Megan Garwood - Web Developer, South Fulton, TN (2026)

03/12/2024

How you can tell if performance is negatively affecting your website 👇🏻

Has your website been more “meh” than “marvelous” lately?

Have you considered that its PERFORMANCE—aka: load times & how quickly it responds when visitors interact with it—might be a big part of the problem?

Most business owners don’t recognize when their own sites have a speed issue (unless it’s glaringly obvious), so this problem can go unnoticed for quite a while 🙈

Here’s a super-simple way you can test your own site:
1️⃣ Using a website performance testing tool, run tests on important pages on your website

(More info on which pages you should consider important for these tests coming in a future post)

🤔 WHICH TOOL should you use?
My favorites are:
✨ Calibre’s CWV assessment tool
✨ Google’s PageSpeed Insights
✨ GTMetrix

2️⃣ With your results in hand…

What we would IDEALLY like to see:

💚 GREEN results for all of the Core Web Vitals-related metrics- this tells us that speed isn’t an issue on your site

💛 YELLOW is also acceptable (especially on PageSpeed Insights since it’s stricter), but improvement couldn’t hurt

❤️ RED results mean that performance is very likely to be a contributing factor to the “floppiness” of your website. You should address this sooner rather than later!

💬 SO TELL ME: is YOUR website slow?

If so and you’re wondering what you should do about it, stay tuned (aka: tap the follow button!) - I’ll cover this soon! Awareness is the first step to making a change, after all 💖

(PS: Freaking out about your speed test results and want to get those numbers in the green ASAP? I can help! I’m introducing a new website speed tune-up offer and the first person to book it will get a whopping 50% off fast-action bonus so I can collect feedback on the process! If you want to learn more, comment or DM “SPEEDMEUP”)

03/04/2024

For seasoned freelance web developers or designer/developers

Can you say with 100% confidence that you LOVE the business you’ve built?

If your gut reaction is “not exactly…” 😅

…the I’m guessing that these dev problems hit a little too close to home?
❌ working too many hours with too little return
❌ taking on clients you aren’t crazy about just for the money
❌ reliving the same struggles over and over again
❌ riding the emotional🎢 with too many drops and turns

IF you’re tired of feeling like your dev biz runs YOU instead of the other way around…

1️⃣st: you aren’t alone. But
2️⃣ things don’t have to stay this way.

How do I know? 🤔

A few years ago, I was in the same stuck and frustrated place you are now: overworking, undercharging, and generally underwhelmed by the lukewarm state of semi-success I found myself in. 😕

THESE DAYS, though…

I work LESS (4-6 hrs/day) while making MORE ($7.5k-$43k per project) from my 1:1 dev services than ever before.

And I’m not telling you this just to brag or make you feel worse! Quite the opposite, actually.

You see, I have this hypothesis 🤓 - that I can help other freelance devs break through their own business plateaus in the same way that I have.

How?

I’m working on a project that will help devs in your shoes—aka: NOT happy in your biz—build a business that you love instead. The program will cover things like:
✨ landing dream clients who value your expertise and pay you accordingly
✨ crafting a client experience you can be proud of & that clients rave about for years to come
✨ working less without taking a pay cut
✨ letting go of what’s holding you back so that you can grow & actually feel good in business

BUT, this post ISN’T about selling the program…

…it’s to get you thinking about your own dev business!

If you identify more with the “biz problems” list than the “biz I love” list…

I’d love to interview you! There are two different ways you can take part, and in exchange for your time and transparency, I’m happy to offer you some ideas about how you might overcome your current biz struggles. 🫶🏻

WANT TO PICK MY BRAIN FOR FREE?
Comment “INTERVIEW” below & I’ll DM you with the links!

02/07/2024

Not convinced that your website’s speed REALLY has much of an effect on your business bottom line?

Swipe through and read these case studies, then let me know how you feel. 😇

10/04/2023

Soooo...what should you use instead? 😅⁠
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I have a few recommendations for more secure alternatives! My friends on the Technically Speaking newsletter list got them last week 💕 but I'll share a post here soon covering those as well.⁠
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True story: I was inspired to create this post by an inquiry that landed in my email inbox recently from someone with a membership run on Squarespace with MemberSpace.⁠
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That person didn’t even realize how insecure their content ACTUALLY is until I made a quick video to show them how easy MemberSpace is bypassed. ⁠
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I won’t upload the video somewhere public to prevent other membership owners from having their content needlessly exposed, but if you want to see a real-life example, DM me and I’ll send one to you privately.⁠

09/13/2023

Want your next website launch to run a little smoother? 🙋🏻‍♀️⁠
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Remember how we recently talked about the fact that bug-free website launches are more MYTH 🦄 than REALITY? 🐴 (If not, I gotchu: check out the reel on my feed with that same text on the cover photo)⁠
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Assuming that you’ll have a few rogue bugs to squash during website launch week: is there anything you can do other than nervously twiddling your thumbs while you wait around for the bug reports to start rolling in after the site goes live?⁠
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Absolutely!⁠
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There are a handful of actions that you can take ahead of time to ensure that any pesky new bugs have minimal impact on your members or customers.⁠
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Swipe through the carousel for more details on each of these 4️⃣ actions:⁠
✨ Thoroughly test & evaluate the demo version of your new site during revisions⁠
✨ Arrange for extra support on launch week⁠
✨ Let your website host know you're launching⁠
✨ Have your developer on standby for launch⁠
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Taking these actions in preparation for your website launch will certainly help the whole event run more smoothly. A smoother launch leads to a happier team AND happier members/customers…who are ultimately the reason why you’re launching the new site in the first place, right? 🙌🏻⁠
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🧚🏻‍♀️⁠
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Take action: SAVE THIS POST to refer back to before your next big website launch!

09/07/2023

Have you ever wanted to start fresh with a brand new website, but the idea of moving your absolute TREASURE TROVE of existing content over to your new site stops you dead in your tracks?⁠
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(I'm picturing you like a 🐉 sitting on top of a pile of content gold 😂)⁠
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If so, I have some good news for you: there are SO many ways you can get around this obstacle!⁠
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One of the vital pieces of the membership development project was migrating their existing library of THOUSANDS of images and videos over to the new site. ⁠
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Ain't nobody got time to be manually migrating thousands of pieces of content by hand, or to go in and replicate tags/categories/etc on media items moved by an out-of-the-box solution like a commercial plugin 🙅🏻‍♀️⁠
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Oh, and on top of that: on the new site, I set up proper Woocommerce product attributes for media files, allowing us to store data like color, orientation, and media type in a more usable format than the taxonomies that had been in use on the old site...so it wasn't going to be a 1-1 move, anyway 🙃⁠
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As so often happens during development, it was time to get creative! ⁠
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Thankfully, creative solutions to tech problems are my specialty🧚🏻‍♀️😉⁠
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Here's how we tag-teamed this monumental effort:⁠
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✨ The Elevae team did a lot of dirty work in reviewing and revising the media files on their current site so that we wouldn't carry over some of the problems that plagued their content previously (typos, incorrect categories/tags, etc)⁠
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✨ I imported the content with a run of WP All Import to fill in all the basic details (title, image files, categories and tags, etc)⁠
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✨ Then, I ran some custom functions on the newly imported content via WP Batch Processing. These functions allowed us to automatically add orientation, media type, and color attributes to the content based on tags that had been applied while the content was still on the old site.⁠
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Even in a complex case like this was, there's probably a solution out there somewhere if you look (and think!) hard enough. 🤓

01/04/2023

Word of the year: must have or not your style? 🤔⁠
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If you are a WOTY fan like me, drop a comment with your word for 2023 below and tell me why you chose it! ⁠
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✨ r e l e a s e ✨⁠
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is my word of the year for 2023. Why I chose this particular word out of all the possibilities that came to me:⁠
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🙈 I have a tendency to try to control things as a defense mechanism...if I'm in control, I don't have to be vulnerable or depend on anyone else⁠
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🤜🏻 This need to control means I grip onto lots of things too tightly (in many areas of life, but in business especially), which can be really counterproductive⁠
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😰 Trying to control everything puts a LOT of pressure on me, and quite honestly, is an impossible task anyway since a lot of what I stress about is related to other people's actions⁠
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🌸 Appropriate amounts of trust and cautiously opening up to others is something I've been working on for a couple of years now, and the act of releasing goes right along with that...think of a tight little flower bud finally letting go and blooming ⁠
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01/26/2022

Curious about why I decided to pivot from serving brand designers as a subcontractor to working directly with entrepreneurs? 👀⁠
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All the juicy details are here in these slides! Swipe through to get all the tea 😉⁠
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And, if you identify with that entrepreneur I described in the story...DM me. I can help you turn your website from a stumbling block into a step up. ✨⁠
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⁠ https://instagr.am/p/CZMbuqmrd7h/

01/19/2022

Do you have a fun way to track and celebrate milestones on the way to your goals? 🎉⁠
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I have a particular income goal for 2022, so I wrote down a plan for reaching that goal (with room for flexibility! It's just one route I could take). Inspired by my prompt, I also made a plan for celebrating at particular milestones all along the way!⁠
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I used to crinkle my nose up at the idea of celebrating along the way versus just at the end (waste of time! not worth celebrating! you get the picture...), but I've since come around to the idea of recognizing your progress and having a little fun with the whole journey. ✨⁠
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Another part of working toward this goal for me is an income tracker! I created a simple but cute and on-brand bubble sheet (see an example in the picture, with all the juicy bits redacted 😂) that now hangs in my office area. ⁠
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I can look at this sheet and quickly see where I'm at progress-wise, and coloring in each bubble as I earn is pretty fun/motivating! There's also a little affirmation-style material on it that shows multiple routes by which I could reach my goal and provides evidence that I CAN do this.⁠
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Are you a fan of celebrating along the way? How do you recognize and mark your progress on a goal? 🤔 Let me know in the comments! https://instagr.am/p/CY6Z1jCMvTu/

01/14/2022

Got big dreams for where you want to be in January 2023? What is one choice you can make TODAY to get you one step closer to that place you want to be THEN?⁠
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Story time! Last year, I started out thinking I wanted to cut (or lose weight/body fat for those of y'all who aren't familiar with gym lingo 🤪). I had all the best intentions, but the choices I made on a day-to-day basis—those I made in the "right now"—did not align with that goal.⁠
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So guess what?⁠
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I ended up adding an additional 5 pounds instead of cutting that weight in 2021. 😅⁠
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The daily choices I made did not serve me because I did not make them while thinking about my overall goal, but chose what felt good in that particular moment.⁠
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The same concept applies to business!⁠
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If you keep your end goal in mind while making your everyday decisions, you'll have a much greater chance of actually achieving that goal by this time next year. ✨⁠
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Share this to your story if you know someone who needs to hear this gentle reminder!⁠
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Post inspired by whose quote I found on Pinterest! 💕 https://instagr.am/p/CYuR-V3OrB_/

01/06/2022

Curious what my clients think about our work together?⁠
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I'd say they're usually pretty tickled with the results, but don't take it from me: here's a little something Irene of Team had to say. 🥰⁠
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The Cultivate team originally had me on a temporary retainer in the fall of 2020 to "hold down the fort" development-wise while Irene, their web expert, was out on maternity leave. ⁠
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Irene came back a few months later...but my retainer has never really stopped! ☺️ ⁠
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Though they don't need nearly as much from me since Irene's been back in office, I still get the opportunity to join their ranks for a few half-day intensives a month. I assist with troubleshooting/debugging, code quality assurance, developing new features, and maintenance for both the Shopify store and Goal School. ⁠
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If you're looking for a developer you can trust to add to your team—even if that just looks like an occasional intensive—look no further! Shoot me a DM (or fill out the contact form on my website) and I'd be happy to chat with you about how I can help with your website. 💕⁠
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⁠PS: January is fully booked for development intensives, so be sure to reach out soon if you're interested in one of my February slots!⁠
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PPS: Fun fact - was my very first client way back in 2016. Do I mention this every time I share anything remotely related to Irene or our work together? YEP 😂 https://instagr.am/p/CYZJO2BNcz7/

Megan Garwood - Web Developer

03/12/2024

03/04/2024

02/07/2024

10/04/2023

09/13/2023

09/07/2023

01/04/2023

01/26/2022

01/19/2022

01/14/2022

01/06/2022

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