The difference between Web Design Starter Kit & Ultimate Client Portal System

The Web Design Starter Kit is a Squarespace template specifically designed to make the process of starting a fresh new website for client projects much faster and simpler because you actually just duplicate this and build on that every time.

So you you get my copy of it and then you duplicate it and edit the copy for every client that you want to use it for.

This one is actually a system.

In built inside Kitchen.

I show you how to use it.

Basically, it just covers how to use Kitchen tasks, file sharing, and messaging embeds to create your own branded client portal that looks like an extension of your website as much as possible, updating the colors and everything.

And that gives you sort of a transparent way to work with your clients.

So they know what you're working on, they know where to go.

They're not confused and it's easy for them to use.

They don't have to learn like Notion or ClickUp or Asana or Trello or whatever.

That's the difference between the two.

They don't really overlap with one exception.

They both have access to the client resource hub, which is this page in Notion.

You'll be able to make a copy of this for yourself, whether you buy either, and then edit your copy.

The overlap is that I include bits of that hub here inside the starter kit.

And the reason why is because I want the client to be able to access some of those parts quickly from within their Squarespace website.

So while they're in here, if they have a question, all they have to do is scroll down to this last section, click on the private resources, and they can go right, like jump right to the thing they have a question about.

So some of this stuff is linked, a lot of this stuff is linked, and they're gonna jump right into my hub.

So you'll probably wanna update a lot of this and replace it with your own links.

Links, including your own blog, your own YouTube channel, your own affiliate links, whatever you want to put in here.

But this is just an example of what I have in my own for my own clients.

So underneath that section, which is mostly just linking to the same stuff down here, underneath that, I have a whole section for clients specifically on how to use or take advantage, I guess I should say, take advantage of, like, make the best of Squarespace's Fluid Engine regarding mobile versus desktop changes, how to, how, how they work, what to expect.

And I tried to write it in such a way where all of them are pretty short answers, bold, just bolding the most important things so they can skim through it and find what they're looking for.

And I put it all in basic accordion blocks.

So it's pretty self-explanatory.

There's no video in here except for these.

And those link out to YouTube videos, if I remember correctly.

And then this links out to specific Squarespace help articles, which might be helpful, which those have video tutorials too, made by Squarespace.

So anyway, you can update this if you need to, of course, and this is designed or written to be useful specifically to our clients, although you may learn some things from it too.

And underneath that, there's a section specifically for anchor links because I have had a few clients ask me how to do this.

And before you needed code, but now Squarespace has it built in.

And since that's relatively new, I figured I'd put that directly in here too, 'cause that is kind of helpful and I do use it kind of frequently.

So in here I also have another accordion section that explains all the bits and pieces of using anchor links, what it means, how to use it, blah, blah, blah.

So that's the only overlap.

They both have access to those things.

The actual hub, it's over here in the new page guides.

There's the mobile responsive tips and there's the anchor links.

But the, the Starter Kit template is actually a Squarespace template.

So the idea is you can fill it with whatever you want and whatever you fill it with will be the baseline, like foundation that you build all your projects on.

And the reason why is because We can't yet make bulk changes in some of these areas.

So like, for example, if you spend every project going through your color themes, then you probably wanna shoot yourself in the foot.

Because there are 10 themes and about 5,001 options in all 10 themes individually.

So if you like to make specific changes to these and you tend to make those same changes across all of your websites.

For example, on card image layouts, when you're using classic editor, poster block, card block, the image overlay is always solid.

And for image block, card image block, overlap image block, collage, and image block stack, I always want that to be completely transparent because there's no text showing up on the image.

And it's easier for me to upload the image with the filter and the design and the graphic or whatever I want it to be before I put it in Squarespace and not, not rely on Squarespace to give the the image like a specific color tint or something with this, with this one particular feature.

And because you can't change stuff like that in bulk and you have to literally click every freaking one of these little circles to change in all 10 color themes, what you can do is you can go through your site styles and set the stuff that you always set for all your projects in this.

And then going forward, every time you copy it, you will have that already done.

So this template gives you- helps you start a lot faster, basically.

For example, too, the forms.

If you like to set up your forms a specific way, or you tend to use a specific form pack.

If the border's always 2px and not 1px, whatever it is, like you can go ahead and set that here.

And then when you duplicate the website for your next project, it'll already be done and you won't have to do that stuff again.

This already can have your custom CSS loaded in here.

So some CSS I've already loaded, including some of the labels and stuff.

You can also preload your, your custom code injection, any per-page custom code if you have any.

However you wanna lay out your legal pages, like whatever it is that you do for almost every project, just put it in your copy and then you'll save yourself a whole bunch of time going forward.

So that's the difference.

They're really two different softwares, two different parts of the process, and they use- they are used together.

Like I actively have my own copy of this that I duplicate for all future projects, and I also use Kitchen for the client portal.

So I hope that's helpful for you.

If you have any other questions, feel free to let me know.