You know how some people cringe at the word moist? It's just got a gross sound to it and sends a nasty image through your mind. Well, if you're not watching the language you use for your brand and website you may as well be shouting MOIST MOIST MOIST MOIST MOIST from your proverbial rooftop. The words you choose to use give off a certain impression of you and when you're representing your brand, you gotta make sure that impression is the right one. Here are three ways you can watch your language and more effectively communication with your audience.

With today’s web surfers getting more and more impatient, a slow loading site can mean that your audience is bouncing before they even get to your information. Not to mention that you will get better SEO results for images that load fast because it provides a better user experience (Google loves a fast loading website).

All the more reason you should be resizing and optimizing your photos for web before posting them to your blog or website. Don’t worry, it’s not as scary as it sounds and I have a few tips to help get you started.

By now, putting a contact page and form on your website should be basic knowledge so that potential clients can get in contact with you and know that you’re a legitimate business. We all have the basic fields on our contact form: name, phone, message, etc. But there is one simple question you can add to your contact form to give you important insights into your clients and tell you where your time and money should be spent….

Designing a logo is more than just creating a pretty looking icon or choosing fonts and colors. A lot of time and consideration should be put into how you want your logo to look and {more importantly} WHY you want it to look a certain way. Before you even get started on the design, you should take some time to decide on the design direction of your new logo to make sure that you are properly representing your business and starting your brand off on the right foot. Here are a few steps to get you started on creating a design direction for your logo:

Face to face in the real world, it’s fairly easy for people to get a feel for what it’d be like to work with you. But online, it’s harder to get the full picture of who you really are and what you’re like. And if you don’t have any presence online at all, it can be a red flag for someone who might not think you’re not a legitimate business because they Googled you, and the only thing that came up was your Xanga page from 7th grade (yiiiiiiikes!). So start here if you’re looking for a way to look more professional online, level up your online presence or maybe even just get started with the basics.

Did you know that blogging is one of the best ways to improve your search engine rankings so you’ll appear higher on Google? Everyone poo poos on blogging, but it could be the one thing that truly helps you get in front of more people. I get it, I get it…you don’t think you have anything good to say that anyone would be interested in. Or you feel stupid talking on the internet when it feels like you’re just shouting into the void. But if even one person makes it to your blog, then it’s worth it if you ask me. So whenever you’re ready to pull up your big girl pants and share your expertise, here are 10 fresh ideas to help get you started on your new blog.

Obviously in my opinion, your visual brand is what makes the very first impression on your website and hooks your audience. But once they’ve decided to stay and look a little closer, your content is what’s going to keep them there. First off — what is website content? Your content is the meat of your site. It’s all the writing that tells people about you + your business. It’s the literal voice of your company, and it can be one of the hardest parts to nail down during the web design process. To help you get started on what can be a super daunting task, I’ve put together my top tips to help you write your website content and hopefully make the process a little less overwhelming. 

Every once in awhile an email floats into my inbox asking me about how to get started freelancing. “Where do you get your clients from? How do you price your services? What’s the most important skill you’ve learned?” All great questions and I love to answer them when I have the time. So, I thought I’d put together some of my thoughts and give you my (possibly unsolicited) advice on getting started as a freelancer.

Let's get excited about file types! No really. It probably sounds pretty darn lame, but knowing which file type to use for your new logo + when can be super helpful if you want it to always looks its best. I like to make sure my clients have a variety of file types for their new logos so they can get the best use out of it. And in my experience, I've found these 3 types of files are an absolute must-have to get the best bang for your buck.

Okay, maybe they're not exactly deadly. But these 7 common website mistakes can potentially make the difference between a visitor checking you out + taking action or peace-ing out because they don't connect with you. Keep reading below to find out what they are and correct them before you lose more customers.

Just when I thought we were getting out of the hellacious year that 2021 was, my family was hit with Covid and over three weeks of isolation without childcare. Funny how when you run your own business and you’re the one doing nearly everything, it’s really hard to recover from that. Extending deadlines can feel like knocking down dominoes, and I’m only now finally feeling like I’m able to poke my head out again. But it’s made me think about how grateful I am to my past self for setting up templates + processes for almost everything in my business so I can partially go on auto pilot.

I’ve spoken about it and gave workshops on it before, but I don’t think I’ve ever put it down in writing on my blog. So, today I’m talking to you again about how to use and develop processes in your small business.

Last month I wrote a post about the 3 Tools I Use Every Day To Run My Business and I got so many responses letting me know how you were able to start streamlining your processes with these online services. I loved hearing your great feedback so much that today I'm sharing 3 more online tools that I use on a regular basis to help run my business smoothly. And you're in for a treat because these ones are all FREE! Let's dive in.

Running an online business is real hard, you guys. And when you're trying to go it alone and there are one billion + one tasks on your to-do list, it makes running your business even more of a challenge. Luckily there are tons of tools you can use to help you be more efficient, stay organized and hopefully keep a single shred of your sanity. This week I'm sharing 3 online tools that I love and use everyday to help run my business smoothly.

Believe it or not, colors are tied with a psychological and emotional response for us humans. When you put on a bold red lip for the day, you’re telling the world to watch out for your confidence. When you choose the bank with the blue logo, it makes you feel like your money will be well taken care of. When you look at the bright yellow flowers sprouting in your neighbors yard, you feel a sense of warmth and happiness because spring has arrived. Those are all examples of how color can say something without actually saying anything. So you can see how important it is to know exactly what the colors your choose for your business are saying about your brand.

You don’t have to tell me twice, writing the content for your website is freaking hard. Where do you even start? What the heck do you put on the homepage? What even is a homepage? Helping clients with their website content and how they present it is something that I do every day, and when I see people struggling with their homepage all I want to do is pat them on the head and make it easier for them. So I’m sharing my basic method for crafting an intentional homepage. This is what I start with this as a template for each client that I work with and you can do the same.

A logo design is the single most important design element that you can have because you will use it the most and it's the first thing people see of your business. Which is why it is SO IMPORTANT that you have a designer create your logo to make sure you’re giving the right first impression to anyone who sees it. But once you have your professionally designed logo and have all the files you need to start using it, what the heck do you do with it?

Well, you’re in luck! Here are 35 ideas for what you can do with your newly designed logo:

“Marian told me that she thought you were a robot.”

These are the words that my business buddy confessed to me after her friend hired me to design a landing page for her copywriting business. After emailing back and forth a few times with Marian, we hopped on the phone to dig into the details of her project. She said that I seemed like a completed different person when she heard my actual voice than I did over email. That’s when she told my friend that she had thought that I might be a robot. And not the cool kind. The kind that might be an automated bot and you don’t want to give your credit card number or any personal info to. It wasn’t until we got on the phone that I became a real person to her with a funny and quirky personality -- which is why we ended up getting along so well and her project was a huge success!

This is how I came to the realization that I’ve been stuck in a professional rut...I’m literally being TOO professional. I’ve somehow trained myself to come off as so professional that I have all the personality of a block of cheese. And for someone who preaches about letting your personality shine through in your business -- I’m not practicing it myself.

Blogging is a great way to engage with your target audience, position yourself as an expert in your field and (bonus!) improve your SEO which stands for Search Engine Optimization. One of the best ways to improve your SEO is to continue to add new and relevant information to your site, and the easiest way to do that is by blogging. But once you’ve written your blog post, there are a few simple things you can to do within Squarespace to improve your SEO even more.

“Your prices gave me a bit of sticker shock, to be honest.“

“I can’t justify spending thousands and not walking away with physical items.“

“Well I can find someone else to do the exact same thing cheaper.“

These are all things I’ve heard from people during consult calls for my branding services. I think tact sometimes goes out the window when it comes to talking about money, but I get it. My services are expensive. Not as expensive as some, but more expense than others. And I’m not planning to lower them anytime soon because I know exactly what goes into those services. Creating a strategic, intentional brand from scratch is one of the hardest parts of building your marketing toolkit. It’s so much harder than throwing together 264 different looking graphics just because the templates are available on Canva. So let me break down some of the maybe unseen value that you’re getting when you book a brand package with an experienced designer (like me!).

When people visit your website there's always an end goal. An action you want them to perform, a product you want them to buy, some sort of next step you want them to take towards hiring you. But how do you get people to do these things? A big part of getting your visitors to do you what you want is by establishing trust with them so that they are willing to invest in you. People want to invest their money in credible products and services, they want to know that they can trust you with their money. Everything that you do on your website contributes to this in some way, but here a few things you can implement right away to start building that trust with your users.