The biggest challenges I hear people fretting over is where to begin! Do you have questions on what pages you should have on your website? Start with an About Page, Contact Page, Store, Products and Services Page, and Privacy Page. All are required to be recognized properly by Google. There are thousands of themes to choose from and with the help of graphic design programs like Canva, customizing photographs and adding an array of font styles will elevate your online presence.
Where to begin. Choosing a stylish and responsive theme that fits you is as easy as choosing an outfit to wear. Casual or Formal. Colorful or Monochromatic. Simple or Complex. Themes come in all sizes too! One column or three. Blog oriented or static. Don’t worry, WordPress lets you try before you buy. I happen to have an extensive list of Themes.
Next, let’s create a mood board including a picture filled with colors you love, Fonts, and photographs that speak to you. From here we choose the layout of the website. What pages get added and which pages are simply links tucked inside the pages. Do you already have great professional photographs to add? That is incredible! I can work on sizing them to create a nice aesthetic and pleasing visual interest.
From there we can choose a theme, then decide if you are selling your products online, which you will need to hook up with WooCommerce and a payment platform like Square, PayPal or Stripe.
From there we start building your story brand. I based this website off of Donald Miller’s book, “Building a Story Brand.” Why did you go into business? What needs are you meeting? Make it about them, not you. And hopefully a great base for future journals or blogs.
Adding the bells and whistles is next. You can make things pop by adding a calling feature, videos, stores and links to other websites. What about Scheduling? We can create a whole page just dedicated to scheduling people in your calendar and customize it.
And finally, going off of the punch list, making sure every page is perfect, spelling error free and ready to launch. Already have a WordPress website? I can update it for you and play around with adding a journal and eCommerce store.
This is a website I worked on this past year with Dr. Ron Kaiser, who lives in Philadelphia, PA! Dr. Ron’s website was suffering from 40 pages of spam. After cleaning it up, we started to slowly change it to colors that reminded people of going to the gym and spiced it up! I also made sure he had an SSL Certificate so the spam situation would never happen again. Visit Dr. Ron Kaiser’s website at www.thementalhealthgym.com
Here are some samples of the graphic design work I did for him.
You can read more about Mahi under the Success Stories located on the Home Page. We started out tossing around ideas for a website she didn’t have time to build because she is a Tech by day and Home Remodeling Specialist by night. Her favorite weapon of choice? A big sledgehammer! She liked the first name of the website but felt it didn’t truely capture the nature of her work. So with a quick change were able to swap it out on her hosting platform and www.livingspacesbymahi.com was created.
Here are the graphic designs I worked on for her. If you are ever wanting to buy a home in Philadelphia, PA she is the woman to contact!
She was so kind and exciting to work for! I hope to duplicate that experience with someone else who is interested in creating a website of their dreams to show off their hard work and grow from the experience. What was different about hers is having a page dedicated to scheduling calls and appointments for her. A Call feature was added, as well as, a dedicated page for a calendar. We worked on sizing each picture in Canva to give it that extra pop!
These are just a few of the many websites I have worked on through other clients. For client confidentiality I cannot disclose them on my website. But, I can disclose the many plug ins and separate programs like Manage WP to update plug ins, WordPress Themes and Security features. Remember to update those Plug Ins and Themes!