Barrels of Fun Blog Post

The e-commerce portion of the site is powered by Zen Cart, an application with a large established community of supportive users. It is an excellent choice for organizations looking for an affordable e-commerce option. Static web pages and blog posts use WordPress and the Thesis framework. Simplified search engine optimization (SEO) is an important feature of the Thesis framework. Carefully crafted and hand-coded CSS was developed to match color scheme, layout, text, and other elements of the two applications, WordPress and Zen Cart, to give the Barrels of Fun web site a consistent graphic look.

The integrated blogging capabilities on the site make it possible for Barrels of Fun staff to write blog posts about their new product offerings and gift ideas on a regular basis. Informational pages on the WordPress portion of the web site have links directly to product pages in the store to encourage click-through to product pages.

CANEpress.org Blog Page

What is a blog? A blog, short for web log, is a web site with entries posted in reverse chronological order, so that the most recent entry is shown at the top of the web page.  Blogs started as online diaries, evolved into sites providing commentary and news on a variety of subjects, and now have become an indispensable marketing and sales tool for businesses.

Having a blog as component of your site is an excellent way to drive more, and better qualified, traffic to your web site. Write informative posts about topics that are important in your area of specialization or industry and you are more likely to attract visits from people with similar interests and potential customers. Use your blog to educate customers about your products and services, become known as an expert in your field, and increase sales.

Tavdi.com

While many blogs are primarily textual, graphics, photographs and videos can easily be incorporated in a blog post. Besides providing visual interest to your blog, you can use photos to introduce a new staff member, or draw attention to a featured  product.  Include a video to demonstrate a procedure or provide an online tutorial. Frequent blog posts can be much more interesting than static news article on your company home page and will get attention from search engines.

You can create a loyal community of users who will revisit your site regularly for updates if you decide to let your visitors post their comments and interact with each other under each article you write. However, there is a significant time commitment involved in screening and responding to comments so adding this feature is entirely optional.

Candlewick Inn

There are several free blogging web sites available including WordPress.com, Blogger.com, and LiveJournal, but it is far better to add a blog to your existing web site instead of using the free blogging sites. A blog that is integrated into your web site can be designed to maintain a consistent graphic appearance with the rest of your web site and reinforce your corporate identity. In addition, options and “plugin” applications can be incorporated into your blog to extend its functionality if it is an integral part of your web site.

The  blog software we install is free and has an easy-to-use interface that even non-technical company personnel can use to write new posts and publish them to the web. There will be no need to wait  for your webmaster or an outside firm to update your web site.

We have recently set up blogging web sites for CANEpress.com, Tavdi.com, and CandlewickInn.net. We would be happy to talk with you about adding a blog to your web site, too!

The Inn’s existing web site had been online for several years and the design really needed an updated look. In addition, the Inn’s proprietor wanted to be able to add information about upcoming events, classes and special B&B rate packages herself.

The new design for the Candlewick Inn site utilizes WordPress and the Thesis theme. The user-friendly WordPress dashboard interface makes it possible for Candlewick Inn’s proprietor to write blog posts and publish them as an integral part of the Inn’s web site. Updates to web pages on the site are made using the same interface, and the Thesis theme provides easy-to-use search engine optimization (SEO) features.

The current web site DrScott.com is designed to function as an Internet community for the support of husbands, wives and families, as well as a source of information about Dr. Haltzman and his three books. It includes:

• Links to Articles that Dr. Haltzman has Written
  (and articles in which he has been featured or quoted)
• Television and Radio Show Links
• Twitter Widget for Current Tweets
• Message Boards / User Forum
• Upcoming Events and Resource Links Pages
• Bio, Books, Blog and Contact Information Pages

For over 20 years Nuance Gifts had a brick and mortar retail gift store at 300 County Road in Barrington, Rhode Island. And for the past 10 years they have also had an online store using proprietary shopping cart software that Growing Minds, Inc. developed for them.

When Nuance Gifts decided to close their brick and mortar store and focus their efforts exclusively on their online store, it was time to re-evaluate the shopping cart software they would be using going forward. After consulting with them about their plans for NuanceGifts.com, Growing Minds recommended moving to Zen Cart™ a free, open source shopping cart solution.

Growing Minds set up ZenCart, designed the new look for the NuanceGifts.com store, and trained their staff in using ZenCart. The software is user-friendly so the folks at Nuance can set up their products, upload photos, and handle all of the day to day store functions themselves.

The NuanceGifts.com online store carries current and retired collectibles by major holiday manufacturers, Department 56 and Byers Choice. They also have many exclusive designs in stock. Take a look. They might have the special gift that you need for someone on your holiday shopping list!

Growing Minds has set up several ZenCart-powered stores for our customers. If you are looking for an e-commerce solution for your web site contact us. We’d be happy to help you determine what the best e-commerce solution would be for your business.

GRCNE Toon Girl

Growing Minds recently completed a web site redesign for  the Gifted Resource Center of New England which is located in Providence, RI. The new site details services offered at the GRCNE, features articles by Deirdre V. Lovecky, Ph.D., and provides links and resources for the parents of gifted children, as well as for the children themselves.

The new site design is based on a 960 grid system, which streamlines web development workflow by providing commonly used dimensions, based on a width of 960 pixels. There are two variants, 12 and 16 columns; we used the 12 column version for this site.

Since the GRCNE provides services to gifted children and their families we developed a “family friendly” look and feel for the site. The color scheme is bright and cheerful, with a playful header produced with Adobe Flash with Actionscript 3.0, and colorful cartoon illustrations of children sprinkled here and there around the site. The cartoon illustrations were created in 3D with Poser from Smith Micro using Art Materials’ specialized toon shaders. Pre and post production work was done in Photoshop. The CSS was customized for the fonts on the site, and search engine optimization (SEO) was an important consideration in the redesign.