S2 E4: Catching up with Julep & Maps Builder Pro

Who knew that getting married and going on honeymoon would take up so much time?

Devin and I are back to recap where we’ve been and what we’ve accomplished over the last month. One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned? Business and life are going to constantly challenge you — sometimes at the same time.

Give yourself some breathing room and if you can avoid it, don’t jam-pack yourself with what can be avoided. If you can carve out some buffer time for the unexpected, you’ll be able to handle things that crop up a little bit easier.

Enjoy this episode and we’ll see you next time!

September 23, 2015 Matt 0

Managing the $50k web project

Enter part 4 of our web design series, Managing the Fifty-Thousand Dollar Web Project.

The Matt Report Web Design Series

I’m stoked for this episode, not just because of the size budget we’re discussing, but because we aren’t focusing on WordPress.

Carson McComas is founder of Shopify Custom, a (you guessed it) custom Shopify agency. He recently re-designed Andrew Youderian’s e-commerce site, which included a $50k budget. He’s joining Matt Report today to discuss that project and others that move through the pipeline at his agency.

Why you should listen if you’re a client: At first the budget might scare you, but you will quickly realize there’s a lot more value included in a project of this size than just pushing pixels. We explore how we focus on your business goals and put a plan in place to reach them.

Why you should listen if you’re an agency: Carson brings a healthy perspective on delivering the value our clients want. We explore the best phases to invest time and money into, with all roads leading back to a solid ROI.

By the way, if you’re not just a little attracted to the Shopify ecosystem after this interview — you might need to check your pulse. 🙂

This is a must-listen episode. Enjoy!

April 6, 2015 Matt 0

Your customer is ruining your brand

If there’s one thing I’m sick of it’s flash in the pan web marketers.

Crappy ads and “consultants” that promise WhatsApp money in a weekend’s worth of SEO and retargeting work. “Don’t worry, we’ve been doing this for 6 months and our e-book will make you richer than Mark Zuckerberg after his exit from Facebook. Just give us your e-mail!” Really? Stop it already.

February 27, 2014 Matt 4

WordPress business toolkit part 1

Running a WordPress business?

Of course you are! If you’re not, you can use these services for any form of online business.

In part 1, we’ll briefly cover WordPress hosting, a few plugins, and a couple or my choice productivity tools. There’s some cross compatibility from the blogging tips post, but I’ve wrapped some new context around the areas that apply. This post was inspired by Carrie Dils and her review of SaaS software for her own WordPress business.

I hope this helps you make some new decisions and enables you to run a better WordPress business.

January 10, 2014 Matt 15

Pricing a WordPress product

It looks like 2014 WordPress entrepreneurial resolutions include launching new products.

I’m also on that list and because of that I’ve been thinking a lot about pricing.

In fact, my friend Chris recently published a new e-book, The Price is Right An Introduction to Product Pricing that I downloaded for my two-day getaway in Maine. A quick read you can finish in less than an hour that gives you some solid advice for your next product launch.

If you’re a resolutioner looking for some pricing advice you’ve come to the right place!

January 8, 2014 Matt 7

Kill your (inner) critic

We’re jumping into 2014 with a fresh start and dropping all that nasty baggage.

Except for you or them, the critic. You know who she is — she’s the internal voice. The critic that follows us around wherever we go. It doesn’t like the choices we make or the direction we’re heading in. Creeping around the corner at every pivot of our business or design mockup we spend hours putting together.

Soon, the critic starts to convince us they are right. We want to give up — what’s the point right?

They’re right, I’ll never make this work.
This is too hard, I should just go back to the couch.
Ugh, this sucks!

Kill the (inner) critic.

January 3, 2014 Matt 1