I write this article from a place of care and gratitude. It’s a bit funny because these are two of Pixelgrade’s core values. They’re embedded in my core system, too. I guess that’s why it felt so natural to express them consistently. 

While I get the urgency of knowing what happened (our culture loves to name the culprits and punish them), truth is that such an approach does not strike a chord. Nor is it aligned with who I am or what Pixelgrade stands for.

I’m sorry to leave you hanging, but you can skip these lines if you’re looking for gossip. Make yourself a favor and do something better with your time. What follows is not about who-did-what. 

I’m a gal who values going in-depth and providing context. I feel no joy in sharing blames and rushing to conclusions. It doesn’t honor me.

Therefore, what follows is not a big reveal of a juicy conflict or a soap opera that usually kicks off when people split ways. It’s the outcome of a long labor of deconstruction, understanding, digesting to put the pieces back together. And yet another way to express my gratitude for everything that I experienced here over the years.

If you want to have a broader image of how it felt to work at Pixelgrade for the last six+ years, check out the previous articles:

• The unseen of spending three years at Pixelgrade
• The fourth year of Pixelgrade was about sticking together
• Five years at Pixelgrade is not that much

It was demanding, fulfilling, and sometimes fun

During the conversation regarding my resignation, I said loud and clear that I can’t blame Pixelgrade for anything. We both grew together. Sometimes, we got along really well and accomplished spectacular results. Other times, our ways of approaching things collided and raised painful consequences that took me off the rails. 

Life was generous with us, yet we did not always know what to do with all the good on our table. I guess it’s damn true that we take the form of the vessel we live in.

Pixelgrade is ten+ years old, and I’ve been here more than half of the company’s time. It was super intense and passionate. In the early days, I thought people at the helm always knew their s**t. This is what makes them entrepreneurs, right? Oh well, not necessarily. I felt on my skin that dynamics are complex and full of intricacies. This learning curve made me more humble and sympathetic.

• Creating products is one thing; selling them is another thing.
• Owning a company is one thing; running a team is another thing.
• Doing your job is one thing; having a lasting impact is another thing.
• Having a fantastic office is one thing; building bonds is another thing.
• Talking openly about work is one thing; being vulnerable is another thing.

Results and clarity do not happen de facto. They are not implicit. Neither they come with the founder, co-founder, or business partner title. It’s something you foster one day after the other. And hell, it takes a lot of resources to navigate in the long run.

I had the chance to wore a wide range of hats, so I’ll be forever appreciative of this flexibility. I joined Pixelgrade as a communicator, transitioned into people-person, then Chief People Officer, then business partner. In the last two years, I have been in the front line of nurturing our first online community. 

Meanwhile, I filled dozens of cracks: helping my customer support fellows communicate better; playing the OKRs champ role; creating the recruitment and onboarding processes; running 1:1s; leading the partners’ meetings; organizing anniversaries, and way too many to remember. 

Having so much room to experiment was one of the most exciting perks someone could have offered me. I had the opportunity to learn, evolve, and fail in a safe environment where I could be true to myself. The freedom I had was priceless, and it suited my character and style of working.

Life was generous with us, yet we did not always know what to do with all the good on our table. I guess it’s damn true that we take the form of the vessel we live in.

I lost my playful version along the way, and I immersed myself in serious conversations, projects, and decisions. While running a company is weighty, I regret I did not make more room for fun, chill moments, a slower pace, and taps on the shoulders.

Today, I’m restless to find the bits and pieces that I mislaid. I miss that spirit of mine sooo much! It’s a combo of a sense of fooling around, a more daring attitude (cojones, as Răzvan would often say to me), and allowing myself to act more childish from time to time. I genuinely believe there’s beauty in that.

I will cherish this experience forever

I arrived here today after months of introspection, dozens of therapy and coaching sessions, and tens of hours of debating with my friends. The Stoic Prize for limitless patience goes to my best buddy and partner in crime — Alexandra from A+noima. 

I’m pretty nostalgic and thoughtful about the ending of this era, but deep down, I feel a sense of fulfillment and pride. As naive and cheesy as it may sound, I’m pleased with what I accomplished. While I’m well aware of my glorious wins and painful failures, I’ll carry this experience in the vest pocket for the rest of my life. 

I thank everyone I had the chance to work with at Pixelgrade, and I love that I’m in touch with most of my ex-teammates. I will miss so badly Răzvan’s jokes and songs recommendations from emergent Romanian rappers, and Andrei’s endless curiosities about all kinds of stuff, work and non-work related.

Ultimately, I will cherish forever the fact that George and Vlad took me on board and let me fly to the moon and back, even though I wasn’t the profile they were looking for back then. I hope that they are at peace with the move and proud of themselves six years later. I surely am. What we did together it’s one of the most significant legacies that I will leave behind.

Thank you all! 💜

P.S. Starting with the 1st of April, I’ll be on a break for a while. It feels incredibly liberating and breathtaking. I’m curious to see what adventure awaits me around the corner and how I will tackle it in the upcoming years. You can send my way a few points of good karma (oanafilip at hey dot com). Cheers!

Photo credits: Iulian Corbu

The post Six years at Pixelgrade: the adventure comes to an end appeared first on Pixelgrade.

There’s no doubt it’s something special in knowing that some of our customers are local. Nothing beats the power that lies in having a friendly conversation over a cup of coffee.

The guys from Eterra Atelier have been gravitating around us for a very long time. They created a few custom furniture items for our office that are still here today, after eight years or so. In the digital space, it feels good to know Alex and Ștefania opt for Fargo, an outstanding portfolio WordPress product.

As we always do in our interviews, we focus more on the story behind the brand rather than on the website per se. In the end, we share a similar set of values, among which excellence highlights the most.

Oana

Who’s behind Eterra and what’s the story?

Ștefania

Alex is the 4th generation in his family to do woodworking and is pretty good at it too. We are two best friends who share a common dream: to build a brand doing what we know best. Shortly after completing our bachelor’s degrees in architecture, we decided to try working on something new and exciting together, so we started to do some soul searching. 

We had the tools, the knowledge, and the atelier to try our luck with this one. The puzzle pieces fitted nicely, so we started to build the project that would eventually become our brand, Eterra Atelier.

Oana

How did the previous generations impact your becoming?

Ștefania

One of the most valuable lessons from previous generations that stick to us to this day is the idea that we could make a living running a business doing something we love.

In reality, it’s more than a lesson in entrepreneurship. This idea is deeply embedded into what we do.

Alex spent a LOT of time working with both his grandfather and father in the workshop, so he got a first-hand experience of what it’s like to have complete control of the crafting process.

Sometimes the only tool you need with wood is a well-sharpened blade, be it a chisel, a knife, or a planer.

ștefania

Oana

What holds you back from putting a face on the brand’s name?

Ștefania

We are two introverted entrepreneurs, so we prefer to take a step back and let our products do the talking for us.

We openly admit it’s not the best of strategies in this day and age, but we tend to hold traditional beliefs about marketing anyway.

It’s a show, don’t tell style of approaching our customers, making our growth slow but ultimately very solid in the long run.

Oana

Which is the first product you sold, and where did it land?

Ștefania

The first product we sold was a small home bar piece. Naturally, as is the case for most entrepreneurs, it was made for a friend. He needed something special to fit tightly in his kitchen, so Alex offered to help. It was an exciting project for us, a chance to see if we could bring forth our ideas from sketch to actual product.

The home bar was a success, and we occasionally get to see it serve its purpose. It’s a constant reminder of how far we’ve come and how much we have to grow even further.

Oana

Your finely-crafted furniture is mostly made out of wood. Why’s that?

Ștefania

Wood is our medium of choice because knowing how to morph it efficiently and beautifully is what we are good at and love to do. Every new project is an opportunity to further build on this knowledge, allowing us to push boundaries.

Sometimes the only tool you need with wood is a well-sharpened blade, be it a chisel, a knife, or a planer, and it can be shaped with ease.

Oana

Would you like to experiment with different materials?

Ștefania

We are interested in experimenting with locally sourced stone used by Alex’s father and grandfather for more than 50 years for architectural monuments.

The project we are thinking of does not currently have a defined shape and purpose. In our minds, it could become many things, such as a very sculptural tabletop, an architectural lighting piece, or something completely different such as a witty decoration that could impress your guests.

Since this would be a more experimental project focused on aesthetics rather than functionality, we would see it exposed in art galleries or at furniture fairs to serve as a material statement of our values.

We aim to use design gestures that would highlight the qualities of the wood: a soft feminine touch for walnut or a rich burgundy hue in oak.

ștefania

Oana

How does your creative process look from the concept to the execution per se?

Ștefania

Our creative process is rather spontaneous. It usually starts with a fascination or interest in a shape or object seen in real life. It could be anything from an art piece or a piece of furniture and the texture and appearance of a piece of wood.

Many of our ideas never reach the final stage, and it is incredibly frustrating for one of us (not Alex). The initial idea is studied and turned into simple shapes thru sketches that are eventually rendered in 3d to be analyzed as potential works. If the image is convincing enough, we decide to turn it into a prototype in our atelier. 

Oana

What’s your signature as an artist?

Ștefania

We like to think that the most noticeable feature of our products is the small details such as surface finishes, bevels, and edges. A lot of time is spent working on the elements of wood joinery to achieve a long-lasting furniture piece, and it’s one of the main reasons people appreciate what we do.

Oana

Most of your products have pretty feminine design elements. What inspires you?

Ștefania

Usually, most of our products are constructed into shapes starting from the pieces of wood that we will be using. You could say that the base material is the source of inspiration. 

We aim to use design gestures that would highlight the qualities of the wood: a soft feminine touch for walnut or a rich burgundy hue in oak. For every single curve and profile, we take inspiration from the natural flow of the wood grain and the need to bind elements together elegantly within this flow. 

Oana

What do you expect people to feel when using your furniture?

Ștefania

We expect people to feel proud of the visual space crafted with the help of our furniture, meaning a sense of belonging and intimacy in a room designed to suit their needs.  Because we handcraft each piece, our clients have the unique opportunity to contribute and adjust certain features of the final product visually.

This small element of customization makes every piece of furniture unique in its way and brings a new unexplored possibility to the furniture market.

Oana

What’s the difference between crafting custom projects and creating your own collections?

Ștefania

Custom works generally come with many design limitations and are the embodiment of the client’s specific needs. There is usually a very limited budget available when doing custom works, a very tight size for the final product, and a fixed desired aesthetic.

Our collection is the soul image of our vision and brings forth our highest skill and abilities.

The three little things that reflect our vision and who we are: wood (Eterra Atelier is 100% inspired by wood and is committed to bringing forth its beauty), handcrafted (molding the physical material is what we love to do and are the best at), and finally clarity and simplicity (taking the simplest of ideas and making them remarkable thru craft is our daily mantra).

Oana

Do you ever think of yourself as too elitist due to who you address?

Ștefania

No, it’s just that due to the nature of the materials that we use and the time needed to process them into final products, the result of our work becomes inevitably expensive. It takes hours of intense physical and mental work to achieve the desired results. 

Oana

Please name a few books that shaped your philosophy as an artist & entrepreneur.

Ștefania

Our way of doing things has been inspired by fantastic stories of heroes such as The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho and Eiji Yoshikawa’s Musashi. The philosophy of self-reliance, inner calm, acceptance, and discipline are what we try to build thru our work and entrepreneurship. 

In such confusing times, where we tend to forget about nuances and fall too easily into dichotomies, Eterra’s story is here to remind us that we need blurry lines in order to keep dreaming and creating products and experiences that last for more generations.

The post Crafting furniture that lasts and tells a story appeared first on Pixelgrade.

Quick navigation in this article:

• Weather forecast
• Revenue and Expenses
• Dryland on WordPress.com  
• A squad under the weather
• Upstairs Community rays of sunshine
• Scattered to the four winds

Revenue

These past months pushed our revenue down further still. While we have a budget allocation in place when it comes to actual numbers, the last six months look like this:
$19,716 total monthly average revenue (−32% down from $29,187)
↳ $8,264 from our shop at Pixelgrade.com (−38% down from  $13,359)
↳ $9,988 from the WordPress.com marketplace (−20% down from  $12,557)
↳ $1,463 from the Envato marketplace (−53% down from  $3,157)

I suspect that the best explanation we have for these low numbers is that the market for classic WordPress themes is shrinking faster than we thought, the effects being visible both in our shop and in the marketplaces on which we operate.

In order to meet this change, behind the scenes, we’ve been working for the last 2-years on a new system to build sites based on the new Full Site Editing (FSE) experience that the WordPress ecosystem will shift towards in the future. We’re excited about the potential that this project has and how well could empower our clients—as long as we manage to successfully deliver it.

Expenses

The decisions that we made two years ago seem to lend us a good helping hand in these times. Our average monthly expenses hovered around $26,200 (–5% from $27,500), broken down into:
→ 76% of salaries
→ 19% maintenance (rent, software, accounting fees, suppliers)
→ 5% occasional expenses (office remodeling, hardware)

The negative cash flow is suppressed by the resources accumulated so far, and we’re confident that we have what it takes to navigate further through this journey.

🏜️ Dryland on WordPress.com

On the 1st of September 2021, WordPress.com initiated the retirement of all premium themes, our included, of course. 

Not sexy news. We always had this scenario in the back of our heads, but it does not mean that it’s fun when it turns into reality. Even though the timing was awful, (synchronized with one of our frontend developer’s leave), we tried to grasp this move with maturity and professionalism. 

It’s not an easy feat to establish such collaborations in today’s business landscape. We’re thankful for the chance. 

Sometimes, you just need to tell yourself it’s going to be okay even though you don’t believe it fully either. It might be the only option to get out of the bed in the morning and show up.

Seven years ago, we uploaded our first theme on WordPress.com. We started with Hive, and one after the other, we brought more products in front of WordPress.com’s customers. And oh boy, they use them massively! 

It was a beneficial partnership for quite a while, and we’re grateful for having this experience. It’s not an easy feat to establish similar collaborations in today’s business landscape, so we’re thankful for the chance. 

George, our CEO, was in touch with both the guy in charge of the decision and other theme authors to better understand the harsh line in the sand. It was some back-and-forth in trying to get a better deal or even drop the plan at all, but with no real chance to turn the ship around. 

The fellows at WordPress.com have quite an optimistic promise around the new program, but the truth is that this move hit our cash flow and our trust as a meteorite. We don’t know yet which one left the unsightly scars.

At the time being, we’re still making around 8,000$ by selling our premium themes on the platform, but our guess is that the revenue there will get smaller because of the v2 Premium Themes Program. This new endeavor is 100% focused on the Full Site Editing (FSE) and block-based themes. Today, we have no real incentive to invest in this scheme, so yeah, it’s probably a matter of time until we will hit the final lap.

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☄️ A squad under the weather

We are only five folks left: George, Vlad, Răzvan, Andrei, and I (Oana). We split ways with Mădălin (3 years), Alin (8 years), and Alex (3 years). 

It was a decision from both sides, but not necessarily reciprocal. Let me explain. 

Due to dozens of reasons, some obvious (running thin on money), some more on a subconscious level (lack of direct contribution or a low level of motivation), Mădălin and Alin decided to go to interviews for other companies*, far bigger and profitable than ours, while Alex was let go by us. 

*Alin landed at Automattic, as did Robert, our ex-customer support teammate, a few years back, and Mădălin joined the local chapter of Deloitte. We wish both a serene journey ahead!

I blame none because I believe we have a finite number of tools to navigate through life. Depending on where you locate yourself on the map, some are more suitable than others. Mixing this with the fact that the landscape has been shaky in Pixelgrade (full of uncertainties and anxieties) for almost two years in a row, set us off the rails.

When you have an elastic stretched on both ends, only one thing can occur: it breaks. 

The five left don’t wear any badge of honor for still being around here. Because it’s not about that. While the Romanian culture often cherishes people for sacrificing themselves (check the Miorița reference if you’re curious), we don’t think it’s neither healthy nor sustainable. So keep the emoji with 👏 for yourself.

The truth is that the reasons we’re still playing the game are different, and so are the incentives. We can still resist these weather conditions, even though not equally. Some of us have broader bandwidth, while others do not. Some of us have bigger expenses than others. Some of us are in a more balanced moment in life than others. 

But for these amazing guys (Mădălin, Alin, and Alex), things looked terrifying. And I get that. When the pandemic is still playing hide-and-seek and leaves marks on our lives, we could all use more safety and support. If another professional adventure can provide a reliable ground, with a higher level of joy and excitement, why not?

The rumbles will continue in Pixelgrade’s life for some time, while the tolerance of my teammates got close to the limit.

It was hard to handle these months and even tougher to keep our ducks in a row. Often, the emotions caught us off guard and made us blame others. When we were tired of finger-pointing ourselves for landing here, we threw arrows externally. 

It’s just human nature. Our brains needed a certain kind of closure to let it go and move on. This is how some of us manage to get pressure off our chests.

As a CPO, I’m at peace with how I’ve handled these crushing episodes. I mean it. Even though I’m in the process of letting go of a fair share of self-doubts and critiques, deep down, it feels liberating. I went through everything with an open heart and mind. From my side of the world, my teammates’ leave would have happened in a way or another. Our weapons to avoid this ending are simply too fragile.

When you have an elastic stretched on both ends, only one thing can occur: it breaks. 

We have various ways of digesting these internal events, and while everyone has their own rhythm, I know that we will continue to tell ourselves nuanced versions about what happened. But that’s okay. Time is the best filter, so I’m hopeful it will bring clarity, stillness, and acceptance.

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🌞 Upstairs Community rays of sunshine

During 11 years of doing community work within creative industries, I realized there’s no such thing as the right time to celebrate our members’ contributions. I learned that I need to consciously create space because it does not just happen out of the blue.

Community building is all about relationships building. There are no magic tricks, no gimmicks, or shortcuts. It’s all about trust, reciprocity, and shared goals and identity. All of them need fuel and consistency.

Eighteen months after launching Upstairs Community by Pixelgrade for creative professionals worldwide, our team ran a unique campaign for our members. As a small gesture of gratitude, we created a digital Hall of Fame that contains a designed avatar of our contributors to celebrate their involvement in the community. 

The ripples it echoed gave us fuel to keep nurturing the Upstairs Community and make it even stronger. We got plenty of taps on the shoulder and cheerleading messages from the members featured and the broader community. You are amazing!

We don’t have 3954 pages of a master plan to grow this community up to the sky, but we’re confident we will continue iterating and making it more valuable one step after the other. As with anything in community building, it takes time, and a lot of fine-tuning, but Andrei and I have the energy and mood to keep playing, and that’s enough for the moment.

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💨 Scattered to the four winds

On the product side, it’s still work-in-progress on multiple levels, so there’s not so much to share at the moment. There are plenty of moving parts that George tries to put into an order and makes sense of them all. Sometimes, it feels like Sisif’s work, while other times, the light at the end of the tunnel appears.

As for motivation, it comes at the surface in every corner of our activity, so it will be hard to pretend.

Innovation needs a high level of energy and a clear head, which we did not have with all the changes. Considering that we have even less manpower and a black hole regarding motivation, we can only hope to get our shit together and focus on things with high priority. 

How? We don’t know yet, but it will probably be a different route for each of us remaining.

What’s distinct from other hard times we endured in ten years is that now we have an articulated deadline. Even though it’s a mix of internal (drive) and external (money) pressure, it paints reality in an accurate manner. If it’s something good about numbers, then it’s the fact that they’re more neutral. You either have big numbers or not. 

You can’t lie about money, or, at least, we don’t want to do that. Nor are we okay with tricky alternatives such as credit loans. We’ve been bootstrapped from day one and hopefully, we will continue to do so. As for motivation, it comes at the surface in every corner of our activity, so it will be hard to pretend.

If we succeed with our existing resources (team, money, product), great. If not, not. Something whispers to me that I will write a book in my 50s about all these experiences I’ve been through.

Transparency Report #14 might seem like a casual article picturing business as usual, yet it’s not. It’s far from it. It took me a lot of internal talks, therapy & coaching sessions, and chats with my current and former colleagues to get here. On the other side, this is life. It’s full of ups-and-downs, of shitty moments, of losing and the like.

It’s hard to adequately explain what here means and feels like, but I’ll give it a try. 

Walking through these events fully awake made me more humble. It also revealed, clearer than ever before, that adaptation and flexibility are the best bets we could make in today’s reality. A combo of breadcrumbs of faith and trust plus the delicacy in front of life’s waves. 

As would Leonard Cohen beautifully puts it:

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.

Take good care of yourself, and if you reached this point, I hope it did not feel like weather talk.

The post Transparency Report #14: rumbling skies across Pixelgrade appeared first on Pixelgrade.

When I first visited Finca’s website, I was: Ha, look at these guys! I (but I dare to speak in the name of the entire team) have a soft spot whenever I see customers who dare to take our product to new heights. Creative folks who dare to express their personality in bold ways and often step out of the demo and explore uncharted teritorry with the theme.

Rosa2 is our flagship product and one that allows plenty of experimentation, so Linca and her partner, the minds behind Finca, were not afraid to jump into the unknown when putting together their business website. They’re surrounded by specialty coffee every day and wanted to create a digital home that speaks to the core of their love for the product and gather a like-minded community.

I reached out to Lina a couple of times, and she recently agreed to make this interview happen. Once again, the delayed answer is because it’s draining to run a business in a duo, especially when you are at the very beginning.

The first building blocks for Finca are incredibly solid and inspiring. This brand is more than a personal philosophy around specialty coffee. It’s a role model in investing resources to create positive ripples in disadvantaged communities in Colombia.

But enough spoilers, let’s get going. Enjoy this conversation with a cup of great coffee next to you.

Oana

What does your business name stands for?

Lina

“Finca” refers to a small piece of land in Colombia where farmers live and work. We use the word “Roasters” to highlight the activity we carry out with coffee, that is, roasting coffee beans. So together, these words refer to a product (coffee) that we transform.

The farmers in Colombia are charming people, and they feel very proud of what they produce.

Lina

It has origins in Colombia and stands for the way of life of many people there. They only produce small agriculture and have to know very well how to grow and treat nature. This way, they can ensure their family traditions are caried on and they have economic survival. The last one is an everyday challenge in countries under development.

Oana

You kicked off your business in 2021. What gave you the courage to take the leap?

Lina

During my Master’s Degree in Regional Sciences here at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology study, I already had the opportunity to learn more about the work of Colombian farmers, some of their motivations and needs. So because of the pandemic, I decided to support them by buying their product: coffee and thus generating income. I also wanted to give continuity to my master’s thesis, “Securing the livelihood of smallholders in Colombia.”

Is good to see there is more and more awareness about fair trade coffee.

Lina

I analyzed the situation of small farmers and their threat from climate change, persecution and violence, and the importance of production systems. So I decided to make Colombia known through one of its main export products. I also wanted to give part of the sales profits to social projects developed in vulnerable neighborhoods of Bogotá (my city of birth). I didn’t hesitate and decided to start the project!

Oana

Why did you choose Colombia as the main provider of your coffee?

Lina

Colombia is one of the leading producers of quality specialty coffee globally. It is also my country of origin, and I know its people, geography, products. What better way than to offer a product with total conviction?

Oana

How do you build direct relationships with farmers?

Lina

It hasn’t been complicated. The farmers in Colombia are charming people, and they feel very proud of what they produce. They open the door of their house, of their “Finca,” lovingly show you their plantations (coffee, bananas, avocados, etc.) and sit with you while offering you a cup of coffee, or as it is called in Colombia, “a tintico.”

Oana

How does the coffee landscape look in Baden, Germany?

Lina

Well, for sure, no coffee plant could grow here in Karlsruhe, but we got a large coffee landscape referring us to an incredible amount of little coffee shops and even more coffee junkies out there. What is good to see is that there is more and more awareness about fair trade coffee, organic coffee, sustainability, and things like that.

For me, being sustainable means putting aside mass production.

Lina

I’d say Finca Roasters is here at the right moment to awake even more conscious enjoyment of coffee consumption by feeling more connected with coffee-growers.

Oana

Specialty coffee is a new concept. How do you explain it to people?

Lina

Specialty coffee is a certified coffee, which has met the highest quality standards within the international system. In this evaluation, the whole grain process stands out above all, from its planting, harvesting, going through a rigorous and careful selection. Of course, each of these processes is influenced by local geographical and cultural factors, which in turn ensure this specialty.

From my perspective, this is one of the main aspects that explain the specialty coffee trend. Consumers are increasingly interested in knowing the origin of their products and bringing to the table a quality coffee that also tells a story.

Oana

What do you understand by being sustainable when it comes to this industry?

Lina

For me being sustainable means putting aside mass production. It is to reduce and reuse, as in the case of waste and packaging. And finally, contribute to the social development of vulnerable communities.

Our website is the primary selling tool for us, and this is why we have to rely on it so much.

lina

As for the industry, I must say that very few care about these aspects. Coffee leaves bring too much profit for big companies and those who grow it get almost nothing. This must not be acceptable! Nor is it acceptable that some don’t care about reducing the tons of garbage that they generate, for example, through their packaging, who are made up mostly of materials that are impossible to recycle (at least here in Baden-Württemberg).

Oana

You are a two-folks business. How do you succeed to manage everything?

Lina

At the moment, we’re a little business, roasting coffee on demand in a very small amount for our customers, so everyday business isn’t that much. But it helps a lot that we both love what we do, each with its strengths and weakness.

I personally prefer roasting, calculating, and getting in touch with customers, suppliers, and farmers, whereas Stefan likes designing, taking photos, and working on our website.

Oana

How does the website built with Rosa 2 support your efforts in selling great coffee?

Lina

Our website is the primary selling tool for us, and this is why we have to rely on it very much! Obviously, it took a lot of time to get the design right, to adjust and modify everything, but the background tools of Rosa 2 helped a lot to compose colors, layout, and shape details. Also, the smooth WooCommerce-compatibility is a decisive advantage!

We like what we’ve managed to do for now, and we think customers can feel our conviction and effort on our whole website. We think that the theme from Pixelgrade is an essential part of what we succeeded in.

Oana

What gives you hope that you will make it during these challenging times?

Lina

For sure, the necessary measures during the pandemic challenged the whole economy of our country, but, at the same time, many people have started to rethink their habits and consumption impact: We can observe a lot of awareness and will to change something! Because of this, we decided not to wait for a better occasion. We just did it!

Oana

What drives you to be socially involved and to sustain NGOs?

Lina

With my background as a native from Colombia and as an academic in regional sciences, I needed to consider the coffee production chain and people who don’t have the luck to count on a safe income. I like what the Initiative Aitue does, especially the fact that organizers and the needy are from the same district. They inspire themselves to go further together. This has to be supported!

Oana

What makes a cup of coffee outstanding?

Lina

Apart from an excellent specialty coffee grain, there are many influencing factors like grinding level, water quality, and preparation time. But the most important thing is a passionate coffee lover who spares no effort transforming a simple cup of coffee into an outstanding one!

Oana

What’s your favorite: espresso, v60, or anything with milk?

Lina

I genuinely love every kind of filtered coffee, especially Chemex! This way, you obtain a clean cup that shows you the true quality of specialty coffee grains.

Oana

What’s one thing that we get wrong about coffee?

Lina

It’s like with everything in our life: Without trying, experimenting, and being brave, you’ll miss a lot of taste.

It’s refreshing to see entrepreneurs who keep dreaming of changing their part of the world one coffee cup at a time. In a world obsessed with everything big, it’s liberating to chat with two people in love with specialty coffee.

As with many creative endeavors out there, it takes a lot of courage to leap and do things your way. However, isn’t this the only way to build a name for yourself and make your voice heard? Keep dreaming!

Does Rosa 2 sound interesting?

Take a look and discover all the features packed into this versatile WordPress theme 👇

View Rosa 2

The post Running a coffee shop and driving positive change appeared first on Pixelgrade.

Quick navigation:

• Why should you write blog posts in the first place
• How to write blog posts that resonate with people
• What to write about when you’re starting a blog
• A step-by-step writing process for your blog posts

We live in a world where the importance of written communication increased dramatically. We heavily rely on technology and digital contact. From the way we keep in touch with the dear ones to how we approach the people we admire and increase our chances to create a digital presence — we often use tools where writing is king.

For the past 10+ years, I’ve been wearing the communication and storytelling hat daily and put my writing to the test while working in multiple roles: freelancer, volunteer, marketer, copywriter, community builder. Along the way, I had a hard time finding reliable solutions regarding improving my writing skills and making the most out of them on the Internet.

After all the ups and downs I experienced, I managed to narrow down a few things that can help you start your blog and get over the stress of writing your first blog post.

What follows is not a rigid framework, so feel free to take whatever fits you. However, I encourage you to at least test some of the ideas before assuming that they will not work. You might be surprised. 

Why should you write blog posts in the first place

Keeping our communication in writing is far more convenient and comfortable since we can do it from our home, office, or on the road, compared to the effort of meeting a person face-to-face.

Writing is so integrated into our daily lives that we no longer question why we prefer this way of communication instead of others.

Writing is such a self-conscious act because it forces us to think: What do we believe in, so deeply, that we’ll write it down and share it with others?

— Claire Lew (@clairejlew) July 26, 2018

Even though writing short messages can help us transmit instant information to others, writing in-depth, long-form content comes with big advantages.

1. Writing can help you gain more clarity

Putting everything on paper (both digital and offline) helps you draw a clearer picture of your thoughts.

When you can observe what you wrote, it’s easier to find the red thread. You can take notes, underline repetitive snippets, and notice flaws and inconsistencies in your ideas.

2. Writing improves communication skills 

Having a chance to fine-tune your ideas, put order and articulate your thoughts will translate into better written (and verbal) communication skills.

Publishing your writing will put pressure (the good kind) on having a start and an end to your stories, being compelling, and making sure those on the other end understand you. This skill will come in handy in all aspects of your personal and professional life.

3. Your blog posts can bring people together

Expressing your ideas can impact the world and even change it for the better. Your unique point of view can attract people who share the same core values and want to join your community. Nothing beats the feeling of sharing a common understanding with other individuals.

Blog writing can also help you impact other people’s lives through your bold and courageous ideas. Your different perspectives can mobilize people towards a meaningful goal. Your words can capture attention and transform a bunch of random people into followers, believers, maybe even collaborators.

As a blogger, you need to be open-minded in understanding a wide range of arguments because it will help you craft better articles. It does not mean that you should start pleasing people and create blog posts that serve all kinds of needs. On the contrary, you should stick to your beliefs and interests.

4. Writing can be liberating

Writing is an act of freedom through which you can showcase the real you without strings attached. In so many senses, we live the best time of our lives. The simple act of having the chance to create a digital voice and spread your ideas means a lot.

People used this form of communication for a long time and continuously adjusted it to the needs of the time, from sending a letter from the war to writing pre-defined SMS. The need to express ourselves through writing lies within us and only gets stronger.

Writing is not just for storytellers, poets, copywriters, etc. No. We all have the potential to write amazing stories that say something about who we are. The ultimate goal of good writing is to put a piece of ourselves out there and invite others to take a look.

Next, I’ll share the main ideas to keep in mind when writing your first blog posts.

How to write blog posts that resonate with people

There’s a thin line between what you need to know to become better with writing blog posts and all the information on the Internet.

My recommendation is always to be authentic, trust your skills and shape your particular way of writing.

people always ask me how to be a better writer. my answer is always the same: read, read, READ. reading teaches by example, shows you the curiosity of others and is proven to increase brain function/connectivity.

— paul jarvis (@pjrvs) June 18, 2018

Practice makes perfect, as the saying goes, and it’s definitely true. What’s often left unsaid is that starting is the first step and often the hardest challenge.

Once you kick off and develop a writing habit, you will craft your skills and become a better blogger from one day to another.

As in life, the best results come with time, hard work, and determination, so don’t try to find shortcuts.

From my experience as a digital communicator, professional copywriter, and active storyteller, I dare to suggest a few writing tips you should consider.

If you start integrating them into your daily writing routine, you will write better articles on your blog and website and gain confidence and joy in doing it.

1. Use your speaking voice in writing

Create an emotional connection with the reader and guide him as a good old pal through the story. Write the way you talk, and don’t be afraid to be genuine in crafting every message.

People often feel that they have to adopt a persona when posting online, but that’s not true. Copying others will only create a dissonance between who you really are and youfrom the Internet. People are smart and feel fakeness, and once they observe that you are not credible, they will never come back.

2. Write with responsibility 

Be true to yourself and share from your own experience. Own it. No matter if you’re in your 20s, be brave to write about how you feel, about your hobbies, your struggles at the moment. Similar people will resonate with you.

Responsibility also means being transparent and honest regarding your blog posts. Don’t make things up, don’t cheat, don’t offer half-truths. Blogging is serious, and you should treat your audience accordingly, especially if you want to be more than yet another www out there.

3. Write for yourself first 

Express your personality and way of thinking through your writing. You are the first to read that blog post, so make sure it resonates with your inner why and aligns with your beliefs and values.

Don’t write it as if 1000 people will read it; write it like speaking with one person. If what you share is real and comes from your experience, your visitors will notice, and they will return in the future.

“I love meeting my readers, but I am so aware that the person who writes the books that they read is the best version of me — the most hopeful, the most helpful version of me. In my day-to-day life, I am as confused, & stupid, & pessimistic as anybody.” https://t.co/aug6SNQdrK

— Lucy Bellwood is on Tour (@LuBellWoo) June 22, 2018

Put yourself in their shoes and see how you feel: does the blog post feel authentic, reliable, meaningful, or is it just a bunch of lines without a clear goal?

What to write about when you’re starting a blog

You might think that there’s an answer for everything, so there’s nothing much left to cover. I beg to differ.

Even though it’s true that we are exposed to a massive load of information, it doesn’t mean that nuances are not important. In fact, we live a time where we genuinely need them.

Differences are the engine of the world, and once we accept and internalize them, we will definitely live more meaningful lives.

When it comes to blog posts, since you are in your early days, I have a few suggestions regarding how to pack your content.

Of course, there are far more, but I highly believe that you need to narrow the gap and start with just a limited set of options because it will give you direction and purpose. Constraints can be liberating.

1. Write personal stories

Share what makes you-you. Experiences, wins, failures, mistakes, beliefs —anything that says something meaningful about the person behind the scenes. 

If you are a creative person, be generous and write about your creative process, how you get things done, what keeps your wheels spinning, what brings you joy when things are hard to handle. Don’t shy away from sharing the downsides, struggles, and pain—others might go through similar experiences and need a helping hand.

2. Give a twist to common topics

If you are knowledgeable in a particular field, you might have a different perspective on things than the majority. Go ahead and share it with the world, and you might change the way people see or approach things.

Invest time and energy to pack everything to suit your style of writing. You might even be surprised to see that many people resonate with your approach.

3. Share bold statements

Showcase the values you stand for by writing opinionated articles. Boldly express your personality and invite people to share their own thoughts on the matter.

Document what you experience during the writing process because it will help you get a clear perspective on the next step and how you should continue publishing new blog posts.

A step-by-step writing process for your blog posts

First of all, good writing means good reading. There’s no other way around. People who don’t read a lot have a tough time writing well.

It’s the same principle that applies to other forms of creative work as well. Take photographers, for instance. Good artists travel, meet people in person, spend time in solitude, are active folks who have a deeper understanding of how the world works.

“Words have energy and power with the ability to help, to heal, to hinder, to hurt, to harm, to humiliate, and to humble.” — Yehuda Berg

A simple yet effective process to put the above advice in practice is to do the following exercise. Don’t overthink every single step from the bellow list; just go through it and see where it takes you.

1. Choose a topic that you are interested in or have know-how. It can be anything as long as you manifest excitement and a dose of genuine curiosity. Or, on the other hand, you gathered plenty of experience that could be useful for others.
2. Write one paragraph about your idea. This way, you have a summary at your fingertips, and you can get back to it during the process.
3. Define a clear structure to help you keep the red thread: 
   1. → Intro (the central idea that you will explore in the article),
   2. → Main sections (headings and the core message)
   3. → Conclusion (an insight you hope people will react to or sleep on)
4. Write a rough first draft. Don’t take it too seriously; just throw all the thoughts you have in mind related to the topic.
5. Edit what you wrote without mercy and get the garbage out. Read it out loud and see if it makes sense if you can cut some sidenotes, or maybe you can rephrase ideas and make them easier to grasp.
6. Go in-depth. Start adding layers of information to complete your ideas and make sure all match the red thread.
7. Ask for a second opinion. Give these pieces of content to close friends or family and ask them what made them memorable, touched them and how, and what was hard to understand or to follow. Kindly ask them to provide these answers in writing to help them articulate their thoughts.
8. Edit again. Try to integrate the feedback you received in the best possible way, without pleasing everyone or changing the main idea. It’s your call to filter and keep the must-have only.
9. Publish. Celebrate the fact that you published your first blog posts on your terms. Yaaay!

Writing is an excellent way of expressing your unique personality and a crucial skill you want to master on your blog. On top of that, it’s a form of freedom hard to beat by other forms of communication.

You can always explore new perspectives and discover a new world through writing digital content. It’s not a matter of how many words you use; it’s how you craft them to touch people’s hearts, as Seth Godin reminds us: “I wonder why anyone would hesitate to be generous with their writing.”

Want a blog where you can showcase your blog posts in style?

Check out our blogging WordPress themes and start shining.

Give it a go

The post How to write the first blog posts that resonate with people appeared first on Pixelgrade.

Pixelgrade and community building: what’s the catch?

I heard this legit question a few times since we kicked off the Upstairs Community adventure.

Depending on what you know about us and what’s your gateway into our universe, you might already have a clue, or you might be entirely in the dark when searching for an answer. That’s okay.

In the end, Pixelgrade is a ten-year-old design studio where we’ve been creating digital products in the WordPress ecosystem. From themes, both premium and free to plugins of all kinds, we managed to carry our flag consistently and even make ripples from time to time. We showed up one day after the other through our lasting products, bold statements, or our consistent transparency reports.

Few of you know that Pixelgrade’s mission is to support creatives who want to impact their communities. Way before articulating it as clearly as it sounds today, we’ve been crafting WordPress themes for creative industries and small businesses since the very beginning. These niches were always in our focus. 

Moreover, George and Vlad, the founders of Pixelgrade, have said out loud that a company’s role exceeds its profitability. While this does not mean that it’s okay to overlook the organization’s financial health, it also does not mean that counting bucks is the ultimate goal.

The balance between these two is tricky and often comes with tensions and challenges on both ends. 

Needless to say, we have an extensive portfolio of products tailored to creative professionals. From photographers to architects, from restaurant owners to bloggers (travelers, fashion lovers, food aficionados), we’ve been interested in serving these specific customers as best as we can. Besides crafting WordPress products that grabbed attention from 60K+ folks worldwide, we’ve been adding layers of value by sharing a tone of knowledge and expertise.

Another route we took on our journey to help creatives reach their potential is what today we call Upstairs Community by Pixelgrade. As any endeavor, especially those started in the “magnificent” year 2020, we had limited resources and a short-term view of the future.

We began from our selfish yet powerful desire to create a safe place to share peoples’ stories to help us feel less alone and disconnect from the tsunami happening around COVID. Depending on where you live on the blue dot we all call home, you might still have to deal with the scars created by the virus. We’re no different.

Getting in touch with our first members through video calls blew Andrei’s and my mind, too. The purpose was to find out what our readers take out of the narratives we’ve been publishing. We’ve done almost everything from gut feeling and less from a crystal clear strategy, even though I have 11+ years of experience in community building. Upstairs Community is my first online trial. 

Many companies claim they are community-led or that they put the community at the core of their efforts.

These conversations revealed, once again, that stories are a powerful way to connect and enable belonging. Not only that, but we quickly found out that most of the readers were creative professionals, thus our kind of guys and gals.

This overlap showed that nothing happens by chance. People get together and stick to brands, missions, and communities where they feel they share a similar set of values. Some of our community members got closer because they appreciated Pixelgrade as a company. Others are fans of our products. Many resonated with the way we communicate and our culture.

One year and a half later, even though some community members are also Pixelgrade customers, this place does not directly address them. At least not yet. It does not mean that it excludes them, either. But it’s not a technical forum where they can exchange ideas about features, nor a platform where they can ask for a helping hand from our side.

It’s a quiet place that amplifies the experience we’re offering at Pixelgrade through authentic stories from people just like them. Yes, maybe they’re not precisely in the exact moment in time, nor do they all want to build a website right now, but it’s an extension of what we are as a brand. It creates a more holistic image of us.

These days, many companies claim they are community-led or that they put the community at the core of their efforts. Some do that, and most don’t. They just try to ride the wave. We choose to stay honest and transparent in our efforts.

We’re not community-driven by core, but it does not mean that nurturing one is not well aligned to our mission and values. Upstairs Community proves it big time.

Join other 330+ creative professionals who dare to show up as they are and share stories about their path. It’s both inspiring and liberating, trust me.

The post Why is Pixelgrade building a community for creatives? appeared first on Pixelgrade.

Working with creative entrepreneurs since 2011, when I started wearing the community builder hat, it soon became obvious that most of you are Jack of all trades.

You are in charge of a broad spectrum of activities—from creating the product (be it ceramics, soy candles, photography, recipes, videos, you name it) to paying taxes and bills, from building relationships to keeping up with your audience.

In just a few words: from what you love to what you loathe.

Why this is happening is a more extensive discussion that I’ll maybe tackle another time. However, it’s a fact that impacts both your potential and how you run and grow your business in the long haul.

Doing a lot of stuff dilutes the echo of your efforts, making you miss all kinds of opportunities. The same applies to everyone who’s juggling too many balls simultaneously. This trick should only happen at the Cirque du Soleil shows.

In this article, I aim to quickly untangle the core actions needed when reaching the phase of launching your website. I hope I’ll manage to help you become aware of both your constraints and opportunities so you can focus on the areas where you have control and knowledge and leave the rest aside.

But before diving into the nitty-gritty, let’s make sure we’re on the same table.

Launching a website means different things to different people

While there’s a variety of opinions (some backed with solid arguments, some not so powerful) about where to center your attention when launching your website, let’s be fair for a second. 

Everyone tries to push advice depending on the commercial interests they might have. 

If you read an article about this topic on an agency’s blog that sells SEO services, there are high chances they’ll highlight the importance of a good positioning on Google.

On the other hand, if you come across a resource from a freelancer-developer who’s creating websites for a living, you will hear quite often about mobile optimizations and performance, for instance. People preach their words, and that’s fine.

There’s no harm in such tactics since many of them are, in the end, valid. The information on these kinds of websites does not bring bad results or damage to your www.

What happens, on the contrary, is that you will soon feel overwhelmed. You will no longer know which way to go, which strategy fits your goals, which tools get the job done, and how. 

It’s not difficult to get there since your experience lies in crafting an innovative product or service, not unraveling the complicated avenues of digital marketing.

Remember how it feels to be responsible for too many things at once? Make yourself a favor, and don’t add more stuff to that pile. Choose to leave the badge of honor called Jack of all trades. It’s not an honor; it’s a trap.

Plus, a website is not something you do once and then never touch again. It’s a living thing that can be adapted, changed, remodeled, and most important, improved as times goes on. Even if you miss certain steps at launch, you can always go back and do better.

That said, there are a few things you need to keep in mind before turning the on switch for your website. These actions are valuable because they impact your visitors’ first experience and will set you up for success further down the road by making sure you have the right tools already in place.

Technical actions to improve the experience

1. Check your website’s navigation flow

Because your website was in development, it often happens to have links that direct users to the wrong pages. If, for example, your new website was on a subdomain (e.g., https://new.example.com), you might find that certain links (e.g., buttons from Services page, text links from the Footer or pages like Terms and Conditions) point to the subdomain instead of the main domain (https://example.com).

Other times, you might have changed your mind regarding the URL of a page (e.g., change it from /about-me to /about), but forget to update it everywhere you link to it.

Make sure the links get the reader where you want and pay extra attention to the links you’ve added inside your pages or blog posts—those can easily get overlooked.

It’s a quick fix but can it can mean the difference between someone sharing it to get the word out or becoming frustrated and forgeting about your www.

If you have an online shop, check the purchase flow from start to finish. Simulate what it would mean for a customer to browse your products, add them to the cart, remove/add new products, fill the details on the checkout page, and place an order. You might discover certain flaws in your purchase workflow or even opportunities to improve the experience for your future customers.

Do the same thing for all the forms and automated emails on your website. Replicate a regular visitor’s flow, from adding their email into the subscribe box or contact form, to getting a welcome email. Double-check that you’re capturing the submissions correctly across the board.

2. Optimize your website for fast loading

It can seem like a topic complicated for you since your skills lie elsewhere. But you don’t have to be tech-savvy to nail the basics of making your website load fast:

1. Optimize your images: huge images are almost always the culprit when it comes to slow websites and poor browsing experience. As a rule of thumb, use the .jpg format as much as possible (use .png only when transparency is necessary, e.g, in a logo), don’t upload pictures with a resolution above 2000px, and pass each image before uploading through tools like compressjpg.com or compresspng.com to lower their size. Read this article if you want to learn more about optimizing your images.
2. Leverage website caching: caching means temporarily storing part of your website in your visitor’s device so that it will load faster when they revisit your website. If your website is on WordPress, we recommend one of these two plugins: WPRocket (paid) or W3 Total Cache (free version). Their default options should be just fine for starters. We also wrote about website performance if you want to dig deeper.

3. Connect your website to an analytics service

You can go with Google Analytics—it’s the most popular solution with enough features to accommodate your website’s future growth. If you prefer privacy-focused software, you can go for Fathom (paid but with a lot of care towards privacy and customer experience) or Matomo (free and open-source tool if your website is on WordPress).

These solutions are great for measuring your website’s activity, understanding who your readers are, how much time they spend, and where. With time, you can start making decisions based on the traffic you get.

4. Setup the basics for proper search engine indexing

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is a vast domain within the marketing realm, and most people are scared to dive into it. And for the right reasons—while doing an SEO audit for Pixelgrade a while back, we spent about two weeks working on the action plan alone.

The good news is that you don’t have to do that at the beginning of your journey. All you have to do is check a few SEO settings to get started. From our own experience, here are the most vital things you need:

1. Use an SEO tool: if you’re using WordPress, install the Yoast SEO plugin and follow the configuration wizard (here’s a step-by-step tutorial). The best thing about this plugin is that the default settings are good enough for most websites. If your website is on another platform, check their documentation to see what you need to do.
2. Add your website to Google Search Console: again, this might sound daunting, but if you can figure out how to create a page on your website, you can nail this as well. With this tool, Google will index your website faster and discover potential errors along the way. If you follow these steps, you’ll have this up and running in no time.
3. Optimize title and meta descriptions for your top three pages (e.g., home page, shop page, services page). If, for example, you create personalized illustrations, make sure you add that to your home page title and mention it in the description. This helps people understand what’s your website about. You can do that using the Yoast SEO plugin—here’s a great video tutorial. 

5. Make sure you have technical help near

Even though you’ve tested everything, some things might go wrong right before or during your launch—software can break, nasty events can occur, so it’s best to have someone to rely on in such moments.

It can be a friend, or someone recommended to you who can jump in and patch things up in the event something fails. They should be aware of when you are launching your website to respond and take action quickly. If this option is not within your reach, you can choose a reliable hosting and WordPress theme provider because customer assistance should be enough for most cases.

To be safe, once you verified everything, don’t do any major updates on your websites (like theme or plugins)—sometimes updates can mess things up, and you don’t want that right before going live.

On the non-technical side, things can get fuzzy concerning where we should draw a line in the sand, but there a few must-do actions.

By going through these steps, you’ll be in good shape for launching your website successfully. The work does not stop here. It barely begins, so we encourage you to have an open attitude towards the suggestions from people visiting your website and buying your products and services.

As with many other endeavors, it takes time, energy, continuous iteration, and a learning curve to bring consistent results in the long run. It’s no piece of cake, but it’s not mission impossible either. It depends on your website’s role within your business and what kind of investment and commitment you are willing to put on the table.

If you reach this particular stage, it means that you will at least get the chance to finish the puzzle and celebrate the completion, which is a great feeling to have. If you don’t trust me, then feel free to read this story of a local business that successfully launched its new website during the pandemic.

Photo taken by Katerina Nedelcu at our office.

The post Checklist of actions before launching your website appeared first on Pixelgrade.

When it comes to websites, there’s no recipe to follow. But there are, indeed, good practices. And a lot of groundless advice, too. Knowing to make a difference between these implies a few different things.

On the one hand, experience. Building a website in the past will help you quickly grasp that some actions take you further while others freeze you. It’s not rocket science.

On the other hand, flexibility. We all write it down on our resumes and make a big fuss out of it, but, in reality, we’re far more stiff and opaque. In this context, I anchor flexibility into the willingness to make witty compromises.

Experience in building websites might not be your core skill. After all, you are the creative one passionate about your craft. A website is a way for you to tell your story, showcase your talent, and sell your services or products.

But have no worries. This article is here to help you settle the debate between content and design, so you cross the finish line sooner rather than later. And if you have to build a website in the past, trust me, it’s worth sticking by to see what you should improve the next time you adventure into such a feat.

Now a bit of a backstory.

Care and excellence are two of our core values (the third and last one is gratitude), and that makes my choice in how I’m going to pack this article simpler. I’m going to speak only from our direct ten years of experience in creating tools to build websites, so you can imagine that I will preach our mantras. Take it or leave it, but life is too short to keep thickening the existing bulls*it that’s on the Big Internet.

Speaking of experience, in the last eight months or so, I’ve been working closely with Andrei, my fellow marketer—in extenso with the entire Pixelgrade’s squad—to help local creatives build websites with Rosa 2, our flagship WordPress product. Why Rosa 2? Well, I’ll be honest: it’s the one in which we heavily invest our resources. On top of that, it’s also the most whimsical playground to start creating a website in style.

If you don’t trust me (we’re all a bit skeptical these days, it’s okay), read this particular story about how someone with fragile WordPress skills made the most out of our system and created a lovely digital space for her business.

Back to Andrei and I, I think it’s relevant to highlight that we’ve both worked in digital agencies, so we know a thing or two about the fuzzy line in the sand between this is what I want, and this is what you need. This combo proved highly efficient when interacting and helping our local community of creators build a digital home.

Please bear in mind that the following lines do not come from a place of romanticism before getting started. Quite the contrary. It’s from the land of pragmatism. 

Hear me out, amigo!

You can’t design your website while blindfolded

During my freelancing years and since I’ve been wearing the storyteller hat at Pixelgrade, I’ve learned quite soon that content comes first. Designers’ endeavor is to find smart ways to present the information in the best possible scenario, depending on the goal of that particular content. Not the other way around.

As the brilliant Paul Rand notes in Conversations with students:

Design is relationships. Design is a relationship between form and content.

Paul Rand

Most of the local businesses that collaborated with us to build up their websites were convinced that they should take care of the writing process at the end of the chain.

When the look-and-feel is over, when photos are uploaded when the perfect portrait picture is showcased. After that, they will get their flat white with coconut milk and less foam in a cup of latte and start typing with a bit of luck.

No, no, no.

Designers can’t work blindly. And WordPress themes can’t substitute for your lack of direction, even though they come with plenty of constraints to help you make fewer mistakes and focus on what you know best. At least ours do that and help people like you avoid useless headaches.

Have you ever considered a drag-and-drop website building solution that advertises pretty designs and endless freedom?

If you ever played with such tools, you know that there are moments when you feel like going to the mountains and scream until you faint. Design is not easy, especially when you are unsure what will fill in the blanks and the lorem ipsum.

Before spending countless hours making your visual obsession come true, often without solid arguments on the table, I kindly encourage you, again, to get comfortable and start writing.

Yeah, stop the bulls*it with all the procrastination, the writer’s block, and such. Seat down, my friend, and start typing.

Don’t know where to start? Let me give you a few hints.

1. Figure out what you want to accomplish with your website

Do you want people to read your blog articles and engage with your ideas? Do you want to sell your gorgeous candles flawlessly? Do you want to convince folks to fill your form to hop-in to your creative workshop?

Settle on one or a couple of main objectives for your website, and then move to the next step.

2. Be the same person in writing as in real life

Write as you speak is the best advice I could offer. It might sound frail, but it’s true. Copy-catting others, using cookie-cutter strategies, imitating the big players out there will only bring you damages.

And hey, trust is something hard to earn and easy to lose, so make sure you treasure it accordingly. The best approach to open this heavy door is by leading by example.

There’s no perfect approach to express your personality and showcase your work. It’s a trial-and-error, a continuous iteration, a permanent fine-tuning.

3. Figure out your target audience and speak their language

Start by considering how would your readers’ intentions and expectations look like. Imagine a specific scenario and try to grasp how they would express various needs and tailor the content to match them.

For example, if you’re a dreamer who sells soy candles and sharing a big chunk of your life with your Instagram audience, then manifest this kind of openness through your writing too. People want to find the same person behind the www.

Btw, I keep referring to this example because we lent a hand to a local entrepreneur build a website for these particular products, and OMG, they smell amazing!

In a nutshell, these takeaways are worth remembering:

1. There’s no such thing as design vs content; it’s a symbiosis, a tango if you want.
2. Design accommodates the content, which means you should start writing and stop blaming the look-and-feel for your lack of progress.
3. Expressing your personality will always be an adventure, so make sure you start with a first version and take it from there.

I’m not about putting writing on the podium or giving it more importance than needed. The content is king, and other hot slogans do nothing more than pressure people who want to build a website for their business.

I sincerely believe we need to start demystifying this craft as much as possible and encouraging people to write because all stories are worthy and deserve to be in the spotlight.

This posh yet glamorous approach towards writing keeps people away from sharing their narratives, which is, of course, a massive disservice for all of us.

When it comes to creating your website, content is the fuel that keeps the website’s engine up and running. Without it, you can’t reach the destination. So, are you ready to heat those rubbers?

The post Content or design: which comes first when creating your website? appeared first on Pixelgrade.

You might be a photographer who decides to sell their prints, a ceramist who creates vases, or a painter who turned their way of slowing down into products people want to hang on their walls. Once you get traction and see a genuine interest in want you make, the natural next step is to think about the best ways to present your products and sell them with ease.

Of course, getting traction usually means starting on social media. Still, we all know how easy things can get out of hand: multiple messages on various channels (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp), a difficult way of tracking your orders and filtering customers, and the pressure to answer those requests as soon as possible, no matter the time of day.

That’s why you are probably here, reading this article. You’re evaluating if building a website is the right way to go and want to figure out how to do it.

So, in my attempt to help, I’m going to walk you through these steps:

1. Why having a website is the right next step
2. What is WordPress and why you should consider it over alternatives
3. What are the basics of building a website
4. How a creative like you manages her small business with WordPress

Let’s make it happen!

Why you should build your website on WordPress

WordPress is an open-source content management system that allows people to create a website easily. It powers about 43.2% of all the websites, and the vast community around it helps it grow each day—either by contributing to the core code of WordPress or by expanding its functionality via plugins (for things like email marketing, e-commerce, payments, contact forms, etc.), and themes (to ensure your website looks top-notch).

There are, of course, other alternatives like Shopify, Squarespace, Wix, and more. They promise to deliver a more effortless website building experience while offering all the necessary parts in-house. Nothing comes without a learning curve and, since their software is closed source (meaning they have total control, you don’t want that, trust me!), the possibilities of broadening their functionality are limited.

This is especially true if you are not based in countries like the US, Canada, or the UK. Since few external developers can build on top of these platforms, you will often find yourself unable to integrate with the popular providers in your region (like payment processors, delivery services, etc.). Here, WordPress excels due to the power and size of its community, which means you will almost always find a solution for every need you have. 

On top of this, with WordPress, you own the website you built, and you can do whatever you want with it. Add as many things, tweak it however you want, remove what you don’t need. 

That’s not the case with the other solutions. They keep a tight lock on what you can do on their platform, which tools to choose, and how to adjust them. Fewer choices to make (an advantage for some) and less flexibility—you need to decide what matters to you.

What are the basics of building a WordPress website

The only difference between WordPress and the other website builders is that you need to find yourself a hosting—meaning a place where your website will be stored (similar to how you store files on a hard drive, to put it simply).

The good thing is that hosting providers have improved their services, and most come with WordPress pre-installed. GoDaddy, Bluehost, SiteGround, and A Small Orange are great solutions. Pick the pricing package that’s closest to your current needs, as you can always upgrade later on.

A domain name is also necessary, so people can know what to type in the address bar. This service is often one of the core offers of hosting companies, which means you can quickly get one while signing up for your hosting plan.

The most popular domain extension is .com, but if you don’t plan on addressing an international market, you can go with the top-level domain of your country (e.g., .de for Germany, .fr for French websites).

Next, you need to choose a WordPress theme that can shine a light on your business and product. Think of these as your website’s design baseline—similar to the templates offered by Squarespace and the likes. You can start with a free WordPress theme, but if you want a performant online shop, going premium is recommended to have all the bells and whistles.

What to keep in mind when choosing any provider is the company behind it. You will need customer support, and here is where not everyone is created equal. Choose the provider that seems to be there to help you when needed. Read their reviews to see what people have to say, send pre-sales questions with any concerns, check their social profiles. All in all, do a background check to learn if they’ll be there for you or not.

How a handmade soy candles business thrives on WordPress and Rosa2

I have the perfect example to prove my point.

In the next lines, I would like to present Andra, a creative person who decided to channel her creativity into making scented handmade soy candles. She started in 2016 and named her small business Flair Scent.

I’ve been a creative person since I was a little kid. I was always creating stuff from paper and cardboard, like pencil stands, photo frames, cards, jewelry, all kinds of crafts. Sometimes, when kids would call me to go out and play, I would say, “no, I want to play by myself.” But back then, I didn’t knew I was creative.

Andra from Flair Scent

Since she was a kid, she loved to surround her house with a pleasant smell, going as far as rating the best smelling apartments among her friends. Fast forward 15 years, finding a scented candle while on vacation made her rediscover her passion and think about making a similar product.

I was already a scented candle fan after discovering them on a trip to London, visiting my sister. Every time I went there, I would buy lots of scented candles because they were nowhere to be found in Romania. When I read the label of a candle, I saw that it was 100% soy wax. The next thing I did was order soy wax and some scents, but those ended up staying in the closet for almost a year.

Suddenly, for women’s day in Romania, desperate for some gifts for my boss and colleague, I took out the wax and the scents from the closet, some old cups I had around the house, used cotton strings as wicks, and that night I created my first scented candles. The next day I gave them as gifts, and they were very much appreciated. My boss was the first to tell me that I could sell them. Since then, I started testing types of soy wax, scents, wicks, pouring temperatures, and in August 2016, I started my own company.

Andra from Flair Scent

As demand increased, it was clear that the selling and presentation process needed to be streamlined, and continuing to sell via social media would not hold for long.

That’s when WordPress came to the stage, and she launched the first version of her website. As time went by, her business evolved, and it was clear that she needed a more robust solution. On top of that, she wanted a website that highlights her personality in style. She tried to put her vision out there and express it across the digital house, too. It’s what brought her to this place, after all.

Here’s when Rosa2, our best-selling WordPress theme, alongside the WooCommerce Add-on (a unique styling added the WooCommerce plugin needed for selling online) felt like the right choice.

With our customer support assistance, she redesigned the website and relaunched it just in time for the Christmas holiday season. Equipped with a theme built on the new block editor from WordPress, creating the pages was a breeze. Our customer support team came in handy when she hit roadblocks and didn’t shy away from recommending the best tools to get the job done.

Here’s the final result:

Although a daunting task at first, building your own website doesn’t have to be a complicated process if you have the right partners by your side.

Here’s what she has to say about the entire redesign process:

In October 2020, I won a European project, so the company got bigger; I had plans to open a physical store, I added a few employees to the team, so I felt the need to refresh everything, including the website. I have five employees now, and I feel this comes with great responsibility. It changes everything. From my bohemian way of living, all by myself, pouring candles at night, when I felt like it, talking to clients and packing candles by day, to learning how to work in a team, pouring candles with people around me, which never happened before. But it feels like the right thing to do, the right next step.

The new website is exactly what I envisioned, and I couldn’t have done it as fast without Pixelgrade’s support. You helped me launch it before the busiest time of the year—the Christmas holidays. The website worked flawlessly from day one, even when I got a surge in traffic. People congratulated me, saying that everything runs smooth and fast and that it looks amazing.

Now I can think about the next steps, like making an English version to sell across Europe, adding a dedicated page for workshop registration, and more.

Andra from Flair Scent

Building your own digital house should be seen not as a burden but as a natural evolution for your small creative businesses. Once you have it up and running, you’ll be surprised by the many possibilities that will open up to you.

It would be best if you remembered that the Internet tools of today had explicitly evolved to accommodate people no matter their digital literacy. All you need to do is pick the partners that speak to your values, prove that they can support you along the way, and you should be set for giving your website the best chance. It’s not the ultimate bulletproof since we live in such a dynamic and complex world, but it’s a route it’s worth taking.

If you were that courageous to open your creative side to the eyes and criticism of others by showcasing your work into the world, I’m sure you can handle building a website. You just have to start.

PS: Since selling with WordPress requires WooCommerce, the e-commerce plugin that powers 26% of all online stores, you might want to learn why you should consider WooCommerce for building an online store.

— Photo credits: George Mihăilă

The post How to sell your crafts online using WordPress appeared first on Pixelgrade.

Anyone who plans to build a website for his products or services aims for differentiation. We, as human beings, strive to feel unique. In so many senses, we are. There are plenty of nuances: from our culture to our backgrounds, from our experiences to our families, from our way of looking at the world to our approach to raising kids. Beauty lies, indeed, in diversity.

In 1980, Snyder & Fromkin, two writers and psychologists whose names have an echo among folks interested in the concept of uniqueness(they even invented a scale for measuring it), came up with something labeled as The Theory of Uniqueness.

Uniqueness theory deals with people’s emotional and behavioral reactions to information about their similarity to others. According to the theory, people find high levels of similarity and dissimilarity unpleasant and therefore seek to be moderately distinct from others. via

We tend to compare ourselves with others based on various attributes, such as personality traits, status, even opinions, and physical characteristics.

Sometimes, if we feel too alike in multiple areas, we experience threatening. We need to tango between being somehow similar, which comes with a comforting feeling of familiarity as well as being distinct, making us feel special.

This need translates as well in the digital realm. Each picture we share, article we publish, or Youtube video we distribute is a means to put ourselves out there to showcase our unique experiences, perspectives, or simply the things that match who we are. 

Of course, all of these taken individually are not unique. Many other people went to the exact place, read the same posts, or listened to the same music. However, we experience them differently. It’s almost impossible to grasp precisely, in the same way, our adventures or interests; therefore, we distinguish ourselves from the pack.

The same is applied when it comes to building a website for yourself or your business. You look around at various examples, create a mental list of the elements, colors, shapes, and ideas from all over the Internet and map out an image of what might make you stand out. 

One of the main challenges is that, at least with WordPress, the search begins with finding a theme that serves your vision.

How can something prebuilt (that many other people buy) make you feel special and get the right kind of attention?

Yes, it might check many if not all the boxes you have in mind, but the challenge still stands—can something predesigned make you shine?

Before jumping to specific examples of businesses from the same industry that have websites made with the same WordPress theme but look highly different (thus, your uniqueness is safe and sound), let me put some ducks in a row within the WordPress ecosystem. It’s essential to have a broader understanding to make the best decisions.

With these two takeaways in mind, I want to walk you through a few drooling food businesses within the same industry—restaurants. All of them use Rosa2, our flagship product, to present their work, products, services, philosophy, and team in a unique way.

They all started from the same demo and niche product and made a little extra effort to detach from it and adjust the WordPress theme to their personality and context.

It’s not about custom work, hiring designers or developers, nor it’s about spending countless hours in forums about website creation. All you will see it’s just a combination of the tools we offered out of the box and their mojo added into the mix.

You are a drop in the ocean, and to make ripples and keep momentum, you need to amplify your uniqueness in a sustainable manner.

Images and fonts can set you apart in a meaningful way

Often, when you want to build a website, you bend your mind to find the right ways to differentiate yourself. But in most cases, there’s a simple answer: choosing the right photos and fonts representing your business. Take the two examples below.

One of our clients is Bistro Biocity from Germany who welcomes its visitors with the screen below:

Without even reading about the ingredients used, their philosophy, or way of going things, you instantly understand the kind of meals they serve: healthy, rich in vegetables, balanced, full of nutrients.

Their choice of fonts provides hints on how they want to be perceived—modern, professional, set in doing things a certain way but playful and fun to be around. It doesn’t take long to scroll and see the same unique elements repeated with each block added to the page.

Now, let’s take a look at another website by our client Modesto from Denver, US:

By looking at the first image, you instantly feel the type of place Modesto is: fun, family and friends friendly, a place where you can eat great food, laugh out loud, and have a great time among a welcoming staff. You will feel comfortable the minute you walk in.

The font choice is also on point—it’s in line with the logo displayed at the top and overall vibe—loose, chill, relaxed, fun.

As you can see, even though both websites have a similar approach to the homepage, the things that set them apart make you overlook the fact that they (in essence) use the same WordPress editor blocks from Rosa2: the Hero of the Galaxy.

Even though the structure is similar (big background image with text on top), by adapting the fonts and images to who they are, these businesses manage to differentiate and communicate their unique way of doing things.

Colors and a bit of creativity can show your uniqueness

You might think that almost all restaurants need to display their menu online—and since it’s the same feature used by all customers who purchase Rosa2, the menus will look the same.

This is not true in the slightest. Although you get the same Food Menu block, adding your unique dishes can make room for a lot of creativity.

To illustrate my point, I’ve chosen Modesto’s website once again. Take a look at their menu:

The great choice of fonts instantly sets them apart and makes them unique. Combined with the background color, their menu gets even more pleasing to the eyes.

Besides that, with a bit of creativity, they created a colored marking system that highlights various details about their food. With a single glance, you can see which dishes are Gluten Free (marked GF), Vegetarian (marked with a V), or Gluten Free Upon Request (GFR).

Now let’s look at another customer—this time is Spice Room from Denver, US.

Honestly, at first glance, it’s hard to think that both Spice Room and Modesto use the same editor block at the core. The difference is almost palpable. 

Spice Room nailed the font choices, while the color combination and the highlights for certain food items make it easy to scan the menu. 

Another great way they stand out is by using a list of icons to signal various specifications about the food they serve.

With the help of a legend at the top, you can quickly skim through the menu and choose an item that matches your taste. Let’s say you are vegetarian—you don’t have to read all the ingredients to understand which is which. All you have to do is scan for the corresponding icon.

As you can see, with a bit of imagination, both businesses managed to use the same feature from Rosa2 to present their menu in a unique way and set themselves apart.

When it comes to the digital world, things come with higher stakes. We not only make comparisons with our colleagues, neighbors, family members but with the world out there.

Your website is no longer something to brag about within your local community or to put it down on your business card. It gained far more meaning. It’s on the world-wide-web, it’s searchable, it’s shared on social media, it’s linked, it’s part of a spiderweb. It has a bigger role in your business success, however you want to define it. 

So yeah, having the strong desire to build a website different and truly yours makes perfect sense, especially in the crowded digital field. The truth is that you are a drop in the ocean, and to make ripples and keep momentum, you need to amplify your uniqueness in a sustainable manner. This could mean to make a step further and put more of you out there. It might be enough.

Does Rosa 2 sound interesting?

Take a look and discover all the features packed into this versatile WordPress theme 👇

View Rosa 2

The post Can a niche WordPress theme help you build a unique website? appeared first on Pixelgrade.