3 Ways to Improve Your Website Today with Amber Ladd

Welcoming my friend and fellow designer Amber Ladd to the podcast! I still can't believe this is Amber's first ever podcast. She's such a natural.

 Amber is a designer, developer, typography enthusiast, recovering perfectionist, bubble tea addict, mother, wife, sister, friend... and introverted legend. She partners with brands and individuals through offerings that span strategy, creative direction, art direction, identity design and website development. She is a big believer of bringing the most unique parts of someone's story to the foreground.

In this episode I get to pick Amber's brain about all things web design and development.

In this chat we cover:
• The difficulties of branding our own businesses (especially as creatives)
• Brand evolution
• 3 tips to improve your website
• How to keep your costs down when designing a website
• The importance of a plan
• ... and 2x exclusive announcements!!!

You can learn more about what Amber does at https://www.amberladd.co/ and you can follow Amber on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/byamberladd/

For more information head to https://thefearlessdesigner.com.au/

Follow me on Insta @the.fearless.designer

Transcript

Morgan Macdonald  0:05  
Hi guys, welcome back to the makeup pop Podcast. I'm so excited. You're here. Thank you for joining me. My name is Morgan MacDonald, and I'm your host. I'm also a brand and design coach. And I know what you're probably thinking, what does that mean? But I'm a graphic designer and have been for a very long time, too long to let you know, because then you'll know how old I am. Not that I'm worried about that. But I really wanted to create this podcast so that I can share with you easy and quick and actionable tips that can help you really make your best brand pop. And yes, that's sarcasm, air quotes, all of that stuff, making it pop. But we are going to make it pop, we're going to make your brand really stand out from the crowd, but also remain really authentic to you. I can't wait to bring you this week's episode with my friend and fellow introvert Amber lad. Amber is a Grapho. She also is a web designer, a brand designer, she's just the most awesome creative. And I'm so thankful to have had quite a long history with Amber. She actually applied for a design position at my business many years ago and sent through the cutest email. And I'm just so thankful for her friendship, but also her talent. She's going to give us some amazing tips today around what it takes to keep your website up to date, how to keep it well branded, and also just what she thinks is going on trend wise in the web design industry. I also just wanted to give you a heads up that in the coming weeks, I'll be releasing my first solo episode where I get to chat to you about the big wide world of brand design, and share some of my insights and knowledge around that which I'm really excited to do that I've so enjoyed the interview style podcast up until now. But I just I feel like I've got some stuff to say. So I can't wait to share that with you too. So buckle up, put your dressing get on and sit back and listen to my interview with Amber. Enjoy. Hi, Amber. Welcome to the make it pop podcast.

Amber Ladd  2:19  
Oh, thank you. I'm happy to be here.

Morgan Macdonald  2:22  
Is this your first podcast?

Amber Ladd  2:24  
It certainly is. I'm very nervous. I'm also not a podcast listener. So I'm a little bit shy, but we're gonna go we're gonna see how we go.

Morgan Macdonald  2:31  
I'm really surprised. I'm really surprised someone hasn't had you on their podcast before.

Amber Ladd  2:36  
Maybe they just know I maybe I give off that energy of like, don't talk to me.

You're the exception.

I'll make an exception for you.

Morgan Macdonald  2:45  
But you've got so much knowledge. And I don't know, I just You're the perfect guest. So thank you for joining me.

Amber Ladd  2:52  
I'm very, very excited to be here.

Morgan Macdonald  2:55  
All right, and but let's hit the most boring basic question. Who are you? What are you? And what's your business?

Amber Ladd  3:03  
Oh, look at me. I feel like I'm at a job interview. I am Amber. I am a graphic designer who has specialised in branding design and moved into web design, and then also web development. So my business runs around offering those services to clients. Yeah, I don't know what you want to say about that we run a studio and offer their services. I'm getting rambly.

Morgan Macdonald  3:31  
No, well, that's that's summed it up perfectly. Alright, who do you really love to work with? Who were some of your favourite clients to work with?

Amber Ladd  3:37  
Good question. I'm finding that now probably seven to eight years. And I found that my sweet spot is working with people who have been in business maybe at least three to five years, sometimes even up to 10. I think I find them easier to work with them, maybe startups or people just starting out. And then in terms of maybe industry, I love working with fashion and lifestyle, maybe homewares a little bit of like fender something just a bit different. I work with a lot of photographers, but I think I'm starting to move away from that and into maybe a little bit more like E commerce away from service base. So I don't know, I'll work with anybody and everybody as long as they've got a good vision and they know what they are doing. But yeah, that's kind of the gist

Morgan Macdonald  4:19  
of it. Yeah, cool. We all know how hard it is as a creative to design and brand for our own businesses. How have you found it cuz like with me, my tastes changes yearly. And then you know, when you get caught up doing your own work, it never gets across the line because you put in all your clients work before yours. How have you found it?

Amber Ladd  4:44  
It's definitely been an evolving journey, I suppose you would say. And especially like, you know, working as a designer, like you have your styles that you love, but you also were exposed to so many different styles working with so many different clients. So it can be hard not to be like Oh, I love this branding, I'm going to jump ship and go here and go there. So I think in the beginning, it was definitely really hard to figure out not only my design style, but then also a brand identity that reflects that, I think it's just that extra level of hardness when it comes to being a designer, because you have to, I don't know, create something for your brand, and your audience, but also keep it in line with your style. So it can be a little bit tricky. But yeah, in the beginning, it was a little bit all over the place, just trying to figure out like, you know, also separating my brand from myself as a person, and like, I can't just design my brand to be me, it has to also be my brand. So yeah, designing for myself has been definitely difficult. I feel like only now again, like seven to eight years. And I finally have clarity on like, what I want it to be, what its gonna look like who it's supposed to be for. So I'm going through a little bit of a rebrand at the moment, but I'm hoping that will be the last one for a while.

Morgan Macdonald  5:53  
How did you go about, you know, pinning down some of those, you know, like key branding items, like did you go through and, you know, devise your target audience and their pain points and, you know, clarify your values and that and that helped dictate your brand. Are you like everybody else?

Amber Ladd  6:14  
Oh, it's so hard. Because, you know, I think we have to practice what we preach when it comes to our own brands. And like, always, we're saying, you know, I hear other designers say, like, just take, take yourself through the process as you will your clients, but like, I am too damn impatient for that. And so I've tried and like, I've done little bits and pieces, but I haven't actively sat down and written something out. Like, I've kind of paid other people to, like, write me a strategy or give me ideas of how they perceive my brand. And I'm like, they're all kind of okay, but they just felt like stepping stone. So I think, yes, I've gone a long way about it. And it's taken me like, close to a decade to finally realise where I'm going with everything. But yeah, I didn't know sit down and go through the proper process.

Morgan Macdonald  6:55  
I think that's really important that what you just said about how you can outsource that stuff and take on other people in professional fields, like copywriters and strategists. And that, but at the end of the day, a lot of those questions are answered from yourself as the business owner. And it's really about that relationship between, you know, that external outsourcing service that you're engaging, and you you've, you've got to like, it's not as though you can just hand over a whole website design to a website designer and say you do it, you've got to give them all of the information to get it, you know, correctly branded and on message and to point

Amber Ladd  7:32  
Yeah, exactly. And I think this is a little bit off topic, I suppose. But that's something that is something that I guess we really need to try and communicate to clients too, before they invest in branding, like, I have people come to me, they're like, oh, you know, let's just do a logo, let's do something fun. But you have to have that confidence in who you are, and where you're going, who your audience is. And you know, all of those details, not just what you like, aesthetically, before going into it. And I think that's been really helpful for me on my own branding journey and realising, you know, why working with startups has been difficult for me when they don't always know those details. So it's kind of good when you can take yourself through that process from start to finish maybe over a decade and realise like, this is how difficult difficult it is for our own clients. And that's why they're coming to us to guide them through it. Yeah, I probably went off topic there. But no, no, it's

Morgan Macdonald  8:19  
a great point. And, like, I feel that there's never going to be a point in time where you can sit back and go, my website is 100%, or my brand is 100%. where I want it to be, it looks amazing, there is nothing that I would do to change it. I just don't think we ever get to that point. There's always that room for improvement. It's always that tweaking, even if you're setting like monthly or three monthly or six monthly reporting sessions where you sit down and you're analyse. What can I do to make it better? What is the response I'm getting from my customers? Am I Are they able to get to the shopping cart easily? Are they able to get to the inquiry form easy? Are they interpreting it the way that I want them to interact? Like there's always room for growth when it comes to developing your branding and your website, websites a big one, because I feel as though people think that it has to be done. And then it's done. And when we talk about SEO when we talk about I don't know just even just the physical design of it, those things can be changed and tweaked over time and really hone things so that they've, they're firing.

Amber Ladd  9:26  
Exactly. And I think that's kind of goes back to it like it is an ever evolving journey, whether it's branding website, like even now, like I said, 10 years and I'm finally having clarity like I expect there will still be tweaks along the way to both the website and the brand identity. And I think that's what you want as well. Like you don't ever want to just stay stagnant because your audience doesn't stay stagnant. Like they will be growing and changing and you need to kind of adapt to them as they grow as well or us your business is probably not going to succeed long term.

Morgan Macdonald  9:53  
Yeah, I'm too scared. Like I've got a lot of website work that I need to do for my own website and I just don't want to open it. I I could be in there for like three weeks. Yeah, it's just, you get in? And it's, um, yeah, it's just the to do list is huge. But as a web designer, what are three tips that you can give the listeners to improve their website?

Amber Ladd  10:19  
Okay, so I think I would first start this off by saying, try it, you know, even if you're not the one designing it, or if you are, at least try and keep it as consistent as possible with your brand identity. So I guess there's kind of two tips in one. But having a like, set brand identity before you go into your website design is probably, you know, a really important thing because you want it to be an extension of that not just this random website, that could be a completely different logo to what you use on Instagram, and then a different colours, or it's on your business card, like you want it to be an extension of your brand identity. So keep it consistent.

Morgan Macdonald  10:53  
So when you're saying brand identity, your meaning colours, imagery, logos, fonts on? Yeah,

Amber Ladd  11:01  
the whole the whole look. Yes, yeah. Yeah.

Morgan Macdonald  11:05  
So key tone of voice the vibe? Yep. Yeah,

Amber Ladd  11:09  
I think so many people don't realise that websites are just yet another piece of like marketing collateral, like a business card, or a flyer or, you know, pricing guide or something like that, like they are, you know, another marketing piece that should be an extension of the brand identity. So if you have the ability to keep it consistent, definitely do. So. I think the other one would be tried to keep it simple. And that can be interpreted in so many ways, but keeping it simple in terms of maybe the length of content you have like the number of portfolio items you have, or you know, the number of whatever, you know, your blog, don't make your blog so long that someone's not going to stay on it and read I think, you know, especially when it comes to like content and copy, try not to use too much industry jargon or just fluff that's completely irrelevant. Like, I think this can happen a lot, too, on the about page of a website, we can just talk so much about all this stuff that's not relevant. And like, it might feel irrelevant. But I think to your audience, especially if it's them interacting with you for the first time, you don't have that much time to capture their attention, and then actually hold it. So I think try to keep it as brief and simple as possible. And then this is another one that may be a little bit like niche and quirky, but my thoughts are here. And this might be something that you work through with your web designer. But when you're thinking about like all the places that you need to click, you know, every button that clicks through, go somewhere. So you know, on your homepage, it might be let's go to the About page. And then from the about page, where are you wanting to guide your customer. Try and think about making sure that every point that they're getting to, can be achieved in one to two clicks. Like you don't want to have someone be able to get to the inquiry form, but it takes them five pages to click through to get there. Like we want to have, ideally just one click everywhere that we go. And most people can do that, I think easily. But I've been on websites where it's just like a rabbit hole. And it's like, I have to click 510 different things to finally get to where I'm looking to go like, majority of people don't have that kind of attention span. And if they can't find it easily, they're just going to click off and go somewhere else where they can. So that's probably my three tips about keeping it consistent, simple. And I guess this is more simple to when you think about how many clicks that you go through?

Morgan Macdonald  13:22  
I don't know. Yeah, I was gonna say the same even if you didn't hit it, that the clicks to get to where you need to go is such an important thing, the journey, because I just the website needs to be, as you say, super simple. But we've only got like seconds to hold someone's attention. And if they have to scroll all the way down to the bottom of your homepage to get to, I don't know, your product pages or your contact, like, sometimes people aren't doing that. And then even if that's on desktop, when they get onto a phone, and it's like triple the amount, like we're scrolling forever. It's just not going to happen and people will get bored and click off. And also I feel like, yeah, there is this push to have everything and the kitchen sink on your website. Sitting down even before the web dot web design has started, and a lot of web designers will go through this process. What is the intention of the website? Is it to sell product? Is it to take inquiries? Is it to give people more information, is it and then make sure that is the key focus on every single page that's designed on that website? Yep. So people aren't getting lost. You know, we know that the intention of our website is to be just for example, an information website and we want people to contact us. That's got to be the overwhelming you know, I saw of that website that people can contact you literally by just opening the page. Or if you're a product based website, it needs to scream the These are the products going by me. So I feel like that's exactly what you were saying that we don't want to have to click through 10 different pages to get to the, you know, show the product pages because, yeah. But I do feel as though in this wide world of online business, with Instagram and Insta shop, and you no matter and bloody Facebook, and all of the things have changed so much in the world of branding and design. And it seems as though there are a lot of people that are putting all their eggs in one basket and just focusing on really developing their brand on social media. I don't I don't know. If that's a good idea. I still feel like the website is probably one of the most important business assets you can have when it comes to your marketing just because you own it. But I'm keen to hear Do you have any insights into? I don't know, this seems to be like social media lead, electronic online, crazy world that we live in now.

Amber Ladd  16:06  
Yeah. Yeah, it is really interesting. And like, I think even for myself, I've noticed I'm sure, you've probably even noticed that having been doing this much longer than I have, like, I know that I started out doing, you know, a little bit of print when I first started. But like, nowadays, I would say, I think I've got two print jobs this year, out of all the work that I've done, everything I do, like 95% of the work I do is for an end goal of being digital. And that's really interesting to think about when we begin with branding, it's like, well, what assets do we need? Like, originally, it may have started out like, oh, you know, we need to consider packaging and tissue paper and flyers. Whereas nowadays, I have to consider assets that are more so how can we use this on social media or, you know, a digital pricing guide or on the website or something? So, yeah, it is really interesting. How much things have changed from print to digital these days. But yeah, I don't know. Like, it's funny that you say to about, like how important the website is yet so many people really do just focus on social media. Like I know for my son,

Morgan Macdonald  17:04  
yeah. Oh, yeah. Right. Like, I don't know, I don't it just I think it's because the ease of just starting an Instagram account or say, starting a Facebook account, getting your logo up getting it going like it's done. Yeah, it's bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, we're a website seems to be on or I've got to put my images together, I've got to get my text together. Like it seems like an enormous task that, you know, and if I'm on Instagram, everyone can find me. Well, that's not always the case. When you're in a very, you know, there are some people that does work for but a lot of people that they still require a website, either do the transactions for their products, or run an E course or something like

Amber Ladd  17:44  
that? Yeah. No, it's funny. Like, I know, for like the first half of my business, I didn't have a website at all for those reasons. Like it was crazy, because I was like, I'm a website designer. But no, I don't have a website, but I have an Instagram. It always felt a little bit shady, because I'd be lying to people know that you can view my portfolio on Instagram. And most people were fine with it. But like it did get to the point like I have definitely noticed a difference in like inquiries. And like the level of, I guess, more ideal underlying clients since launching a website last year, it's terrible to say that it was only last year, I got my first website. But like, I completely understand it. It's a huge undertaking. And I think nowadays too, like with Instagram, having changed so much like it is scary to have to only put your eggs in one basket. Like I regret not doing other things sooner. But I'm now moving off and trying to do other things. But yeah, I think, I don't know. It's hard to rely on someone else. Like you said, like, you don't own it at the end of the day. And that's the scary thing is like Instagram could be gone tomorrow. And so could your however many followers that you've got, and, you know, have you got them? Not to sound like the marketing people, but like, Have you got an email list? Have you got something at all to be able to, you know, retain these clients? I'm going off topic here. I'm sorry.

Morgan Macdonald  19:01  
I've got I've got a rant, I've got around for a few weeks, a few weeks ago, I was entertaining the idea of going on reels and starting to you know, dance and do all that not dance, but you know, have a go at that. And then I had this thought I was just like, No, I need to stand up for myself. Like it doesn't sit well with me and I don't like that Instagram of they feel to me like a puppeteer. And they're now making us feel really uncomfortable trying to keep up with the algorithm which I don't want to dance. I don't want to trending audio search for 14 hours to try and find things that I don't want to do that it doesn't make me feel good. It's not the best. My time is better spent elsewhere. I just don't like it. It's really it makes me feel really icky.

Amber Ladd  19:49  
I completely agree and like we are the same we're introverted. We're not dancey people. Even in private. We're probably not dancing people. And I think it's just so funny. Like the goal always people would always say on you Instagram, be authentic, be yourself. Like, that's what attracts clients started. I don't know. And so I think you can definitely tell now when people are shoehorning themselves into something that's not authentic to them. And I think that's the thing is like, there are so many other platforms and ways of marketing outside of Instagram. Like if it doesn't feel right to you and you don't want to adapt to that. Go adapt to something else that does feel authentic, like SEO is still you know, old school marketing is still a thing SEO email marketing, like, I know that paper flyers still work like I've hired someone from a mailbox, drop, drop, even

Morgan Macdonald  20:31  
word of mouth. Yeah, and word of mouth. You know, depending on your target audience, word of mouth can keep you employed without having to advertise at all. Exactly. Yeah. And I still I completely agree. So I'm happy to keep my Instagram there as a touch point. Do my Insta Stories, I feel comfortable with that. I'll do a few lives but there's no way that I'm going to be pointing like a dickhead to like Kate Bush's running up that hill, like I'm not doing like, if I hear that song, I just flick it.

Amber Ladd  21:05  
Oh, yeah. It's not even relevant. Like, oh, I think is Stranger Things like a you relevant to that? Probably not?

Morgan Macdonald  21:13  
No. So I, I would just like if that's if you're doing rails and you're being really successful, and you're enjoying it, go for it, I do not feel comfortable doing it. And I also am really sceptical over this going viral concept. Because is that going to actually bring paying customers to my business? I don't feel like it will it will probably increase reach and you know, and that's great. But I just don't think it's crucial for my business to dance around and point and yeah. And I may come, look, hold me to this, I might be doing that in a year's time. And you say what happened to you, Morgan.

I thought that's completely fine if you do.

But if you don't feel comfortable doing it, this is my this is my point in my rambling. If you don't feel comfortable doing it, take that hour, two hours, five hours a week that you're pushing yourself to market in a platform that doesn't feel comfortable to you and put it into your website development, or put it into SEO, or put it into something that you know that you do feel comfortable that's actually going to give you results that are you know, that you can actually measure.

Amber Ladd  22:22  
Yep, I completely agree. That being said, I don't know what I would do outside of it. Because I've done it for so long. But yeah, like we said, there are plenty of different avenues that you can go, it's just a matter of finding what works right for you.

Morgan Macdonald  22:38  
That's right. And, you know, we all know or if not we need to be on I think it's like five to seven different touchpoints for people to feel comfortable with doing business with you. Yeah, so you know, don't rule out the LinkedIn ads and the email marketing and any of that stuff. It's really important.

Amber Ladd  22:58  
But when I'm sorry,

Morgan Macdonald  23:01  
no, no, no, that's all right. I'll get to LinkedIn in a minute. I still think the website is more important over all of those things. Definitely.

Amber Ladd  23:09  
Yeah, I always look at the website as being like, you know, just say, your bricks and mortar store, you've got like your, you know, welcome lady at the desk, like your your website is the welcome leader, your well, your website is the person that's talking for you while you're asleep. They are selling everything. You know, you just have to get it done right the first time and it could last you for 10 years. You've just got to do little tweaks here and there. But yeah, it is definitely like what I consider the main seller, obviously, you need to be able to get people to the site first. But once you get them, they're like, you don't have to do anything after that.

Morgan Macdonald  23:41  
That's right. So as a web designer, and someone that works with a lot of different businesses, what do you think is like the key toolkit that people need to have to start designing their website, effectively? Like if they're going to have a crack on Squarespace on their own? What do you think they need to get started?

Amber Ladd  23:59  
Yeah, well, I think like I said earlier, like having a brand identity really helps. Like, you know, there's many ways that you can do this on the cheap too. If you're just starting out,

Morgan Macdonald  24:07  
please don't use Canva Canva is not effective. Canva is not a vector based programme. You cannot get vector logos out. Please do not design your logo in Canva

Amber Ladd  24:19  
we could do a whole Canva rant but anyway,

Morgan Macdonald  24:22  
love Canva but don't do your logo in Canva

Amber Ladd  24:25  
there are many good places you can go even Etsy has like pre made things. I think a lot of designers even sell pre made logos, or there's like even this new thing getting around now of like doing intensive branding, which is like a fast and cheap brand identity anyway, different story. But yeah, they're interesting. So yeah, there are ways you can do it. Otherwise you are also welcome to dry but I think just ensuring that you have that consistent brand identity to start with. I think it makes it so much easier. Like you know, I remember I used to get inquiries for like, Oh, just a website. I don't have a brand identity. I just need a website and it will be like, that's great. But what are we going to start with? So I think, you know, if you're gonna go in and tackle it yourself, at least have an idea of like your colours and your fonts, because that is what makes the website. If you can get some photos taken, even if it's not a full photo, shoot, just find, you know, you can find free stock photos if you have to having some photos and then having your text written out. And again, like we said, like having an actual goal and a plan for each website page is going to be really helpful in guiding your content and your wording. And then your, if you don't have a goal for it, it's kind of just like, Oh, I'm just gonna ramble and write all these things. So I think once you have a goal, you can break it down, step by step. Those are probably the things that we have. I don't know if that was even to industry jargony.

Morgan Macdonald  25:42  
I'm sorry. No. And by text, you mean the actual words that go on each page on the page? Yep. Yep. So it would be your about page bio or your homepage, body copy that kind of that kind of stuff that would ideally have beautiful SEO interwoven into that. Yes, exactly. And as I was saying, about intensives. copywriters offer them, too. So yes, if you're trying to do it, and just start up, look at day rates, and look at intensives because you can get some really good stuff done, cheap and quick, ready to start.

Amber Ladd  26:16  
Look at me, I'm talking advert for all the creatives on Instagram, I've got you.

Morgan Macdonald  26:24  
But there's even you know, so many beautiful free things now, like even Carly who was on a previous episode from techno bird who's a web designer, web designer and SEO specialist, she provides so many free tips just following her Instagram. Yeah, she does. So many tips online now where you can just take and pick and choose what you need and and put it in. But yes, for me, the most important thing would be the plan. The website plan. Yeah, what are we doing here? What's the intention of it. Even if it's just a little word document that you do like yourself on a piece of paper that you draw on with a pencil, you know, or a highlight, I just put it down so you can look at it and reflect on it.

Amber Ladd  27:06  
All of my plans are literally in the Notes app, like it doesn't have to be fancy in the slightest just start writing, even if it's just like blow to throw out in the wind. And then, you know, refine it and take a step back and work with a friend or something. But yeah, just get it down before you get it in the website.

Morgan Macdonald  27:24  
It's exactly right, because I don't know about you. But when you start, I am not a web designer, but I have designed some websites and I enjoy it. When you open a blank new website design like in Squarespace, it's quite overwhelming. If you don't have a plan or know what you're doing. There's a lot of space there and you freak out and then you start putting stuff in. And like I'm someone that's designed before, I couldn't imagine doing it if I've had no experience but never done it before. It

Amber Ladd  27:53  
really is so fascinating. Like when you think of Squarespace being marketed to a DIY audience and like they have the existing templates, but their existing templates, honestly, like I think that's the thing about templates is they're so hard because they're not designed around your content. And content really does inform design, like you have to then write content, based on their design, which could be helpful for dry is if you haven't got the you know, wording there already. But yeah, I lost my train of thought there.

Morgan Macdonald  28:21  
Yeah, but you're completely right. Because, you know, when you open a brand new template, or you buy one, they've got beautiful stock images in it, it's got text that fits the box there, all of that. And when you try and put your stuff in and your images aren't working well, or you're trying to source stock images while you're designing it, yeah, it could blow out to like 10 hours, 20 hours, like it's just not the best time spent doing that stuff. So but there's completely a place for DIY, even if you get it set up and then engage the services of a web designer in a year's time. Yep. That's how beautiful relationships are started.

Amber Ladd  29:03  
And that's honestly what I recommend. Like as I said, working for me now I found working with like years, three to five in business is the best and what I generally recommend, if you're kind of in that one to three years don't and you don't have like clarity of vision, or you're not totally sure. I honestly say like I think your investment at this stage is better spent on a template like I don't want to charge you like you know, a full custom project when in three years time it's like I have to completely gut this and start again. So I do think like if you're just starting out and you're still not 100% Sure on where you are or where you're going to be go with a template go with a premade branding option and just kind of start small and then keep building on it from there refine as you go.

Morgan Macdonald  29:42  
Without you having to tell us what you charge because I know it's very dependent on what the requirements are. Can you give us a basic like price range of what it would cost to buy a really nicely designed template? Yeah, yeah. And then what it kind of the the range is getting into fairly standard image, you know, website design that would be worked on as a custom job by a web designer.

Amber Ladd  30:07  
Yeah, I think, again, like there's so many variables, but here but I think if we just kind of give some ballpark figures like, I know that most Squarespace templates like purchase ones that aren't like the freebie ones that come with Squarespace can kind of start, maybe like around the $300 Australian mark, I've seen some go up to maybe like 500, but they might be a little bit more advanced. I've seen other platforms like show it which are a bit more involved some of the really, really good show at once could go up to like $1,000. But at the same time they're worth and I know that you've bought one of those and that was well worth it. Because I think it looks incredible.

Morgan Macdonald  30:43  
It was it was well worth it. Because the designer and actually, like, categorised and labelled everything correctly. It wasn't a rush job. And it was yeah, it was seamless. The instructions are amazing. Everything. I've heard that about show sites. And I really like Yeah, even though I haven't used them, like I would honestly recommend them to someone, if you've got the budget and you want that little bit better quality and more capability to have control over it yourself, I

Amber Ladd  31:10  
think show it would be a really, really good one to go for. And then I think if we're looking at like a custom site, like, again, you know, you have the people that offer intensive projects, and I know that they can start maybe around the $2,000 mark, so they're not that much higher. But I do know, again, that I think intensive projects sometimes can be semi custom link, which is like a hybrid between a template and a custom. So there's like that in between as well, where they might start with a template but customise that for you. But then, yeah, moving into custom, they can kind of start. Honestly, again, it depends on the platform, but you might start anywhere from like, 3000 all the way up to like, you know, if you're crazy, huge website, it could be like 20,000, like, there's websites that could be like 100,000. But I think like if you're looking at small business kind of moving from that three to five years into like, you know, looking ahead for the next 10 years, you're probably looking somewhere between five to 10k. Maybe just a little bit more. If you're kind of going for like standard service based site. E commerce might be a little bit more in like the 15 up to 20 range. Yeah, yeah.

Morgan Macdonald  32:14  
Yeah. Cool. That's where I was kind of thinking where it was at as well. Obviously, ecommerce depends on products and what you require. And each platform kind of has different pricing, so Shopify as standard pricing, but then all of the add ons and the apps and that the monthly hosting significantly, and it's all US dollars. So

Amber Ladd  32:38  
Shopify is definitely an investment. And that's why I think to like, you know, if you are just starting out kind of ecommerce brand, like have a look at like the built in Shopify themes and the free themes, but then, you know, once you get to that higher mark, maybe you make a, you know, million dollar turnover or something in products and you're doing really well. That's when it's kind of like okay, now I need to bump things up, I need to get my, you know, all my extra plugins and my add ons and, you know, do a full custom design. Yeah, but that being said, sometimes some people never need the full custom design, it really just depends on what your goals are. Like, if you're booked out and doing great and you know, making the money that you need to be making, attracting the right clients, like, you can stay on a template, you can stay on your dry like I've seen people who have DIY No, absolutely killing it. Like, it really just depends on the individual client and their goals and what works for their audience. All right,

Morgan Macdonald  33:28  
I have an exciting last question for you. This one I put out on my Instagram for someone or people to submit some questions. And I picked this question for you to answer in our podcast. And the question is, I have a basic website, which I designed a couple of years ago for myself, how do I take it to the next level?

Amber Ladd  33:51  
Okay, very big question here. I think that's great. And I think like we've talked about, like starting it for yourself is really one of the smartest things you can do. I think, you know, if it's been a few years, and you are kind of in that more like three to five year range, and you are, you know more confident with with where you're going who you're serving, like it is probably the right time for you to engage a designer. Not that that's the only option either maybe it is time to have a look at like, you know, what else is around candidate? Is it time for me to move into buying a template? Is it time for me to engage a designer for a custom design? If you do still want to stick with the current site that you've got, maybe it's worth having a look at? Can I buy a plugin that might just elevate the experience? Perhaps that's good. Maybe it's worth engaging someone to do an audit or have a little look at like, you know, maybe you only need to make small improvements. You know, I think there's lots of ways you can go about it that aren't just like, oh, I have to jump ship but now engagement designer and pay $10,000 to improve this website. Like there's so many ways you can improve things and No, no, sometimes an audit might just be the best thing and you might only pay like 100 $200 to get an audit done and they might just say you know, design isn't the problem here you've actually done and really well. Or maybe they'll say, hey, maybe you just need to kind of update your brand identity and then move that into the existing design.

Morgan Macdonald  35:08  
Yeah, that's probably my tips of how you could improve it. Yeah. And as we spoke about before, there's probably lots of little tweaks you can do ongoing around SEO and user experience, which that's ongoing for anyone, that stuff's always going to take it to the next level. Yes, completely agree. So what's on next for you? Amber? What are you up to? What's what's going on in your beers? Oh, well,

Amber Ladd  35:35  
for the first time in a while, I actually feel like I do have plans, I feel like I've been a bit flat for the last two years and just kind of back up,

Morgan Macdonald  35:42  
we all have.

Amber Ladd  35:44  
This is true, this is true, like came back from maternity leave at the end of 2020. And it was kind of like, I'd kind of just gone cold turkey on business during that time. So between then and now I've kind of just been building business back up. And it's kind of like, I don't want to do anything other than just serve my clients, get my client base back up and just kind of get comfortable in the process again. So now I'm starting to look ahead. And I feel like I'm Yeah, excited about business at the moment. So what I'm kind of looking towards now as I have these goals around, maybe shifting where I'm offering my services. So anyone that knows me knows me that I am about Squarespace queen, and I love it. But Squarespace has undergone quite a lot of changes in the last few years. And I'm not about them. So I'm kind of looking towards maybe moving over to another platform called web flow. So that could be something that's on the horizon. I've also been, this is something I've held myself back on for a really long time. But I'm finally going to start tackling Shopify. So I've been enrolled in a course, which I haven't started, but I'll get there. So I'm very excited about that. And I think that really kind of aligns with like the clientele that I'm trying to work with now, which are more like in that home wares, maybe lifestyle, kind of like online store sector. And then I'm also wanting to move into like we've been talking about, I'm going to start offering website templates. And this is something that people have asked me about for years and years, I've just been like, oh, I can't deal with it. And I think it's just been a matter of again, trying to find the right platform like everyone would expect that I do it on Squarespace. And like, I probably still will. But I think it's just a matter of figuring out what that's going to be on. And then I also have one other thing that I am going to be launching, which I'm very excited about. And I haven't said this to anybody, but here we go exclusive first on the makeup. This is something that's a bit of fun, just for me, even if it flops, but I am going to be launching a mock up store, which I'm so excited about.

Morgan Macdonald  37:44  
Oh yes.

Amber Ladd  37:46  
So I've had a photoshoot done. It was something I was always like, Oh, I can't do it, because I'm not a photographer. And so I engaged a photographer who was on board with us doing this together. And so for anyone that doesn't know, mock ups is something that designers use in their presentations and portfolios, which is like a photo shoot. And then they apply the design to like a product. So you know, we might take a photo of a cup in a nice little environment, and then the designer can like wrap the logo around it. So yeah, if you're not a designer, you probably weren't kid. But I'm excited. That's excellent, very excited, something to look forward to. So those are kind of the main goals on the horizon at the moment.

Morgan Macdonald  38:24  
And I love the ideas of those because they're ongoing revenue for you that doesn't require you having to do the physical work once all the hard works been done. And it's Yeah, exactly. I know you though, and you're a bit of a, you know, you'd like to make sure everything is to the best. So I'm sure your templates always been proved to say striving for, you know, the best possible outcome because that's that's who you are. Oh, maybe that's so exciting.

Amber Ladd  38:57  
I know, your audience is going to keep me accountable on this.

Morgan Macdonald  39:01  
I will keep you accountable. It's out in the universe. Now you've got to do it.

Amber Ladd  39:05  
Well, I've paid a copywriter to write the sales page. So that's kept me pretty accountable for it. So I'm excited. Yeah, it will happen. And yeah, we'll see.

Morgan Macdonald  39:14  
Excellent. Well, that's very exciting. Well keep your eye out. Maybe I don't know, what are we going to give it six months? 12 months? What are we talking here ever?

Amber Ladd  39:22  
I'll say 12 months, but I hope it's a lot sooner than that. And I'm not dragging my feet on it.

Morgan Macdonald  39:27  
No, it's just it's one of those things. It's hard to when you get busy with client work to kind of muscle that family and development stuff in and

Amber Ladd  39:35  
yeah, I'm hoping to not take on as much clients maybe in like quarter four. We're already in quarter four. I don't know where we are now. Actually. I think as of September, October, November, December. Yeah. So yeah, going forward. I'm hoping that I'll have a little bit of room to a finish my Shopify course that I'm doing and be launched my mock up shop and then I think templates are next year's. Next year's business.

Morgan Macdonald  39:57  
I actually think we're in quarter two, aren't we? Are we on financial years? Oh,

Amber Ladd  40:01  
I got no clue. Whatever were in, like, q2,

Morgan Macdonald  40:05  
I'm pretty sure we

Amber Ladd  40:08  
oh, you can tell I'm good at business. Yeah, well, we're not accountants. I'm just here for the cute aesthetics. Okay.

Morgan Macdonald  40:18  
Thank you so much for joining me. And I hope everyone can hopefully just get a tiny tidbit out of we spoke about today websites are a beast. And I say that to every client that needs a website, they're based, whether you've got one or you've had one for 10 years, or you need a new one.

Amber Ladd  40:32  
Just a simple website, my friends know and don't even say it.

Morgan Macdonald  40:41  
Ah, I was gonna say I feel like that could be on a t shirt. But you've just finished up your T shirt.

Amber Ladd  40:45  
Oh, yeah, that was a that was a something to try and keep me motivated to go through the year, but I can't. I don't know how you do it. Ah,

Morgan Macdonald  40:57  
I've got an exclusive here. I will be finishing up slightly surely very soon as well.

Amber Ladd  41:02  
Oh, we'll have to talk about this after we hop off that said

Morgan Macdonald  41:05  
yes. No. As you know, it's probably about downtime as Lizzo would famously say. Just yeah, I will. I might do an episode about side hustles and trying to do two things at once. But yeah, yeah, but it's exciting. I'm not I'm not upset about it. So I am. I now know how many people listen to this podcast episode. Because Yeah.

Amber Ladd  41:30  
They'll be asking, Hey, what's coming?

Morgan Macdonald  41:33  
Oh, I have to announce it soon. But anyway, thank you, Amber. I so appreciate it. And yeah, we'll talk to you soon.

Amber Ladd  41:40  
Thank you for having me. Goodbye, everyone. Bye.

Morgan Macdonald  41:54  
You've been listening to the make it pop podcast. For more information head to www.thefearlessdesigner.com.au