Blog · Field Notes
One Week In: 4,300 Views, Four Proposals, 39 Changes
On Monday I announced LFW on LinkedIn. By Friday the post had been seen 4,300 times, four proposals were out, and the site had changed 39 times. A short record of week one, with thanks.
On Monday I told LinkedIn I was leaving Stand Together to start a web agency. A lot of you were kind about it.
120 reactions, 25 comments, 6 reposts and more than 4,300 views in four days. Thank you.
A new firm starts with the people who already know your work, and you showed up. Here is what happened in the rest of the week.
What LFW is, in one breath
LFW is a web agency for organizations that cannot afford a broken website: governments, associations, embassies and chambers of commerce.
We look after the site month to month. Updates, security, accessibility, hosting, and whatever the communications team needs that week.
Four proposals
Most of the week was business development, which is a polite way of saying I wrote proposals.
Four went out: one to a city, one to a county, one to a chamber of commerce, and one to a nonprofit association. I can't name them while they are deciding.
Some ask for a list of past government clients. A firm that opened this week does not have one, and every proposal says so plainly.
What I can show is my own record: running more than 40 public websites for Arlington County, Virginia, and building on WordPress since 2007.
We will see if that counts.
A desk in Rosslyn
I also acquainted myself with the WeWork in Rosslyn, where I work on occasion. Friendly, welcoming staff.
On Thursday the snack bar was wonderful: red and green apples, Nutella, chocolate chips, and more. Morale is high.
I can't stay away from the products
LFW also builds its own tools, and I kept tinkering between proposals.
LFW Search now powers the search on LFW.com. Press Ctrl K on any page and try it. It forgives typos and answers a question like "pricing" directly.
A monitor that cries wolf less
LFW Monitor watches a website for problems and tells you before a visitor does.
This week it stopped flagging Spanish and French pages as misspelled English, which it should never have done in the first place. It also reports one site-wide problem once, not fifty times.
A changelog anyone can read
Changes worth knowing about go on a public changelog that went live last weekend. It has 39 entries from this week and 108 in all.
If you ever wonder whether a web vendor is actually working, ask to see theirs.
Next week, and a favor
Next week: two more proposals, and more tinkering.
If you know an organization whose website has nobody looking after it, I would be grateful for the introduction.
Talk to us, or run the free audit on any site and see what it finds.