Rocketspark

Old McDonald had a website, A-I A-E-O And on that website he had… AEO? GEO? AIO? LLM? SEO? And bingo was his name-o? The alphabet soup of new acronyms is getting a bit silly 😅 Let me break it down super simply: they're all basically talking about the same thing—making your business show up in AI recommendations. "Hey ChatGPT, who's a good builder in Auckland for renovations?" Website designers, your clients want to be that recommendation. Here's the thing everyone's overcomplicating: if you're already doing the SEO basics right, you're 90% of the way there. The fundamentals haven't changed: ✅ Strong, helpful content on your site ✅ Clear explanations of what you actually do ✅ Good reviews from real customers ✅ Well-structured website ✅ Local credibility Nail those, and AI tools can already find and recommend you. Same stuff that's worked for years. But… at Rocketspark, we've been “scheming” up 3 features (including automatic FAQ schema) to give you that extra 5-10% edge with AI search. Think of it like an aerodynamic boost. The best bit? These features help with both AI search and traditional Google SEO. Interested in early access? Sign up here: https://lnkd.in/g2MAf4we

Our team is full of people who got their start right here, learning on the job, building confidence, and finding their niche. Now we’re looking for someone ready to do the same. Bring curiosity, empathy, and a bit of creativity. We’ll teach you the rest. This Customer Success Specialist role is about more than just support. You'll spend your days helping customers find their feet, solving real problems, and seeing the impact of your work right away. 👉 Learn more and apply here: https://lnkd.in/gqiqECHq

Two weeks ago I flew to Christchurch for the .nz Domain Registrar Summit hosted by InternetNZ. If you’ve never heard of InternetNZ | Ipurangi Aotearoa, they run the official registry for all domains ending in .nz—including .co.nz. They don’t sell domains directly, but they power every .nz domain provider. Shoutout to the InternetNZ team for putting on a great event Tim Johnson. It was also great to meet others shaping how domain names work here—including the team behind .kiwi domains Dot Kiwi Ltd (Andy Ellis and Hannah Duder). More on that in a future post… Did you know you can get your domain and email through Rocketspark—even if you don’t need a website yet? Thousands of kiwis have their domain names with Rocketspark and our NZ-based team have a 5.0 ⭐ Google Review average rating out of 5. One of the great things about one-stop-shopping your domain, email and website together with Rocketspark is you just don’t have the faff of dealing with the technical (DNS) settings of a domain name. If your domain is in a different place from your email and your website, you’ll have to run the gauntlet of editing those settings but with Rocketspark it’s totally automatic when you have domain, email and website all in one place. PS, we’re NZ owned, NZ operated and our support team is in New Zealand. And yes, you can transfer domains to Rocketspark. Check out the pricing by doing a domain search at https://lnkd.in/g8cU5Rhv Also—tiny win: Air New Zealand just added an Airbus to the Hamilton–Christchurch route, and the shorter flight got me to the pre-event networking before it finished. One of those small things that actually made a big difference.

Two months ago I announced I’d written a book. Co-writing with Grant Johnson, we put a lot of time into the content. But until this week, part of me thought “what if it still never actually makes it to print?” This week I’ve been checking out the design progress with Tyron Noble. Seeing the illustrations in place, the stories beautifully presented and the typesetting — it’s starting to feel real. The book is called “Creative Freedom” — an intentional play on words for the freelance designer's reason to “go out on their own”. What they want is creative freedom in their projects but also freedom in their lifestyle. But without the right kit, the reality can be very different. This week I’ve also been watching a survival TV show. Some are eating well, have shelter, fire and drinking water. But one contestant went home sick from drinking untreated stream water. Another contestant went home due to hypothermia and lack of food. The outdoors can be a place of great freedom or it can be absolutely punishing. Freelancing can be a lot like this. Some designers have plenty of great projects and good client management processes, while other designers have cashflow problems, weak processes, fight with clients or end up back in a 9-5. If you’re keen to know when the book launch is happening, drop a comment below or join our partner community. https://lnkd.in/gRmry6Qr

Ever had a building or trades client who really doesn’t want photos of themselves on their site? For me as a homeowner, this is a red flag when I'm comparing the websites of different operators. When the homeowner brings a tradie into their home, around their family, they want to know who’s coming. A friendly face can be the tipping point between browsing and booking. Here's some ways to have that conversation with your web design clients: Flip the script It’s not about vanity. It’s about trust. Help them see it as showing they’re safe, friendly, and easy to have around the house. Being willing to smile on camera goes a long way to showing someone isn't a grump. Suggest family shots We’ve seen the clever ones put a photo of themselves with their family on their About page. That tiny detail makes people think, “Oh, they’ve got kids — they’ll be considerate if mine are around.” Instant connection. Offer to guide the shoot A pro photographer gives the best results, but if the client says no, a decent phone camera is better than no people photos. Show the difference If you’ve got before-and-after examples where a site came alive with people shots, share them. Seeing it works better than hearing it. Plan it early Make “people photos” part of the first conversation, not an afterthought when the site’s nearly done. Or even make it a requirement of working with you. Do you trust a tradie website with no real photos of them or their team? Check out our DIY photography guide feat. Ruth Gilmour 👉 https://lnkd.in/g6dxipsv

In 2006, I was fresh out of uni and freelancing solo. No formal design training. No business background. My first freelance website quote? $600 for a family friend 🙂 But the real stress came later…. chasing content, managing projects that dragged on, second-guessing every price I set, and trying to pay bills when clients paid late (or not at all). That scrappy start eventually led to Rocketspark. I teamed up with my brother Grant and friends Richard and Lee. Together we built something to make website creation smoother—not just for us, but for other designers too. We funded it by designing websites ourselves, sometimes juggling 30 projects with less than two full-time people. We refined our systems constantly and made plenty of the “care too much, charge too little” kind of mistakes. By 2018, we wrapped our final client project and went all-in on supporting designers. Fast forward to today, and we’re writing a book about that journey - full of stories like this, and lessons from creatives around the world who’ve found their way, one mistake at a time. If you’re in that messy middle, we get it. Whether you’re just getting started or have been in the game for years, you don’t have to figure it all out alone. That’s why we created a community for designers. Join the Rocketspark partner community: 👉 https://lnkd.in/gRmry6Qr Or comment below if you’d like to know when we launch the book.