Randi Pullar: Hello, hello. I'm so excited to have Jessica here from Jess creatives. ⁓ I've actually been stalking you for a little while on social media and I really love everything you have to say. And I think that we really do a lot of things ⁓ very similar. So I'm very excited to talk about marketing today and especially get into the website and SEO side of marketing because
Jessica Freeman: You
Randi Pullar: As we were just saying, it is so important if you are a low energy entrepreneur and I am all about making life easier. So, Jessica, thank you for being here. Do you prefer Jessica or Jess?
Jessica Freeman: Mm-hmm. Yes. ⁓ I tell, I always tell people like I go by either. I have all my friends and like online people call me Jess, but my family calls me Jessica. So Jessica is starting to feel like my formal name, you know, like it's like you're in trouble. It's like your government name. Yes. So I go by either, but yeah.
Randi Pullar: That's your government name. Fair, fair. All right, Jess, thank you so much for being here. I'm so excited to chat with you. Can you tell us a bit about what you do?
Jessica Freeman: Yes. So I run Just Creatives. This will be my 15th year in business, which makes me feel like a grandma in the online space. And like, I'm also, feel like a little bit unique in that those 15 years are all with Just Creatives, always doing design. Cause like, you know, there's always people who are like, oh yeah, I've been in business 20 years and this is my third business. I'm like, nope, I have been plugging along with Just Creatives for 15 years.
Randi Pullar: Veteran. No.
Jessica Freeman: So, ⁓ yes. And also, that does, I'm not saying that like it's bad to change businesses or anything. I just, I'm like, I feel like a grandma sometimes. yeah. So I, like you mentioned, I do websites and SEO. So I'm the girl that loves to like, I love, yes, making it look nice, but I'm also here to nerd out about the keywords, the fonts, the data, like.
Randi Pullar: Yeah, this is my second. We found what works and that's awesome.
Jessica Freeman: please let me look at your analytics because I just want to be curious and try to help. yeah, ⁓ and I really also specialize a lot in the health space because as someone with chronic conditions, health is a big part of my life and fitness is a big part of my life. And so I work a lot with like dietitians, physical therapists, doctors, those kinds of things, basically people with private practices. it's not exclusive to that niche, but it is a lot in that niche. And I actually like posted on my Instagram yesterday that I was like, see, I am, I'm like in this with you because yes, I'm here to nerd out about your fonts. I'm also here to nerd out and message you and be like, I know we're in the middle of project, but I have to tell you, like I hit 30 grams of fiber today. Like I, I get it and I understand and all that. So. ⁓ Yeah, I can hear that about.
Randi Pullar: Nice. Yeah, my first business was as a personal trainer and ⁓ I got into it and I was like, okay, so I know all these things about health and fitness and all of that. How do I run a business now? Like that was the real struggle. So like having somebody like you in my back pocket would have been fantastic. Yes. And so I think I was like most attracted to all of your stuff about the SEO side of things because
Jessica Freeman: Yes. Mm-hmm. Yes, more, yes, helpful.
Randi Pullar: I hear a lot of people say, I don't get it. I don't get SEO, it's too much. And they're like, almost afraid to like figure it out. And I mean, obviously running my website, I've had to go about figuring it out. And I've come to the conclusion that it's really not that complicated. It's really just like another basic set of rules. You got to plug in there. And once you know those rules, it's so easy.
Jessica Freeman: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yes, yes, yes, yes.
Randi Pullar: Yes. Okay, good. It's not just me because like everybody feels so intimidated by it.
Jessica Freeman: Yes, and I will say because when you do start Googling or watching videos or whatever, especially any of the like big gurus and like, you know, they run agencies and they're like, here's the basics of SEO. And then they lift list off, you know, 200 talking points. And like, here's, know, you need because there is like, yes, if you look into it, there's front end SEO, back end SEO, technical SEO.
Randi Pullar: and
Jessica Freeman: Local SEO and you're just like what is going on? What like what is all this? But then when you just like kind of Simplify it down. You're like when I explain it to people and like in workshops or clients or whatever I'm like at the very simplest level it's Understanding what are people searching? What are they literally typing into Google or chat GPT or whatever? And then you use those words in your content. And yes, there is more to it because like it actually has to be helpful. Like that's one of the biggest changes in the last year or two. I know people are like, well, that's that's kind of a dumb rule that it has to actually be helpful. you used to be able to even just like five, six years ago, you could probably get away with writing a pretty fluffy blog post about a subject. and it not be super helpful, but you got to rank because it had all the right keywords and headings and it had an image in it that had the keywords, you know, like whatever. Now that's not the case. So Google is like, are you actually answering questions? And they also really want to see experience and expertise. And so they're also looking for like, are you giving real examples? Are you not just talking about like, you need to work out, you need a plan, whatever. You actually have to talk about like, when I have coached clients, this is what I've seen has worked and whatever. So.
Randi Pullar: SEO is for the people these days. Like it's not like the algorithms of social medias. Like they're just looking for, you know, the popularity of things. Whereas like SEO, which BTDubs, if anybody doesn't know, that means search engine optimization. Realized we didn't say that at first. Search engine optimization, it just means that the search engines want to push out what you have because what you have is good and for the people. And it's so-
Jessica Freeman: Yes. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yes. Mm-hmm. Yes, yes, yeah, it is.
Randi Pullar: So, okay, so one of my big things recently, like I am, I'm on a little bit of a mission to pull everyone off of social media, to be honest. Like I go to social media to convince people that they need to get off of there now. Because it's just like, it's overstressing us. It's like, it's really just like.
Jessica Freeman: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Randi Pullar: It's too much. It's too noisy. And like you were saying, like sometimes you don't have to get on there. You have to like also see what's happening in the rest of world. And sometimes we need a bit of a break from that. So I'm really trying to convince people that they need their own websites. Help me on this. Help me on this. like, and your own website, your own self-posted website. So from another professional having done this for 15 years, what are the biggest benefits of having your own website?
Jessica Freeman: Mm-hmm, they do. Yes. Yes. Mm-hmm. So one of the first things which I mentioned to that you mentioned this to you earlier is I Honestly, I truly feel like SEO is another form of self-care Because it is a way for you to bring in leads and clients and email subscribers podcast downloads Whatever else you're looking for without having to be on social and I also remind people like There are millions of people who are not on social media. I know it feels like, like everyone has social. I have a dear friend who is literally not on social media. Like I interviewed her for my podcast and was like, please tell us how you run two businesses and you have zero social media presence. not even not just like, ⁓ I don't have it for my business. Like she doesn't even have it personally. And it's truly just because she's like it's.
Randi Pullar: I love that.
Jessica Freeman: drains my energy and I don't like it and So like you're there's all these other people out in the world especially I feel like in the last year that are starting to drop off social media because they're like Wow, this really stresses me out and it takes all my time and you know, so You can absolutely get off of social media, but you're going to need Something else to bring people in you're going to need a website You're going to need ICO because yes, I know so many people are like, well, referrals and word of mouth are like my biggest, you know, yeah. Okay. But if we rely solely on that, what happens when those referral sources, that word of mouth, like people move, people go out of business, people like if you have, you know, for me, I get a lot of referrals from copywriters and business coaches.
Randi Pullar: fantastic too. Mm-hmm.
Jessica Freeman: Well, what happens when these copywriters close down their business? I mean, I'm hoping obviously they don't, but like I have a copywriter who used to send me clients and she closed down her business, went back to corporate. So that was a referral source. This was like eight years ago, but you know, that's somebody. So you need this space that is your own to send people and part of what makes social media work.
Randi Pullar: Yeah.
Jessica Freeman: Now I will say I'm someone who really enjoys social media. I'm also a rare bird that I actually enjoy it. But part of what makes social media work for some or most people is you get to like connect with people. You see their face, you hear their voice, you get to know their personality. And then you're like, ⁓ my gosh, you like matcha and so do I. like this sports team and so why like there's these little connection points. You're also going to need those connection points on your website. That's one of the biggest disconnects that I see is people are like, I'm putting up a nine grid on my Instagram. I'm no longer spending my time there. People can find me on my website or email me or whatever, but I'm like, okay, but then I click over to your website and all this bright pink.
Randi Pullar: Mm-hmm.
Jessica Freeman: like face-to-face interaction, I get to hear your voice and I got to understand you is not happening on your website. Now I'm not saying you have to like put a bunch of videos on your website, but it's like the copy, the design, the personality needs to be visible on your website. The days of like, hi, I'm Jane and I do business consulting. Like, no, it's, it's. Most like obviously there's nuance here because it depends on your audience and whatever, but you're going to need that. And there's also the very like cliche everyone hears it, but when Instagram, you know, glitches and it's down for a day, everyone's like, this is why you need a website. This is why you need SEO. Are they?
Randi Pullar: down for the day or they kick you off. I had a friend recently who just like lost her Instagram and thread account. They just like took it away from her. And there was no reason why she didn't do anything wrong that she could figure out like there's just took it away. And they haven't given it back yet. She got her threads account back but she hasn't gotten her Instagram back and had to start from zero.
Jessica Freeman: Uh-huh. Yeah, like. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah, and so it's like it sounds cliche because you're like, yeah, but it's also like you might have a website but like is it do you feel Confident enough in your website in your SEO that if Instagram were to glitch for a day or you got your account banned or whatever Would you actually be like, okay. Well, I'm gone for a day or two days But at least I have this to kind of hold me afloat for a little bit. might notice, Jess is gone. Like, isn't Jess on Instagram? Like, what's happening? They can very quickly find me and find all my information. So yeah, I mean, there's a lot of, obviously I'm biased, but there's a lot of benefits to having websites. But I feel like for us specifically, like, The self care of like, can still, because SEO is much more long-term. That's another one of the benefits that some people don't realize. If I post a reel, it might stick around for a few days. If I have a blog post on my website right now, that is from 2017, that still brings in several hundred views a month and clients. Like,
Randi Pullar: Yeah. Yeah.
Jessica Freeman: people find me because of this seven year old, eight year old, I can't count, ⁓ blog posts. And I have multiple that are like that, but there's one in particular, because it talks about how I hate wicks. ⁓ So it gets a lot of traffic. ⁓ And that's the self care that like, I can go on vacation, I can have a bad week, I can like, okay, well, I'm not gonna post on Instagram or threads today.
Randi Pullar: Yeah.
Jessica Freeman: and it be okay because I'm like, you know what, I have this other marketing machine kind of like running in the background over here.
Randi Pullar: And so I've noticed this like, ⁓ it's just, it's upsetting how many people, so I started as like a content writer. My first plan was I was gonna be a content writer. I was gonna write blogs for people. And then I tried to like, you know, I click through their profiles or like on Instagram and everything and realized they didn't even have a website. Okay, well, gotta tell you that you need a website first before I could write blogs for you, which is how I ended up doing like content and business strategy because I realized that people needed more of that beginning.
Jessica Freeman: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Randi Pullar: And I'm so upset at whatever coaches told all these people that all they needed was that Lincoln bio or like, you know, something like the Stan store. If I cannot, and this is like a huge lesson that I want everybody to understand, if I cannot figure out who you are, your personality, your services, and like how to book with you without talking to you, I'm done.
Jessica Freeman: Hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Randi Pullar: Like so many other people are like this, we're lazy as like, you know, we're not going to like put the effort into spending the money anymore. And this is, think where like a lot of people are getting disconnected. They're really struggling with building their businesses. They don't know what to do. And I always go back to like, well, where do they go to connect with you? Because these connections are important.
Jessica Freeman: Mm-hmm. Yeah, we're not. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm, because like you you never know where or when people are finding you, you know, like they might be sitting on an airplane and they like I Don't I can't like connect. I don't want to start this like DM conversation. They might be introverted They might be laying on the couch dealing with some kind of you know flare up or whatever But also I always remind people like what do you like to experience as a consumer?
Randi Pullar: Yeah.
Jessica Freeman: So like perfect example, think about the last time you needed to find like pest control, lawn care, a plumber, like whatever. You go to their website and it's a bunch of like mumbo jumbo. There's no pricing 99 % of the time. And it's like call for a quote. I am a stereotypical millennial and I hate getting on the phone. And I'm like, I just want to like, where's your Calendly link? Yeah. Yeah.
Randi Pullar: Now we don't want to jump on a call anymore. that's, I want to be able to send an email and I want to know as much of the facts before I even get to that point. Because I'm not going to book 10 different calls with 10 different professionals to try and figure out what they even do.
Jessica Freeman: Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah. And I get with like, I know we're very different than plumbers and pest control and that kind of thing. And I get the like, you know, it depends on what the problem is or whatever. But I also know, with plumbers, most of time, it's like they're not going to, if the toilet's clogged, that's not going to matter. Like it's 250 or 150, you know, whatever it is. So I feel like even some context with that of like a starting at. price range or that kind of thing. having all of this information, like I'm just, I always try to operate as like, what would I want as a consumer? I would want all the details upfront. I don't want to hop on a call. I want to know the price. I want to know like, do you have expertise in this? Do you have experience? Are you just getting started? Like, are you, you
Randi Pullar: something. Mm-hmm. Especially when you're dealing with health professionals. for me, when I was doing the personal training thing, I was, ⁓ I called myself an intuitive movement coach because I focused more on that side of like, you know, being able to like understand your body and what you're doing, the adaptions and the stuff like that. And I was also very like, very strong on the anti-diet side of things.
Jessica Freeman: Yes. Yes.
Randi Pullar: And so for me, having all of that just like on my website, that just like immediately weeded out the people that weren't going to be good for me too. So I didn't have to waste my time talking to people who just wanted to lose 30 pounds because I had right there on my website. I'm not going to help you lose 30 pounds. You know, that was so nice to have that. And people got to like not waste their time either coming to me when I wasn't going to give them what they wanted.
Jessica Freeman: Mm-hmm. Right. Mm-hmm. Yes. Yes. Mm hmm. Yeah. And like, it's also the flip side kind of of that as like some people, you know, if it's some Joe Schmo, who's like the complete opposite of that mentality and is like, you're going to get down to 30 burpees and like, this is cut throat. And if you some, you know, somebody else comes and is like, I'm looking for a personal trainer. They might be like, whoa, Joe is not for me. That's OK. And then they come to you and they're like, Oh yeah, okay. This is what I was looking for instead of these, instead of, know, if both of you were vague and just said like personal training, that's it. Come work out with me. That's not giving any context. Okay, well now I have to spend my energy talking to you. And that's also, that's their energy and your energy. It's going back and forth, having to do a call. And I don't know about you, but I
Randi Pullar: Yeah.
Jessica Freeman: Again, I'm a millennial. don't love being on the phone. so, and yes, yes. But it's like, I, I'm a solo business owner. I don't have a team. So when you reach out, I'm the one answering the DMS, answering the calls, answering the emails, helping past clients, doing the podcast, yada, yada, yada. So like anything that I can do to conserve my energy.
Randi Pullar: I don't love sending emails either, but they're so much easier. ⁓
Jessica Freeman: to simplify things. Like I want the website to pre-sell and answer questions. Now, is any website gonna be 100 % perfect and no one will ever have questions? No. But like, I can't tell you the number of quote unquote discovery calls that I have that I get on there and they're like, oh, I already know I wanna work with you. I just wanted to like. touch base, make sure you're human. And you know, like that kind of thing. Now, obviously, yes, that's still a call and it's still energy, but it's much different energy. Yeah, it's much different when I'm like, oh, okay, well then we can just chat. Like, this is great. Yeah, okay, like now I'm just excited and we can kind of, I can give you a little bit of a jumpstart of like be expecting this and that and like, there's not all this back and forth.
Randi Pullar: didn't have to sell on that call. or just becoming buddies.
Jessica Freeman: that we don't want to deal with. No.
Randi Pullar: don't need to be wasting that time and energy. So ⁓ that brings me to the tech side of things. like, you know, when you know, once I do convince them that they probably need a website, they always go, but it takes so much effort. And I don't know the tech and it's so hard. I knew nothing about website building when I built my first one, I went straight to WordPress, because I wanted that kind of like that level of flexibility and stuff. And I figured it out very quickly.
Jessica Freeman: Mm-hmm.
Randi Pullar: because they are making it a lot easier these days. Yes, we're finding most of that. Okay. So I know that WordPress is not the easiest. I like it because it has the flexibility and you can scale it to like anything. can do anything. But beyond that, what do you tell people to use? Obviously you're not a fan of Wix.
Jessica Freeman: Mm hmm. There. Yes. Yes. Yes. Right, it's not always easy. anything. I'm not I'm not and I can explain why if some if people are curious, okay
Randi Pullar: Please do, please explain why and what you do tell people to use if they decide they want to build their own.
Jessica Freeman: Yeah, so my issue with Wix, Weebly, and probably a bunch of other platforms that are like much less common is that you cannot export your content. And as a business owner, I fully believe that you should have full ownership of your content. And so WordPress and Squarespace, ⁓ those are the primary ones that I recommend.
Randi Pullar: Yeah.
Jessica Freeman: There are some others and I'll mention them too, but those two make it so easy to literally just go in tools settings, export content. Now to be clear, you're not getting a zip file with like 79 Google docs of your page. It's, it's an XML file. You and I can't read it, but it's something like you can literally in a span of two minutes, you can go from Squarespace. Export get the XML hop over to WordPress upload and all of your content is there or vice versa it goes both ways and you should have that ability as a business owner, especially especially if you are blogging because otherwise good Mm-hmm Individually you have to go blog post by blog post to get all those that is not fun. I've had to do that for a client
Randi Pullar: ⁓ I've had to save all of my vlogs.
Jessica Freeman: It's not fun. I'm about to do it for a client because she's moving away from Wix. I'm not looking forward to it, but I'm glad that she's getting away from Wix. So those are the two primary. Squarespace is, in my opinion, it is easier. You will definitely still find people who hate Squarespace and they're like, this is so confusing. I really find Squarespace works pretty similar to Canva in terms of like, you can literally just kind of drag things around. The thing that confuses people is sometimes with mobile, like you do have to go in and like adapt the mobile view, kind of nudge things around because like there might be some funky spacing and that kind but you have to also do that with WordPress most of the time. If you're, if you are doing any customizations, if you're just using a, you know, kind of the default layouts or templates. and you're not doing anything with margins and padding and stuff like I am, then you should be fine. But when I'm doing stuff, I do have to like make sure everything looks good on mobile. The other two platforms I would recommend Shopify. If you are a product based business owner and you're shipping products, that's a pretty good. That's what Shopify is really for. I do know some people, very few, but some people who use Shopify if they are digital product business as well or even services. know some people which is like weird to me, but it's really primarily for physical product people and then show it is another platform. It is pretty customizable like again very free range canvas just like Canva where you literally can drag and drop
Randi Pullar: I didn't use the computer, I was just button. Yeah.
Jessica Freeman: anything like you can put it anywhere which gets you into the danger zone because then People don't think about this but you're like, ⁓ I'm gonna put this little graphic way over here on the side but when it comes to responsiveness and that kind of thing like things might be going off the screen and Because you wanted to be cute with your navigation bar. Now your contact link is way off in the Wild West ⁓ It can get a little wonky in there. do think, I personally think Showit is great for creatives and for techie people. It can be pretty overwhelming if you are not like tech savvy, because there's just a lot of, a lot of backend buttons and, and sidebars and settings and stuff. Um, none of it, you know, is, doesn't like require code or anything. It's just. It's not as clean and simple like when you're comparing it to like Canva and then you go into the show it and you're like, ⁓ there's a lot more settings in here. But.
Randi Pullar: That's one I've heard the least about most people don't bring that one up. usually hear Squarespace and Wix have been the two I think I asked a while ago and those are the two that I got the most I've been doing the WordPress thing and I also added Elementor So most of my things are all drag-and-drop to make my pages love that so great and it adds like a bunch of like really helpful widgets and stuff like that and WooCommerce for my shop
Jessica Freeman: Hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yes. Yes. Mm-hmm. Yes. Yeah. Mm hmm. Yeah, that's mm hmm. Yeah. So if you are using WordPress and also want to clarify, there's a difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com WordPress.com is much more limited. You have to pay more for everything because they're just it's like it's really meant for like hobby bloggers like that kind of thing. I know people who have a full website on it. It's just it's very limiting.
Randi Pullar: of it. It's been so simple.
Jessica Freeman: And you just every little thing you want to do. They're like, you have to pay for this. You have to pay for that. Like, because that's not the intent. And a lot of people also get confused where they're like, well, I don't have a dot org domain, though. And I want to use word. And I'm like, I know it's confusing. You're not using you're not using a dot org domain. It's just the name of the company. ⁓ But yeah, if you're using WordPress like you are.
Randi Pullar: Yeah.
Jessica Freeman: using some kind of drag and drop builder is going to be super helpful. One to just for ease for making like actually interesting pages and design. So like popular ones, Elementor, Divi, Cadence is one that I use quite a bit. Beaver Builder, I don't love, but it's pretty similar to Elementor. ⁓ Then there's like older ones like visual builder and stuff most. Yeah, like and there's probably even more. There's other options, but the most common are kind of the ones I mentioned. And the nice part is like maybe you've experienced this when it comes to like Elementor because it is so widely used. You can go to Google or YouTube and be like Elementor how to add a button and there will be 50 million tutorials. And so. Yeah.
Randi Pullar: problem finding an answer.
Jessica Freeman: And so like that is the also one of the helpful parts of using either a popular theme in WordPress or even just popular website platforms because every year there's like a new a new platform. And while those are fun and yes, they might be like cheaper. You're like, ⁓ wow, like this one is brand new. And so they have like the starting price. There's probably not going to be a lot of tutorials.
Randi Pullar: Yeah.
Jessica Freeman: And then even if you want to reach out, if you're like, okay, I have a little bit of money. Maybe I will just try to find a designer developer who can help me fix this page. Well, if it's too new, now some people, some developers would be like, I can fix anything, but it could be more difficult if they're like, ⁓ I don't know what this platform is. So that's something to think about.
Randi Pullar: And so think like one of the things that confuses people like, mean, the .org versus .com, that kind of goes into like the hosted versus self-hosted ⁓ situation. And so that's where I think we lose a lot of people in trying to explain some of these things. And so having it on the .org is a self-hosted thing. So you have to go through a hosting program first.
Jessica Freeman: Yes, Mm-hmm. Yes. Mm-hmm.
Randi Pullar: I use SiteGround. don't think they're the cheapest by any means, but I have really loved their customer service and all of their ⁓ features. They have been really great. They've also added in a WordPress site builder right on there. It's so easy. I just set up my hosting, bought my domain in the same place, which was so nice, and then just push the button to start building. And it took me straight to it. It was so easy. ⁓
Jessica Freeman: Yeah, they're good. ⁓ Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Randi Pullar: I love it. Do you have any other favorite hosting platforms that are good like that?
Jessica Freeman: Hmm. ⁓ yeah. I mean, that's basically how all of the WordPress hosts work. There are there are a few smaller ones or newer ones that ⁓ that are trickier. But look for like on the sales page or whatever. Look for something that kind of says like one click install or something like that. That's what you're kind of looking for. ⁓ You.
Randi Pullar: Yeah. I think Bluehost is like the only other one I've really seen push that I like, I know the name of.
Jessica Freeman: Yeah. Yeah, Bluehost is awful. Don't use them. GoDaddy also not a good website host. Just so don't go to GoDaddy or Bluehost. SiteGround is great. I personally use rocket.net and they're very simple, very easy. ⁓ Other ones, Flywheel, which is kind of under the umbrella of WP Engine.
Randi Pullar: ⁓ sad. Yeah.
Jessica Freeman: WP Engine and Flywheel both are great. ⁓ It's kind of now like if you try to sign up for Flywheel, they just force you to WP Engine, I think, but regardless. ⁓ Cloudways is another popular one. Big Scoots is another one. So there's lots of good options. Just when you're looking at options, when you're looking at host. Just be weary if like the blog review is just like, yeah, I'm an affiliate and I love them because Bluehost specifically gives out big affiliate payouts. And that is why so many people recommend them because they're like, great. Everyone needs a website. They need a host. I get a big payout. You will be hard pressed to find a designer who's worth their salt and likes Bluehost because they are. awful. ⁓ So like, know everyone is, there's lots of people, whenever I say that they're very shocked. They're like, what? But I see blue host everywhere. And I'm like, because of the payouts, because of the payouts. And, there are, there are people who will tell you I've been on blue host for eight years, 10 years. I've never had a problem until you do. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So
Randi Pullar: Good to know. Everyone probably just not doing a ton with their website. They probably just built it and left it.
Jessica Freeman: ⁓ but yeah, the, the hosts and like the WordPress thing, the, another is sometimes confusing part is like, if you literally pulled up wordpress.com, like the backend of a site and wordpress.org back of your site, my site, the WordPress looks exactly the same, like same color, same layout. Like it is literally the same. So it is very confusing that they did this. yeah. So like, don't feel like it's going to be like,
Randi Pullar: Thanks.
Jessica Freeman: If you're on wordpress.com and you're like, ⁓ man, like maybe I should change, switch over to wordpress.org or something, but it's going to be all different. No, it's literally the same. So yeah, it's, it's weird that they did it that way, but.
Randi Pullar: No! Yeah. Yeah. And so like, mean, so now the other problem I'm having is the people who have the Etsy shops and or on all these other platforms. And I'm equally trying to explain to them that you're still building on somebody else's territory.
Jessica Freeman: Mm-hmm. Yes.
Randi Pullar: And this is huge lately, especially as we are learning more about the values of some of these CEOs and AI is starting to take over and a lot of things are getting overrun with drop shipping and ⁓ all that crap. Yes. So like, this is the most frustrating thing. And also you don't get any of their personality.
Jessica Freeman: Mm-hmm.
Randi Pullar: I always go back to the personality. Like you said, that's first thing is like you don't get any other personality. I find Etsy shops to be very easily forgettable.
Jessica Freeman: Yeah, they are. are. so, yeah. So I mean, unless you are like viral on YouTube, you have a massive YouTube following or you're like massive TikTok following what, whatever. Yeah, I get that like being on Etsy or whatever these other platforms you're like, but then I'm in this marketplace and it's easy for people to find me and like, I'm, I'm not necessarily for me personally, I'm not going to like tell you, should just do this on your own site and then quit Etsy. While I do think you could get some higher margins and that kind of thing without being on Etsy, like I think you could do both. Now that might be a little bit trickier with like managing inventory. It could also be like maybe you find that there's only like a few products on your Etsy and then other more products are on your own site or something like that. Like there's different ways, but yeah, it's you can.
Randi Pullar: Yeah.
Jessica Freeman: just like Instagram, your Etsy shot can be just shut down. You can, you know, it just, it just goes away. And, and I will say, to be fair, it's, it's very rare and you have to be kind of a bad person, but that could, that can also happen like on WordPress or Squarespace, like, cause it is a platform and they can say, ⁓ Jess, your website is harassment. It's harassing people. It's inflammatory. Like whatever.
Randi Pullar: Yeah, ⁓ yeah, you still can't break laws just because you own this space.
Jessica Freeman: And yes, yes, but like it's basically, know, like Etsy, know, too many people report you or they don't like the word that you use or whatever. They're going to take you down or, you know, like that kind of thing with your own website. I mean, you have to be like pretty severe for like there's a lot more freedom and leeway. Yeah, so. ⁓
Randi Pullar: It's a lot harder to get you shut down.
Jessica Freeman: Yeah, it's really important, one, for the security of having your content, having your products exist somewhere else. ⁓ But also, like you said, the personality. People are really, really focused on buying with their values and buying with people that they support, that they connect with. And especially if it's something like one-to-one. Like in my space with health, like you're really going to have to make sure you like your provider. So like you want to find a dietitian that you actually connect with or a physical therapist or whatever it is. And it's just, it's hard to do that when it's only a link in bio and, even for products again, like I have seen a lot in the last few years with all the political stuff, like people are like, I want to know what their values are. before I buy their merch. Like I want to make sure that I'm supporting people that I align with. And people really, they want to see that. so whether you're on social or not, and honestly, that's the other thing. I just made a post about this recently is like, you can share all the memes and shout about the things that you're angry about that are going on in the world on social. That also needs to be on your website. Like, If you are being loud about it on social, it needs to be on your website because what I said earlier, there's people who aren't on social and we're also very all familiar that not everything on our social gets seen by everyone. Seen by like a fraction of our followers. And so people want to know what kind of person you are, what you support, what you align yourself with. And so they need to see that on your website.
Randi Pullar: So that brings me to my other favorite topic about having your own website is content marketing. Trying to explain content marketing to more people and how you can do this in ways that are a little bit easier. I love my blog. Love my blog. I mean, my blog is half my ⁓ podcast right now. I haven't been writing as much because I've been doing this a lot. But also I can put all of these posts on my blog.
Jessica Freeman: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yes. Mm-hmm.
Randi Pullar: So I can write on my blog. Also, all of my YouTube videos can be posted to my blog with a little extra writing and stuff like that. And it is a full content management system all in one place. Heck, can post my Instagram posts on there I want. And they have like, you can get widgets that'll show like all of your posts. And I love that. So let's talk about the blogging aspect and the content marketing like
Jessica Freeman: Yes. Mm-hmm. Yeah. ⁓ Yes.
Randi Pullar: and how beneficial that is for not only the personality and the getting to know you side but the SEO side as well.
Jessica Freeman: Yes. Yes. So I'm a big fan of blogging because it's so good for SEO. But yes, it's another way to share your personality, share your perspective. I again, I mentioned this way at the beginning, I've been in business for 15 years. I started blogging in like year two or three of business. And over the years, I have blogged off and on. I've done YouTube off and on, I've done podcasting off. Like I have almost the entire time been doing some type of content creation. And I firmly believe that is part of why I have been in business so long is because I'm sharing my perspective. I'm demonstrating that I understand like what I'm actually doing because you wouldn't believe. the people that try to run a business and then you're like, wait, you don't actually know what you're talking about. So really demonstrating and I, the number of people who have become a client that say like, ⁓ yeah, because I kept watching your Instagram videos and like what you said about SEO finally stuck out and like, I realized I need to do this or why read several of your blog posts. I watched your videos. I like I realize you know what you're talking about. I trust you like they use those words. It's not ⁓ like you seemed really fun on camera like And I know that is part of it even like even if they don't realize it that it's like ⁓ she's human She seems down to earth like you know, whatever it is. ⁓ I mean my videos like on YouTube. It's nothing exciting. It's literally me looks like came in and tell you these three things about XYZ. So like, I know they're not coming to me for entertainment. Like, you know, it's not like, wow, this is a, so this video is so fun, so funny, so entertaining, you know. ⁓ But it is, it's really good for sharing that perspective from you. But then SEO, it's a huge part of SEO. Like when people come to me and... they maybe have just done their website or maybe they've had it for a while and they're like, okay, I really want to start learning, like leaning into SEO. I'm like, well, you kind of, you kind of need to start blogging. And they're like, what? What do you mean? And they're like, I don't want to blog. And I'm like, okay, so this is, this is like my favorite example. I always associate it with going to the library. Like imagine you're going to the library and you're like, Hey,
Randi Pullar: Mm-hmm.
Jessica Freeman: I would love to learn about gardening." And they're like, okay, great. Here is a brochure about gardening. Good luck. And you're like, great, this is not ⁓ very much information. That is basically what you're doing when you have three, four, five pages on your website, home, about a few sales pages. That's all you're giving Google. They are like, okay, so Randy knows a little bit about gardening. Well, this is not really a great resource. I don't, we don't know like, is she brand new to gardening? They might not know that you, let's pretend have been gardening for 30 years and you're like a master gardener versus you go to the library and you're like, hey, I want to learn about gardening.
Randi Pullar: Yeah.
Jessica Freeman: and they hand you like a book that's the size of an encyclopedia and they're like, here you go. Okay, well you are going to learn a lot more about gardening. Now this is not to say that you need 500 blog posts on your website, but you have to demonstrate if you're wanting people to find you through Google, Google has to trust you. They have to look at your site and be like, yes, this person has written things, they are explaining this, blah, blah. Like clearly she knows about that. Like again, I've been blogging, videoing, podcasting for, and I have just like you, I put my podcasts and videos and everything on them on my blog and there's so many different talking points and different, you know, like how many times, I don't even know how many times I have talked about WordPress versus Squarespace on my website. and the different comparisons. And it's just demonstrating to Google that you know about this topic because again, like they want to give their users a good experience because when you go to Google pizza places near me and then only like Mexican food pulls up, you would stop using Google if they kept doing that. So they want to like If people are searching for gardening or personal training or whatever it is, they want to make sure that they're like, okay, this website has a lot of information and is answering this question, not like, sure, let's just throw this up there. Like they want to make sure you keep coming back to them and using their service. And so they want to give you the best answer. And they don't know if you were the best answer. There's 500 words about you on the internet.
Randi Pullar: Yeah. And so this is where like, I keep having these arguments with people where they're like, well, but blogging takes so much effort. It's so long. Like you have to like write a whole thing. And I'm like, okay, yeah, but you can post once or twice a month and still rank on Google. ⁓ I have been teaching a lot of people to create a core set of content that answers, you know, who you are, what you do, your philosophy tells your story, like gives the basics.
Jessica Freeman: Mm-hmm. Yes. Mm-hmm.
Randi Pullar: that people can read through. And that is technically all you need. Google doesn't look as to whether you're continuously posting all the time. They just want to know you have the stuff, which means you don't have to keep making things every day, unlike social media, which is just way too much. Also, I always need to mention that blogs are by far the most repurposable.
Jessica Freeman: Right. ⁓ ⁓ yes.
Randi Pullar: pieces of content, are they not the best for that? Because like, I have like one blog that I will just like, you know, go and take chunks out of, I turn them into Facebook or to Instagram posts, I take chunks out of it to throw on threads. Like I write the content, and then I never have to like, think about that topic again, because I've already got it. Unless I'm like changing an opinion or adding to it kind of thing. And you can also ⁓
Jessica Freeman: Mm-hmm. Yes. Right. Yeah.
Randi Pullar: update these blogs continuously if you want. you know, say you have a blog about building a website and then a new thing comes out, you can go on, add that in and then you know, it gets even better. Whereas you don't, you know, you can't go back and do that to any of your Instagram posts. That's not the same thing. And it's so much easier. And I spend so much less time.
Jessica Freeman: Mm-hmm. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, the repurposing, I know the repurposing is really one of the key parts. I usually tell people like if they're wanting to get into blogging, I'm like, just do like one less reel this week. Like every week, if you right now are posting five reels a week, four reels a week, do one less. Like, and if you're only doing two a week, then just do one a week or something, you know, like until you get into a rhythm. But then yes, you can. I, we almost all, all of us do the like just B roll with like one little cute one liner or something. Then use one of those and pull something from your blog to repurpose it. Like that's, that's such a smart way.
Randi Pullar: I turn one blog into several social posts, several emails, and also just like anytime somebody asks that question too. So was like, oh my gosh, what do we even do about this? And I'm like, hey, so I've written a blog on that. Here you go. Here's all the information you need. And now I didn't have to pitch and sell to them.
Jessica Freeman: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Randi Pullar: which is fantastic because nobody loves that. I just thought to provide them information that was also connected to a site that had all of my services listed and all of my community stuff and my products and I can't even say enough good things about vlogging.
Jessica Freeman: Yeah. Mm-hmm Yeah, yeah. And truly like one to two times a month is enough. The only thing I would say that is tricky is Google does look for like, do you have fresh content? Especially, I will say especially for my niche with health because obviously there's always new like research, new developments, that kind of thing. And so like,
Randi Pullar: Mm.
Jessica Freeman: what you posted about the guidelines for heart health or, you know, back in 2009, probably need some updating. You probably need some some refresh. And so it is a little bit tricky. I like I tell people, I'm like, you don't have to blog forever and ever. And there is longevity, like I talked about, like blogs from seven or eight years ago. ⁓ So don't feel like
Randi Pullar: Yeah.
Jessica Freeman: On one hand, don't feel like you have to blog for an ever and ever every week, you know, but it's like if you can do a big push, maybe like for a few months, like if you can do every, if you can manage every week, every other week for a few months, just to get like started, get going and then back off to once a month and then maybe down to like once a quarter something just so that like Google still knows you exist. Cause
Randi Pullar: Yeah.
Jessica Freeman: At a certain point, yes, like you can do kind of like a capsule of like, here's like 10 posts, they're up. That will last for a few years. But then at a certain point you're like, well, nothing new has been added to my site in seven years. Why don't I have, why is all my SEO died? It's like, well, because you haven't updated everything in seven years. like there's a little, like you have to kind of find like the middle ground of that, but that's.
Randi Pullar: I have to add. I'm gonna do a little...
Jessica Freeman: It's much less content than Instagram. Yes.
Randi Pullar: That is not the content, like, content constant push of Instagram. No one is going to convince you. It's all about consistency.
Jessica Freeman: Right. No, no. Like in Google's not like, ⁓ excuse me, excuse me, Randy, you did not post on Monday. Penalty, penalty. You, you know, they're like, as long as it's okay, you've posted something in the last few months, year, like, you know, and that also varies like industry to industry again, because it kind of depends on like how much do things in your industry change and that kind of thing. But
Randi Pullar: it. Yeah. Yeah.
Jessica Freeman: Yeah, it's definitely not the hamster reel of social media.
Randi Pullar: Yes, I am so glad that I'm not alone in trying to share these messages because I think there needs to be more of us. think social media is way too focused on its own growth. like the truth is, is that these apps are not actually made for selling. First of all, people are tired of being sold to while they're scrolling through the app. So they're just like getting away from that. And also,
Jessica Freeman: Right. Mm-hmm.
Randi Pullar: Instagram isn't pro your business. They don't really care if your business succeeds or not. So you need to have something else. It's so important. And I'm so glad that I'm not alone in spreading this message because like I feel like I'm just like this like solo warrior these days. Everyone's like, I hate Instagram. And I'm like, then get off of it. Yeah.
Jessica Freeman: Mm-hmm. you You Yes, then like you're going to have to do like there's options. But like I think it's you were talking about earlier about how like, ⁓ but like it's so hard to like get a website up and it takes so long. But like so does bookkeeping. And you do that. So are taxes and you do that. Like I'm not right. mean, so like I'm like, yes, things take time. Like it's not going to be.
Randi Pullar: be like, we have to, but.
Jessica Freeman: It is much simpler to just go add account, sign up for Instagram than it is to build a website. But I feel like there's so much more longevity and less pressure and there might be an initial big push and like energy for the website, but it's not going to be that day to day energy drain like Instagram is. So that's just something to think about.
Randi Pullar: Yeah. So if anyone needs any more convincing, I do have a blog, I will post it down below. It is why a low energy entrepreneur needs a website. All of this repeated in there. I might even just link this one straight to it because obviously, just thank you so much for coming and talking marketing with me. It's not always like easy to get people to talk marketing with me because it's not the funnest thing but like sometimes you know,
Jessica Freeman: Mm-hmm. Girl, anytime, anytime. I love it.
Randi Pullar: nerd out about it and they love that. Can you tell our people where to find you?
Jessica Freeman: Yes. So I'm pretty easy to find Jess creatives. There's an S on the end. Jess creatives.com and then pretty much everywhere. YouTube threads, LinkedIn, Instagram. Like you can just search Jess creatives. You'll find me there. I also have a secondary business called the ordinary business that your audience, your people might like. Basically the ordinary is not all of us want seven figures and a team of 10 people and like We're tired of being treated less than because we don't want seven figures. So I like I have a summit, a podcast, a Slack community, all that. And it's just come hang out with other ordinary business owners who are living a very ordinary life, have a profitable business and like, yeah, we're not going viral. We're not making millions, but like we still have a very good business. So. ⁓
Randi Pullar: Yes, I love that.
Jessica Freeman: You can find the links to the ordinary through all my Just Creative stuff, but yeah.
Randi Pullar: and I will post all of those links down below. Thank you again so much for coming and talking about all this. I think that this is gonna be really helpful for everyone. So hey guys, build your websites, Jess can help you. If you have a business and you wanna come and talk about how you're doing it with your chronic illness and or neurodivergence, please also check out the links below for that and I will see you all next week. Bye.
Jessica Freeman: Yes.
Jessica Freeman: You
Randi Pullar: As we were just saying, it is so important if you are a low energy entrepreneur and I am all about making life easier. So, Jessica, thank you for being here. Do you prefer Jessica or Jess?
Jessica Freeman: Mm-hmm. Yes. ⁓ I tell, I always tell people like I go by either. I have all my friends and like online people call me Jess, but my family calls me Jessica. So Jessica is starting to feel like my formal name, you know, like it's like you're in trouble. It's like your government name. Yes. So I go by either, but yeah.
Randi Pullar: That's your government name. Fair, fair. All right, Jess, thank you so much for being here. I'm so excited to chat with you. Can you tell us a bit about what you do?
Jessica Freeman: Yes. So I run Just Creatives. This will be my 15th year in business, which makes me feel like a grandma in the online space. And like, I'm also, feel like a little bit unique in that those 15 years are all with Just Creatives, always doing design. Cause like, you know, there's always people who are like, oh yeah, I've been in business 20 years and this is my third business. I'm like, nope, I have been plugging along with Just Creatives for 15 years.
Randi Pullar: Veteran. No.
Jessica Freeman: So, ⁓ yes. And also, that does, I'm not saying that like it's bad to change businesses or anything. I just, I'm like, I feel like a grandma sometimes. yeah. So I, like you mentioned, I do websites and SEO. So I'm the girl that loves to like, I love, yes, making it look nice, but I'm also here to nerd out about the keywords, the fonts, the data, like.
Randi Pullar: Yeah, this is my second. We found what works and that's awesome.
Jessica Freeman: please let me look at your analytics because I just want to be curious and try to help. yeah, ⁓ and I really also specialize a lot in the health space because as someone with chronic conditions, health is a big part of my life and fitness is a big part of my life. And so I work a lot with like dietitians, physical therapists, doctors, those kinds of things, basically people with private practices. it's not exclusive to that niche, but it is a lot in that niche. And I actually like posted on my Instagram yesterday that I was like, see, I am, I'm like in this with you because yes, I'm here to nerd out about your fonts. I'm also here to nerd out and message you and be like, I know we're in the middle of project, but I have to tell you, like I hit 30 grams of fiber today. Like I, I get it and I understand and all that. So. ⁓ Yeah, I can hear that about.
Randi Pullar: Nice. Yeah, my first business was as a personal trainer and ⁓ I got into it and I was like, okay, so I know all these things about health and fitness and all of that. How do I run a business now? Like that was the real struggle. So like having somebody like you in my back pocket would have been fantastic. Yes. And so I think I was like most attracted to all of your stuff about the SEO side of things because
Jessica Freeman: Yes. Mm-hmm. Yes, more, yes, helpful.
Randi Pullar: I hear a lot of people say, I don't get it. I don't get SEO, it's too much. And they're like, almost afraid to like figure it out. And I mean, obviously running my website, I've had to go about figuring it out. And I've come to the conclusion that it's really not that complicated. It's really just like another basic set of rules. You got to plug in there. And once you know those rules, it's so easy.
Jessica Freeman: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yes, yes, yes, yes.
Randi Pullar: Yes. Okay, good. It's not just me because like everybody feels so intimidated by it.
Jessica Freeman: Yes, and I will say because when you do start Googling or watching videos or whatever, especially any of the like big gurus and like, you know, they run agencies and they're like, here's the basics of SEO. And then they lift list off, you know, 200 talking points. And like, here's, know, you need because there is like, yes, if you look into it, there's front end SEO, back end SEO, technical SEO.
Randi Pullar: and
Jessica Freeman: Local SEO and you're just like what is going on? What like what is all this? But then when you just like kind of Simplify it down. You're like when I explain it to people and like in workshops or clients or whatever I'm like at the very simplest level it's Understanding what are people searching? What are they literally typing into Google or chat GPT or whatever? And then you use those words in your content. And yes, there is more to it because like it actually has to be helpful. Like that's one of the biggest changes in the last year or two. I know people are like, well, that's that's kind of a dumb rule that it has to actually be helpful. you used to be able to even just like five, six years ago, you could probably get away with writing a pretty fluffy blog post about a subject. and it not be super helpful, but you got to rank because it had all the right keywords and headings and it had an image in it that had the keywords, you know, like whatever. Now that's not the case. So Google is like, are you actually answering questions? And they also really want to see experience and expertise. And so they're also looking for like, are you giving real examples? Are you not just talking about like, you need to work out, you need a plan, whatever. You actually have to talk about like, when I have coached clients, this is what I've seen has worked and whatever. So.
Randi Pullar: SEO is for the people these days. Like it's not like the algorithms of social medias. Like they're just looking for, you know, the popularity of things. Whereas like SEO, which BTDubs, if anybody doesn't know, that means search engine optimization. Realized we didn't say that at first. Search engine optimization, it just means that the search engines want to push out what you have because what you have is good and for the people. And it's so-
Jessica Freeman: Yes. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yes. Mm-hmm. Yes, yes, yeah, it is.
Randi Pullar: So, okay, so one of my big things recently, like I am, I'm on a little bit of a mission to pull everyone off of social media, to be honest. Like I go to social media to convince people that they need to get off of there now. Because it's just like, it's overstressing us. It's like, it's really just like.
Jessica Freeman: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Randi Pullar: It's too much. It's too noisy. And like you were saying, like sometimes you don't have to get on there. You have to like also see what's happening in the rest of world. And sometimes we need a bit of a break from that. So I'm really trying to convince people that they need their own websites. Help me on this. Help me on this. like, and your own website, your own self-posted website. So from another professional having done this for 15 years, what are the biggest benefits of having your own website?
Jessica Freeman: Mm-hmm, they do. Yes. Yes. Mm-hmm. So one of the first things which I mentioned to that you mentioned this to you earlier is I Honestly, I truly feel like SEO is another form of self-care Because it is a way for you to bring in leads and clients and email subscribers podcast downloads Whatever else you're looking for without having to be on social and I also remind people like There are millions of people who are not on social media. I know it feels like, like everyone has social. I have a dear friend who is literally not on social media. Like I interviewed her for my podcast and was like, please tell us how you run two businesses and you have zero social media presence. not even not just like, ⁓ I don't have it for my business. Like she doesn't even have it personally. And it's truly just because she's like it's.
Randi Pullar: I love that.
Jessica Freeman: drains my energy and I don't like it and So like you're there's all these other people out in the world especially I feel like in the last year that are starting to drop off social media because they're like Wow, this really stresses me out and it takes all my time and you know, so You can absolutely get off of social media, but you're going to need Something else to bring people in you're going to need a website You're going to need ICO because yes, I know so many people are like, well, referrals and word of mouth are like my biggest, you know, yeah. Okay. But if we rely solely on that, what happens when those referral sources, that word of mouth, like people move, people go out of business, people like if you have, you know, for me, I get a lot of referrals from copywriters and business coaches.
Randi Pullar: fantastic too. Mm-hmm.
Jessica Freeman: Well, what happens when these copywriters close down their business? I mean, I'm hoping obviously they don't, but like I have a copywriter who used to send me clients and she closed down her business, went back to corporate. So that was a referral source. This was like eight years ago, but you know, that's somebody. So you need this space that is your own to send people and part of what makes social media work.
Randi Pullar: Yeah.
Jessica Freeman: Now I will say I'm someone who really enjoys social media. I'm also a rare bird that I actually enjoy it. But part of what makes social media work for some or most people is you get to like connect with people. You see their face, you hear their voice, you get to know their personality. And then you're like, ⁓ my gosh, you like matcha and so do I. like this sports team and so why like there's these little connection points. You're also going to need those connection points on your website. That's one of the biggest disconnects that I see is people are like, I'm putting up a nine grid on my Instagram. I'm no longer spending my time there. People can find me on my website or email me or whatever, but I'm like, okay, but then I click over to your website and all this bright pink.
Randi Pullar: Mm-hmm.
Jessica Freeman: like face-to-face interaction, I get to hear your voice and I got to understand you is not happening on your website. Now I'm not saying you have to like put a bunch of videos on your website, but it's like the copy, the design, the personality needs to be visible on your website. The days of like, hi, I'm Jane and I do business consulting. Like, no, it's, it's. Most like obviously there's nuance here because it depends on your audience and whatever, but you're going to need that. And there's also the very like cliche everyone hears it, but when Instagram, you know, glitches and it's down for a day, everyone's like, this is why you need a website. This is why you need SEO. Are they?
Randi Pullar: down for the day or they kick you off. I had a friend recently who just like lost her Instagram and thread account. They just like took it away from her. And there was no reason why she didn't do anything wrong that she could figure out like there's just took it away. And they haven't given it back yet. She got her threads account back but she hasn't gotten her Instagram back and had to start from zero.
Jessica Freeman: Uh-huh. Yeah, like. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah, and so it's like it sounds cliche because you're like, yeah, but it's also like you might have a website but like is it do you feel Confident enough in your website in your SEO that if Instagram were to glitch for a day or you got your account banned or whatever Would you actually be like, okay. Well, I'm gone for a day or two days But at least I have this to kind of hold me afloat for a little bit. might notice, Jess is gone. Like, isn't Jess on Instagram? Like, what's happening? They can very quickly find me and find all my information. So yeah, I mean, there's a lot of, obviously I'm biased, but there's a lot of benefits to having websites. But I feel like for us specifically, like, The self care of like, can still, because SEO is much more long-term. That's another one of the benefits that some people don't realize. If I post a reel, it might stick around for a few days. If I have a blog post on my website right now, that is from 2017, that still brings in several hundred views a month and clients. Like,
Randi Pullar: Yeah. Yeah.
Jessica Freeman: people find me because of this seven year old, eight year old, I can't count, ⁓ blog posts. And I have multiple that are like that, but there's one in particular, because it talks about how I hate wicks. ⁓ So it gets a lot of traffic. ⁓ And that's the self care that like, I can go on vacation, I can have a bad week, I can like, okay, well, I'm not gonna post on Instagram or threads today.
Randi Pullar: Yeah.
Jessica Freeman: and it be okay because I'm like, you know what, I have this other marketing machine kind of like running in the background over here.
Randi Pullar: And so I've noticed this like, ⁓ it's just, it's upsetting how many people, so I started as like a content writer. My first plan was I was gonna be a content writer. I was gonna write blogs for people. And then I tried to like, you know, I click through their profiles or like on Instagram and everything and realized they didn't even have a website. Okay, well, gotta tell you that you need a website first before I could write blogs for you, which is how I ended up doing like content and business strategy because I realized that people needed more of that beginning.
Jessica Freeman: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Randi Pullar: And I'm so upset at whatever coaches told all these people that all they needed was that Lincoln bio or like, you know, something like the Stan store. If I cannot, and this is like a huge lesson that I want everybody to understand, if I cannot figure out who you are, your personality, your services, and like how to book with you without talking to you, I'm done.
Jessica Freeman: Hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Randi Pullar: Like so many other people are like this, we're lazy as like, you know, we're not going to like put the effort into spending the money anymore. And this is, think where like a lot of people are getting disconnected. They're really struggling with building their businesses. They don't know what to do. And I always go back to like, well, where do they go to connect with you? Because these connections are important.
Jessica Freeman: Mm-hmm. Yeah, we're not. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm, because like you you never know where or when people are finding you, you know, like they might be sitting on an airplane and they like I Don't I can't like connect. I don't want to start this like DM conversation. They might be introverted They might be laying on the couch dealing with some kind of you know flare up or whatever But also I always remind people like what do you like to experience as a consumer?
Randi Pullar: Yeah.
Jessica Freeman: So like perfect example, think about the last time you needed to find like pest control, lawn care, a plumber, like whatever. You go to their website and it's a bunch of like mumbo jumbo. There's no pricing 99 % of the time. And it's like call for a quote. I am a stereotypical millennial and I hate getting on the phone. And I'm like, I just want to like, where's your Calendly link? Yeah. Yeah.
Randi Pullar: Now we don't want to jump on a call anymore. that's, I want to be able to send an email and I want to know as much of the facts before I even get to that point. Because I'm not going to book 10 different calls with 10 different professionals to try and figure out what they even do.
Jessica Freeman: Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah. And I get with like, I know we're very different than plumbers and pest control and that kind of thing. And I get the like, you know, it depends on what the problem is or whatever. But I also know, with plumbers, most of time, it's like they're not going to, if the toilet's clogged, that's not going to matter. Like it's 250 or 150, you know, whatever it is. So I feel like even some context with that of like a starting at. price range or that kind of thing. having all of this information, like I'm just, I always try to operate as like, what would I want as a consumer? I would want all the details upfront. I don't want to hop on a call. I want to know the price. I want to know like, do you have expertise in this? Do you have experience? Are you just getting started? Like, are you, you
Randi Pullar: something. Mm-hmm. Especially when you're dealing with health professionals. for me, when I was doing the personal training thing, I was, ⁓ I called myself an intuitive movement coach because I focused more on that side of like, you know, being able to like understand your body and what you're doing, the adaptions and the stuff like that. And I was also very like, very strong on the anti-diet side of things.
Jessica Freeman: Yes. Yes.
Randi Pullar: And so for me, having all of that just like on my website, that just like immediately weeded out the people that weren't going to be good for me too. So I didn't have to waste my time talking to people who just wanted to lose 30 pounds because I had right there on my website. I'm not going to help you lose 30 pounds. You know, that was so nice to have that. And people got to like not waste their time either coming to me when I wasn't going to give them what they wanted.
Jessica Freeman: Mm-hmm. Right. Mm-hmm. Yes. Yes. Mm hmm. Yeah. And like, it's also the flip side kind of of that as like some people, you know, if it's some Joe Schmo, who's like the complete opposite of that mentality and is like, you're going to get down to 30 burpees and like, this is cut throat. And if you some, you know, somebody else comes and is like, I'm looking for a personal trainer. They might be like, whoa, Joe is not for me. That's OK. And then they come to you and they're like, Oh yeah, okay. This is what I was looking for instead of these, instead of, know, if both of you were vague and just said like personal training, that's it. Come work out with me. That's not giving any context. Okay, well now I have to spend my energy talking to you. And that's also, that's their energy and your energy. It's going back and forth, having to do a call. And I don't know about you, but I
Randi Pullar: Yeah.
Jessica Freeman: Again, I'm a millennial. don't love being on the phone. so, and yes, yes. But it's like, I, I'm a solo business owner. I don't have a team. So when you reach out, I'm the one answering the DMS, answering the calls, answering the emails, helping past clients, doing the podcast, yada, yada, yada. So like anything that I can do to conserve my energy.
Randi Pullar: I don't love sending emails either, but they're so much easier. ⁓
Jessica Freeman: to simplify things. Like I want the website to pre-sell and answer questions. Now, is any website gonna be 100 % perfect and no one will ever have questions? No. But like, I can't tell you the number of quote unquote discovery calls that I have that I get on there and they're like, oh, I already know I wanna work with you. I just wanted to like. touch base, make sure you're human. And you know, like that kind of thing. Now, obviously, yes, that's still a call and it's still energy, but it's much different energy. Yeah, it's much different when I'm like, oh, okay, well then we can just chat. Like, this is great. Yeah, okay, like now I'm just excited and we can kind of, I can give you a little bit of a jumpstart of like be expecting this and that and like, there's not all this back and forth.
Randi Pullar: didn't have to sell on that call. or just becoming buddies.
Jessica Freeman: that we don't want to deal with. No.
Randi Pullar: don't need to be wasting that time and energy. So ⁓ that brings me to the tech side of things. like, you know, when you know, once I do convince them that they probably need a website, they always go, but it takes so much effort. And I don't know the tech and it's so hard. I knew nothing about website building when I built my first one, I went straight to WordPress, because I wanted that kind of like that level of flexibility and stuff. And I figured it out very quickly.
Jessica Freeman: Mm-hmm.
Randi Pullar: because they are making it a lot easier these days. Yes, we're finding most of that. Okay. So I know that WordPress is not the easiest. I like it because it has the flexibility and you can scale it to like anything. can do anything. But beyond that, what do you tell people to use? Obviously you're not a fan of Wix.
Jessica Freeman: Mm hmm. There. Yes. Yes. Yes. Right, it's not always easy. anything. I'm not I'm not and I can explain why if some if people are curious, okay
Randi Pullar: Please do, please explain why and what you do tell people to use if they decide they want to build their own.
Jessica Freeman: Yeah, so my issue with Wix, Weebly, and probably a bunch of other platforms that are like much less common is that you cannot export your content. And as a business owner, I fully believe that you should have full ownership of your content. And so WordPress and Squarespace, ⁓ those are the primary ones that I recommend.
Randi Pullar: Yeah.
Jessica Freeman: There are some others and I'll mention them too, but those two make it so easy to literally just go in tools settings, export content. Now to be clear, you're not getting a zip file with like 79 Google docs of your page. It's, it's an XML file. You and I can't read it, but it's something like you can literally in a span of two minutes, you can go from Squarespace. Export get the XML hop over to WordPress upload and all of your content is there or vice versa it goes both ways and you should have that ability as a business owner, especially especially if you are blogging because otherwise good Mm-hmm Individually you have to go blog post by blog post to get all those that is not fun. I've had to do that for a client
Randi Pullar: ⁓ I've had to save all of my vlogs.
Jessica Freeman: It's not fun. I'm about to do it for a client because she's moving away from Wix. I'm not looking forward to it, but I'm glad that she's getting away from Wix. So those are the two primary. Squarespace is, in my opinion, it is easier. You will definitely still find people who hate Squarespace and they're like, this is so confusing. I really find Squarespace works pretty similar to Canva in terms of like, you can literally just kind of drag things around. The thing that confuses people is sometimes with mobile, like you do have to go in and like adapt the mobile view, kind of nudge things around because like there might be some funky spacing and that kind but you have to also do that with WordPress most of the time. If you're, if you are doing any customizations, if you're just using a, you know, kind of the default layouts or templates. and you're not doing anything with margins and padding and stuff like I am, then you should be fine. But when I'm doing stuff, I do have to like make sure everything looks good on mobile. The other two platforms I would recommend Shopify. If you are a product based business owner and you're shipping products, that's a pretty good. That's what Shopify is really for. I do know some people, very few, but some people who use Shopify if they are digital product business as well or even services. know some people which is like weird to me, but it's really primarily for physical product people and then show it is another platform. It is pretty customizable like again very free range canvas just like Canva where you literally can drag and drop
Randi Pullar: I didn't use the computer, I was just button. Yeah.
Jessica Freeman: anything like you can put it anywhere which gets you into the danger zone because then People don't think about this but you're like, ⁓ I'm gonna put this little graphic way over here on the side but when it comes to responsiveness and that kind of thing like things might be going off the screen and Because you wanted to be cute with your navigation bar. Now your contact link is way off in the Wild West ⁓ It can get a little wonky in there. do think, I personally think Showit is great for creatives and for techie people. It can be pretty overwhelming if you are not like tech savvy, because there's just a lot of, a lot of backend buttons and, and sidebars and settings and stuff. Um, none of it, you know, is, doesn't like require code or anything. It's just. It's not as clean and simple like when you're comparing it to like Canva and then you go into the show it and you're like, ⁓ there's a lot more settings in here. But.
Randi Pullar: That's one I've heard the least about most people don't bring that one up. usually hear Squarespace and Wix have been the two I think I asked a while ago and those are the two that I got the most I've been doing the WordPress thing and I also added Elementor So most of my things are all drag-and-drop to make my pages love that so great and it adds like a bunch of like really helpful widgets and stuff like that and WooCommerce for my shop
Jessica Freeman: Hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yes. Yes. Mm-hmm. Yes. Yeah. Mm hmm. Yeah, that's mm hmm. Yeah. So if you are using WordPress and also want to clarify, there's a difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com WordPress.com is much more limited. You have to pay more for everything because they're just it's like it's really meant for like hobby bloggers like that kind of thing. I know people who have a full website on it. It's just it's very limiting.
Randi Pullar: of it. It's been so simple.
Jessica Freeman: And you just every little thing you want to do. They're like, you have to pay for this. You have to pay for that. Like, because that's not the intent. And a lot of people also get confused where they're like, well, I don't have a dot org domain, though. And I want to use word. And I'm like, I know it's confusing. You're not using you're not using a dot org domain. It's just the name of the company. ⁓ But yeah, if you're using WordPress like you are.
Randi Pullar: Yeah.
Jessica Freeman: using some kind of drag and drop builder is going to be super helpful. One to just for ease for making like actually interesting pages and design. So like popular ones, Elementor, Divi, Cadence is one that I use quite a bit. Beaver Builder, I don't love, but it's pretty similar to Elementor. ⁓ Then there's like older ones like visual builder and stuff most. Yeah, like and there's probably even more. There's other options, but the most common are kind of the ones I mentioned. And the nice part is like maybe you've experienced this when it comes to like Elementor because it is so widely used. You can go to Google or YouTube and be like Elementor how to add a button and there will be 50 million tutorials. And so. Yeah.
Randi Pullar: problem finding an answer.
Jessica Freeman: And so like that is the also one of the helpful parts of using either a popular theme in WordPress or even just popular website platforms because every year there's like a new a new platform. And while those are fun and yes, they might be like cheaper. You're like, ⁓ wow, like this one is brand new. And so they have like the starting price. There's probably not going to be a lot of tutorials.
Randi Pullar: Yeah.
Jessica Freeman: And then even if you want to reach out, if you're like, okay, I have a little bit of money. Maybe I will just try to find a designer developer who can help me fix this page. Well, if it's too new, now some people, some developers would be like, I can fix anything, but it could be more difficult if they're like, ⁓ I don't know what this platform is. So that's something to think about.
Randi Pullar: And so think like one of the things that confuses people like, mean, the .org versus .com, that kind of goes into like the hosted versus self-hosted ⁓ situation. And so that's where I think we lose a lot of people in trying to explain some of these things. And so having it on the .org is a self-hosted thing. So you have to go through a hosting program first.
Jessica Freeman: Yes, Mm-hmm. Yes. Mm-hmm.
Randi Pullar: I use SiteGround. don't think they're the cheapest by any means, but I have really loved their customer service and all of their ⁓ features. They have been really great. They've also added in a WordPress site builder right on there. It's so easy. I just set up my hosting, bought my domain in the same place, which was so nice, and then just push the button to start building. And it took me straight to it. It was so easy. ⁓
Jessica Freeman: Yeah, they're good. ⁓ Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Randi Pullar: I love it. Do you have any other favorite hosting platforms that are good like that?
Jessica Freeman: Hmm. ⁓ yeah. I mean, that's basically how all of the WordPress hosts work. There are there are a few smaller ones or newer ones that ⁓ that are trickier. But look for like on the sales page or whatever. Look for something that kind of says like one click install or something like that. That's what you're kind of looking for. ⁓ You.
Randi Pullar: Yeah. I think Bluehost is like the only other one I've really seen push that I like, I know the name of.
Jessica Freeman: Yeah. Yeah, Bluehost is awful. Don't use them. GoDaddy also not a good website host. Just so don't go to GoDaddy or Bluehost. SiteGround is great. I personally use rocket.net and they're very simple, very easy. ⁓ Other ones, Flywheel, which is kind of under the umbrella of WP Engine.
Randi Pullar: ⁓ sad. Yeah.
Jessica Freeman: WP Engine and Flywheel both are great. ⁓ It's kind of now like if you try to sign up for Flywheel, they just force you to WP Engine, I think, but regardless. ⁓ Cloudways is another popular one. Big Scoots is another one. So there's lots of good options. Just when you're looking at options, when you're looking at host. Just be weary if like the blog review is just like, yeah, I'm an affiliate and I love them because Bluehost specifically gives out big affiliate payouts. And that is why so many people recommend them because they're like, great. Everyone needs a website. They need a host. I get a big payout. You will be hard pressed to find a designer who's worth their salt and likes Bluehost because they are. awful. ⁓ So like, know everyone is, there's lots of people, whenever I say that they're very shocked. They're like, what? But I see blue host everywhere. And I'm like, because of the payouts, because of the payouts. And, there are, there are people who will tell you I've been on blue host for eight years, 10 years. I've never had a problem until you do. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So
Randi Pullar: Good to know. Everyone probably just not doing a ton with their website. They probably just built it and left it.
Jessica Freeman: ⁓ but yeah, the, the hosts and like the WordPress thing, the, another is sometimes confusing part is like, if you literally pulled up wordpress.com, like the backend of a site and wordpress.org back of your site, my site, the WordPress looks exactly the same, like same color, same layout. Like it is literally the same. So it is very confusing that they did this. yeah. So like, don't feel like it's going to be like,
Randi Pullar: Thanks.
Jessica Freeman: If you're on wordpress.com and you're like, ⁓ man, like maybe I should change, switch over to wordpress.org or something, but it's going to be all different. No, it's literally the same. So yeah, it's, it's weird that they did it that way, but.
Randi Pullar: No! Yeah. Yeah. And so like, mean, so now the other problem I'm having is the people who have the Etsy shops and or on all these other platforms. And I'm equally trying to explain to them that you're still building on somebody else's territory.
Jessica Freeman: Mm-hmm. Yes.
Randi Pullar: And this is huge lately, especially as we are learning more about the values of some of these CEOs and AI is starting to take over and a lot of things are getting overrun with drop shipping and ⁓ all that crap. Yes. So like, this is the most frustrating thing. And also you don't get any of their personality.
Jessica Freeman: Mm-hmm.
Randi Pullar: I always go back to the personality. Like you said, that's first thing is like you don't get any other personality. I find Etsy shops to be very easily forgettable.
Jessica Freeman: Yeah, they are. are. so, yeah. So I mean, unless you are like viral on YouTube, you have a massive YouTube following or you're like massive TikTok following what, whatever. Yeah, I get that like being on Etsy or whatever these other platforms you're like, but then I'm in this marketplace and it's easy for people to find me and like, I'm, I'm not necessarily for me personally, I'm not going to like tell you, should just do this on your own site and then quit Etsy. While I do think you could get some higher margins and that kind of thing without being on Etsy, like I think you could do both. Now that might be a little bit trickier with like managing inventory. It could also be like maybe you find that there's only like a few products on your Etsy and then other more products are on your own site or something like that. Like there's different ways, but yeah, it's you can.
Randi Pullar: Yeah.
Jessica Freeman: just like Instagram, your Etsy shot can be just shut down. You can, you know, it just, it just goes away. And, and I will say, to be fair, it's, it's very rare and you have to be kind of a bad person, but that could, that can also happen like on WordPress or Squarespace, like, cause it is a platform and they can say, ⁓ Jess, your website is harassment. It's harassing people. It's inflammatory. Like whatever.
Randi Pullar: Yeah, ⁓ yeah, you still can't break laws just because you own this space.
Jessica Freeman: And yes, yes, but like it's basically, know, like Etsy, know, too many people report you or they don't like the word that you use or whatever. They're going to take you down or, you know, like that kind of thing with your own website. I mean, you have to be like pretty severe for like there's a lot more freedom and leeway. Yeah, so. ⁓
Randi Pullar: It's a lot harder to get you shut down.
Jessica Freeman: Yeah, it's really important, one, for the security of having your content, having your products exist somewhere else. ⁓ But also, like you said, the personality. People are really, really focused on buying with their values and buying with people that they support, that they connect with. And especially if it's something like one-to-one. Like in my space with health, like you're really going to have to make sure you like your provider. So like you want to find a dietitian that you actually connect with or a physical therapist or whatever it is. And it's just, it's hard to do that when it's only a link in bio and, even for products again, like I have seen a lot in the last few years with all the political stuff, like people are like, I want to know what their values are. before I buy their merch. Like I want to make sure that I'm supporting people that I align with. And people really, they want to see that. so whether you're on social or not, and honestly, that's the other thing. I just made a post about this recently is like, you can share all the memes and shout about the things that you're angry about that are going on in the world on social. That also needs to be on your website. Like, If you are being loud about it on social, it needs to be on your website because what I said earlier, there's people who aren't on social and we're also very all familiar that not everything on our social gets seen by everyone. Seen by like a fraction of our followers. And so people want to know what kind of person you are, what you support, what you align yourself with. And so they need to see that on your website.
Randi Pullar: So that brings me to my other favorite topic about having your own website is content marketing. Trying to explain content marketing to more people and how you can do this in ways that are a little bit easier. I love my blog. Love my blog. I mean, my blog is half my ⁓ podcast right now. I haven't been writing as much because I've been doing this a lot. But also I can put all of these posts on my blog.
Jessica Freeman: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yes. Mm-hmm.
Randi Pullar: So I can write on my blog. Also, all of my YouTube videos can be posted to my blog with a little extra writing and stuff like that. And it is a full content management system all in one place. Heck, can post my Instagram posts on there I want. And they have like, you can get widgets that'll show like all of your posts. And I love that. So let's talk about the blogging aspect and the content marketing like
Jessica Freeman: Yes. Mm-hmm. Yeah. ⁓ Yes.
Randi Pullar: and how beneficial that is for not only the personality and the getting to know you side but the SEO side as well.
Jessica Freeman: Yes. Yes. So I'm a big fan of blogging because it's so good for SEO. But yes, it's another way to share your personality, share your perspective. I again, I mentioned this way at the beginning, I've been in business for 15 years. I started blogging in like year two or three of business. And over the years, I have blogged off and on. I've done YouTube off and on, I've done podcasting off. Like I have almost the entire time been doing some type of content creation. And I firmly believe that is part of why I have been in business so long is because I'm sharing my perspective. I'm demonstrating that I understand like what I'm actually doing because you wouldn't believe. the people that try to run a business and then you're like, wait, you don't actually know what you're talking about. So really demonstrating and I, the number of people who have become a client that say like, ⁓ yeah, because I kept watching your Instagram videos and like what you said about SEO finally stuck out and like, I realized I need to do this or why read several of your blog posts. I watched your videos. I like I realize you know what you're talking about. I trust you like they use those words. It's not ⁓ like you seemed really fun on camera like And I know that is part of it even like even if they don't realize it that it's like ⁓ she's human She seems down to earth like you know, whatever it is. ⁓ I mean my videos like on YouTube. It's nothing exciting. It's literally me looks like came in and tell you these three things about XYZ. So like, I know they're not coming to me for entertainment. Like, you know, it's not like, wow, this is a, so this video is so fun, so funny, so entertaining, you know. ⁓ But it is, it's really good for sharing that perspective from you. But then SEO, it's a huge part of SEO. Like when people come to me and... they maybe have just done their website or maybe they've had it for a while and they're like, okay, I really want to start learning, like leaning into SEO. I'm like, well, you kind of, you kind of need to start blogging. And they're like, what? What do you mean? And they're like, I don't want to blog. And I'm like, okay, so this is, this is like my favorite example. I always associate it with going to the library. Like imagine you're going to the library and you're like, Hey,
Randi Pullar: Mm-hmm.
Jessica Freeman: I would love to learn about gardening." And they're like, okay, great. Here is a brochure about gardening. Good luck. And you're like, great, this is not ⁓ very much information. That is basically what you're doing when you have three, four, five pages on your website, home, about a few sales pages. That's all you're giving Google. They are like, okay, so Randy knows a little bit about gardening. Well, this is not really a great resource. I don't, we don't know like, is she brand new to gardening? They might not know that you, let's pretend have been gardening for 30 years and you're like a master gardener versus you go to the library and you're like, hey, I want to learn about gardening.
Randi Pullar: Yeah.
Jessica Freeman: and they hand you like a book that's the size of an encyclopedia and they're like, here you go. Okay, well you are going to learn a lot more about gardening. Now this is not to say that you need 500 blog posts on your website, but you have to demonstrate if you're wanting people to find you through Google, Google has to trust you. They have to look at your site and be like, yes, this person has written things, they are explaining this, blah, blah. Like clearly she knows about that. Like again, I've been blogging, videoing, podcasting for, and I have just like you, I put my podcasts and videos and everything on them on my blog and there's so many different talking points and different, you know, like how many times, I don't even know how many times I have talked about WordPress versus Squarespace on my website. and the different comparisons. And it's just demonstrating to Google that you know about this topic because again, like they want to give their users a good experience because when you go to Google pizza places near me and then only like Mexican food pulls up, you would stop using Google if they kept doing that. So they want to like If people are searching for gardening or personal training or whatever it is, they want to make sure that they're like, okay, this website has a lot of information and is answering this question, not like, sure, let's just throw this up there. Like they want to make sure you keep coming back to them and using their service. And so they want to give you the best answer. And they don't know if you were the best answer. There's 500 words about you on the internet.
Randi Pullar: Yeah. And so this is where like, I keep having these arguments with people where they're like, well, but blogging takes so much effort. It's so long. Like you have to like write a whole thing. And I'm like, okay, yeah, but you can post once or twice a month and still rank on Google. ⁓ I have been teaching a lot of people to create a core set of content that answers, you know, who you are, what you do, your philosophy tells your story, like gives the basics.
Jessica Freeman: Mm-hmm. Yes. Mm-hmm.
Randi Pullar: that people can read through. And that is technically all you need. Google doesn't look as to whether you're continuously posting all the time. They just want to know you have the stuff, which means you don't have to keep making things every day, unlike social media, which is just way too much. Also, I always need to mention that blogs are by far the most repurposable.
Jessica Freeman: Right. ⁓ ⁓ yes.
Randi Pullar: pieces of content, are they not the best for that? Because like, I have like one blog that I will just like, you know, go and take chunks out of, I turn them into Facebook or to Instagram posts, I take chunks out of it to throw on threads. Like I write the content, and then I never have to like, think about that topic again, because I've already got it. Unless I'm like changing an opinion or adding to it kind of thing. And you can also ⁓
Jessica Freeman: Mm-hmm. Yes. Right. Yeah.
Randi Pullar: update these blogs continuously if you want. you know, say you have a blog about building a website and then a new thing comes out, you can go on, add that in and then you know, it gets even better. Whereas you don't, you know, you can't go back and do that to any of your Instagram posts. That's not the same thing. And it's so much easier. And I spend so much less time.
Jessica Freeman: Mm-hmm. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, the repurposing, I know the repurposing is really one of the key parts. I usually tell people like if they're wanting to get into blogging, I'm like, just do like one less reel this week. Like every week, if you right now are posting five reels a week, four reels a week, do one less. Like, and if you're only doing two a week, then just do one a week or something, you know, like until you get into a rhythm. But then yes, you can. I, we almost all, all of us do the like just B roll with like one little cute one liner or something. Then use one of those and pull something from your blog to repurpose it. Like that's, that's such a smart way.
Randi Pullar: I turn one blog into several social posts, several emails, and also just like anytime somebody asks that question too. So was like, oh my gosh, what do we even do about this? And I'm like, hey, so I've written a blog on that. Here you go. Here's all the information you need. And now I didn't have to pitch and sell to them.
Jessica Freeman: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Randi Pullar: which is fantastic because nobody loves that. I just thought to provide them information that was also connected to a site that had all of my services listed and all of my community stuff and my products and I can't even say enough good things about vlogging.
Jessica Freeman: Yeah. Mm-hmm Yeah, yeah. And truly like one to two times a month is enough. The only thing I would say that is tricky is Google does look for like, do you have fresh content? Especially, I will say especially for my niche with health because obviously there's always new like research, new developments, that kind of thing. And so like,
Randi Pullar: Mm.
Jessica Freeman: what you posted about the guidelines for heart health or, you know, back in 2009, probably need some updating. You probably need some some refresh. And so it is a little bit tricky. I like I tell people, I'm like, you don't have to blog forever and ever. And there is longevity, like I talked about, like blogs from seven or eight years ago. ⁓ So don't feel like
Randi Pullar: Yeah.
Jessica Freeman: On one hand, don't feel like you have to blog for an ever and ever every week, you know, but it's like if you can do a big push, maybe like for a few months, like if you can do every, if you can manage every week, every other week for a few months, just to get like started, get going and then back off to once a month and then maybe down to like once a quarter something just so that like Google still knows you exist. Cause
Randi Pullar: Yeah.
Jessica Freeman: At a certain point, yes, like you can do kind of like a capsule of like, here's like 10 posts, they're up. That will last for a few years. But then at a certain point you're like, well, nothing new has been added to my site in seven years. Why don't I have, why is all my SEO died? It's like, well, because you haven't updated everything in seven years. like there's a little, like you have to kind of find like the middle ground of that, but that's.
Randi Pullar: I have to add. I'm gonna do a little...
Jessica Freeman: It's much less content than Instagram. Yes.
Randi Pullar: That is not the content, like, content constant push of Instagram. No one is going to convince you. It's all about consistency.
Jessica Freeman: Right. No, no. Like in Google's not like, ⁓ excuse me, excuse me, Randy, you did not post on Monday. Penalty, penalty. You, you know, they're like, as long as it's okay, you've posted something in the last few months, year, like, you know, and that also varies like industry to industry again, because it kind of depends on like how much do things in your industry change and that kind of thing. But
Randi Pullar: it. Yeah. Yeah.
Jessica Freeman: Yeah, it's definitely not the hamster reel of social media.
Randi Pullar: Yes, I am so glad that I'm not alone in trying to share these messages because I think there needs to be more of us. think social media is way too focused on its own growth. like the truth is, is that these apps are not actually made for selling. First of all, people are tired of being sold to while they're scrolling through the app. So they're just like getting away from that. And also,
Jessica Freeman: Right. Mm-hmm.
Randi Pullar: Instagram isn't pro your business. They don't really care if your business succeeds or not. So you need to have something else. It's so important. And I'm so glad that I'm not alone in spreading this message because like I feel like I'm just like this like solo warrior these days. Everyone's like, I hate Instagram. And I'm like, then get off of it. Yeah.
Jessica Freeman: Mm-hmm. you You Yes, then like you're going to have to do like there's options. But like I think it's you were talking about earlier about how like, ⁓ but like it's so hard to like get a website up and it takes so long. But like so does bookkeeping. And you do that. So are taxes and you do that. Like I'm not right. mean, so like I'm like, yes, things take time. Like it's not going to be.
Randi Pullar: be like, we have to, but.
Jessica Freeman: It is much simpler to just go add account, sign up for Instagram than it is to build a website. But I feel like there's so much more longevity and less pressure and there might be an initial big push and like energy for the website, but it's not going to be that day to day energy drain like Instagram is. So that's just something to think about.
Randi Pullar: Yeah. So if anyone needs any more convincing, I do have a blog, I will post it down below. It is why a low energy entrepreneur needs a website. All of this repeated in there. I might even just link this one straight to it because obviously, just thank you so much for coming and talking marketing with me. It's not always like easy to get people to talk marketing with me because it's not the funnest thing but like sometimes you know,
Jessica Freeman: Mm-hmm. Girl, anytime, anytime. I love it.
Randi Pullar: nerd out about it and they love that. Can you tell our people where to find you?
Jessica Freeman: Yes. So I'm pretty easy to find Jess creatives. There's an S on the end. Jess creatives.com and then pretty much everywhere. YouTube threads, LinkedIn, Instagram. Like you can just search Jess creatives. You'll find me there. I also have a secondary business called the ordinary business that your audience, your people might like. Basically the ordinary is not all of us want seven figures and a team of 10 people and like We're tired of being treated less than because we don't want seven figures. So I like I have a summit, a podcast, a Slack community, all that. And it's just come hang out with other ordinary business owners who are living a very ordinary life, have a profitable business and like, yeah, we're not going viral. We're not making millions, but like we still have a very good business. So. ⁓
Randi Pullar: Yes, I love that.
Jessica Freeman: You can find the links to the ordinary through all my Just Creative stuff, but yeah.
Randi Pullar: and I will post all of those links down below. Thank you again so much for coming and talking about all this. I think that this is gonna be really helpful for everyone. So hey guys, build your websites, Jess can help you. If you have a business and you wanna come and talk about how you're doing it with your chronic illness and or neurodivergence, please also check out the links below for that and I will see you all next week. Bye.
Jessica Freeman: Yes.
