Heavenly Sweets Cupcakes is a new start up business run by Rachel in Whittier, California. She makes amazing gourmet cupcakes for events. What started out as a hobby, turned into requests from friends. She soon was taking in requests through a Facebook, and business was booming to the point where she knew she needed a website. I love success stories like that, where passion turns into business.

A Simple, Tasteful Food Website

The main focus is the cupcakes, so we had to maximize that – the details, the textures, the colors – and get everything else out of the way. So I went with a minimalist white design that makes the cupcakes pop with color. Everything about the home page is about putting them on display to create appetite – full cupcake background, rotating image banner, direct photo links to cupcake flavors and photo galleries, and a simple contact/order form.

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Facebook Social Sharing & Commenting

Heavenly Sweets Cupcakes started its business on Facebook, so it only made sense to carry that through to the website. The home page has a Facebook box, showing the latest page posts, a list of page fans, and the option to like the page right there. Also ingrained on every page is the option to share to social networks most relevant for cupcakes – Facebook, Twitter & Pinterest – and a Facebook commenting section.

Photo Gallery of Flavors

This site is very image-focused. It features a clean easy menu of cupcake flavors, as well as an image gallery of cupcakes arrangements from catered events, really giving you the feel of what it’s like to order.

Full Content Control Through WordPress

While the layout and design is left to me, Rachel, as a small business owner, needs to be able to manage content on her own site. That’s why it’s built with WordPress, the most solid and popular platform used by large corporations and individual bloggers alike. She’s able to go in and change her own content, update new flavors, or add more photos to her gallery.

But believe me, here cupcakes are 10 times better than they appear on the website. You have to give them a try: Heavenly Sweets Cupcakes

Ready to have your own website custom designed? Let’s get started.

Contact Me

View the gallery of this website

The post Food & Catering Web Design: Heavenly Sweets Cupcakes appeared first on Spark Up Arts.

With 14% of internet users browsing on a mobile device (and climbing), how your website looks on a cell phone or tablet is no longer just a consideration, but an essential. No one likes having to pinch and zoom on an iPhone to read a website, or having a certain web layout look all funky on an iPad.

But if you don’t own an iPhone or iPad, how are you going to know what your customers are seeing? There’s no need to go out and buy one. Here is a free resource that show will show you how your website looks on an iOS device.

For iPads & iPhones

Visit http://ipadpeek.com

This is a virtual iOS device simulator. Just select your device, type in the address of your website, and you’ll see what your mobile customers see. Selecting another device or changing the landscape/portrait orientation will stay on the same website, but you how that looks on that specific device and viewing mode. Choose from an iPad, iPhone, or iPhone 5.

Note: the Original iPad, iPad 2, and iPad Mini have the same screen resolution, even though the sizes are different. The latest iPad with Retina display has a higher resolution, but will not change the pixel dimensions of your site – so you will still see how your site is framed. The Retina just adds a crisper display. Same concept with all iPhone generations before the iPhone 5 – different screen resolutions, but same screen size and pixel layout.

I haven’t really looked into resources for Android devices. Any have suggestions?

Is your website mobile friendly? Let me help you build a responsive website that can adapt to device or screen size.

Learn About Responsive Web Design

Get Started Now

The post A Great Tool to View Your Website as it Appears on an iPhone or iPad appeared first on Spark Up Arts.

Know Your Industry News

Whatever business or industry you’re in, it’s important to stay as up to date as possible. This means constantly reading up on the latest news, developments, market trends, and techniques. Yet who has the time for that, and how do you ensure you’re getting the best information? First, here’s why you should do it:

1. Refine your skill

Whatever your craft is, doing it better means better business. For me in the field of web design and development, I read up on new skills, tips, strategies, techniques, etc… so I can create better products and services for my clients. This is particularly important for me since the world of web is constantly changing. But even if your industry remains relatively the same, you can always find ways to do things with more quality and efficiency

2. Understand your industry and market

By gleaning information from experts in your field, you can better market your products and services. Know what your partners and competitors are doing, and more importantly, know what your customers are feeling and wanting. I’m constantly reading up on “Top Websites” or “Best Marketing Strategies” lists to see the trends that web design and marketing is moving in.

3. Do better business in general

There is general business information that applies to all industries, and that’s part of what I’m trying to help you with in this blog. Whatever product or service you have, you can always benefit from knowing the best marketing strategies, work & management tips, the newest online technologies, or just general business practices that will help you run your company better.

4. Be an expert to your customers

Whatever product or service you’re selling, it’s important to show your customers (and your competitors) that you know what you’re talking about. It creates trust that you are an authority in your industry. You can also help educate your customers about the value of what you have to offer.

Pulse – A Beautiful Way to Organize & View News

A tool that I’ve been using for a while is Pulse. It’s basically an RSS reader, but displays articles in a beautiful grid format. You can enter in the websites you already follow (or want to follow), and in addition Pulse curates the top news, magazines, and blogs online in each industry field, so you have a place to start. It’s essentially the equivalent to saving bookmarks in your browser, except you don’t have to visit each individual site (which is what I used to do). You’re also able to categorize websites into folders for better organization, and save article to read later or reference back to.

Pulse works on the web as well as apps on Android and iOS. With a personal login, your articles & folders synced across all platforms. So you have a pretty way to read news and blogs, but how do you actually use that for your business? Well, here’s my top 3:

1. Learn and try

Every morning, or just a few times a week, I dedicate about 20 minutes to reading through articles that catch my eye. These include articles about web design, marketing, business management, and tech news. That day or week, I try to implement skill or guide. For example, it could be a new web design element to try, or a tip to make my workday more efficient and productive. One recent article I read was the importance of consistency in blogging in order to maintain web traffic, because once consistency drops, it could take months to rebuild that traffic. As a result, I’m writing this blog post now and hope to continue on a weekly basis to provide relevant content.

2. Write about it

You may come across an article that would be interesting or beneficial to your audience. It may be a topic you want to expand on, explain, or just give you opinions on. Write a blog post, and demonstrate your knowledge to your audience.

3. Share the content

Of course, you won’t always have time to write on every single article. That’s the beauty and power of social media. I know a lot of small business are struggling to post good updates on Facebook and Twitter. With Pulse, you can are always discovering and collecting great content that other people are writing – don’t be afraid to share those posts directly with your social media networks. It’s a great way to maintain a steady stream of valuable updates and keep your audience engaged. Of course, don’t just post the link – be sure to write a sentence of your own commentary or question in the post.

I hope this was helpful, and you see the value of reading your industry news articles and blogs on Pulse, both for your own business growth and to share with your audience. Do you have other tools that help you grow in your business or industry? Let me know in the comments

The post Stay Updated on Industry News & Techniques with Pulse appeared first on Spark Up Arts.

The over all theme of the site is very minimalist, using a black and white color scheme and a very boxy layout. This allows for the color of their videos and photos to take center stage. Since each site I design is tailored specifically to represent the brand and make it easy for the client to manage their own website, here are some of the features specific for HINH:

Blog

Since HINH is all about fielding stories from people, an easy signup page allows anyone to blog about their own experiences on the site. Account creation is automated, though the webmaster has to approve all submitted posts, allowing the all posts to be approved before going live.

Photo Gallery

HINH was already posting photos to Flickr before the site was built. So rather than add all the pictures to the site, we just created a gallery that automatically pulls photos from Flickr.

Video Gallery

This site allows HINH to display their amazing videos in a beautiful and simple gallery, as well as individual video embeds on various pages.

The Hope Is Now Here website also features an automatic scrolling “Latest News” and “Twitter Feed” in the footer. With a message so critical and needed, the Hope Is Now Here website simply pushes forward the stories of hope. Check it out.

HINH’s website was built on the WordPress platform. What are the most important key features of building a website? Learn what makes a website good. Ready to build or upgrade your website? Get started now.

The post New Minimalist Website Sends Clear Message : Hope Is Now Here appeared first on Spark Up Arts.

In any business, you want to cut costs as much as possible. Especially if you’re a startup, small business, individual project, nonprofit organization, or just struggling financially, you’re trying to bootstrap whatever resources you can. Yet running your business requires certain tools, and you don’t want to sacrifice quality.

When we talk about online and desktop software for organizations, some industry standards that come to mind may be Microsoft Office, Adobe Creative Suite, Salesforce, Quickbooks, Basecamp, Constant Contact, and many others. Yet these top business programs are usually very expensive. So what do you do? Eat the cost of purchasing expensive office software, or go with some low quality software.

In recently years, there have actually been a lot of great new companies spring up that offer high quality alternatives to the traditional industry standards, and often for free or at a fraction of the price. But how do you find these great programs? Enter alternativeTo.net

alternativeTo is a directory of user-curated software and programs. They have programs for online, Mac, Windows, and Linux, as well as apps for phones including iOS, Android, and Blackberry. Type in your desired but too expensive program, and AlternativeTo brings up a list of comparable programs that are often cheaper or even free.

Each option shows a short description as well as a user rating. I personally have found a lot of great software that I currently use from on this site, and have consequently saved a lot of money for myself and clients I work with.

So take a look around, and let me know – what are the top programs that you crave but are far too expensive, and what great alternatives have you found?

The post Find Free & Cheaper Alternative Software & Programs appeared first on Spark Up Arts.

A regular part of any business or organization is the storage and sharing of files. Whether it’s documents, photos, photoshop files, or other types of media, everything is moving to cloud storage. Cloud storage, which is storing your data on another company’s servers, helps your business in many ways. It cuts down on costs, eliminates the confusion of emailing back and forth, is accessible anywhere (great for those who work remotely), and great for archiving and organizing.

This post will cover a few of the different options out there. Which online media storage service you use really depends on how much space you need and your budget, as well as other options. Coming from a small business / startup mentality, I’m going to focus on free cloud services with affordable scaling up, with not as much emphasis on the other features.

Some web file storage services have lots of free space, but scaling up is expensive, while others have relatively little space, with more affordable options for increasing that amount.

DropBox

Probably the most commonly used storage and sharing service, it offers a very small free account, with reasonable upgrades.

• 2 GB FREE
• 100 GB – $10/mo
• 200 GB – $20/mo
• 500 GB – $50/mo

http://dropbox.com

Box

Another cloud service with a good amount of free space, though their paid storage options are really expensive comparatively.

• 5 GB FREE
• 25 GB – $10/mo
• 50 GB – $20/mo

http://box.com

Google Drive

Connected with your Google account, there’s a lot of affordable tier options for online storage space.

• 5 GB FREE
• 25 GB – $2.50/mo
• 100 GB – $5/mo
• 200GB – $10/mo
• 400 GB – $20/mo
• It keeps going up to 16 TB

http://drive.google.com

Microsoft SkyDrive

Connected with a Windows/Live account, this offers a little more free storage space with very cheap upgrades.

• 7 GB FREE
• 27GB – $10/yr (~$1/mo)
• 57 GB – $25/yr (~$2/mo)
• 107GB – $50/yr (~$4/mo

http://skydrive.live.com

SugarSync

A newer media and file storage service that offers a solid pricing structure.

• 5 GB FREE
• 30 GB – $5/mo
• 60 GB – $10/mo
• 100 GB – $15/mo
• 250 GB – $25/mo

http://sugarsync.com

MediaFire

The only media storage service I’ve seen to offer this much free space and upgrade options this cheap.

• 50 GB FREE
• 250 GB – $4.50/mo
• 1000 GB – $25/mo

http://mediafire.com

To reiterate, this post focuses solely on the space and pricing structure of online cloud storage services, specifically those with initial free space options. It does not take into account other features that would become a factor in the price, such as mobile access, live editing, user interface, sharing options, syncing, and other factors. This guide is intended for small businesses that just need a free or affordable way to store their company documents and photos online for others to access from their own computers.

If you have a small team, it makes sense to all use a single account sign on, though some of these online file storage services offer multiple-user plans. Hopefully this is a benefit to small businesses or small teams looking for a free or cheap solution to store your media and files online.

I’d love to hear your feedback. What online cloud storage solutions do you use? What features are you looking for?

The post 6 Best Free & Paid Online Media & File Cloud Storage by Pricing appeared first on Spark Up Arts.

From small businesses to large corporations, having a Facebook and Twitter account are staples of social media marketing. Yet it’s sometimes difficult to measure how effective your posts are, or see your growth. With Wildfire, you can track your Facebook followers, likes, and engagement percentage, along with your Twitter followers. Even better, you can track your competitors as well!

You’re either a small business owner who manages your own social media, or you’re the social media manager for your organization. You watch your follower count everyday. You post things on Facebook, and see your likes, comments, and shares go up. But comparatively, how good is it? How many likes should you be getting on a post? What about similar brands? It’s hard to tell.

Wild Fire by Google

As an independent contractor, small business owner, and employee for an organization, I’ve come across this wonderful FREE tool: Wildfire.

Wildfire is primarily a social media campaign manager – you pay them to help run social media contests and campaigns. I’ve never used that, so I can’t speak into it. But, with a free account, you can use their free monitor tool to track your social media progress. Plus they were recently acquired by Google, so you know there’s value in what they do.

Facebook Monitoring

Wild Fire pretty much grabs data from Facebook pages. For in-depth and detailed reports, use the Facebook Insights feature directly from in your Facebook brand page. But to get a good overview, use Wild Fire.

You can track 3 things: Likes (or fans), People Talking, and People Talking/Likes. You can track these for any amount of time, for any Facebook page. We’ll get to that in a minute.

Likes – The number of fans/likes you have for your page over time. Really useful to see when your spikes in new page likes are.

People Talking – The number of people that have interacted with your post by liking, commenting or sharing it.

People Talking / Likes – The percentage of people talking out of your total number of fans. This is most useful as you can measure the amount of engagement relative to the size of your fan base.

Twitter Monitoring

You can also monitor Twitter followers, but not Twitter engagement like tweets or retweets.

Comparing Social Media Performance with Other Brands

As mentioned earlier, the value in Wild Fire monitoring is being able to get an overview of measurable results. When looking at your own brands page performance, you can see the progress of your fan base and engagement over time, so you know IF certain posts/campaigns are effective, and by HOW MUCH. You’ll also see general trends or cycles over the course of a week, or around certain holidays.

Even more useful, though, is the ability to compare it with other brands simultaneously. How are other brands in your industry doing? What about brands with a similar fan base size? Or how good are the top brands doing, something for you to aspire to?

With comparisons, you get a more well-rounded view of your social media impact. You’re able to create and save comparisons multiple comparisons for continued use.

Hopefully this will be a helpful tool to help you get a better pulse on your social media marketing and be able to do it more effectively. And did I mention it was FREE? If you’ve used it, let us know what you think in the comments below. Also tell us what other tools you use to track your social media performance.

The post Best Tool to Measure Your Facebook & Twitter Marketing for Free appeared first on Spark Up Arts.

Have you ever struggled with getting documents signed? Physical papers make it difficult to pass back and forth, and also takes a long time. Sometimes it’s difficult to create signature spots in a Word or PDF Document, or try to get the signee that’s not so web savvy. And who does faxing anymore?

Add to this the challenge of getting multiple signees, or needing multiple people to sign the same document. In my experience with small business and nonprofits, I’ve had to get various signatures from volunteers, employees, and clients on various contracts, and it’s been a hassle trying to figure the best way and keep everything organized.

My discovery and solution? This great little company called SignNow. In brief, you can upload your PDF or Word documents, specify where on the document you want the recipient to fill in info or sign, then type in their email and send it. You get notified when they sign it, and copies are emailed to both of you. It’s easy, quick, and best of all, free!

Now here are some key features worth looking into:

1. Super Easy to Create and Use. Just create your document as you would normally for a paper contract. No need to create special fill-in text boxes. When you upload, you can draw in the boxes where you want them to sign.
2. Custom Signatures. Draw your signature with a mouse, type you name, or upload a pre-scanned image of your signature.
3. Online Storage and Tracking. Create a free account, and you can store all your documents online. Know which ones have been signed and which ones you’re stille waiting for. Remove them from the site at anytime. If you want to do one real quick, send it without registering.
4. Legally Binding. Any signature on SignNow carries the same legal weight as a paper signature.
5. Sign from Anywhere. SignNow has apps on iOS and Android, so you can use it on your iPhone, iPad or Android phone.
6. Paperless and Free. Done.

As a small business owner, this has become an essential tool for me, and I hope it helps you out too. Have any other document or signature tools you use for your small business? Please share!

All Documents Dashboard

Add text like name, date, position, title, etc..,

Add a signature – type it in, draw it with a mouse, or upload and store an existing one.

The post SignNow – Free Electronic Signatures Online appeared first on Spark Up Arts.

We just finished a website for My Living Walls, a company that specializes in vinyl wall art and decor. Have you ever wanted to decorate your home with designs and patterns, but didn’t have the time or skill to paint? Are you looking for a less permanent solution?

Vinyl art from My Living Walls allows you to easily add colorful designs of any kind to any wall in your your house. It’s a type of sticker that applies easily and seamlessly to any wall, with the option of removing it without any damage to the surface. With hundreds of designs to choose from in multiple colors and sizes, it’s the best option for adding lively designs to any living room or bedroom.

The My Living Walls website was built roughly within the time frame of 2 months, utilizing an advanced shopping system of nearly 500 products. The site owner has a the ability to add and edit his own products. In addition, Spark Up Arts also helped design and launch social media sites with initial marketing, namely from Facebook and Twitter.

Looking to have a custom online eCommerce store built for your company? Contact me!

The post New Website: My Living Walls – Vinyl Wall Art & Decor appeared first on Spark Up Arts.

It’s the New Year, a time for fresh starts on personal goals, relationships, habits, finances, business, etc. Have you ever thought of giving your work environment a fresh start? It could actually help you accomplish your other goals.

Whether you work from home or in an office, your desk is where you spend the majority of your day. Shouldn’t it be an environment that’s calm, practical, useful, and enjoyable? Many of us have gotten used to working from cluttered desks, and though it gives the illusion that you’re really busy and productive, the truth is that you probably waste a lot of time looking for stuff. In addition, clutter can also cause a lot of unconscious stress.

Here are a few tips to make your desk a professional and relaxing place to work. It’s time to zen up!

1. Simplify. Clear off anything you don’t use multiple times a day. Put it in a drawer or tray UNDER the desk. Yes, this includes papers, files, tape, CD’s, whatever. It’s not a big deal to pull open a drawer to get a stapler if you don’t use it all the time. The key here is simplicity. Keep the top of your desk as clean as possible, and this visual will help clear your mind.
2. Hide all the wires. Bundle them together and let them hang behind the desk and out of site.
3. Consolidate the mess. No post-it notes. No scattered papers. Get a cork board or dry erase board on a wall, and put all of your post-it’s and other random information there. If you have a bunch of papers, put them all in one paper tray.
4. Get some green. Plants help add color and life to your space. Go to your local Target/Walmart or Home Depot and pick up a small indoor plant that’s easy to maintain.
5. Make it personal. Add a picture of a loved one, a group of friends or family, or a memorable trip. Or maybe a small souvenir or sentimental item. But keep it to a minimum. This is where people tend to go overboard and have picture frames creating a wall around the edge of there desk. No more than 1 or 2.
6. Add some candles. Of course, if you’re in an office building that’s not really an option. But, if you work from home, it’s a nice calming touch. Especially if your work hours go late into the night.
7. Add a common theme to your design. If possible, when purchasing items for your desk, go with a common color, material, or style. For me, I like black metal. So for me my desk organizers are black metal wire mesh. My electronics (monitor, speakers, lamp) are either black or silver metal. My candle holders are black metal plates. I try to avoid plastic because it looks a little tacky. The compliment to that is is an earthy feel, so my lamp has a dried wood design, my plants are in clay pots, and I have burlap cloth coasters. Whatever your style is, whether it’s dark wood, brushed metal, glass, white plastic, bright red, etc… try to keep it consistent.

This is intended to just quickly clear up the clutter. Obviously, the next step would be to do the hard work of actually organizing the mess that you hid. Hope this is a helpful start to creating a more productive, relaxing and enjoying work place for 2012. Do you have any ideas for improving aesthetically improving your work environment? Post up links to pictures of your desk.

The post Give Your Work Environment a Fresh Start appeared first on Spark Up Arts.