Ray DelVecchio's Blog, page 10

Communicating with Freelancing Clients: Email vs. Phone vs. In-Person

Success with freelancing is all about balance, which is difficult to achieve when you start your own business. You have to go out of balance in many areas before you figure out how to juggle everything.

One significant tension for me is the method of communication with freelancing clients. Let me explain my thoughts:

The Conflict

I am a highly systemized person and dislike when I must do something outside of a process that I set for myself. For me, this means that I prefer email over all other types of communication.

The three biggest reasons are:

It’s asynchronousIt provides documentationI get the least amount of spam

The problem is every client you work with is going to operate differently. Some are OK with email or text, while others (especially those over 40 years old) much prefer to hear your voice.

Email

If I don’t have written documentation of what to do, I’m likely going to forget to do it or make a mistake on the minor details. When someone includes all this information in an email, I become a perfectionist, and will meticulously go through every last “to-do” item.

One thing I’ve noticed is that when you are sending a “to-do” email to another business owner, there is a high likelihood they are going to scan the email, not read in-depth. They’ll take away one major thing – and ignore the rest.

It’s a great lesson, though. Not everyone operates like you, and that’s OK.

Phone

Recently, I was designing a brochure for one of my website clients. We had to go through several revisions, and the process looked like this:

They call me, I’m not availableTheir message – “Hey, call me back.”I call back, they don’t answerRepeat 2-3x (we are working on different schedules)

Eventually, I told them you need to send me a list of all changes in written form. They did, and it allowed me to get to work on my schedule instead of hoping to reach each other at the same time.

Man, this is a pet peeve of mine. I HATE playing phone tag. And even more, I hate a text or voicemail that says, “call me back.” If you can’t describe the issue clearly, you probably haven’t thought about it enough!

I get so much crap from friends, family and even clients because I don’t answer my phone 90% of the time. To me, when I hear them complain, the message going into my ears is – “my time is more valuable than yours, and you MUST be available at my whim.”

I’ve also had one occasion where a client placed an order for hooded sweatshirts via the phone. When delivered, they complained something was wrong with the order. I was certain I heard them correctly when we talked, but since we had no written record, it was their word against mine.

With that said, phone communication is great to get a lot of information across in a short time, and it’s also much better for building trust, especially when you first begin working with someone.

In-Person

One weird thing about me is I get super nervous over the phone with potential clients. Maybe it’s because of a negative association with the order I got wrong years ago! Who knows.

But I enjoy meeting people one-on-one. Not only do you get a much better feel for the guy or gal, you are much more likely to close a deal in-person vs. phone or email.

On top of that, I meet with my best clients every few months. We get to share ideas, I see how their business operates, and we build the type of trust where you know you will keep that client for years.

This is how to build a sustainable freelancing business.

Find Your Balance

The key is finding the balance. You have to create your processes, but you also must be flexible to build your relationship with clients. I always stay flexible at the beginning, and slowly “train” my clients on my schedule and how I prefer to operate so that I’m most productive, which benefits both of us.

Get the business blueprint that leads you to predictable freelancing income!

Join Business Plan Membership

The post Communicating with Freelancing Clients: Email vs. Phone vs. In-Person appeared first on Website Profit Course.

$20,000 Income from 1 Local Client in 5 Years

Looking at this total on my accounting reports caught me off-guard. It’s a lesson in the power of recurring revenue.

It’s hard to imagine quoting a one-time project for $20,000. That’s a considerable time investment and lots of stress.

Working with clients long-term under a monthly package structure (no contract) is much more desirable for both parties.

We view the website as an ongoing project that doesn’t have an end date, and they get the value of keeping up with current trends.

For that cost, we’ve gone through 3 distinct phases to their website:

Simple brochure layout using HTML/CSS onlyNew design on WordPressAdding mobile responsiveness

Because of this constant activity, they’ve been rewarded with an increase in Google traffic every year.

Building a long-term relationship with your top clients is the best way to get out of the rut of always seeking small projects.

Click the link below to get a blueprint that leads you to predictable freelancing income!

Join Business Plan Membership

The post $20,000 Income from 1 Local Client in 5 Years appeared first on Website Profit Course.

Was College a Good Investment for You?

Did you hear about the big college scandal involving well-known celebrities? Here’s the news story from NPR:

U.S. Charges Dozens Of Parents, Coaches In Massive College Admissions Scandal

It quickly went viral because it hits on several hot-button issues:

Rich vs. average-income familiesStudent debtMerit-based success vs. paying your wayNew economy vs. the old economy

There is one specific angle to this story that annoys me.

Lori Loughlin’s daughter is already making money on YouTube. She has millions of followers. She has fashion sponsorships. She wanted to pursue it full-time.

Instead, Lori paid $500,000 to bribe her daughters into college against their will. It leads me to ask one question:

Why not invest that money in her daughter’s business to grow her income?

It makes zero sense.

Now, the mom could go to jail and the daughter is furious at her parents.

Think about this unhealthy obsession we have with college as a society. It’s not just Lori Loughlin, parents across the country pressure their kids in much the same way.

Instinctively, we know the cost is too high. It continues to increase at a much higher rate than inflation.

Ask anyone 5 years out of college: “How much of what you learned do you still use today?”

My bet is 80% of the people would say they forget 80% of it.

Still, the average family believes there are no alternatives to create a great life besides spending $45,000/year for a prestigious university.

I’m not saying there is no value to a college education. I just know I wasn’t ready to make a career decision at 18 years old.

Online video is changing education, how we connect, and the way business is done.

You can learn anything online today. To me, the new path of education is investing all your time, money and energy into your hobbies and passions. If you lead the curriculum, you’ll take ownership for digesting the material.

Yet people are more afraid to pull the trigger on a $20 book than a $100,000 student loan.

Let’s say you’ve already gone to college, you have debt, AND you don’t like your job.

You are prone to the sunk cost fallacy. The more money you’ve spent going in a certain direction, the more you feel like you MUST continue down that path. This can prevent you from following your true passions…

Don’t let it happen!

Use this story as a way to learn how to make the best decisions for yourself, not what society dictates you “should” do.

FREE Download: 15 Tools To Start Your Web Design Business

Your information will not be shared or sold, period.

The post Was College a Good Investment for You? appeared first on Website Profit Course.

What WordPress Theme Do You Recommend?

One of the questions I get asked the most is what WordPress theme do I use?

Every website that I build for personal use or for clients is built with iThemes Builder.

Why I Use iThemes Builder

iThemes Builder is an older theme that I chose many years ago when I first learned WordPress. The biggest reason I still use it today is simple – if it’s not broke don’t fix it!

Since it’s an older theme, it’s not as beginner-friendly compared to newer drag-and-drop themes that exist today. I think that there are better themes available now for beginners, which is why I typically don’t recommend iThemes Builder publicly. However, if anyone asks I have no problem telling them what theme I use!

The main selling point for me was they let you build custom code sections with PHP. Since I came from web design from a coding perspective, the ability to use custom code was more important to me than a drag-and-drop builder.

Divi Page Builder Theme

If you are looking for a drag-and-drop builder, my recommendation is Divi by Elegant Themes.

I learned about Divi through my subscribers and I am in the process of putting together several child themes that give paid members a head start on building their websites. You can upload the backup & save yourself a few hours getting WordPress setup correctly.

So, keep an eye out and subscribe to the Business Plan membership to get notified when new themes drop!

RELATED: How to Make a WordPress Website with Divi

To learn more about the Divi theme, click the link below:

Popular Theme Recommendations

I recently took a survey with my subscribers and the two most popular themes (outside of Divi) were OceanWP and Astra.

Another good page builder is Elementor, a theme independent plugin that works similar to Divi.

RELATED: How to Make a WordPress Website with Elementor

The post What WordPress Theme Do You Recommend? appeared first on Website Profit Course.

How Your Strengths Can Be Your Biggest Weakness

I like the saying, “your biggest strength is your biggest weakness.”

It seems counterintuitive, but when you analyze yourself, I bet it’s true.

The reason I decided to work for myself instead of getting a job out of college was that I had little doubt I’d be able to find a service to offer that would be valuable.

Part of my weirdness is in my natural curiosity.

I go DEEP down the rabbit hole of research on all subjects. I’ll search for 500 questions on Google/YouTube in a span of 3 days. Then I like to test what I’m learning.

I’ve done this many times over with websites, business, gardening, golf, cooking, health, homebrewing, etc.

The problem is you need singular focus over a long period to stack a foundation to make consistent money freelancing.

It took me 2-3 years to figure it out for many reasons, all linked back to curiosity.

I get sidetracked super easily by new subjects that are purely hobbyMy instinct is to hyper-focus short-term and burn outI’ve tried to juggle multiple business ideas simultaneously (& failed)Sales prospecting is boring & repetitiveI’d spend time learning code instead of looking for clients

Like most, I get trapped in the “passive income” dream. That is, work solely on your life’s passion and eliminate all tedious jobs.

That’s not the way it works – at least in the beginning.

You earn passive income through enormous upfront effort. When you achieve it, if you don’t actively manage your income streams, they can go away quickly.

Start thinking about what sets you apart that will make you succeed, and also build a plan to avoid the pitfalls of your strength.

Watch a tour of the Business Plan Membership that gives you a blueprint to predictable freelancing income!

Join Membership Now

The post How Your Strengths Can Be Your Biggest Weakness appeared first on Website Profit Course.

Web Design vs. Web Development: What’s the Difference?

Do you want to become a web designer or a web developer?

It’s a big question website beginners ask themselves because you aren’t sure which direction to specialize.

When I decided to start freelancing, I bought business cards and didn’t know which title to assign myself.

Let’s consider the requirements and how websites operate.

In the simplest form, viewing a site is an interaction between:

Browser Web Server

The browser renders HTML and runs Javascript code. The web server stores HTML & Javascript code.

The big difference is web servers allow you to set up databases and execute “scripting” programming languages like PHP, which is how WordPress works.

Many web apps use Javascript to send data back-and-forth to the web server in real-time without refreshing the page.

Web Designer



Creates website layout in the browserMust know HTML/CSS, WordPress or another website builder platformMust know basic image editingMust understand mobile-first design & testingMay handle content creation or SEOIn-depth code knowledge is a plus, but not essential



Web Developer



Must know code language (PHP, Python, Ruby, MySQL)Implements custom functionalityTakes existing code and builds on itSimplifies existing codeDocuments existing code for easier managementDesign knowledge is a plus, but not essential



Does Your Title Matter?

When it comes to freelancing, it doesn’t. Your main title is business owner, and you solve individual problems from scratch. Most solutions come in unique ways – code, software, outsourcing, etc.

It’s an entirely different story if your goal is to get a job at a mid-to-large company that already has systems in place. In that case, the requirements of your knowledge will be a bit more stringent.

I recommend starting your own business. Your limitation isn’t your skillset; it’s your creativity.

Do you want tools, training, & advice to guide you along the process of working for yourself?

Join Business Plan Membership Now

The post Web Design vs. Web Development: What’s the Difference? appeared first on Website Profit Course.

Web Design Bulletin: Speed Up Your Website, Dr. Squatch, Find Old Websites

Cool Tool, Service or Resource

Autoptimize – https://wordpress.org/plugins/autoptimize/

Over the weekend, I spent a few hours cleaning up my client websites to speed them up. I’m now getting 1 second load times, down from 3-5 seconds.

I also have a much better process, which I will be sharing soon with a tutorial that goes deeper into the technical steps.

A big part of this process is the WP plugin Autoptimize. It will minify your HTML, CSS, JS, and add “lazy load” functionality to your website images.

Web Design Example

Dr. Squatch Soap Co. – https://drsquatch.com/

While browsing YouTube, I was targeted by this company and watched their full advertisement.

This style of commercial with pure absurdity must have the right mix of comedy and information – and I think they get it right.

It’s working with massive follower numbers across social, Facebook being the largest.

Facebook – 143,000 likesInstagram – 31,000 followersYouTube – 5,400 subscribers

On top of that, they use high-quality ingredients, their website is straightforward to navigate (looks hand-coded), and they promote recurring revenue with their orange “Soapscribe” button, nicely contrasting the light color scheme.

Then later in the day, their “remarketing” campaign hit me while I was browsing NFL news…

How to Find Clients

Google is your friend when it comes to finding bad websites. You can get creative using their search filters, and here’s one easy example.

Many older websites or frameworks have an HTML extension on all pages. Almost all small business websites have an about page.

To combine these two facts, search for the following combinations:

[business type] [location] inurl:about.html
[business type] [location] inurl:about-us.html
[business type] [location] inurl:about_us.html

Here is one example result from New Jersey, a flooring company with the copyright year showing 2011.

Join the Business Plan Membership community that leads you to predictable freelancing income!

The post Web Design Bulletin: Speed Up Your Website, Dr. Squatch, Find Old Websites appeared first on Website Profit Course.

Will Self Doubt Stop You From Freelancing?

I got a sensitive email from a subscriber who is a complete beginner with websites.

She described a feeling that everyone gets, regardless of your experience.

Our first conversation was about her desire to create an affiliate marketing website to make money online since she is an introvert. 

Within two days, she responded with massive self-doubt:

I bought my domain a month ago, installed 3 WP themes to find an ‘easy’ one to work with, and still have no idea what I’m doing trying to set up my website. I feel like an utter failure. I fell for it and thought setting up a website was easy. Am I that stupid?

It’s hard to describe my thoughts when I read a message like this.

One thing is certain – it drives me to help more people than ever in 2019.

Sadly, this feeling doesn’t stop once you master WordPress or design.

I got an identical email from a member who is looking for his first paid client.  He felt like a failure with business. At every step, the doubt creeps in, and the self-talk becomes negative.

This anxiety brings about your fight or flight response.

Too many people choose the easy route, and they give up.

Don’t allow yourself to do this. Push through your next barrier, which I’m convinced is 90% mental. Momentum wins and you will eventually create the snowball effect.

Get a 100% proven strategy to make money, personal help from me, plus the tools you need to succeed long-term:

Join the Business Plan Membership today!

The post Will Self Doubt Stop You From Freelancing? appeared first on Website Profit Course.

2 Things Every Web Design Client Wants From You

As I reflect on all the times a client has acknowledged good work on my part, it always comes back to two things:

1) Results

If your client asks their customers how they found them, they’ll know if your services are providing value when they start to hear one of these three basic answers – “the internet”, “Google” or “your website”. Of course, you can track these results using Google Analytics!

2) Activity

When they aren’t seeing results, they are likely to question your value unless you develop a strategy to improve and then implement it, keeping them in the loop during the process.

This is precisely why I prefer a monthly payment structure vs. doing one-time project work. With the comfort of knowing you’ll get paid every month, you’re willing to be creative and go the extra mile to see your client succeed.

As a good rule of thumb, consistently push info their way so they don’t have the chance to question what you’re doing. Most clients don’t have any concept of the work it takes to run a website and then drive traffic to it.

Read more about how I’ve done this with my long-term clients:

Conversations With A Local Web Design Client

The post 2 Things Every Web Design Client Wants From You appeared first on Website Profit Course.

My Day-to-Day Business Activities in the Last 30 Days

It’s as hectic as ever over here, and that’s motivated me to address a big weakness of mine: outsourcing.

My to-do list is growing faster than the free time on my schedule. Thankfully, since about last August, I’m incredibly disciplined with keeping an accurate log of how I’m spending my hours.

I figured I’d share with you some of the super specific things that have filled my calendar this past month (both work and personal).

Local Clients



At the request of a client, add a new offer to their website homepageAdd “20 Year Anniversary” graphic to client’s websiteManually update a WordPress plugin which failed because of a server timeout (on my client’s web host who I despise… DO NOT use Network Solutions EVER!!!!)Fix error with click tracking not working because of new Google Analytics tracking code – Google explains this change hereOrder and deliver t-shirts/hoodies for a construction clientNegotiate a better monthly deal with a long-time client to add email marketing to their businessOutsource 2 new articles for that client’s blog plus email campaignMeeting with a client to pickup check and discuss tri-fold brochure design & pricing



Online Business



Mail copy of my book to Lifetime Business Plan memberWrite several emails (like this one)Create a new YouTube videoCreate new advertising campaignsOutsource article creation to pair with older YouTube videosContact the support team for my membership software to identify/fix weird bugs



Personal



Accounting (QuickBooks) and banking tasksPurchase TurboTax to complete tax returnsPlant seeds for my vegetable gardenWalk my parents’ dog for 2 days because my dad had to travel unexpectedlyWatch my sister’s dog for 5 days (picture below)

I’ve previously discussed how when you work from home, people think you are available 24/7 to do them favors.

I say “NO” to a lot these days. However, I have a soft spot for pups.

Dog-sitting adds ~3 hours of responsibility to my daily schedule, and leads me to walk ~7 miles – bad for productivity but great for health! Right now, the priority is being effective in managing my time. Once that happens, a dog might be in my future.

Read more about my hobbies and how I approach the process of improving…

How to Become Better at Work (& Life) [BLOG]

The post My Day-to-Day Business Activities in the Last 30 Days appeared first on Website Profit Course.