79: Pushing Past Template Limitations: A Conversation with Ghost Plugins Founder Cody Juhnke
In this episode of Think Inside the Square, we dive deep into the world of Squarespace plugins and custom development with Cody, the creative force behind Ghost Plugins and Pluto Studio. With over 100,000 Squarespace websites using Ghost Plugins, Cody shares invaluable insights about creating unique functionality while maintaining simplicity in website design.
From Personal Challenge to Industry Innovation
Cody's journey into Squarespace development began with a setback – after being ghosted by a web designer, he found himself with no budget and no website. This led him to discover Squarespace, where he taught himself coding through YouTube and W3Schools. What started as a necessity evolved into multiple successful businesses serving the Squarespace community.
The Power of Simplicity
While design trends come and go, Cody emphasizes that simplicity remains timeless. This philosophy guides everything at Ghost Plugins and Pluto Studio, from plugin development to client websites. It's an approach that resonates with users across various industries, from educational institutions to creative professionals.
Popular Plugins and Surprising Successes
Some of Ghost Plugins' most beloved features weren't necessarily the ones they expected to be hits. The Confetti Pop form submission animation and Doodle Pen tool have become community favorites, showing how fun, interactive elements can enhance user experience while maintaining professional functionality.
Tips for Sustainable Growth
For aspiring web designers and developers, Cody shares essential advice:
Set specific time blocks for different projects to maintain creativity
Use tools like Zendesk for efficient customer support
Practice building sites even without clients to develop skills
Focus on running an honest, authentic business
Maintain human connection in the age of AI
Future of Web Design
Despite advancing AI tools like Squarespace Blueprint, Cody believes personal connection and human creativity will remain essential in web design. While AI can be a useful tool, the one-on-one experience and personal touch in custom design work cannot be replicated by automation alone.
-
[00:00:00] Welcome to Think Inside the Square, a podcast full of tips and tricks to help you create a website that you're proud of. I'm your host, Becca Harpain, and today we are diving deep into the world of Squarespace plugins and custom development with someone who has helped transform thousands of Squarespace websites.
[00:00:20] My guest is Cody, the founder of Ghost Plugins and Pluto Studio. If you have ever wanted to push past template limitations and add unique functionality to your Squarespace website, you won't want to miss this episode. For a transcript of the episode along with the links to any resources mentioned, visit insidethesquare.co/podcast
[00:00:39] the term Squarespace is a trademark of Squarespace, Inc. This content is not affiliated with Squarespace, Inc.
[00:00:45] Long before I started sharing my custom CSS tutorials on Squarespace, I was an avid fan of Ghost Plugins. Yes, they have been around for that long. Now, if you're not familiar with Ghost Plugins, they are an incredible resource for our Squarespace community.
[00:01:00] At ghostplugins. com, you'll find a library of free plugins for any Squarespace website. They also offer some premium JavaScript plugins, and they've even started sharing some ready to go Squarespace templates. Ghost Plugins also has Pluto Studio, which is a website design agency that has done some amazing work with Squarespace.
[00:01:20] I am super excited to have the founder of Ghost Plugins and Pluto Studio here on the podcast today. Cody, welcome to Think Inside the Square. Give my listeners a background about who you are and what you do for our Squarespace community.
[00:01:33] Cody: Yeah, my name is Cody. I am the founder of Ghost Plugins and Pluto Studio.
[00:01:39] On the Ghost side, we specialize on plugins and templates and code and just fun things specifically for Squarespace. And then we also have the agency side, which is called Pluto Studio by Ghost. And we kind of take a little bit of a unique approach with that concept for small businesses and those needing a beautiful website.
[00:01:56] And we have a couple other babies on the side, Ghost Marketplace, MoveLab, stuff, yeah, busy with Squarespace stuff.
[00:02:02] Becca: That's so exciting. And I feel like you've really played a large role, a key role in a lot of Squarespace websites out there when it comes to really functional plugins from basic code to even more advanced JavaScript code that you work with.
[00:02:15] So I'm really curious when it comes to the content you're creating for our community. What really inspired you to focus on Squarespace?
[00:02:24] Cody: So, long story short, I knew nothing about website design a while back, a long time ago. And I actually needed a website done for a project that I was working on, so I did the typical thing of hiring a designer and doing, you know, the normal stuff.
[00:02:38] Unfortunately, that designer kind of ghosted me, no pun intended, uh, and kind of just took my money and ran, so I was left with no budget, no website. And kind of just had to do the G. I. Y. thing, right? So that's when I looked up, you know, the other platforms like Wix and Weebly and all the stuff. This is probably like 12 years ago.
[00:02:58] But eventually I stumbled across Squarespace, which to me, it looked like the perfect solution. It was so simple and so clean and so nice. And so I just dived in. I got the site done. Of course, I knew nothing about this. So the site kind of looked bad. It looked like really bad. But I ended up really enjoying the process.
[00:03:15] And so I was like, Oh, this was kind of fun. So I started to learn about CSS and code. And I went to the school of YouTube and W3. And I eventually just taught myself. And I took that really bad experience and launched an agency called Move Labs, where we took a little bit of a unique approach, but didn't charge design fees, hourly rates, or deposits.
[00:03:37] And that was my very first Squarespace based business. And then eventually things just grew and Ghost Plugins happened, Ghost Marketplace happened, and now we have Pluto Studio by Ghost, which is a more refined version of Move Lab. So things have just kind of evolved over the last 12 years. But yeah, really exciting.
[00:03:57] And now, you know, Squarespace is something that I love and the only platform that I use.
[00:04:02] Becca: I love that you are also a self taught coder. I feel like that is definitely a true marker of Squarespace success. Those of us that are willing to learn how to push its limits and push past those template limitations to make it do something just a little bit more than what it's designed to do.
[00:04:17] Cody: Oh yeah, a hundred percent, yeah. As, as Squarespace has evolved so much since then, of course, you and me, we love fluid, we're fluid engine lovers so, things have definitely changed and evolved over time, but even back then with Squarespace 5 , it was still great.
[00:04:33] Becca: Absolutely. You have seen so many different versions of the platform and so many different iterations of all the features and functionality of Squarespace.
[00:04:42] I'm curious to know if there is a specific feature or even a specific content block that's your favorite?
[00:04:48] Cody: Ooh, that's a really good question. Um, it's not a block, but I actually really like the announcement bar. I think the announcement bar is fun because if you know certain CSS, you can really make it your own and make it really fun.
[00:05:02] So there's, you know, on your guides and your tutorials. You have simple CSS tools to like create a button or do a gradient or do something really, really unique. So I think, honestly, I love the announcement bar because it gives you so many opportunities to make it stand out and announce something that's important.
[00:05:19] Becca: Oh, that is such a good answer. It really is an underutilized feature. I'm always surprised when no one's actually played around with that on their site before. Definitely a good one. And in the show notes for this episode, I'll include some links to tutorials and a few ghost plugin examples to some codes that you can use to make your announcement bar even more awesome.
[00:05:36] So speaking of plugins, I'm very curious with the plethora of plugins that you have available on your website there. Are there any that you were really surprised were so popular?
[00:05:48] Cody: You know, it's really funny when we release a plugin, we think, Oh, this one's going to be a hit. But it's usually the opposite.
[00:05:54] It's the ones that kind of surprise us. You know, at the end of the day, Ghost is here to really help with, making your Squarespace website more fun, a little bit more enjoyable on the aesthetic side. But of course, we do have functional plugins that serve a purpose.
[00:06:10] But you know, we have a confetti pop form when you submit a contact form, it pops confetti. That's probably one of our most popular ones. We have something that is unique to us called Doodle Pen, where visitors can doodle on our website, artists love it, teachers love it, schools love it, and that's also been a really, popular one.
[00:06:28] So, it's really unique to see which ones align the most with our visitors. But yeah, we try to make things fun. Of course, you've seen it with our branding and, and things like that. We're here to make Squarespace fun!
[00:06:39] Yeah, absolutely.
[00:06:40] Becca: And I'll say from a personal note, I love the use of emojis that you guys have.
[00:06:44] Your iconography and emoji usage is very in line with how I also write and speak on the internet. So I think that's a really great element to all of your design. Now, speaking of designs, I'm sure that over the years, especially working all the way back into Squarespace 5, you've seen a lot of changes when it comes to design trends and platform changes.
[00:07:05] So I'm curious if you think there are any design principles that are timeless, regardless of what trends are going on there. Design principles that you try to integrate into everything you and your team do.
[00:07:15] Cody: So The beauty of what I've been doing for over, you know, so long is we have the agency side for Murph and now Cluedo, but we also have the digital side, which is the plugins and the templates, and they all have one thing in common in terms of what we like to focus on, and that's simplicity.
[00:07:33] Simplicity will never go away. So that's one of the trends that we always try to focus on, uh, because that's what Squarespace is built on to simplicity. So that's been our main focus, and it's never done us wrong, and our clients love it. Our ghost members and users also love it because we even take the simplicity side in terms of code.
[00:07:54] So, that is our, that is our motto. Simplicity is our thing.
[00:07:58] Becca: That makes a lot of sense. Simplicity is something that defies trends. Absolutely. Now, you mentioned working with different industries. You talked about some schools and teachers that love the doodle, and I'm sure there are lots of other industries that you've worked with over the years.
[00:08:12] So I'm kind of curious how you decide which projects or which opportunities to pursue, knowing that you have to serve so many different industries that vary so widely in what they need.
[00:08:23] Cody: Yeah, on the Ghost plugin side, I'm, you know, I'm really happy to kind of share that we've hit a really good milestone within the last year and we have over a hundred thousand Squarespace websites that use Ghost plugins.
[00:08:36] And that is a variety of small businesses, entrepreneurs, we even have, some like studios, agencies, filmography, all that kind of stuff. So our user base is very diverse in what they do. So we aren't able to kind of pinpoint directly on to which one we want to target or kind of serve. Squarespace is great for everyone,
[00:08:59] so why not make those plugins great for everyone? Of course, there's some plugins that won't work for certain things and other things, but we really try to go in. With the approach of this is versatile for everyone. So that's always been our approach. People really do enjoy that approach because if you go to a plugin or a template and you see that it's marked for a specific category like a certain business, the other person that's looking at it might think, Oh, that's not the right fit for me.
[00:09:27] But it actually might be the perfect solution that they're looking for. So, yeah, so we kind of, we kind of, we kind of take that approach.
[00:09:34] Becca: Now, you have a lot of pokers in the fire, all right? You're working on a lot of different projects going on with Ghost and with Pluto and with all of these different environments.
[00:09:43] So I'm really curious as how you're able to stay creative when you're working on multiple projects at a time. Do you have any tips for those of us? that are just getting started in web design or balancing more clients than we realize we'd be able to handle. Any tips on how we stay creative working on multiple projects?
[00:10:00] Cody: So I will be honest. I am one of those people that will work, work, work until I turn out and that's happened a lot. So what I've kind of incorporated in my life is a set schedule for each business. So At this certain amount of time, I work on Ghost, then I switch over to Pluto, and then I switch over to this.
[00:10:20] And it kind of keeps my creative mind going, because you know this, when you look at something far too long, we end up not liking it anymore. Even though we loved it right at the beginning. So I do take breaks from certain things, if that break needs to be a day, then that's fine. But I do set individual times throughout the day to work on Separate things so my eyes can kind of get readjusted to new things that I don't get bored with something Or I don't think something looks great when it actually looks awesome But i've also built a really great team that I can depend on so, you know If I need them to kind of help me with something or get another idea or just collaborate That's been a really good Opportunity to kind of fall back on so I don't have that burnout.
[00:11:07] So even if you're a Independent designer and not an agency or you're just like a one man one man one woman show Hire someone else that can kind of take a little bit of that workload off just to Get that peace of mind and not have that burnout and it really helps a lot and it keeps that creative mind going.
[00:11:26] Becca: That makes so much sense and I feel like one of the biggest things that any industry or any web designer can do or really anyone in any industry who's working for themselves is get a solid handle on your schedule. Time management is one of the most important skills that we can develop. Now, I'm curious, do you have any tools or systems that are kind of game changers for managing your time and communicating with your team?
[00:11:49] Cody: So, we do like to communicate through just like little channels like Trello and Twist and those kind of things. What I really like is the communication that we have with our users and our customer base. We use Zendesk, which is a really good tool when it comes to customer support. I'm a very big believer in replying right away as soon as you can.
[00:12:11] So we have a 24 to 48 hour turnaround when we get messages and that's something that I pride myself in because I want to make sure that we give everyone a good experience. Zendesk would definitely be one of those tools that I recommend if you have heavy traffic. High tickets high emails. It keeps everything organized and it just keeps you Saying to be honest, but also, you know We love the changes that Squarespace are coming out with 7.
[00:12:37] 1 and all the forms and all these Updates to all these blocks, which is just making life a lot easier as well on the Squarespace site So, some little shout outs for some other tools would be Typeform. Love Typeform. You can make little quizzes and keep all the data in there, and it's really fun and nice and branded.
[00:12:54] Becca: That is fantastic, and I think this is definitely a point for Zendesk. It's not the first time I've heard it, and here inside the Square, I definitely need a better way to manage those incoming support requests. I'm gonna look into that, Cody. Thank you for that tip. Now I want to shift in a little bit more to getting back to design concepts in general, because I feel like you do a really great job of making sure we have what we need to make Squarespace even more awesome.
[00:13:16] So I'm very curious, what's your approach to continuous learning and skill development, especially in the face of lots of changing trends and AI?
[00:13:24] Cody: So, you know, We have the Pluto side of things, which is our agency side, and that actually kind of keeps us going on the creative side because when you keep doing the same thing over and over and over, you kind of get stop making things look the same, right?
[00:13:39] So we definitely have our branding and we definitely have the aesthetics that we want, but working with clients that are small businesses and a variety of different services. It really helps us keep that creative mind going and coming up with new ideas. And sometimes we take those ideas that we learned from the agency side and kind of slide them over into Ghost and things are looking great.
[00:14:00] So yeah, I think that's, that's, that's the best way that we're kind of tackling that.
[00:14:05] Becca: Thinking of future proofing careers here, what are the skills that you think will be most valuable for website designers in the next few years?
[00:14:13] Cody: You know, I'm going to be really honest. It's actually not something that's on the design side.
[00:14:17] It has to do with your business and your authenticity. Run a good, honest business and it will grow by itself. If you give people really good experience and you're authentic, transparent, good at communication, that is going to translate into your business. And it's just going to flourish even more. So definitely still tap into the design, learn, look up tutorials, even build some sites.
[00:14:43] If you, if you don't have any clients and you're just wanting to build a site, just build the site for fun. And you'll learn so much from that. But as long as you run an honest business and you have that goal in mind at the top of your list, your business will grow itself. I love it. That is such great advice.
[00:15:00] Even if you don't have a client right now, think of your dream client and design that website for them. It's funny because just the other day, I was just on Squarespace. I'm like, I want to go, I want to build something. And I just started building a site. I don't have the client for it or anything like that.
[00:15:16] But it looked so nice. I was like, I'm going to save this site. So when I do have that client, I can use it. I love it. Already saved a couple hours.
[00:15:24] Becca: That's a fantastic approach. I love it. Now, how do you see AI impacting the future of web design and development? I know Squarespace released a blueprint last year and it definitely got some people talking about whether or not that was going to replace basic designer skills.
[00:15:40] So I'm really curious about your perspective on that. How do you feel about blueprint? And how do you see AI impacting the careers of us web designers?
[00:15:47] Cody: I know the AI game is getting a little bit stronger. AI tools are getting a little bit more precise, which is great. You can definitely utilize AI to help grow your business and use it as a tool.
[00:16:01] But at the end of the day, I personally believe that you cannot replace the one on one experience that people really want when it comes to website design. People can use these tools, but there is still going to be a group of people who want to sit down on a virtual call with someone and have that love put into the design and not something that's just Computed by AI.
[00:16:22] AI is a great tool. We do use it sometimes from time to time for certain things, but I don't think it's going to replace people. I'm a strong believer in that.
[00:16:31] Becca: I'm with you on that 100%. There is still that human touch that needs to be added to a site to make it the quality that can be.
[00:16:37] Absolutely.
[00:16:39] All right, so we definitely talked a lot about your career and how things have really changed starting from the Squarespace five days all the way to where we are with 7. 1 right now. And I'm really curious with so much going on with Ghost and with Pluto, what do you see is being next for you and your business?
[00:16:57] Cody: You know, it's really funny. Anytime that businesses have evolved, it kind of just happened. I'm one of those people. I'm very patient. So when I have an idea, I just go for it. I don't want to wait. So when I have an idea, I kind of, you know, think about it for a little bit. I come up with a game plan and then I just go for it.
[00:17:14] Sometimes the ideas, they just don't, you know, happen like, eh, we're good. So I'm really not sure what's planned next for ghost or Pluto or ghost marketplace, but I'm really excited for the future because we're here for a long time, not a short time. Been doing this for a very long time and the goal is to always provide.
[00:17:34] A great product, a great experience to those who also use Firstbase. Is I love you since first base.
[00:17:40] Becca: All right, Cody, we have been co workers for years upon years. It's been an absolute joy to watch you grow and watch your skills improve and all the content you've created out there for our community. Let me just say a thousand and one thank yous for all the work that you do.
[00:17:54] But I'm really curious out of your companies, which one's your favorite?
[00:17:58] Cody: Oh, you can't. Oh, they like my children. I can't pick just one. Um. Obviously, Ghost Plugins is my baby. I've been doing that for a long time. Of course, Blue Flabs is also my very first baby. So, um, love them. But, Pluto is the newest one.
[00:18:13] So, I do have a, a lot of love for that as we're going back. But I am going to say Ghost Plugins and Pluto are tied. They are my favorite children, so.
[00:18:23] Becca: Fantastic. And to everyone listening, I'm going to include links to all of these in the show notes, but you heard it here first. When you want to add some creativity to your Squarespace website, head on over to Ghost Plugins and see the amazing things that Cody and his team have created.
[00:18:35] There's definitely some fun stuff that you can do to push past those template limitations and make your site even more awesome. With a little help from ghost Cody, thank you so much for being here. I'm so appreciate having you on this episode. Where can people reach you if they want to find out more?
[00:18:51] Cody: Yeah. So you can reach me and my team at ghost plugins. com or the studio, which is plutostud.io try to be a little clever, but yeah, you can reach out to us if you need any help with anything, have any questions, or just want to say hello to me. I love talking to others within the Squarespace community.
[00:19:09] Shoot me a message.
[00:19:11] Becca: Awesome. Thanks so much for being here, Cody. And thank you for everything you've done for a Squarespace community over the years. I cannot wait to see what you work on next.
[00:19:18] Cody: Thanks so much for having me and same to you. You've done so much for the community and I loved hanging out with you and I can't wait to do it again.
[00:19:26] Becca: And that wraps it up for my conversation with Cody from Ghost Plugins. If you want to learn more about Ghost Plugins and Pluto Studio, I'll include links to everything we discussed in the show notes at insidethesquare. co forward slash podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to leave a review wherever you happen to be listening.
[00:19:43] And don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode of Think Inside the Square. Until next time, keep designing, keep innovating, and most importantly, have fun with your website. Bye for now.
-
Ghost Plugins: ghostplugins.com
Pluto Studio: plutostud.io
