During the mockup phase you’ll receive a full size rendition of your web site design. When we discuss your layout it’ll help if you understand the parts of your design that we are focusing on and I’m hoping this blog article will help.

When creating a web site its ideal to have the same look and navigation throughout the site. Changing the look or navigation on each page can confuse your customer and make them more likely to leave your site to shop somewhere else. The only exceptions are catalog pages that may utilize categories to help make browsing easier, as long as the customer can still access the rest of your site too! Preferably you want to be able to get to anywhere on your site in 2 clicks or less and direct access is even better. The more accessible your products are, the more likely the customer will spend time browsing your site and finding an item they want to purchase. If your customer has to click “catalog” and select the “category” they want each time they want to look for another item, they will quickly become frustrated and shop elsewhere.

Web designs, especially those on cart systems, are built and coded in a template system. This means one or two files run the entire site. The content is the area within the template that changes depending on the page that the visitor is looking at. Generally I wont design for content because that will change on every page, instead I design for the over all look of the site. If you do have pages that need alternative navigation or design that requires another template to be made and not included in my design packages. Please ensure to specify that you require more than one look, or template before your project begins so that you are not surprised with the additional design fees associated with them.

Below are a couple web site examples that may help you understand the parts of the web layout and template.

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Really. Check out Jamie Roth’s new web site (designed by Web Savvy Mama, of course) to get more information about her new book. I’ve worked with Jamie on a few projects now and have had a blast creating web sites for her because we often have the same vision of what it should look like. I kid that she is my easiest client ever. Design aside, her web sites are also fun because of the content. Jamie is definitely not afraid to speak her mind and tell it how it is! This is why I highly recommend taking a look at her new book currently available in eBook format. I did get the pleasure of not only doing her website but designing the cover for her book as well.

From Jamie:

The General Manager of Your Universe is not another how-to-be-happy book. There are plenty of those on the market. It’s about facing your responsibility to create the life you desire. This includes recognizing how you have contributed thus far and how you can do so much better from this point on. It’s time trade in the victim card and replace it with the empowered, confident you that you are meant to be. This book has straightforward language and sometimes shocking examples. It is not going to stroke your ego, it’s going to lead you to the inside of you and that might not always be easy to look at. But it’s time to stop searching for external influences to make you happy and feel good. Make yourself feel good. Live authentically, joyfully and empowered. That is the journey this book will lead you on. Only read, if you are certain you are ready to be you.

Buy the book online at Smashwords.

I see this a lot, really, a LOT. Someone decides they have an awesome idea for a new business and starts researching how to start a web site to sell their product. Obviously, its human nature to try to get the best deal we can and free sounds amazing! Or does it? Here are my top 10 reason to avoid free web sites.

1. Is it really free? Sure, the basic personal version is free. Did you consider you may want more space, add on a domain, a different look, and oh did you want email as well, we can do that but start adding on the fees. Sorry guys, but the free is part is usually just to get you in the door and signed up thinking you found a great deal.

2. Who are you really promoting? So you think you are promoting your products or services, but really you are also promoting their services and interests as well. I’d say %99 of free sites have either advertising or pop-ups that they throw onto your site. So when your visitors visit and get side tracked by the add they stuck in your margin and click-off, did the free site really help you get a sale or did they just get a sale for one of their advertisers? Not to mention, its just annoying to see when trying to shop!

3. Unprofessional. When I go shopping for a product I may have hundreds of choices for where to buy it. I’m going to ultimately buy from a site that looks secure and trust-worthy. If they have ads or are using a free template seen on 20 other sites I’ll probably pass them up. I’m going to buy the product from the site that put more effort into their storefront. Would you rather buy a new computer from a reputable store or from someone selling from the trunk of their car? Which one are you going to be more willing to turn your credit card information over to?
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Here area a few of my current favorites, I had a blast working on each of them!

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The clients I’ve had for years probably already know my history of how I became a web designer, my love of all things artistic, that I’m a mom of 3 kids and have been married for over 10 years (together for 15, can you believe that?). What most of my clients and blog readers don’t know, is that I have a personal site that I also use as a sort of “cover-it-all” business card so to speak.

Just recently I decided that it needed a face lift. I designed the site back when I was in school for design, so it was a bit dated. As the story with most designers, we do everyone else’s sites first and often neglect our own! I decided that I needed to just jump in and do it and stop procrastinating!

Well, the new site is ready for everyone to see! I decided that if I was going to do it, I wanted to do it different! I broke every rule that I have for web design and decided to stop thinking rationally with this one. I told myself I’d never create a horizontal site; well I guess its true, you can never say never. When you visit the site, you’ll see what I mean. Most will either love it or hate it, and my feelings will not be hurt if its just not your style. Check it out for yourself and let me know what you think!

So I got the all-clear that my eyes are healed, yay! For those who are a little late to this party, I recently suffered corneal abrasions on both my eyes that covered the majority of my corneas. They were chemically etched. Yikes is right! After 4 days completely blind, then another week of just ok vision I now have my vision back and eyes are healed. That is a lot to celebrate!

I’m passing on my excitement with a big blog sale! Its my opinion that business web sites can benefit immensely from blogs being incorporated. Any web site for that matter! To celebrate being back to designing and to also help raise funds to cover the cost of expenses related to my eye injury I’m having this sale.

When you purchase a web site design package and add a matching blog design to your order I will take %50 off that matching blog! I’ll design a theme to match the web design you ordered and install it to the associated WordPress blog on your new site! You’ll have a fresh new blog to chronicle all your excited about your fresh new web site.

How do you take advantage of this sale? Simply add your design package using the package picker (Get Started @ top) and check the “Add a Matching WP Blog Theme” option. After you add that to your cart you can use the coupon code: BLOGTASTIC at checkout to get your discount.

eCommerce site owners start here | Informational site owners start here

That’s it, its that easy! So check out the design packages and get your BLOGTASTIC savings on your matching WordPress blog theme.

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