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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