The Blog
Squarespace tutorials and guides on website design, branding, blogging, and podcasting—and the occasional business-coaching tip.
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Why I’m Not Using ChatGPT to Create My Content
Would you use ChatGPT is you knew that it generated copyrighted material? What if you don’t own the intellectual property of AI-generated material? I don’t use ChatGPT and other AI content for these reasons and more.
How to Start a Podcast: Launch Your Podcast in Just Two Weeks
You want to step-by-step instructions for how to start a podcast quickly and easily? I’ve got you covered! In this post, I’m going to lay out the exact steps you need to take to start your own podcast, including telling you exactly what equipment and software I recommend.
Why You Should (or Shouldn’t) Have a Podcast with Justin Schenck
I’m am thrilled to be this week’s guest on Justin Schenck’s Growth Now Movement podcast—rated by Inc. Magazine as one of the top 8 podcasts every entrepreneur should follow. We discuss all-things-podcasting, why you should (or shouldn’t) do it, why we need more women podcasters, and the importance of having a great niche for your podcast.
Redefining Success: Do You Really Need a Harvard Degree to Write Your Own Ticket?
In this video, I discuss how my childhood definition of success was to grow up and become an artist, while my dad pushed his definition of success on me: To get a Harvard degree, to become an attorney, and to make a ton of money. I talk about how his pressure affected me over the years and how his suicide in 2008 finally got me to redefine success more fully for myself and to create more meaning in my life.
How Do I Get People to Sign Up for My Lead Magnet?
In this blog post, I share 8 ways to get people to sign up for your lead magnet. You can’t just let it sit there. You’ve got to share it and make it clear that you want people to sign up. These 8 ideas will set you on the right path.
Why Do I Need a Lead Magnet?
92 percent of first-time visitors to your website aren’t going to buy from you. You need a way to stay top-of-mind for when they are ready to buy. A lead magnet helps you do that.
7 Essential Features Every Homepage Must Have
Your homepage should get people onto your email list, encourage them to explore your website, and lead to them hiring you. These 7 features will help your website achieve this.
When Clients Don’t Listen: Lessons in Positioning Your Business
Strong positioning of your business is essential to setting yourself apart from the competition. Here are some lessons on positioning and niche from consulting I did for Rice Business School.
Do I Need a Website for My Business?
If you’re just starting your business, you may be wondering if you really need a website. Can you run a successful business with only social media and forego having a website? TL;DR: You need a website and social media.
How to Get into Flow
We usually think of flow—or “getting into the zone”—as something that primarily happens to runners and writers. But it can happen to anyone—to all of us. And science, particularly Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, has taught us a lot about what flow is and how we can activate it.
How to Price Your Services
Pricing your services is one of the toughest things you’ll do as a freelancer. You can charge based on your hourly rate, based on the project, or based on value. In this post, we’ll calculate your minimum hourly rate and look at these different pricing models.
Design and Business Resources
As freelancers, we need business tools to handle invoices, getting contracts signed, and keeping track of expense. We need design tools to create our website, create social media posts, and design visual assets. And we need tools to monitor SEO results. Here I’ll share some of my favorites.
How to Identify Your Brand Personality and Voice
Your brand personality is the essence of who your brand really it. Your brand voice is how you reflect your brand personality and how you make people who engage with your brand feel. These are part of your brand identity. And they are essential to get right before you put your brand out into the world.
Squarespace for Beginners
To help you get started in Squarespace, here are links to blog posts and podcasts (labelled) that are about starting a Squarespace website, starting a blog and podcast, changing colors and fonts, and setting up search engine optimization. It’s all here in one place so that you don’t have to go searching on your own!
Branding for Beginners
To help you brand your business, I’ve put links to my blogs and podcasts that are related to branding. They are in order of what you should do first. But, of course, you can check them out in any order you want!
Blogging and Podcasting for Beginners
To help you start and run your blog and/or podcast, I’ve put links to my blogs and podcasts that are all about blogging and podcasting. They are in order of what you would do first if you haven’t started yet. If you’ve already got a blog/podcast, then pick the topic(s) that you most need.
Best Vision and Mission Statements and How to Write Yours
The best vision and mission statements are short, inspiring, and people-centric. In this post, I share 10 of the best vision and mission statements and guide you in writing your own.
How to Create a Color Palette for Your Brand
The right color palette is essential for branding. Color helps differentiate your brand, elicit an emotional response, and increase engagement. In this post, I walk you through 5 steps to create a color palette for your brand.
Quick-Start Squarespace Website for Beginners
In this video, I show you how to create a website in Squarespace 7.1. This is a short tutorial because I want you to see just how easy Squarespace really is.
Best Practices for Blogs and Podcasts
Following best practices can make blogging and podcasting easier. In this blog, I share information about how often to post, creating a template, using keywords, where to feature your blog and podcast, creating URLs, and more.