We’ve just installed a new WordPress blog for our existing client, Greenstar Concepts! Visit the Greenstar Concepts Blog to see their WordPress website. Basically, Brian (President/CEO) wanted to use an existing template that closely matched the look and feel of the existing company website. That’s when he called us! We used our resources to find a suitable theme, which helped to reduce the overall time and cost of the website.

Thanks again to Brian for choosing CrazyWebFoo Design as Greenstar Concepts’ web design company.  We look forward to increased search engine visibility (e.g. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)) thanks to keyword specific content. Visit Greenstar Concepts for your landscaping projects in the Boynton Beach and Fort Lauderdale areas.

We chatted about her needs for a business card during her most recent visit to the states. Creating an interesting business card helps you promote yourself and your service to potential clients. Plus, I always enjoy business card design, as it’s quite different from the technological ideas of website design.

So, upon her return, we had just 48-hours to deliver the finished business card design to her local printer. Ultimately she was quite happy with the overall look and impression of her card! If you like dance, or burlesque dancing specifically, become a friend of Kitty d’Amour on Facebook.

I recently read a web article and was inspired to create this awesome Epic 80′s style logo.  I grew up playing with the original Transformers so this logo was lots of fun to create! Read the entire article to see how to create one for yourself.  Thanks to the guys at the Spoon Graphics Blog (http://www.blog.spoongraphics.co.uk/tutorials/recreate-the-epic-80s-metal-text-effect-in-photoshop)

WordPress 3.0 brings a cool new feature to the plate: Menu Management. Now, from within the WordPress Dashboard, administrators can create dynamic menus with images. This removes some of the burden from web designers and allows WordPress clients a certain level of autonomy while managing their blog.

Click on the image above to see an example. To add an image to a menu item just specify a class. Then, from your css file, you can include the background image. Voila!

Start simple. Pick 3 favorites. That’s it! Now, join each community, and pay close attention to how expertly the developers and designers guide you through the system.  The data acquisition has begun and the intelligent relationships are being plotted in the underlying RDBMS systems.

A relational database management system (RDBMS) is a database management system (DBMS) that is based on the relational model as introduced by E. F. Codd. Most popular commercial and open source databases currently in use are based on the relational model.  [source link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relational_database_management_system]

This is the part that gets me excited!  Today’s smart systems intelligently deduce relationships based on advanced database algorithms and human decision molding logic.  Developers simply work that system.  Often times pushing the limits of the hardware.  We pound the processor looking to extract meaning and relationships.  That is the essence of social media, and with the proliferation of netbooks and smart phones, expect to remain fully connected going forward.

Now, we turn our focus back onto you, and begin to guide you through your new world.  We introduce you to features that will ultimately define the role of social media for you. Do you want to stay in touch with friends and family (Facebook)? Alternatively, you could introduce yourself to your professional peers with a site that leans more towards career networking (LinkedIn). Not big on commitment but willing to test the waters? Try Twitter. It’s an elegantly simple microblogging system that allows you creative expression 140 characters at a time. Ultimately, you have 3 very different social media sites, all of which provide a distinctive role in the expression of information.

So, what do you think? What are some of your favorite social media sites? I’ve been using Shareaholic and StumbleUpon as part of my daily ‘info sharing’ repertoire. Good tools are nice.  Great tools are just better!  Deliver me a tool that increases my productivity, marketing effectiveness, and approachability and I will say “thank you, kind sir!”

Then we can initiate the top-secret nerd handshake sequence protocal, remotely via our smart phones.

CrazyWebFoo Design | Preview

Lately I work directly online with clients. I have setup a special preview sub domain on my website. This allows me to FTP updates at the end of each work day. The client receives an email link that they can click on to visit this area of the site. By doing this they can always see the latest progress on their site. This eliminates the chance that a file may not make it through the email or antivirus program.

For security purposed I can easily add user authentication and password protection for the directory. Also, clients get continual live updates, and they also have the opportunity to collaborate online while they see the changes made to the site. Of course having the site setup this way allows for effortless transfer to the final domain name (www.yourdomainnamehere.com). There are many positives to this type of setup.

So how do you review design updates with your clients? Do you send files or review online updates? Leave us a comment by clicking ‘Post a new comment’ below this post.

Greenstar Concepts takes a different approach to landscape and tree care.
Fundamental company principals include selecting the right plant and tree for the right environment, designing for lower maintenance and working with Mother Nature instead of against it. By doing this, we all will reduce fertilizer and pesticide use and decrease our impact on the earth.

We realize that landscaping is like art, everyone has different preferences and beauty is in the eye of the beholder. If you need a consultant to give you a yard with an expansive thick lawn, a bunch of exotic palms and boxed-off formal hedges then you are probably looking in the wrong place. No offense intended, that just isn’t what we provide. Greenstar Concepts specializes in canopy trees and native shrubs that require minimal trimming.

To design and build the site we started by looking at pre-built templates. Brian narrowed his decision to an environmentally friendly theme from Theme Forest. I purchased the template and began work on modifying and designing the site. I’ve found that I can save a huge amount of time by purchasing pre-designed shells like this one. Of course, I take care not to claim design credit on the site, because plagiary is not cool.

Brian also wanted a custom logo design that complimented his company’s image. We described the logo design in a previous post (Greenstar Concepts Logo). By combining the color elements of the site design into the logo the two blended together seamlessly.

We published the site after going through several change requests. Changes are expected when designing a site so we made sure to follow up with the requests in a timely manner. By having the site setup in a special clients-only preview area of our site we were able to instantly share the updates with Brian. We actually had several long phone conversations where we updated the site as he watched. This method of updating and interaction with the client greatly speeds up the entire process.

The next step was to submit the site to search engines. This process is more formerly known as Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Basically, we tell Google about the site, and provide the technical details in order for them to analyze the domain. We also added the site to our Google Analytics (see our post on Google Analytics) account so we could monitor visitor traffic patterns. We also submitted the site to several social networking sites (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon, Digg).

Finally, Brian sent us a kind testimonial that we added to our site. Testimonials provide excellent customer feedback and give potential clients an idea as to how we treat our existing clients.

Screen capture of real analytics results.

This is what Google has to say about their product (source: http://www.google.com/analytics/)

Google Analytics is the enterprise-class web analytics solution that gives you rich insights into your website traffic and marketing effectiveness. Powerful, flexible and easy-to-use features now let you see and analyze your traffic data in an entirely new way. With Google Analytics, you’re more prepared to write better-targeted ads, strengthen your marketing initiatives and create higher converting websites.

I use analytics to determine visitor browsing patterns on all of the sites I create. The reports help me understand which pages draw in the most traffic. Also, I can see what site referred that traffic (i.e. Search Engine, Facebook, Twitter). So, instead of wondering if people are visiting my pages, I can see actual data that not only shows the basic information, but also lets me see where in the world my visitors reside, what operating system they run, which browser they used, and so much more.

Ask your web designer or web host about Google Analytics. It is provided 100% free of charge to anyone with a Google account (which is also free). You’ll want to be sure to have the scripting solution installed and available on all of your site’s pages. You will be better informed about many facets of your site’s traffic flow as a result! To see all of the features visit http://www.google.com/analytics/features.html.