elsewhere.
One of the key ways you can speed up your website is by ensuring that your images are optimized properly.
That means your images are the right size – both dimensionally and are the correct file size – and ensuring that you use the right image types. There’s also an awesome side benefit to optimizing your images – improving your SEO and on-site accessibility. The key thing here though is most of this work happens before you even think about uploading your images to a website.
Let me walk you through 4 easy steps to optimizing your images every time.
Mentioned Resources
Kinsta - WebP Plugin Options
Grab My Free Image Optimization Checklist
Ah, design. The most subjective and hard to articulate part of the website creation process for every single one of my customers. Many people know less what they do like and more what they don’t.
If you're a web developer, design might not be your strongest suit. But no matter what your personal style is, there are some simple things you can do to not only improve the look of the designs you're creating, but also help to improve your UX. The best part is, these design tips can fit in with any type of website.
Mentioned Resource:
WebAim Color Contrast Checker
Look, I’m going to be harsh with you.
That pretty, modern, clean, user-friendly website you built can only get your client so far.
Those expensive photoshoots they did are great, but the pictures aren’t the main thing a customer cares about.
And you can build a website that moves at lightning speed, but your client is still not going to win on that alone.
It's the copy that takes that website you built from everyday to something that actually stands out and converts.In this episode, I'll walk you through the 5 steps that you can take to improve your clients' website copy - and bonus! - you don't need to be a great writer to do it.
I'll even walk you through how you can add copy editing for sales and SEO to your business and create a new revenue stream and bump up your price points.
Ready to dive in?
Mentioned Resource:Content Marketing Institute Brand Voice Exercise
When it’s time to start a new website project, we often want to skip ahead to the “fun” parts. But the very first step you should be working on? The site structure or sitemap.
Having a solid site structure can do way more than what colors you choose. In fact, it can improve your click through rates, lower your bounce rate, and increase your crawlability. If you’re trying to build better websites for your clients so you can get better results and charge more, you’re going to want to improve their SEO from the beginning through a solid site structure.
So how you create a site structure that will improve your SEO?
We'll dive into everything you'll need to know in this episode!
Show References:
- My new sitemap can be found in the episode blog
- Moz's Internal Linking article
Well hey, you're still with me after I bashed on Wix and SquareSpace last week...thank you!
I get it. You want to build websites that are affordable for your clients because you want to capture those leads. Especially brand new businesses, I totally understand that they don't have the budget for a big $6K+ website and it can be too much for what they need right now anyway.
So what do you do for that brand new business owner when they come to you?
We're going to dive into single-page websites and how they can help you add a flexible, entry-level option to your business without resorting to Wix websites.
You'll learn:
- How single-page websites are flexible for the first year or two of business changes
- How much you can charge
- How to boost the SEO
- Selling an upgrade later on
- And the components you'll need to include
Look, this is going to be a rant, so fair warning.
Website builders like Wix, SquareSpace, and Webflow have their place to help small business owners get their first websites off the ground.
But web developers and even designers shouldn't be using them.
In this episode, learn who platform website builders were created for, the huge disadvantages they present to your clients, and what options you have to build profitable websites for clients (that aren't stuck with one third party company).
My favorite web host - WP Engine
Buyer personas, target clients, ideal audience, ideal customer avatar - all ways that I've heard and seen others talk about finding your preferred audience.
Niching down and discovering who you like to work for - and more importantly, what they like about working with you - is a huge key to growing your web development business.
Often when others talk about niching they think they need to work with a specific industry, like financial or fitness. But that can get bored after you've built 10 gym websites. So how do you niche down and identify your ideal client, without risking boredom?
In this episode, learn the steps you can take to discover your own ideal client and how you can speak directly to them to improve sales and engagement.
References Mentioned:Hubspot Buyer Persona Builder
Google Ads Keyword Planner
If you're a web developer who spends most of their time coding, you may be wondering why you need to care about digital marketing.
If you're a web designer who builds websites with SquareSpace or WordPress themes, you may be wondering how you can charge more for the websites you're building.
Here's the thing - why you need to care about digital marketing as a web developer is the same reason someone who builds websites without code needs to care.
In today's episode, I'm going to take you through the ways digital marketing skills can help you earn more money, add recurring revenue to your business, and help you create higher-quality websites.
Let's dive in!
When you're building a website for someone, the whole point is that it can be found on Google and other search engines.
And yet, I often get brought in after someone else has built a website to perform an SEO audit and find the missing pieces. Do you want to know something? I find the same missing pieces in most of the websites I review.
Get ahead of your peers and churn out higher-quality projects by following these 5 easy steps to improving on-page SEO.
Want a way to become a better developer and instantly be able to charge a bit more for the websites you build? Build for digital accessibility best practices!
If you haven’t heard or seen any conversations on digital accessibility and making inclusive content lately, I’d be surprised. Want a really quick summary of why your website should be inclusive? The more inclusive the website, the better the on-page SEO will be.
I often hear that creating websites with digital accessibility in mind can be "too much." That's a myth! It’s not the overwhelming task you think it is.
In fact, if you make just a few tweaks to your own workflows and your websites, you can do a lot in a little amount of time to make your websites inclusive – no matter if the person viewing it is hard of hearing, has visual impairments, or other different abilities.
In this week's episode, discover the simple steps you can take to start building your websites and creating content that is inclusive and adheres to digital accessibility best practices.
When someone comes to you for a website, you want to build them something that converts and bring them leads, right? After all, a happy customer leaves great reviews and will do work with you in the future.
Their homepage is where a lot of customers will be making quick, rapid decisions.
So how can you create a homepage for your clients that keeps users clicking through and even converts? Let’s break it down!
Welcome to the Digital Masters podcast! Each week I'm going to walk you through things I've learned in my 16 years as a web developer and digital marketing strategist to grow your own business, add revenue, and improve your customers' results.