Marj has a lot of knowledge about Wordpress, themes and plug ins and when she doesn’t have an immediate solution for my website questions, she does the research and comes back with a solution every time.

Along the way, Marj has also done a great job of educating me how to maintain my Wordpress sites and make some changes on my own. And she has taught me about some cool online tools and SEO tactics as well.

If you are looking for a knowledgable and friendly Wordpress expert, who offers her service at a reasonable price, I recommend Marj Wyatt of VirtuallyMarj.com.

Nita Gill
VegetableFruitCarving.com
VegetableFruitCarving.com Blog
VegetableFruitCarving.com Members

Vegetable Fruit Carving Sales Site

Vegetable Fruit Carving Blog

Wordpress Website Design Overview

Nita Gill and I met at the Kennedy Glazer San Diego Chapter meeting in late October, 2009. She approached me with interest in learning more about my services and style. At that time, she was not ready to begin her project but, when she had completed the marketing plan, we got to work.

The first project was to help her with a wordpress website design for her new blog. I helped her learn the Wordpress ropes, and how to optimize her posts for better SEO.

Nita returned a couple months later with a larger project, which was to migrate her static sales page to a Wordpress Website and create a membership site for her products.

Perhaps the biggest technical challenge with the mid-year project was determining the best method to use to serve up videos to her members. We worked together to determine the best method of video production and what players and plugins to use on her site that would give her control over poster images and player control styles.

We used the Wishlist Member Plugin to secure her content. I assisted Nita with determining an overall architecture for her site and how to name the categories for search engine optimization.

The major contribution, aside from normal coaching that goes along with every project, was to educate Nita in the use of her wordpress software. To allow her to become self-sufficient, I created a dozen specialized training videos for her future reference.

Have a look at her sites. Not only are they well designed and functional, she has an awesome product and is a skilled vegetable and fruit carver. Her creations are utterly beautiful!

Service Category: Graphic/Web Designer
Year first hired: 2009 (hired more than once)
Top Qualities: Great Results, Expert, Good Value

Jeffrey Howard
CEO, Winning Sales Habits
MyDailySalesCoach.com
DailySalesCoach.com
MonkeyTraps.com

Project Details

Jeff Howard and I met at the end of 2008 when I responded to a Craig’s List posting.  Our styles meshed nicely and, since he first decided to work with me, our professional relationship has flourished.

Our most recent endeavor was to build a sales funnel for a membership site concept that Jeff had in his mind.  The sales page was developed using a premium Sales Letter Theme for use in promoting sales through Event Brite.  For the membership site, we used the Studio Press Corporate theme.  We are protecting content with the Wishlist Member Plugin.

After launching the site, we noticed some performance issues with the site.  Although it is streaming its own videos, the site speed was a problem for Jeff’s members so we began to discuss switching hosting services.  I helped Jeff to quickly determine that his long-term hosting provider, Network Solutions, was the fly in the ointment by setting up his content on A2 Hosting and Just Host for comparison.  Each alternate service delivered the site at lightening speed, by comparison to Network Solutions.  Jeff chose to port his sites to A2 Hosting because they more readily offer telephone support, even though their pricing was a little higher than Just Host.

Jeff has put me on contract for the long term by agreeing to a monthly retainer fee.  He understands that it is more important for him to work with his core competency of Sales Performance Training than it is for him to do Wordpress Website Development.

Marj has listened to my general and sometimes vague ideas of what I want my sites to look like and how I want them to function and artfully crafted a plan to try to meet my desires while at the same time giving me guidance on the realities of how the sites can function.

I feel she has gone above and beyond the call of duty on each and every project. She has under promised and over delivered each time.

Art Sandridge
Construction Solutions-Midwest, LLC
Madison, WI

Project Details

When Art Sandridge and I first began to work together, he was trying to find his way through the Internet Marketing Maze.  As we talked, I asked him why he was not more focused on his primary business of Commercial Construction.  At that time, he felt that there were better opportunities online.

After several months of pursuing the dream, Art returned and informed me he had decided to stop joining business opportunities and put up a website to promote his brick and mortar business.  He had begun the site on his own but, after a brief conversation, he hired me to help him finish up the site.

The project entailed recreating the company logo, styling the Studio Press Corporate Theme to his tastes, setting up the NextGen plugin to promote his projects, and creating several custom videos for Art to reference so he could update and maintain his own site.

Jerry Leventer for LeventhalSternArt.com

This project was commissioned after the Artist died. Her husband wanted to have a site that promoted the artwork and sustained the spirit of his deceased wife.

A minimalistic theme was requested. The PhotoNexus theme was highly customized to allow for text and comments on posts, as well as to display thumbnails with the category list. The overall effect of the new site, hosted on Wordpress, permits a visitor to easily browse artwork by type and study the images.

Virtually Marj. Wordpress developer extraordinaire.

We love Virtually Marj for the following reasons:

• She knows her stuff
• She delivers exactly what she promises on time.
• She is a human being.

Marj has the perfect combination of extensive technical know how (we know this because sometimes she tells us stuff and we don’t really know what she is talking about) and common sensibility (she will then realize that we don’t understand her and translate into laymen’s terms). In this particualr case the translation was: Network Solutions screwed up your website. Bad.

We put our baby in Marj’s hands and she took tender loving care of MothersofBrothers in record time. She found our back up and recreated the site at godaddy.com. She changed our emails and our domain. And we didn’t lose a thing. Our baby is healthy again and we have Marj to thank for it. We are kinda in love with her.

It is hard to ever truly repay the person who brought your child back from the brink of death, but in that spirit: If you EVER need web development services — especially with Wordpress — YOU MUST USE VIRTUALLY MARJ.

With our new hosting provider and Virtually Marj by our side, there is nothing we can’t do. Thank you for your patience and prayers during this difficult time. And thank you to the Universe for Virtually Marj.

Emily and Jennifer
MothersofBrothers.com

I have used Marj’s services twice now and talked with her on several occasions. Marj is very knowledgeable on how to build a website and upload information or plug ins to your website. Her service is excellent and she is very fast and efficient. She truly is a delight to work with and knows how to “fix about anything” my website needs. Hooray! That is not my strength!

Get in touch with her if you have any needs for your website. She is certainly very capable and delighted to do the job for you!!! Her prices are very reasonable as well. She delivers plenty for the amount she charges.

If you are lucky, she might even sing for you! She has a beautiful voice!!!

Sincerely,
Hollye Clardy

http://naturalremedies4dogs.com

MLM-theWholeTruth.com

Also, of huge benefit to me, was the fact that Marj Speaks English (her 1st language), writes it well, and is available by phone in the U.S.

I certainly intend to work with her long-term.

Lou Abbott
Founder of MLM-theWholeTruth.com

      Web Designers are not mind readers.  During an initial interview, a developer may ask questions that make no sense to you but they are trying to scope the effort.  A good developer can advise you and make your concept better but they can’t make it up.  Put your ideas into writing so everyone is on the same page.  A website designer needs samples of sites that you’ve been attracted to or some sort of wireframe layout to start with.  Color choices matter so it helps to have some ideas about the colors that appeal to you, or a feeling you want the website to convey, so the designer can create a palette.

2)  Stick to the scope that you have defined
     
      Website development is a process and not an event.  When you ask a designer to create a graphic for your page banner, don’t expect them to re-work it infinitely at the same price.  If your website developer agrees to port content for you, don’t keep looking for more content and adding it to the list without expecting a push back.  If you’ve picked a template that has features you say you like, please don’t “change your mind” and ask the developer to re-engineer the website without offering them additional compensation for their time.

3)  Stick to your area of expertise

     You hired the developer because you didn’t have the technical expertise to do what you need to have done, right?  If you don’t understand why something is a certain way ask, by all means.  But phrase your question as a question and avoid words like “usually” or similar terms that have potential to set a confrontational stage.  If the developer has a rational explanation for the behavior on the site, appreciate the time they have taken to explain it to you. 

4)  Price negotiation
   
     Promising future work or referrals that you don’t plan to deliver so you can get a discount on your project is not ethical behavior.  Self-employed people rely on referral business or future projects and will sometimes bend their pricing rules for the opportunity to have that.  It is dishonest to say that you’ll deliver something you have no plans to deliver.  How would you feel if the developer took payment for work they did not do?

5)  The Past is Irrelevant

     If you feel you’ve been snookered by a developer in the past, don’t continue to remind your current developer about the money you have already spent when there is still development to complete.  The work left to do must be done and it is not the developer’s responsibility to ease your budgetary woes for bad decisions you’ve made in the past.  If you inform them that something is 90% complete and they let you know it is not, you need to believe them.   Also, don’t try to get them to fix a price before they understand what is left to do and expect to pay for the research time.  You don’t work for free, do you?  Why should a technical expert?

6)  Project Initiation

      When you inform a website developer you will be using their services on a project, be clear about when you want it to begin.  Freelancers may appear to have free time but they really don’t and they accept or reject projects that will inhibit the delivery of yours, or they may even hire staff to work on your project if they feel you have an agreement.  If you expect delivery by a certain date and delay the initiation of the project, don’t expect miracles.  They schedule their workload just like you schedule your meetings and they factor that workload in when they provide estimates and proposals.  If you delay the project, the delivery of your site will also be delayed and this is NOT the developer’s fault.

7)  And if the developer is a friend of yours

     Don’t continue to ask them “quick questions” that take hours from their working days.   If they give of their time freely and it affects commitments they have made to others, the least you can do is offer to buy them a Starbuck’s.  The best thing you can do is send them referrals!

You’re right, I think the effort upfront to identify and fix bugs has made this a really easy upgrade. You instructions for excluding pages were good, thanks.

I also wanted to compliment you on your code. It’s very well laid out, and extremely easy for me to read and work with. Thank you for doing such a good job on that! I’m really excited to have such a clean theme to start with. You made it easy for me to take care of some of the tiny design tweaks myself.

Vanessa Law
http://crossdresserheaven.com