Custom Websites

I would be happy to help you design, build, and develop a strategy for your next website. I will work with your budget to deliver everything  you want without ballooning or ongoing costs. I build websites with clean XHTML and CSS that is accessible to search engines and easy on the eyes.

My Approach

After working through the strategy for the website, I brainstorm what visual elements describe who you are, or what you do. The process is very design driven, because it sets the atmosphere and tone of the website which is very important to the user’s experience. With a solid strategy and a clear visual “feel” to build on, the rest of the project is just sweat.

Using Wordpress

I specialize in Wordpress, simply because I think it is a fantastic framework for delivering dynamic content, and for managing your site once it is built. Wordpress is very scalable; there are a multitude of “plugins” you can install into your Wordpress site to add new features, most of which are free and require little work to customize. Some of my favorite plugins include:

  1. Cforms – Allows you to build custom forms and track submissions
  2. Akismet – Controls spam from online forms
  3. Google XML Sitemaps – Automatically builds sitemap every time you add to your site, and submits it to all the major search engines
  4. Wp eCommerce – Gives you all the functionality you need to run an eCommerce site

There are more I could list that allow you to run galleries, connect with social applications like facebook and twitter, etc.

All in all, building a site in Wordpress takes less work for me, which means lower costs for you, and you get a site that YOU can make changes to.

Using Buddypress

Buddypress is an extension of Wordpress MU that allows you to create your own social network. Think of it as Wordpress.com and Facebook combined… the possibilities are nearly endless. Social networks built with Buddypress are cropping up everywhere. Check some of them out here.

Social networking is fast becoming the way people are getting their information, and getting involved with your visitors is no longer something you can avoid.

For me to build a site on Buddypress it is essentially the same as building it on Wordpress, you just have the added social networking features.