Blog

Learn about best practices, get how-to’s and more for Social Media, Marketing and Web Design from Digital-Melissa. Plus an occasional article about pet care and training, and even some favorite recipes.

Local Resources

Below are a list of some favorite and recommend local Rhinelander, WI, resources.

Jodi’s Fitness

Jodi is a great friend of mine who does personal training. She is amazing, and was also kind enough to let me work on her website for her. We had a lot of fun doing it, and you can read about that adventure in this blog post. If you are looking for a personal trainer, I recommend her. You can do in-person training or totally online! So you don’t have to be in the Rhinelander, WI area. Check her out at JodisFitness.com

Bath and Body Creations Inspired by Jan

Michelle, the owner of Bath and Body Creations Inspired by Jan, is a former coworker of mine. She did a lot of research on all the “things” we put on and into our bodies after her mother’s battle with cancer. Michelle became hugely passionate about natural, healthy and handmade personal care items. No chemicals! And the result of this is her lovely shop in downtown Rhinelander, WI. There are lotions, soaps, makeup and many other wonderful items for yourself or gifts. I personally am addicted to her soaps, laundry soap, air fresheners, dog paw pad wax, and most recently her hand sanitizer. You can add any scent available to all the items! And on top of all these great products, she has a great little coffee shop in the back. Be sure to check it out – you can order her products online as well.

Tilly’s

Tilly’s is a (newer) coffee shop in downtown Rhinelander, WI. They serve all sorts of coffees, teas and also breakfast and lunch. Their food is organic, fresh and local as much as possible. I LOVE going to eat here, and the coffee is always excellent. The other thing I like about Tilly’s is that they were able to take this run-down, dilapidated old building and create something beautiful and MODERN. Go visit next time you are in town.

Backwaters Bar & Grill

The Backwaters Bar and Grill in Rhinelander, WI is a real hidden local gem! It has an amazing water view you will not find anywhere else in the Rhinelander area. A complete must-see. And not only that, but the service is great and food fantastic. The Backwaters is located a few miles outside of Rhinelander, but the scenic (and quick) drive is well worth it. Personally, I love that they have an online order form which makes ordering and pickup very simple. They have a lot of your traditional northwoods favorites such as ribs, fish fry and steak & shrimp. But they also have a favorite, Broasted Chicken, which is such a great solution for busy families. Saturday they have been featuring a Broasted Pork Chop! It is delicious. If you are lucky, you may even get a perfectly wonderful brownie with your meal. Be sure to check them out.

Shopify Site Setup for UniqueCherie

Unique Cherie

When an opportunity to help an artisan jewelry maker set up a new website came to me, I jumped at it. First of all, how fun to work with some beautiful images of amazing one-of-a-kind jewelry? Second, to delve into Shopify and learn how it works. I was familiar with Shopify but had never spent any time working in it specifically.

Cherie, of Unique Cherie artisan jewelry, was looking to move her current Etsy shop to Shopify so that she had more control over the site and sales of her products. She wanted help doing the initial setup, and then to be able to maintain the site on her own. I LOVE to help business owners be able to control their own website! For some business owners, being able to update their site and add products on their own is best. But a little help getting started is necessary, and of course, I am always ready to lend a hand in the future.

Cherie and I are in opposite ends of the US – she is in Florida, I am in Wisconsin, but working together went smoothly. We communicated mostly through Facebook Messenger in this instance. She sent me a document outlining all her goals, I asked a few questions, and we settled on a plan.

Setting up the Shopify site was such an easy process! Shopify has an amazing library of how-tos which I found incredible and better than other sites like Wix or WordPress. Setup went quickly and then I started to dig around to learn how it worked.

Picking out the right theme was interesting for me. Shopify has themes (themes are built out “designs” which you can customize as you want) much like WordPress, but they seem to be more extensive (and expensive). Cherie and I worked together to identify what she needed for her theme. Due to the expense of the premium themes on Shopify, we wanted to be very thorough in our research to ensure all needs were met. Cherie picked out a great theme which wound up being so perfect for her custom jewelry!

Theme setup is really the most complex part of the project and takes quite a bit of research to sort out how to get everything in place the way we wanted it. Especially because I had never used it before. Once I got it nailed down, I then worked with Cherie to improve the design and get it just like she wanted.

Along with the theme setup came setting up the product categories she needed, laying out her homepage, setting up a couple starter product pages for her, pointing her URL to Shopify, and then last, putting together a PDF with information on how to use Shopify for future use.

It is so satisfying to see how Cherie has since been able to use Shopify successfully on her own – adding products, pages, copy, images and everything.

Working with Cherie was lots of fun and I enjoyed the highly collaborative process. She was very clear on what she wanted and the look & feel of her site, which made things easy. Plus, I enjoyed getting an up close view of the jewelry which is AMAZING. I advise checking out her site for the shopping alone! There are some great gift ideas, and Christmas is never too far away. Check out UniqueCherie and see how well she built out her site.

Tips for Avoiding the Newsfeed Death-Spiral Due to Coronavirus

Read a Book

I don’t know about everyone else, but I find myself in what I’ve termed a “Death-Sprial” of Coronavirus news from time-to-time. Be it Facebook, Twitter, Email or the news on TV… There is an ENDLESS parade of news, comments, posts and memes about COVID-19. It goes on forever and forever. Refresh, refresh. Wait – did I miss something? Refresh. Try another channel. Is there something new? Refresh. A person can go crazy quickly.

So I’m trying to avoid that. I’m giving myself set times where I can watch the “news”, refraining from reading the comments on posts via Facebook or Twitter as these can often be distressing, and trying to keep my mind busy with positive things! And you know what? It is working. I feel so much better now. I was getting more stressed out than I realized with all that, all day, constantly.

I’d like to share a few resources of ways you too, can “free your mind” and do something good with it!

  • Read a book (this one is so easy!). Find a peaceful spot and settle in. Put your phone in another room. No computer. No TV. Just read. Before you know it, you’ll be in another world.
  • Have a special “movie night”. This means do som ething special! Have the popcorn, some treats – put that phone or iPad away, not even in the same room. Turn down the lights and emmerse yourself in some great work of fiction.
  • Grow your brain! Try a free course https://www.coursera.org/courses – many of these are free, and if not, you can “audit” the course which means you can do it all, just not get any sort of credit or certification for it. Awesome!
  • Create Art. Ok this can be challenging if you are not creatively-inclined, but there are options out there for everyone. Just try coloring.
  • Exercise! Now, this may be a walk outside, maybe a walk around your house, or a full-on exercise program. Nothing clears my mind more than a walk outside with my dog. But maybe now is a great time to try something new. Peloton is offering a 90 day free trial for their exercise app. You don’t need the fancy bike for these, either. FitBit is offering a 90 free trial for their Premium Service, which includes a lot of great tools!

So many great options available, but one does have to make the CHOICE to do so. We have to get up, go do it, download the book, find the old book and open it up, move away from the TV. You will feel so much better both mentally and physically. No more death-spiral, but instead, things to look forward to during uncertain times. We can make this experience help us grow into better people, or at least stronger in some way.

Do you have any suggestions or ideas of how to get out of the death-spiral? Share!

About Digital-Melissa: I am a veteran of all things internet, located in Rhinelander, WI. 20 years in eCommerce with everything from design to copy, social media, marketing, project management, website help & management plus more. Contact me today if you’d like to talk about how I could help your business.