Design to Spec llc

Changing Your Blog Content: Soft Landing or Sharp Turn?

Vanessa Wood — Thu, 15 Aug 2024 20:38:40 +0000

We’ve lived through a pandemic, a whacky U.S. economy, and just a tad of social change. So what if you want to start down a different road with your blog content? Do you need a new blog and new website address? Maybe. Or, can you make a switch with your current blog? I’d like to share how one content creator made the switch. And as Grandma would say, “It’s a doozy.”

One of my favorite YouTubers is Jenna Phipps. Her videos over the past several years have focused on crafting and clothing and crocheting. She’s a twenty-something who was making clothing and crochet that felt young and relevant. This year she switched content and it’s brilliant.

Her first video goes all in with the intro “So, I recently just bought an abandoned house.” Why? “Because it was cheaper than a living house.” Her deadpan delivery is perfect as she stands below a collapsing ceiling. Six months ago the last posts feature sewing and jewelry crafts and then… BANG… content changed.

You may wonder how a crochet vlogger could change to home reno and keep her followers. Apparently crafty people like reno too (and not just the fluffy home decor stuff). A million plus followers are watching Jenna and her boyfriend Nick uncover poor construction, water damage, and do their own demo… and more demo.

I think Jenna is something of a disrupter to the home improvement genre for several reasons.

She didn’t wait for HGTV to offer a show.
She’s not flipping the house for resale. She says she plans to live in it.
She’s created a youthful vibe for home renovation that doesn’t exist on HGTV or the shows like This Old House that feel as though they’re hosted by the same age range as the reporters on 60 Minutes.
Where many cable renovation shows have prominent product placement, Jenna includes thoughtful disposal and recycling. One of the most astonishing things is that they comment about the high quality of the old lumber in the house and they are shown reusing it in new construction.

Bloggers can learn from Jenna’s content change. It’s smart to take your followers with you as you venture into new content. Posting on an established site or an established social media account means you have a ready-built audience. Sure, you may lose some followers, but it’s easier that starting to build a following from scratch.

How you make a change in content is up to you and what fits with your posting style. A soft landing could entail making posts promoting an exciting future update or slowly changing content over time. A sharp turn may feel like ripping off the proverbial band-aid. Like Jenna, it’s going straight into new content.

FEATURED IMAGE – Created on ChatGPT, 15 August 2024

The post Changing Your Blog Content: Soft Landing or Sharp Turn? appeared first on Design to Spec llc.

Make AI “Stock” Images In Your Website or Blog

Vanessa Wood — Mon, 08 Jan 2024 18:54:32 +0000

Happy New Year! Two little words for 2024 —–Artificial Intelligence. There are some important things to know about AI: There are may different AI systems and not all do the same thing. If you want to experience AI you can do so on your own website or blog. If you’re using WordPress, Elementor (builder system) can be added… and guess what…Elementor has AI features.

Hasta La Vista Stock Images

If you use stock photo in your blog posts you may want to use Elementor’s AI to create specific images. The image below was created in an Elementor image block by requesting “dog reading newspaper sepia.” A photographic image was selected. The result was four images to choose from. Fun!

Next I asked for an “airstream trailer in the desert.” There you go, van-life bloggers! These are not actual photos, but digital images created by images programmed into the AI program.

Recommendations from Design to Spec

Do I have any recommendations? Yes, I do. My suggestion is to let your website visitors know your images are created with AI. You can add a comment with the image–that will put a comment under the image. Or your can footnote your blog post with an explanation that images were created with AI. Your comment or foot note should include that Elementor was used.

Why am I making this recommendation? We’ve all heard about AI creating video “fakes” of celebrities. No likes to be fooled. Honesty is the best policy. Europe is ahead of the US with the GDPR directing how information is gathered from users online. If I have to predict the future, there will be guidelines for the use of AI. So why not be ahead of the game and start off posting source information now, then you won’t have to go back later and to identify the image.

Note where your AI content comes from now and you won’t be freaking out later when it becomes the accepted practice.

If you’d like to get started with AI on your website or block contact Design to Spec.

FEATURED IMAGE: Elementor, AI, “Giant Insect Reading Computer,” digital image, 8 January 2024.

The post Make AI “Stock” Images In Your Website or Blog appeared first on Design to Spec llc.

WordPress: Own Your Own

Vanessa Wood — Wed, 26 Jul 2023 22:18:07 +0000

I was listening to the Minimalists Podcast (episode 402). The topic of “own your own” website content came up. They experienced losing some of their content when Instagram not only removed some Instagram approved music from their videos but also their voice soundtrack (BUMMER!). While what they had on Instagram was diminished, what was on their OWN website was still there.

Two new WordPress clients have a very similar situation. Both let web designers buy their web address and hosting account. The web designer bought their domain name (URL) and put their websites on hosting accounts owned by the designer. Do you think Coca Cola, Amazon, or other branded companies give ownership of their online branding to someone else? For heaven’s sake, no! When someone else owns your domain name or hosting, they own your brand and they own a significant piece of your business.

When someone else owns your domain and hosting, your hands are tied from recovering your website if it is hacked, suffers a malfunction, and even from doing simple updates. Sadly, I experienced a scenario a few years ago when a client’s designer died suddenly and left the client without any access to their website.

What can you do today to recover ownership?

1. Negotiate – If you have a contract or an agreement with a designer to maintain your website, discuss your concerns. Renegotiate what it means to maintain your website and get that in writing.

2. Get the Login Credentials – There are several layers of login security for WordPress websites. Ask the designer for the web address, username and password for the domain registration, hosting account, and the WordPress dashboard.

3. Test the Credentials – Please don’t be satisfied that you’ve received the correct credentials. I would be a very rich woman if I had a dollar for every time I’ve received outdated login credentials. Outdated credentials aren’t unusual because we all are familiar with changing passwords on website we visit, either because they have aged or we have forgotten a password. This can happen to your designer too. Test them to be sure they work.

4. Do you need to change designer’s access? – Do you have a “happy marriage” or a “contentious divorce” with your designer? If you are moving on from your designer be sure to login to the WordPress dashboard and delete their USER access.

Design to Spec is a WordPress design and website consulting firm. We offer sound advice based on “best practices.” We can help you regain ownership of your own content. We offer recommendations for domain registration and hosting based on what works best for your website, without earning affiliate compensation.

The post WordPress: Own Your Own appeared first on Design to Spec llc.