Posts by Appy
the road taken: i’m running a 6-week SEO experiment (instead of overthinking)
A friend of mine had some big wins recently. I’m genuinely thrilled for them – their success is well-deserved and inspiring. AND I caught myself spiraling. “If only I had done (xyz) then maybe…” If I’d done it like them, maybe I’d be there too. Then I remembered a story about Rober Frost’s famous poem,…
Read MoreVisibility Beats Discounts: A More Intentional Black Friday Approach for Small Business
Something’s shifted this year. Customer behavior is changing in real time, and what worked two or three Black Fridays ago isn’t landing the same way. People are overwhelmed. Some are still buying – especially at the higher end – but how they’re buying looks different. There’s an undercurrent of uncertainty about what’s ahead, and that’s…
Read Morewhat I learned from making 30 YouTube videos, part 3
Part 3: The Long Game, the Learning Curve & the Stuff You Don’t See This is Part 3 of a blog series I’ve been writing as I wrap up my first 30 YouTube videos, and the Back to Website School series I shared this fall. If you missed the first two parts, you can find…
Read Morewhat I learned from making 30 YouTube videos, part 2
Part 2: Storytelling, Specifics, and Saying it Your Way In Part 1 of this series, I shared how creating 30 YouTube videos taught me just as much about websites as it did about video. Knowing your strategy, keeping things simple, and starting with what you already have? All of that applies whether you’re building a…
Read Morewhat I learned from making 30 YouTube videos, part 1
Part 1: Strategy, Simplicity, and Starting Where You Are Last week, I wrapped up a 10-video series called Back to Website School – a project that looked at what it really means to have a website in 2025. We talked about everything from how AI is changing how we think about content, to choosing a…
Read MoreIs Your Small Business Ready for AI Shopping?
Are you ready for AI shopping? The Website Policy Updates Nobody’s Talking About Picture this: An AI assistant visits your website to buy one lavender soap bar for its user, but there’s a glitch and it orders ten. Or maybe it was supposed to get lavender but grabbed lilac instead. Who’s responsible for the return?…
Read MoreSquarespace vs Shopify for your website and online store
Should I switch to Shopify? Or should I use my Squarespace website to sell my products? I get this question often. There are tradeoffs for each choice, just like any tech platform and decision we make for our businesses. Let’s break this down. The Core Difference Shopify is built for selling – period. It’s…
Read MoreHow I found one of my brand values in a communication class
A couple months ago, I signed up for a class that scared me. Five days of live Zoom meetings, 2.5 hours each. Not just listening, but interactive exercises, practicing communications skills with strangers. Making mistakes in front of them, and letting them see -not just my mistakes, but my faults. My lack. One reason I…
Read MoreTech Tool: Email sign-ups when offline
A client asked me about an offline form to collect email addresses while at an event (where the cell service is poor). This is the tool I found and tested for her. Why collect email addresses offline? If you’ve ever been to a live event and wanted to collect email addresses from the people who…
Read MoreNew Email Marketing Requirements
Google and Yahoo announced new requirements for email “bulk senders” last year. They will start enforcing new requirements on February 1, 2024. *Please note I’m offering my take on these requirements… please do your own due diligence from your email marketing platform and other resources to make sure you are meeting the requirements you need…
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