I hope you had a wonderful summer!
With the ‘new year’ vibes that September brings, I’m proud to let you know that PJWD is now operating as a collaborative web design studio.
PJWD as a business is and probably always will be primarily me. However, over the years I’ve built up a strong team of independent creative collaborators who complement my own skill set to work alongside on projects.
Going forward, I’ll be extending the services PJWD can provide to:
- Branding & graphic design
- Copywriting & proofreading
- Professional photography
- Digital marketing consultancy
You can read more about my relaunch as a studio in this blog post, and if you want to tap into the expertise of the PJWD Studio, just get in touch!
Read about the PJWD studio relaunch
Blog: How environmentally friendly is your website?
You probably recycle and make other eco-friendly lifestyle choices, but how green are you when it comes to your business practices? The reality is that every digital activity – from loading a website to sending an email and even storing files online – creates carbon emissions.
A good place to start reducing the impact of our online business activities on the environment is to make sure our website is as environmentally friendly as possible.
In this blog post, I highlight simple steps you can take now to start making improvements. It’s all about progress rather than perfection after all!
Read my eco tips for website owners
Blog: Why is my website so slow?
The online world is becoming increasingly instantaneous. Research shows people don’t want to wait any longer than a couple of seconds for a page to load, and will bounce off a site that’s slow to give them the info they want.
From a business point of view, it makes no sense to lose people in this way. Instead, a fast-loading site has many benefits, including a better visitor experience, improved SEO and a lower environmental impact.
In this blog post, I share where you can start investigating what is slowing your site down and how to make some speedy improvements.
Learn how to speed up your website
Coming soon: Self-paced SEO course
Over the summer I made a lot of progress recording the video lessons for my self-paced SEO course.
Based on the SEO for Beginners workshops I ran in person pre-pandemic, the online course will teach you how to make small but mighty changes to your site so it shows up better in search results and new customers can find you more easily.
The course consists of 8 parts of around 10 minutes each, all with demos and explanations of SEO terms and what they mean in practice for different businesses.
It will be ready for Winter 2021, and as a subscriber, you’ll be first to hear when it is available.
Client focus: GoVida
There’s no doubt that the pandemic has changed how people work. Widespread homeworking now means not only dramatically decreased average levels of activity, but also challenges for employers in terms of staff wellbeing and team cohesion.
Enter GoVida, a wellness app that addresses both of these challenges.
I worked with GoVida during lockdown to redesign their site to better present the new features of the app and improve their SEO performance to reach a wider audience.
I’ve spoken to Chris Tomkinson, founder of GoVida, about the website project and how their new site has been received.
Read about the GoVida Wellbeing website
Bo the Web Design Hound Presents…
Tips to do marketing that FEELS GOOD!
While I’ll always be Paul’s chief collaborator and best boy, the launch of PJWD Studio calls for a diversification of expert voices. It’s time for me to share the virtual mic, but let it be known that I will not be sharing treats or belly rubs. First up with some guest marketing tips is Karen Webber of Goodness Marketing.
With love,
Bo
Karen Webber is a marketing strategist and trainer at Goodness Marketing. She is also part of the team behind the ethical move, the movement for ethical marketing. Here she shares her top tips for doing marketing that feels good.
- Go your own way. There’s no “right way” to do marketing – just a way that’s right way for you.
- Do more of what you love. Big fan of blogging? Write more. Artistic? Connect with design. Build more of the stuff you love doing into your marketing plans.
- Hang out with others like you. On socials and in real life, surround yourself with like-minded people. Unfollow those “experts” whose advice makes you feel icky.
- Go with your flow. ‘Showing up’ every day is great, but consistency in quality is better.
- Attitude of gratitude. Shift from thinking “I have to do marketing” to “I get to tell others about what I love and help them solve a problem in the process”.
Check out more tips from Karen in Why every small business should invest in marketing.
Elsewhere on the internet
- How to find work when you’ve quit social media – if like me you’re sick to the back teeth of the social media “attention economy”, this excellent article from Creative Boom has some great tips for freelancers and small business owners on promoting yourself in other ways.
- Cookie popups could be going – The UK’s new Information Commissioner has announced plans for new data protection policies which could spell the end of cookie popups. Despite this, not much appears to be planned to actually stop websites using cookies to harvest people’s personal data.
- Why do we work too much? – For those of us lucky enough to set our own working hours, why don’t we know when to stop? Insightful thoughts on work/life balance by Cal Newport, author of the excellent Digital Minimalism.