I have been experiencing an ongoing process of re-invention and was inspired to redesign my homepage this week – something I rarely recommend others do.
Why did I do it?
Because I want to be more intentional about the people I work with.
About That Keyword-Optimized WordPress SEO Bullshit…
Rather than leading with a bunch of SEO-friendly, keyword-optimized “WordPress Designer & Developer in Minneapolis” bullshit, my homepage now leads with my core values (and a picture of Donald Trump with a “no” symbol…couldn’t help myself…).
Yes, I’m still a WordPress designer & developer. Yes, I still do all the WordPress security, speed, SEO stuff I’ve always done. But I also bring a lot more than that to the table and always have.
The people I’ve found I work best with are those that share these core values in common:
- I check my ego at the door.
- I help people answer big questions & solve problems (I don’t bring solutions – you’ve got the answers, we’ve just got to bring them out into the light).
- I own my work (mistakes, successes, happy accidents, all of it).
- I believe in shipping work quickly, iteratively, and often (rather than long “waterfall” processes).
So I figure if I can attract more of these people, then I’m feeling better about my limited hours on this planet.
I also wrote and linked prominently to a controversial new article about the ONLY THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW about building your small business website. I had a frustrating experience with a customer last week that spurred that article and pushed my thinking forward on a number of fronts…
FWIW, I also made some minor layout and design changes (tightened up header spacing, changed the old blues to greens). And now my homepage is way more megabytes than it used to be, because I believe the new images I’ve created communicate important things about who I am and how I work and that the extra weight is worth the speed & seo trade-off.
From Toby’s Blog
- The Horrors of Covering Your Own AssToday I emailed a very simple question to support@[companyname].com (2 sentences total). The automated response I got back was this: Keep in mind that the above was an auto-response and: It’s hard to read. Everything has the same import (e.g. none of it is important enough to call out separately). It’s long. It added absolutely-zero…
- If something stupid makes money, then it’s not stupid.I’ve seen some stupid things in my life…And some of them were really really smart. I remember a story from decades ago where the U.S. military was looking to equip the Stealth Bomber with a fancy computer-driven video system so the pilots could see behind them. Well, the computers failed to get the job done,…
- There is no destination.Coding is a process of failure followed by a moment of great joy. You've gotta ride through the failures to experience the joy...
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