Square Town for agencies and freelancers: a $1-per-client favicon portfolio

Your portfolio page is a list of screenshots. For a dollar per site it can also be a block on a wall people actually look at.

Square Town (square.pov.town) is a favicon wall where each 1×1 square costs $1, one-time, and shows a site's favicon linked to its URL. For an agency or freelancer it works two ways: one square for your studio, or — with each client's permission — one square per client site, bought in adjacent cells so your whole portfolio sits together as a block, each square with its own counted clicks and deed.

TL;DR for agencies. $1 per square, paid via Stripe, no account, no upload. Buy a run of adjacent cells and put a client site's favicon in each; the block is the portfolio. Each square has a secret deed URL with views, clicks and kisses; $5 one-time adds per-day charts. Ten client sites = $10, once. Get client permission first. Rulebook: How Square Town works — the complete rulebook. Prices: Pricing — $1 a square, one time, forever*.

The problem: portfolios are static and nobody visits them#

A studio's work page is a grid of screenshots that go stale, on a site whose visitors are already prospects. Directories for agencies charge for placement and rank you against people paying more. There's no cheap, live place that shows the actual sites you built, in one view, where the built sites can be clicked and where a stranger might wander in.

Square Town is a wall of favicons — and a favicon is the smallest, most recognisable piece of a site's identity, which is often something you designed. Twelve client favicons in a block is a portfolio a person can take in at a glance.

What a $1 square gives you#

1. A block that reads as a portfolio. Squares are 1×1 and $1, so ten client sites are $10. Buy them in adjacent cells and they form a visible group. Anyone who clicks one sees the rest around it. Layout ideas in Showcase all your projects as favicons; the block mechanics are the same as for a developer with many projects (that page has a worked $22 example).
2. A permanent square per site. No expiry, no renewal. Forever*, where * means "until someone pays $2 to evict you".
3. A counted click-through per client site. Clicks go via /go/:id, are counted per square, and arrive at the client's site tagged utm_source=square.pov.town&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=square. If you run the client's analytics, that's a referral row you can point at.
4. A deed per square, with views, clicks and kisses. Each purchase yields a secret deed URL. $5 one-time unlocks per-day charts on that deed. Useful for the one or two client sites you'd like to report on; unnecessary for the rest.
5. Towers. Ctrl+drag tilts the wall; each favicon is a box as tall as its click count, tinted with the icon's colour. A block of client sites becomes a skyline. It's a screenshot worth putting in a pitch deck.
6. Your own studio's square. If you'd rather not involve clients, one square for your studio site is $1, and it's still a spot on a wall with a click-through and stats.
7. The kiss. Anyone can kiss any icon, free, publicly, and it's counted; an unkissed icon fades to grayscale after 90 days. Kiss your clients' icons when you check in with them. It's a stupid, pleasant ritual.

How to do it#

1. Get permission per client. You're placing their URL and favicon on a public wall with a public click count, and their site will receive UTM-tagged referral traffic. Most will say yes to a dollar's worth of visibility; ask anyway, in writing. Some contracts already cover "may we show this in our portfolio" — a favicon on Square Town is a reasonable reading of that, but confirm.
2. Check every favicon. You probably made them; make sure each site still serves one. A missing favicon means a clown emoji on the wall and a public Hall of Clowns entry — under a client's domain, which is a bad look. How to add a favicon if any need fixing.
3. Open square.pov.town and count out a block. Only the central 16×16 is live at launch; the gold Throne is the 4×4 centre and its surrounding ring can't be built on. Find a run of empty cells the size of your list — a 2×5, a 3×4, a single row.
4. Buy them one at a time, in one sitting. Click a cell, paste the client's URL, pay $1 via Stripe. The cell you're checking out is held; its neighbours aren't, so keep going until the block is filled.
5. Save every deed URL, tagged by client. Each square is a separate deed. Put them in the client's folder in your password manager, or one shared note. No accounts, no recovery. The browser's "My deeds" button is a convenience, not a backup.
6. Decide who owns the deed. If the client should be able to open the deed page or buy analytics later, send them the deed URL and delete your copy — or keep it and be their agent. Say which in the email.
7. Unlock analytics ($5, once, per square) on the deeds where a per-day chart would go into a client report.

Tips#

• Pick a spot near the Throne if you want the block seen. The centre rings get the eyes and the evictions. For a portfolio you'd like to keep intact, a few cells out is the safer buy — see How to pick a good square.
• Put your studio's own square at the corner of the block, so it reads as the signature.
• Kiss the icons. 90 days unkissed and an icon fades to grayscale — under a client's domain. Add it to your monthly maintenance checklist; it's free.
• Don't let a client be a clown. Re-check favicons after redesigns and platform migrations. There's a recheck button on each square.
• Buy the analytics unlock only where it lands in a report. $5 once per square. Free lifetime totals (views, clicks, kisses) are enough for the rest.
• Save your deed URLs by client, and hand them over on offboarding. A deed is the only key to a square; treat it like DNS access.
• Use the API for a live portfolio widget. GET https://square.pov.town/api/state returns every listing's domain, coordinates, clicks, views and kisses as JSON. Filter for your clients' domains and you have a live block on your own site. See Square Town API — read the wall, buy a square.

What it won't do#

• It won't give your clients backlinks or SEO value. The wall is a WebGL canvas and clicks are 302 redirects. There is no link equity. Don't put it in a proposal as an SEO deliverable; put it under "visibility, $1".
• It won't promise traffic. Clicks are counted; volumes aren't guaranteed. Set client expectations at "a dollar's worth".
• It won't stop evictions. Anyone can take a $1 square for $2, including one out of the middle of your block. It's announced in the live feed. Re-buying costs $4, or you take another cell for $1.
• It won't recover lost deeds. No accounts. Lose a deed and that square's deed page is gone (the square stays up).
• It won't show a logo, a case study or a caption. Favicon and URL only, every square 1×1.

FAQ#

Do I need a client's permission to put their site on Square Town?#

Yes, ask. You're publishing their URL and favicon on a public wall with public click counts, and sending UTM-tagged traffic to their site. It's a small thing, but it's their domain — get it in writing.

How much does a 10-client portfolio block cost?#

$10, one-time — one square per site. Per-day analytics is an optional $5 per square. Kisses, views and lifetime click totals are free.

Can I buy the whole block in one payment?#

No. Each square is its own purchase and its own deed. Buy them back to back in one sitting; a cell is only held while you're in checkout for it.

Who should hold the deed URL — me or the client?#

Whoever should be able to open the deed page and buy analytics. There are no accounts, so the deed URL is the only key; agree on it and write it down. Hand deeds over on offboarding.

Does this count as a backlink for the client?#

No. Clicks are counted redirects through /go/:id, and the wall is a canvas element. No link equity, no ranking benefit. Bill it as visibility, not SEO.

What if a client site gets evicted from the middle of my block?#

Someone paid $2 for it and it's announced in the live feed. You can evict them back for $4, or take a nearby cell for $1. For a $1 square, that's the game rather than a crisis.

Can I just put my studio on the wall and skip the clients?#

Yes. One square, $1, your studio's favicon and URL, with the same click count, deed and analytics option.