Web Design Business with Josh Hall

Q&A with Josh - May 2025

• Josh Hall

Share episode

Here's the replay from the most recent live Q&A that was held on my YouTube channel!

Special offer extended to you as a podcast listener 👇

Use code MAY50 to get 50% off your first month of Web Designer Pro, either for the courses or community tier. This offer expires at the end of May 2025.

https://webdesignerpro.com

In this one, we covered:

  • How to point a new site to an existing URL
  • Designing for web vs print vs vehicle wraps
  • Personal brand vs business name – pros and cons
  • Structuring website subscription pricing models
  • Monthly payment plans for web design projects
  • Understanding and using sitemaps for SEO
  • How to value and sell your web design business
  • Transitioning clients when retiring from web design
  • 50 ways to get web design clients
  • Online vs in-person marketing strategies
  • Using LinkedIn, Instagram, and social media for leads
  • High-converting lead magnets and freebie ideas

⏯️ Watch this replay on YouTube here

Speaker 1:

Hey friends, it's Josh here popping in with another bonus episode of the podcast here. Every month I've been going live on my YouTube channel for a public Q&A session, and this last one that we had for May of 2025 was another humdinger, so I want to share it with you here. On the podcast in audio form, you can watch the video. We do cover some stuff visually, so a link below in the description will be where you can access that on YouTube. Could I have said that more weird? Anywho, a link below to the video version, and I wanted to make a note of this before we dive in. I mentioned an offer for everyone who was live on the Q&A that I'm going to extend to you as a podcast listener, and that offer is 50% off your first month in my community Web Designer Pro. You can use that on both the courses tier or the community tier. So you can use it if you just want to get access to all of my courses. Link below will be for that. The code is MAY50, which does expire at the end of this month, in May of 2025. Or you can use that coupon code on the community tier, so if you want to get access to all of our trainings and workshops, check out the community, see member wins and successes and have a ton of other perks. You can use it there as well to see if the Web Designer Pro community will be a good fit for you ongoing. So all those details are below and here, without further ado, is our recent Q&A session from my YouTube live stream, which again covered so many topics that I'm excited to help you grow your business, grow your MRR, your monthly recurring revenue, help you with your pricing, your services, all sorts of goodies. All right, let's dive in.

Speaker 1:

Hello everybody, welcome into our May 2025 live Q&A session here on my YouTube channel, q&a AMA they're both the same thing. If you're wondering. Ama means ask me. Anything Might officially relabel these to Q&A just because I've had that question asked a couple times here recently. But really good to see everybody. Welcome on in. Let me double check a couple settings to make sure we're good to go Head on into the chat.

Speaker 1:

I would love to start off today by getting a feel for where everyone is in the world. So if you would jump in the chat, say hey and let us know where you are joining from and we've already got a couple of good questions coming in from summer. We'll get to those. And I actually want to give first dibs to one of our new Web Designer Pro members. Web Designer Pro is my coaching community that has all of my courses Incredible community and we've got a member who submitted some questions I want to get to first here while everyone files in. But if you would let us know where you're joining us from? Ah, the distracted learner. Such a good tag, such a good handle. Good to see you here. Hey, fergie, welcome in. Great to see you. Fergie's in the house. Distracted learner and Summer's got some really good questions lined up, so we'll get to those shortly. If you just joined us, welcome in.

Speaker 1:

Share with us where you're listening or watching from in the world. And while we're doing that, I am just going to share real quick. Let me see if I can share this window directly. Let's see here. Oh, that pulls up the browser. Okay, that's okay.

Speaker 1:

Tell you what, getting used to a few things, I use Ecamm live to do these live streams, but there's a few things that they upgraded that I'm getting used to. So here we go. I think you guys might be able to see this now. Let's try this out. Here we go, I think you guys let me know. Can you guys see these questions? All right, cause this was submitted by Brandy, one of our new web designer pro members, and I will take a look at. Hey, brandy, speaking of good to see Brandy in the house, oh, can't do that as well. So here we go. Hold on a sec One more time, okay.

Speaker 1:

So Brandy wanted to know to kick us off, went to a conference, volunteered my services, not thinking anyone would take me up on it, ah. But now I have a client who wants to re-empt their website Chapter for a large organization. They mentioned the idea of creating a host here's the question that points to their current URL. Never done this before and would love any guidance or resources you might recommend. So creating a host and site that points to their current URL. It depends on what their current website situation is. Brandy, you're in pro pro, so what I would do is go into my dns course it's also labeled the c panel course. That will walk you through how to just point a website. In short, what you need to go do is in the the dns space of your host and controls, there's what's called a record, which the cel course will guide you through that. But the A record is what you would change to strictly change the website without blowing up the email or anything else they have created. So I imagine that's what they'll need. Brandy, of course you're a community member so you can post and probe if you have any questions on that, but the A record, that's what you're going to want to look to as far as that goes.

Speaker 1:

Working with another client for Brandy here on the second question, um also does merchant a rep for his van. I'm especially unsure about the van wrap. Uh, it feels like a permanent thing. Do you have any advice or resources on deciding across different mediums on this? Should I be doing anything differently for print versus web or for something like a vehicle wrap? Yes, those are all very different. As far as the color palettes, um, so let's see I do have.

Speaker 1:

Let me exit out of this real quick, cause I do have actually an image. It's a free download download. It's an image file guide. Gosh, this is an older resource. What did I call it? Image file types. So let's look at this real quick. This will definitely help you guys. It's actually a YouTube video and a free download if you want this. So let me share my screen for you guys.

Speaker 1:

I'll post this in the chat. You guys are welcome to nab this up right now. I would go through this, brandy. Yeah, when did I? This is pretty old school, but all these things are still relevant. This is an explanation on the different types of file types, meaning there are print files and web files. This will give you a 101 standing of all the different types and, when it comes to designing something for web versus for print, this should really help you out. So I would recommend you, brandy, and everyone else, feel free to download this Um. And then there's a YouTube video here as well that explains it. So there you go.

Speaker 1:

Any questions? Let me know, otherwise, did I make this a blog post? Gosh, this is so long ago yeah, 2019, but it's all still relevant. So, yeah, it's a whole blog post. So this will walk you through. And here's the blog post for anyone who's curious. Both of these are in the chat that we're looking at live right now. So, yeah, check that out, brandy. These will give you a good idea of the different types of image files print versus web. I need to like talk about this again. I kind of forgot I did this. So there we go. There's been so much content that's kicked out over the years. Sometimes I forget what's already out there. So let me know if that helps for you, brandy, and then let's take a dive here back to Brandy's third question, which I was really excited to address, and then Summer, we'll get to your questions, because Brandy's third question was a good one. Let me share my screen here.

Speaker 1:

Brandy wanted to know personal name, like personal brand or business name, paying to launch my business under my own name, BrandyMasonco Love the co. I've seen other web designers use a business name for things like business profiles, wondering if I could still list myself on Google even though I'm using a personal brand name. Yes, you can, brandy, you absolutely can. Are there any pros and cons to this with a personal brand versus a business brand? So I wanted to address this because this is a great question. So the big question is personal versus business. I will link to a podcast episode I did on this more recently, but I'll share the quick thoughts with you here, Brandy. And that is, if you don't know for sure what you want your business to be called and you're unsure of whether you should call it design or creative or studio or agency or whatever it is.

Speaker 1:

Just start with your name. There's no shame in starting with your personal name. I found that most of my clients didn't even know my business name. It was kind of a running joke that they would just call me Josh from like what's his agency? I don't know. He's Josh, our web guy. So the pros are if you start with a personal name, it feels more personal, it's easier to just get referred because they're like Brandy. Brandy's, my web designer. Here's our website.

Speaker 1:

The cons are it's a personal brand, meaning it's tied to you. You can come across as a freelancer, you can come across as potentially a solo partner and even when you're ready to scale up and have a team, you can still do that under a personal brand. But it is a heck of a lot easier with an agency to do that or with a business name. The other aspect is a personal brand is virtually unsellable or on move onable, if that's a word. So long-term I would move towards a business name. But for right now, brandy, just use your name and you'll be fine, and you can always, always, always move towards a business name, even when it strikes you. It's a lot easier to go from personal brand to a business name than a business name to personal brand. Great question, all right. Summer has a great question here and I'll get to as many questions as I can here within the hour.

Speaker 1:

In terms of a monthly subscription, oh, here we go. This was in regards to Summer's question. I listened to the recent podcast episode about monthly subscription packages. I began offering this to leads, but I'm finding you really need a large client base for this model to make sense. What are your thoughts in terms of a multi-subscription, not including maintenance packages, but rather monthly website payment model? So yeah, basically there's a couple different ways to sell full-on website packages. One is what I did, which is just the full fixed rate, which is like if it's $3,500 for a website, you can either pay in full or you could do 50, 50, 50 upfront, 50 upon completion. The other model is a subscription model. The subscription model depending on if you do hosting and ongoing stuff with it is basically a payment plan. Um, I have a good colleague, steve Schramm, who's a founder of my community web designer pro. He's kind of the King of subscription web design and the way he structures it is 18 months. So instead of paying five thousand dollars up front, you would basically just spread that over 18 months. After 18 months, you can continue on with either a lower monthly payment or that same monthly payment, and then, after a certain amount of time, you'll get qualified for a redesign and additional work after, I think, two years is how we structure it, maybe three years.

Speaker 1:

Now to your question, though Summer. Do you need a large client base? Not necessarily. It's honestly probably the offer. Now some clients are going and I don't mean that disparaging me, I just mean it kind of depends. The other thing you could do, because if it works for less than 10 people, it'll work at scale above that. So it may be the type of leads you're attracting. Most people are interested in a subscription plan over large payment plans, like a large one-time fee.

Speaker 1:

Well, I would do summer as offer, both, and I would say we have a subscription option that we can spread out your website design. But the real critical thing there is that you don't spread a project out over a year or a year and a half. You still have a harsh deadline on the project getting done, but the support plan kicks on during that. The other option you could do is to offer a one-time payment as well, which is just cheaper. So you could say we could do the one-time option, and normally it's a $5,000 package, but you could say if you do one time it's 4,000. Or if that's not in the budget all at once, we can spread it out and we have what's 5,000 divided by 18? I would spread it out over a year and a half or a year at the very least. Let's do a year. Let's do a year. Let's say 5,000 divided by 12. Or you could do 416 a month for the year, and then we reevaluate after that. Maybe you get a discount. So to your question, though really it's more about the offer and the type of clients versus sheer number of clients. But that's how I would offer it honestly, especially if you're needing cash flow, give them the option. Do you guys want one time with a discount or do you want to do the payment plan?

Speaker 1:

Hey, mike, good to see you here from Atlanta. Good to see Alexia in the house. Some awesome web designer pros. Fergie's in London Awesome, jeffrey. Good to see you from Brooklyn with a coffee in hand Love it. Good to see everybody here. All right guys. David here from Oklahoma. Hey, david, good to see you. All right guys. Awesome, brandy, let me know if those resources end up helping you out. Just tag me in pro if you have any follow-up questions.

Speaker 1:

Sullivan Creative says this is so embarrassing. This is embarrassing because I made too many sites to be asking about this now. But can you break down the importance and functionality of site maps? That's all right, sullivan. Truthfully, the good news is, as long as you do basic on-site SEO, then I guess I'm wondering is this in terms of like an actual sitemap that is delivered into Google Search Console? If that's the case, then there's a few different ways to go about that. But I just want to say it's okay if you don't submit a sitemap. It really is, I mean it helps. It's okay if you don't submit a sitemap. It really is, I mean it helps Basically, for those who don't know, a sitemap gives Google and all the search engines an actual list of post types, meaning blog posts, page types, etc. Especially in the case of WordPress, google is seeing different types of posts. There are actual blog posts like literal posts, and then there's pages and then there's different slugs for products or categories. So if you submit those to Google Search Console, that will help dramatically.

Speaker 1:

I do cover this in my SEO course. You're in pro, right, remind me, even if you're on the courses tier, you can go into the SEO course and you can jump into the lesson on Google Search Console and that'll show you exactly how to go into that. You can also Google it. But yeah, that's how I would do it. I'll tell you what real quick. I'll just share this with you. So we'll go into pro here, guys. By the way, if you are interested, I do have a special something for you. Down below is in the description is an offer to jump into pro in either the courses or community tier at 50% off your first month. So that coupon code is below, it's May 50. And you got to just use that by the end of this month. But you could jump in here in the lesson in the SEO course on submitting your site to Google. This will walk you through how to do that and it will get into site maps a little more. Right here We'll talk a little bit about site maps and this will walk you through that. I'll just show you real quick without pulling this up live.

Speaker 1:

You can use a few different plugins for this. I use Yoast and basically what that'll give you is this, what you're seeing right here. Do you guys see this? To where there are different types of sitemaps? There are sitemaps for a post. Hopefully you guys can see this.

Speaker 1:

Okay, there's a sitemap for pages and there's a sitemap for different post types. So I use a plugin called SEO Yoast or Yoast SEO, and this will kick it out automatically. But any SEO plugin will do that for you. I'm not sure of how to do that on a different platform like Squarespace or Rick Studio. I'm sure there's another sitemap option. As a WordPress guy, you can use Yoast RankMath or another one of those plugins to be able to to submit your site map to Google search console. That's where you'll do it.

Speaker 1:

But again, the good news is, if you don't do site maps, it's not the end of the world. Google will still pick up the most popular pages. This is just expediting the process and saying like hey, google, hey, these are the main pages, this is the structure, so display me please. Hey, patty, from Hickory, north Carolina. We have a Web Designer Pro member who gave me a little gift bag recently with some honeys and some seasoning from North Carolina. One of them was like a hickory maple and it was delicious. And my wife says thank you, dan. I don't know if Dan's here, live with us, but thank you, dan for that Awesome Brandy. Live with us, but thank you, dan for that Awesome Brandy. Glad to hear that helps.

Speaker 1:

Alexia said good question. I think if you plan on building an agency or hiring a team, then go with a brand name regarding that personal brand versus business name. Plus team members will feel a part of the brand instead of just working for you. Absolutely Good, good call. That's interesting, alexia. I've even found that with Web Designer Pro with Jen, my VA, with Chris, who's kind of my tech VA she's kind of our Web Designer Pro support and tech person They've really embraced the feeling of being a part of Web Designer Pro, versus when I had folks just doing stuff for joshhallco, it was kind of like they were working for me rather than working together for something bigger than all of us. So I totally agree, alexia. That's a really good point and something to consider.

Speaker 1:

Alexia said I've done 20% deposit than the rest over six months. Happy medium helps me build some. Short term MRR yeah, and that's pretty low too Honestly. I would. Short-term MRR yeah, and that's pretty low too Honestly. I would, um, I mean, I feel like if you're going to do 20%, then it's only five of those for the rest of the contract. So I would probably maybe even consider bumping that, alexia, um, but hey, well, yeah, whatever works. I mean honestly, if you're going to do 20, you might as well just do 30, 30, 40. Uh, I've done that for bigger projects, but that could be done on a low end as well. You could collect like 40% upfront, then 30% after six or like 30 days, then you know, final 30 after the 60 days.

Speaker 1:

Awesome, some are glad to hear that helped. Yeah, great chatter in the chat here. Guys, jennifer's here from the West coast. Good to see you, jennifer. Good question Says Robert. I agree, good to see you here, robert.

Speaker 1:

Question from Patty. I have been designing websites under my business name for 25 years. Way to go, patty. I'm considering retiring, but how? I do have a web design friend with a large business. Do I ask them to take on my clients? I love this Talking retirement, take on my clients. So I love this talk in retirement. I actually have a colleague, kathy, who just retired. I'll have to check with her on how she did this. What did she do with her clients when she retired?

Speaker 1:

Obviously, this isn't something I've experienced with, but I imagine there's probably a couple of different routes to go. One is you could just very kindly offer your clients to another agency or a friend or a colleague. The other option is and what I would probably recommend that you look at doing, patty, is a buyout. I would try to sell your clientele basically. I mean you've worked 25 years on this business. I hope you consider selling it. I mean it's very nice to just give people clients, but I would love to see you properly rewarded for over two decades of hard work on all this. So the thing about selling and I learned this when I sold in Transit Studios five years ago and, for those who don't know, I'm a consultant for my old agency now, so I could teach full-time was I basically sold two things I sold our maintenance plan, the MRR that we have with our maintenance plan, and I sold a client list, basically what I sold.

Speaker 1:

Now, depending on how many clients you have, patty, and what your recurring revenue looks like, that could actually be worth a lot. I will say industry standard seems to be three times the amount of annual recurring revenue. So if you are making, let's say you're making. On the low end. Let's say you're making $25,000 a year with maintenance plans, then you should be able to sell instantly for 75,000. If you are making 50,000 maintenance plan and support per year, then you should be able to sell for 150,000. And you can get lawyers involved in all this if you want and potentially try to get more. But I've just seen industry standard is three X what you're making, ARR If it's a one-time lump sum. That was the structure that I worked out with Eric, who is my CEO of in transit studios now. But you're also you have a client list and you have probably systems and processes and past clients. So you know, let's say let's just make it easy and say you're doing about six figures a year with half of that being recurring revenue. I would say you could probably sell the business for 200 to a quarter million with those numbers and again, I don't know what your numbers look like but just as a ballpark reference, that could look like that. If you're two to three X all of that, then you may be looking at a half million dollar to a million dollar sale potentially. So pretty exciting. But yes, I would try to sell. I would try to sell your clients, sell your ongoing recurring revenue and sell your clients lists and then sell your assets in your business. Those are all worth way more than you, than most of us realize.

Speaker 1:

Yes, uh, yes, just courses right now, still struggling out there. What are you struggling with? Let's get you some clients ASAP. What's the struggle? Is it marketing? Is it converting? Is it your offers? Sullivan, creative, let me know. Let me know what your biggest struggle is. That'll be a good talking point. Hey, jeffrey, bing Webmaster Tools has its own sitemap submission process.

Speaker 1:

Let's not forget those search engines have 4% of the share of the market, or market share of search. Yeah, good call, that's good to know. So with those, jeffrey, let me know in the chat, does that work for non-WordPress sites as well? Well, do you just submit? Because I don't know, since I don't use Squarespace or the only non-WordPress tool I use is Circle, but it's a private community, so nothing's public, although I think I can hint at this. Circle is about to release their own native page builder for landing pages for Circle communities. I'm about to get beta access to try it out, and those pages would be public, so I need to learn about this. Share with me your wisdom, jeffrey. Let me know if that works for things like Squarespace and other platforms as well.

Speaker 1:

Mike says Patty, let's chat. If you're interested in selling Mike's, like dang it. Josh, stop talking about those high numbers, just kidding Mike's freaking awesome. Yeah, josh, stop talking about those high numbers, just kidding Mike's freaking awesome. Yeah, I hope you guys can connect. Mike is uh. Oh my gosh, Mike's stuff is awesome. Um, check out Mike's in the chat. He's a web designer pro member at.

Speaker 1:

Mike was on the podcast last year, right, mike, talking about um, about BNI specifically, and how his business has absolutely blown up through networking with BNI. So this is Mike's website. If you guys want to go check that out. Patty, I will link this in the chat just for you if you do want to contact Mike there. So bearadoublecom Way to go, mike. This has improved since I've seen it last. Also, so way to go using Divi. I hope you'recom Way to go, mike. This has improved since I've seen it last. Also, so way to go using Divi. I hope you're excited for Divi 5, mike. Divi 5 is technically live, but the migration from Divi 4 is still all in the works. Awesome, awesome.

Speaker 1:

Patty says this is wonderful advice. I'd like to sell for sure, but also do not want to leave my customers high and dry, good relationships that I've worked too hard to develop and I love that, patty, and honestly, the thought of selling isn't just out of nowhere be like peace, but the reality is, if you're going to retire, they're going to be in other hands either way. This is just more of the angle of like, making sure you're compensated and and and all that. But I love this approach and one thing I'll actually I tell you what, patty, what I'll do. Let me share in the chat the episode I did about selling my agency, because I did talk a lot about transitioning my clients in this.

Speaker 1:

Um, let's see, I believe this was back. I want to say this was 53. Let's see if memory holds. Is it 53? Yes, it is 53. So, patty, this episode here, it's episode 53 of my podcast and actually this has a post here podcast and actually this has a post here which dives into all the steps that I did.

Speaker 1:

So I kind of broke it down into six phases. Phase one is realizing it's time, which you're probably past there now. This is where you're at likely, patty, which is phase two, which is finding the right fit. Sounds like you may have some agency contacts, mike might definitely be someone to talk to. There's a few different ways to actually make a deal and again, this is just completely based off of my experience. Guys, there are folks who are probably more qualified to help sell um bought for both parties. But what I learned is you want to do something that works for both, and then here is the big thing planning it out and then handing over the keys.

Speaker 1:

What I did, patty, was I actually literally created a loom video for every single client and I walked through how I met them, the scope of work we had done for them. In some cases, I always split my clients out to A's, b's and C's. Those of you who are in my business course or have gone through it, you know I recommend splitting out your clients into A, which are really good clients, b clients, which are pretty darn good. C clients, which are, you know, if they left you, it wouldn't be the end of the world, it would be fine for any reason, and you really don't even want to have D clients. F clients are an absolute no-no. So, yeah, let me know.

Speaker 1:

If that helps, patty, I would really recommend checking this episode out and walking through this little six phase process that I learned. I think that will really help you as you get ready to move to the next step and take care of your clients, cause I do love, love, love that you have that approach. Yeah, you definitely. The worst thing to do is just to say like, hey, clients, bye. Um, definitely, and I would just let them know, like, just so everyone knows I'm actually preparing to retire. But don't worry, we have an action plan that's already set in motion. Already set in place. I would probably get that stuff going on the backend before you publicly announce it to your clients. Um, don't tell your clients like, hey, I'm thinking about retiring. Just let them know like you are. And good news, you're not disappearing right away and they're going to be taken care of. Here's the next steps. That's how I would approach that.

Speaker 1:

Awesome, love the pot about glow yes, yes, glow is a WordPress and non WordPress tool that manages your websites. You can do updates, reporting. The really cool thing about it is it has a built-in support ticketing system, so you can keep that all under one roof, along with your monthly reporting. Pretty dang cool. First three sites is completely free, super cool. Yeah, I think that is the deal, and I know I actually just talked to Phil this morning, the founder, I think he's putting a special coupon code together for Web Designer Pro members and listeners of the podcast.

Speaker 1:

Let me see if he responded back yet. Let's see. Well, I tell you what. Here we go. Wow, talk about timing, all right. So Phil literally just emailed me back at the start of this call. I'm going to graciously give this to you guys too. If you're interested in glow, here is the coupon code. It's WDP 10. That will give you 10% off. I don't know if that is ongoing. I tell you what. Let's look at this. Hold on hold on. Phil said this is the code your community members can use when they sign up for a paid plan or upgrade to paid from free. So I'll find out if that's ongoing or if that's a timely, a timed, limited time discount. But either way, you'll get 10% off when you sign up for glow using the code WDP10. So even if you're non-pro members, it's all right, you can still use that code. I would definitely recommend trying out Glow. I'm still using Managed WP, but I'm keeping a very, very close eye on Glow, especially as I link in some sites that aren't on WordPress and the fact that you can do support ticketing in with it is just super cool. So there you go. Let me know if that works for you.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, mike said last year seems like such a long time ago. I agree for our podcast episode. Mike says I'm trying to build the courage to build my first site in Divi five, just waiting until it's a bit more stable. A friend of mine is building his new site in five and keeps on sharing some minor annoying bugs. I wonder what those bugs are, mike? I'm using a five for WebCenterProcom and I haven't had any big bugs, no big issues. But it may depend on the additional plugins. I have a very, very lightweight like. There's basically no additional plugins in WebCenterProcom. So, yeah, there may be some compatibility issues. I wonder if that's some of the case or, of course, depending on the hosting company as well. Awesome, patty says. I listened to it back then but wasn't thinking seriously about retiring Awesome. Yeah, it'd be a good time for a refresher on that, patty. And then I definitely would love to hear your thoughts on as you move forward with that, and would love to hear your thoughts on as you move forward with that Open door creations.

Speaker 1:

I thought Glow was only for WordPress, so it is primarily WordPress, but the difference is you can't actually add sites that are not WordPress. With Glow, you can add sites and still submit, like you can still get the Google Search Console data and, like Google analytics still do monthly reporting and support tickets. The only difference is you just wouldn't be doing plugin updates and you wouldn't be doing the backups and WordPress specific things. But, yeah, you can use non WordPress sites in glow. It's pretty cool. It gives you an option. Um, I still have my account going here. Let's see. It gives you an option. I still have my account going here. Let's see. Oh, hold on, let's see if this works. Oh, I'm trying to log in my account here. It's been a little while since I did this here. I wonder. I might have to talk to Phil about that. Oh, I think I did a trial that expired. I might need to talk to Phil about getting me a new license. Anywho, with Glow, what you can do is it gives you an option to add the WordPress credentials and stuff and if you just add it without that, it will still add the site and that's where you can add the Google analytics data and search console. So, yeah, pretty cool If interested in uh and trying that out.

Speaker 1:

I switched from man's WP to main WP about a year ago and have been pleased. A bit of a learning curve though. So, jennifer, what are your big benefits from main versus bandage? Jennifer, I'm curious. I am such a if it ain't broke, don't fix it kind of guy, so like it would take a lot for me to completely move from managed WP. But, um, glow is definitely of interest, just because of the support, ticketing system and some of the other features that some of these other tools don't have natively.

Speaker 1:

Fergie, and with a great question, while I take a drink here, I have a great network that most of my clients have come from, but I don't want to be too reliant on it. Good ideas, any tips, advice for better marketing? I basically just do socials, but it's very slow, yeah. Yeah, kind of depends on your area, fergie, and then what you're interested in doing as far as marketing. I mean, there's so many ways to expand your network. There's in-person and then there's virtual In-person, of course, networking groups, networking events, referral groups. Mike has been active on the chat here. Mike built his business up big time through BNI, which is also in the UK as well. It's worldwide, it's global. I would seriously encourage that, just because everything in person, especially nowadays, goes further and faster. You go to a networking group or a BNI chapter where there are referral groups, you not only are the designer for them, potentially, but if you come at it as just being the designer in their network, that's the true gold is, you'll get instant access to hundreds of people by being Fergie, the web designer you know in this chapter or in this group. So I'd highly encourage anything in person.

Speaker 1:

Uh, online wise, though, depending on what socials you're doing, um, there's so much opportunity in LinkedIn right now. The problem, I think, with Facebook and Instagram and TikTok is it's just so dang cluttered. It is hard, it's harder and harder to stand out. I think if I were to market specifically on social media nowadays, I would have a very different approach rather than just posting reels and stuff. I would have a very different approach rather than just posting reels and stuff. Those would be a part of it, but I would really rely on like connecting with people in a different way on social media. I mean, that's kind of how I'm using my Instagram now is I'm I'm basically using it just to connect with with members of pro and seeing what they're up to, and even folks who are not yet in the community, um community, who are listeners of the podcast and stuff.

Speaker 1:

So, with that in mind, like, I would think about social media as far as connecting with folks who are in and outside of just your feed, who are cold leads. If you meet somebody somewhere and then you can follow them, or if you want to follow businesses and follow creators or people you want to work with in certain niches, that's what I would do. The other thing you can do, I mean, gosh, there's so many groups still like Facebook groups are really, I think what's keeping Facebook going aside from you know, on the business side of things, um, so I would really look into that. Like, where are your, your client, ideal clients hanging out online? I would not sleep on LinkedIn. I don't know if you're active on LinkedIn, fer Fergie, but there's just so much opportunity on LinkedIn too, because it is a less noisy professional platform.

Speaker 1:

But, my gosh, there's so many things you could do. You could do an interview series. We just did a challenge last month in Web Designer Pro about hosting an interview series, which basically just means you find six to 10 business owners, local or virtual, in the type of industries you'd love to work with, and you interview them about their business and then make an interview that goes out either as a podcast or a YouTube video and give them content that they can share with their audience, and it's presented by you, the web designer, which immediately gets you in front of hundreds of people, maybe even more. So those are just a handful of varieties of ways to build out that network, but yeah, I would definitely start to diversify a little bit. But don't forget too, you can also be proactive with your current clients and past clients. Number one for referral work, to have them refer you. Number two for actual work, like for repeat work. So I would definitely encourage that you could also do a training. You could offer a webinar for your client's network. So, let's say, you have like five clients, fergie, that are really good clients and they have pretty big, extended networks. If you were to say like, hey, I have a training on basic SEO in 2025 or something, or how to use AI in your business, with your website, something like that, you could offer to do that for their customer base. And even if it's a small group that joins a live webinar, you do that a handful of times, you will build your network, you will build credibility and you will get leads for sure. So, yeah, a lot of different options and ways for sure. Let me know if some of those get your noodle moving.

Speaker 1:

The other day he built a header for the Divi talk and the logo link on the menu module wasn't working. Ah, for the Divi 5 stuff. Okay, yeah, I do. I imagine the little bugs and little issues are probably going to be sorted out quicker than later. Sooner than later, gotcha, yeah, that sounds about right. Hey a T, good to have Antoine in the house.

Speaker 1:

Antoine was live at our web designer pro conference that we had earlier this month, which was absolutely freaking, unreal. Still buzzing from it. A T, I hope you are too, gosh. It was such a good time beating overaten over 40 Webinar Pro members in person over the weekend. Gosh, it was awesome. Going to be doing a recap video and podcast episode soon about that, by the way, just sharing the ins and outs of what I learned about bringing our community in person together. It was truly a before and after moment. Speaking of somebody who was going to come but wasn't able to come. Jennifer, who's a member of pro hope to see you next year. Uh, it's not go daddy. Uh does a lot more cost a lot less, but it was a lot set up and more complex. Gotcha Curious about glow?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I think glow has a uh main WP, uh, hold, wp. Hold on a sec. Is it glowio? No, it's not right. Get glow. I'm pretty sure they have let me share my screen here real quick articles. I think they have a versus. Here we go compare, yeah. So what? I think they have a versus. Here we go Compare, yeah. So what I would do, jennifer is go here. Um, glow does have a pretty legit like things you get with glow versus main, along with the other ones. So, yeah, I would check it out and make sure you use code WDP 10 to get your 10% off if you're interested in glow. And I should say uh, phil the founder is setting up an affiliate link for me as we speak, so I will have my affiliate link shortly with that.

Speaker 1:

Yes, chantel says blogging. I love it personally. There's even more room, I think and, chantel, you tell me if you think this too I think there's more room than ever for, like, personal blogging. Um, sub stack is huge right now. That's a way to get clients. Um, whether your blog is more tutorial based or information based, or whether it's a little more personal, whether it's all the above, a lot of room for that. Same with newsletters, which could be used in tandem. So, gosh, I, yeah, there's so many opportunities there.

Speaker 1:

Alexia says LinkedIn is my least favorite, but I see people killing it on there. Yeah, I mean honestly, alexia, like I, I just I wouldn't do it if you don't like it. It's just an option. So if you're, if you're really enjoying threads and Instagram and other ones, and that's where you're attracting some leads, alexia, I would stick with that, apart from getting in person. Yeah, you never want to join a platform because me or anyone else told you to um, which I don't mean to come across like that anyway, I'm just saying it's an option, um, but yeah, I would not. Um, I would not force yourself to do some type of marketing in a place that you don't really enjoy. Like there. There's nothing worse than being a business owner and then setting ourselves up for doing stuff we don't want to do. Like. If you love Instagram, do Instagram. You can make it work, you can get leads, maybe more crowded, but that just leaves more exploration for different ways to go about it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, jeffrey asks for the sites you build and maintain. Do you push Google recapture or cloud flare or some other feature to protect and support pages that have forums and protect the overall or protect the site overall? A couple of different tools, for sure. Recapture Um, I'm not using cloud flare, but, um, what I WordPress wise, I love the plugin, clean talk. I'm still using the free version and it is relentless. It can actually be a little too relentless Sometimes. Cleantalk sends like way too much stuff to spam. That's actually pretty quality. So really, I mean, if you have good hosting, jeffrey, you can of course, use Cloudflare, for sure, but definitely do the reCAPTCHA, and then I would have CleanTalk or some sort of spam plugin. And then, if you use something like SendGrid or Mailgun or a few other of these SMTP platforms and programs and plugins, those will help as well. So, yeah, that's basically it. It's reCAPTCHA and it's cleanTalk, and then it's SendGrid. I use SendGrid. Need to do more on LinkedIn. Good shout out. Also reviving my YouTube channel. That's a big one too.

Speaker 1:

Oh my gosh, I'm actually working on a full like. I mean it could be a book. I may make it a book. It's 50 ways to get web design clients 25 virtual, 25 in person so I'm going to make that a priority. My family and I are going on vacation later this month, but I think in June I'm really going to start to make that a priority, just because I know everyone could reference that often, which I can show you real quick. I can give you the list. Maybe I'll give you the list real quick. Again, there's some context missing on this, but, um, actually I'll show you real. I'll show you something real quick. Let's have some fun.

Speaker 1:

I'm going to go in here, so I'm going to head into pro and for pro members. I hope you have checked out Brock for non-pro members. I hope this gives you some interest here. We have an AI agent now inside of Pro that, specifically, is trained on Pro resources and info, so I can create multiple agents. But for right now, I'm going to use Brock. My daughter named him Broccoli and I'm going to say Josh made a post about 50 ways to get clients. Can you send me that? So I'm going to find that post using Brock. You could search it in pro, of course, and you'd probably be able to find it, but Brock might give me some additional resources.

Speaker 1:

Here we go. Here's the post with a little more context, so I'll share this with you guys in the chat. Again, this is something that I'm building out, but here are. Here is a short list of 50 ways to get clients. Aren't you glad you showed up for this Q and a today? I'm going to put it in the chat. Ooh, can I copy that many words in the chat? Let's see. Actually, let me try to format this differently. I'm going to actually go into the post. Let me see if I can take this. Ooh, I think there's too much to. I don't think YouTube allows more than a certain amount of words. Let's see this. There we go. Let's see what that looks like. Ah, it's not great. It's not great, all right. Well, let's just review this real quick. Let's review this. And again, this is something I'm going to make public here soon, but just for your reference, so everyone gets a chance to see this.

Speaker 1:

Personal network, professional network, networking groups, referral groups like BNI, professional groups like Toastmasters, referral partners like ancillary service partners, partner webinars and trainings for clients, like I mentioned, host a local workshop. These are in-person, by the way. Local business events like ribbon cuttings, local chamber of commerce, a full city chamber of commerce those are different, by the way. Business or tech meetups, co-working spaces. Get some pro swag you can go to joshhallco slash swag Even if you're not a pro member yet. You can buy a shirt or some swag that says web designer pro and you will get leads. I got a lead. We've got a member, megan, who literally got her best project and client ever by just wearing a Web Designer Pro shirt to her veterinarian.

Speaker 1:

Niche industry conferences you can be a sponsor or you can just go to trade show events. You go to industry conferences like web design conferences, like WordCamp, quite a few others here. Let's get into some of the online options Host a podcast, guest on podcasts. Start a YouTube channel. We talked about the social media avenue web design, facebook groups, industry-based groups, paid web design communities, paid entrepreneurial communities. Google business profile. Optimize local SEO long tail topical SEO on site link that says site designed by such and such freely generator to build your list, which you can optimize with SEO. You can start a monthly newsletter case studies, referrals from current clients. You could submit work to be featured on blogs. You could do that for local awards blogging on your site, guest blogging on different industry leading sites as a guest blogger I did that for Elegant Themes back in the day you could be a sponsor or an attendee, or host a virtual summit.

Speaker 1:

You can sell templates based off of your tools on certain marketplaces. You can jump on Fiverr or Upwork. There are designer directories. You can, of course, do ads. I've even got some new ones I'm going to edit to this list, so there are quite a few. Just to give you some ideas, fergie, and anyone interested in expanding your network.

Speaker 1:

Antoine said yes, still buzzing from our web designer pro con. Awesome, and my big takeaways of restructure happy restructuring my business and offers Ooh, all right, antoine. Well, tomorrow we have an exclusive call for everyone who was there. So, antoine, I hope to see you there tomorrow for our attendee call, cause we're going to talk about those and we should be getting the presentation replay soon. So, by the way, anyone who's a member of web designer pro, you will get the replays to those live presentations we had at web designer pro con you. Yeah, we need a T to do using AI in your web design business training for real.

Speaker 1:

The things he talked about were mind blowing, antoine. I told you, man. I told Antoine, I agree, we were sitting there at Pint House my mind's being blown while I'm drinking a pipe about AI and I'm like, dude, we got to get you on the podcast. So, antoine, I know you said sometimes it feels like what do I have to share? Right there, alexia said it best, antoine. I know you said sometimes it feels like what do I have to share? Right there, alexia said it best. Antoine, let me know if you need the link again. I want to get you on the podcast and, yeah, we might even do a official training.

Speaker 1:

Chantel said for blogging. She does a mix of blogging and always invites people to her email list for freebies. Cool, cool, cool. Yeah, chantel, are you using your um or, chantel? Are you using your email list as a newsletter or your blog as a newsletter as well? Curious to see how you're doing that. She also did an interview series Hustlers Nice for female business owners. Very cool. It's such a great way to go and if you're a blogger, you don't even need to do video. You could just send them questions or do like a recorded interview and then go from there.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, fergie said since, josh, since I came across you at the web designer boss summit or the designer boss summit wanted to ask you how you may have pitched to be a speaker. I've spoken in the past, but never from pitching, and want to do more of it. That would be the biggie. Fergie is is just pitch. I'm trying to remember. The summits that I'm a part of typically have just been colleagues that I've known, emma and Anna, the creators and founders of the Designer Boss Summit. I've actually known Emma well before they even started the summit, so I happened to just get an invite when they did the first one. So I haven't actually pitched myself to any summits.

Speaker 1:

But what I would say, fergie, is, if you're going to do that, I would highly recommend it, but you need to be oh so clear about what's your specialty. What is your thing? Is there one topic in a summit that you could talk about? That is your thing, even if you do multiple things. It's just something you may want to focus on, because I have learned at summits you don't want to go into too many topics. Less is more. So, fergie, let's just say I don't know. Let's just say copywriting is your thing, just as an example I would lead with like, I help web designers with better copy which convert more, and help them make a lot more for clients. I would have a very, very specific topic or maybe a list of like a few things you could talk about. You could maybe it's SEO, maybe it's design, maybe it's how branding works in with websites. I would just be really specific about your, your topic or topics and go from there.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, google's recapture will no longer be free. That's why I asked. I have to look. I don't know the. I don't know the situation there. Jeffrey, I wonder what the pricing will be. Yeah, might be worth it. I would imagine it's not going to be terribly expensive. You know, it'd just be a part of the cost of maintenance and support. Probably that could, by the way, be an upsell on a maintenance plan. Is you get reCAPTCHA, which is a premium service, as a part of your plan, but if we don't have that, you may end up getting more spam. So join our maintenance plan.

Speaker 1:

Oh man, I need that book. Then I can move up from the courses level. I tell you what. I will send you this list. I'll email it to you. I tell you what. I will send you this list. I'll email it to you. I know that post was in the community level, but I will send that over to you. That way, you at least have that with some ideas. But again, there's some missing context. But at least you'll have some ideas.

Speaker 1:

What software are you using for Web Designer Pro? Is that a trade secret? No, not at all. Jeremiah, I am like unbelievably open about that. Circle Circle is, jeremiah. I am like unbelievably open about that circle circle is what I use for web designer pro. I have talked about that at length. I love, love, love circle.

Speaker 1:

In fact, I have a whole set of circle videos here on my YouTube channel, so I would I definitely recommend checking that out If you're curious, jeremiah. Um, for both either your stuff or for client stuff. I have a whole playlist here on how I'm using Circle for WebDissenter Pro. I'm actually about to do a new set of videos for them as well, with some updated features. But a lot of these videos will give you a good glimpse at how I'm using it.

Speaker 1:

I would start with this one. This is a quick video how I'm using it. I would start with this one. This is a quick video. Finally, it'll launch and build um how many? Or it'll it'll run through features of circle that I would recommend. Actually, let me pull it up for you real quick. Uh, oh, not a circle circle, so I will link this in the chat for you guys If you're interested in seeing a snapshot of circle and how I'm using it for Web Designer Pro. But absolute, like I couldn't do Web Designer Pro without circle. Huge, absolutely huge.

Speaker 1:

Chantel is sending weekly newsletters Way to go, chantel, awesome. What are some good freebies for email? Newsletter magnets Also probably going to steal this hustle. Hers idea. Gosh, so many. I mean the one thing I'll just give you general advice with like a freebie, make it a quick win.

Speaker 1:

Quick wins are key, absolutely key. You don't want to give a freebie that's going to take months to implement. You want to give something that's like oh, that was a great idea. Think like copy edits, design edits on websites, maybe call to action recommendations, a page layout that could be implemented pretty quick. Maybe there's a few tweaks you can make to a page that would give instant results. Um, anything that can be done quickly, that's key. That's why SEO freebies are kind of tricky because, aside from Google business profile optimization, if you do, you know, like SEO content work on a site, it's going to take some time for it to work and pay off, so I would go for a quick win.

Speaker 1:

The other thing you could do if you're just purely wanting to increase your amount of exposure is offer like a free audit. I would. I would say like I would, even if you don't, even if you haven't sold one, I would offer a web design audit that's like 99 bucks and give it free for a certain amount of people. Or maybe you have like five spots and an audit may include like a 10 to 15 minute loom video that you send them with recommendations for their website and then say if you would like me to do these for you, your $99 is is well, they didn't pay for it. So you could say we could handle those for you. Um, I would consider a free audit.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, antoine says. I hear you, josh and Alexia Just gave my first presentation on AI made easy. Ooh, growing your business without becoming a tech expert Went better than I could have hoped. Way to go, antoine. There's another idea that I talked about in that big list, which is do a presentation locally or virtually Absolutely, and Antoine will be on our call tomorrow for all Web Designer Pro con attendees. Awesome, all right, alexia, we'll see you tomorrow as well. Very cool guys.

Speaker 1:

Well, we're getting close to the top of the hour, so let me go ahead and do a final call for questions so we make sure we have time. And Jeremiah says thanks, you Love this shirt. Yes, heck, yeah, jeremiah, my, you know what, despite my um issues and, uh, not disdain, but just like Facebook's just kind of uh, uh, at least the business profile for sure is just like so much junk and noise that is like on, completely unrelevant to me. But, uh, man, did they, do they nail my star Wars swag? They, I like, had to pick this one up. I, you know, I'm like, well, obviously, I'm like a massive John Williams fan. The documentary is really good. By the way, jeremiah, I don't know if you've seen that anyone on Disney plus, um, if you're interested in in John Williams or music in general or composing, uh, his documentary was really interesting about how we got started and how we ended up doing the music for star Wars and ET and jaws and Jurassic park and so many others that he's done. Heck, yeah, I forget what store I got this from, but it was worth it. Yeah, congrats AT getting a lot of congrats there. All right, guys.

Speaker 1:

Final call for questions. Final call for questions. I got to head off here shortly because I got to mow some grass before a podcast interview today with Kevin Geary Any Kevin Geary fans in the house Kevin and I are catching up this afternoon about WordPress and the state of it and what he's doing with Etch and a few other things. So very excited to catch up with Kevin, but I got to mow the grass first. The kiddos want to get outside and have a play date because it's going to be like 85 degrees, so I'm going to wrap this up and mow some grass. Quite looking forward to it. Quite looking forward to it.

Speaker 1:

These websites you mentioned, says Jeffrey, offering them three IDs UX, ui, aesthetic audits of the site or are you auditing technical SEO and on-page SEO? I would not do that, especially for free, jeffrey. I wouldn't do anything technical. It's actually an audit. Could be a bit of a mix of business strategy and visual. Do anything technical it's more, it's actually an audit could be a bit of a mix of, like, business strategy and visual. So I would absolutely not get access and do tools and stuff without. I mean you can do quite a bit without logging into a website with some of the SEO tools. Now you can look at page rank and you can. You can look at errors and all sorts of stuff. Um, you can look at backlinks and all sorts of stuff, but I would definitely not do a time intensive edit or audit free. I would keep it UX UI and I would really.

Speaker 1:

More specifically, I would be focused on business strategy, like because a lot of clients may look at a website audit and think like he's going to tell me to make my buttons green or move this around. But if you say I'm going to recommend some copy and design tweaks because let's think about your customer, if your customer wants to book a call, there's actually not a clear call to action to book a call. Or if they're supposed to buy something, it's not super clear let's create I would recommend creating like a very, very intentional customer path on this website. And here are the reasons why and how I would do that with these design tweaks. I would do it like that. Yeah, I would think technical SEO and stuff vary later on. That's more where I mean, again, quick wins and I would keep it business strategy focused.

Speaker 1:

You could even call it a website strategy audit or a website. Honestly, I wouldn't even call it audit, I would call it like a website strategy audit or a website. I honestly I wouldn't even call it audit. I would call it like website strategy session. That again, maybe $99, up to $500. And then, um, if it's on the lower end, do it for free, just to build your network. And then, let's say you do have an audit. That's two, three, four, 500 bucks. When and if someone goes forward with that, you send them a little action plan and then who implements it? They can or they could hire you and that gets credited off their plan. It's the same way that paid discovery works, by the way.

Speaker 1:

Awesome, alexia, always great gold nuggets from your lives. Oh, thank you, alexia, it's great to see you. Great questions guys, such good questions. Kevin and Dave Foy sold me on the Bricksbiller. That's right, yep, yep, we'll hear more about that. I have a feeling I don't know if they're going to be using Bricks much more once Kevin releases Edge officially. So I'll find out more about that this afternoon. I'll tell him. You said hey, awesome, jeffrey, no problem.

Speaker 1:

I find site audits that also scrutinize funnel paths and business strategies that require first lots of info about the business, sometimes longer discussions. Yeah, they can be Um and again, this is where, like an, a business strategy audit could absolutely mean, like you, yeah, you do need to do some preliminary research. I was thinking more of like, I, like, I would. I could probably honestly look at any website and get a feel for like, or have questions about, who is your customer. If it's clear, then we could dive into some of the nitty gritty about that path and what they should be doing on the website. If it's not clear who their customer is and what they could do, then that right, there is a reason enough to work on the website, because I would just say like, yeah, it's not actually like super clear, like what you do or how you do it, or when you do it, or who your ideal client even is.

Speaker 1:

So, yeah, Antoine, you're an early adopter for everything. Dude, that needs to be like your tagline in your email. Antoine, early adopter Williams. That needs to be in there. A T E, a, we'll figure it out, uh.

Speaker 1:

But yeah, antoine, I really would love to chat with you here soon. Man, I'm taking, I'm actually doing I'm scheduling podcast interviews, uh, for the summer. So, um, hit me up. I really want to get you on so we can talk AI and all this good stuff. Yapper, love Kevin. Awesome guys. All right, Two minutes left before I'm out to mow the grass. Anybody have a final question? I'll take one final question because I can't answer a question in under two minutes. It's impossible. So I'm going to look at the chat and first come, first serve. Who gets the final question of the day?

Speaker 1:

By the way, while I'm waiting on that, if you guys would like to jump into Webizona Pro below is your coupon code I'm giving you a special offer right now 50% off your first month. That works on both the courses tier and the community tier. So if you just want to dive into some of my courses let's say you want to go into my business course and really go further into sales and pricing and client acquisition use code MAY50 by the end of this month to jump in. And if you want to see what the community is all about and one thing I would recommend doing, by the way, if you're going to join the community, this is worth $50, even if you just try it out, join the community. This is worth $50. Even if you just try it out, join the community.

Speaker 1:

Go to wins and successes, because if you really want to see what's working right now. This is it. This is like real time. Look at what is working for Web Designer Pro members today wins and successes, and even more recently, these are all wins. Both monetary lifestyle balance everything. So check it out, jump on in and get on in here to the wins and successes. That's what I would recommend doing.

Speaker 1:

I do have some success pathways for you as well. So, whether you are early on, or whether you're growing, or whether you're at a point where you're scaling, I've got a success pathway for each one of those profiles profiles. So um recommend that as well when you jump in, because if you're earlier on, I would recommend taking this pathway. This pathway gives you an overview of tool stack options process with resources, both courses and everything. You need to have an action plan to get going. Um, my grow pathway is great for those who are cooking but you're wanting to get to six figures and beyond and build your MRR. That's what this pathway is for. And then those of you who are ready to scale, you can go through this one. So highly recommend checking that out.

Speaker 1:

All right guys. The final question is not in. So I think everyone's good. All right guys, good, good, good stuff, guys. Well, great session today. Thanks so much for joining.

Speaker 1:

Great to see Antoine in the house. Great to see everybody everybody here. Thank you for joining. Thank you for your super great and thoughtful questions Awesome stuff, guys. If you join late or if you have to bounce off early or while we're bouncing off now, so the replay will be up in the live stream section on my YouTube channel, so you are absolutely welcome to head over there to catch the replay. All right, guys, I hope to see you in Web Designer Pro Again. Details below in the description Use code MAY50 to jump into pro Either the community or coaching tier. 50% off your first month and I'll follow up with you. And I am really pumped to help you guys make the most of springtime here as we get ready to head into summer, because summertime is a great time to not only get clients, even during vacation times, but to get things ready to boom come late summer. So let's boom the rest of 2025, guys. All right, everybody. Thanks for joining. I will see you on the next Q&A session. Cheers, guys.