Episodes

EP69 – GDPR Compliance and What It Means For You 14.03.2018 1:01:25

If you develop, design, or maintain a website then you’ve probably heard of the GDPR privacy requirements that affect websites globally as of May 25, 2018. In this episode of Divi Chat, we’re discussing GDPR compliance, what it means for us and our businesses, and hopefully help you get a better understanding of what it is and how to implement GDPR best practices into your Divi website...

EP68 – What to Look for When Choosing Hosting 08.03.2018 1:03:44

So many hosting questions come up along the web development journey. Should you host client’s sites for them? Should you use reseller hosting? What company should you host with? Are some really better than others and are all the good ones expensive? All pretty common questions we have to face at some point, so today we’re talking about our hosting ups and downs and who we use and why. We’ve...

EP67 – What Programming Languages Should You Learn… CSS, PHP? 01.03.2018 1:00:05

Sprichst du CSS? Habla usted JavaScript? Você fala PHP? This week’s topic is coding languages for web development. What languages should you learn to get into WordPress development (e.g. CSS, JS, frontend vs backend languages). We all have different skill levels in different languages and will be sharing our experiences and recommendations. Hosts Present: David Blackmon – Aspen Grove Studios...

EP66 – Ways to Build a Recurring Revenue Stream 22.02.2018 1:03:20

On today’s show we talk recurring revenue (aka passive income)!! Who doesn’t want money steadily coming in, right? We’ll talk about ways we’ve made it happen for us and hopefully spark some ideas of how you can do it for your web design business. Hosts Present: Cory Jenkins – Aspen Grove Studios / FB / @aspengrovellc Tim Strifler – Divi Life / FB / @timstrifler Stephanie Hudson &...

EP65 – How to Build and Grow an Email List and Why 14.02.2018 1:16:51

Are you trying to grow your email list? Are you wondering if you even need an email list to grow your business, or how to go about starting with email marketing if you’re new to it? That’s what we’ll be talking about this week so be sure to watch! Hosts Present: David Blackmon – Aspen Grove Studios / FB / @aspengrovellc Tim Strifler – Divi Life / FB / @timstrifler Sar...

EP64 – Client Contracts, Terms & Conditions and Other Legal Stuff 08.02.2018 56:20

The sometimes not-so-fun side of business is dealing with the “paperwork”. Contracts, terms and conditions, privacy policies, disclaimers, etc. — it can be overwhelming knowing what you should or shouldn’t be using, and where do you find these documents if you’re just starting out on your own? We’re gonna help you with that, and share our experiences so you can...

EP63 – Designing for Conversion 02.02.2018 59:55

At some point in your web design career you may have felt like it can be really easy to “over-design”. How do you know when your design is simple enough not to confuse users, yet creative enough to keep them on the site, and ultimately, convert them into a customer? Today were going to discuss this and other points related to designing for conversion. We’ll pay special attention to landing/s...

EP62 – Our First Look at Gutenberg 25.01.2018 58:55

If you do anything involving WordPress chances are you’ve heard of Gutenberg by now. It’s the new WordPress publishing experience (that’s in beta at the time of this posting) and today we discuss our experience with it so far, and what we think it means for the future of WordPress, Divi, our businesses, etc. This will be the first of a few Guten-focused talks, we’re pretty...

EP61 – Setting Up Email for Your Web Clients 19.01.2018 36:16

Setting up email accounts for your web clients can be one of the more confusing areas of web design. Should you use the hosting account or a separate cloud service? How do you know which service to choose? Today we’ll discuss how we set up email accounts for our clients and why. Hosts Present: David Blackmon – Aspen Grove Studios / FB / @aspengrovellc Cory Jenkins – Aspen Grove S...

EP60 – How We Handle Support for Divi Products 11.01.2018 57:30

If you sell products online then your sales may reach a point where you need to hire help to handle customer support. And then if you decide to do that what tools are out there to help you with this? Today we discuss that, what tools and services we use to handle support for our customers. This is a great topic for anyone venturing into selling products in a Divi Marketplace (and WP marketplaces i...

EP59 – 2018 Goals and What’s Next for Divi Chat 04.01.2018 1:03:50

Happy new year and welcome 2018!! Today we discuss what’s on the agenda for the new year for our businesses and for Divi Chat. Hosts Present: David Blackmon – Aspen Grove Studios / FB / @aspengrovellc Josh Hall – JoshHall.co / FB Tim Strifler – Divi Life / FB / @timstrifler Leslie Bernal – A Girl and Her Mac / FB / @agirlandhermac   https://youtu.be/ltA8gxAXNL4

EP58 – 2017 End of the Year Recap 20.12.2017 1:08:16

Today we have year in review-type chat and talk about what happened in 2017 with Divi, WordPress, our businesses, stuff like that… super casual 🙂 Hosts Present: David Blackmon – Aspen Grove Studios / FB / @aspengrovellc Josh Hall – JoshHall.co / FB Tim Strifler – Divi Life / FB / @timstrifler Sarah Oates – Endure Web Studios / FB / @endureweb Leslie Bernal – A...

EP57 – Designing Landing Pages & Longform Sales Pages with Divi 14.12.2017 43:55

Landing pages and longform sales pages are a great conversion tool for any business, and they absolutely can be created in Divi. This week we discuss some characteristics of successful landing pages, some dos and don’ts we’ve learned over the years, and go over some great tips and practices that are easily actionable to anyone new to creating landing pages. Hosts Present: David Blackmo...

EP56 – Finding a Work-Life Balance 07.12.2017 1:01:10

Balancing your personal life and your work life can be a challenge. Especially if you are a freelancer, solopreneur, or a member of a small team and your work schedule is pretty much left to however you slice it up. Being able to leave work at work in order to to keep your sanity is not as easy as it may sound, and something we probably all constantly evolve and improve over time. Today we chat ab...

EP55 – How to Avoid Decision Paralysis 29.11.2017 57:34

Too many options can actually cause someone to self-doubt and hesitate because there are so many options. An “abandoned cart” kind of thing, when you’re so unsure you give up and don’t choose anything. We talk about this from the perspective of a web designer and how we lay out the options for visitors, and as well as from the perspective of the client who is overwhelmed wi...

EP54 – All About the SSL 23.11.2017 52:29

SSL is something you’ve probably heard of, it’s that thing that turns your http:// into http s :// . You may wonder if it’s something you need to have on your site or need to add to your clients’ sites. Our answer is yes, but let’s discuss 😀   Hosts Present: David Blackmon – Aspen Grove Studios / FB / @aspengrovellc Tim Strifler – Divi Life / FB / @t...

EP53 – Migrating Your WordPress Website 15.11.2017 55:10

Episode 53 (already?) brings you real life, unscripted, genuinely balanced discussion regarding what works and what doesn’t when migrating your WordPress site. Is there a best way? Maybe not! It can be scary for sure. ? It might depend on what you are already familiar with… It might depend on the details of the site you’re migrating. Regardless, you’re sure to get some valu...

EP52 – How to Safely Perform Divi Updates 09.11.2017 53:00

This week we share our tips for dealing with the pretty frequent Divi updates we’ve been experiencing for a few months now. Divi is constantly improving but with those improvements come some frustrating quirks and bugs that can seemingly wreak havoc on our sites. How do we deal?! Hosts Present: David Blackmon – Aspen Grove Studios / FB / @aspengrovellc Cory Jenkins – Aspen Grove...

EP51 – Pricing Reveal on Websites: The Pros and Cons 01.11.2017 58:35

To reveal or not to reveal? “Aye, Matey” or “No Way, José?” “Yes, please” or “whatchu talkin ’bout Willis?!” This week we discuss the pros and cons of putting pricing on your website for all to see. Most of us cross this bridge at some point in our business, should we or shouldn’t we? Will my prices scare away potential clients, or help m...

EP50 – The Value of Getting Customer Feedback 25.10.2017 59:34

Customer feedback is crucial for any business to evolve and improve. Today we discuss how feedback — all feedback, not just positive but also negative or critical feedback — can help you tweak areas of your business by using the knowledge you gain from it to your advantage. Feedback can come in the form of client discussions, testimonials, facebook reviews and similar. We share what forms we have...

EP49 – Why You Should Raise Your Rates 18.10.2017 59:55

Pricing can be a tricky subject in general, so raising your rates can seem even trickier. We share our experiences with our rate hikes and why we think raising your rates (when it’s right) is a great move for your business. Hosts Present: David Blackmon – Aspen Grove Studios / FB / @aspengrovellc Cory Jenkins – Aspen Grove Studios / FB / @aspengrovellc Tim Strifler – Divi L...

EP48 – Burnout: Recognizing, Coping, and Overcoming 12.10.2017 1:16:15

Something that isn’t discussed much in our industry (but probably should be) is feeling “burnt out”. No matter what type of work we do it’s very easy to forget to take care of ourselves and our mental health. It’s important to recognize when we need to take a step back, assess, and take action when it comes to dealing with burnout. What does it mean to feel “bur...

EP47 – Marketing to Your Local Community 04.10.2017 1:07:11

Marketing to your local community can be daunting, especially in the beginning of your business. You may have competition and you may not know how to get your name out there. Should you be networking in person? By phone, by email, all of the above??? We share some tips that worked for us, and some maybe not so much haha. Hosts Present: Cory Jenkins – Aspen Grove Studios / FB / @aspengrovellc...

EP46 – CDNs: How They Work and What We Use with Divi 27.09.2017 49:00

What is a CDN anyway? A CDN is a Content Delivery Network. They make it possible for your site to be accessed from multiple servers globally so that it can load faster for your visitors. We discuss our experience with them and some tips on getting started. Hosts Present: David Blackmon – Aspen Grove Studios / FB / @aspengrovellc Tim Strifler – Divi Life / FB / @timstrifler Sarah Oates...

EP45 – User Experience: More Than Just Design & Development 20.09.2017 53:54

User experience, commonly referred to as UX, is a broad and important subject. How the user is led through the site, how easy the site is to navigate, how quickly the user can find the information they are looking for — these are all just a few things that go into tailoring the user experience on a website. On today’s chat we go over some ways we keep the user experience in mind when d...