“I’m not a designer, how can I critique design? What if I say something stupid?” I’ve come across a lot of people who have this exact worry when working with a designer or agency. You didn’t go to design school, you have no design degree, so how can you pass judgement on typography and color … Read more
(Read part 1 on giving good feedback.) Your input is important and necessary to guide my work. I may not get everything right on the first try. That’s not just okay, it’s part of the process. Our work together can (and will) be iterative. Here’s how you can provide me with effective feedback so I … Read more
Design is about connecting the dots. You have a product or service. An idea, a goal. Out in the world, people have needs and wants. They have problems to solve, dreams to attain. What you offer can help. Solve someone’s problem. Make a dream come true. But how do you convey the value of what … Read more
Like most moderately well-adjusted people, I like helping people.It feels good. This isn’t just lip service. In this line of work, the more that I help you to achieve your goals, the more likely you are to come back for more, or tell your friends and co-workers about my work. I’m thankful that my business … Read more
I had just gotten off the phone with a potential client. He said that of the 10 or so developers and agencies he spoke with, not a single one of them mentioned website performance. Now, I realize that this is only 10, and certainly there are web designers and developers who focus on speed. But … Read more
One way to make your website more professional is to edit images so that they’re more cohesive. This helps create unity, consistency and coherence in your design. In this article, I’ll show you how to improve your images by adjusting color temperature and tint. First, take a look at these unedited stock images I selected … Read more
Website performance is a potentially large and complicated topic. However, the fundamentals–and best practices–are simple enough that a do-it-yourself site owner can succeed in building a fast WordPress site. If you’re not a DIYer but are instead looking to hire a web designer or developer, the information in this article will help you ask questions … Read more
Can Gutenberg imitate Elementor? Over the years, we’ve built many client websites with the Elementor page builder. It’s fast enough with judicious use on fast host servers. However, Elementor bugs and increasing bloat pressured us to check our reliance on this tool. Are we being foolish? We decided to give the Gutenberg block editor another try. … Read more
What if there was a way to add a landing page to your site without any extra costs or sacrifices in load time? You can, and I’ll show you how. I’ll also share some simple changes we made to our call-to-action. These improvements increased the click-through rate and conversions. Read the full article on PagePipe.com … Read more
With easy access to solid DIY website platforms (Squarespace, Wix, Wordpress, etc) and a huge pool of freelancers and web agencies, the decision to hire someone or to build for yourself is not necessarily an easy choice. I built the first iteration of my website, The Tool Merchants, in 2013. After plugging along making minor … Read more
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