Charles Johnston 2020 finalist for JAX Chamber’s Small Business Leaders of the Year
Charles Johnston, founder of HWDS, was named one of 13 finalists for JAX Chamber’s 2020 Small Business Leader of the Year award.
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Charles Johnston, founder of HWDS, was named one of 13 finalists for JAX Chamber’s 2020 Small Business Leader of the Year award.
Click here to learn more!
We pride ourselves on being able to provide digital solutions of all sizes and scale for our clients. To provide the level of service expected and on time, we periodically collaborate with other creatives. Sometimes the concept of ‘outsourcing’ invokes trepidation, and we want to put your mind at ease with our process. We see collaboration with other agencies or freelancers as a win-win solution.
Outsourcing used to come with the idea of offshoring business somewhere overseas. In doing so there were language barriers, security and trust issues galore. The kind of outsourcing we do here at HeartWired does not have any of those issues. In fact, you likely will even get to meet the outsourced party during the creative process as many times they are local resources. We actually believe that this kind of collaboration increases creativity.
This is often a misconception, while we are all service providers there is generally enough business to share. We are competitive and the businesses or freelancers that we use would technically be the ‘competition’. Yet, if we are able to help more people in ways we could not otherwise do on our own, collaboration over competition wins every time. This allows us to serve our clients’ needs as well as build better relationships with other vendors in our area.
Unlike some web agencies, we vet our freelancers and outsource partners as if they were working for us as an employee. We will only work with or allow someone to work with one of our clients if we trust them with our business because we do. Working with only providers of service that we have done business ourselves allows us to have complete confidence to have them represent our brand. Our collaboration efforts have been tried internally before being offered to our clients.
Working locally has its perks for sure. If you are located in the Northeast Florida Southeast Georgia area, it is a good chance you will get to work with someone from your area working with us. Currently, we serve clients in and around the Jacksonville area where our office is located. We also have been blessed to work with businesses and organizations throughout the United States and even globally that serve in other countries.
The misconception that if a company outsources they are shipping the work overseas is just not the way it used to be. We live in the gig economy. An economy where people provide services as a side hustle or as their own small business. These freelancers live here in the US, likely some in your own neighborhood.
There is a good chance that you would not even know that it was outsourced. Our partners usually serve in a capacity like that of an employee. They represent our brand, our methods, and our processes transparent to any agreement. In the situation that is simply not enough, we can accommodate a solely in-house service guarantee. This guarantee could, however, increase pricing and time for your project.
We believe the more we give the more we gain. This philosophy stands true within our outsourcing process as well. Hiring freelancers or other agencies locally we all win. They get work to do during times there may have been a lull. Our clients receive the work they hired us to do timely. Lastly, our local economy wins as small businesses and entrepreneurs are the foundation of a stable economy and when you keep it local we all win.
If you would like to learn more about the services we offer, the clients we serve, or the creatives we collaborate with give us a call or visit our website. Perhaps you too are a freelancer or agency that has the capability and interest to collaborate, we would love to hear from you as well. Or if you simply have thoughts you would like to share, we welcome your insights on how you collaborate creatively.
Charles Johnston, founder of HWDS, presented on WordPress best practices for non-profit organizations at WordCamp Birmingham 2019.
Click here to see more presentations from the conference.
Charles Johnston, founder of HWDS, presented on WordPress best practices for non-profit organizations at WordCamp Europe 2019.
Click here to see more presentations from the conference.
When I wrote my first blog post back in 2007, I thought I knew who my audience was. Without stats using MonsterInsights analytics, I would have written for the incorrect audience for years. Thankfully since then, I have started using analytics to determine who my audience was, and you should too.
There are a handful of WordPress plugins that we use on every website for our clients. One of those plugins is the Google Analytics plugin called MonsterInsights.
MonsterInsights creates a easy way to set up Google Analytics on your website. Once setup, it provides access to all kinds of stats in one place. Statistics that would otherwise need a header code or another more difficult application to retrieve.
In actuality MonsterInsights can do much more than just Google Analytics. Say you have a Woocommerce store and want to track your customers behavior, there is a simple enhanced eCommerce tracking you can turn on. Perhaps you have a form that you want to track engagement or a particular event on your WordPress site you want to track. You guessed it MonsterInsights can help with those as well.
First, head on over (after reading this of course) to the MonsterInsights website and download the plugin. You can also find the plugin in the WordPress plugin repository if that is easier.
After grabbing and downloading the plugin, next comes installing it to your site. If you are unsure about how to install a plugin, we can help or there are plenty of tutorials out there that can show you how.
Once the plugin is installed, you will see a new menu item in your WordPress admin dashboard. Select the Insights » Settings page in the dashboard and type in the license key. If you don’t have a license key yet you can obtain one on the MonsterInsights webpage.
Okay now that the heavy lifting is done, next we need to connect it to your Google Analytics account so all the little monsters can work their magic. Click the “Connect MonsterInsights” button just below where you activated your license. You will then be asked to login into your Google account. If you have many Google or G-Suite accounts like we do, be sure to select the one that you used to create your Google Analytics account (it will save you headaches trust me).
Next you will have to grant the typical permissions for MonsterInsights to access Google and validate that you are human, no DNA required though.
Now you can now start working with the Analytics Dashboard inside WordPress.
MonsterInsights gives you access to great analytics right inside your website dashboard. You can adjust the settings inside the dashboard to give you the statistics that matter the most to you. For example say you are a blogger that uses alot of different affiliate link trackers. There is specific tracking built into the dashboard that will show you the traffic associated with each applicable link.
You guessed it, there is also a way to enable tagging to specific links, allowing you to track not only the links, but the actions taken on the separate links to see which one happens to get most traction.
Whatever your goals are for tracking your web traffic, the dashboard is customizable to fit virtually any need and is also easy to use. So whether you just want to see how much traffic your site is getting, or want to know exactly what action a user took while visiting your site, the MonsterInsight plugin is the way to go.
In conclusion, our recommendation on how to get stats for your website is byusing MonsterInsights. So be sure to grab your copy of the plugin today and discover how much information your own website holds.