Valerie Hector Designs

Posted on January 29, 2009 | Filed Under Projects

What we Did: Custom WordPress Theme, Mals-e Shopping Cart Install, Blog Install-Valerie Hector Designs

Valerie has a unique product, and thus required a unique design for her site. She also wanted the SEO and content management advantages of a WordPress site.

Valerie’s site combines an excellent shopping cart Mals-e with the legendary WordPress “ease of use”. Her products are absolutely incredible, you should stop by!

Client Testimonial

Valerie Hector Nola came to me on a referral from Kristie McDonald, a brilliant seo specialist, who came to me on a referral from Marla Tabaka, my business coach. How lucky for me, on all counts! Nola has the talent, the smarts, the skills, and the patience to deliver a fantastic, flawless, totally functional website–in my case, a WordPress website–on a modest budget and with a smile. I continue to rely on her to manage my site. I recommend her highly!

Valerie Hector, Chicago, IL Jan. 29th, 2009

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KStyle Studios

Posted on January 6, 2009 | Filed Under Projects

What we Did: Logo Design and Website Design and Development – KStyle Studios

Project Details: Bill and Karen Simpson have been a dream to work with from the start! And it’s no wonder, considering their passion for Alpacas and the beautiful artistic products that Karen creates. We started with a combination logo design and website mockup. From there we used combinations of the two concepts, and tweaked the colors to get to the Simpsons’ perfect design!

Their store utilizes the WP eCommerce plugin on the WordPress platform, and shows how beatifully these two work together! Bill and Karen upgraded to the Gold Cart, so that they can show multiple product images. The cart works well with a regular PayPal account, but you can also (with the gold cart) use your merchant account and gateway.

KStyle Studios also uses the Tell A Friend Plugin, offering visitors a great way to share the site with others. Lastly, we integrated a blog section, so that Karen can post about her beautiful creations (when she’s not busy making them for customers!).

The Kstyle Studios Site: Home page, Product Page, Tell a Friend, and Blog

Home Page :: Product Page :: Tell a Friend :: Blog

Client Testimonial

Karen and Bill Simpson In the beginning, not knowing much of anything about web sites, Nola patiently and professionally guided us through the deep dark fog of cyber-space. She made it so easy right from the start. “What colors do you want for your home page?” “Scout some websites that you like and send them to me so we have a starting point.” How simple is that?! I was swimming in unknown terminology in the beginning but she would explain key terms to me (over and over) so I could follow what she was doing. As a result, I was able to have intelligent input into the design of the site.

Being artists, most people realize that we are a fickle finiky bunch. We have our own ideas about how things should look and sometimes, we even change our minds! Sometimes, more than once! But Nola was not discouraged. She probably knew long before we did that the site would be beautiful. And she was right. We are thrilled that we have a fully professional e-commerce site for our business. Over the holidays, we got many compliments on the site from our family and friends.

Now that we’re successful and filthy rich, well on the way at least, we will be promoting one website designer to everyone we know. Nola Cooper.

I know this seems a little over the top, but this is actually how we feel about our website, and her.

Thank you very much,
Bill Simpson
K-Style Studios

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What Can a WordPress Website Do for You?

Posted on January 2, 2009 | Filed Under SEO, WordPress

In a nutshell…

You won’t need your webmaster to make changes to your site’s content! For some people this can be a very big deal; either because of cost, or because of waiting lists/time constraints. And you don’t need any knowledge of HTML or coding to update your content!

While utilizing a WordPress website platform you may enjoy some of the following benefits:

• Your dynamic content reaches search engines faster by using layout, tags, and plugins. You no longer have to pay a high price for search engine optimization.

• WordPress provides a powerful search function. It is ready to use, without expensive scripts to purchase or install.

• You can assign an unlimited number of users or writers. You maintain control of their editing abilities within your website.

• Your visitors no longer have to check your website for updates; they receive updates automatically with RSS feeds.

• Write your content when you have time and then schedule the publication to post on a date in the future.

AN EXCELLENT PLATFORM FOR CONTENT MANAGEMENT

WordPress is essentially the best Content Management System (CMS) on the web, and it’s FREE. The Wikipedia Definition of CMS: “A Web CMS facilitates content creation, content control, editing, and many essential Web maintenance functions. Most (if not all) Web CMSs use a database to store content, meta data, and/or artifacts that might be needed by the system.

Basically, a CMS is a tool that allows the user to easily maintain the content of their site, without programming knowledge…eliminating the heavy need for use of a “webmaster”.

For content driven websites such as magazines, news sites, or membership sites, nothing beats the management capabilities of WordPress. It is the ultimate way to organize and control your content. If you want to limit access to a certain page, assign a password for access.

WordPress is highly customizable and only limited by your imagination; if you can imagine it, there is a probably a plugin for it.

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2009 Reading List

Posted on January 1, 2009 | Filed Under Smart Business

Smart Business I’ve been sitting at my desk for 3 days trying to work AND get organized for the coming year. One of the things I like to do every year is create a reading list–books I feel will enhance my life and my business. Here is what I’ve come up with so far, for 2009: