Hey there, and welcome! If you’re a long-time reader, you’ll notice that we’ve made a lot of changes around here. First of all, the “we”. Yes, we’re a “we” now. It’s me, Julianne Carson, and Leah Shaver, plus a few others that we bring on intermittently for their good looks (among other things).

The decision to flee solopreneurship was not an easy one. It’s been brewing for a while, but after I poured everything I had into April’s gold-digging excursion and came up exhausted and burnt out, I knew things couldn’t stay the same. There just isn’t enough “me” to do everything that’s in my heart to do. So I hired the best people I could find, and I haven’t looked back.

Speaking of looking back…

The structural changes to this new website may seem subtle, but they are far from it. First, there’s the content. The new approach is more editorial, less “bloggy”. It’s not less personal…in fact, probably more so. But it’s more purposeful. More attached to a central theme. More consistent. Less about publishing for the sake of numbers and attention and more about publishing things that are worth publishing.

I’ve always tried to explain to people what I mean by “content-driven” rather than “your blog on the home page”. This is it. Or at least my version of it. Because that’s another thing that I want to emphasize — that there’s no one right strategy for everyone. That we all have to learn and absorb and create based on what we were put here for. There are principles, yes. There are case studies we can learn from. There is research and inspiration and individuals who are doing this web thing really well. But ultimately, your web strategy has to be your web strategy. Created specifically for your organization. Otherwise, you’re going to come up disappointed.

The second major difference is the dynamic-ness of the entire thing, rather than just the “blog” portion. You’ll notice that the stuff in the sidebar is always changing; always new; always updated. The work that we’re doing with you guys is being showcased as we work on your projects. The website as a whole is a huge, constantly changing resource. But at the same time, we’ve made sure that there is no noise. It is simple. It invites you to savor it, enjoying and gleaning from one thing at a time. There is no multi-tasking here.

We’ve also made it incredibly easy to browse and search, so nothing is lost if you don’t come by here often. Every feature that we create has its day in the front-page sun, but when something new takes its place, it doesn’t disappear into archival chaos. It becomes an integral piece of the fabric, making the site a deep well instead of an infinitely wide shallow puddle.

There are other changes, but I’ll let you be surprised. All you need to know is that it is different. And different is good.

Getting acquainted with the new site

Unrequited love is one of the most painful, heart-wrenching experiences of the human condition. You pour all of your love and attention on someone, and then…rejection. All of your insecurities come bubbling to the surface. “I’m probably just boring.” “No one wants what I have to offer.” “How do these other people find love, and I can’t?”

The efforts we put into our websites are surprisingly similar. We spend all of our time and attention on them. We believe that “if we build it, they will come”, or “if we promote it to death on Twitter, they will come”, or “if we only have the best design ever made, they will come”. And then we do those things, and they don’t come. Or it feels like a constant, draining effort to get people in the door. Face it: your website just doesn’t love you back.

But it can. It really, really can.

That’s what this website is about. And here are a few ways that you can get the most out of it:

• Subscribe to receive the new features in your email. You can do that at the top of this page (and every page). You can also check the “sneak peaks & discounts” box if you want to find out about new projects we’re working on before anyone else.
• Give yourself some webby love. We’ve created some questions to help you start thinking about your website more strategically. It’s not unusual to get big, giant epiphanies as you work on the answers.

You were made for this. And I was made to help you. So let’s go.