Look to your network for insights

We’re half way through the month, so it’s time for another roundup.

Author

Mark Bowley
February 20, 2024

Hey everyone,

We’re just past half way through the month, so it’s time for another roundup. I’m aiming to keep this a twice per month routine, if I can.

It was fun to chat to a few of you who replied to my last email. Keep the replies coming please, it’s always good from what everyone things, or to just say hi.

Time to read: 2 mins

Ask your followers

It’s easy to forget but we really should look to our network for insights more often, rather than make our own assumptions.

As part of refining my work focus and personal brand, I recently asked my followers on X what they know me best for.

As a generalist, I find it can be hard to define yourself online – so I was curious what the answers would be. The results didn’t surprise me, but are definitely useful to know.

SEO content compounds

You’ve probably noticed I’m leaning into SEO this year on side projects, and this post on X caught my attention.

It’s worth remembering that social content requires constant work, whereas SEO content compounds.

Watching SEO growth

Staying on the topic of SEO, I’m finding learning about it is both fascinating and satisfying. Sometimes nothing happens, then a lot happens. The other day I noticed my Starrt (Carrd resources) website doubled its Google Search Impact (clicks from Google Search) in a month, which I think is amazing.

Although I’ve been tweaking little things here and there for SEO, I think most of this organic traffic is compounding from regularly adding content over time.

When was your first side project?

I was chatting with Rob Hope the other day and he mentioned that his onepagelove.com site is turning 16 this year!

So it got me thinking and I realised my first real side project was started in 2009 – a freelance blog I sold a few years later.

When was your first side project started? Hit Reply and let me know.

Publishing on Medium.com

Are you on medium.com? I’ve been starting to publish on there recently.

I'll be sharing a mix of top articles from my own blog, plus new articles on design and side projects.

I’ve just started a mini series on design basics to help you with your online projects. Join me on Medium here.

Tiny Design Lessons

Some of you may remember (or maybe purchased!) my book Tiny Design Lessons from a few years ago. For a while after I tried to run a newsletter with more design tips. That didn’t last, as I misjudged the amount of work involved.

However, I’ve decided to bring it back as an experiment in short-form content, as an ‘atomic’ newsletter – a twice weekly really tiny design tip (or link), to help you make better online products.

If you’re interested you can subscribe here.

Current work availability

I have some availability for projects and contracts at the moment. If you know anyone who would be interested in any of these, let me know in a reply:

  • Part-time design/no-code generalist

  • Ongoing Design or Webflow support

  • 1:1 coaching on design/no-code

I hope you enjoyed this week’s issue. Please reply, or tag me on X if you have something to say. I will reply to every mention.

Mark

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