Hi Lee! I'm a new (and honestly, lost) web designer who just stumbled into your channel and finished your free course - and I was mind blown! I have a new direction now. Thank you for the value you're freely giving 😍
That's awesome, Sheena! Keep me posted along your journey. If there's anything I can do to support you, just let me know! Thanks for stopping by and saying hi! 😀
Definition of experience, really just open our eyes. I've watched a lot of web experts who act like having a one stop solution but end up giving a gap that's just filled with their products. Here I don't see a product (or not yet😅) but I already found my one stop solution.
I received an email today from a client... and YES I thought of YOU! 😁 He sent me two sentences for the homepage. Then three sentences for the second page. Then I was told to create a contact us form. 😢 Tomorrow I'll send him an email asking if I can interview him. Even when clients offer content - it is typically very poor.
Hey, Beverly! Thanks for thinking of me! In one of our recent live coaching calls in Blue Theory I gave a full workshop on exactly how to interview clients for website content. We went over all the question to ask, the order of the questions, etc. If you're interested, come join us in Blue Theory. Now is an awesome time because we're running a "Tax Bounce Back" sale right now and you can lock in your membership at half off. If you decide to join, drop a quick introduction in the Discussion forum. Tag me in your post and I'll point you to the workshop on interviewing clients. I'll also high-five you and welcome you to the family. I think you'll love it. Here's a link. Let me know what you think: lee.blue/
Man this advice is so awesome! I’m on the web dev journey and initially thought I might start with a local business whose live website still has Lorem ipsum on the front page. Now i’m considering an approach where I add more value and ask for more money rather than “hey I’ll give you a free site so that I can practice”
Love it. I have been building web based management systems for a variety of niche markets. It's one skill stack I'm trying to apply to different markets.
Great to see you're focusing on niche markets and using your skill stack to set yourself apart from everybody else! Thanks for checking out the video and for taking the time to share your thoughts. I'm glad you're part of our community here!
starting my first agency, selling visual identity designs, websites, and a few other things and found this channel, but you said you live in williamsburg VA, just thought that was cool becasue i used to live there and still have tons of friends that live there still!
Oh wow! That's awesome! I really like it here. It's a fun place to live. There are lots of rivers and water around and it's fun to go kayaking and stuff. I'm glad you found the channel. It's great that you're now part of this awesome community here on RUclips! Thanks for watching and for saying hello!
It's hard to niche down as a location expert because there are too many different types of businesses to manage. For example, even in a small town you have in-person retail stores, service area businesses like HVAC repair, health & wellness businesses that have to worry about HIPAA compliance, high-ticket businesses that have a long lead nurturing cycle, etc. There's too much variation to be able to build a single solution that's going to work for everyone. It's sort of like saying you're an expert photographer for Williamsburg, VA. That wouldn't really mean anything because you've got night shots, portraits, pets, baby pics, fast action sports, landscape, food, etc. You can't really be just a Williamsburg, VA expert photographer. You'd have to niche down farther and say that you're an expert at bridal pictures in Williamsburg, VA because you know all the best places to take wedding pictures in Williamsburg.
Do you recommend I have several niche sites so that I seem specialized in their business? I can make just about any website with plugins for anything needing (appointments, etc) but like you mentioned I should not be a ‘general contractor’. Would you think having multiple niche specific sites for website/lead/traffic building be the way to go then?
If you decide to specialize in one niche, you will not have the time/capacity for additional niches. It's VERY important to realize that you're not "picking a niche" just for the sake of limiting your audience. The purpose of your solution defines the niche. For example, you can go infinitely deep learning how to drive traffic, advertise, and optimize e-commerce stores. You'll be learning how to write ad copy, how to track the clicks, measure where the conversions are coming from, streamlining the checkout page, recovering abandoned carts, upselling during checkout, increasing average cart value, reactivating dormant customers, etc. The truth is, there is more to any single niche than any one person can handle on their own. Introducing multiple niches will prevent you from going deep on any individual niche. If you think you need multiple niches, it just means you aren't going deep enough into the first niche.
You landed in the right place! There are a bunch of videos on this channel about creating solutions for web design and digital marketing. I've also created a community where you and I can collaborate, building out your solution together. It's called Blue Theory, and you can find it here: lee.blue/theory
Hi Lee, thanks for your valuable points. Am a web developer who have tried some couple of areas to make money as a web developer but seems not working. Most of the clients in my local environment do not see the need of having a website and how it will impact them as such they decline offers. Secondly, I love building website from scratch instead of using CMS like WordPress which makes me spend longer time in developing and more stressful though I believe overtime I will be able to reuse my codes for other projects which will reduce my time been spent on a website. Do you advise me to use CMS like WordPress or continue with my custom based approach?
Using a CMS isn't a bad thing for building a website template. You can always take the code from the CMS and start working on your project in an environment after the fact. At the end of the day, creating html isn't very high value. Writing CSS isn't high value. CMS's like wordpress can make templates so quickly and easily that you're better off spending your time focusing on the higher value services like back end development which is much harder for wordpress to replicate at an advanced level.
I definitely agree with your approach. One problem with this approach is you limit clientele down to that specialized field. I think how to tackle this problem is you create multiple landing pages that are focused towards specific clientele(specialties). You had one example (i think it was o365 or something) that when you clicked the clients site it led to a landing page on the agencies website for that specialty. This way you can target an industry and also expand your clientele to other industries.
I get the idea of niching down but I’m not sure i’d enjoy that. My background is in furniture sales and i could branch out to designers / architects too but I like the idea of variety. I saw a video of yours that mentioned offering to local biz. Could that be a general requirement or “niche” Would love to hear your thoughts. Great video
Yes, my recommendation for most people is to start niching down by serving local businesses that have face-to-face (in-person) interactions with their clients. In other words, develop an offer that generates leads for local businesses. If this sounds like something you're interested in, we have an entire community where I can help you land clients like this. We don't teach web design. You already have to know how to build websites. It sounds like you're already good at web design. If you join Blue Theory, I literally guarantee you'll land clients. Check it out and let me know what you think. lee.blue/
Ideas and experience are durable goods, y'all content creators should think harder before trading your life for short term attention. This is the way we get stripped of our wealth in the totalitarian dictatorship of the modern age. The speed at which the well will run dry will be truly shocking to everyone.
Hey, John! Thank you for watching the video and hanging out with us here on this channel. If there's anything I can do to help or support you and your web design business in any way, just let me know! Glad you're here!
To be honest I watched three of your vids and I believe that you are one of the most underrated RUclipsrs I know 😢 like your effort needs attention
Thanks for watching my videos :) If you've got thoughts on things I should be doing that would be better, I'd love to know. 🙂
Hi Lee! I'm a new (and honestly, lost) web designer who just stumbled into your channel and finished your free course - and I was mind blown! I have a new direction now. Thank you for the value you're freely giving 😍
That's awesome, Sheena! Keep me posted along your journey. If there's anything I can do to support you, just let me know! Thanks for stopping by and saying hi! 😀
Definition of experience, really just open our eyes. I've watched a lot of web experts who act like having a one stop solution but end up giving a gap that's just filled with their products. Here I don't see a product (or not yet😅) but I already found my one stop solution.
I'm glad you found the channel, Adam! And thanks for taking the time to say hello :) I hope you come back again soon!
I received an email today from a client... and YES I thought of YOU! 😁 He sent me two sentences for the homepage. Then three sentences for the second page. Then I was told to create a contact us form. 😢 Tomorrow I'll send him an email asking if I can interview him. Even when clients offer content - it is typically very poor.
Hey, Beverly! Thanks for thinking of me! In one of our recent live coaching calls in Blue Theory I gave a full workshop on exactly how to interview clients for website content. We went over all the question to ask, the order of the questions, etc. If you're interested, come join us in Blue Theory. Now is an awesome time because we're running a "Tax Bounce Back" sale right now and you can lock in your membership at half off.
If you decide to join, drop a quick introduction in the Discussion forum. Tag me in your post and I'll point you to the workshop on interviewing clients. I'll also high-five you and welcome you to the family. I think you'll love it.
Here's a link. Let me know what you think:
lee.blue/
Love this all
Thanks, Beth! I'm glad you found our channel. I hope you come back again soon. I've got some great stuff planned for 2024!
Man this advice is so awesome! I’m on the web dev journey and initially thought I might start with a local business whose live website still has Lorem ipsum on the front page. Now i’m considering an approach where I add more value and ask for more money rather than “hey I’ll give you a free site so that I can practice”
I hope you have learned a lot on your journey. I am further along and still going value here.
Love it. I have been building web based management systems for a variety of niche markets. It's one skill stack I'm trying to apply to different markets.
Great to see you're focusing on niche markets and using your skill stack to set yourself apart from everybody else! Thanks for checking out the video and for taking the time to share your thoughts. I'm glad you're part of our community here!
starting my first agency, selling visual identity designs, websites, and a few other things and found this channel, but you said you live in williamsburg VA, just thought that was cool becasue i used to live there and still have tons of friends that live there still!
Oh wow! That's awesome! I really like it here. It's a fun place to live. There are lots of rivers and water around and it's fun to go kayaking and stuff. I'm glad you found the channel. It's great that you're now part of this awesome community here on RUclips! Thanks for watching and for saying hello!
Great advice x thanks x
Can I niche down as a location expert as opposed to trade specialist?
It's hard to niche down as a location expert because there are too many different types of businesses to manage. For example, even in a small town you have in-person retail stores, service area businesses like HVAC repair, health & wellness businesses that have to worry about HIPAA compliance, high-ticket businesses that have a long lead nurturing cycle, etc. There's too much variation to be able to build a single solution that's going to work for everyone.
It's sort of like saying you're an expert photographer for Williamsburg, VA. That wouldn't really mean anything because you've got night shots, portraits, pets, baby pics, fast action sports, landscape, food, etc. You can't really be just a Williamsburg, VA expert photographer. You'd have to niche down farther and say that you're an expert at bridal pictures in Williamsburg, VA because you know all the best places to take wedding pictures in Williamsburg.
Do you recommend I have several niche sites so that I seem specialized in their business? I can make just about any website with plugins for anything needing (appointments, etc) but like you mentioned I should not be a ‘general contractor’. Would you think having multiple niche specific sites for website/lead/traffic building be the way to go then?
If you decide to specialize in one niche, you will not have the time/capacity for additional niches. It's VERY important to realize that you're not "picking a niche" just for the sake of limiting your audience. The purpose of your solution defines the niche. For example, you can go infinitely deep learning how to drive traffic, advertise, and optimize e-commerce stores. You'll be learning how to write ad copy, how to track the clicks, measure where the conversions are coming from, streamlining the checkout page, recovering abandoned carts, upselling during checkout, increasing average cart value, reactivating dormant customers, etc. The truth is, there is more to any single niche than any one person can handle on their own. Introducing multiple niches will prevent you from going deep on any individual niche. If you think you need multiple niches, it just means you aren't going deep enough into the first niche.
Hi Lee! Just stumbled upon your vidoes and I'm wondering about creating solutions, what does that mean? How could I do that?
You landed in the right place! There are a bunch of videos on this channel about creating solutions for web design and digital marketing. I've also created a community where you and I can collaborate, building out your solution together. It's called Blue Theory, and you can find it here: lee.blue/theory
Hi Lee, thanks for your valuable points.
Am a web developer who have tried some couple of areas to make money as a web developer but seems not working.
Most of the clients in my local environment do not see the need of having a website and how it will impact them as such they decline offers.
Secondly, I love building website from scratch instead of using CMS like WordPress which makes me spend longer time in developing and more stressful though I believe overtime I will be able to reuse my codes for other projects which will reduce my time been spent on a website.
Do you advise me to use CMS like WordPress or continue with my custom based approach?
Using a CMS isn't a bad thing for building a website template. You can always take the code from the CMS and start working on your project in an environment after the fact. At the end of the day, creating html isn't very high value. Writing CSS isn't high value. CMS's like wordpress can make templates so quickly and easily that you're better off spending your time focusing on the higher value services like back end development which is much harder for wordpress to replicate at an advanced level.
I definitely agree with your approach.
One problem with this approach is you limit clientele down to that specialized field. I think how to tackle this problem is you create multiple landing pages that are focused towards specific clientele(specialties). You had one example (i think it was o365 or something) that when you clicked the clients site it led to a landing page on the agencies website for that specialty. This way you can target an industry and also expand your clientele to other industries.
I get the idea of niching down but I’m not sure i’d enjoy that. My background is in furniture sales and i could branch out to designers / architects too but I like the idea of variety.
I saw a video of yours that mentioned offering to local biz. Could that be a general requirement or “niche”
Would love to hear your thoughts. Great video
Yes, my recommendation for most people is to start niching down by serving local businesses that have face-to-face (in-person) interactions with their clients. In other words, develop an offer that generates leads for local businesses. If this sounds like something you're interested in, we have an entire community where I can help you land clients like this.
We don't teach web design. You already have to know how to build websites. It sounds like you're already good at web design. If you join Blue Theory, I literally guarantee you'll land clients. Check it out and let me know what you think. lee.blue/
Why would businesses allow the bottom of the site to feature a built by link?
backlink and seo reasons
Wait i thought you said the guitar came like that😂 now you broke it😢
Ideas and experience are durable goods, y'all content creators should think harder before trading your life for short term attention.
This is the way we get stripped of our wealth in the totalitarian dictatorship of the modern age.
The speed at which the well will run dry will be truly shocking to everyone.
Hey, John! Thank you for watching the video and hanging out with us here on this channel. If there's anything I can do to help or support you and your web design business in any way, just let me know! Glad you're here!