As a designer, one of the things I create often are materials for marketing funnels. (A marketing funnel is all the steps or stages your prospective client or user takes on their buyer journey through conversion). Recently I launched a new funnel for Elena Brower for her Essential Practice Cleanse. Want to follow along? You can sign up for the whole series here. How does a campaign come together? First, determine your objective. In this case, we wanted to promote a particular product - a cleanse kit - and we wanted to create materials to support buyers who purchased the ...

I'm at a point in my life where I need things to be as easy and stress-free as possible. That's why in every project, I'm always thinking about how I can simplify and streamline. How can it be simple? How can I eliminate confusion? What can I remove and still make it work? How can it be easier for my readers and clients to do the things I want them to do? My one-click dream Nothing makes me more frustrated than having to go through a million hoops to buy something (or even worse, try to find out HOW to ...

This note is for informational purposes only and should not be considered legal advice. I am not a lawyer, but I will binge an entire afternoon of Law and Order episodes. Especially the old ones. Man, I miss Lenny. That said, I am not responsible for any changes you make to your site or your business. Do your research and get your ducks in a row. If possible, consult with a real-life legit lawyer who understands your online business. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably been inundated with emails from various companies asking you to review their ...

Ever gotten a "helpful" email from a so-called "expert" telling you that you need to change something on your site? Or maybe you hired someone you thought knew what they were doing...but instead they screwed everything up? These "helpful folks” are more than happy to share their suggestions about your site. Most of the time, the advice is just plain wrong (and in some cases, could be damaging to your site and business!) While usually well-intentioned, it can be confusing to hear conflicting advice from different advisors. Even worse, it can prevent you from taking decisive action because you're afraid ...

In several of the FaceBook groups I’m in, I see a lot of complaints about working with bad clients. Or complaints about how long they have to work with someone. Or canned scripts for how to break-up with clients. Why are so many people getting to that state of desperation? Why are they working with the wrong people? At almost year 12 of my business, I can truly say I have some of the best clients around. These are people I truly enjoy having in my life. When I'm in their town, we go out for dinner (or dance classes!) ...

I've officially made it 40 turns around the sun. So I made a list of 40 lessons I've learned running this business. May it help you with your own creative business. And I'd love to hear your rules of the road - feel free to hit reply and let me know what rules you live by. Value simplicity over ornamentation. You can’t force creativity. Take a break, get outside, pet the dog, visit a museum, run away for a while. Whatever it takes to reset your mojo. Take one full day off of email each week. Savor and store inspiration. ...

Are you so over everything to do with your business? You think everyone else has it all figured out and you're silently suffering. You’re “living the dream” of running your own business and you’re hating it. Maybe you’ve got plenty of clients and you’re making money - but you’re just not inspired anymore. Or maybe you’re spending endless days behind your computer feeling like you’re never going to make any progress - but you feel obligated to sit in that chair because you have to “hustle." But you’re mentally fried. You’re burned out (or on the way to burnout town). ...

Sometimes it can feel as though everyone but you is making an app, an online course or building a membership site (and totally raking it in). Maybe you’re at a loss as to how you can create something like this for your business. Or maybe those options just aren't the right fit for you. There is NOTHING wrong with being a service based business. There is joy in being part of something bigger. There is pride in knowing that you were a major factor in someone else's successful launch. There is security in knowing your skills will always get you ...

See that black shoe above? It was the best travel shoe. Black slip-on sneakers perfect for dealing with TSA lines. But Puma stopped making them about 5 years ago. I’ve scoured ebay and hunted deadstock. Put my name on waitlists and searched sketchy random sites in vain. Last week, my final backup pair got a hole in the sole. It was way beyond time to let them go, but it pained me to throw them away. I had invested so much time, money and energy to find them - and I was worried that I’d never be able to replace ...

One of my guilty vices is following various members of the Kardashian clan on instagram. There. I finally admitted it out loud. But you know what? They play the the marketing game almost better than anyone else - and they know how power and influence can make or break a brand. This week I was scrolling through their feed - and there was a video of their hairdresser showing them how to cut their own hair. And it hit me - this is a reason why some people get (and keep) great clients - and others don’t. They give their ...

Looking to overhaul your website? Or maybe you’re in the process of rebranding your goods and services? Recently I relaunched aromaticstudies.com. This short behind-the-scenes video shares with you some of the design and content choices we made when renovating the website. Planning your own site overhaul? Here are a few things to keep in mind when planning the next version of your site. Give yourself plenty of time to plan and execute A large website overhaul can take months (especially if there’s a lot to consider and tons of existing content). Give yourself plenty of time - and focus first ...

Why putting this off is costing you... I've been putting off a few changes that I KNEW would make a huge difference in my business. And they are the very first things I recommend to new clients. It was just "easier" to keep things as they were rather than deal with any hassles. I have had these things on my to-do list for years. But a few weekends ago I finally bit the bullet and checked off these major upgrades. And it was a lot less painful (and took a lot less time!) than anticipated - and I'm already seen ...

If you aren't already using landing pages to gain subscribers, this is your time to start! Want to advertise effectively? Setup a landing page and direct your ads to those pages - you'll get higher conversion rates (and more buyers) when you send visitors to a page with the specific answers they're looking for. You can certainly buy expensive software that will create WordPress landing pages for you - but I've got an easy way for you to create your own - and at a fraction of the cost. You'll have total control over the look and feel of your ...

Every week I get emails from designers looking to get more clients. And almost everyone fits in one of two scenarios: 1. FEAST OR FAMINE CYCLE: Maybe you've been totally booked (and overwhelmed with work) for months and haven't done outreach or marketing in ages. But now your projects have ended and you're in freakout mode when you realize you don't have any future work scheduled. 2. NO LEADS: Maybe you've just started your business - or you've been let go from agency or corporate work. You've got a site but aren't getting any inquires. But all you're doing is ...

I get asked all the time about what tools and services I use to run my business. While I'll often test out new services and products, I'm a firm believer in using well-supported software. I'd rather use the industry standard rather than a fly-by-night new app or software that may not be in business next year. Plus, when you use standard systems, you’re more likely to find integration between other systems – allowing you to connect and automate tasks. One thing I see a lot of people do is try to use only free tools - and often that can ...

I freely admit that I suffer from shiny object syndrome - and I'm always thinking about the next thing I'm creating for myself or my clients. But a few weeks ago I was listening to a webinar where the speaker talked about reinvigorating sales of evergreen products. And he suggested re-launching the same product multiple times. Rather than creating yet another thing, take what you have, revamp it and re-launch. So I got to thinking what could I revamp quickly and get out there while still serving my clients. I first published my Minima Guide to Launching your Site back ...

10 years ago this week I flew the coop. I left my job as a software developer and started my own business. Not gonna lie, there's been a LOT of ups and downs. And some things haven’t changed. I still work at home. I still work barefoot. And I still do my best work really late at night. 10 years. 10 decisions that got me there. (and embarrassing photos below!) 1. Be smart about where you spend your time and money. When I started my business I had almost nothing. To help me get started, my soon-to-be husband surprised me ...

I call it iron chef web design. When you need to get a new site up as fast as possible. Last weekend the small gym that my husband and I go was featured in a large local event that attracts thousands of potential clients. But they knew their current site wasn’t doing them any favors. (side note: I adore them and they’ve given me permission to talk about the rebrand on my site). They recognized that their old website was detracting from their great services. It was out-of-date, hard to use and most importantly not clear on what they offered. ...

I’ve used MailChimp to send my newsletters for the past few years - and I still think it’s a great service (and you can’t beat the free price when you’re starting out). But now that my business is moving away from service based offerings to more products and courses, I needed a more powerful solution. I’ve been doing a lot of cumbersome workarounds with MailChimp to make it meet my current needs. For example, when someone bought my ebook, I had to use a 3rd party tool (zapier.com) to connect the two services. I had a “zap” connecting a purchase ...

I'm calling it - this is the year of the online course. It seems like everyone’s got a course (or in the process of making one…) So why shouldn’t you? I hear it from people all the time - they want to build a huge online course because they see the gurus do it. They envision the profit potential and daydream about multiple figure sales days. I get nervous when I hear people talk about money first, and their customers second (or not at all). And I’ve seen it backfire time and time again because people focus on the wrong ...

I'm always encouraging everyone I know to start thinking (and creating) products to sell online. From e-books to online courses and membership sites, online education is a huge (and still vastly underserved) marketplace. It doesn't matter if you're a yoga teacher, web designer or still figuring out what you want to do - creating your own product (especially as a side project) is a great way to get known, generate income and to share your knowledge online. Recently I launched my second book - The Minima Guide to Getting Paid Online - and in this behind-the-scenes post I'm showing you ...