Educate + Explore

After doing what we do for a couple decades now, we've amassed quite a bit of knowledge when it comes to design, marketing, and doing better business. The purpose of the JVM blog is to share this knowledge with small business owners and entrepreneurs. If you have a request for a particular topic or would like to be a guest author, please get in contact.

Google’s Secret Ranking Factor: Awesomeness

According to John Muller, Webmaster Trends Analyst at Google, the main ranking factor for top search results for a particular phase is: AWESOMENESS. All cheekiness aside, he's kinda right (and don't let the age of this tweet fool you – it still applies). Google is after awesome user experiences and many of their 200+ ranking factors align with that.

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Top 2 Ways to Track Your Website for Better Marketing Success

Getting your small business website up and running is a big accomplishment. But then you begin to wonder, "Is anyone even visiting my site?" You have no way of knowing how people are finding you, who's visiting your site, or what they're doing once they get there. Even when you make a sale, you have no idea what inspired the customer...

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Best Practices for Responding to Your Online Reviews

Your small business has reviews! Now what?

92% of consumers read online reviews (souce: BrightLocal).

When you run your own small business, it’s very easy to take online reviews you see to heart. Good ones can truly make your day, but bad ones can seemingly ruin your whole week!

It’s very important to have a little perspective when you first read them, especially if it’s a negative review. Put yourself in [...]

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Small Business Advice: The Only One Who Should Run Your Business Is You

There's no shortage of good advice for small business owners. There's no shortage of bad advice either. The internet has provided an explosion of coaches, gurus, consultants, and "experts".

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How Does Consistency Make Your Branding More Effective?

Successful brands know how to create a clear, consistent brand message. When you see your favorite soft drink brand, for example, you know it immediately by the marketing materials used to promote it. Everything from logo, colors, and imagery used, to content, ad copy, and online marketing has a certain look and feel that you recognize instantly and effortlessly. You can create the same type of brand experience for your small business customers simply by [...]

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When it’s not a good fit.

We’re not talking about shoes here, we’re talking about designers, clients, and design projects and how to determine when it just might not be a good fit. Below are some tips and some indications of when working with someone might not work out – before you start. Read through both the Client and Designer sections to understand each perspective.