first fruits ministries

Posted by Gayle

first fruits enterprisesEntering a new chapter in the life of the first fruits ministry required a new and improved web site. The previous site was built years ago and needed to be modernized and made easier to use. I was pleased to continue working with them to improve their e-commerce and marketing capabilities while helping them maintain the flavor of the original site and branding.

The design is cleaner, more modern and built on a responsive platform that adjusts for mobile devices. They have a blog, an integrated shopping cart and newsletter capability. They also added social media. In addition, responsive email templates were created to reflect the new feel of the brand.

 

Ad Spark

Posted by Gayle

Ad SparkI have the opportunity to work with the guys at Ad Spark in Trussville, AL regularly and was honored when they asked me to help them update their company web site. It was severely outdated and presented a neutral if not negative impression to anyone checking out their abilities. It just did not do them justice.

So I created this new site for them on a WordPress platform that showcases select projects and clients while explaining what it is they can and have done. The setup allows the site to grow and develop with the company. The guys were great to work with and the site came together swiftly and is a positive digital presence for Ad Spark.

And recently, when they changed their name from Reliable Ad Group to Ad Spark, the transition was easy and seamless.

Ad Spark

Beaux Arts Krewe

Posted by Gayle

Beaux Arts Krewe

Birmingham Beaux Arts Krewe is a philanthropic organization benefiting the Birmingham Museum of Art. They wanted a web site that would serve their members and showcase the Krewe’s efforts to the wider public.

I was pleased to help them with a visually pleasing and functional site built on a WordPress platform. Much of their content is restricted to members only, but the areas accessible to the public include information about the organization, the history, the heraldry, and the art purchased by the museum using Krewe donations.

The members only area includes forms, bylaws, membership information and a directory.

BeauxArtsKrewe.com

Barbers Dairy

Posted by Gayle

Barbers DairyIn September of 2013 I began an SEO improvement project on BarbersDairy.com that has been implemented incrementally each month. The HTML site needed the basics of a sitemap, robots.txt, alt tags, meta tags, title tag editing, and recipe micro-formatting. Most recently, an internal search engine for the on-site recipes was added. Several scripts were evaluated, but the final choice was a Perl script that would return results within a page. The engine is initiated from a small form placed in the recipe sub-navigation.

During this project, the site was also moved to a new hosting provider and other updates made as needed including testimonial forms, on site and on Facebook, and Pinterest and Webmaster Tools verification. More improvements are planned as the project continues in conjunction with Reliable Ad Group.

 

The site was moved to a new host/developer and the site redesigned in 2015.

 

Life & Style PR

Posted by Gayle

Life & Style PRLife & Style PR, a division of Panorama Public Relations, wanted to revamp their web site to update the look, functionality, and incorporate more of their team’s personality. They wanted to feature the work they have done for clients and put a fashion-forward face on their digital presence. The site was made responsive and the content was expanded to focus on their strengths and services.

The colors used in the site were taken from the parent company branding to create a more familial relationship between the two companies. Professionally taken photos add style, personality, and punch to a homepage slider of messages about their business focus and strategy.

The new site includes features to enhance SEO, social media integration, video player, and Slideshare embedding. Since they were already on WordPress, they had a leg up on the site revamp. A few plugins were updated, and several were added to incorporate desired features.

A projects page features a thumbnail gallery of their work that can be built upon going forward. The blog is more prominently featured and will be added to much more frequently. Life & Style PR also allowed me to publish a guest post on sensory branding and the Oscar Mayer bacon scented alarm app.

The separate Life&StylePR website has since been merged with a redesigned PRview.com.

Michael Alan Tate

Posted by Gayle

MichaelAlanTate.comCareer coach, consultant and strategist Michael Alan Tate asked me to help him develop a web site to showcase his speaking, consulting, and coaching business. The site incorporated a blog, email list building, and standards such as search, social media, and contact form.  As a published author, he wanted to offer his books via e-commerce and provide insight into the processes he employs to help people with work-life balance and career transitions.

Mike has invested the last 20 plus years helping successful executives and top professionals, who are facing organizational changes and personal transitions, designs smart strategies to move up, move over or move on in a purposeful way.  He also facilitates custom leadership succession processes and learning systems that work in tandem to support the growth of a culture where people can experience healthier careers and an organization can have healthier business results.

I also helped him with a new branded email template for his Leadership & Life journal and a branded Powerpoint template.

Mike decided in the spring of 2020 to switch to another digital media firm that specializes in podcasting.

Belk Spring Fashion Preview

Posted by Gayle

Belk 2014 Spring FashionsMy friends at Life & Style PR (a division of Panorama Public Relations) asked me to help them make Belk’s 2014 Spring Fashion media kit flourish online. As with the Fall Fashion media kit, the fashions have more than enough pop and sizzle, so the strategy was to make them the focus.

The online media kit was built on WordPress using a masonry-type theme with large visual presentations organized by style statement. We also wanted the media to be able to download images for use online or in print. In addition, the site allows sharing and commenting on the photos.

The same platform was used for consistency of presentation and the Fall fashions were archived so that they are still available to back links and search engines.

Belk Spring 2014 Fashions

 

City of Trussville, Alabama

Posted by Gayle

City of TrussvilleCityofTrussville.com was developed on a WordPress backbone to provide a new updated user interface, enhanced functionality, and better SEO performance than their preexisting web site (built in 2005). Much of the benefit and improvement in visibility and user experience came from updating the platform. This work was performed in conjunction with Reliable Ad Group.

The effort included web design, information architecture, SEO, photography, content creation, feature development, and training of administrative staff. Notable features added to the web presence were a business and landmark locator, city services directory, events calendar, publications listing, contact form, local weather, and homepage slideshow. (Dead Dog Race photo graciously supplied by Stephanie Grund.)

The site was handed off to the city in August 2013. They chose to host, maintain and update it internally.

In August of 2015, the city moved the site to the cloud and put the site into a Genesis-based theme managed by another developer. But the functionality, photography, SEO, and information architecture remained the same.