Why you should have a website
·

Why you should have a website

In this day and age, having any type of business is the main reason why you have a website. No matter who you’re trying to attract, one of the first places they will look is online. Even if you don’t have a business, if you’re trying to create an audience, then a website is still important.

Why you should have a website, for reals

Having a website is important because you own it. You get to decide what to post or sell. It’s your own headquarters and you can build a community on it. If you’re thinking that’s what you use social media for, well think again.

Building your own community

Even though you have a community on social media, there’s only so much you can do on it. You can’t post what you want all the time on there. Plus it’s ever-changing. It’s getting harder and harder to start a community because all they (the social media giants) care about is making money now. If you were one of the first people on social media, that was fine, and you probably have lots of followers, but that is not the case now.

You can’t collect emails from social media. What if later down the line you want to start selling products or services or what if you want to start blogging or vlogging? You need a community or a loyal audience for that. Not everyone on social media will want to be a part of your community, but your fans will visit your website and sign up for your newsletter.

A newsletter will help you create an awesome community that is interested in the topics you want to blog or vlog about. They will also be interested in buying products from you because you would have built trust within your community. The easiest way to get people to sign up is through your website.

community

I’m looking at you, YouTube

I love watching videos on YouTube. I’m one of those people who becomes a super fan when I like a vlogger. The first thing I do, after I binge watch all their videos, is go to their bio and look for a website.

My biggest pet peeve is when they don’t have a website. You have all these followers who adore you and you don’t have a website? That’s crazy. I’m practically ready to stalk your website and buy all the things you like, but nothing. Read More “Why you should have a website”

5 features you should have on your about page
·

5 features you should have on your about page

An about page is an important page to have on your website, especially if you’re a small business. This page is necessary because it helps people know more about you. As a small business, people don’t know anything about you. The number one reason people invest in a small business is that they feel connected to you. We’re all used to following brands (even celebrities, they have a brand too) because we fall in love with them, trust them and want to support them. Here are the 5 features you should have on your about page.

The 5 features you should have on your about page:

These features you should have on your about page are all about humanizing your brand. People buy from small businesses because they want to connect with a human, not a big corporation. Sometimes, especially lately with Wells Fargo and the Equifax scandal, people think these corporations only care about money, not people. Our job as solopreneurs and small businesses is to create trust and community. These 5 features on your about page will help.

01.  A picture of you

The #1 thing you should have on your about page is a picture of you. Even though I know this, even I’m guilty of not having a picture of myself, or I was. Now I have one picture, but I plan to add more because I think my about page looks a little cold.

The reason why I only have one picture is because I’m an introvert. Not only that, I’m one of those people who hate taking pictures of myself. I do not feel comfortable about strangers looking at me, and I love my privacy. BUT from a marketing standpoint, I know how important it is.

Having a picture of yourself online builds trust because people know what you look like and that they are buying from a human being. I love stalking people online (not in a weird way). When I find someone I like online (lately for business reasons), I want to know everything about them. I want to know how they started their business, who they are, what made them start their business, and of course, I want to see pictures of them. Looking at pictures of them makes me feel like I know them as people. So, of course, I trust them and want to buy their stuff. Read More “5 features you should have on your about page”

What's a brand style guide
·

What’s a Brand Style Guide

One of the things I provide in my brand package is a brand style guide. I think it’s one of the most important things to provide to keep the brand uniform. Just in case I’m not available or needed as a designer for retainer, it’s the perfect way for clients to keep expanding their brand consistently.

What’s a Brand Style Guide

So what’s a brand style guide? It’s basically a manual for your brand. It’s a guideline for the design elements of your brand that showcase the mood and tone of the company.

Why is a brand style guide important? It’s a guide to keep your brand consistent. If I had to use one word to describe branding, it’s consistency. A brand style guide will help keep the brand uniform. If you’re planning on expanding, the brand style guide will be useful in creating new graphics and marketing that is consistent with the brand.

Your business bible

I like to think of the brand style guide as your business bible. It’s a reference and guide to keeping your brand style uniform. Even though you’ll have creative ideas of how you want to market your brand, the design elements will always be the same.

what's a brand style guide - Devil wears prada gif

For example, if you started off just blogging, but want to expand into creating videos, all you have to do is reference your brand style guide and use the same brand elements. No matter the content of the video, as long as the brand elements are the same your brand will be recognizable. Read More “What’s a Brand Style Guide”

5 Tips For Providing Your Designer With Helpful Feedback
·

5 Tips For Providing Your Designer With Helpful Feedback

During the design process, there are always revisions from the client. It’s always great to give helpful feedback so that it will help the project run smoothly, quickly, and easily. I don’t think these tips apply only to designers. All these steps can apply to giving feedback in any industry. These are the tips I use for work or when I’m in mastermind groups and have to give my opinion. Here are the 5 tips for providing your designer with helpful feedback.

5 Tips For Providing Your Designer With Helpful Feedback

01. When you’re listing revisions use bullet points or numbers.

This is something I do all the time. I like to keep things clean and concise. I wouldn’t say I’m a neat freak, nevermind I am. I mean even the mess on my desk is organized in some way. It just looks messy.

Creating bullet points and numbers makes everything look clean and organized. For example, look at this blog post. All the tips are numbered and separated. If I didn’t add the numbers then it would just be one big blob. No one wants to read things that look cluttered and messy.

Another reason to keep things numbered is that I don’t want to miss any feedback. What if I read through the whole email and accidentally miss something? I’ve received long emails from family and friends who don’t organize their emails into bullet points. It just looks like one big mess and I have missed things because everything was jumbled together.

No matter what industry you’re in, it looks professional to list things in bullet points and numbers. If you’re emailing your family and friends, that would be nice too.

Example:

  • I don’t like the navigation menu in the center.
  • The text looks too small to read.
  • Can we try a different color?

Read More “5 Tips For Providing Your Designer With Helpful Feedback”

Brand x Web Design for Tutor in Tinseltown
· · · · ·

Brand x Web Design for Tutor in Tinseltown

Overview

Tutor in Tinseltown offers tutoring services and behavioral and academic consulting. In the future, Tutor in Tinseltown plans to expand into creating products and workshops that educate and assist parents within those categories.

Target Audience

Parents with children 4-20 who have academic, social, and/or behavioral concerns for their children.

Inspiration Board

Brand x Web Design for Tutor in Tinseltown mood board Read More “Brand x Web Design for Tutor in Tinseltown”

Questions To Ask Your Designer

5 Questions To Ask Your Designer On A Free Consult Call

I’m not good at improvising. I think most of us aren’t. So when I take a call or go to an interview I’m always prepared. I look up the questions that someone will potentially ask me and then I rehearse my answers. Since a consult call is like a short interview, I’ve prepared 5 questions to ask your designer on a free consult call. Read More “5 Questions To Ask Your Designer On A Free Consult Call”

How to launch your online business for under 200 dollars

How to launch your online business for under 200 dollars

People are under the misconception that it costs a lot of money to start a business. This depends on your definition of ‘a lot of money’ and your business idea. If you’re starting off online, it’s way easier to start a business. In this post, I’m going to explain how to launch your online business for under 200 dollars.

How to launch your online business for under 200 dollars:

You need something to sell

The first thing you need is something to sell. Not just anything, but something that people actually want. This can be either a service or a product. When I say product, I mean digital product. Physical products will cost money to produce, so I won’t include them in this post. Read More “How to launch your online business for under 200 dollars”

3 ways my RTVF degree made me a natural designer

3 ways my RTVF degree made me a natural designer

If you didn’t know, before I studied design and front-end web development, my background was in Radio/TV/Film (RTVF). My main responsibilities included writing scripts, revising scripts, filming, and editing. In fact, when I decided to join the Interactive Media Certificate Program (IMCP), I only joined to learn how to create animations (not knowing that it concentrated more on design) but fell in love with design instead. Here are 3 ways my RTVF degree made me a natural designer. Read More “3 ways my RTVF degree made me a natural designer”

photos you can use to brand your business
· ·

Photos you can use to brand your business

A lot of people don’t know that photographs are part of branding. When you’re adding photos to your website and social media accounts, it’s important to make sure they match your brand style, so your audience will become more familiar with your brand. If not, then it would be hard to recognize your brand from any other account, and you want your account to be recognizable and attract your audience. Here are 3 types of photos you can use to brand your business. Read More “Photos you can use to brand your business”