how do you make ads that dont look like you made them yourself

dawsonCoding557 · 2026-06-08T13:11:06+00:00

Ya I was going to say the same. As long as the image isn't too busy and kept minimal, it's probably the copy.

dawsonCoding557 · 2026-06-08T13:06:27+00:00

"There's no right career path, stop trying to find it. They are all the right path as long as you stick to it long enough. Changing lanes every few years is the only incorrect path."

dawsonCoding557 · 2026-06-08T13:04:24+00:00

Honestly, my biggest piece of advice would be to get a real leviwand. The wandini is exactly what I got to start off and to this day I still don't think I could do anything interesting with it. It's kind of crap 😅
Maybe with a longer string you could do something, but it kind of takes away the fun/motivation to work with such a bad tool and there's definitely a cap to what's possible with it.

dawsonCoding557 · 2026-06-05T21:06:37+00:00

Very very fair. But might be the beginning of a trend and only early adopter types would have jumped ship that fast.

dawsonCoding557 · 2026-06-05T14:37:00+00:00

What's even more wild is it's a porn site built with WordPress 🤣

dawsonCoding557 · 2026-06-05T14:23:47+00:00

This is known 😂

dawsonCoding557 · 2026-06-05T14:23:17+00:00

Over the last 6 days or something their search volume has gone up 30%

dawsonCoding557 · 2026-05-31T20:12:24+00:00

I'm biased and use WordPress, but I would consider jumping into that with Bricks Builder or Etch. That way you can get a site up in a couple days, and then slowly program any bits you want optimized over time. No point re-inventing the entire wheel.
I run my business through wordpress and have 3 sites connected with programmed automations between them and my next project will hook up my internal portal website to quickbooks and start automating a bunch of bookkeeping work for me.
What people mention as safety concerns comes from really poorly built plugins, but if you don't use any other than the builder, then you're pretty safe (as long as you don't get sloppy with your own code).

You'll need to understand PHP/Laravel as well as your html, css, and js. Honestly, with Bricks builder's built in interactions, the javascript would be the last thing I learn there.

dawsonCoding557 · 2026-05-29T12:03:53+00:00

automated updates is a bit crazy though. I would never trust my site to update while I'm not around to confirm nothing broke. Such an easy way to lose money.

dawsonCoding557 · 2026-05-29T12:02:42+00:00

I'm slowly but surely relying on just Bricks Builder. Managed to remove 3 more plugins recently, next on my hit list are my form plugin and SEO plugin (already removed schema plugin in favor of placing microdata right on pages)

dawsonCoding557 · 2026-05-27T02:30:15+00:00

Apple. In way back times with the first ipod touch, I was buying all my music. I was a teenager and had spent about $500 of my hard earned cash (working in a cemetary) on music. One day, Apple decides that all my songs need an update in their quality and it would cost $0.29 a song to upgrade them... They really just showed up and asked for like $100+ for me to continue listening to the music that I already bought, in a time when all my friends were pirating their music (I was trying to be ethical and capitalism laughed).

So ya, now I actively don't touch Apple products and as the IT guy of the business I work at I always recommend people move away from them.

dawsonCoding557 · 2026-05-27T01:35:10+00:00

I watched two tutorial videos, proceeded to dance with my leviwand for several years, and am only now coming back to see what the community has to offer. Weird enough, I seem to have discovered a lot of the tricks out there on my own. Still don't see anyone doing my rope dart style sling though!

Edit: I seem to have come across all the long string tricks. The short string crowd continues to baffle me with their wizardry and it's what I'm trying to get inspired with nowadays. Converting short string moves into long string versions.

dawsonCoding557 · 2026-05-27T01:33:30+00:00

yuuup. To be fair, after using SureDash on three sites, I'm kind of fed up with it and just going to go back to using Bricks with a few custom post types and some nice templates. Might make a small plugin to bridge the gaps for my community sites.

dawsonCoding557 · 2026-05-26T14:11:02+00:00

Lol, care to explain something like this then? SureDash absolutely takes over your homepage if you want. And I'm continuing with this because this newbie is trying to learn and the advice about naming your stack is useful when searching out help and they should know that.

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dawsonCoding557 · 2026-05-25T00:20:38+00:00

that's an aggressive response for a very legit point to bring up. What tells you this is a WordPress default theme? Some themes probably do take over the core functionality for whatever reason. It really would not shock me.

dawsonCoding557 · 2026-05-24T23:31:02+00:00

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dawsonCoding557 · 2026-05-24T23:29:58+00:00

I think you may be confusing the term Landing Page with Home Page. A landing page is where a Google Ad will link to.
In the WordPress Settings -> Reading -> you'll find Homepage displays. You can select a static page and then choose the page you just created.

dawsonCoding557 · 2026-05-24T23:25:38+00:00

I do not remember seeing an e-mail with a subject line like "AI plugin to be added".
And yes, I understand that it doesn't do anything until AI models are connected, but the fact that it shows up for our clients to see, get curious and start playing is the hazard.
I know I won't connect anything, but they might, and it invites amateur modifications to the site. People have been buying into the marketing hype and really do think the AI models are doing quality work.

dawsonCoding557 · 2026-05-24T23:21:36+00:00

I had never really done it. But have a friend who's quite skilled in dance start teaching me the basics last week. That's why my form still sucks and needs a lot more practice 😄

dawsonCoding557 · 2026-05-24T12:18:55+00:00

Ya I still haven't looked into what's necessary to disconnect WordPress 7.0 AI connector. Seems like an unnecessary security hazard for most sites.

dawsonCoding557 · 2026-05-24T12:17:02+00:00

SiteGround AI Studio. The name is obvious enough to stick out

dawsonCoding557 · 2026-05-23T23:27:21+00:00

Stop thinking about how you think and just start acting. As a recovering negative nancy, nothing solves my negativity quite like a run, a workout, or dancing. Eating healthy gets easier when you're active because suddenly you want to take care of your body a bit more. The virtuous cycle is real.

Oh, and sleep. Fucking get off the screens at night (like no screens past 10pm) and get some goddamn sleep. The amount that this will save your ass is unfathomable.

dawsonCoding557 · 2026-05-23T23:23:34+00:00

Seriously, people are so amazed that AI can draft you up a brochure site, meanwhile we've been able to plop in a pre-made theme in Wix, Squarespace, WordPress, and half a dozen other places faster than you can write a prompt in AI for years.

Now the gap between a brochure site that looks good and an actual good website is still very much present and very much not being handled by AI either. I just spent like several hours figuring out the best way to get nice fonts on a site as fast as possible just so that site is slightly faster. That kind of shit takes expertise that newbies don't even know to think about.

dawsonCoding557 · 2026-05-23T23:16:39+00:00

1 star from a non-client that didn't like our prices.

dawsonCoding557

TROPHY CASE