Kyle Van Deusen

Here’s something most website builders don’t think about until it bites them: the way you manage color on a project has a massive impact on how easy (or miserable) that project is to maintain. Not just at launch. Six months later, when a client wants to tweak their brand color. A year later, when you’re adding a new section and can’t remember what shade of blue you used on the buttons. Two years later, when someone else entirely has to touch the project and has no idea what’s going on.

Security is one of those things we don’t think much about… until something goes wrong. Whether it’s firewalls, monitoring, malware scanning, or all-in-one solutions, everyone has a different setup that helps them sleep at night. This week inside The Admin Bar, we asked agency owners what they actually use for website security — and the responses revealed a clear pattern: nobody relies on just one tool. The most security-conscious agencies are running 3-5 different solutions in layers.

Nothing derails a day quite like emailing back and forth trying to find a time that works. A solid scheduling tool can make your life (and your clients’ lives) way easier — and save a surprising amount of time each week. This week inside The Admin Bar, we asked agency owners what they actually use to book meetings — and the answers revealed some clear patterns. The open-source underdog surprised a lot of people. Several lifetime deals are still paying off years later.