Definitive guide
Best Journalist Websites of 2023 | 10 Examples + Templates
Best journalist website examples
1. Tara Pixley
URL: https://www.tarapixley.com/
Tara is a Los Angeles-based visual journalist, strategic storytelling consultant, and teacher. She has a Ph.D. in communication as well as an MFA in photography. She is very concerned about the diaspora, the Global South, Blackness, and immigration/border visual rhetoric. When you arrive at her website, you will be greeted with crisp, well-organized pages and high-quality images! Nice!
- Bold logo
- Lots of whitespace
- Incredible image gallery
Click the blue & white buttons to get started, or find a web designer 🚀
2. Rebecca Hobson
URL: https://www.rebeccahobson.com/
It’s worth checking out Rebecca Hobson’s website because she’s such a great journalist! This is the ideal illustration if you want to see a minimalist but effective approach to web design. You’ll love how well-designed and useful each page is. Check out her website right away because it screams professionalism!
- Nice personal image
- Clean web design
- Minimalistic and powerful
Click the blue & white buttons to get started, or find a web designer 🚀
3. Michiel Zonneveld
URL: https://michielzonneveld.nl/
It will become clearer to you after visiting Michiel’s website that there is beauty in simplicity. He chose a simple website with great scrolling animations and a great work page rather than one with too much design to keep audiences interested and engaged. The website’s color scheme is fantastic because it perfectly captures his personality.
- Great scrolling animations
- Nice typing animation
- Great ‘work’ page
Click the blue & white buttons to get started, or find a web designer 🚀
4. Dana Wood
URL: https://www.danawoodwriter.com/
Whether in – gasp – actual editorial or on the brand side, Dana Wood is obsessive about crossing all the Ts and dotting all the Is. When she commits, she commits. And if you hire her, you will n-e-v-e-r be left hanging. Click the link to see a super clean journalism website with a clear value proposition.
- Nice showcase
- Super clean website
- Clear value proposition
Click the blue & white buttons to get started, or find a web designer 🚀
5. Zina Kumok
Personal finance is Zina Kumok’s area of expertise as a freelance writer. I advise you to check out her website and incredible portfolio if you want to be like her. You’ll definitely learn something from her experiences, I’m sure. An original way to display your work and introduce yourself to others is through a portfolio.
- Great, personal image
- Clear value proposition
- Added social proof thanks to the certificate
Click the blue & white buttons to get started, or find a web designer 🚀
6. Linda Groothuijse
URL: http://www.lindagroothuijse.nl/
Everyone should visit the incredible website designed by Linda Groothuijse! Her website has a stylish menu and a cool color scheme. Now is the time to click the link and visit her pages if you want to achieve that kind of result! Avoid missing out. Another plus is the font style, which makes everything look fantastic.
- Very unique web design style
- Cool color scheme
- Nice menu design
Click the blue & white buttons to get started, or find a web designer 🚀
7. Alice Driver
URL: https://www.alicedriver.com/
A nice website with excellent content is owned by Alice Driver. I would seize this opportunity to learn some web design principles from her, if I were you. Today, keeping things simple instead of giving your audience too much information improves everything. The website looks neat and organized thanks to the white spaces. Take inspiration from this!
- Classy, minimalistic web design style
- Great description of Alice’s work
- Minimalistic menu
Click the blue & white buttons to get started, or find a web designer 🚀
8. Michelle Sandlin
URL: https://michellesandlin.com/
Michelle Sandlin understands how to keep her audience interested as much as possible. She consistently used unpolished video messages, images, and other writing to convey information. I adore the distinctive logo he used on her website. To discover more about her as a person, click the link! Never will you be let down. Trust on me.
- Unique web design style
- Nice color scheme
- Awesome logo
Click the blue & white buttons to get started, or find a web designer 🚀
9. Drew Tewksbury
URL: https://www.drewtewksbury.com/
Drew Tewksbury is the perfect journalist website you need to see if you’re a fan of epic background images that blend in with the color scheme, If you want to know what I’m talking about, you just have to click the link above! Besides images, Drew also has a clear value proposition above the fold.
- Epic background image which blends in with the color scheme
- Amazing images
- Clear value proposition above the fold
Click the blue & white buttons to get started, or find a web designer 🚀
These are my favourites.
BONUS – Here is my favorite template
URL: https://mycodelesswebsite.com/try-theme/copywriter
Why this is such a great template
- Clean design, great to turn visitors into customers
- Wordpress compatible, easy to customize
- Free download if you’re a Divi member
🚀 Click on the blue button to download – or ask a web designer to help you
BONUS: Elegant Themes
URL: https://elegantthemes.com/
Although this one officially shouldn't be in this list - I couldn't keep this one from you. Elegant themes has amazing website themes and leads by example. Their own homepage looks stunning.
What you can learn from this great website
- Playful design
- Clear call to actions
- Great user experience
More website examples
Modern Examples
Startup Examples
Divi Examples
3 Award Winning Web Designers I recommend
I highly recommend you to have a look at their portfolios!
WORDPRESS EXPERT
HIGH-END
CONVERTING WEB DESIGN
Kegan Quimby
keganquimby.com
Kegan is a freelance WordPress designer/developer. He works with businesses of all sizes to share their story. He builds websites that are fast, mobile & SEO friendly, and built to last!
✓ He specializes in WordPress design and development. From branding to e-commerce, to mobile, and everything in between.
✓ He has a focus on small to medium size businesses but also has enterprise clients.
✓ Clients include Level Up Digital Media, Center for Human Insights by User Testing.
Vrrb
vrrb.com
Vrrb is an award-winning creative agency based in Los Angeles. 14+ years of experience building extraordinary websites, applications, and digital solutions for the world's most recognizable brands.
✓ Our core services include branding, website design/development, mobile apps, digital strategy, and ongoing support
✓ We engage with established companies (50+ employees), as well as funded startups looking to turbocharge their growth.
✓ Clients include Ferrari, Visa, HP, UCLA, and Behr Paint.
Lovepixel Agency
lovepixelagency.com
We Build Highly Converting Funnels / Brands / Websites that people fall in Love with. Personal Brands, Authors, Speakers, Influencers, Coaches, Consultants. Check my video to see how we work 👋
✓ This web design agency specializes in custom websites using WordPress.
✓ They focus on a personal touch that allows the visitor to connect with the website. Great for personal brands!
✓ Clients include Oto Gomes, Laura Dawn, Sigrid Tasies.
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About the author
My name is Ralph de Groot. I love excellent web design. In fact, you can wake me up at night if you find an inspiring website. Besides writing on My Codeless Website I also love to read and travel.
PS: If you decide to purchase a tool I recommend, I get a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Checklist: 5 ways to make your constructing website beautiful and highly converting
1. Showcase your work with great images
When you’re hiring someone to do something which is important to you, you want to make sure they do it right.
And sure, they can tell you they’re the best at what they do. But wouldn’t it be better to see some proof?
Your visitors think just like this. That’s why you need to establish social proof by showcasing previous projects with great images.
When it comes to creating social proof, more is better. This goes for the entire construction industry.
2. Use video footage to make your website come alive
In the list with website examples you found some cool websites which use video background in the header of their website. If you have video footage yourself, definitely consider doing this as well.
- It makes your website come alive
- It adds credibility and makes you look professional
3. Use a ‘smart lead form’ to turn visitors into clients
Getting someone to visit your website is one thing. Getting them to do business with you is the next one.
Sure, you can add your contact information to your website – you should – but don’t expect people to be calling right away.
Make it easy. Add a ‘discuss your project’ contact form to enable them to get in touch with you.
Make it as easy as possible. I recommend not using more than 3 fields in your contact form.
4. Collect real testimonials from real clients
By now you probably realized social proof is extremely important when it comes to building a great website. Take it to the next level, and add testimonials from real clients in the construction industry.
Don’t write them yourself, don’t ask your friends to write them. They’ll feel something is off.
Want to go for the perfect score? Include video testimonials. Trust me, this will turn your website into a conversion machine.
5. Watch people using your website without telling them what do do
Once your website is ready it’s time to launch. Well, almost.
Invite some friends or colleagues and put them in front of a computer. Ask them to pretend to be a potential customer and have them visit your website.
Now sit next to them, and don’t say anything (this will be harder than you think).
Do this with at least 5 people and learn from their behaviour:
- Did they follow the steps you expected them to?
- Did your website load fast enough?
- Was everything clear to them?
I wish you the best of luck!
Growth hacking: 5 powerful strategies to promote a construction firm website
1. Go viral with a viral give-away
Imagine.
You send your website to 5 friends. Who each send it to 5 friends.
Now these friends also send it to 5 friends. Oeh la la! Continue this loop for a while, and your website is actually going viral.
Viral Loops is a referral marketing tool which helps you to explode your website with new visitors.
We’ve used Viral loops to create virality with multiple websites. It allows you to build a sustainable referral scheme which helps you to grow your website rapidly.
2. Do a press release
Yaiks! A press release? That’s not for small businesses, right?
Well. It is actually. Journalists LOVE small businesses and the entrepreneurs behind them. It makes sense – if you’re at a birthday party, friends are probably always asking how your business is doing.
Everybody loves entrepreneurs.
Write a press release about a milestone your company achieved. It doesn’t really matter what it is your company did, just make it juicy and interesting.
Create a list of journalists and reach out to them. The key in this process is the followup. If you’re just sending them just one email you’re probably not going to have a lot of success. Remind them at least once within a period of 7 days.
Being featured by local news outlets actually is good for your seo. The more websites mentioning you on their website, the higher you’ll rank in the search engine.
3. Use a LinkedIn-bot to generate traffic on autopilot
Allright. You’re now probably thinking one of two things:
- That sounds spammy. I’m not going to do that.
- A bot? How does that even work? I’m not a scientist.
Trust me, I thought the same as you. But it’s not as sketchy as it seems.
Dux-Soup is a LinkedIn tool which allows you to ‘look’ at 100 LinkedIn profiles per day.
This tool automatically visits LinkedIn profiles of people of your choice. In the past, I’ve used this a lot to get in touch with business owners.
I would have Dux-Soup open the profiles of 100 business owners per day.
It’s actually pretty simple:
- Download the Dux-Soup tool
- Open your LinkedIn account
- Search for ‘business owner’ or any other job description’
- Click the ‘Visit profiles’ button.
Now here comes the important part: Make sure your LinkedIn profile is optimized.
This means:
- A good looking profile picture
- A good tagline which describes what you do
- A great profile description which demonstrates your skills as a constructor
- Some nice portfolio projects on your LinkedIn profile
Let’s say 20% of every profile visit converts into a ‘return-visit’. That will mean 20 potential business owners who look at your LinkedIn profile every day.
That’s 600 potential leads in a month.
4. Target hot traffic with retargeting ads
Imagine.
A potential client is looking for construction services and stumbled upon your website. But after scrolling through your website for 30 seconds, he or she got a phone call from a friend. After calling for 20 minutes they forgot about your website and they close down their computer.
Auch.
That’s why I use retargeting advertisements to bring back these lost leads.
This will enable you to display advertisements to people who visited your website.
Just install a Facebook pixel on your website to target all your website visitors with an advertisement on Facebook or Instagram.
5. Outsource your social media management
Back in 2015 social media could have enormous impact in your business. Nowadays, not so much.
There’s way more competition than before. That being said, it can still be done. You just need to be consistent.
That’s where most businesses fail. They handle the social media themselves. For a while. And then they forget about it.
That’s why I recommend you to have a look at Fiverr. It’s a platform which allows you to hire professionals overseas. They’re seriously good – and cheap! The past few years I hired multiple professional digital marketing experts for as little as $100 per month.
FAQ
What makes a good journalist website?
A great journalist website should have a clean design, be easy to navigate and include a lot of social proof. Have a look at this page for great example websites.
How to create a journalist website?
- Analyze the best examples on this page
- Make notes of what you like – and what you don’t like
- Design your own site with this a drag & drop website builder
- Publish your website with our recommended hosting platform.
How much does a journalist website cost?
A web designer will charge anywhere between $1500 and $5000 for a decent website. However, this article will teach you to do it yourself for less than $100.
What information is needed on a journalist website?
Your website will need at least the following pages: ‘Home, About us, Contact, Portfolio’. To create trust with your visitor it’s important to show lots of pictures about your team and your latest projects.