I was recommended to her by Steven Shehori of Sweat Equity Productions, a PR specialist who was helping Mandy launch her website in the entertainment community in Toronto. I met Steven and his brother Daniel when I took their famous seminar in DIY PR a couple of years ago.

Before.........

Mandy already had a website, but as you can see from the picture above, it wasn’t very appealing visually. She actually described it as “lame” in her first email to me. Mandy wanted to keep things simple while updating the look and potential functionality of her site.

The mock-up

Mandy chose the Daily Notes template from Elegant Themes. With Steven’s help she came up with a mock-up of how she wanted the website to look. This was extremely helpful to me in putting the site together – with the images already chosen along with the layout it was a snap to build.

What wasn’t so easy was wrestling the domain name and hosting away from the company Mandy had engaged previously to revamp her website. They wanted to charge her nearly $3,000 to rebuild the site plus $100 per month hosting! Over four times what I charge for the website construction and nearly 7 times what I charge for hosting…..I see this sort of thing time and time again, sadly – if you haven’t already checked it out look at my friend Isabel’s familiar tale of getting charged ten times more for a website that isn’t half as capable or flexible as one of my websites. Thankfully Mandy was able to get a refund of her initial outlay with the other company and we were able to get to work.

It wasn’t all plain sailing, however – the functionality of the Daily Notes theme is a little different from some of the other Elegant Themes templates. Built to behave like a tumblr theme each thumbnail links to a preview of the post. This created an interim click or step in the process of reading the information on that post and we wanted to make the site as simple as possible.

I toyed with the idea of using the Feather theme which does not have the same tumblr-like functionality of Daily Notes. I even built a custom home page to look like the mock-up that Mandy had provided me with. However, she really didn’t like the Feather theme so I needed to find a solution to make the Daily Notes theme work for her.

I went onto the Elegant Themes support forum and found the solution. I edited the  the coding of the stylesheet in the theme and removed that pesky preview. Now each thumbnail links directly to the post.

....after.

The finished article looks like a fancier version of the mock-up and is exactly what Mandy wanted. I’m very proud of this particular website – it took some finagling to make it work the way Mandy wanted – and it was totally worth the end result.

Mandy Ketcheson is a post from: Kvetchco Inc. - delicious websites for all

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She liked the idea of being to update the site herself, but was nervous about whether she had the chops to do it. To alleviate her worries we set up a conference call with her husband so that we could talk through what it would take to maintain one of my websites. By the end of the conversation everyone was happy to go ahead.

The thumbnail gallery

It was important for Susan to choose a template that would showcase her work. The main reason for her to have a web presence in the first place was to sell her services as a visual artist, and especially as a Jewish wedding contract (or ketubah) designer. After carefully looking through the Elegant Themes online gallery she chose the Envisioned theme.

The large featured slider at the top and the thumbnail gallery at the bottom of the home page  were perfect to display her intricate calligraphy and vivid artwork.

Audio clips mean visitors can listen to Susan sing

Susan’s website also needed to promote her unique a cappella singing in Yiddish. I installed the Audio Player plugin so that she could add clips from her CDs that she also sells through the website.

Susan has already received commissions via the site and is very pleased that she took the technical plunge. In her own words:

I couldn’t imagine having come this far, affordably and happily, with anyone else as the person at the helm. RUN, don’t walk to Marilla Wex!

Susan Leviton Arts is a post from: Kvetchco Inc. - delicious websites for all

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When Lauren completed the questionnaire I ask all my clients to fill in to give me details of what they’re after, she told me she was looking for a window to her profession for the public who might not know what a voice coach was. She needed a site appealing to all artistic, personal and business clients looking for professional development. The website needed to quickly and succinctly describe her business and what she was offering.

Lauren chose the InStyle theme from Elegant Themes as her template because it relies on large background images and provided the canvas she was looking for to describe her business instantly through pictures.

She chose a background image that really sums up what she does for her clients – create a sense of freedom by helping them to release their voices!

She then chose three pages that would encapsulate who she is and what she does, and used those as the three key elements on the home page.

Lauren uses the blog in her website to provide tips and advice to actors, business people and regular folk who would like to improve or take care of their voices.

By keeping things simple Lauren has created a clean, classy website that showcases her work beautifully.

Your Voice and You is a post from: Kvetchco Inc. - delicious websites for all

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We have worked together on the Toronto comedy scene and when she found out I built websites she took me out for lunch to discuss her requirements. I asked her to take a look at Elegant Themes and she immediately chose the template TheStyle:

Close - but no cigar...

Veronika loved the magazine-style layout. The emphasis on visuals really appealed to her, but she wasn’t too fond of the colour schemes available. Luckily for both of us the Elegant Themes templates can be easily customized to suit the individual.

I began by changing the colours of the links and blog post categories. Compare the type, headlines and category elements above to the image on the left. Veronika was very clear that she wanted hot pink elements so I chose a colour and changed the coding in the theme to match links and the main font to that colour.

I also created an image file to replace the one in the theme that sits behind the blog category (the pink rectangle behind “Sorry Dad” in the picture on the left) so that it would match the theme colours and I built a logo using a cartoon of Veronika‘s burlesque character Priscilla Pussycat.

Veronika is very aware of the power of social networking and asked me to add three icons to her header next to her logo – for Facebook, Twitter and her RSS feed. I created pink icons to match her site’s colour scheme and linked them to her fan page, Twitter account and RSS feed accordingly. We also used the Facebook “Like” plugin which includes a “like” or “recommend” button on each of the blog posts – an invaluable viral marketing tool for any website.

Veronika‘s website is eye-catching and suits her personality perfectly. It was a pleasure building it with her and I’m very proud of the results.

Burlesque Comic is a post from: Kvetchco Inc. - delicious websites for all

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Before...........

Barbara’s husband had built her original website for her and although it was functional it simply wasn’t fabulous enough – it didn’t have a blog and Barbara had no idea how to update it herself. She was attracted to the simple content management system of WordPress and its flexibility and extended functionality. And lo – the new website was born.

...after!

Barbara liked the papery texture of the Bold theme from Elegant Themes which fits nicely with the subject matter.

I created a logo similar to the one in the theme demo at Elegant Themes with the extra added bonus of her face – she liked similar logos I created for David Schneider and my own personal website. We cut out some of the white space above the header so that more of the page would show up “before the fold”.

Originally I created some content that I took from Barbara’s original site to get something up quickly – Barbara had a press release going out regarding her latest novel and needed the website to be functioning fast. Then, at her leisure, she slowly began learning how to create and manipulate the content herself.

After much back and forth regarding the home page layout Barbara opted for a static page with top line information about her latest book – this is, after all, the most important piece of work right now.

She linked the image of the book directly to Amazon.ca so that her visitors could buy it easily.

Barbara has added a lot of her journalism material plus a whole pile of blog posts from an extended trip to London, back-dating entries from previous years giving the site some good depth and breadth. Visitors can get a real feel for her writer’s “voice” through professional pieces and more personal writing.

Writer and Journalist is a post from: Kvetchco Inc. - delicious websites for all

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When she came to me she already had a website for her company, Creative Expeditions, but wanted to add a blog where she could provide both a great resource for her existing clients and attract new clients by showcasing her ideas and ways of working. Making changes to her core website was not easy so an add-on blog seemed like the best solution.

Adding a WordPress blog appealed to Inge because

1. she had read how websites which have regularly added fresh content are favoured by search engines who keep revisiting to catalogue the new additions and
2. she needed a section of her website that had an easy-to navigate content management system so she could quickly add and change content for her current and future clients to access.

The challenge for me as a website builder was to match the blog section “Focus and Flow” to an already existing website.

Inge's original website

First I installed the WordPress blog in a folder called “blog” on Inge’s existing website host server and Inge placed a link from her core website to the add-on.

Inge chose a simple theme – in this case, Who’s Who from Elegant Themes. I then set about changing the colours, fonts and other elements to match her existing website as closely as possible.

This is how the template looked before I monkeyed around with it.

There was a lot of code-fiddling and many questions posted on the Elegant Themes support forum to get this theme to work in exactly the way we wanted it to. Eventually we came up with something that integrated nicely with the other part of Inge’s website. Since Inge is trained in graphic design she was very specific about what she wanted the blog to look like and where she wanted the elements to be positioned. It’s great when someone knows exactly what they want – it makes the end result so much more satisfying when you get it right.

Inge's blog: Focus and Flow

Inge’s blog “Focus and Flow” is a wealth of great tips and resources, not just for use in the corporate environment but also for anyone with a drop of creative juice in their bodies. If you’re stuck for ideas, need some inspiration or triggers for that next direction in your work, check out Focus and Flow.

Add-on Blog is a post from: Kvetchco Inc. - delicious websites for all

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Click on the player below to see WordPress.tv’s short video explaining the new features of this latest version of the WordPress software.

I especially like the new help access and the very neat menu manipulation features.

Make sure you upgrade to the latest version by clicking the link when it appears in your Dashboard. Gold and Platinum clients can watch a video on how to upgrade their version of WordPress and their plugins here. If you have forgotten your password please contact me.

WordPress 3.0 is released! is a post from: Kvetchco Inc. - delicious websites for all

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I first came across the Authority Black Book last year and tore through it. I’ll be brutally honest with you – for the first time ever I really and truly got to grips with social marketing and understood how to build traffic to my website using strategies I never knew existed.

I highly recommend that anyone who’s interested in understanding what all those terms at the top of this article mean download a copy and start learning how to make their website into an authority presence.

This book really is a free resource and doesn’t come with strings attached – you can sign up for a monthly subscription to a whole gigantic website full of information at Blog Success, but if I were you I would just get your head around the Authority Black Book first! Click here to download the book.

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There’s nothing better than getting a referral from a happy customer. And I’d like to reward that happy customer for talking up my business and bringing me new clients – after all, nothing sells better than a testimonial!

As a way of saying “Thank you” to all of my customers I am thrilled to announce the Kvetchco Inc. Customer Reward Program. Any of my past or current clients who refer a third party to me for a website will now be awarded $100 CDN when that third party becomes a Platinum client. Just be sure to let me know if a friend, relation or colleague is getting in touch with me! All monies will be paid via PayPal, minus any applicable fees.

There’s no better time to become a website client – experience for yourself how great my products and services are and then refer your friends – you could end up getting your website for free!

Kvetchco Inc.’s Customer Reward Program is a post from: Kvetchco Inc. - delicious websites for all

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