Well, not in the order in which I have been working lately, but last week I became the new home to HomeBusinessTaxSavings.com. 

With tax season upon us, I thought that it was more timely to share this as a prime example of WordPress as a 'website' as well as a valuable resource for those of you who are self employed.

I customized the Studiopress Premium WordPress 'Lifestyle' theme with Ron's existing banner and color scheme and plugged in a dynamic content area with rotating 'special offers.'

Ron's assistant Lisa gave me his 'Home Business Tax Savings Made Easy' book which actually was quite good (and of course a necessary tool for me  <grin>).  His site has an excellent Resource center of free information as well as some products to help you manage your taxes and related matters.

Ron explains the US tax laws in plain English for home-based business owners. His material isn't about loopholes or hiding income, it is strictly about understanding how to keep your income in accordance with the way the government planned (and then proceeded to confuse us) in government-speak so we can't actually use this information without an accountant.

Andrea Walford’s Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator resource site DemoToDemo.com has undergone a transformation…

DemoToDemo.com is now a WordPress ‘magazine style’ content management system.  Not only is this much easier to maintain than the HTML site that I created for her in ’08, the entire thing is actually a blog but the content is delivered to look like a website.

Unlike her old site, she now has an RSS feed and you can click on and subscribe (even by email).  That way when she has a new planner to announce, you can get notification of the post via email (or feed) and the ‘post’ itself becomes the latest listing in the ‘Category’ header in a structure not unlike a page.

Andrea had wanted a change and so several months ago, had her banner redesigned by Michelle Laycock along with an entire matching ensemble that Michelle did for her (Twitter, etc.).  However, she wasn’t decisive about what she wanted for final layout for the new DemoToDemo.com.   Fate took that out of her hands when Frontpage Extensions on her site got corrupted last week and she was no longer able to update her site the way she was used to.

Not wanting to learn a new web authoring software, I brought her to the ‘dark side’ and into WordPress.  This site is a bit more sophisticated than the custom theme I created for her at AndreaWalford.com, but just as easy to take care of. 

Where have I been?  I’ve been busy!

I designed this site for Tamye Dunbar with matching buttons (and a matching downline password protected site) just last week.  This was a design that was conceived entirely in Photoshop, while I was looking to take a header ‘out of the box’ of the usual rectangle banner.

I designed the site layout in Photoshop CS3 and rendered it to pieces (header and background) that I brought back together in a custom coded WordPress theme.  So, while it doesn’t look ‘out of the box,’ the header actually is a large rectangle that I lined up with the background to appear to be one big piece. This site is so ‘brand new’ she has not really begun blogging yet!  

This replaced the HMTL website that I designed for her several years ago… it is easier to keep in touch with both your customers and downline in the format of articles that come to their inbox! As part of my ‘full service’ site design, I set up her pages which include an ‘Events’ page (which in this case redirects to her DBWS calendar), a recruiting page (again, links back to sign up online), a Specials page and a ‘spam and robot free’ Contact Form. 

I added all the promotional ‘widgets’ and since she is a full service customer, I will be maintaining her specials page and sidebar.  She has all the usual lineup of plugins for SEO, a Feedburner feed and a ‘souped up’ post and page editor that will easily import photos and documents for faster posting. I know that using Stampin’ Up’s My Digital Studio (MDS) is getting more popular by the day and gals want to have their blogs reflect their own unique banner and background. 

Contact me regarding a custom theme (2 or 3 column) with your designed banner and background… are you an MDS superwoman… you’ll be surprised to see how fast I can get you online with a privately hosted WordPress blog with your banner!  Read more about that  here.

Chad Faris has a WordPress ‘website’ with blog!  And, in case you missed the memo, WordPress isn’t just for ‘blogs’ it is a complete ‘content management system.’

Chad’s ‘home’ page has a ‘side’ navigation panel that features descriptions with links well as simple (traditional) top navigation bar.  There are also three ‘featured’ areas at the bottom that direct you to other pages on his site.

This layout combines to give a ‘website’ look and feel BUT is configured for an RSS feed for the pages and the posts.

For the ‘look,’ I created a montage of photos to highlight his areas of expertise and ‘socialized’ him with links to his social media sites.  His Twitter feed (or latest Twitter post) is streamed through the main page as well.  Michelle Laycock worked her magic on a logo banner (plus business cards, etc.) for him, using his site’s ‘colors’ (black and hunter green).

He still isn’t using his blog yet… but the blog ‘page’ is purely an option that can be turned on or off easily.   Since his site is more ‘page’ driven, I have configured PAGES in his RSS feed (hmmm… can your Typepad do that?  I think not… .

As is standard these days, I have included a ‘sitemaps.org compatible’ sitemap of his blog (which is supported by Ask.com, Google, MSN Search and YAHOO) and submitted it to his Google ‘Webmaster Tools’ account for statistic monitoring.

That and the All-In-1 SEO plugin, he’s ready for the world!

I’ve decided to share (show off) sites that I have recently finished that are exclusively my work.

Shannon Bruce is a is a Professional Certified Life Coach, Speaker and Certified Personality Trainer… and now has her own WordPress blog!

She has branded herself at www.ShannonBruce.com and I’ve integrated links to her social media, newsletter opt in, and her website.

I created an ‘out of the box’ banner with warm fall colors and leaves that are something of a ‘trademark’ for her.

Go visit Shannon and get some uplifting insight.  Good luck Shannon!