My name is Joe Hedlund, I’m an avid gamer, Timberwolves fan and an efficiency-obsessed person that likes to convey a marketing message that connects with the viewer in a creative way. I’m also interested in the psychology of marketing – especially when it comes to how people interact with websites.

I am a jack-of-many-trades in website production; While mainly focusing on programming and optimizing websites for search engines, I also assist my subcontractors (all local) with designing my clients’ websites and marketing materials.

I have developed 200+ websites since 2001 (thank you WordPress). I graduated from St. Paul College, where I earned two Associate degrees: one as a Computer Programmer and another in Visualization Technology (graphic design & video editing). I have worked for non-profit organizations such as St. Joan of Ark and The Link MN, and most recently worked nearly three years for a dental marketing agency. In fact, I reworded this bio from the one I had at their website.

“Zef” is my attempt at branding. The origin of the word Zef can be found here, but basically it is a South African slang word that many associate with the group Die Antwoord, which in their words means “poor but fancy”. For my business and branding purposes, I’m going to go ahead and translate that to me giving you a lot for your money.

One reason – they are too expensive! An agency typically cost 3-4 times as much as my rates, mostly due to their overhead. Using an agency or a freelancer both have their positives and negatives. My business is somewhere between an agency and a freelancer (I do most of the work here), but as a growing small business like yours, I’m keeping my prices as low as possible so I have the freedom to keep doing what I love to do.