The Bourn Creative Blog | Bourn Creative

Create An Effective Content Marketing Plan At Content Camp

March 29, 2021 Jennifer Bourn

What do blogging, podcasting, attracting clients, acquiring customers, growing a YouTube channel, building an email list, and establishing a social following have in common?

Content.

No matter what your goal is, if you want to grow your business, gain visibility, and expand your brand:

You need to create high-quality, strategic content on a regular basis. Year-over-year growth in unique site traffic is 7.8x higher for content marketing leaders compared to followers (19.7% vs 2.5%) according to Aberdeen.
You need to market that content to gain as much visibility and website traffic as possible. Content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing and generates about 3 times as many leads according to DemandMetric.
You need people who engage and interact with your content to take action. Conversion rates are nearly 6x higher for content marketing adopters than non-adopters (2.9% vs 0.5%) shares Aberdeen.

Content Camp: A Content Marketing Workshop For Small Business

July 2, 2019 Jennifer Bourn

By now, I’m sure you’ve heard of content marketing and how it can bring a flood of new clients to your business and new customers in the door. You’ve probably also heard that blogging is the fastest way to improve your search rankings and attract new clients. You may have even thought, “I really need to be doing that and leverage the free and low cost tools available to grow my business.”

So you decided to look into it — you did online research, read blog posts, watched YouTube videos, and downloaded a white paper or ebook. But there is so much information out there, so much to learn, so many people with opinions, and so many different options, it’s hard to know what is right for your business and where to start to get the most bang for your buck.

You might have also invested in attending networking events and conferences (or sending your staff to these events) to learn about blogging, content marketing, and the tools available. Unfortunately, all you walked away with is a few tips and a giant to do list of things you should be doing. The problem is that you still haven’t made progress.

I get it. I’ve been there.

I see it happening to small business owners time and time again, and it needs to stop.

What Hosting Companies Want To Know About Agency Partners

March 20, 2019 Jennifer Bourn

In the creative agency and web hosting spaces, partnerships are vital to business growth. The right strategic alliances can take your business from zero to sixty in no time by helping you acquire new clients, extend your reach, drive revenue, and build a network where referrals can flow between your agency and your web hosting partner.

Here are five critical things to share with a web hosting company while exploring the option to become a valued agency partner:

Agency Highway Interview: Creating A Client Management System

September 13, 2018 Jennifer Bourn

Earlier this year, I was research a new content collection tool called Content Snare. The software facilitates the collection of any type of content you need (like website content) and allows you to create custom templates, upload images and screenshots of the design, add instructions, and more. It completely mimics my internal process for gathering website content from clients and so far, I’m in love.

What’s funny is that just as I was researching the software, the founder James Rose reached out to connect about his brand new podcast, Agency Highway. It’s aimed at helping freelance designers, developers, and small agencies do better business. He had heard about my business and client management course Profitable Project Plan and wanted to talk shop and have a conversation for the podcast.

This is one of the best podcast interviews I have participated in because James and I are so in sync with our approach to client work that I swear, we probably could have kept talking for hours. But lucky for you, we reigned it in for a sweet 30-minute show that dives into client onboarding and client management, the early years of Bourn Creative, and the changes made in my business to create the life as a business owner I wanted.

What You Need To Know About WordCamp Sacramento 2018

July 16, 2018 Jennifer Bourn

WordCamp Sacramento 2018 is on! Happening September 15-16, 2018 at the Sacramento Convention Center, WordCamp Sacramento is once again bringing two days of WordPress-focused learning, networking, and fun to California’s state capitol.

I was lead organizer for WordCamp Sacramento in 2016 and 2017, growing the event from 180 attendees to 500 attendees, but there is a two year term limit on the position of lead organizer. This rule is in place to ensure that WordCamps remain a community event and don’t “die on the vine” when one community member leaves or moves away. What this also means is that this year I’m only the Speaker Wrangler and Brian is only the VIP Dinner Wrangler, which means we aren’t responsible for the overall planning, food, and coordination and I am not involved in the event design.

As Speaker Wrangler, I am in charge of the event curriculum and the management of the speakers, and now that the speakers, the sessions, and the official WordCamp schedule have been announced, I can tell you that I am over the moon excited about the event, especially the all new, two-day Beginner Track!

It’s A Family Affair For WordCamp Orange County 2018

April 25, 2018 Jennifer Bourn

At Bourn Creative, we use WordPress to design and develop custom websites for clients around the globe. WordPress has been our tool of choice as a small businesses content management system since 2009 and we not only believe in WordPress as a website platform, but as a community.

You may not know it, but there is a thriving community of people around the world that work to create, build, and improve WordPress. From designers and developers, to marketers, copywriters, business owners, project managers, freelancers, translators, and more, many people not only work to make WordPress a successful open-source platform, but a welcoming, open community. And, the two biggest ways of fostering community around WordPress is through WordPress Meetups and WordCamps.

Jennifer And Natalie Bourn Set To Speak This April At WordCamp San Diego 2018

March 27, 2018 Jennifer Bourn

Bourn Creative is excited to announce that a new Bourn is joining the ranks of speaker! Both Jennifer Bourn and Natalie Bourn will be speaking at WordCamp San Diego 2018, happening April 14-15, 2018 at the San Diego City College Math and Science Building.

Jennifer, who has been working as a designer for 20 years, is delivering a session on web design, sharing tips for DIYers to design like the professionals.
Natalie, a high school freshman who has been blogging for four years, is delivering a session on starting a blog and finding your voice.

The whole family is excited to spend the weekend in San Diego and cheer Natalie on in her first speaking gig! If you’d like to learn more about their sessions or attending WordCamp San Diego, here is some more information:

WPBlab: Encouraging Community Members To Speak At WordPress Meetups And WordCamps

September 25, 2017 Jennifer Bourn

This past Thursday Bourn Creative founding partner, Jennifer Bourn, joined Jason Tucker and Bridget Willard for WP Blab, a WordPress-focused, conversational interview show. WPblab streams live every Thursday at 7:00 pm Pacific and is part of the Watercooler Network.

As a co-organizers for the Sacramento WordPress Meetup, co-organizers for WordCamp Sacramento 2015, and lead organizers for WordCamp Sacramento 2016 and WordCamp Sacramento 2017, Jennifer and I book a lot of speakers and beg a lot of community members to share their knowledge with us through speaking.

How To Achieve Higher Profits While Working Less And Enjoying More Freedom

August 9, 2017 Jennifer Bourn

“I want to work less and make more money,” is a common desire among internet business owners, freelancers, and entrepreneurs, but often with so much work to do, it seems next to impossible.

If you focus on sales and marketing, you end up falling behind on client work, and if you focus on client work, you risk losing potential new business. Sometimes it’s a struggle just to get ahead of the work you have so you can take the evenings or weekend off… and maybe you’re even so busy that things are starting to slip through the cracks? I have been there, and almost 10 years ago, it all came to a head one night when I realized that I had a big problem in a very embarrassing and public way, and that it needed to be fixed as soon as possible or my business would begin to suffer greatly.

After celebrating Bourn Creative’s twelve year anniversary this July, I decided to share my story, the lessons, learned, and how I overcame exhaustion and stress to run the streamlined, freedom-based business Bourn Creative is today.

Selling A Million Dollars In Design Side Projects

May 18, 2017 Jennifer Bourn

Development is clear cut. It works or it doesn’t. The code is well-written or it’s a mess. Design on the other hand, is subjective, with the success of a project often based on the client’s ideas, perceptions, opinions, and personal experiences of what good design is.

Jennifer Bourn (that’s me) is founding partner and lead designer of Bourn Creative. While she spends her days designing high-end, complex, custom WordPress sites and brand suites, she has also sold well over a million dollars in just side projects and add-ons ranging from in price from $75-$3,000 — and the journey has been good, bad, and at times, down right ugly.

Jennifer recently teamed up with iThemes Training to deliver a free webinar called Selling a Million Dollars In Design about selling design services that skips the hype and sugar-coating, and gets right to the mistakes made, lessons learned, and business practices implemented over the 12 years Bourn Creative has been in business.

You Need A Break To Get Things Done

April 15, 2017 Jennifer Bourn

WordCamp San Diego is a WordCamp that we attend every year. Yes, we have many friends in San Diego and I was invited to speak — which makes the event extra fun — but more important, the event offers an curated business track.

A lot of WordCamps offer a business track or business related content, but the sessions are all based on whatever happens to be submitted. WordCamp San Diego does it differently. More specifically, Chris Lema does it differently. Instead of relying on what gets submitted, Chris takes a more proactive approach. Each year, he hand-crafts the entire business track, selecting the topics of each sessions so they build on each other and create a cohesive curriculum. He then identifies the right people to deliver those talks. It makes for a much better attendee experience because all of the talks and speakers compliment each other.

How to Build a Strong Brand and Design for Your Learning Platform

April 4, 2017 Jennifer Bourn

I’ve been lucky enough, at industry events and at CaboPress, to spend some quality time with the talented folks over at LifterLMS. Not only do have they created a great product, the LifterLMS WordPress Plugin, they are also really good people. So when Chris Badgett reached out about being a guest on their podcast, LMScast, to talk about branding, of course I said yes!

In this podcast episode, Chris and I talk about branding as it relates to creating an online course.

WordCamp Sacramento 2017 Embraces Peace, Love, And WordPress At The Sacramento Convention Center

March 23, 2017 Jennifer Bourn

After an incredible inaugural WordCamp Sacramento in 2015, that sold out in only two hours, it was clear that our Sacramento WordPress community wanted to improve their WordPress skills and meet other WordPressers in the greater Sacramento region — and that a weekend conference, separate from the monthly Sacramento WordPress meetup was very appreciated. I signed on to be lead organizer for WordCamp Sacramento 2016, moving the event to the Sacramento State University Alumni Center, where we welcomed 31 speakers and 350 attendees of all skills levels for a weekend of learning, eating, networking, and fun.

For WordCamp Sacramento 2017, I am once again lead organizer, and once again moving to a new venue — a larger venue we won’t outgrow and hopefully can continue to host WordCamp at years to come. WordCamp Sacramento 2017 will be held September 16-17, 2017 at the Sacramento Convention Center, just steps from the California State Capital, historic attractions, and amazing restaurants, as well as mere blocks from the brand new Golden 1 Center and K Street Mall.

It was really difficult to turn people away after tickets sold out last year because of venue capacity, so I’m really excited that this year we’re taking over the entire second floor meeting space of the convention center and will have enough space to welcome everyone who would like to join us (as long as they buy a ticket by the pre-event cutoff date). We’re expecting around 500 WordPressers this year!

Traffic & Conversion Summit 2017

March 14, 2017 Jennifer Bourn

This past weekend, Brian and I traveled to sunny San Diego for some gorgeous weather and an enormous internet marketing conference hosted by Digital Marketer. While Traffic & Conversion Summit has some “basics” sessions for beginners, the conference best serves more seasoned marketers and marketing agencies — those who have existed for a while, have data to look at, products to sell, and systems to improve.

Brian and I co-organize the Sacramento WordPress Meetup, we helped bring WordCamp to Sacramento in 2015 and I was lead organizer for WordCamp Sacramento 2016 and WordCamp Sacramento 2017, and we speak at and attend WordCamps up and down the west coast. But every once in a while, you’ve got to get out of the WordPress Bubble.

At times, the WordPress community can sound like an echo chamber, views can become limited, and understandings of how WordPress is positioned in the market can get warped. WordCamps, WordPress meetups, and other WordPress focused events like Pressnomics, WooConf, CaboPress, and Loopconf all, not surprisingly, focus on WordPress, and while the events are very valuable for those of us in WordPress, too much of that like-mindedness or only that like-mindedness can be dangerous.

This is why we go to non-WordPress business events and invest in attending at least one non-WordPress conference every year. We also believe that if you ever stop learning, you’ll plateau and be less valuable and helpful to your clients. Part of the reason we invest so heavily in traveling to and attending conference of all types is to:

What Is The Difference Between A WordPress Page and A WordPress Post?

February 7, 2017 Jennifer Bourn

For those of us who work with WordPress daily, concepts like the difference between WordPress pages and posts seem obvious, but then I go to a networking event, blogging event, or conference, and I am reminded that what we as professionals see as obvious is often seen as complex and confusing to new users. This is especially true with WordPress posts and pages — and when custom post types are thrown in the mix, it gets even more confusing.

Just a couple weeks ago, a new client was asking new to explain the difference between WordPress pages and posts. I grinned, told them that I had already written an entire blog post on this very topic, and went to grab the link and email it to them. But I couldn’t find it. Had I really never clicked publish on this post? Did it get buried under newer posts and forgotten about? Yep. It sure did. So needless to say, I’m publishing it now and hoping it sheds some light on this topic for you too!

Brian Clark of Rainmaker Digital Interviews Jennifer Bourn for the Unemployable Podcast

January 26, 2017 Jennifer Bourn

Many people have asked me if I would ever take a job and go to work for someone else again. I always answered, “Maybe. I’m always open to possibility and at least a conversation.” Over the last few years, Brian and I have both been offered jobs — jobs normal people would jump at. But really, neither of us are interested in giving up the freedom we have as design agency owners.

While some years were rougher than we’d like, Bourn Creative turns twelve this summer, and we could be happier. We’re fortunate to have a full roster of amazing clients we enjoy working with. We get to work on projects that fulfill us professionally and have time to pursue passion projects and hobbies that fulfill us personally. We can work from anywhere in the world and travel as much as we want (around the kids’ school schedule of course). Business is good. Life is good.

After almost twelve years of making my own schedule and managing my own day, I’m basically unemployable. So when Brian Clark, founder of Copyblogger and CEO of Rainmaker Digital, reached out about being a guest on his Unemployable Podcast, I of course said yes.

Build Your Email List Fast With An Irresistible Free Offer

January 10, 2017 Jennifer Bourn

While brands and businesses are all but racing to social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, SnapChat and Instagram, they still are only reaching a small amount of the market. The irresistible email opt-in offer can change that.

The cornerstone of any successful business, online or offline, is its coveted marketing list — the list of customers, clients, prospects and other interested folks who have given you permission to market to them.

Email lists are critical to the success of your business because while not everyone uses social media (it’s crazy, but true), everyone has an email address.

Want to sign up for a social media site? Go ahead. They’ll require and email address.
Want to buy a product? Sure. They’ll need your email address.
Want to subscribe to a publication? No problem. Give them your email address.
Want to become a member? Great. They’ll also ask for your email.

How to Build a Sustainable Referral-Based Business

December 29, 2016 Jennifer Bourn

If you’re a business owner, freelancer or entrepreneur, you’re probably going to networking events and conferences, being present on social media, and investing time and resources in blogging, cold calling, advertising, email marketing, search engine optimization, free offers, teleseminars, webinars, online challenges and direct mail. You’re doing it all to chase new leads, make more sales, gain new clients… and it’s exhausting.

Yet even though you’re working hard to close new sale after new sale and avoid the dreaded self-employment income roller coaster, it feels like you’re always behind.

Wouldn’t it be awesome to be able to stop chasing clients and instead have them chase you? How transformational would it be to have all the new clients and customers you need seek you out, and all you have to do is serve your clients and do what you do best?

This shift in new client and custom acquisition strategy can happen by focusing your efforts on building a sustainable business based on referrals.

How to Create A Website That Works When You’re Not Working

December 21, 2016 Jennifer Bourn

Today, a website is a fundamental requirement for every business. The process of planning, designing, and building a website is a critical step in establishing and launching a brand, yet website building is often fraught with problems caused by common misconceptions, misinformation, dangerous shortcuts, and poor guidance.

While no one thinks it will ever happen to them, even the most careful and savvy business owners fall victim to potential threats that sabotage their website’s success from day one.

Luckily, with the right mindset about your small business website, the right approach to creating your site, and the right website strategy to gain conversions, you can create a powerful website that works when you’re not working.

When you’re beginning to think about building a new website, the first step is getting in the right frame of mind so you avoid these three common website fallacies:

10 Simple (Non-Technical) Ways To Improve WordPress Security

December 12, 2016 Jennifer Bourn

At Bourn Creative, we have been building websites since 2005, and working solely with WordPress as our platform of choice since 2008. Over the years, we have said the same thing to every client we work with: WordPress security starts with you.

I can’t emphasize enough how important this idea is when it comes to caring for and maintaining your WordPress website.

Many website owners think that all of the work to build their WordPress website happens up front, but in reality, the design, development and creation of a WordPress site is just the first step. When you launch a new WordPress site, you become a website owner, and as a website owner, it is your responsibility to take care of it, to care for it, and to keep it safe and healthy.

Owning any website, not just a WordPress website, requires ongoing maintenance. Your WordPress website is powered by the WordPress software, and all software — like Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Word, Apple iTunes, and all of the Apps on your phone — has ongoing updates that you must manage.

Ignoring software updates can cause a bevy of problems:

You don’t have access to new features that make using the software better and easier.
You don’t benefit from bug fixes that solves problems in the software.
You don’t benefit from compatibility fixes that helps the software play nice with other software.
You don’t benefit from security patches that fix vulnerabilities in the software, which means you’re leaving your website and/or your phone or computer open to being attacked or hacked.

The good news is that you don’t have to be a tech-wizard to keep your WordPress site secure. Even if you’re non-technical, you can take steps to improve WordPress security. Here’s how.

Kyle Maurer Interviews Jennifer Bourn For WP Roundtable

November 29, 2016 Jennifer Bourn

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to chat with Kyle Maurer for the WP Roundtable podcast. Our conversation was really organic and natural and it covers some WordPress, some business, some personal stuff that I’ve never shared in an interview before.

I’m not sure how much caffeine I drank the day we recorded this interview, but this is probably my most honest, animated, candid, and feisty interview ever.

How To Create An Ideal Client Profile And Use It To Make Your Marketing More Effective

November 7, 2016 Jennifer Bourn

Last week I shared some thoughts on the gut of surface-level blog posts about defining an ideal client and why it is helpful in business. My article on Defining Your Client Persona To Create Targeted Marketing Messages walks you through what an ideal client profile is, why you need one, and how it helps your marketing efforts. I even provided some tips on how to identify who your ideal client is.

The feedback on the article so far has been amazing, so I wanted to take it a step further and really dig in deeper to share exactly how to create an ideal client profile, in another article I wrote for GoDaddy, Narrow Your Focus: Tips For Creating An Ideal Client Profile And Putting It To Work, including:

9 Ways evaluate data to create an ideal client profile
How to get the data needed to create an ideal client profile
How to use an ideal client profile

Here is the full article:

Define Your Client Persona To Create Targeted Marketing Messages

October 31, 2016 Jennifer Bourn

There is a lot of talk about defining an ideal client profile or ideal client persona online and throughout social media, especially in the entrepreneurial, freelance, solopreneur, online business, and internet marketing arenas. Some of it is good, some of it is okay but a bit misguided, and some of it is downright incorrect — yikes!

The problem is the same for anything that becomes a marketing buzz-word or assumed magic pill for success: everyone, even non-experts, jump on the hype bandwagon and start writing blog posts to earn extra traffic and capitalize on the buzzword. This means that many of the blog posts attempting to teach you about ideal client profiles and how to use a client persona aren’t teaching from first-hand experience and wild success, but from mere regurgitation of what they themselves have read online.

If you’re not quite sure what an ideal client profile or client persona is, or even how to use it, this article I recently wrote for GoDaddy, Cast a narrower net: Define your client persona to easily create targeted marketing messages, will get you started in the right direction:

AAF District 8 Far North Conference

October 18, 2016 Jennifer Bourn

The American Advertising Federation of North Dakota, one of more than 200 local AAF clubs, hosted the biennial AAF District 8 Conference for the first time since the 1980s this past week. The official Far North Conference — inspired by the bright lights and big ideas brought attendees together to experience big ideas in a small environment to foster learning, sharing and making new connections. It was held in Fargo at the Ecce Art Gallery and featured one local speaker and four national speakers, including Bourn Creative’s founding partner, Jennifer Bourn.