I was recently connected with Ingrid Drago, owner of South Shore recruitment firm, ID Staffing Solutions who needed a simple website for her business.
I loved working with Ingrid because she is smart, has a great eye, and playful sense of humor. There are times during every project where you either need to laugh at your self or deserve to be laughed at, Ingrid was great at going with the flow, making suggestions and not afraid to share her opinions. I am sure it is those characteristics that make her such a valuable professional recruiter to her many corporate clients.
For ID Staffing Solutions website I used the SmallBiz theme for WordPress from Expand2Web. I choose the blank canvas layout (the SmallBiz theme has 14 layout options, including a responsive layout with a drag and drop widgetized homepage). I also used my CSS Tricks to Add Social Media Icons to the Navigation Bar and created a custom header.
If you are looking for professional employment in or around Boston or the South Shore, or if you are a company trying to fill a position with local talent. I highly suggest that you contact ID Staffing Solutions. Ingrid has been in the business for a long time and is a proven professional.
If you are looking for a website, well then please contact me.
A byline or author link for blog posts isn’t set up by default with the SmallBiz theme.
I think the byline is an important connection for your rel=author Google markup and if you have guest bloggers on your website it let’s the reader know right away who is writing the post.
You can place the code in one or two places, depending upon where you want the line to show:
Single.php (for individual posts – put the code beneath the title)
Posts.php (for the blog roll – put the code next to the date)
Copy this code and place it just after the title
<p>Written by: <?php the_author_link(); ?></p>
Those steps will just give you a byline. If you want that to link to your About page you need to go into your Dashboard ->Users ->Your Profile and in the bio box add the link. You can also use the Biographical Info space to link to Google+ or other places where you can be found on the web.
The great thing about working on a website for a wedding planner is that they really love to play with a look. Christine March, Toronto based wedding planner and I had a lot of fun working on colors for her recently launched website. She has a lovely designer who had given her a logo and from there we played around with a lot of schemes (we are both pretty visual and needed to see lots of options before we could commit). (more…)
A while back my friend Thomas, developer of the SmallBiz theme for WordPress told me that he was building a responsive theme. Because I love to be on trend I could not wait to get started with the theme and build a site, which I did for the Cherry Building in historic downtown New Bedford, MA.
The homepage has lots of flexibility for layouts, as it is all based on widgets. I had some really beautiful images (thank you to my photographer mother), so I really wanted to use those in a rotating slide show. I love using large rotating slides and back in the day I would have to login via FTP and modify the theme files if I wanted a slideshow this large. With the new responsive theme I don’t have to do any FTP work (which I know was daunting to some of you out there). (more…)
I was asked this question via email from a man in Sweden, so I figure it is worth a blog post: How do use an an image in the Feature Boxes of the SmallBiz theme for WordPress and have them link to a page on your website.
The Feature Boxes are the bottom three boxes that appear on your site, you may:
Disable them from showing on your site at all (as I did for Annie’s Custom Cookies website)
Use the default option from the SmallBiz Dashboard and link to three internal pages of your site (sample of one box is below).
Add images and make those link to pages within your site (as I have done on my homepage EileenLonergan.com
To link the images:
Upload the image to your media file
copy the url
go to the Widget area of your dashboard.
Look for Footer Left, Middle or Right and choose which box to want to start with
Drag over a text box
Add the following
<a href=”http://www.URL to the Page You Are Linking To . com”><img src=”http://www.The Image Link.png” alt=”Put in your ATL Tag” /></a>
If you have any questions on using the SmallBiz Theme or using WordPress, please feel free to give me a ring, 508.317.7355 or send me a note.
I connected with Shawn Romias, the owner of Sacramento CA window washing company Streakless Windows & Gutter Cleaning via my professional group Expand2Web Experts. Shawn bought the SmallBiz theme for WordPress with the plans of building his own site, yet quickly discovered that as simple as the theme is to use, he just didn’t have time for the learning curve. We had fun working together and my only regret is that he doesn’t live closer so this project could have been a trade deal! (more…)
On occasion my widgets just don’t have a wide enough image or space or something (see how Join Us and Stay Informed seem to just stack on top of one another without space for the FB icon). To give a little breathing room I insert a div code in the widget text area:
<div style=”height:60px;”>code for image</div>
Let me know if you have any troubles. Other posts on div codes that you may find helpful:
For this website for MA Education Consultant Stephanie Meegan, I used the SmallBiz Theme by Expand2Web. I used a few CSS customizations to give her WordPress website a very customized look:
One of my favorite layouts for the SmallBiz theme for WordPress is Cynthia. If I had a little more cache with the developers I would wish it were called the Eileen Layout! For the client Fourth Dimension Recovery we were going for a calm, clean look that was simple to navigate. To help with the symmetry of overall look I wanted the navigation menu to be spaced out a bit, not exactly aligned left.
To center the items in the navigation menu:
Login to your website
In the Dashboard look for Appearance
Editor
Place this code in the Style.CSS
#access li {padding-left: 70px;}
Note: adjust the 70 to best accommodate your navigation menu, it may need to be greater or less than what I used for 4D Recovery.
This is my blog, so I am using the venue to brag that not only do I have ONE Food Truck client that makes amazing cookies, but I now have TWO! What more could a cookie lover like me ask for?
I am delighted to share with you a site that I built for Boston’s soon to be most favorite food truck, The Cookie Monstah! The owner of the truck, Melissa, is a life long foodie and her passion is cookies. Melissa liked the site I built for my first food tuck client, the adorable Flour Girls Baking Co. (who covers from Providence through the Cape) and asked if I would build her website as well. Of course the answer was a joyful YES.
For both clients I used the SmallBiz theme from Expand2Web. The Cookie Monstah’s site is built with the Cynthia Layout, which is one of my favorites. We are still tweaking the look, but I love the name and the logo and wanted to share with all of you.
Oh, did I mention that I have a third client who also bakes custom cookies? I really am the luckiest WordPress web designer around.
I am now in the market for a personal trainer, if you are one, or know of one who needs a website will you have them give me a ring?
Recently I shared sites built with the All in One Layout using the SmallBiz theme for WordPress from Expand2Web. Today I am going old school and showing two examples using the Classic Layout. Both of these sites are fairly old, but I continue to get calls from potential clients telling me how much they like the looks.
I also used the Classic Layout for the Elizabeth Taber Library website, which actually is probably what Don Campbell envisioned for the theme, a nice photo showing your business, text and a widgetized sidebar. The theme has added a boat load of new features since these sites were built: mobile layouts, Facebook integration, not to mention simple things like adding a custom header or 6 page templates with custom widget areas.
You can see in the site for Lori Watkins, I decided not to use the footer boxes. This option is enabled or disabled with a one click. For Missy McInnis’ site, I used images that I created, but those could easily be text, say with a map to your location, sign up box for your newsletter, social media links, etc.
By using simple graphics and easy navigation these sites have stayed relevant and not needed make-overs which is helpful as both have limited budgets. I really like a clean look, and I think that they exemplify the themes name, Classic.
If you have built a site with the SmallBiz Theme’s Classic Layout let me know, or if you need help on deciding which layout to choose feel free to send me a note.
I have a pretty big portfolio of websites built with the SmallBiz theme for WordPress from Expand2Web. I thought it would be fun to organize them by layout and share pieces of my portfolio in a series of blog posts.
Today I am going to share examples of the All in One layout. I like this layout because I think videos are a terrific on a website. On my site I have a quick video of some of my WordPress website designs. On Dr. Greg Alston’s and C.O.R.E. Sacramento both clients used a video to explain their sites and my total favorite is a video of testimonials written by Dr. Matt Lyon’s clients. I like the flexibility of the tree boxes at the bottom of the homepage. You can customize these boxes with text, images, call to action fields, or links to social media. With a little CSS knowledge you can adjust the size of the boxes to accommodate your needs.
Of course each layout comes with all of the terrific features from the SmallBiz theme. See more WordPress websites designed with the SmallBiz theme or visit my portfolio to see a full gallery of work WordPress websites. Here are samples of the SmallBiz theme Classic Layout.
Feel free to be in touch if you need help building your business website or if you need help customizing the SmallBiz theme to suit your needs.
A very big thank you to everyone for so many comments, Likes, Tweets and +1′s! This was a lot of fun for us. Many said that they had already tried the Small Business theme and loved it, thank you! Some of you were looking for advice on design, please always feel free to email any one of for help. For those of you who are considering buying the theme, we encourage you!
The guys at SmallBiz will send you a copy of their WordPress theme, which is designed for the Small Business owner! It is a proven winner with search engine optimization, has 11 different layout options and has built in Apps for creating a customized integrated Facebook mini website and a mobile version of your website.
The Divas will give you a consultation (via Skype) to teach you about their favorite business Apps and offer advice for your digital presence.
I will give you two one hour Skype sessions on customizing the SmallBiz theme!
We are all passionate about small businesses and are here to help you make your digital presence as terrific as you are, here are the details:
In order to be eligible for the gift package we ask that you leave a comment on any one of our blogs (Expand2Web or DivasMobileSolutions or right here on mine)
We would love for you to Like, Tweet or Plus One this blog post, but it isn’t a requirement
Winner will be randomly selected from those who comment.
Winner will be selected on Friday afternoon, May 25th, 2012.
My favorite thing about the site is the great videos that Bill Gurney created with his iPad. The visuals are great, the music is familiar and attention grabbing and they have a sense of humor. Bill has worked in automation engineering for his entire career, and wanted a site that would encourage networking and highlight sales and marketing tips curated throughout his career.
One tip that I wanted to share with you from creating this site is how to align text around videos. You toggle to html and add this div code before the video code:
<div style=”padding-left: 10px; float: right;”> THEN POST THE VIDEO CODE </div> If you want the text to show on the right side of the video use: <div style=”padding-right: 10px; float: left;”> CODE </div>
I was delighted when Dr. Matt Lyon of Network Wellness Charlotte asked me to work on the redesign of his website. Dr. Lyon is a Chiropractor with a cult like following of clients that range from Olympic athletes to parents of children with ADHD to regular folks with chronic back or neck pain. Our goal was to update his Thesis themed site to one that used the SmallBiz Theme. We had a really cool testimonials video created to put on his homepage (All in One Layout) and check out his testimonials page! I used lots of div codes to create the stripes, I did a tutorial on how to create call out boxes a while back which you may find helpful.
If you are looking for a Chiropractic website or would like to learn more about WordPress, please feel free to give me a ring!
A byline or author link for blog posts isn’t set up by default with the SmallBiz theme.
The great thing about working on a website for a wedding planner is that they really love to play with a look. Christine March, 
Add images and make those link to pages within your site (as I have done on my homepage 
On occasion my widgets just don’t have a wide enough image or space or something (see how Join Us and Stay Informed seem to just stack on top of one another without space for the FB icon). To give a little breathing room I insert a div code in the widget text area:
eileen@eileenlonergan.com