So how much is that?

So.

Welcome to the podcast Ed Mastermind Show. The podcast

by podcast under orders for podcast editors. And real quick,

I'm Jennifer Longworth with Berman Marrow Podcasting and I

am proud sponsor of she podcast live and in person gathering the

largest in fact women and nonbinary audio creators,

storytellers, podcasters and more. And it's happening this

June 19th through 22nd at the MGM National Harbor in

Washington, DC. So if you're someone who's passionate about

podcasting, if you're feeling a little bit overwhelmed by all

the different choices, is that what you have to learn from whom

and where and whatever? What are you going to do next? Come to

she podcast live she podcasts live dot com. Check it out.

Hopefully your engine and below me you'll find.

Bryan and Springer. And to my side is Daniel Abendroth.

And not joining us this evening is Carrie Caulfield.

Eric you'll find her at Carrie Dot Land and we have a special

guest today, Daniel J. Danielle is from Kentucky like me. So

that is why she's there. Well, not the only reason she's here,

but that makes your extra cool.

She's the owner of Arcane design Studios, a 13 year old branding

and identity firm based in the heart of the bluegrass here in

Lexington. She's a podcaster, wife, mom of three lover of

rustic Italian cuisine, Chai cosplay, Star Trek Picard and

live in May. And she is celebrating Star Wars May the

fourth day with all of us. Welcome, Danielle.

I feel like we need to stop here and just kind of honor

the fact that she loves Picard. Like, we could just take the

show and move on with that.

Oh, right.

Giant Trekkie fan from Mars. And I absolutely love the fact that

even when we get to chat about the technical side of things, I

can always find a way to pull in a level Star Wars or Star Trek.

So you're welcome.

Great. And Daniel's our special guest today because

she reached out to us after having listened to our website

episodes saying she was talking back at the podcast and she was

listening and we want to know what she was saying to us as

podcasting is kind of one way, typically, but we want to hear

what you were, what you were telling us.

Oh man, the episode was great. Like, can I just say,

in fact, like the conversation, the lingo, the camaraderie, like

all of that is just so bubbly and it's infectious.

Yeah, you can sing our praises all day.

Long, if that was what you were saying. This is going

to be great.

What else do you like about it?

I was leaning leaning that into the next part, which

was we could use some help in the website area. Yeah. And I

definitely I don't have all the answers. I love the fact that

you all leave from that place, which is we don't have all the

answers, but this is what has been working and I love that I

can kind of help if anyone needs that. As far as direction for

what you want to best reflect the services and the people that

you want to see.

So I'm going to jump to the sugar prices, be on your

services page. Question I'm just going to just go right after

that one because I still struggle on with it.

As an editor. I do not I do not love them. And that's a

big one because the world tells us that we should have some sort

of base, right or base comparison. So I can do a

starting point figure depending on what type of particular

service I want to to aim for. So I love that. But the other part

of that is, Oh, right, yeah. Going right for the through the

jugular. I really like the fact, too, that when we talk about

listing our services, I push out those features, the cool parts

of working with yourself, whatever that is. I know for

Jennifer it's going to be a bourbon tasting party is going

to be maybe bourbon listening party, maybe even like something

in Around the Love. Jennifer is like my go to person for all

things podcasting. So I love the fact that for Jennifer, that

could be a very specific thing. But what works for Jennifer

isn't going to work for Daniel, right? Maybe a little bit

different. Maybe a stylistically, a little bit different. So when

we come about looking at these websites, there's not like a

generic. You have to have A, B and Z. It really can be more

conform to who you are and the brand values that you want to

bring through your business.

I'm listening to this and I'm thinking, you know, I just

spent several hours last week finding an excellent plug in so

I could put my prices back on my website. And they don't look

like cockapoo poop.

And what are you comfy with? Like, Dude, what are you

comfortable with?

I was comfortable without them, but I was told, hey, like,

let's do it, and that the research supported that. So I

did it. It's been, what, two weeks? It's too early to tell,

right?

Yeah. I give you a good 30, 60 days, maybe a full

90 days to kind of see if that would really give you a quicker

turnaround, maybe in communication with with clients

because they see your prices first or they are able to at

least access an ideal scale of what those prices could be. I

love starting points. Prices starting at x $9, I think.

Daniel were you saying that before on I think that was you.

I well, I don't remember. I know we talked we looked at a

couple of statistic. Jessica is just like a starting ad or

whatever. And I think that's kind of like where I landed as

far as like a good starting point or like a good middle

ground that we don't have to, like, lay everything out. But

you can get a, you know, the starting point price to kind of

weed out the people who like definitely can't afford your

rates.

And to be fair, my starting point, prices are

definitely not the absolute bottom. I'm trying to get you in

so I can sell you up later. Like this is what it would. This is

what it would cost you. But we can talk about scope, right?

Because if you publish once a week versus once a month, that's

a different price.

Absolutely. I love that you say that, because I

think that's a really big part of building out what you want

people to see on your website. Is it do I want them to focus on

the numbers? Yes. To an extent, to a certain extent, yes. I do

want them to think about that. But the focus on weeding out,

finding your people, finding your people is so important to

me. It's more important than the actual money they are paying me.

I would rather have the value of a good client who may be in the

mid range of what I would normally charge or in the range

of services that we offer versus a really, really poor client who

pays me a ton of money to do what I need to do. Because at

the end of the day we can only take on so much. We're human,

even though a lot of times as editors, we're forced to kind of

be little miniature robots,

if you will. I think it's very interesting that, yes, we're

going to talk in and out about that like as editor, sometimes

we're seen as robots and we're just robotically going through

life. And it doesn't matter how much it is because we can do it

right and it's in our bandwidth. So that's something to think

about when you talk about listing prices.

So what else needs to be on our Web site? I mean, what

else were you telling us we were doing wrong? I guess the

question I really want to know that you were listening to,

you're talking back and I really want you to talk to us like in

person about this or, you know, as in person. Yeah.

Only just enjoy the level of transparency. And this

is something that I do see on podcast, but not enough. Like

you guys are really kind of putting yourselves out there

with, Yeah, I'm comfortable with that. Or No, I'm not comfortable

with that at all. And you know, it was a heck no. I don't know

what writing this podcast is. So I was like, Can you sure? Like

there's a no fly zone for each of you on your own level. But I

also feel like that's also curated based upon the

experience you want to give your customers. So in hindsight, you

want your your website to be a reflection of the people and the

things you are trying to attract, right? Well, a bit of an

attraction game, if you will. So very similar to kind of I'm sure

there's certain questions and I think you mentioned that before

on the original episode. Was there certain things that we

have to ask so that we know what we're getting into? And I think

that's a legit thing you have to know upfront. So that's that

little tango dance that we talk about a little bit in terms of

marketing, but in the sales part of it, there's also a little bit

of a dance in trying to discover the things that you need to know

upfront versus the things that may come out in the wash later

on as the relationship continues. So those are also things to kind

of figure out how you want that to be represented on your site.

Maybe that's an effort to get talked about having an RFQ on

your site, whether or not that's a good idea or whether that's a

bad idea. But most people are having that on their website. So

a lot of those questions that they're thinking about are

already answered in black and white. On your on your page.

There's some other cool aspects that I feel like is kind of

trending right now for websites.

Tell us more.

Yes, we need to know.

Obviously, you got to please your playlist, things

like that that you want to share. I am loving every piece of

embedded playlists like, but that's like a huge thing that's

not popular outside of podcasting, believe it or not.

So I'm really enjoying that. People are doing that more, but

it's not necessarily staples of work. It's like my afternoon

tunes, my morning wakeup call, like playlists that you would

normally see like on Spotify somewhere. Like you're trying to

draw a little bit more personality onto the website and

people are doing that through through to their music, through

audio samples. And I think that's really cool. So maybe

think about that as like a fun thing, maybe not for the website,

maybe it's for your newsletter, but that is something to kind of

think about in terms of website. The other part that I really

loved about the episode and I was kind of like stomping my

foot about was whether or not to I know. How personal do you want

to be? Are you putting your face up there to put your business

logo up there? What are the I guess the 411 was the behind the

scenes answer on whether or how close you want to be in

proximity to putting your personal face versus a business

logo out there. And I think that completely varies between who

you are, what you do. If you're a podcast editor, that's a

little bit more meticulous. Maybe you're focusing primarily

in a certain niche. I love that Daniel focuses specifically on

coaches. I love the fact that you were able to kind of find

your niche there. However, for a lot of other people, maybe it's

a free for all right. I added podcasts from comics to music to

the news. And so it's really important for me to be open. But

for some people, maybe meeting down is the better is the better

option. So when I think about that, as far in terms of a

website, I want to have all the things that are very popular or

either somewhat trending in those specific specific niches.

So that's really important too. For me, I'm a retro gamer, I'm a

comic lover, so you're going to see me and cosplay pictures.

You're going to see me in fun stuff in and around that

community because that's who I am and I want to attract more

people like that.

I've got a couple of questions I.

Know I didn't have. Well, I do have just one question for

Brian. What is the name of that plug in? You found.

It. I'll have to look it up and send it to you. I don't

remember. It was again theme forest or Code Canyon or

something like that, but I'll, I'll find it. It was, I think 20

bucks or something. It wasn't much but it's not terrible. I

thought it looked pretty good. So one of the things that I

wonder and I think this goes back to all of the branding

questions that you probably ask all of your clients. And so I'm

not trying to get free consulting out of you.

But it's Star Wars Day.

This is where things get weird for me. So maybe not

everybody knows this. I met my wife through an online dating

service and part of how that happened was filling out forms

and providing information. And then, you know, there was, in my

case, a thousand failed matches before I found the one that

stuck. Right. And so there it was, super grueling on my side.

But that's that's neither here nor there. Part of what the

value of that was there was that they had those questions that

help you understand what you're looking for. If it's a good

personality match, that kind of stuff. How do we approach that

from a business standpoint? So these are the things that I need

to communicate, knowing that there's no form out there that

says, Hey, we're going to match you to the perfect client.

Yes. Oh, I love this cool tidbit. I also met my

husband on Facebook, so I relate to that, like figuring out what

what worked. Kind of like the switchboard, right?

And so I tell people it was like trying to buy groceries

at the grocery store by looking at the label and going, This

one's got enough niacin or whatever it is, and then you

flip it around and go, But actually this one doesn't make

me feel good, so we'll keep moving.

Okay, so we talk about forms. For me, I love forms

because that is a great way to kind of directly slim or trim

the fat, right? I think in a lot of ways you have to think about

if you want to use a form to do that, how does that appear? How

does that approach? Is it accessible? Is it easy?

Accessibility is a huge key and a huge turnoff point for a lot

of people who are not clumsy or savvy, servicing and looking at

multiple sites all the time when they're trying to find a podcast

editor. A lot of times they're going to Jennifer out there

going with people they know, they trust someone. They've had

a joke with a drink with something along those lines. So

in terms of like cold, just looking at podcast editors, a

Google search somewhere and they have a form that they want to

find more information out about you, I think it is important to

kind of pull out certain things, but not everything. So I don't

need to know. They're meeting annual median income for the

year. I may ask something kind of fun and flirtatious, like

what is your favorite color? Who is your favorite superhero if it

goes with your with who you are? Right? But I do think that forms

do help. Kind of trim the fat. Really? Yeah. I definitely have

had people when.

I expect you to tell me to just forget about it.

I definitely think it's a great way to weed stuff

out, but there's certain times and places I feel like that can

happen. Websites is one asking anyone for any service. If

you're going to apply for a job, they're going to ask you the

same question. So I do feel like this in alignment with what you

are trying to do, which would be asking someone, Hey, I need to

know a little bit more information before we either hop

on a call or maybe discover more about the type of podcast

services that you need. So knowing ahead of time for me,

when I'm doing any type of consultation like that, it's,

Hey, what do you need? Is it podcast episode? Right? Tell me

more about what's the name of your podcast? What is maybe

something you want to do with your podcast that you're

currently not doing? Also asking them a funny question Who's your

favorite superhero and why? Sometimes that's not a required

answer. It's got to leave a base, but it's one of those things

that I do. I do want to know more information about who I'm

working with before they even get to my face.

Thanks, Steve has a question.

What would the negative consequences be for having a

schedule a call button rather than a list of prices or having

the podcast or fill out form?

So based on experience and a little bit of factoid

knowledge here, schedule a call is a lot of times for a consumer

to kind of format A I don't know if I want to talk to this person

just as much as we do it on our side, but happens on the

opposite side too. So even though when they're seeking like

services for podcasting in any way, shape or form, sometimes it

can be alluring to schedule a call. They don't want to make

that level of commitment yet, but they are okay with looking

at your prices and kind of knowing just the base

information. I'm definitely more of an introvert, believe it or

not. I know I'm all over the internet, but very much more of

an introverted person and I struggle sometimes, you know,

even with. So I want to take this call today. Do I really

want to be believed today? Even though we set our own boundaries

and scope of of realm for that. But the negative consequence, I

think, in some areas is too much pressure for the person to

actually act on the schedule or call.

Patrick said. I'd rather die than schedule a call

with anyone.

I love that. That's definitely me a little bit.

Sometimes I definitely struggle with that, Steve says.

Then you are my ideal client.

Since Patrick's an editor of course not.

But once I write the follow up to that, so I have

essentially like a schedule a call type thing. It's a built in

form. You go and you pick your date and time and there's like a

short questionnaire, but it's just like your name, email

address, whether you want avoid a phone call or a video call.

And then like, How did you hear about me? And my idea was to

keep it as simple as possible and not like overwhelm them and

give them excuse to not fill out the form. It's like having too

many questions. And the idea that I'm toying with now is like

keeping that. And then like a follow up email being like,

Thank you, Thanks so much for sharing a call. Just more

information. The most out of call. Like, here's a list of

questions that I have for you. Is that like asking too much or

like what? I guess what are your thoughts on that?

I really think that really depends on the client and

I feel like too, it depends on the gamut of what you're wanting

to bring people in. If these people are already comfortable

doing this particular questionnaire a little bit in

between, then that's where you would want to go. But if you

also feel like you're maybe putting yourself too much, put

in too much on the client ahead of time, then that also is a

little bit more adding to them to like, okay, if I have to do

all of this just to talk to you, maybe I don't want to, you know,

do that. So you do have to kind of mind what's on brand for you

if you're already showcasing to coaches that you're a likeable

person that you are, that you do your job well, you're already

showcasing all the features and bonuses without actually giving

them that sort of thing, then I think that is something we can

continue to do, just in my opinion, when I have people ask

me a ton of questions in a questionnaire, I actually I love

questions, by the way, to say, yes, let's talk about it. But I

love being able to answer questions. But if you're the

person, sometimes it's not that. No, let me put it in the email

instead. Like I don't want to literally have that 1 to 1 is

okay to put a little bit of a soft boundary between you and

the client before that point. And I talk a lot in terms of

boundaries, just because families are healthy, but

they're not necessarily meant to keep people out. It's just meant

to let the right people in. And so I really emphasize that even

for podcast viewers on their website, you want to allow the

right people in and kind of just wish the people that you really

don't necessarily want to do business with.

Yeah, So the people who don't want to schedule a call,

Steve Stuart, has made it abundantly clear he's not the

editor for you.

Check that box.

Yet.

So Steve, reply For what it's worth, I haven't lost much time

to people scheduling a call who weren't worth a chat. However, I

can close more sales if I get someone on a call, then through

email or any kind of online activity.

Yeah, I relate to that because it depends on how salesy

you are. Like if you're the person that can close that deal

by just talking to them, you hear their voice, then bam! SLAM

That's it. Yes, that's that's the trick. But for people who

are not in that particular area, you know, I'm a person about the

boundary, so I don't force things if it's meant to be. It's

meant to be. What's for you is for you. And I'm a real big

advocate behind that.

So one of the things that I've struggled with a bit in

terms of how to approach this is the number of steps to getting

somebody on the call versus the size of the first hurdle. So to

your point, schedule a call for some people is absolutely a

speed bump. However, I have concern also that if the first

call to action is shoot me an email, then I'm inserting extra

steps before we get there. And so I'm not sure how that

interplay works in terms of what's the right, because

there's an element of momentum and hand-holding that happens.

If you say, Shoot me an email and your first response is cool,

let's set up a time, here's a link or something like that. But

I'm not sure, like where's the decision point between creating

momentum with an easy first step versus just it's a one step

process is options.

That's really what it is. I can I can be like very,

very upfront about that. It's a matter of what you're

comfortable in letting in, but it's also a matter of what's

accessible, like what is accessible, what's accessibility

for you. And I think it varies or the type of podcast that you

are. And I think that's what makes people want to either seek

you out for that particular service and go through all the

things or yeah, I mean.

So for me, you may not know this, but I work a full

time job and I'm a professional editor, so if they want to talk

to me between eight and five, wow, there's a good chance we're

not going to talk about this. I can pre schedule it during a

lunch break a couple of days out because I have other meetings

and believe it or not, the company I work for kind of

expects me to show up and do a job, as you heard. But they have

this expectation, right. And so I have to monitor that.

Exactly. Exactly. There's a huge part of podcast

editing for me that is such a natural state, right? A natural

state of being. And there are after five out for five, it's

the galaxy that's not ours, but far, far away, right? Star Wars.

So I'm trying to think out loud, like in terms of wanting to put

the right things on your website. It really is a reflection of

your processes, the way that you do business and your personality

in some areas. Now, if you're a business business like a

corporation, you're you want to be a little bit more harder tone.

I do agree that maybe there's less of that. Your personal

personality and more of your business persona or your brand

value across that. And I see a lot of that in your website.

Brian More of a professional like brand brand. This is who we

are kind of feel, even though it's very much a tag team. Your

wife's right.

Actually, it's Daniel whose wife works with him. My

wife doesn't.

Oh. Any other way. Yeah.

Okay. So that's that's really what I was getting at was like,

you know, there's a there's a place in a tone that you can

carry. You choose whether that's more of a personality or

personal brand or if that's more of a business businesslike,

corporate sort of feel. And I think there's different

approaches to both.

Yeah, because obviously mine's a more

personality brand driven and I'm revamping the website thanks to

this conversation and.

Get ready to do it again.

I know. Well, they haven't started yet and I don't

do my own. Someone else does it for me. And I sent them a mockup

of what I wanted and it involves Bourbon barrel stables. I'd be

more on target with, you know, being bourbon barrel podcasting.

There was no essence of bourbon or bourbon barrels on my website

before. And I'm like, you know, we need to change this.

Bring back would be.

To.

Me.

Yeah and to Patrick's comment Yeah in my gorgeous room

overlooking the sea that isn't actually just a wall with a

green cover on it. So I do want to add in the kind of a thought

that I had about ways like people can contact you. It's I

think if your website is doing its job and attracting the right

people, they and as long as your website is accessible enough

they'll find out a find a way to get in touch with you. So I

think the most common thing is people scheduling a call with me

or video chat, but also like I do have contact form and I have

like throughout my website like semi message, that kind of thing,

and have plenty of people over the years sent me an email when

they have like a question or they want some information. So

for somebody like me who would rather like chat back and forth

on email before I commit to like talking to somebody, like my

website allows for their people, send me a message, you know, we

can chat that way. And for others that want to hop on a

call right away, it's easy enough of that too.

Yeah. And this is very much a McDonald's situation.

So it's not the Burger King.

But Burger King.

Oh, yeah. Whoops. I worked at McDonald's when that

was coming out and it was a thing We started having to make

everybody's sandwiches. Just the way they wanted them was a mess.

The customization out there, but definitely thinking

in terms of a little bit of a buffet, you can't cater to

everybody. So if you're if you're really into the realm of,

you know, all things Italian, then stick to the cuisine. I

think it's really important that once you find what works for you

to keep, keep at it. I think that's what helps build more

people, more interest into one to visit your site. And I love

the fact that Jennifer actually podcast last year you did The

Coasters with the Q Are you all right?

That's me.

So I absolutely love that because that is a it's a

personal item that you can give to someone that also is a direct

contact to knowing more information about what you do

and how you do it. So to be kind of stole that idea, Don't don't

use it.

You're not the only one who's stolen that idea.

People ask me where I get my coasters all the time and I know

my affiliate code.

I love it, but yeah, we do. Gamertag.

Yeah.

So I think that it's it's really cool to be able to

find someone that actually is really connected to you in a way

that makes them want to know more about you. And I think the

website is the place to do that. Of course, social media is going

to be around forever and ever, and with new things like AI and

things along those lines, we're finding more tools and

accessibility ways for us to connect with each other. But I

still think the website is still be a central place that you own

to actually connect with other people. So I just want to keep

that in people's minds as well as we can lean on other things

to to, you know, entertain and bring people in through social

media.

So with my website, people, their idea, I told them

on the front of like, I don't know about this, put my prices

on. It was right after our pricing conversation. I'm like,

oh they want my prices on. And and her idea was to do a contact

me for a custom quote and take them to a form. So there is a

schedule, a call button on there, and then there will be like a

custom quote button somewhere because I change my prices every

day, depending on who I talked to. What have you said that you

hold yourself against me by putting them out there. And then

today I'm like, Oh, is this much? And then I went and looked up

and I'm like, No crap. I just cheated myself out of 50 bucks

again and again. I said the wrong number.

I had a echo.

What I tell a lot of people who work at any type of

technical business is in regards to pricing, always is. You need

to have more than one option in more than one way to display it.

So when you look at like, I don't know, I'm trying to think

engineers websites, when you're looking at other technical print

shops. I worked in a print shop for almost a decade and I

learned some amazing things in and around printing, mass

printing, any type of printing. And what I learned is that they

don't list their prices always upfront. They always have a

customization form or click this button to customize things along

those lines. So that's a great alternative to not necessarily

listing your prices up front. Again, starting at a starting

point would be great so that people can wrap their minds

around that. But having that custom quote where people can

actually put down their customized thoughts and then you

can reply with them with your own customization.

Okay, you're getting some questions. Yeah. So we'll

go.

Patrick Okay.

First thoughts on maintaining your own site versus

someone else doing it. He says, I love my professionally

designed site, but I don't have as much control over it now. And

since I'm the one who brought up the I can't design a site to

save my life and when I get control over, I ruin it. So

that's why I have someone else do mine. Thank you. But what do

you think, Dana?

Because I design.

Stuff. I know I'm.

Not biased at all.

I know writers like me. So, yeah, everything I've made

before for myself, for my network, it's been by my hands

or at least gone through my desk. So I do encourage people, if

you're not comfortable with web design, find someone who is If

you are not. It's the same thing with podcast editing, right?

People come to us because they're not comfortable editing

their podcast anymore. As editors. We we do that. We take

that leverage off their backs and kind of take it on, right?

They become a little PED once I really encourage people to do

what's in their life right For me, I am very gifted at creating

websites and podcast editing and graphic design, and I'm very

comfortable with going from Star Wars one day and completely

Picard the next. I'm okay with all of these things, but this is

within my own realm, within my own lane of what I'm comfortable

doing. However, that might not be comfortable for everyone else.

So really, I would lean on if you are comfortable to learn,

then give this a good Maybe if you're not in a wheelhouse of

already trying to learn something new. If one or new

things are really hard for you, don't trust someone else who

does it way. Who is already doing that really well.

Yeah. So like my personal story is I struggled

first, like wanted to get a website because like, I know I

design websites and I, I'm very familiar with WordPress, like, I

know I can do it myself, but I'm not so proficient at it that I

can just like knock it out without any issues. It's after

like several months of me struggling, trying to like,

create my website. I finally just like, hire somebody to do

it for me. But then, like, I know enough to, like, maintain

it on my own. Even my response to Patrick as far as like having

somebody maintain it or doing it yourself So personally, I don't

do a whole lot with my website, so there's not much to maintain.

And I use WordPress. So like outside of updating plugins or

whatnot, there's not a whole lot of maintenance there. I do. So I

guess I'm curious about like, what do you mean by maintaining

it and what kind of control do you wish you have that you don't

have right now?

Yeah, So I think maybe while we're waiting for Patrick

to answer that, we want to move on to Andrea's question.

Yeah, Yeah.

Andrea asks whether you have any thoughts on multi-page

sites with a menu versus a single page scroll with

bookmarks to jump?

This for me is actually a brainbuster that I

feel like a lot of people struggle with, but it's really

not that difficult. I love the fact that this question is

brought up because a lot of people struggle with this. They

think that by having a singular page, it kind of helps with the

workload. But I will say Endless Scroll was something in 2023 we

are very tired of and people are going back to a little bit more

of the brochure website, which is rather have 3 to 5 pages to

look at that I can look at in 1 to 2 scrolls versus having an

infinite page where I am infinitely scrolling forever and

ever and ever. So I really encourage people for SEO

purposes. It actually is good to have more pages that emphasize

you then one page that emphasizes you. It's kind of one

of those things where you don't know whether or not the domino

effect can happen. You can't start the domino effect if you

only have one page. So it's really an interesting concept

when people ask that because I want to encourage them to branch

out a little bit by having at least 3 to 3 pages. But for the

purpose of whether or not they have an endless role or multiple

pages, I say go for the multiple pages. And can we keep the the

second menu too, like a minimum of like 2 to 3 pages underneath

that.

I'm totally like, I guess I'm part of the majority.

It's like I cannot stand single page websites. It annoys me to

no end.

Yeah, and this is kind of where I had to grow up quite

a bit because I was the minimalistic person. Like,

here's my cover page, here's the basis of what I do. This is why

I'm good at it now, believe me. And it was all like a singular

page. I've had to branch out a lot. And actually this is where

my my blog really kind of took shape and form. So now that I'm

able to have a website that actually showcases the main

nuggets about what I do, they can have a deeper dive and go

into like more category topics like products like top shows

that I care about or even ways to help them manage podcast

editing and how we can help them models, all those type of things.

So the more that you're putting out, there's the gravy concept,

right? The more we produce, the easier it will be for people to

find and allocate and know more about us. And it's very it's a

very true moment, to be really honest. We talk about that even

in terms for social media, for podcasting. People say, you know,

stick to one or two good meetings. You're really good at

that. You really want people to connect with and then branch off.

And I'm saying from my car awful lot today, it's really just

focus on all the areas as much as you possibly can get in a

good system of doing it and then start really busting out the

level of content that you want to put out in specific channels

versus versus before.

All right, back to Patrick. He has come back about

his his website. The editor is way different and there are

things and instructions. I have not to touch certain parts of it.

I'm one of his first clients was an aunt who's not hands off. So

it's been an adjustment for both of us. Rules about image sizes,

etc. So that's where the the issue is.

Yeah, it's a tough balance there between wanting to

have a website that you love versus one that you can actually

adjust as you need to.

Maybe you can get like a part time thing where you like

you.

Go not.

Have like window like only between eight and to be

retouch this website but it was a Friday and then all you do is

your hands off and.

On like a clone website that you can make sure it works

before you roll it out.

He says Blogging is where I started, so I struggled

to get my site to look less like a blog. That's why I had it.

Redesign. Yeah, that's a different look. Totally.

Yeah. I'm just curious. This is me just asking. I know

you guys mentioned like Divvy. You guys mentioned like the

editors that you're using in some areas. Is anyone like, how

do you guys feel about elements or I use that a lot for

clientele.

So on a personal level, I've never used it, but it's

just another framework, right? My opinion, this is as long as

it's a framework that I can understand, I don't mind having

somebody else designed it or something like that. I have one

website that I work on that's not podcast related, that I just

do some updates. It's built in a on a different platform and it's

very designer focused, right? So it's very much on the visual is

very heavy, all of that stuff. I hate it, but it's because I

can't make it do what I want to do because it wasn't designed to

work that way. And so that's that's where the challenge comes

for me. So for me, the answer would be absolutely. If you want

to have a professional designer say, go for it, just make sure

that they use something that you're comfortable with. In

terms of the hand-off. Now, if they're going to continue

maintaining your site like Jennifer's is, well then that's

a different story. Use whatever they're comfortable with as long

as you don't mind being locked in. Right.

And we have another question. Yeah, Yeah.

This one's great about this.

Yeah. The quality of a web designer can be very

different. What would be good questions to ask a web designer

to ensure quality, functionality, etc.? Detail.

Oh, the go find. I love it. Okay, so first off, I

definitely want to know how long they've been doing it. And this

is a learned practice someone who's really good in their first

year hasn't hit a professional road speed bump yet, but they

have been able to do a lot of coding, right? So coding

experience is good, but we also want to make sure that the

business side of how they conduct business and do business

is also legit. So look for someone who has a little bit of

deeper experience, who've been in the game for a little while

to look for one trick ponies I despise. And I don't want

someone who's going to be able to just work in Joomla. I don't

want someone who's just going to work in WordPress unless I

specifically need the WordPress. I want someone who's a little

bit more advanced, someone who is flexible. Maybe they work

between two or three platforms. I personally work between three

main platforms. None of them include Wix. I want to make sure

like is I want to get yeah, deep down, you know. Yeah. But I want

to make sure that it that it works right like it has to

function. And then I also want to have a, someone who has a

good portfolio, someone who actually can show the work

that's actually out there in the world that you can go and visit.

A lot of people, build a lot of tests and dummy sites, and I

think that's great. I have plenty to spare in the 13 years

that I've been doing it. But I think in a lot of ways that when

you have something that is actually credible, that you can

go and tinker on someone else's site and see if that's in

comparison to some of the features or aspects that you

want on your site that becomes real. So those are the main

things that I feel like you should look out for. I always

love personality with a smile I love dark humor, so if anyone

uses that, that's always cute as one for me. But it doesn't have

to be that way. Find someone who really kind of initiates or

sparks you is usually when that connection happens, you're more

likely to have more of an actual relationship through this

experience versus a cold exchange of just getting it done.

I think I haven't watched some of this yet. Only listen. So

this is cool that I. So you think that.

It'd be different if Kerry was here because she

really has a couple.

So one of the things I love that you shared about that

was your perspective on what we should ask about. Because in my

mind, if you're wondering what are your prospective clients

wondering as they're looking for a prospective editor, it might

be things along those lines. Are you a one trick pony? Do you

have work that you can stand behind? Can you demonstrate that

you've been doing this long enough that you actually know

how to fix problems instead of just dealing with the perfectly

recorded stuff that you did in audio school? Like those are all

key questions.

And I love the personality aspect. Finding

somebody you click with because like the person who designed my

website, like he was okay, but it was hard to communicate. And

so trying to and especially if somebody you can't stand talking

to or don't have like a good relationship with, it makes it

more difficult to explain and ask for the changes and like

what you want in your website. So having somebody be a little

more friendly with, it's easier to kind of like work through

that process.

We can all be Klingons and they can't. Great wrong side.

So we have another question.

Oh, actually, before we get to that, I do want to

another thing that popped my head when you were talking, as

you said, you like you work with a couple of platforms, so people

maybe want to do it themselves. What are like your

recommendation for platforms to work with and which ones to

avoid?

Sure I do love working with WordPress, I do love

Squarespace. I do love even to job. I mean, those are some

really top leagues that I feel like I'm I'm very advanced in.

That takes a little bit of learning especially good job if

that's like your something that you see and you see that price

tag and you're like, I don't know if I should invest on that

level. We're looking at dropping three GS real fast, but I think

it's really admirable for people who are willing to take that

leap and say, Yes, I trust someone who's very skilled in

this area too, to do this work on my behalf. So I definitely

love WordPress, I love Squarespace. I have definitely

done several things hand coded by hand. HTML five. Get out of

here. I know high five. I've gone all the way to the early

parts of of designing all the way to more intricate parts. So

I do like WordPress base. Those are my top two two job would be

a third option if you're if your pocket book is a fourth.

Have a bittersweet relationship with Javi Chappy.

Obviously I mean, people who are just listening

can't see your face. But when she said hijabi, you had a

visual reaction down.

Side tangent I like I've been working with WordPress

since like when I still were primarily a blogging framework.

My biggest gripe with Hijabi is there's no like clear formatting

button. So whenever I copy paste like a word doc or something and

you go look at the HTML, you have like all this unnecessary

code and make things look weird. So alternative is to like a

paste without formatting. And now you get to go in and like

fix everything and put all the links back in. It's just like

it's one simple function would completely change my perception

of them.

I completely agree with that. It's a fair

assessment. I've had some clients that try to do it by

hand and say, okay, you know, I'm going to rebel against this

decade plus years of your experience and kind of wiggle it

out of my own 45 minutes. And they usually come back usually

within a week or two and say their tails on their shirt tails.

Tuckered in there? Yeah, right. I shouldn't have tried this on

my own. Can you help me? And I get that. And then you've got

the people who actually are trying to learn something new.

And because they have not experienced something else

before, this is their new and this is they kind of

precondition. Right. Are reconditioned in some areas. And

I think that can also be a learning experience, too. But I

completely agree. If you're old school, you've been doing it

since the very beginning, and we're going back to The Matrix

almost. And I just feel like this would be a difficult

challenge for you. So it really depends on your learning curve

there. But I do tell people all the time, if you're looking for

just quick, visual friendly platforms, WordPress obviously

is a definite go to. And so Squarespace.

Yeah, of those two, I think that Squarespace is

probably the one that's a little bit more newbie friendly. I

definitely, at least my experience has been that

WordPress is way more powerful and extensible, but I really

don't care that much for Squarespace. So I never found

out the limits of what it can do either.

Oh man. I mean, like the SEO compatibility alone with

Squarespace, I think that was one of the cooler features when

Squarespace. Squarespace first came out, that was like their

big push was don't worry about the SEO as much, we've got your

back and haven't actually got to work a little bit with the Inner

Circle Committee with Squarespace specifically, if you

don't know about the inner circle, it's like the people who

designed, you know, hundreds or even thousands of sites using

the Squarespace platform, you can get kind of insider

knowledge. You can get free releases, things along those

lines. Check that out. It's called Inner Circle. And I

absolutely love that Squarespace went ahead straight from the bat

and said, hey, we don't want you to worry about the SEO as much.

We'll start taking care of some of that for you. And they did.

They delivered on that promise. The problem was, was that when

they started upgrading a lot of their older platforms and these

newer platform websites, it kind of became a little bit more

begrudgingly. So so yeah, we're going to give you more SEO, but

only this much. And then if you want more, you'll have to pay to

play. And so that got frowned upon, right? So I think they did

lose a little bit of their early audience in the beginnings of

Squarespace when they made that transition. But now for people

who are just looking for quick, easy, I just want to type in a

couple of answers to some of these questions. That is a

definite go to for people are looking to just get started,

either building their own podcast website or even creating

a services page for the services they do in and around.

Yeah, I do think with Brian that Squarespace is a lot

easier to use. And another thing, it's impossible to break your

website with Squarespace compared to WordPress. WordPress

is really easy. Install one wrong plug in or you

accidentally try to make an edit and end up deleting a client's

entire website like don't.

Now this is the beauty of working with hosting

providers who can provide up to the minute 24 hours I'm in

service. I'm grateful for for people who are not GoDaddy fans.

I'm a GoDaddy fan, have been using it for years. We're

partners with them. We love the ability that we can in one click,

Restore something that happened 5 minutes ago, 5 hours ago, five

days ago, within one click, all within less than 10 minutes of

us logging in. I do like that accessibility feature. Other

sites, other places have done that as well, but I just

personally love having that accessibility through GoDaddy.

We've been using them for eight years almost, and.

I wanted to hit this one because it it is worth noting

that with WordPress there can be a lot of hack attacks. So just

be careful. In fact, one of the sites that I manage, it's not

actually my site, but I manage it is dealing with that right

now. There's been an uptick in hack attacks. I use some

security protocols that I have in place and so I'm like

literally on this call, I'm still blocking IP because it's

bouncing from the Netherlands to China to whatever, Right. That

stuff is happening. But yeah, What are your thoughts, Danielle,

in terms of what tools we might use to protect ourselves from

attacks?

Absolutely. I use security stand. I have I love

being able to use a very whatever. How do you even

pronounce all the way? I ask the NSA customer service, I might

pronounce it. Is it security scan or security scan? Like I

don't I don't know how the letters come together anyway. I

absolutely love using them. I use them for malware purposes

all the time. There's also oh gosh, there's another one.

I use word fence. I'm not sure if that's what you're

thinking of.

That's one I've heard of as well. I personally do not

use it, but yes, I've heard of plenty of other people who are

developing WordPress websites. Use that as a base for malware

protection if you think of hacking things along those lines.

So I encourage people do their homework. There is some innate

things that naturally come, some from the hosting provider in

regards to making sure you have scans on your website on a daily

basis. So that's also something to think about depending on

where you are, whether you're with Bluehost or GoDaddy or I

think this is what we were talking about before and I don't

even know, is it the virus die? Various die? Yep. So this is one

that I personally use and I definitely can guarantee that

this is top tier. So I absolutely love to that. Even

when we talk about malware protection that people are aware

of it because a lot of people still build their websites

thinking that my hosting has it. But really hacking is just going

to continue to elevate over time. So this is something that you

should be very aware of and taking the proper steps to

protect your website.

Facebook user has a good karma. If you have your own

domain for your website, it's always good practice to email

like hello at your domain instead of gmail hotmail outlook

so you can market your domain instead of Gmail and more

professional, you would need your email hosting though. Blah

blah blah. Yeah, but. But my mind breaks sometimes and Carri

broke her email once too. So I mean is a challenge.

I love my business. Business Gmail, I've never

stopped ever using it, so it works out great for me. That's

linked directly to my domain. I have to worry about, you know,

not informative, know I'm a team of team of six women across five

countries. So it's really important for me to to make sure

that everyone has singular working emails. Domains are

working together adversely in the universe. So I think it's

really for me, this is a no brainer. Like, I love being able

to have that type of security. Gmail has not failed me. Sorry.

Okay.

So one of the things I'm wondering as we think about

websites, right, because we've talked about maybe some design

elements and some of that stuff, but I think there are some of us,

me included, who are wondering, like, is my website really

working for me or against me? If you were going to go take a look

at somebody who's website, what are maybe a couple of things

that you would have them look at and maybe try to self-diagnose

some things before you start taking the next step?

How fast does your page load? That's usually the

number one indicator.

And what's it? Is it like less than a second? Less than

half a second? What? What's your target?

I would say anything under 2 seconds. I mean, that's

really, to be honest, two and a half.

Okay.

I hate to say even three, because sometimes even

the third just kind of bogged down from there. I really tell

people if it takes too long for you to to say, huh, that's doing

too long. Like it's it's taking too long to load. So page speed

is usually my definite go to as an indicator if something is not

working well on your website. The second one would probably be

if your WordPress was your plug ins, taking a look at plug ins

would be the second area that I would look at on the back end

just to see if that's something that's all. Everything's

compatible. It's working for you. You wouldn't believe how many

times, even though we say like automated data, sometimes it

doesn't necessarily auto update or something happens in between

the last update in the current update to where it drops and

then you're just stuck and doesn't refresh at all. And if

you go monthly refreshing your website, that could be a

potential 30 days of something else affecting your site,

preventing people from wanting to interact with you. Right. So

we want to try remove as many website roadblocks as possible.

So that would be another area to go to. Another one would be

heavy for you. So if you've got heavy files on your site now,

for a lot of people, they're like, okay, you know what's

heavy? Obviously, if it's taking forever to load the one graphic

that's at the top of your page, your your hero graphic or

whatever that may be, we need to rethink about resizing that or

stripping it down a little bit in file size so that you can

actually have it load up as fast as you want it to. Again, you

have that three second rule for people to make that first

impression of you. That's it. 3 seconds. That's really it. The

first 3 seconds, I can tell whether or not I want to keep

scrolling or I'm going to lift up my thumb and scroll to

another page. I'm going to take tock instead of going to you.

You know, that's really all you got that's the that's my main

things that I would look at primarily.

Thanks.

Yeah.

I mean, I feel like I've talked too much, so I'm trying

to be quiet so everybody else can have a chance.

So having a good foundation knowledge, I

understand from what back design communication is important. Do

you have any resources for that?

I'm saying website. Yes. Me I do all of these things

I teach and all these things. I actually have a yearly

educational brand intensive that we hosted at the last three

months of the year called Q One Essentials, where I actually

teach live class in a group setting very similar to this,

and we talk everything from resources for your website to

domain protection to basics of WordPress.

Awesome. And where can they reach out if they want to

talk to you?

Lex Octane dot com. That is my jam. Instagram is my

number two jam, so you can actually hit me up there if you

ever want to chat one on one. But yes, those are the two main

places that I would love for people to get us.

And quick. Now apparently hashtag podcasting is

trending on Twitter.

So Instagram's your jam, but I don't see it linked up on

your website. I was going to go click through so I could grab

your link.

So it's at the bottom. Okay, I'm working. So to be

really honest, our website actually tweets.

Is perfect timing.

Is being redesigned right now. So it comes out at

the end of this month so we can look out for that. It will

include a playlist of Tower songs by the ladies of T

Montaigne. So it will be, I'm sure, full of it.

All right, final question. You said you're a

retro gamer. Give us one gaming recommendation and we'll do

project.

Oh,

don't rush into the dead zone.

Okay.

Now, if this is is something coming from Mario,

years of Mario, years of the Sonic, the Hedgehog, years of

Tetris. Don't go into the dead zone. You don't have to go in

there. I know sometimes it's very if you want to go in there

and you want to hurry up and just get it in, maybe get the

goodie or the extra or the bonus or whatever, you don't have to

do it. You can just bypass that. You get to the end. But I do

tell people all the time life is more like Tetris and less like

Mario. So that's my quote for this.

Okay, put that on a t shirt.

I think you don't you.

Know, but I do have like Prince and all the things.

So, yeah, I'm I'm sitting here with Sonic tonight. So we're

we're making it real. We're going to happen.

All right. So, Danielle, give us a number between one

through five. Normally Brian does that, but he's given me the

privilege of doing the podcast question tonight.

Who? Okay, I'm going pick three.

Okay, perfect. If you could send a message in to the I

think we've done this before, but if you could send a message

to the entire world, what would you say? And 30 seconds.

Oh, shoot, let's not my 30 seconds, Michael. Same

thing. Life was more like Tetris and less like Mario.

They love it.

Don't bother Blue. Yeah.

My.

I would say whatever is bothering you is probably not as

important or won't seem as important in a few years. So

focus on the good and live your best life.

I think mine would require a megaphone, but it

would be stop being mean to each other. Oh I'm a parent too, so

I'm saying that a lot.

Otherwise mine is. If you can't be good, be funny.

Okay. And if you have an answer to the question, feel

free to leave it on our website. You just go to podcast. Editor's

message My dot com Find the episode number 76 and leave a

comment on that blog post. Patrick says Mine is Be Good

Children, which is good because he's a teacher. So I'm sure

that's probably something he says on a daily basis. And Kyle

says, Be kind, which I think, yeah, we need more of.

Yes. Steve says, Thank you, Danielle in the voice of

Yoda much I have learned today. That's great.

You didn't do it in The Voice.

I can't do Yoda's voice. I can barely do Bryan's voice.

Danielle, can you do the Yoda voice for us?

Oh. Oh, man, I know you're going to ask that

question.

Okay, that's fair. That's fair. Yeah. But you want

to be a guest on the show. Just do exactly what Danielle did. Go

to podcast editor. That's mine dot com. Be a guest spot the

form. It sends us a message and we'll be in touch. And this is

where the yard expert like Danielle is and have incredible

incredible insights and information that you want to

share to the community at large or if you are struggling with

something in your own podcast editing business and you want

the advice of your colleagues, it's all the same. Fill out the

form and we would love to have you on.

I'm Jennifer Longworth with Barber and Barrow

Podcasting. You can find me at Bourbon barrel Podcasting dot

com new website coming soon.

I'm Brandon Springer you can find me at top tier audio

dot com and next to me is.

Daniel Abendroth in a five year rap media audio.

In our special guest.

Oh I'm Daniel with Octane science and you can find

me at look blockchain dot com.

And not appearing tonight is Kari copy Eric at

Kari dot land. Thank you all for joining us and we will see it in

about two weeks at 905 Eastern time.

Pay.

So how much is that?

So