Bits&Newsletters #1: Pencils, stickers, and lists of links I’m starting a newsletter for my new-ish web design & dev business, Bits&Letters. (This is it, you’re reading it.)

Last week we kicked off our newsletter with a look at our gorgeous new logo and brand. Tomorrow, we'll recap Sanity's NYC event, plus some links and updates. Check it out and get yourself on the list: btslttrs.com/letter-2025...

Why would anyone start a website in 2025? Sure, you could build everything on TikTok—but when you need to grow on your own terms, there's nothing like your own corner of the internet.

What happens to your business when TikTok gets banned? Or when Instagram changes its algorithm again?

If your answer is "I don't know," you need a website. @demar.ee wrote about why a solid web presence still matters more than ever: btslttrs.com/li-why-star...

Why your first website works until it doesn't Your scrappy starter site got you this far—but now that you're growing, it's probably holding you back more than helping you move forward.

"Websites start failing to scale like Hemingway described going bankrupt: gradually, then suddenly." 💥

@demar.ee breaks down the hidden breaking points that turn your first website from asset to liability: btslttrs.com/bsky-first-...

Why would anyone start a website in 2025? Sure, you could build everything on TikTok—but when you need to grow on your own terms, there's nothing like your own corner of the internet.

Starting a website feels almost old-fashioned these days. But a good one still does what no platform can:

✅ Establishes credibility
✅ Speaks to many audiences
✅ Belongs fully to you

@demar.ee wrote about why a website still matters:
www.bitsandletters.com/ideas/why-w...

Contributions like ours pay for themselves tenfold every time we look up something like @bell.bz's CSS resets for a client project. And, more importantly, resources like @piccalil.li are foundational to an open, vibrant web platform, and we're proud to offer our support.

👋 sup

We were at CSS Day with a LOT of students, thanks to both @bitsandletters.com and CSS Day for sponsoring them! 🫶

Student participants posing on the conference stage at CSS Day 2025

Student participants posing on the conference stage at CSS Day 2025

Student participants posing on the conference stage at CSS Day 2025

Thank you to @bitsandletters.com, who sponsor this year's #CSSDay not for themselves, but to make additional student tickets available to the event! Here are all student attendees on our conf stage. (Plus some special guests / photo bombers, can you spot them?) /ht @demar.ee

Oh, and with this release, our website has now 100% moved from everyone's favorite scrappy hipster gTLD, .co, to the much more fancy and established .com neighborhood.

We'd love to tell you David spent a fortune on the domain, but really he registered it years ago and just forgot until now. 😬

Some quick fun facts:
- Next.js → Astro
- Tailwind 4.1 with some fun custom utilities
- Doubled down on Oh NO Type Co's Polymath variable font (with the help of, yes, fun custom Tailwind utilities)
- Would you believe @demar.ee only started this redesign last week??? 😅

We'll have a lot more to say about this soon, but we've relaunched the B&L website, just in time for #config2025! www.bitsandletters.com

We are pleased to report that the DNS spirits are once again at peace, and we are now @bitsandletters.com on this website. Thank you all for your support during this stressful time.

Hey, what's up?

An SEO newsletter, by way of saying that Google’s AI Overviews are hot garbage that hurt click-through rates for every query they touch, pointed out you can get Google to invent definitions for nonsense phrases by searching “(weird phrase) meaning”. So I tested it: