Five Things You May Be Missing on Your Contact Page (and How They Can Improve Your Client On-boarding Process & Bottom Line)
One of the pages on a newly designed or redesigned website that often isn’t given as much thought as the essential about, services, or portfolio page is your contact page. The page that people land when they’re ready to reach out to you. Some web visitors will land here after spending time getting to know you either on your website or through social media or even in person. I believe there are five things that most online entrepreneurs miss out on when creating this page that can impact how you bring new clients into your process and can impact your bottom line in…
December Treats for You – Screen Savers for your computer and mobile devices
It’s December and for me this is a time of quiet reflection. When I pause to think about the amazing people who’ve come into my life in the past year. This year I’m grateful for the incredible women who chose me to design their online home. It’s a time of year for me to be grateful for all the goodness I’ve seen, felt, heard, and witnessed. It’s the time of year where I find myself spending extra time on Pinterest, curating inspiration for next year. In early November, I was lucky enough to reconnect with one of my best friends from…
A Digital DNA Design for Insightful Gail Gaspar
Today I have the privilege of introducing you to Gail Gaspar. Gail is a co-active coach who helps her clients create the lifestyle they crave in the “next-stage” of their lives. Through her own eye-opening transformation, she designed a process of Leading True that enables her clients to navigate business building and career changes with a fulfilling lifestyle outcome in mind. Gail fully believes it is possible to reinvent yourself with a renewed sense of purpose at any stage of life. Don’t you just love that? Let’s meet Gail and get inspired: What’s the best way to bottom line what…
A Digital DNA Design for the Beautiful Monica Faux-Kota
Today I’d like to introduce you to Monica Faux-Kota. Monica is a soul-sister. She’s equal parts intuitive, compassionate, genuine, and nurturing. Her web design journey took a little longer than most of my clients. She came to me looking for a dream site for her massage therapy practice. The certifications, courses, and creds Monica has under her belt combined with her passion for supporting women on their journey makes her speciality in empowering women to be the best they can be a perfect fit for her loving personality. One of the things I’ve come to love about working with Monica is that she never stops…
A Digital DNA Design for the Insightful Lorena Knapp
Today I’d like to introduce you to Lorena Knapp. Lorena is an Accountability Coach specializing in helping people identify their next steps and creating a plan of action to move forward. What would you be doing if you weren’t waiting for someday? An Accountability Coach (like Lorena!) will help you identify what’s holding you back and create a plan of action to help you move forward. The thing I love about Lorena is that she walks the walk and talks the talk. She’s a dream chaser and helps her clients chase their own big dreams. Her upcoming group program, Big Life Accountability Support Team…
Customizing and Personalizing your Opt-In Process using MailChimp
Imagine this: Melanie (who happens to be your most perfect client, though neither of you know that yet!) is clicking around online. She’s searching for just what you have to offer. She spends time with your website and gets more and more drawn in as she scans through your site. She reads your last couple of blog posts and feels an instant connection with you. She’s not quite ready to buy what you’re offering yet but she’s very interested to see how your services might be exactly what she’s been searching for. She spies your newsletter sign up, is intrigued…
A Digital DNA Design for the brilliant Michelle MacLean
Today I’d like to introduce you to Michelle MacLean. Michelle works primarily with women who are struggling with the effects of sugar. She helps them reclaim their inner sweetness and let go of sugar for good. Her new signature service, The Sugar Shift, is an eight-week transformational program in exploring how you think and feel about your body, about food, and about sugar. By signing up to Michelle’s newsletter, you’ll receive her free primer workbook, or Module 0 of the Sugar Shift, with 4 powerful exercises to figure out if you are ready for a Sugar Shift. I adore how this site came…
A Digital DNA Design for the Beautiful Amy Kessel
Today I have the privilege of introducing you to Amy Kessel. She works with women who are moving into a more intentional and authentic way of living and leading. By signing up to her newsletter list, you receive her complimentary Personal Power Assessment which will help you uncover where you can tap into your own personal power. Her intuitive and intellectual ability to hone in and help you negotiate your challenges will leave you craving her compassionate touch. I adore her and her work. Let’s dive in and meet her: What’s the best way to bottom line what you do? I’m a co-conspirator, an…
Creative Ideas for your 404 Page
One of the pages you rarely think about is your error page. By intentionally creating a page that your web visitors will land on if they arrive on your site in error, I believe you’ll strengthen your personal brand. You’re illustrating to your clients that you’ve considered every part of the user experience when you customize your 404 error page. Google defines a 404 error as: Google discovers content by following links from one page to another. Generally, a Not Found status error (usually a 404 HTTP status code) is returned when Googlebot attempts to visit a page that doesn’t exist—either…
Fonts I love for June
I’m introducing a new monthly series today on font families. Choosing type (or fonts) for your website is an important piece of creating a cohesive personal brand. When thinking about the fonts you need for your website, you also need to consider web safe fonts. Google has a wide range of web fonts that, when used creatively, can punch up your website to show off your personality. I encourage all my clients to consider readability, size, color, letter spacing, and font weight when looking at fonts. All of these factors can be tweaked to make a big enough difference for you to use…
Unveiling My New Online Home!
I’m so excited to show you around my new online home. It’s been a while coming. If you’d prefer to listen to this post, you can do that here. The last year has been amazing. I’ve had the privilege of working with women with whom I’ve developed wonderful friendships. I’ve also had the opportunity to dust off my teaching hat and support the students of Amanda Aiken’s Girls Guide to Web Design. Working with two other incredible women (Stephanie and Katy) made it so awesome — thanks girls! I’ve learned a ton and a great time doing it. For the past couple of…
How I went from 183 followers to over 1400 on Pinterest (in four days!)
I still can’t believe it. I made a couple of small shifts in the way I was using Pinterest for my business late last week. The results are blowing my mind. On one of my boards, I went from this on May 16: To THIS last night (and if I’d known this was going to happen, I would have taken screen shots at different points over the weekend! As it is, I found these in my email archives): I just took this screen shot on my iPad: I…
The Reason I Adore Working With Wordpress
Wordpress is my canvass. It’s the content management system that almost all of the micro business owners I know use to run their website. I’ve been activating the web essence of women entrepreneurs for over three years now. One of my very best friends, Jac McNeil, wanted to add new design elements to her site. She enlisted the talent of artist for entrepreneurs Lisa McLoughlin to create personalized images for her new design. Customizing a premium theme like the one I use (Thesis) gives me the flexibility to be able to make subtle or huge changes to your overall site…
Identifying the MOST Important Reason for Building a Website
The top three questions I ask each new client interested in web design all involve strategy. Specifically their web goal. I can tell you one thing for sure. I believe the answer should never be, “To have a place online where people can find me.” Trust me on this one :) It needs to be SO much more than that. I believe your web goal should connect directly with what your most desirable clients want and need from you. It’s my opinion that your ideal client simply will not be able to ignore you when you show up for real. That…
A Case Study: Using Photographs to Elevate Your Personal Brand
I’ve been asked several times in the last two weeks about photographs. Specifically how you can strengthen your personal brand by adding images to your web presence. This past August, it was time. Two years had passed since my last headshots were taken. I really needed (and wanted) to update my website and social media profiles with images that really reflected me and the work that I do. So I went on a mission. I started looking through pinterest to find images that spoke to me. Maybe it was a pose I liked. Maybe it was the lighting of another.…
A Digital DNA Design for Beth Williamson Ruse
Each client I work with, I fall in love with. Such is the nature of my work. Beth was no exception. This gorgeous woman came looking for, “A web designer who was able to take the vision I had in my head and compile the bits and pieces of that vision (from the calming colors of the beach to the coziness of a warm blanket) to translate it into a website that was a reflection of me, my work and my vibe.” I am beyond thrilled with our collaborative result! When Beth came to me, she was looking for her site to feel…
Five Things You Need Before Hiring a Web Designer
I adore the excitement that comes with each new client looking to work with me to build a website and a personal brand. I’ve discovered through working with my ideal clients that there are five things that can actually stop the process from going forward. And you know how frustrating that can be…for both of us. For you, the client, because you’re finally ready for the investment that comes with a professional design. For me, because I’m in love with your work and can’t wait to breathe life into it and bring it alive visually. If you’re looking to get your…
How to update to iOS 7
Here’s the Directions to update your iPhone/iPad if you haven’t already. I’ve spent a lot of time helping people sort through this on the weekend. Trust me, ladies. Do this. 1. Download the latest version of iTunes to your computer. Install it once downloaded. MUST DO THIS. If you’ve never done this, what a fabulous time to start! 2. Make sure the update is installed on your computer and open iTunes. 3. Connect your device via the USB cord. It’ll show up as a device in the upper right hand of the iTunes dashboard. (see pic below) 4. Click on…
The progression of a redesign
I’ve had the privilege of being the web designer for the website iterations for Jac McNeil for a couple of years now. I thought it was time to highlight where we’ve been since we started. Here’s what we started with. A very spacious, clean, and professional look. Bringing in a lot of nature photos and anchoring the white with black, burnt amber, and a lake blue. Jac contacted me in November of 2012 to look at her site again. She wanted it to feel more her. We wanted to bring in her warmth and her elegant sense of style. This iteration felt…
A Digital DNA Website for Randi Buckley
It was both a pleasure and absolute delight to be a part of Randi Buckley’s new online home. Randi is equal parts wisdom, tender, and killer compassion all rolled up into one amazing coach. Her old website was in need of a little love to match her brilliance. We searched for a long time for a subtle background that really spoke of her essence. With the gentle pattern we found, it’s a deep acknowledgement to her Scandinavian heritage, so personal, and so Randi. I loved bringing her vision to life. I believe we really activated Randi’s web essence. To view the…
Are you showing us your true value?
Compliments. Kind words. Testimonials. Kudos. About two months ago I was helping my parents plan their 50th wedding anniversary. The guest list grew to 50 pretty fast and we quickly realized even though we wanted to host it at my parent’s home, that we’d definitely need help with food. Enter Facebook. I needed a caterer in my home town. On my personal profile, I posted my query: Within ten minutes, I had six friends answer my call in the comments. I also had nine private messages. Interestingly enough, twelve (yes, 12!) of them all gave me the same name. Guess…
A video for you on personal branding
I’ve had some time to really think about what I want women to know when they start to build their personal brand online. Today, I found lot of pins that really spoke to me about what I believe to be true about building a web presence. If you want to see my inspiration, head on over to my pinterest board. I got creative and created this just for you. Enjoy!
Digital DNA for Lori Fougere
I can’t say enough wonderful things about this very special lady. She’s warm and funny as hell. She’s deep, wise, and so thoughtful. I was absolutely delighted when she was ready to create her own personal brand for her coaching practice. She came with her own ideas, particularly the image for her about page featuring her daughter, Paige. The photographer, Chrissy Jardine, did an awesome job capturing their personalities. Lori will help you find who you are again and help you move forward. View the live site here.
Digital DNA for Sarah Juliusson
A brand new online home for Sarah Juliusson of Birth Your Business. Sarah is a girl who knows what she likes and was a full on collaborator right from the beginning. Her calm nature and beautiful energy helped birth her own new site. Sarah has a very well defined niche: she is a business coach for birth practitioners. That, along with the fact she’s very competent with tech-talk, made for skype filled sessions full of education & fun! Visit the full site here.
Two ways to make your personal brand more YOU
The biggest mistake a woman can make is not to be herself in public or private. — Diane Von Furstenberg I’ve been working with a lot of women lately who come to the design process with something like, “OOOHHH…I want my website to be just like [insert name here], only more ME!” Ladies, you are so brilliant all on your own. It’s totally possible to create a personal brand for you that looks and feels exactly like you do. It’s like this: there’s you [with all your personal flavor of awesomeness] and there’s your business [that problem you are solving…
Website, Wordpress, and What it all REALLY Means (Wordpress 101 for Female Entrepreneurs)
I’ve found myself explaining the basics of how I help women develop their own personal brand [Digital DNA] a fair bit lately – the technical side of things. You see, websites don’t just appear for free online. Well…they can, but the ladies I work with want to be seen as a leader in their field and they know having a clean, professional, and credible online home is the way to go. Today, I’d like to use opening a coffee shop as the metaphor to explain how building a website with me works. The first step in building a website…
5 Principles To Help You Decide What Needs To Go Into Your Website Sidebar (& 3 things you should never include)
The website sidebar. That narrow column usually found on the right hand side of a website. I like to look at it as the place where you can provide added value and offer visuals to help your website visitors make good decisions. If you can provide a good and consistent experience for them, you can ultimately encourage them to take an action [because, ladies, it’s all about conversion. We want more business, yes?]. We want them to comment, share our content, subscribe to our list, contact us, or purchase our offerings. We can use the sidebar of our websites to accomplish just…
What I know for sure about designing a website
“All great changes are preceded by chaos.” ~Deepak Chopra When I started my business three years ago, my work looked very different than it does today. I’ve been through several website tweaks since I launched my first one. Interestingly enough, I’ve now got clients who are on second (and third) web presence redesigns. Through my own experiences of building my own website to the experiences of my clients, I’ve discovered eight things I know for sure about designing [or re-designing] your online home. 1. You will evolve, as will your content. Take a minute and let that sink in.…
Five crucial things to consider when designing (or re-designing) your website
[If you’d like to listen to this post, please click HERE…you know if you’re driving or on the treadmill!] Activating your web essence is my approach to creating a home for you online that conveys exactly how awesome you really are. It’s Digital DNA. I adore watching new clients show up in our initial conversations exploring what they want their website to look and function like. As a trained coach, I love asking powerful questions that uncover what it is that they’re truly after. I’ve discovered there are five things common to each new design I create that can set each…
