Hillary knew just what photo she wanted for her website’s banner, but needed a little help tweaking it to get just the right feeling. After correcting color balance and running a watercolor filter, it was time to add the website’s title in complementary tones.

Hend wanted to keep her current site design, but have something that was easy to update. I converted her existing layout into WordPress templates and set up galleries to showcase her art.

The Boundary Waters Experience needed a fresh, new site that showcased their videos and extensive info, while incorporating the look of their new marketing materials. We went with a WordPress site because it makes it easy for BWX to update pages and add photos from anywhere.

Harmony Park needed a vibrant, exciting site that captured the feel of the music festivals held there every summer. Rotating Flash images on the home page keep things fresh.

blah

When you’re picking a domain for your site, there are several things to keep in mind. Is it easy to remember? Is it short? Does it end in .com?

.com, .net, .org, .us?

Which should you pick for your website? Unless you are a non-profit organization, I recommend choosing a .com name. You may have to work a bit harder to find a URL that is still available, but I think it will pay off in the long run. I’ve run into far too many people who just assume that any URL they hear automatically ends in .com. If yours doesn’t, they may either add .com to the end of it (like www.example.org.com) or just change it to the .com (www.example.com), taking them to a completely different site. Neither is a good result.

A reliable, reasonably-priced host is worth their weight in gold.

That’s why I suggest my clients host with Pair.com. I’ve been using them for years and have found their service to be the best I’ve tried. My site is always online and loads quickly, email comes through properly, and their price is competitive. I know there are other good companies out there, but I’ve learned that I can only recommend somebody I’ve used myself. If I won’t trust my own site to them, why should you?

There are still a few quirks that I’m figuring out, but I think this will be a new direction for my design services. It’s a little more work for me in the beginning, but I think it will make for happier clients in the long run.