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.

Do You Need Website Help?

If you are like many business owners, you launched your website back in the day, got busy, and now almost never touch it. Or, if you do, it takes too long because you have to contact your IT person to do it. You WANT to update your website, but you need help. You’d even like to update your website seasonally or even more often. Maybe you’d like to post some informational articles, or update your “About Us” page with new employees. Maybe your business looks completely different today and you need new photography put on your site. But you just do not have the TIME or knowledge to do it.

This is where I can help update your website. With over 20 years of experience online working on websites, social media, email and more – I can figure just about any website out and help you update it. In fact, I can update it so it is looks like it belongs in 2020 (and not 2010), is secure, SEO optimized and EASY to update. I will even show you how to update it on your own, and provide a step-by-step guide along with continued support.

I built my first website in 1997 while in college at Michigan State University. We were one of the first graphic design classes to work primarily on HTML and website work! “E-Mail” had just launched when I started at Michigan State! My website was pure text and featured “blinking” headlines. I got a 4.0 in that course. Oh how time has flown since then!

Drs. Foster and Smith logos
Drs. Foster and Smith through the years

When I started as a web designer for Drs. Foster and Smith Pet Supplies in Rhinelander, WI in 1999, our website was just a few pages. Each week would we add maybe five product pages and it was a huge effort! Fast forward to 2019 where updates happen continuously, on-demand, whenever needed. I experienced the evolution of online shopping and it was such a fun ride! And all those years of experience (I worked on 3-4 websites continuously at DFS along with the WordPress blog) led me to where I am today: a quick thinking, superb researcher and problem solver, packaged with 20 years of website design experience and endless hours on Photoshop. A true web guru here to help.

Let me know if you need some help with your website – I offer a free consultation. No fee to just chat and see if we can help each other out. It doesn’t matter if you are located in the Rhinelander area, or in a differnet part of the country or planet – I can help.

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.

BrixStone Farms Website Launch

BrixStone Farms Logo

BrixStone Farms is an established orchard located in northern lower Michigan that was recently bought by a new owner, Keaton Foster. Keaton was looking to bring BrixStone Farms into the future and first thing he needed to do was launch a website. I was happy to help!

We communicated primarily over email as Keaton is located in Michigan and I’m in Wisconsin – this was not a concern as it is so easy to communicate with anybody across the country (or world) nowadays! There are so many tools like email, video chat and the plain old phone or email. After some initial consultation, we outlined the handful of pages needed for BrixStone’s website, and settled on a timeline.

Our process looked something like this:

  • Consultation and information gathering
    • This is where we discussed what Keaton’s vision was, gathered copy, and I researched other similar websites
  • Install WordPress
  • Set up SSL (secure server)
  • Point domains
  • Select design/theme/layout
  • Ensure mobile-friendly
  • Set up pages
  • Search engine optimize all copy and images
  • Review
  • Install site map – last step and the “Go Live” for this particular project
    • This was saved for last, as the site was techincally “live” from the initial install of WordPress, unlike other existing sites. We wanted to ensure the site was 100% SEO ready before submitting the site map

After locking down the domains needed, I set up WordPress on the main domain, and pointed the others to that domain and set about installation. From there, I gathered a number of themes/designs/layouts in WordPress to try to identify the final design. After a bit of back and forth, we landed on one that worked perfect for BrixStone. If you are curious, we utilized the Avada Theme from ThemeForest which is nearly 100% customizable and I love to use!

The logo and photography was provided by Keaton, and I set about importing and setting up the pages. Most important with this initial website launch was to ensure all the pages and images were SEO friendly. We were very careful with all of the copy and images to ensure top SEO quality. Another important factor was to ensure the site was mobile friendly, and of course, secure. One of the best parts about WordPress is that these two items are easily addrssed and implemented!

We had some back and forth with copy edits and images, all of which are easy to implement and address with WordPress. In the end it took about 2 weeks to get the site set up and approved by all. Last step on this project was to submit the site map to Google Analytics to ensure we had everything nailed down before too much search engine activity began. We also, at this point, submitted BrixStone location to both Google and Bing maps, which is important for local search traffic.

I’m happy to say BrixStone Farms website is popping up #1 or #2 on applicable searches, and the site looks amazing! Keaton was great to work with.

Recommendation from Keaton:
“Working with Melissa was a pleasure, we built our full site in only a few short weeks. Throughout the buildout Melissa was very responsive and informative when dealing with my questions and concerns. Together, we were able to create a beautiful site that conveyed wonderful experiences. I would suggest Melissa to anyone looking to build a site from scratch or revamp an existing platform, she is proficient in web marketing and SEO optimization. 10/10! ” – Keaton Foster, Owner BrixStone Farms

BrixStone Farms Freshly Built and Launched Website

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.

Making Changes

Making Changes Digital Melissa

I saw a partial on this quote the other day and it really struck a cord with me. Then I googled the quote to ensure I gave proper credit if it was original. And it was. And there was more to it, which made me like it even more. With it being the start of a new year right now helps make it even more impactful.

“If nothing changes, nothing changes. If you keep doing what you’re doing, you’re going to keep getting what you’re getting. You want change, make some.” – Courtney C. Stevens, The Lies About Truth*

Why did this quote strike me so? I think because although it is so simple, it is also SO TRUE. So much truth in five little words “If nothing changes, nothing changes.” It isn’t like we don’t KNOW this already, but seeing it right there… Bam!

It is so true for so many things. Need to lose weight? You can’t lose weight if you don’t change something. Unhappy in your job? Doing nothing gets you exactly that – nothing. Do you want to learn a new skill? There is no magic pill you can swallow.

If nothing changes, nothing changes! This applies to businesses, too. Do you need more clients? Do you want more brand recognition? Does your website not get enough traffic? Well guess what… Nothing about any of that will change unless you do something to MAKE it change.

So do it, make a change. It doesn’t have to be a big change. Maybe you just drink an extra glass of water. Or maybe you spend 30 minutes a day watching a LinkedIn Video. Or maybe you schedule out a month of Facebook posts for your business. Or you can go big! Take a course, start a weight-loss jumpstart program, redesign your website. So many opportunities!

If nothing changes, nothing changes. Remember it.

And if I can help, let me know.

*Pssssst: if you are interested in the book noted in the quote, you may see it here. I have no idea what it is about and have not read it. This site is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com