Lorraine Cooke availed of the Blacknight Solutions Getting Irish Business Online offer where she got a free .ie domain name and hosting for a year. She quickly realised that the home made site did not look very professional.
I suggested a number of WordPress themes and she settled on one and we quickly got it up and running. It is leaps and bounds more professional than what she had. As Lorraine receives more recommendations she can easily add these to her site.
I extracted a few testimonials from her LinkedIn recommendations.
As Lorraine has an active Facebook page with more than 25 likes, it was eligible for a nice url (“Vanity URL” as Facebook call it). I guided her through the short process of claiming her short url.
Initially Lorraine told me that she would like that posts to both her web site be duplicated on her Facebook page. As the process for this requires significant setup, and she doesn’t plan to post very frequently, I encouraged her to dual post manually. This gives her full control over what is posted to Facebook and how it appears. The goal is to drive people from Facebook to Lorraine’s web site.
Technical Details
- WordPress
- StudioPress Genesis Framework
- PHP
- CSS
Liam didn't like the Joomla CMS that the 4tec site was running on. His friend, and client of mine, Brian recommended WordPress. I simplified the site and encouraged Liam to expand the information about the game. And he beat me when we played the game.
Read MoreI haven’t updated my Portfolio in almost a year. I have been very busy with a number of projects and the arrival of my second son.
Some of the web sites include:
- PB3 Coaching
- Good Mood Food
- Amphibian King
- Irish Dark Native Honey Bees
- Dublin 15 Community Council
- Carpenterstown Educate Together
I will write posts detailing each of those sites as I get time.
Irish Triathlon needed a new look to keep its significant reader base interested. We stuck with WordPress and simply used a new, fresh, light theme that presented the headlines and race reports in an easy to read layout.
Read More
In December 2010 Aine contacted me looking to revamp their dated web site. She told me about competitor sites and the attributes of them that they liked.
I met Aine, Jackie and Frank and they talked about what they wanted the site to do and how they wanted it to look. Initially I was nervous that it would difficult to deliver some of the technically complicated aspects but I felt that it would be a perfect opportunity to learn some new stuff.
I immediately set up a test server with WordPress 3.0.6 (the version relevant) and contacted the designer I work with to create a web site layout for Body Connection Spa. She produced a layout with a lovely calm colour scheme within 2 days. Once approved by Aine, Jackie and Frank I got to work converting it to a WordPress theme based on the Blueprint CSS framework.
A big feature of the new site was to be time limited Special Offers. I implemented these with Custom Post Types – a feature introduced in WordPress 3.0. The Special Offer page displays the time left and has a large “Take Up Offer” button which, when clicked, reveals a short form for a customer to complete to avail of the offer. The form emails Body Connection Spa who call the customer to arrange an appointment.
Creating a Special Offer is simplified by the use of Custom Post Types. The page has the minimum fields required to create the Special Offer – Offer title, Description, Expiry Date and Time and price. The Date and Time fields are error proof through the use of jQuery plugins that ensure that the information is entered in the correct format.
WordPress 3.1 introduced Custom Post Type archives. This feature facilitated the development of the list of Special Offers.
Body Connection Spa have a very large customer list, many with email addresses for most of them. I helped them upload the list to MailChimp and they are now using MailChimp to send email newsletters. The open rate for their newsletters is well above the industry average!
Ronan Donnelly became interested in Traditional Chinese Medicine almost 20 years ago and studied in China and Ireland, obtaining multiple diplomas. Ronan came to me in need of a reasonably priced website for his practice.
I met Ronan and his wife, Lisa, to discuss their requirements. They had written out the entire site in a Word document with the Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine pages and the Women’s Health, Children’s Health, Men’s Health, Pain Management and Traditional Chinese Medicine sections completely written out. I was very impressed in their level of preparation.
I detailed the benefits of WordPress as content management system that requested. To keep the cost reasonable I suggested a WooThemes theme for the site.
Ronan and Lisa gave me the go ahead so I purchased website hosting from Blacknight Solutions in Carlow and the WordPress theme and began setting up the website.
I set up the site so that Ronan can write articles for the web site and promote them on the Ronan Donnelly Traditional Chinese Medicine Facebook page.
Website visitor numbers can be examined with StatCounter statistics (including a weekly summary email). Ronan can continue to use his current email client to send and receive email sent through the website.
Bernadette contacted me about a year ago with initial questions about setting up a website for her aromatherapy, Indian head massage and Holistic massage business. I briefed her on the information I would need from her (e.g. text, stock photos).
She contacted me again recently having prepared the text and a series of stock photos for the website. Her enthusiasm for the website and for her business was infectious and it was very interesting talking to her about the positive impact of aromatherapy and Indian head massages on her family.
Bernadette chose a HTML/Flash template from TemplateMonster.com. As I chose to use WordPress on her website, I purchased the template and ported it to WordPress and Blueprint CSS (based on a WordPress/Blueprint theme by Joshua Sowin and updated to work with WordPress 3.0).
After the initial setup, Bernadette got down to editing the pages and getting familiar with the WordPress admin area.
Separately, Bernadette updated her Google Places listing with a link to her new website.
In the future, Bernadette will publish articles on her website and promote them on the Cedarwood Holistic Therapy Facebook page.
Finally, I added her business email address to her Yahoo! account so that she can manage both email accounts from the one place.
Anne contacted me after following a link of in my signature on boards.ie. She has a WordPress blog that she started back in December 2003.
Anne’s blog was running a 4 year old version of WordPress so it had old security holes and didn’t have the features of newer versions.
Just like for the Dublin City Triathlon upgrade, I upgraded it the long way (to 2.1, to 2.3, to 2.5, to 2.8, to 2.9.2, to 3.0 and finally to 3.0.1). I put the theme into a new directory (it was in ‘default’ and got overwritten during upgrades) and checked the site. It all went very well.
Simon Morris, Managing Director of Carlyle Institute, asked me to revamp their web site. They were unable to edit the existing site and they needed to update the course information for the 2010 courses.
I spoke at length with Simon to determine what they wanted to edit and if they wanted a blog. I was able to propose using my new favourite software, WordPress.
Simon had all the site content ready and I was able to populate the site before the site layout was completed.
For a new design I contacted a designer I worked with on Motions.ie and she quickly developed a template (in between packing for her holiday). The design only needed two revisions before Simon was happy with it.
I converted the template into a WordPress theme using Blueprint CSS for the layout.
Simon and his team quickly started posting news items, including photos, and were very happy with the template and WordPress.
Technical Details
Matt Coughlan, Race Director of Dublin City Triathlon, contacted me after seeing my work on IrishTriathlon.com and WicklowAdventureRace.com.
Matt wanted to upgrade the site to make it fresher/less cluttered and to tidy the info available.
The site already used WordPress (though it was a 4 year old version!) so I recommended keeping it on WordPress. I suggested a few themes from ThemeForest.net and Matt picked one out.
After tediously upgrading WordPress to the latest version (2.0 to 2.0.1, to 2.1, to 2.3, to 2.5, to 2.8 and finally to 2.9.2) I installed the theme and tidied up the historical data on the site (results and info going back to 1999). I also fixed a few typos and formatting issues I spotted.
Matt is happy with the site and retained me to fix any issues that arise in the run up to the triathlon on 29th August.