And I believe I know why.

Tom Stier

Once upon a time, building a website was a Development Project.

The client was completely dependent on the Web Developer whose understanding of HTML and the ability to code a website from scratch was the only way to do it.

For many people, Web Developer is associated with those days of the Several Thousand Dollar website project.

Things are different now.

The traditional Web Developer tended to concentrate exclusively on the construction aspect of a website.

Once he was done, the site was ‘finished’.

Until, 2 years later, when the site became ‘old’ and had to be completely re-done!

Those were the days!

Now, don’t get me wrong, it is still possible to have a Several Thousand Dollar website project.

All it takes is any custom coding (hardly ever needed because of WordPress’s thousands of available Plugins) and a complex design/review process.

For a small-business website, the time and effort is better spent on thinking of the website as one piece of a holistic online promotion strategy.

Many businesses do quite well with a simply designed site, with great content that is promoted on social media.

So, a growing proportion of my work is that of a Website Guide, collaborating with clients on new features for their website and in formulating promotion strategies.

Another big chunk of my time is being the Website Fixer. The site can be WordPress or Squarespace, or some other platform. I’m usually able to find and fix the issue.

However, if you must have a Several Thousand Dollar website project, please let me know. I just may be the guy for you!

The post The Website Fixer appeared first on Tom Stier-Promote Globally.

A flat page non-traditional layout website redo in WordPress by Tom Stier

WordPress started as a blogging tool. As bloggers worked with it, they grew to love the way the Dashboard made the process of quickly adding new content easy and intuitive. Then over time WordPress became one of the most popular general purpose content management softwares in the world.

WordPress provides the same user experience for folks who just want to blog and also for users who want to do that, plus manage items such as their ecommerce and newsletter integration all in the same familiar Dashboard.

This growth has lead to issues, such as the conflicts between Plugins. Some of our time is now spent in tracking down, identifying and resolving these type of conflicts.

The reason for this is that WordPress Themes & Plugins have become more and more feature rich, as the development community plays catch-up with the function and features found on the popular (and more expensively developed) destinations on the web.

This has ratcheted the former simple blogging tool up to a level where website developers depend on continual interaction with Theme and Plugin developers about their products. We are believers in working with committed Premium developers, and in paying the small license costs involved for their continued support and updates.

Themes can add their own layer of design and function onto the WordPress core. Themes have become more complex due to users frustration with the “blog” look of the default WordPress site.

This look is something that did not much bother bloggers, but it is not desirable for presentation style websites.

The Dashboard tools for modern WordPress Premium Themes can give users much more control over presentation options.

All in all, it is a great time to revamp your web presence with a WordPress powered website!

The post WordPress Grows Up appeared first on Tom Stier-Promote Globally.

“According to the marketers, it’s easier for authors to develop followings on already established social platforms and they shouldn’t waste much effort maintaining a website.”

Since we create and maintain websites for a number of authors, this did get our attention!

To musicians who relied solely on MySpace to promote their band efforts, we might ask ‘How is it going over there?‘ or we could ask anyone trying to promote their efforts on other failing Social Media the same question.

Any social media platform is based on the business model of generating enough views to sell targeted advertising. Social media is not there to help you, and while you are using it for your purposes,  they are using YOU for their purposes.

They can change their terms of use any time, they can block you and they can fail.

And while it’s OK to be social on social media, it is still a no-no to actually push your particular product too much. It’s an indistinct line, but you’ll know when you cross it.

On the other hand, it is perfectly alright to boast and shout about how great your book or music is on your OWN domain. And, its also OK to have nice big BUY NOW buttons there as well. And then add some more!

In our work with authors, artists & musicians we stress the importance of social media as part of a campaign effort that always includes YOU being the master of your domain. A domain can be your name, or if you are an author it can be your protagonist or pseudonym. We believe that any commercial concern has to have their own personal marker on the internet, totally under their control and not subject to the whims of the owners of the giant social media platforms.

We also believe that the website attached to that domain name is important. It is possible to not “waste much effort maintaining a website” but we have seen it is a good thing to develop a routine amount of posting on your own website and then use social media to maximize the return of those efforts.

From here, it looks like Digital Book World is doing just that.

The post Are you master of your domain? appeared first on Tom Stier-Promote Globally.

It is a Dashboard-enabled website, and the owners are adding their own text and image content.

For this project we worked closely with designer Julia Brine, translating her layout grahics and type styles into the template, and configuring all the dynamic functions, like the widgets (the “not fun for the average user” type stuff) …

The post Garden Designer Website appeared first on Tom Stier-Promote Globally.

For the small business owner (and some corporations, such as Ford Motor Co.) a blogging website offers a powerful way to present your products or services to potential customers.

If you change your current website into a WordPress site, you will be able to add new text and upload pictures to your website yourself, keeping it fresh and providing search engines with more ‘hooks’ to grab your potential customers’ attention.

What’s the difference between a static page website and a blog? A blog will give these benefits:

• Easily update the homepage or any page.
• Add new pages. Links to them magically appear throughout the whole site.
• Excellent search engine features built-in.
• Allow visitors to leave good feedback, (negative comments never appear!)
• Lots of ‘Plug-ins’ for adding picture galleries, newsletter features & more

A blog can be a website, but a website can not neccesarily be a blog!

The graphic presentation on your current website, and any pages you want to keep, can be ‘dropped’ into your new blog site. This saves you the cost of designing a new site from scratch.

With a dynamic website you will have more control over your business presentation and more effective communication with your customers.

The post Should I Blog For My Business? appeared first on Tom Stier-Promote Globally.

The day is past when you can afford to have your business represented by a static site, or single page, posted several years ago that nobody can remember how to update.

On TV’s The Office we might love Dunder Mifflin’s classic “Coming Soon in 2004!” website, but its no joke if its representing your business online!

Google loves blogs. Website softwares such as WordPress, CMSMadeSimple, Zen Cart and WikyBlog enable small business owners or in house staff to talk about their services and goods, which when caught by search results, leads to a new sale or contact for your business.

We want to help you change your old tired website in for a new model, a hybrid that will keep running through the changes. These softwares all feature active developer communities that keep them current with the best features of the ‘big guys’ sites.

We can convert your current site to use one of the softwares mentioned above or whichever software is the best match to your particular needs. This will provide you a way to update your own website with new content using a web browser or you can have us take care of this task for you. Its your choice.

We offer complete re-design services. We can setup the system and the site template and you can enter the content. We provide custom writing services to write the copy that will get indexed by search engines.

Want to explore the possibilities? Give us a call today at 413-528-3195.

The post Blogging for Business appeared first on Tom Stier-Promote Globally.

The design of the site is clean and inviting with access to site member listings being a priority.

On the ancient previous incarnation of the site, the member listings were static html pages that Rodelinde would create and upload on a regular basis.

We created a php/MySQL member listing system that automated the process.

Among the benefits of the new system:

New members have their listings added to the database within hours.

Changing content adds ‘stickiness’, visitors come back to see what’s new.

All member listings are searchable by country, US state and member code.

More functionality is scheduled, although Rodelinde has strong thoughts on keeping the operation as much a uniquely personal service as possible. An important distinction is that the site is not a dating site, it is more of a matchmaking operation with Rodelinde facillitating the all important work of bringing two soul-mates together!

Plans are in place to improve the membership system, with personal log-in pages and some in-site communication options between members.

There are no plans, however to add video messaging or even photos!

Logo design by Tom Stier.

Alternate logo.

Final logo.

Background original image.

The post Matchmaker’s Website appeared first on Tom Stier-Promote Globally.

We wanted the design to be full-color, darker than our usual preference, while still ensuring that the site copy and links would be easy to read.

The design actually mimics the style of a series of  novels Winslow had published, which creates a strong identity ‘hook’ for first time visitors. A page background showing a wall of books published by the author gives the visitor an immediate hint of a rich history behind the subject.

The site is working well for Winslow, as she leverages her activity on the site with her postings on social media networks. Her Daily Happiness posts are automatically added to her Facebook and Twitter pages.

The post Romantic Suspense Author Website appeared first on Tom Stier-Promote Globally.

Monterey Masonry is a high end masonry business located in Sheffield, Massachusetts. They needed a way for homeowners and architects to be able to quickly check out their impressive body of work.

The owner is a collector of images of antique tools and other images associated with the trade of masonry. These images were used as subtle background patterns all over the site.

Every image on the site is a link to a pop-up window containing a much larger image. Great for checking out the details.

In addition to being a master mason, Mark is a creator of public art, which is also showcased on the site. A notable example is his Times Square piece “Replanting the Handmade Sky”. It makes a great gif animation.

Monterey Masonry also maintains a stoneyard with many one-of-a-kind items for sale. This inventory is also live on the web site and easily updated with a simple browser-based system.

In 2011 the original ‘flat page’ website was ported into a WordPress theme.

Logo Designed by Tom Stier.

Flash element by Tom Stier.

Background design element.

The post Stone Mason Website appeared first on Tom Stier-Promote Globally.

We worked with the logo designer to adapt the company logo and color scheme for the website design. If you saw the website, you saw their trucks!

This site was notable for using frames (now a big no-no in site design) in an invisible sort of way, and for some fun effects.

For the “Pruning” section of the Barrett Tree Service site, we worked up some cartoon style image elements used in four rollover animations that show the effects of cleaning, reducing, raising and thinning. This was done to make the differences in the processes easier for the visitor to grasp.

This site used frames in order to keep the bottom navigation in the same position on every page, so as  not to be dependent on the height of the content above it.

Frames are now deprecated for use on websites, and we use other methods to attain this effect.

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