Sep 16, 2025

Fortnightly Digest | Website in a Week

Passionate writer sharing insights, expertise, and knowledge on various topics to inspire and inform readers worldwide.

UPTRAK Fortnightly Digest September 2025 title banner in bold yellow on black background

Howdy y'all!

Apologies for the radio silence. I’ve been neck-deep doing business coaching with Laura Higgins - reworking how I build funnels and finally learning to make peace with social media.

Anyway I’m back in the saddle now, and looking forward to jumping back into your inbox every fortnight.

Let’s rip the lid off this pixel can.





This Week in the Headlines

Smart Doorbells Are Snitching to Insurance Companies

Ring and other smart doorbells are logging patterns about you, such as when you leave, who’s visiting (etc.) and turns our they’re selling that data to insurers.



🔑 Key takeaway:

The broader lesson: be sceptical of any Wifi-enabled (IoT) device. If it connects to the internet, assume the real customer might not be you.



👉🏼 Read More: Gadget Review, 2025







How To Get Through The First 2 Unprofitable Years of A Business

A recent Reddit thread pushed back on the glossy “laptop on the beach” version of entrepreneurship, painting a picture of sacrifice, resilience, and loneliness. In the comments, founders agreed that “never give up” sounds noble but quickly falls flat without real feedback. They shared tactics like validation sprints, celebrating micro-wins, and leaning on peers who understand the grind.



🔑 Key takeaway:

Grit matters, but feedback is what keeps you moving in the right direction.



👉🏼 Read the post here







Photo of wheelbarrow with 'Kelso's Cool Tools' written on it

Want to Show Up in AI Search? Start With Bing Webmaster

ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot lean heavily on Bing’s index to decide which sites appear in AI-powered answers. Bing Webmaster is Microsoft’s version of Search Console, giving you performance insights, keyword data, and sitemap control. Optimising here ensures Bing can crawl and surface your content not just in search results, but in AI-driven assistants too.



🔑 Key takeaway:

If you haven’t uploaded your sitemap to Bing WebMaster yet: ChatGPT, CoPilot probably can’t see you either.







Stuff I've Been Doing

Building a New Offer: Website in a Week (WW)

Over the past fortnight I’ve been shaping a new flagship service: Website in a Week. It’s a structured, collaborative process that takes a professional services business from strategy → design → launch in five business days days.



⭐ First WW Client: $3,499 (Instead of $4,999)

  • I’m offering the complete Website in a Week package for $3,499 to one client who’s open to collaborating and sharing feedback

  • Know someone who might be interested? Refer them my way. If it goes ahead, I’ll send you $300 as thanks!







Thank F**K I'm Not on Wordpress

WordPress Doubles Down on Last Place in the Global Web Olympics

Every month, the open-source HTTPArchive publishes Google’s Core Web Vitals Technology Report, analysing millions of websites with real Chrome user data. The July results compared six major CMSs on speed, stability, and responsiveness. WordPress not only scored the worst overall, with less than half its sites passing, it also posted the weakest month-on-month improvement a double loss no site owner wants on their record.

👉🏼 Read the original article here.



Latest Product Shipments

Fresh updates from Framer, Shopify, Google Analytics, and Microsoft Clarity



🖼️ Framer

  • A new Usage Monitoring dashboard shows bandwidth use and flags heavy assets before they cause issues.

  • You can now multi-select pages and assets, making it easier to bulk move, delete, or draft content.

  • Text truncation lets you set line limits so layouts stay neat, even with dynamic content.

Read More: Framer Updates



🛍️ Shopify

  • Multi-store reporting is live, so Plus merchants can see performance across stores without switching dashboards.

  • The new Launch Check app scans your setup in minutes and flags issues before you go live.

  • Shopify POS now supports HID barcode scanners, expanding hardware options.

  • Flow updates let you hash sensitive data and override resource IDs for safer, smarter automations.

Read More: Shopify Changelog

🔎 Google Analytics

  • Ecommerce dimensions and metrics are now available in more reports, making analysis easier and more complete.

  • Conversion tracking has been fixed for properties linked to multiple Google Ads accounts, preventing under-reporting.

Read More: GA4 Updates



💎 Microsoft Clarity

  • New AI traffic groups separate visitors from tools like ChatGPT or Gemini, so you can track and optimise their behaviour.

  • Notes in session recordings let teams comment and collaborate directly without external docs.

  • For rapid builders, Vibe coding support combines heatmaps, replays, and Copilot summaries to speed up iteration.

  • An updated recording timeline now shows page/tab switches more clearly, making sessions easier to follow.

Read More: Clarity Updates

Details

Date

Category

SEO

Reading

4 Min

Author

A person with light brown hair smiles slightly against a solid yellow background, wearing a simple black t-shirt.
Alex Kelso

Digital strategist

Solo studio operator in Sydney, backed by a team of Claude agents and a network of creators and marketers.

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