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In this episode, we are talking about how to
level up in your web design business

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how to build your brand,

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and how to make more money without trading time
for money.

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You ready? Let's get started.

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Hi, I'm Holly Christie. I'm from Websites Made
Simple. I'm a website designer, a website
designer's mentor, and I'm here to help you
absolutely love your

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website design career because trust me, we've
all had those times.

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Whether you are starting out or whether you've
been in this game for a long old time where
we've thought of chucking it

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all in and going and doing something else, I
don't.

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The very first thing is your website has to be
absolutely brilliantly representative of the
work that you do. And

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sometimes as web designers we can think, oh, I
really like to try this trend, or I've just seen
that and I once bring it to my own site. And I
have seen designers. Build

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and rebuild and rebrand and restyle their
website like you wouldn't believe.

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customers. You need to have a really strong
brand presence, and that means doing it once and
leaving it alone. There's sometimes we get
branding that we work with

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and think, oh yeah, I really love this.

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And there's other times you think, I don't love
this, but I like it enough to put my name to it
and I know that I can work with this.

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And you'll find that on my own websites. There's
obviously the websites made simple website,
which I have specifically for website designers
and developers who are looking

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for resources to have a better career.

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And I have my website, vista demanding life.com,
which is for actually selling websites to the
website clients as

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well. And you'll see that the branding is the
same color across both websites. It's just used
in a slightly different way as well. Just have
those different identities. And when I

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redid my branding a few years ago, I worked with
a branding designer and I thought.

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I don't love the fonts and you know, a couple of
those colors I'm, I'm not completely

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wedded to, but I know I can work with this and
you'll see all across my social media, whether
it's Instagram, whether it's LinkedIn, whether
you look at my web

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designer's contract pack or onboarding packs or
whatever it is, you will see that I use my
branding really, really consistently.

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personally, I love gradients, but

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gradients aren't part of my brand, so I don't
have them on there. I like that. Kind of girly
swishy, kind of feminine vibe , but that doesn't
work for the type of

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websites that I build for my clients, so I don't
have it on my own website. So whilst building
your personal brand, I'm also going to

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recommend.

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You kind of don't make it to you, because
sometimes when we try and do that, we can get a
little bit lost in the nuance as

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well. So make sure your branding strong. Make
sure your website is representative of the
websites that you build for other people.

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you need to be showing up consistently somewhere
on social media and you can have a look at the
one that works best for you.

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For me, I

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find that's LinkedIn. I still have a, I'm gonna
say watered down Instagram presence and I used
to have a very strong Facebook presence,

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but as the years went on, I stopped getting
customers from there. And so it felt That it had
its day. So I do have my pages slightly active
there, but I don't

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waste time there.

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Other web designers I know can have really
strong presence on TikTok as well. Whatever
works for you, go ahead and do it, but show up.

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Be consistent and try and show up in kind of
more than one place. So like, as I say, I do
LinkedIn, but I also show up on my

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podcast. I show up on my website by adding to
the blog post.

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Yeah, I make sure that I kind of spread my
marketing around a little bit as well.

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thing is to be strategic with your content as
well. And this is a mistake I see lots of
designers and developers do. They start to build
a personal brand, but they don't have a real
strong focus behind it. And so they put up lots
of posts of like, this is me, or this is what I
did this week, or This is how it worked.

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And they forget that. They also need to be
saying, this

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is what I do. Here are some websites I build. I
sometimes see designers and developers go kind
of head to head on LinkedIn, for example,

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and one will say, absolutely, one way of doing
something is the right way. Someone else will
take offense and We can all go in the ring and
we can all go in the arena. I am

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generally not here to invalidate someone's
opinion or someone's experience. I may say
that's not my way of doing things. I may be a
little

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bit more contentious and you'll find in my
podcast archives, you see some of my LinkedIn
posts, I am not a fan of Elemental as a tool for
website builders.

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And I

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will sometimes put that on my posts. I made
podcast episode and it, it gets a lot of
attention and it's okay to have something that
you will live and die by. There's an

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amazing website designer called Rachel Mess. I
know her through LinkedIn. I've met her
personally. She's all about accessibility, and
yet that's the hill she's gonna die on.

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That's what her websites are about. That's what
her posts are about. And her whole brand is, I
really care about leveling the playing field for
people through accessible websites.

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So do get known for having an opinion that is
really important to you, one that you can really
get behind, but don't invalidate other people's
experience as

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well.

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You do it, make sure you mix up your content as
well. we've talked a little bit about putting
the

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content out there. I think we need to remember
that different people engage with stuff in
different ways. Like for example, I create video
content, not all the time,

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and the videos are a little bit off the cuff,
but I still do them personally.

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I find that video content really bores me, so I
am not likely to engage very

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much with video content. I love carousels
though. I like flicking through carousels. If
they're boring, ill kind of get off them. That's
a really good

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way of getting information across, and
especially if it's slightly longer form content.

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So for example, if I write a blog for my
website, I will then take the

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key points from that blog and I will turn them
into a carousel, and they usually get quite good
engagement as well. Obviously from social
channels as well. It works well because

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they see people spending longer time engaging
with your content.

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I also like to put some slightly more personal
stuff up there, and that could be an annual

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review or a monthly review Throughout 2026, I'm
aiming at doing a monthly review, which will be
my personal and professional experience about
that month has done. So.

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If you see I'm not doing it, you are welcome to
get in touch with me.

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Hello at websites made simple co uk and say, why
are you not doing this? Make sure that people
get a real feel

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for your work and they get a real feel for you.
Promote both equally. Answer the questions
through your website that people are asking. So
that could be, how much

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does a website cost?

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When can I expect to see a return on the
investment of my website? What is the web design
process? How to choose the right website

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designer. How to choose the right software. All
those sorts of things are what people are
putting into Google all of the time when they're
looking at buying a

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website from a website designer.

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And as much as people will go on
recommendations, they'll check out websites,
they will ask Google All Bear Ask Chat, TPT.

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And you want to be, make sure that your results
are in there, and then if you're answering those
questions and they're in your blog, you can turn
them into the carousel. You can get them out
there on your social

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channels as well.

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But trust me, that kind of evergreen content
never gets sold either. And when people contact
me. About a website. The first thing I will know
about it

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is that they've booked a call with me through
the button on my website, and it'll drop into my
inbox saying, this person's booked a call, and I
actually have an autoresponder on

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that.

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That means that when they do that, they get an
email saying, really looking forward to us going
on the call. In the meantime, here is some
information you might like, and that will be a

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link to the different blog posts on my website,
which says, how to choose the right designer.
How much would a website cost?

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How long does it take? What's the process like
so that by the time

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I go on the call with them, they already know
roughly how much the quote's gonna be. They know
how long the process is, they know what they
need, and they know what questions

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to ask me to be confident in. Choosing me as
their designer. So usually by the time that they
go on the call with me, 80% of the heavy lifting
has been done through

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my website already.

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Leverage your network and I'm not a huge

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fan of in-person networking. And especially if
you followed me for a while, you will most
likely know from my personal content that I'm a
single parent

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and those like 6:00 AM meetings, they're never
gonna be something that I'm gonna make.

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And actually at 6:00 AM I don't wanna be out
meeting people that's for sure. And

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that is where social media can really come into
its own. And I go on so many web designers
profiles and they've got either an inactive
LinkedIn

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profile or they have 300 connections or whatever
it is. You can do better than that.

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And I'd really recommend LinkedIn 'cause there's
a lovely web design community on

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here as well. And it's easy to grow network
there. By just being active and being on it and
seeing what people are commenting on and going
and putting your opinion in, or

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helping with advice or putting up that post that
you weren't quite sure about, but your network
is gonna be your key to the next steps of your
business as

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well.

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And get to know people, take the time to drop
them a message, comment on their posts. I will
often drop into someone in the messages and say,
oh, I see we're commenting on all of the

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same stuff, and I've built some really good
relationships with people that way. And then it
means when I think I would like to get to know
some more people.

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me and I'll just drop into their LinkedIn and
I'll say to them, you know, we're commenting on
the same stuff. I would love to get to know you
better. I'm thinking of running a webinar on
whatever their

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topic of expertise is. Should we join forces and
do this?

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And most people are gonna say yes. There's also
the opportunity to ask people if you

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could speak on their podcast or whether you
could speak in their membership group. Make sure
you get to know them first. Do not cold pitch
them. That will not go down

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well and most people will not only ignore it,
they might block you as well.

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So it might be a bit reputation damaging, but
it's if you build a relationship with someone

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and you think I'd like to get in front of their
audience as well, it's absolutely okay to do
that. I have people contact me quite regularly.
They ask me to go on their

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podcast. They ask if I can come and speak in
their membership groups, and they ask me to go
on webinars with them.

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And I'm relatively discerning. I don't say yes
to everything,

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but I really enjoy meeting new people and I
enjoy sharing different parts of the industry
and stuff. So never be afraid to do that. To
leverage your network this

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year.

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things, and this ties in a little bit with
saying about the make sure your website is
really kind of demonstrating your knowledge in
that area as well.

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But get really well known for it. Like

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I am really well known for service brochure
style websites. And back in the day I did used
to do shop sites and you know, to be

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honest, if I had a good business buddy who
wanted to add a shop to their website, I would
go and help them. But it's not my real area of
expertise.

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expertise is user journeys. It's how to really
showcase services. It's how to get more clicks
on those websites, how to get that website to a
point that people go on it

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and think. Yes, this is absolutely what I was
expecting the website of this person to be. I'm
loving the consistency. I'm going to engage with
them.

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And then, you know, once

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people have made that engagement through the
website, they're much more likely to go on to
use you as well. So I'm really well known for
that. The other thing I'm really well

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known for is talking web designers and web
developers down from the ceiling when
something's not quite worked out.

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And again, this can be a real benefit of

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networking and leveraging your network. Times a
week, I will have web designers drop into my
LinkedIn and say to me, I'm feeling really
wrong, fitted. I've

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delivered a website and entirely to the client's
specification, and we've gone all the way
through, we're ready to publish.

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and said that they they're not sure that it's
good enough, they want a second opinion or, they
might come to me and say, I'm feeling nervous.
I've got

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someone's website content. The content's not
good enough. They're not prepared to change. The
content will be guided, and I'm not sure what to
do with the design or something like that.

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And so I will always, always kind of get 'em on
Zoom or I will, they'll send me the link and
I'll run a video and we'll work through it
together as well. And people know that they can

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jump on a crisis call with me anytime. And I'm,
you know, I'm really happy that that's what
people know me for. That is part of the whole
website's made simple, and they

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only need to come to me a couple of times with
these sorts of things to then realize that
actually they now have the tools for handling
this as well.

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have a weekly group mentoring called that. I do
that web designers can come on each week as
well, and they can bring that sort of thing as
well and learn from each other On that two, it's
called

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Sparks Group Mentoring. And if that's something
that sounds good to you, go websites Made Simple
UK and you can check it out for yourself.

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website space. So whether you're a designer, a
developer, an SEO, or a copywriter, you're
welcome there.

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So I couldn't be on a podcast without saying
start a podcast because podcasting is such a
good way of

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demonstrating your expertise as well. And it's a
really good platform because you can use it
without being distracted. Like you put something
in

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a LinkedIn feed or something like that, and
generally it's gone within a couple of hours and
you're looking at other people's stuff.

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on social media, but if you have a podcast,
you've got your own podcast channel, and you can
have this really linear experience of how you

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want to share your knowledge, your expertise,
and your experience, and the experience you want
your clients to have of you as well. So I
absolutely recommend

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that for 2026, a podcasting is something that
you look into and if that is something you're
gonna look into.

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post called What I Learned from a Year in
Podcasting, and it's on my this demanding Life
site, so I will link it in the show notes as
well. I really recommend that you read that
before you

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start a podcast. Trust me on this one. And I
really, really, really recommend my absolutely
brilliant podcasting producer Neil Lio.

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Ponos Podcasting. He's brilliant. How to

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web.

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Leverage your email list. And this is something
that, you know, website designers and

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developers aren't really known for their kind of
prowess when it comes to writing and emails and
templates and all that sort of stuff. But trust
me, the more emails

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you send, the better you will become at it. And
actually, one of my friends Lisa York, she has
an email writing a course called Email
Blockbuster 1 0 1,

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and I can send you the links for that as well.

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That is a real game changer about how to write
emails that are curiosity based, that are

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engaging, but most importantly. Gets people
clicking through, engaging with you, buying your
products and services and stuff like that, and
having

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the discipline of emailing your list every week
or every fortnight will really make a
difference.

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And even if you only have, you know, a few

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subscribers, set yourself a challenge that every
week you'll put out a post inviting people to
subscribe to your email list, and every week
you'll send an email. And

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whether you are just sending it to three people
to begin with, doesn't matter. Just get in the
habit of it because more business is done
through email lists than all the other places
put together.

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So

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seriously do that. And finally, as I'm recording
this, at the beginning

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of 2026, get started with this stuff. I mean, so
often we think I will do this after I finish
this website, or you know,

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next week, it's that manana manana thing. No, if
you want to have a much better year than you
have ever had, if you wanna make more money, you
wanna build your brand,

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you wanna grow your business and you want to do
that without being, you know, low value
websites, and more time and more time and more
time into it.

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Put these steps into practice. Now, I promise
you. The end of this year will look completely
different to the beginning of this year for you.
So get

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started. Lemme know how you get on it. You can
join my email list. Go to websites made simple
co uk slash email. I would love to see you on
it. I email my list every

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single week and let you know what's going on in
the world of web design, what's going on in my
life.

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And I'll say, let you know when I'm opening the
doors to my programs and

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you know, what's available for you then and
there. So until next time, happy web designing.