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:

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

WordCamp Sacramento 2016, Two Days Of WordPress Focused Learning

July 20, 2016 Jennifer Bourn

It’s official! The Second Annual WordCamp Sacramento is back and it is bigger and better than ever.

Bourn Creative’s Jennifer Bourn and Brian Bourn give back to the WordPress community by donating their time as co-organizers of the monthly Sacramento WordPress Meetup, sharing their knowledge and expertise by speaking at WordCamps, and helping to bring WordCamp to Sacramento for its inaugural event in 2015. This year, Jennifer is the Lead Organizer for WordCamp Sacramento and Brian Bourn is on the event organizing committee.

After selling out last year’s event (150 tickets) in just over two hours and fielding a lot of emails and phones calls from unhappy folks who were unable to get a ticket, we knew that we needed a bigger venue for 2016.

WordCamp Sacramento 2016 is expanding to a two-day event, happening October 22-23, 2016 at the beautiful Harper Alumni Center at Sacramento State University. With a capacity of 350, we’re more than doubling the number of tickets available.

WordCamp Minneapolis 2016: A Focus On Intention

May 2, 2016 Brian Bourn

WordCamp Minneapolis, happening May 21-22, 2016 at the University of Minnesota Humphrey School of Public Affairs, is focused around the idea of intention and that our best work is always done when we have a sense of the greater purpose behind it.

With this theme in mind, many of the sessions will explore the reasons why we do things — whether that’s in development, design, content, teaching, learning, or strategy.

Bourn Creative’s own Jennifer Bourn will be speaking at WordCamp Minneapolis about The Path to Conversion, specifically on designing WordPress themes with intention so they support the clients’ goals, position them in the marketplace, help tell their brand story, and naturally guide visitors to take the desired action.

Most discussions and talks on WordPress theming are focused on development, but to write the code for and develop a WordPress theme, you first need design.

Web design plays a critical role in setting the tone of a website, focusing visitors’ attention, and guiding them through the site to a conversion with as little friction as possible. It also is responsible for shaping brand perception, audience emotion, and telling a story that not only produces results but resonates with clients and customers.

A WordPress Blog Is A Filing Cabinet For Your Website

March 28, 2016 Jennifer Bourn

I’m guilty of it. Almost every blogger I know is guilty of it —, well, at least the bloggers who have been blogging for years. It’s a problem we caused that has haunted us for the life of our blog and now is either a huge task we know we need to tackle, or a huge task we’re just going to ignore and push to the side.

Category and Tag Abuse

WordPress category and tag abuse is a real struggle. It’s how this blog at one point, ballooned to more than 30 categories and 800 tags that I then had to clean up.

Now you may be thinking, “So what? What’s the big deal”

The big deal is that not only does category and tag abuse split and fracture your content, it creates a poor experience for your website visitors, making it harder to find similar or related content about the topic they are interested in on your website.

Categories and Tags Used As Keywords

The problem of category and tag abuse stems from the belief that categories and tags are similar to keywords, and that when assigned a category or tag to a blog post, it is the same as assigning a keyword to the post. This action is further perpetuated by the belief that assigning a post to a specific category or tag like a keyword somehow will help their search engine optimization (SEO) efforts.

Unfortunately, that’s not how it works.

How Do You Manage The Work Life Balance Challenge?

March 23, 2016 Jennifer Bourn

We recently shared with you that Bourn Creative’s managing partner, Brian Bourn will be speaking at WordCamp San Diego 2016 on Custom Data Management Made Easier, An Intro To Custom Fields, and today we have more great news to share.

Jennifer Bourn will also be joining the lineup of speakers as part of the Sunday Business Track. Jennifer will be speaking on the topic of Balance: How do you manage the work/life balance challenge?

For years Jennifer has juggled several competing requests on her time. She’s a full time business owner, entrepreneur, wife, mom, writer and more. Yet, she’s also had time for family vacation, business travel and more — which raises a question. Is she cloned, or does she know something about how to manage the challenges of this thing we call a “work/life balance”?

I Hated Facebook And It Was All My Fault

November 15, 2015 Jennifer Bourn

I remember sitting in the audience at the very first “big” conference I had ever attended. I was surrounded by people who were taking action, investing in themselves and their business, and talking about things no one at the local networking groups I had been attending for more than a year were talking about.

There were about 500 people crammed in a too-small ballroom in Los Angeles and there was excitement in the air. We were learning about new tools, tactics, and strategies for building our businesses online — email marketing, search engine optimization, blogging for business, WordPress, and this new thing called social media.

We learned about this website that had started just for college kids, but was now a place that entrepreneurs and business owners could connect and be friends and talk business using the internet.

WordCamp Sacramento 2015, A Day of WordPress-Focused Training Is A Wrap!

November 10, 2015 Jennifer Bourn

From the initial logo design and site development, to the content planning and blogging, the social media, email communication, the signage, name badge, and program design, and taking care of other event details and errands, for months, Brian and I have been neck-deep in WordCamp planning.

Now that WordCamp Sacramento is a wrap, we’re elated to call the event a tremendous success.

Driving out to the event Saturday morning, I was nervous and excited, and just hoped we’d have a smooth event — and that people would actually show up. We got registration setup, the signage up, and volunteers began to arrive. It was all coming together and it was do or die time. My stomach was doing some serious flip flops.

As people began to arrive and mill around the Happiness Room with coffee, snacks, and waters, they began chatting up the sponsors and grabbing a seat in the track rooms, and it got real really fast. WordCamp Sacramento was actually happening. It’s something we have been talking about for years, and finally it was here, people were here — and it felt really good.

WordCamp Sacramento 2015 Brings Two Tracks of WordPress Focused Learning

October 27, 2015 Jennifer Bourn

Eleven Days. That’s It. There are only eleven more days until WordCamp Sacramento 2015.

I can hardly believe it.

We’ve been working with WordPress for seven years, and we’ve been attending WordCamps since 2011. We’re frequent WordCampers, traveling to WordCamps across the west coast as they fit into our schedule. We love them, love the WordPress community, and are always happy to see our friends and meet new WordPressers at the events.

For years, we have been talking about bringing WordCamp to Sacramento among ourselves and with others involved with the WordPress Meetup in Sacramento. Almost a year ago, I started calling locations, trying to secure a venue, and it’s thrilling to finally see it coming to fruition, to be part of the organizing team, and to have Bourn Creative as a sponsor.

Organizing Team

WordCamp Sacramento wouldn’t be happening without the volunteer organizing team.

As WordPress enthusiasts, co-organizers of the Sacramento WordPress meetup, and agency owners, Brian and I are proud to be organizers of the inaugural Sacramento WordCamp, alongside Bill Mead, Heather Hogan, Jake Goldman, Joe Boydston, and students Jen Meyer, and Emily Buonauro.