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Episode 48

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Published on:

18th Mar 2022

Podcast Editor Websites – PEM0048

Podcast editors: Do you have a website? Do you know whether your website is working for or against your business?

Most of us are incredibly good at podcast production and might even have some basic web design skills. But that doesn't mean that we're all experts on branding, user experience, accessibility, and more.

We know that a great website can be an amazing asset for our businesses. But how can we make the most of our websites? How can we know for sure what we should include and what we should leave out?

How can we know when we should just do it ourselves and when it's time to bring in a pro to help us?

We don't know either...But Tara Kelly of Tansy Aster Creative does. She's a brand strategist, web developer, video and music producer, copywriter, and so much more. And she's going to be joining us to share what we need to know.

This isn't just another one of those "why you need a website" episodes. Make sure you don't miss this :)

Links & Resources

About Tara Kelly (in her own words)

Storytelling is my life, and I’m always working to get to the next level. I have a BA in Film & Digital Media from the University of California Santa Cruz, a Brand Management Certificate from Cornell University, and over a decade of professional experience working as a brand strategist + designer, web developer, video and music producer, and copywriter.

Telling a damn good story is what gets me up in the morning.

In my career, I've worked with nonprofits, thought leaders, multi-published authors, healthcare organizations, and organizations focused on social responsibility and sustainability. I strive to make the world a more inclusive and accessible place for all. I’m also a multi-published, award-winning author with Macmillan who is obsessed with avocados, hiking, and chasing storms. #proudlyneurodivergent

Editor

This episode of the Podcast Editors Mastermind was edited by Alejandro Ramirez. You can find him on Facebook if you're interested in talking with him about editing your show.

Be a Guest

If you're a podcast editor, we'd love to see if you'd be a fit for a future episode. Fill out this form to let us know you're interested, and we'll contact you to see if it's a good fit.

Your Yetis Are

About the Podcast Editors Mastermind

The Podcast Editors Mastermind is for professional podcast editors who want to grow their business and get more clients. We’re creating a community of like-minded professionals that are passionate about the art and science of editing podcasts.

Our goal is to help you build your business by providing tools, resources, and support so you can focus on what matters most—your craft. This isn’t just another group where everyone talks about how great they are at podcast editing; we show our work!

Follow or subscribe and take the Podcast Editors Mastermind with you today!



This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:

OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy
Transcript
Carrie Caulfield Arick:

Uh, so how much

Tara Kelly:

is that?

Bryan Entzminger:

This is the podcast editors mastermind.

Bryan Entzminger:

If you're joining us live welcome, we're doing it without the intro music this week, because usually that's Daniel and he's.

Bryan Entzminger:

And Carrie and I, we don't know what we're doing with technology.

Bryan Entzminger:

So there you go.

Bryan Entzminger:

This week, we're going to be talking about podcast editor, websites.

Bryan Entzminger:

Why do you need them?

Bryan Entzminger:

What do you need?

Bryan Entzminger:

What do people get wrong?

Bryan Entzminger:

What are some things to think about?

Bryan Entzminger:

And our plan is to draw from a guest, but also to maybe do a couple of live tear downs.

Bryan Entzminger:

So if you're joining us live, definitely stick, stick around for that video.

Bryan Entzminger:

If you're listening to it later, you might want to check out.

Bryan Entzminger:

The live stream, just so you can get that video part.

Bryan Entzminger:

I'm Brian Ensminger.

Bryan Entzminger:

You can find me@toptieraudio.com and over here is

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

hi Eric.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

You can find me@yayapodcasting.com.

Bryan Entzminger:

Our guest today is Tara Kelly.

Bryan Entzminger:

Tara Kelly is an expert brand strategist.

Bryan Entzminger:

She's a web designer, a web developer.

Bryan Entzminger:

She does video and music and all kinds of stuff like that.

Bryan Entzminger:

She's worked with nonprofit organizations, thought leaders.

Bryan Entzminger:

Authors people from a variety of different industries.

Bryan Entzminger:

And she's got a real specific skill set because she works a lot on websites.

Bryan Entzminger:

We're going to talk to her about that today, but with her, even when we're talking about websites,

Bryan Entzminger:

it's really going to be all about the story.

Bryan Entzminger:

So, Tara,

Tara Kelly:

welcome.

Tara Kelly:

I'm really happy to be here.

Bryan Entzminger:

We're going to be talking about website design.

Bryan Entzminger:

And I know for me, when I got ready to build my business website, it was pretty much just like, what

Bryan Entzminger:

colors do I want and what domain names should I get?

Bryan Entzminger:

I feel like maybe there's a little bit more that could go before that.

Bryan Entzminger:

So when people are thinking about building a website for their podcast at any business, what

Bryan Entzminger:

should they think about before they even do

Tara Kelly:

anything?

Tara Kelly:

That's a great question.

Tara Kelly:

You know, having a solid strategy for your business and who you're talking to is key.

Tara Kelly:

When you think of the last time you hired.

Tara Kelly:

Or reached out to someone for a service.

Tara Kelly:

Why did you do it either?

Tara Kelly:

One of you can answer that.

Tara Kelly:

Why did you do it?

Bryan Entzminger:

Uh, boy, last person I reached out to, I probably actually knew, so that's not really fair.

Bryan Entzminger:

I don't carry.

Tara Kelly:

Yeah.

Tara Kelly:

So

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

I really do go look at people's websites.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

So the last person I reached out to, I think really what caused me to take action is that like it was right there.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

Like I knew exactly what.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

And they made it very easy to contact them.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

So it was like no effort and very

Tara Kelly:

clear.

Tara Kelly:

So Carrie, you basically answered the question for me.

Tara Kelly:

Thank you.

Tara Kelly:

What you're describing is really good positioning is how would that mean?

Tara Kelly:

That's exactly what that means.

Tara Kelly:

So most likely they did a strategy beforehand.

Tara Kelly:

It's, you know, this will be called a brand strategy business strategy and they sat down and they

Tara Kelly:

really thought through, okay, who is my audience?

Tara Kelly:

And they dive really deep.

Tara Kelly:

Right.

Tara Kelly:

They think about their pain points.

Tara Kelly:

You know, as brand strategists, we often will sit there and we will map out audience personas day, you know, what do they do?

Tara Kelly:

What are they interested in?

Tara Kelly:

You know, what do they need most?

Tara Kelly:

And just really getting deep into that psychology and really understanding.

Tara Kelly:

Because that is the best way to craft your messaging.

Tara Kelly:

And as you mentioned, when you visit a website, that messaging, you feel like they're speaking directly to you

Tara Kelly:

and it's resonating and it makes you want to stay because you know exactly what they do, you know, who they're for.

Tara Kelly:

And that is so important.

Tara Kelly:

And unfortunately, It's really difficult to do that without having a strategy first, you know, it's like if

Tara Kelly:

you have a plumbing issue, would you hire the residential plumber of 20 years of experience or the neighbor down

Tara Kelly:

the street who does a little of everything for 20 bucks?

Tara Kelly:

You know, who would you trust more?

Tara Kelly:

Who would you put your faith in more, same thing as if you want to hire a web designer, do you want to hire a

Tara Kelly:

web designer that just does and specializes in podcast editing sites or someone who does it for small business?

Tara Kelly:

You know, there's different ways of speaking to someone, but people really connect when

Tara Kelly:

they feel like you are talking to them.

Bryan Entzminger:

As I think about that, the first thing that I hear is time that it takes time to do that.

Bryan Entzminger:

And in my position, I work a full-time job and I have an editing business.

Bryan Entzminger:

So while I don't want to devalue the work that goes into creating a comprehensive brand strategy, I'm wondering.

Bryan Entzminger:

For somebody like me who is not super early stage sort of mid stage, but not full time.

Bryan Entzminger:

How do I go about beginning to build out that brand strategy in a way that's effective and useful, but also makes good use

Bryan Entzminger:

of the fact that I'm balancing multiple priorities right now.

Bryan Entzminger:

Absolutely.

Tara Kelly:

And what you're saying is so true for most people.

Tara Kelly:

I know, and I completely get it.

Tara Kelly:

My partner and I, we're a small business.

Tara Kelly:

It's just the two of us.

Tara Kelly:

And when you're starting out, it can feel like time.

Tara Kelly:

To hire someone to help you with this.

Tara Kelly:

It seems like a big elaborate strategy or build you a website.

Tara Kelly:

You think, you know, why can't I do it myself?

Tara Kelly:

Well, you can.

Tara Kelly:

I mean, there's a wealth of information out there.

Tara Kelly:

There's a wealth of resources out there, but at the same time, everyone's situation is unique and

Tara Kelly:

it's hard to be objective about your business.

Tara Kelly:

Even as brand strategists, we hire other brand strategists to help us with our brand strategy because it's so hot.

Tara Kelly:

To be objective.

Tara Kelly:

And it's also, you know, what is your risk tolerance?

Tara Kelly:

What are the pros and cons?

Tara Kelly:

So, absolutely.

Tara Kelly:

If you're busy and you feel like, wow, I don't have time to do this.

Tara Kelly:

There are resources online.

Tara Kelly:

There are places for you to start, but really a good place to start is just thinking about,

Tara Kelly:

okay, who do I really want to work with?

Tara Kelly:

Who am I, what are my core values?

Tara Kelly:

What kind of business do I want to run?

Tara Kelly:

What does it look like?

Tara Kelly:

What kind of hours do I want?

Tara Kelly:

What's important.

Tara Kelly:

You know, is it honesty?

Tara Kelly:

Is it integrity?

Tara Kelly:

Do I want a really good work-life balance?

Tara Kelly:

If you think about what's important to you and you actually want to build your business around that, a lot of people say, okay,

Tara Kelly:

let's pick a target audience and then fit ourselves into that.

Tara Kelly:

But the problem is if it doesn't fit you and who you are and your brand, it can be really hard to keep.

Tara Kelly:

You know, you can burn out, you can, you know, the passion just isn't there.

Tara Kelly:

So it's really important to figure out why you're doing this.

Tara Kelly:

Why are you running this business?

Tara Kelly:

Why are you podcast editing?

Tara Kelly:

You know, asking yourself those questions and writing it down and then thinking about, okay, who do I really want to work with?

Tara Kelly:

If I could work with my ideal clients, who would they be?

Tara Kelly:

And trying to make that as small of a group as possible, because it's like what they say.

Tara Kelly:

If you're talking to everyone, you're talking to no one.

Tara Kelly:

So really thinking about.

Tara Kelly:

Who you can serve best.

Tara Kelly:

Those are really good places to start before even building our website.

Tara Kelly:

And there's a lot more to it than that, you know, going into positioning and thinking

Tara Kelly:

about where you can fill gaps in the market.

Tara Kelly:

And that's really where, you know, if you can't, for instance, afford a whole brand

Tara Kelly:

strategy, there are brand can sultans out there.

Tara Kelly:

They can guide you and they can talk to you.

Tara Kelly:

You know, on more of an hourly basis and give you exercises to do and things that can help you out and

Tara Kelly:

maybe fit better into your schedule and your budget.

Bryan Entzminger:

Um, I'm really glad that you said the thing about figuring out who your ideal audience is,

Bryan Entzminger:

because while I feel like I've done that, as I listened to the dialogue in my head, I feel like I've figured out who

Bryan Entzminger:

I want to work with and then develop the persona for who I believe I need to be in order to be attractive to them.

Bryan Entzminger:

Instead of the other direction.

Bryan Entzminger:

And so for me, it's not that I feel like I'm lying or being false, but it never feels a hundred percent authentic as well.

Bryan Entzminger:

And so, yeah, I'm going to stop there while I ponder that.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

I think what Brian's asking is can you show up to meetings and cat ears if

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

you have your ideal client and I would argue, yes.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

So how do you bridge that between who you are and your ideal

Tara Kelly:

client?

Tara Kelly:

I would say.

Tara Kelly:

Does your ideal audience not like, and accept cat ears, is that who you want to be working with?

Tara Kelly:

No.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

So then that audience needs to be refined is what you're saying.

Tara Kelly:

Yeah.

Tara Kelly:

Just really refined too.

Tara Kelly:

You know who your brand is, who you are, who you want to serve, because that's where you're going to work with best.

Tara Kelly:

So

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

let's say.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

You don't have a ton of time and you've already built, or you've already kind of, you know, at least got an iteration of that

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

ideal client and that, what kind of business do you want to have?

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

What's

Tara Kelly:

next?

Tara Kelly:

So once you decide, okay, who am I?

Tara Kelly:

Who do I stand for?

Tara Kelly:

Who am I not for?

Tara Kelly:

Cause a big part of it is saying no.

Tara Kelly:

And that's hard because you're S you're when niching down.

Tara Kelly:

Because you're suddenly saying no to a lot of people.

Tara Kelly:

And a lot of people are like, wait a second, how I'm going to make an income.

Tara Kelly:

I need to appeal to more people.

Tara Kelly:

So making peace with that and really understanding that it's really hard to niche down too far.

Tara Kelly:

It honestly is.

Tara Kelly:

There is a, there is so much more market than people think there is.

Tara Kelly:

So really the next step once you've decided, okay, this is who I want to work with is doing research.

Tara Kelly:

So figuring out, okay, where do they have.

Tara Kelly:

What are their interests?

Tara Kelly:

What are they looking for?

Tara Kelly:

And you can find that, you know, you can do a lot of that online.

Tara Kelly:

That's not something you have to, you don't have to run focus groups.

Tara Kelly:

Don't worry.

Tara Kelly:

You know, you don't have to, unless you have access to people, you don't have to call them up and interview.

Tara Kelly:

It helps to talk to people directly.

Tara Kelly:

But if you have people in your life that you can interview, that might fit your target audience, that you can talk

Tara Kelly:

to just have a chat with them, you know, ask them.

Tara Kelly:

If you were to run a podcast or you were to start a podcast, you know, what, what would you be looking for?

Tara Kelly:

What would really help you out?

Tara Kelly:

And then obviously you, you're both familiar with Facebook groups, right.

Tara Kelly:

And what a wealth of information that can be, you know, just joining communities, joining groups, where your target

Tara Kelly:

audience is, and just observing, like, you're not, you don't want to go in there and start selling your services and you

Tara Kelly:

know, that kind of thing, but just be curious, ask questions.

Tara Kelly:

Yeah.

Tara Kelly:

How you can help them.

Tara Kelly:

I find that to be really valuable information because you can get a better understanding of who they are

Tara Kelly:

by just having those casual conversations with them.

Tara Kelly:

Uh, Reddit is believe it or not a really good place for that, too.

Tara Kelly:

Just going through the Fred's and reading through them.

Tara Kelly:

It's great for search too.

Tara Kelly:

Yes, it is.

Tara Kelly:

I am

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

always reading solutions and Reddit threads.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

Usually not for podcasting.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

For a lot of things.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

So that's a good point.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

So once you have that down, is it time to build a website?

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

Like when do we get to the building?

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

The one

Tara Kelly:

that's actually down the pipeline a little bit.

Tara Kelly:

Okay.

Tara Kelly:

Once you have that research, you really want to, you know, compile it, look at it, pull some insights from

Tara Kelly:

it and that's when you can start thinking about, okay.

Tara Kelly:

Looking at maybe some of your competitor websites looking at what they're doing, maybe some gaps that they're missing,

Tara Kelly:

because now that you've done the research, you're hearing things that people want, and maybe they're not finding it.

Tara Kelly:

You know, when you're interacting on those groups, they're talking about, I wish I could find a podcast editor who does,

Tara Kelly:

could do this or who specialized in that or whatever it is.

Tara Kelly:

You're getting those insights and you're figuring out, okay, there's some gaps here that maybe I can find.

Tara Kelly:

And that's when really, when you have that information, you can start crafting your messaging.

Tara Kelly:

And it's really good to craft your messaging before you build your website, because you want to build your website

Tara Kelly:

around your content, around the story you're telling versus lay it out first and then try to cram the content in.

Tara Kelly:

That's just better for user experience.

Tara Kelly:

That's better all the way around, because it can really help you organize your.

Tara Kelly:

In a way that users are going to find it engaging and that's going to make more sense.

Bryan Entzminger:

Uh, part of me wants to jump ahead to the people that have done it backwards like me, but

Bryan Entzminger:

I feel like we should probably kind of pause here for a little bit, because we've talked about crafting it

Bryan Entzminger:

around the, the content or the story by the same token.

Bryan Entzminger:

I think there are probably some reasonably common things that an editor would, or really any business

Bryan Entzminger:

specifically an editor would need to make sure.

Bryan Entzminger:

Are part of the, what they put up.

Tara Kelly:

Am I right?

Tara Kelly:

Yeah, definitely.

Tara Kelly:

There are things specific to podcast editing that you would want to consider, but yes, also things that are

Tara Kelly:

common with any small business or large business, you know?

Tara Kelly:

So some important things to have on your site, for example, like targeted messaging, like we talked

Tara Kelly:

about, is it speaking directly to your audience?

Tara Kelly:

Is it reflecting your core values and who you are?

Tara Kelly:

Can they go to your.

Tara Kelly:

And really feel like you're as distinct bread, you are talking directly to them.

Tara Kelly:

They go to it and they're like, yep, I'm in the right place.

Tara Kelly:

And generally people give you 15 seconds, they visit your site and you have about 15 seconds to catch their

Tara Kelly:

attention before they're like up, I'm going to move on.

Tara Kelly:

You know, so having an intuitive user experience, having a polished design helps obviously professionally.

Tara Kelly:

But that's going to look different.

Tara Kelly:

If you're a high-end editor working for fortune 500 companies, your site should probably look a lot different than an

Tara Kelly:

editor who serves sex therapists, just very different looks and feel obviously a clear list of your services.

Tara Kelly:

You know, an easy way.

Tara Kelly:

People can reach you for a quote.

Tara Kelly:

You want to be super, make it super convenient, super easy.

Tara Kelly:

People care about experience, right?

Tara Kelly:

Building that credibility.

Tara Kelly:

So having your past work on there, if you have.

Tara Kelly:

Podcast you've worked on, or if you don't, you know, good way to maybe build your credibility is to have some resources, some

Tara Kelly:

articles, things that show your expertise as you're building your portfolio and believe it or not having your story on there.

Tara Kelly:

And about page, because I have found, and this always surprises me about pages are one of the most frequently.

Tara Kelly:

Visited pages across the board.

Tara Kelly:

Every industry I've worked in, every website, people go to that about page and they want to hear about you.

Tara Kelly:

They want to read about you.

Tara Kelly:

They want to connect to that person.

Tara Kelly:

I'm a data geek.

Tara Kelly:

So I find that really fascinating, but it's true.

Tara Kelly:

You know, even just personal tidbits you could add about yourself or what makes you tick.

Tara Kelly:

People can really connect to that from a more technical point of view.

Tara Kelly:

People forget about the.

Tara Kelly:

Sites have to be responsive.

Tara Kelly:

Okay.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

Wait a second.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

What does responsive actually mean?

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

Because I'm a little bit confused by that

Tara Kelly:

when you click on it.

Tara Kelly:

Yeah.

Tara Kelly:

That is a great question.

Tara Kelly:

So responsive means that the site works and functions and looks really good on mobile phones, tablets,

Tara Kelly:

varying desktop sizes, because you think about, we have small laptops, we have big desktop screens.

Tara Kelly:

We have so many different devices nowadays, and you really want your site to.

Tara Kelly:

Adapt right.

Tara Kelly:

Be responsive to all of those different device sizes.

Tara Kelly:

And sometimes people forget about mobile.

Tara Kelly:

When in fact, when you're building a site, it's important to actually start with the mobile design.

Tara Kelly:

First, they call it mobile design or mobile first design.

Tara Kelly:

Um, you know, sometimes I'll go to sites in, you can't read it.

Tara Kelly:

It's not designed for mobile.

Tara Kelly:

You know, it just breaks down.

Tara Kelly:

And that's really important because about, you can pretty much half of your users.

Tara Kelly:

Our visitors are going to be on a phone, visiting your site versus a desktop for

Bryan Entzminger:

mine.

Bryan Entzminger:

It's actually way more than half.

Bryan Entzminger:

Yeah,

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

yeah.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

Yeah, because then when I'm using my phone to browse the web, because I don't want to be

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

on my computer all the time, I get so angry.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

Like I will click away from a website where I can only read half the page.

Tara Kelly:

Exactly.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

Yeah.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

Yeah.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

So, okay, cool.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

So that is responsive and it's, it's way more important than I actually

Tara Kelly:

thought it is very important.

Tara Kelly:

You brought up some thing, a good point, Brian, you know, knowing how many people who visit your site are, are using a phone.

Tara Kelly:

How did you get that information?

Bryan Entzminger:

I'm also a data geek.

Bryan Entzminger:

So

Tara Kelly:

Google analytics, exactly.

Tara Kelly:

Having Google analytics on your.

Tara Kelly:

Is gold.

Tara Kelly:

Ah, it's so confusing though.

Tara Kelly:

It's confusing.

Tara Kelly:

It's complicated.

Tara Kelly:

That is so true.

Tara Kelly:

But being able to figure out where people are going, where they're coming from, what pages they're going

Tara Kelly:

to, what their journey is like, how long they're spending on it tells you so much information about

Tara Kelly:

how well your website is actually performing.

Tara Kelly:

And if you maybe need to change something.

Bryan Entzminger:

Yeah, I would say the two things that I tend to look at are what kind of devices are they looking on?

Bryan Entzminger:

And what's my bounce rate.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

Okay.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

So what is a bounce rate?

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

Really?

Tara Kelly:

Your bounce rate is essentially if somebody goes to your site and let's say they land on

Tara Kelly:

your homepage, do they go to your homepage and just leave the site or do they go elsewhere on the site?

Tara Kelly:

Do they stick around and go to another page?

Tara Kelly:

So if your bounce rate is say 70%.

Tara Kelly:

Meaning 70% of people are like this.

Tara Kelly:

Isn't what I need.

Tara Kelly:

That's really high.

Tara Kelly:

If it's 40 to 50%, that's more the range you want to be in.

Tara Kelly:

That's considered a pretty good bounce rate.

Tara Kelly:

You know, if it's above 50%, you might want to work on some things on your homepage because you're getting the wrong traffic.

Tara Kelly:

Essentially people are getting to your site, but it's not relevant to them.

Tara Kelly:

So that's what that tells you in a nutshell,

Bryan Entzminger:

it just really surprised me when you said.

Bryan Entzminger:

About page should have your story, because everything that I've heard recently is that your

Bryan Entzminger:

about page should be about your ideal client.

Bryan Entzminger:

And while it might tell your story, it's really about them.

Bryan Entzminger:

I'm assuming you have some kind of data, like you're seeing something that makes that like what you shared.

Bryan Entzminger:

True.

Bryan Entzminger:

Can you share a little bit

Tara Kelly:

more about that?

Tara Kelly:

Sure.

Tara Kelly:

I think it's important for your site overall to be about the clients.

Tara Kelly:

So when they land on your home page, all of your messaging, all of your copies should be about that and their needs.

Tara Kelly:

But when they go to about us, our team, that's a really good place to tell your story.

Tara Kelly:

Once they've gone through, they've read your messaging, it connects, they want to connect with you.

Tara Kelly:

They wanted to know who they're working with.

Tara Kelly:

That's important to people.

Tara Kelly:

So it's good to have that information on there because people do enjoy that and they read stuff and they go, you know what?

Tara Kelly:

I have a lot in common with this person.

Tara Kelly:

I like.

Tara Kelly:

Well, they have two adorable cats.

Tara Kelly:

They wear cat ears.

Tara Kelly:

I completely relate to that.

Tara Kelly:

I want to call this person up.

Tara Kelly:

So having those little tidbits on there does help you become more of a real human being to

Tara Kelly:

them versus just another podcast editor's site.

Tara Kelly:

I was going to

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

ask this cause pricing.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

Should you have your prices on your page unless you were going to ask something related to the about page?

Bryan Entzminger:

I was going to ask the very same thing.

Bryan Entzminger:

You just.

Tara Kelly:

That is the question.

Tara Kelly:

Uh, the controversial question that everyone asks, not just podcasts editors, but everyone in the service business.

Tara Kelly:

Should we put our pricing on the site?

Tara Kelly:

Obviously there's pros and cons to both methods.

Tara Kelly:

If you put your prices on the site, it does help you cut down on leads that are out of your budget, right?

Tara Kelly:

They call you up and you realize if you've ever had that really awkward conversation with a lead and you realize

Tara Kelly:

you're in two totally different universes on budget.

Tara Kelly:

And there's that moment where you tell them, this is my rate and you hear that audible gasp

Tara Kelly:

or that, excuse me, what are you talking about?

Tara Kelly:

You know, most people want to avoid that.

Tara Kelly:

You know?

Tara Kelly:

So sometimes it's really, you know, if you're one of those people that get those types of things, And you've had a lot

Tara Kelly:

of calls where you are in completely different universes.

Tara Kelly:

You know, you might want to put pricing on your site, but a lot of that can also be somewhat reduced with your positioning.

Tara Kelly:

So if you're positioned really well toward your target audience, you should be attracting those people regardless.

Tara Kelly:

Um, that said, you know, you, what you could consider, and this is what I landed on, and I know other people who've landed on.

Tara Kelly:

It's just thinking about.

Tara Kelly:

What's my minimum engagement level.

Tara Kelly:

What is the minimum?

Tara Kelly:

I would even edit a podcast for and saying, you know, engagement start at this.

Tara Kelly:

So, or rates start at this, that way.

Tara Kelly:

You have a little bit of flexibility.

Tara Kelly:

You're not like setting yourself in stone because every client is going to have different needs, but

Tara Kelly:

you're at least telling people, you know, at minimum, this is what your budget should be to work with.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

Helen says she has the prices on our website because she wants to avoid surprises.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

Those aren't fun now.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

And I actually have starting at on my page.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

I think.

Bryan Entzminger:

I thought you were taking pricing off.

Bryan Entzminger:

Are you putting it back on to

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

be quite Frank?

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

I have not done anything to my website and probably way too long.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

Leads me to the question.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

How often should I be like doing stuff with my website

Tara Kelly:

frequently?

Tara Kelly:

Okay.

Tara Kelly:

I am not

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

doing

Tara Kelly:

that.

Tara Kelly:

So, especially with WordPress.

Tara Kelly:

Making sure you're updating your plugins that you, you know, depending on where you're hosted either the host has good

Tara Kelly:

security or you have good security plugins, because what happens is if you're not regularly updating it, it can break and it

Tara Kelly:

can fall apart and people visit it and it'll just look all one.

Tara Kelly:

Okay.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

So you know where to find me this weekend,

Bryan Entzminger:

I guess kind of building on that.

Bryan Entzminger:

You mentioned updating plugins and of course I've seen a number of people, whereas I take over their show.

Bryan Entzminger:

Like start getting plugged in, set up for them.

Bryan Entzminger:

There are tons of things out of date, which has turned into a value added service for me, if they want to take advantage of it.

Bryan Entzminger:

But beyond that, are there some things that you see people getting wrong on their website on a consistent

Tara Kelly:

basis?

Tara Kelly:

Um, absolutely.

Tara Kelly:

Like not making responsive, not doing the mobile first design.

Tara Kelly:

So considering that there's different devices, so they'll come up with like really great design that they really love.

Tara Kelly:

Uh, but it doesn't work as well because when you think of like a mobile phone, you have a desktop, right.

Tara Kelly:

So everything, you know, you have multiple columns and things like that, but when you

Tara Kelly:

have a phone, everything has to stack, right?

Tara Kelly:

So you're taking all of those columns and you're stacking them on top of each other.

Tara Kelly:

And some designs don't really lend themselves well to that.

Tara Kelly:

So that's one thing that people sometimes when they do it themselves, don't really think about,

Tara Kelly:

they don't maybe know, you know, to check for.

Tara Kelly:

And that's one of those important things.

Tara Kelly:

Another important thing is, and this one, a lot of people don't realize and just a disclaimer, I am not a legal professional.

Tara Kelly:

So consult your legal counsel on this topic specifically, but a lot of people, especially if they're new to

Tara Kelly:

business or they're a small business, they don't realize that legal policies might apply to them.

Tara Kelly:

Uh, privacy policy is a great example of that.

Tara Kelly:

Some states require that disclaimers, like if you're giving advice or health advice, having that, or cookie policies,

Tara Kelly:

you know, a legal professional is going to be able to tell you more specifically for your business, what you need.

Tara Kelly:

There's also services that specialize in helping you develop those and helping you figure out, okay, what do I need for that?

Tara Kelly:

But it is really important to figure that out and now.

Tara Kelly:

What you need on your site and what you don't need.

Tara Kelly:

Is there a special attorney

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

you need to go to like a what?

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

So what would their specialty beds it's like business or

Tara Kelly:

so a business attorney.

Tara Kelly:

So whoever you use maybe to done your contracts before, because essentially it's like.

Tara Kelly:

Contracts right as writing legal documents to put on your site.

Tara Kelly:

So if you worked with, uh, you know, a legal professional to do your agreement, like your podcast editing

Tara Kelly:

agreement, that would be a good person to go to.

Tara Kelly:

And there's also, you know, companies you can sign up with that are lower cost that can help with that too.

Tara Kelly:

And I don't know if you want me to name drop.

Tara Kelly:

I will just leave it at that for now.

Bryan Entzminger:

Let's go some name drops just in case people need an idea.

Tara Kelly:

Okay.

Tara Kelly:

Okay.

Tara Kelly:

Um, I would start maybe checking out term again.

Tara Kelly:

I know it sounds really ominous, but it's actually a really helpful site, uh, term mageddon.com

Bryan Entzminger:

taking notes on that one.

Bryan Entzminger:

Not that I might need it.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

Oh, interesting.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

Anybody else that you would name drop

Tara Kelly:

there?

Tara Kelly:

Um, there, I'm trying to remember actually, there's a couple of other companies that do stuff similar.

Tara Kelly:

I want to say unless legal terms maybe.

Tara Kelly:

Uh, but if you Google it, you'll come up with some names.

Tara Kelly:

I've my experiences have been really.

Tara Kelly:

With ptarmigan and they, you know, the, uh, lawyer heads it up and they specialize in that

Tara Kelly:

and they keep up with all the state laws for you.

Tara Kelly:

But yeah, I would definitely just do a Google search and see what people are saying about different places and how

Tara Kelly:

reputable they are, because that's an important thing is making sure that they aren't reputable and they can help you out.

Tara Kelly:

Cool.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

Thank you for that.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

Wait, where are we?

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

We got talk, went on a legal tangent

Bryan Entzminger:

and I got to remember, we were just talking about things that people

Tara Kelly:

get.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

Yes.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

Okay.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

So what else does, is there anything

Tara Kelly:

else that people get wrong?

Tara Kelly:

You know, not considering user experience, user flow.

Tara Kelly:

So considering it from a visitor's perspective, you know, I think a lot of times when we want

Tara Kelly:

to build our site, we're excited about it.

Tara Kelly:

And we put things that we like or designs that we like, and we're not maybe necessarily thinking

Tara Kelly:

about the audience and how they might experience it.

Tara Kelly:

So one area of that might be accessibility.

Tara Kelly:

It's something.

Tara Kelly:

A lot of people aren't aware of, they don't think about it's a big topic.

Tara Kelly:

I won't get too far down the rabbit hole into it.

Tara Kelly:

Um, it's a tricky area because the ADA doesn't explicitly address websites, but there have been like civil lawsuits on companies

Tara Kelly:

for not meeting, you know, what's considered the gold standard.

Tara Kelly:

So that's WC, AIG guidelines, web content, accessibility guidelines, and basically what.

Tara Kelly:

Is, this is a set of guidelines to help you make your site more accessible to people with disabilities, but not just

Tara Kelly:

people with disabilities, but let's see, for instance, you're in an airport or you're at work or in a really noisy place.

Tara Kelly:

And you want to watch a video and you can't hear the sound and there's no captions.

Tara Kelly:

You can't experience the captions that way.

Tara Kelly:

So having captions for an example is really good user experience.

Tara Kelly:

Another example of it would be if a person with low vision or a person who was blind goes to visit a site.

Tara Kelly:

A lot of times they'll use their phone and like an app called voiceover.

Tara Kelly:

And essentially what it does is it reads the site to them.

Tara Kelly:

So as they're going and reading your homepage, it's reading off the different menu options.

Tara Kelly:

It's reading off your title and all of the texts, the different links to click on.

Tara Kelly:

Well, sometimes, you know, people have pictures.

Tara Kelly:

If you don't have things like all tags on all of your pictures, that's describing your picture.

Tara Kelly:

A lot of people will have something like edit underscore one, edit underscore two dot JPEG.

Tara Kelly:

That's what's read off to the person experiencing your site.

Tara Kelly:

So it's better to have something like person wearing headphones or person in the studio.

Tara Kelly:

It podcasting.

Tara Kelly:

Let's them experience your site a little bit more and makes things a little bit clearer.

Tara Kelly:

So there's a lot that goes into that.

Tara Kelly:

And like I said, it's really complicated, but there are some basic things that you can do to look at your site.

Tara Kelly:

Accessibility are either of you familiar with Google's lighthouse, you ever run that on website.

Tara Kelly:

Okay.

Tara Kelly:

I will run it on your websites when we do the tear down.

Tara Kelly:

So you can see it, but that will give you an idea.

Tara Kelly:

You know, that's Google's lighthouse.

Tara Kelly:

It'll give you an idea of.

Tara Kelly:

You know, some of your accessibility, if you have some accessibility issues, she says, if most people do cause

Tara Kelly:

there's different levels, you know, there's a there's AA.

Tara Kelly:

And like I said, it's, it can be a really complicated topic, but it's really not about, you know,

Tara Kelly:

being afraid of lawsuits or whatever, you know, that shouldn't probably be the primary reason.

Tara Kelly:

It's more about just wanting to create a good user experience over.

Tara Kelly:

For as many people as possible.

Tara Kelly:

Great.

Tara Kelly:

Yeah.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

Speaking of the tear down.

Bryan Entzminger:

I was just thinking that we've got more questions we can come back to, but if you

Bryan Entzminger:

don't mind, I'd love to just go to the tear down.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

We might have to do a part two of this to get to all the other.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

Yeah.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

There's lots of questions.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

I just want to throw this out there.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

If like Helen or, you know, Michael, you're still with us.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

Maybe, you know, take my place, tear down.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

I'm assuming we're starting with Brian's.

Bryan Entzminger:

We can start with either.

Bryan Entzminger:

I don't care

Tara Kelly:

the first Brian, so you're up first.

Tara Kelly:

Okay.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

All right.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

Let's do it.

Tara Kelly:

How brutal do you want me to be?

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

Very nice way.

Tara Kelly:

The nice gentle.

Tara Kelly:

Okay.

Tara Kelly:

So, you know, my first impression going to your site, by the way, you all use Devi, by the way, is there a reason for that?

Tara Kelly:

Did you communicate and go divvies?

Tara Kelly:

Awesome.

Tara Kelly:

Just curious.

Tara Kelly:

Pretty much.

Tara Kelly:

Yeah, I think so.

Tara Kelly:

I mean, that's how it was before

Bryan Entzminger:

I'm using it for a while before I met any of them, but I don't know that I've made them do it.

Bryan Entzminger:

So

Tara Kelly:

what do you like about Divi?

Tara Kelly:

Easy.

Tara Kelly:

Okay.

Tara Kelly:

Yeah.

Tara Kelly:

Yeah.

Tara Kelly:

Yeah.

Tara Kelly:

Those were one of those tools.

Tara Kelly:

You know, that you can use that if you're not a code wizard, if you're not a web developer

Tara Kelly:

that drag and drop builder does make it easy.

Tara Kelly:

If you want to build your own site and there are several builders you can use.

Tara Kelly:

So we've got tops here, audio professional podcasts, production, you're a professional.

Tara Kelly:

Your podcast should be professional.

Tara Kelly:

I think it's really great that, you know, I love the green.

Tara Kelly:

I love the yellow.

Tara Kelly:

You're telling people, okay, this is what I do.

Tara Kelly:

So there's no question.

Tara Kelly:

You produce podcasts, you do podcast production services and audio coaching.

Tara Kelly:

That's clear.

Tara Kelly:

The thing I would advise for you, Brian, is maybe think about digging a little deeper with your messaging.

Tara Kelly:

You know, what really makes you unique beyond being a professional podcast product?

Tara Kelly:

Agency, you know, who are you speaking to specifically?

Tara Kelly:

You say down here, you talk about for professionals, small business non-profit organizations,

Tara Kelly:

that's a wide variety of organizations.

Tara Kelly:

Is there something that ties them together?

Tara Kelly:

Are there traits that they have values that they have, you know, that you work with specifically,

Bryan Entzminger:

there should be a shouldn't there.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

Well, okay.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

So who don't you want to work with?

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

Like.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

People don't you want to work or podcasts?

Bryan Entzminger:

Yeah.

Bryan Entzminger:

So I would say definitely don't want to work with the churn and burn entrepreneur crowd, as much as I'd like

Bryan Entzminger:

to work with the hobby casters, they can't afford it.

Bryan Entzminger:

They can't afford me.

Bryan Entzminger:

I think my sweet spot is probably those businesses in call it like the one to $5 million a year where

Bryan Entzminger:

there's enough of a budget to cover production, but not so much that they would want to bring their own team.

Bryan Entzminger:

In-house beyond.

Bryan Entzminger:

Uh, it's kind of

Tara Kelly:

muddy, so that's some specifics there.

Tara Kelly:

So I would encourage you to dig a little deeper there and think about, okay, I have some parameters

Tara Kelly:

around who these businesses are, how much they make.

Tara Kelly:

Maybe it's doing a little research and just figuring out who do I want to serve most within that group and who are they in?

Tara Kelly:

What are their needs and, and dealt into that a bit more.

Tara Kelly:

So you're speaking directly to.

Tara Kelly:

Because there's a lot of professional podcast studios, right?

Tara Kelly:

So you want to differentiate yourself a little bit more and really speak to that audience in terms of the design.

Tara Kelly:

I love that it's clean and simple and very easy to read.

Tara Kelly:

I think that's great.

Tara Kelly:

Don't get a good sense of necessarily your personality though.

Tara Kelly:

You know, I don't get a good sense of who you are as a podcast from it doesn't really come through.

Tara Kelly:

So I would think maybe.

Tara Kelly:

Making it a little bit more dynamic, maybe representative of what makes you special and unique, you know, just bring it out a

Tara Kelly:

little bit more, you know, bring that, those unique Brian traits out a little bit more with it, I think would do really well.

Tara Kelly:

So I will show you what light house looks like.

Tara Kelly:

And this is you can use on Chrome.

Tara Kelly:

What you want to do is right.

Tara Kelly:

Click on it and you get this little window right here.

Tara Kelly:

You hit and split.

Tara Kelly:

And it pops this up.

Tara Kelly:

And when I was talking about responsiveness and, you know, testing that out and seeing what that looks like,

Tara Kelly:

this is what your site looks like on a mobile device.

Tara Kelly:

So you can select different things.

Tara Kelly:

So we can do the iPhone se as an example.

Tara Kelly:

So right here, there is a bit of an issue as you can see, your apple podcasts is falling down.

Tara Kelly:

So you want to like within Devi, you can actually select the mobile phone.

Tara Kelly:

And you can catch that.

Tara Kelly:

Or you can use this Chrome because sometimes that's a little more accurate, so you can spot some of these issues.

Tara Kelly:

And then when you go into Devi, correct the mobile version of that and adjust it.

Tara Kelly:

So it doesn't do that.

Tara Kelly:

The rest of it.

Tara Kelly:

Yeah.

Tara Kelly:

It looks, it looks pretty good.

Tara Kelly:

Looks like, yeah, everything is displaying nicely, but yeah, you can, there's like the iPads, so you can check it out on a tablet.

Tara Kelly:

So that's really helpful.

Tara Kelly:

The other thing you can do is I know this is kind of hard to see, but you click on these little

Tara Kelly:

arrows over here and you want to go to lighthouse.

Tara Kelly:

And what it's going to do is it's going to generate a report performance, best practices, accessibility, and SEO.

Tara Kelly:

So it's going to give you some scores and tell you where you're at and give you examples of

Tara Kelly:

how you might be able to fix it or improve it.

Tara Kelly:

So if I generate this report, It's your heart racing

Bryan Entzminger:

brain?

Bryan Entzminger:

No, not yet, but while it's doing its thing, what are your thoughts about the cookie?

Bryan Entzminger:

Pop-ups I kind of hate them, but I also feel like they're kind of required,

Tara Kelly:

you know, that is a tough topic because again, you know, these are coming from laws out of

Tara Kelly:

Europe and, you know, there's different laws in different states and I think it's good to have a cookie policy.

Tara Kelly:

And again, something to that would be really good to ask, you know, legal professional about, okay, do I have to have this?

Tara Kelly:

What are the consequences of, I don't.

Tara Kelly:

I think it's really good to ask those questions and make sure that you have what you need for your specific site.

Tara Kelly:

So these are your scores here.

Tara Kelly:

And what orange basically means is you probably guessed it.

Tara Kelly:

Improvement needed.

Tara Kelly:

You just missed the green.

Tara Kelly:

90 is green.

Tara Kelly:

So you're pretty close performance means.

Tara Kelly:

Right.

Tara Kelly:

So making sure your site is speed, optimized and fast.

Tara Kelly:

In some ways you can do that is making sure all of your images are really optimized and as small as they can be.

Tara Kelly:

Well, obviously you still preserving the quality here.

Tara Kelly:

It'll tell you the diagnostics, I'll warn you.

Tara Kelly:

It gets really technical.

Tara Kelly:

And a lot of it probably is going to make a ton of sense.

Tara Kelly:

Um, but it does tell you what is slowing your site down or what you're slowing your page.

Tara Kelly:

Up here.

Tara Kelly:

You have, again, your accessibility score best practices is your backend and how your site is built.

Tara Kelly:

Like security issues, things like that.

Tara Kelly:

Do you, does everyone know what SEO is?

Tara Kelly:

So your search engine optimization, which looks to be fantastic.

Tara Kelly:

You must be one yourself or hired a specialist to help you there.

Tara Kelly:

No, no.

Tara Kelly:

Well, you did a good job.

Tara Kelly:

I've

Bryan Entzminger:

kind of studied.

Bryan Entzminger:

But not really.

Bryan Entzminger:

I do use the Yoast plugin, so maybe I accidentally got that.

Bryan Entzminger:

Right.

Tara Kelly:

Yoast helps a lot of, you know, this is scratching the surface.

Tara Kelly:

These don't go in depth, but it's a good way to kind of get gauge an idea of, you know, how your site, well, it's

Tara Kelly:

optimized, what the accessibility on a basic level is looking like, you know, what improvements can be made.

Tara Kelly:

And again, how Google might see your site too.

Tara Kelly:

So.

Tara Kelly:

You know, in terms of accessibility, this is a big one and an easy thing people can fix and do

Tara Kelly:

to make their site more accessible is thinking about their background and foreground pillars.

Tara Kelly:

So making sure that they have a high enough contrast ratio to meet the guidelines and there's fabulous site called web

Tara Kelly:

aim.org, where you can actually run your colors through it.

Tara Kelly:

It'll tell you if it meets guidelines or not.

Tara Kelly:

So for instance, you have.

Tara Kelly:

A light yellow font on a light blue, black background.

Tara Kelly:

That's going to be really hard for people to read.

Tara Kelly:

And so that's a really easy fix to make your site more accessible.

Tara Kelly:

Cool.

Tara Kelly:

Yeah.

Tara Kelly:

So let me go ahead and close out the best

Bryan Entzminger:

I was to summarize what I think I heard you say my primary issue is actually messaging and the secondary

Bryan Entzminger:

stuff is just a couple of tweaks in terms of design and speed.

Tara Kelly:

Yeah, I think.

Tara Kelly:

Digging a little deeper with your audience.

Tara Kelly:

So you're positioning yourself better and really figuring out who your ideal audience is.

Tara Kelly:

I think a little strategy on your part would be really helpful to you.

Tara Kelly:

That's going to inform your messaging.

Tara Kelly:

That's going to inform your design a little bit more really thinking through, okay.

Tara Kelly:

Who is top tier audio?

Tara Kelly:

What do I believe in?

Tara Kelly:

How do I behave?

Tara Kelly:

What, you know, when I'm interacting with clients, what am I like?

Tara Kelly:

How do I want to be.

Tara Kelly:

Just answering those types of questions is really going to help that come together.

Tara Kelly:

And you know, you're not a designer or a copywriter.

Tara Kelly:

I would suggest hiring someone for that, if you can, because unfortunately I would love it if we all could be

Tara Kelly:

experts in everything, but sometimes that's really hard.

Tara Kelly:

And so sometimes hiring an expert to be able to come and do that for you can really help you get to that next

Tara Kelly:

level too, but it really is dependent on your situation.

Tara Kelly:

I'm

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

sure people are asking, like how much would that actually cost?

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

Cause I think a lot of times we think, oh, it's going to be super expensive.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

And then it's not always just have these small changes or to have your copy look bad or, you know, help you with your positioning.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

So what would that cost around about like

Tara Kelly:

an average?

Tara Kelly:

So it's one of those things where much like podcast editing to a certain extent you might get what you pay for.

Tara Kelly:

Um, Honestly, it ranges, there's a wide range.

Tara Kelly:

You can go on a place like 99 designs and, you know, for instance, get logo made or, you

Tara Kelly:

know, graphics made or something like that.

Tara Kelly:

If they're done well, they might be, they might not be, you can hire on a place, obviously like Upwork or something, and there's

Tara Kelly:

a variety of different freelancers on there and experts on there.

Tara Kelly:

You know, you really have to do your homework, you know, to assess them and vet them, you know, in terms of a brand strategy.

Tara Kelly:

You know that for small businesses like solo preneurs that can run you, I would say at least, maybe think around

Tara Kelly:

a couple thousand dollars to do something like that.

Tara Kelly:

And that's something more stripped down and catered to a solopreneur, you know, brand consultants can charge

Tara Kelly:

anywhere from, you know, a hundred, an hour to 500.

Tara Kelly:

Yeah.

Tara Kelly:

It really depends.

Tara Kelly:

Copywriters.

Tara Kelly:

You can find copywriters who charge hourly or do flat rates for really good copywriters that are experienced and have

Tara Kelly:

done copy and messaging and are really well-versed in it.

Tara Kelly:

Again, I would look at budgeting, you know, least I would say at least in the 75, an hour range or a flat rate.

Tara Kelly:

And that's really going to depend on, you know, how much messaging needs to be done.

Tara Kelly:

How much website copy there is, for example, thinking about it,

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

that was like, yeah.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

How much did podcast editors cost, but you know, it just to get a rough idea, the different levels, I think might

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

be helpful because I think that it is a valuable service.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

Like, I mean, we're getting our money's worth, right.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

I mean, like more than our money's worth because we're not paying.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

So if we're done with Brian's Helen King, actually, if you, if I can spring one on you, Helen King

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

would love to have you tear down her website.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

And if you looked in the, can you see the private chat?

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

Because I put it, I put it in there.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

You can click on the.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

I'm just trying to run out

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

the

Tara Kelly:

clock here so I don't have to

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

carry.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

I know I'm just, I'm teasing.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

I'm totally.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

Okay.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

I just I'm teasing cause I haven't done.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

Uh, all right, Helen,

Tara Kelly:

are you ready?

Tara Kelly:

All right, so I want you, I, I didn't get to cheat and look at this one first, so I will share my thoughts as I experienced.

Tara Kelly:

HK productions, podcast management and launch services.

Tara Kelly:

Are you ready to amplify your voice through podcasting?

Tara Kelly:

You know, I think that's really good.

Tara Kelly:

Again, it's really clear what you do.

Tara Kelly:

Obviously you offer a podcast production services.

Tara Kelly:

Okay.

Tara Kelly:

So you specialize in empowering entrepreneurs to create an impact through podcasting.

Tara Kelly:

I think empowering entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs is a huge broad audience.

Tara Kelly:

You know, pretty much anyone, you know, might consider themselves an entrepreneur.

Tara Kelly:

So who specifically, what types of entrepreneurs do you work with?

Tara Kelly:

Who are they in terms of, you know, in order to talking about accessibility?

Tara Kelly:

So the white font on the light background here, people with low vision, for instance, or people who are more.

Tara Kelly:

Might have trouble deciphering this.

Tara Kelly:

They might have trouble reading this.

Tara Kelly:

So that's something to consider there.

Tara Kelly:

I love that you have earned really nice clean design, and again, it's, it's really easy to read and the colors are uplifting.

Tara Kelly:

And like, I feel like I go onto the site and it feels very warm and inviting, and I think that's good.

Tara Kelly:

But again, you know, there's a lot of content on here in town.

Tara Kelly:

And so I'm wondering if, when users visit this homepage, if they're maybe gonna read all this information

Tara Kelly:

and it sounds like there's an important story here.

Tara Kelly:

So I get the entrepreneur journey and you talking about, you know, your story and it sounds

Tara Kelly:

like it's a really important story to share.

Tara Kelly:

And so I'm wondering if there's a way that you can feature it even more.

Tara Kelly:

So people do pay attention to it and do.

Tara Kelly:

So, what I might actually do is where you say what I can offer you, that's way down here.

Tara Kelly:

People don't see that right away.

Tara Kelly:

And that's not super clear.

Tara Kelly:

So I might actually move that under here.

Tara Kelly:

So between these two sections, so people, it makes it super easy for people to see like your main services right away.

Tara Kelly:

And it's really clear because again, anything above the.

Tara Kelly:

You know, people give you 15 seconds.

Tara Kelly:

So you want to put your most important things, your most important call to actions above the fold.

Tara Kelly:

And what I mean by above the fold is where you don't have to scroll.

Tara Kelly:

So whatever appears above this, that you're seeing that's in the

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

leads, me to the question, like what called actions should absolutely be above the fold,

Tara Kelly:

like on that.

Tara Kelly:

Definitely how to contact.

Tara Kelly:

What your main focuses are, right?

Tara Kelly:

What your main services are, is really helpful to have any really important messaging where you are directly

Tara Kelly:

targeting your audience and you're speaking directly to them.

Tara Kelly:

So I think it's great to have, like, are you ready to amplify your voice through

Tara Kelly:

podcasting, but maybe dig a little deeper with.

Tara Kelly:

You know, everybody wants to amplify their voice through podcasting, get a little bit more specific than that.

Tara Kelly:

So people feel like the people you want to work with directly are speaking directly to you,

Tara Kelly:

or rather you're speaking directly to them.

Tara Kelly:

Is there

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

anything else so like that about, so should the services be above that fold like listed kind of

Tara Kelly:

clearly or as close to it as possible?

Tara Kelly:

You know, if you can get them above the full great, but try to have them as early on.

Tara Kelly:

On the page as possible because people tend to gravitate toward that right away.

Tara Kelly:

Yeah.

Tara Kelly:

People obviously will use the menu up here too, but the services really stand out and if you can succinctly

Tara Kelly:

describe them and it really, I hate to use the word, like almost, you know, hook the reader, so to speak way

Tara Kelly:

where they're like, okay, this is exactly what I need.

Tara Kelly:

I'm going to click on this.

Tara Kelly:

It's a really good one.

Tara Kelly:

To, you know, get their attention quickly.

Tara Kelly:

Because when you think about when you visit a website, do you spend the time to read all of the texts?

Tara Kelly:

Or are you skimming to see what's relevant to you?

Tara Kelly:

What pops up?

Tara Kelly:

If you're looking for a specific service, are you skimming?

Tara Kelly:

Okay.

Tara Kelly:

Do they offer this?

Tara Kelly:

So if you have a lot of content here like this, you might have some really great content and some great things to say, but for

Tara Kelly:

people skimming and just trying to quickly see what you're doing, they have to go all the way down here to get more of an idea that

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

makes sense.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

And Helen, I don't know if you have any questions, but if you do leave them in the chats, I'm curious too.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

What Helen, she's just taking notes, maybe furiously.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

Do you want to like, just look at it on, can you look at it unless you have anything else to add?

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

I'm going to let you, okay.

Tara Kelly:

How far you're going to go with this?

Tara Kelly:

Do you want me to do yours, Carrie or yeah, you can do mine.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

Yeah.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

Okay.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

Well, Helen says that makes sense.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

When I look at the traffic and where.

Tara Kelly:

Yeah.

Tara Kelly:

And that's where Google analytics is so helpful.

Tara Kelly:

And they even have like services.

Tara Kelly:

You can buy that show you heat maps, where it'll actually record a video in a sense, or replicate how a user, you

Tara Kelly:

know, went through your site and it'll show you all the hotspots that people click on the most like visually.

Tara Kelly:

And so some people find that really helpful too.

Tara Kelly:

Um, My first impression is I wasn't actually sure what you did.

Tara Kelly:

I loved the colors.

Tara Kelly:

I love the purple and the white it's like it's really environment what I did

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

either at the time.

Tara Kelly:

And it fits the personality that, that I get to meet.

Tara Kelly:

But I was confused as to if you are teaching people RX seven, or if you actually offer like podcast production services.

Tara Kelly:

So here you see solutions, quality, critical ears, expert service.

Tara Kelly:

I love the smiles and high fives keep that that's really like specific.

Tara Kelly:

And it instantly gives you this vibe, but solutions, quality, critical ears.

Tara Kelly:

I feel like what type of solutions are you offering?

Tara Kelly:

Who are you speaking to direct?

Tara Kelly:

Um, here you have a typo production.

Tara Kelly:

That's an easy fix, luckily, but I, I kinda stopped.

Tara Kelly:

I was like proud duction.

Tara Kelly:

Was that on purpose?

Tara Kelly:

Is that, that

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

could be cool.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

Yeah, it could, I could totally make it a thing.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

I mean, I was just pretending like it was on purpose,

Tara Kelly:

but a, I like that.

Tara Kelly:

It's like, well, I haven't seen that before, but yeah.

Tara Kelly:

So one big thing that I would say, and this might be, cause you said, you mentioned you haven't had

Tara Kelly:

a chance to update your site in a while, is it?

Tara Kelly:

It's not secure?

Tara Kelly:

Yeah.

Tara Kelly:

It's supposed to be.

Tara Kelly:

Okay, but it's not secure.

Tara Kelly:

Yeah.

Tara Kelly:

So that can cause you issues with Google.

Tara Kelly:

It can cause you issues with visitors because they'll get the big security warning, you

Tara Kelly:

know, enter at your own risk sort of screen.

Tara Kelly:

Yeah.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

And I couldn't even tell you, like, that part has confused me for a while, but all right.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

So that that's, that'll be top of the lake.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

Is that a top of the list thing?

Tara Kelly:

Yeah, I would absolutely prioritize getting that sort of.

Tara Kelly:

Right away.

Tara Kelly:

So your site is secure because it can hurt your ranking on Google, especially with our new algorithms.

Bryan Entzminger:

I'm wondering if your site is sending me emails from Russian bots and my

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

fee, although my internet is secure, I could tell you that, but I don't know about my

Tara Kelly:

website.

Tara Kelly:

Yeah, definitely update your plugins for sure.

Tara Kelly:

Make sure your theme is updated.

Tara Kelly:

Um, the other thing I'd mentioned is it looks like you have the text justified here.

Tara Kelly:

I would actually justify it because it can cause some funky spacing between your words, just from an aesthetic perspective.

Tara Kelly:

And again, considering accessibility and maybe thinking about, you know, changing this would darker color the background.

Tara Kelly:

So you can see the white text and you're able to read what you have here a little better.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

I'm not, I'm not real happy with that.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

I like pie.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

But, um, that's what it is, is a picture of pie.

Tara Kelly:

Oh, nice.

Tara Kelly:

And you've got some great testimonials on here.

Tara Kelly:

Those are always a good thing to add.

Tara Kelly:

You know, if you have those and you can put those on your home page and what our clients are saying, it helps,

Tara Kelly:

you know, people tend to skim them, but it still helps.

Tara Kelly:

So have I answered everything I can answer?

Tara Kelly:

I know we're getting close to time.

Tara Kelly:

Yeah, I think it's

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

been great.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

That, yeah, that is absolutely fabulous.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

I feel like we could go on, I would love to have you back in a few months, if you were available, we can do more of this because

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

I would like to answer the rest of the questions that we have.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

And then I would like to redo my website.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

Um, And just to see how it works out and hopefully other people would love to do that.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

Like, I would love to make this a regular thing.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

You know what I mean?

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

Because a website is so critical that presence is so critical.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

It's it's, I mean, I have gotten not in a while, but I have gotten customers from my website, obviously.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

Now I knew why, because nobody knows what I do.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

Um, so I would love to have you back and maybe think about these websites.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

Issues and things and problems.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

Cause it's, you know, we're not website experts and

Tara Kelly:

yeah.

Tara Kelly:

And that's the beauty of it.

Tara Kelly:

Like I'm not a I'm on a podcast editing it.

Tara Kelly:

So I'm admire what you do, what my partner does, you know, that's, that's hard work.

Tara Kelly:

That's developing a good ear.

Tara Kelly:

That's tough.

Tara Kelly:

Yeah.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

Developing a good website.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

It's tough too.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

So it

Tara Kelly:

can be, are to be beasts and all the things that can go wrong with them and the technical issues.

Tara Kelly:

And as you've both discovered, the upkeep can be a lot.

Tara Kelly:

The maintenance can be a lot.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

So how often do you update your own website?

Tara Kelly:

If you have WordPress, I have WordPress there.

Tara Kelly:

You can enable plugin, automatic plugin updates.

Tara Kelly:

They, you know, recently I would say within the last couple of years have started allowing you to do that.

Tara Kelly:

I find that to be helpful because it updates it for me.

Tara Kelly:

Yay.

Tara Kelly:

The theme you have, like divvy, for instance, you need to update yourself manually.

Tara Kelly:

It doesn't have auto updates for that.

Tara Kelly:

The only other thing with plugin updates is especially if it's an old plugin or it's not a vetted plugging.

Tara Kelly:

Really watch what plugins you install, make sure they're reputable, make sure that they're compatible with your

Tara Kelly:

current version of WordPress because every now and then you can install something or update something and you

Tara Kelly:

get the white screen of death and that's not too fun.

Tara Kelly:

Uh, sometimes they can take your site out.

Tara Kelly:

If you have a good host, you might be able to talk to your host and they might be able to help you out.

Tara Kelly:

Or you hire, you know, you can talk to a web developer and they can get that fixed and sorted out for you.

Tara Kelly:

If you have a website manager or something like that.

Bryan Entzminger:

So you're at Tansy astor.com or Tansy Astor, audio.com

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

podcast, right?

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

Yeah.

Bryan Entzminger:

If somebody has been watching this and they go, Hey, I would like to have terror helped me with my website.

Bryan Entzminger:

Like, who's your ideal client?

Bryan Entzminger:

Who's the right person to

Tara Kelly:

contact you.

Tara Kelly:

I specialize in working for disruptors who love, who want to embrace change.

Tara Kelly:

You know, they want to do things differently than maybe.

Tara Kelly:

Been traditionally done.

Tara Kelly:

Maybe they might be a little afraid of change.

Tara Kelly:

They wear cat ears, they wear cat ears.

Tara Kelly:

You know, they're a little bit rebel.

Tara Kelly:

They want to better their community.

Tara Kelly:

I work with a lot of purpose driven organizations and purpose-driven thought leaders who, you know, want to

Tara Kelly:

change the world, but they're not arrogant enough to think they can actually change the world all by themselves.

Tara Kelly:

But they know that doing small things matters and they're not afraid to take.

Bryan Entzminger:

Wow.

Bryan Entzminger:

That's that's well said.

Bryan Entzminger:

Um, it takes a minute to digest that before we sign off, I do just want to kind of run around and well,

Bryan Entzminger:

before we do that, Carrie, if somebody else is thinking, Hey, I'd like to be a guest on the show, or I have

Bryan Entzminger:

something that I'd like for them to cover, how would they

Tara Kelly:

do.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

You can always email.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

If you want, there's something you want to cover.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

You can always email us, drop a message on the Facebook page, but you can email us it totally bombing this.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

Um, yeah.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

At podcast editors mastermind.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

And if you would like to be a guest.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

You can go to podcast editors, mastermind slash be a guest, fill out the little form it'll be kicked off

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

into Daniel's email and you will not get to his family.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

And we will be in touch.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

Did I get that right?

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

More

Bryan Entzminger:

or less as right as I ever did.

Bryan Entzminger:

So we did mention Daniel Daniel Abendroth was not able to be with us tonight, but if you want

Bryan Entzminger:

to connect with him, he's at Roth media.audio.

Bryan Entzminger:

I am Brian.

Bryan Entzminger:

It's being here.

Bryan Entzminger:

You can find me@toptieraudio.com.

Bryan Entzminger:

Over here is

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

very Caulfield.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

Eric, you can find me@yayapodcasting.com or on Instagram at Carrie

Bryan Entzminger:

Eric and our guests

Tara Kelly:

tonight.

Tara Kelly:

Tara Kelly of Tansiast or creative, you can find me@tansiastor.com.

Tara Kelly:

Thank you so much for having me.

Bryan Entzminger:

Oh, thank you.

Bryan Entzminger:

And for everybody that joined us live.

Bryan Entzminger:

Thanks for being here.

Bryan Entzminger:

We love having those questions and.

Bryan Entzminger:

And knowing for sure that what we're giving you is what you need because you asked for it.

Bryan Entzminger:

So thanks for joining us.

Bryan Entzminger:

Yeah.

Bryan Entzminger:

And if

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

you want us to do more of the like website stuff, please let us know and send us your website link.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

So when we do schedule the next one with Tara, because I'm really going to do this, that you are

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

in the queue, so I'm going to end the broadcast now.

Carrie Caulfield Arick:

Uh, how much is

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About the Podcast

Podcast Editors Mastermind
For Podcast Editors, by Podcast Editors
Are you a Podcast Editor? Or trying to be?

This is the show for Podcast Editors, by Podcast Editors. We mastermind topics with your peers, with industry leaders, and even have a little fun along the way.

Growing a business as a Podcast Editor is challenging. It can also be lonely.

Follow or subscribe to the show, get involved in the Podcast Editors Club Facebook group, and stay in touch with the latest events and news through the newsletter at https://www.PodcastEditorAcademy.com/newsletter.

About your hosts

Steve Stewart

Profile picture for Steve Stewart
Steve has been editing professionally since 2016 and founded the Podcast Editors Club Facebook community.
He also co-founded the Podcast Editor Academy - which helps individuals build their own podcast services business. When he's not online talking about editing podcasts, you'll find him staring out his home office window at the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in southern Colorado.

Mark Deal

Profile picture for Mark Deal
Mark is a nationally recognized expert and local leader in Podcasting. He serves as the Organizer of Podcast Atlanta, the Founder of Podcast Guest Academy, and leads various communities in the podcasting industry. His primary focus is showing people how to take their podcast guest appearances from boring to soaring with measurable impact.

Jennifer Longworth

Profile picture for Jennifer Longworth
Bourbon Barrel Podcasting was founded in 2019 when Jennifer Longworth, with 14 years of audio editing experience, decided to get serious about editing podcasts for Central Kentuckians. Jennifer edits podcasts for established podcasters and helps new podcasters get started with the basics.

Bryan Entzminger

Profile picture for Bryan Entzminger
Analyst by day. Podcast editor by night. Usually caffeinated. Husband, father, Jesus-follower all the time. Cohost The Podcast Gauntlet, former host of Engaging Missions, and former cohost of Podcast Editors Mastermind.

Carrie Caulfield Arick

Profile picture for Carrie Caulfield Arick
Carrie Caulfield Arick is a nerd for sound, stories, and listening. She’s learned from and worked with the industry’s best producers in her role as writer, editor and sound designer. Carrie is a co-founder of the femxle podcast post-production community, Just Busters and co-host of Podcast Editors Mastermind. Oh, and she likes cats… a lot.

Daniel Abendroth

Profile picture for Daniel Abendroth
Hi, I’m Daniel and my podcast editing services will make your podcasts sound smooth and professional, while saving you time and money.