Category: WebsitesCategory: Websites

In our recent “Why Every Artist Needs a Website” group call, someone asked about including your credentials (like a Phd.) on your site.

Someone with a Phd. chimed in with a bit of caution, basically saying that if you have a professional license and malpractice insurance, talk to your agent before putting your credentials on a website that isn’t directly related to your practice.

Like, include your credentials on your psychology practice website, sure. But you’d probably want to talk to your insurer before putting it on your life coach website.

This is definitely a case of “talk to a professional” when dealing with the nuances of your particular field of work.

Tweaking headlines, re-writing copy, adding testimonials, changing the color the button – you’ve done all these things, but you’re still not making the sale.

Two things – maybe your offering isn’t something that people need, or maybe there’s not enough trust yet.

I got talking about this in my conversation with Deanna Seymour, about sales pages. Well, long sales pages. You’ve seen them; two miles longs, 9000 words, and they don’t say anything.

Like Deanna says during this conversation, by the time she’s on a sales page, she already knows she wants the thing, to which I replied:

“I think it’s a trust thing. The trust that (is) built. Like, there are people that we both know, they could send a Google Doc with a PayPal button on it. Yes, I’m signing up because we built that trust. We trust them now. I don’t know that an 18-page sales page builds trust. I think the trust comes way before someone clicks on your sales page.”

You don’t fix trust with more copy. You fix trust by, well, building trust.

You build trust by showing up and doing what you say you’re going to do. By fixing the things you say you fix, and showing how you do it. Every step of the way, you’re reinforcing the belief that you’re the right person for the job.

I’ve seen a bunch of coaching websites with the “click here to book an intro call,” but not a single video showing their face, their tone, their vibes.

How do you build trust with a “book now” button?

Why would any woman hop on a call with a man in 2026 without seeing some videos?

Why would anyone sign up for a virtual yoga class without hearing your voice, or seeing how you manage an online session?

These things aren’t fixed with 5,000 word sales pages, or reading testimonials from people we don’t know. Trust is built brick by brick, by showing up as your full human self, and sometimes that includes seeing your face and hearing your voice.

Listen to “Building a Business Without Social Media with Seth Werkheiser” on Deanna Seymour’s Big Fun, Small Business podcast here.

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A photographer I spoke with recently asked a question a lot of creatives ask: why bother with a website when nobody visits?

Here’s my reframe: you don’t need a hundred visitors, you just need two creative directors.

The people who like your photo on Instagram won’t hire you. The creative director who finds your site and sees your work? They can hire you, then you can send you an invoice. That’s the difference between audience and client.

It’s not about volume, it’s about the right people finding you, and your website is where that can actually happen.

Got this from musician Dom Aversano on a recent live stream (edited for clarity):

“I was thinking about recreating the recommendation aspect (on my website), which is what social media tends to excel at. I remember when websites used to have links to other sites… My issue with websites is they can feel lonely sometimes — not in terms of traffic, but more in the sense that they tend to be about individuals rather than groups. My sense is that social media is popular partly because it feels like a party.”

Most of our websites are mullet marketing – business up front, party in the back.

We invest all this time and energy in the social media space – interesting videos, fresh updates, lively banter, etc. That’s the “party in the back” part of the mullet. Fun, fresh, exciting (for the 10% of your audience that even get to see it).

Then, when anyone does end up on our website, they see your head shots from two summers ago, seven month old blog posts, and twenty links spread across the header and footer for someone to make sense of.

I’m not even saying you have to stop posting on social media. I’m just saying put some of that same material on your own damn website. Stop the mullet marketing.

And to Dom’s point – yes, talk about other people! Link to other projects! I linked to Dom’s website at the top of this post – go check out his work! We’re in this together, learning as we go, and there’s no reason we should be doing this alone.

I recently did a Substack live with Elin Petronella, an independent artist based in Paris who’s been building a creative business on her own terms for the last ten years.

She’s got half a million followers across Instagram, YouTube, and Pinterest, and she’ll be the first to tell you that’s not even the point, as she recently walked away from monetizing on Substack, dropped her bestseller badge, and has been focusing on something more sustainable ever since.

“I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t retain ownership this whole time. All the links are always going back to my own site,” Elin Petronella

All those followers across all those social media platforms is great and all, but if you’re not pointing them to something that’s more permanent, or if you’re not giving curious fans something to explore, you’re leaving money on the table.

As Elin explains, she has 200K followers on Instagram, and a single post might still only get 3,000 views. But if you can get just 1% of 3,000 click to your website, that’s still 30 people.

“How are you doing it before you had the idea that you wanted to monetize it? What are you already doing when people are not watching? What is your natural way of creating before you start thinking about eyes watching it or monetizing it? Double down on that,” Elin Petronella

When we start paying attention to how other people are doing things and assuming that that’s the way to do it, that’s where we can get in trouble. Trust your gut. Get back to the things that you enjoyed when you started making the work that you’re making.