Web Designer’s Corner | Web Design WorkPlace

Non-Profit Site: Diablo

April 2, 2012 By einstein99

Just finished another non-profit site last night… the Diablo Rod and Gun Club based in Concord California. This non-profit has over 1,500 active members and being Californians… Northern Californians in fact, having 1,500 members means 1,500 different opinions. I’m hoping to get more positive reviews than negative… and we’re off to a good start with all positive reviews in early commenting. I was fortunate to be contacted by the group’s web coordinator – for a project this large there has to be a dedicated and patient project manager on the NPO side.

Diablo was trying to build a new site from scratch after loosing their last site. They needed to ask lots and lots of questions and they looked at web design firms that offered prices between $200 and $10,000. Unfortunately none of them was able to spend much time answering the questions. Many of them actually could not answer web design questions – lol. So to work with Web Design WorkPlace was a perfect fit. We answer any and all questions.

There were almost a hundred previous newsletters that we wanted to incorporate into the site and there were 15 different areas. I offered a number of layouts and the club picked the StudioPress BackCountry Theme as a base. It took around 80 hours from the initial email to getting the project launched so starting with a solid Theme and the Genesis Framework for WordPress, it saved a lot of time.

We used NextGen Galleries for the photos with the CoolIIris slideshow feature. LiveShare is the parent company that makes the CoollIris feature used by NextGen and they are really pushing the boundaries with photo sharing and web experience… check out this video:

Here is what their main photo page looks like with a big NextGen Gallery…

nextgen-550x732A

And when you click the link “View with PicLens” you get into the CoolIris slideshow that is really popular for WordPress websites. This slideshow automatically re-sizes images on the fly and it can be set to go full screen to make a real crowd pleaser.

nextgen-PicLens-550x332A

Besides this main photo gallery we are building 15 additional galleries for the different activities the club has. The site launched with around 100 photos but it might grow to thousands. This is a great website and it was fun working with their great Project Manager Matt.

Filed Under: Web Designer's Corner

Law Firm Websites

March 4, 2012 By einstein99

Our 16 years of web design experience gives us technical depth and a focus that can’t be matched by the larger legal marketing providers. Remember the big brand companies all started out as book publishers. They only switched to building websites when they faced extinction because their business model didn’t work. We started out making websites and getting them ranking on Google and Yahoo when the internet and search engines were in their infant stages. And building websites and getting them ranking is all we’ve ever done.

We’ve worked with hundreds of law firms and lawyers over the years.

After building websites since 1996, Web Design WorkPlace now only sells law firm websites. We decided to stay exclusively in this genre because we stood out from the rest of the field in the legal marketplace.

The Big Box legal marketing providers are book publishers.

The “Big Box” vendors in the legal marketplace became giants in book publishing long before computers took over. They made their own “legal directories” and sold them to attorneys who used them mostly for business to business. And those companies have struggled to stay alive as the books and directories they published became obsolete with old data even before their pages were printed. So they started to phase in building websites. Web Design WorkPlace started building websites right from the beginning and we don’t have thousands of employees left over from the publishing years generating huge overhead costs. Those huge overhead costs at big name legal marketing companies are transferred directly to you – the client – when you buy a website from them.

Do you want to pay their sales person’s salary on top of buying a website and SEO package?

In most cases their salespeople are on commission or even full commission which means they only care about selling you the highest dollar amount they can. They have a laundry list as long as your arm when it comes to what they call “up sells” or added services that they will try to push on you that you may or may not need. That’s what commissioned sales people do. Web Design WorkPlace has a lot more integrity than they every will. We won’t nickle and dime you on anything ever. We make our money providing the best possible products and services for a select group of distinguished clients. We are proud of our customer satisfaction level. We have 100% client retention on 2nd year support contracts. A figure the big box providers will only dream about.

Filed Under: Homepage, Web Designer's Corner

WordPress vs Old Style HTML – an Example

November 20, 2011 By einstein99

I’ve have a site called “Domain Star” that first went online October 9, 2004. That’s according to the Way Back Machine. It’s at http://domain-star.com. So for years it was an HTML site and it did OK with Google searches but it never ranked anything except a Google PageRank 0. Here is what it looked like for the last few years:

Not too bad really. I build it using Dreamweaver CS3 using one of their built in CSS templates. I got all the graphics from one of my favorite free and public domain spots: the NASA image gallery. So every page was hand tuned for SEO manually where I inserted the tags myself like old school. And I had some text on every page and some links to the site… and I used it thousands of times myself during each year to purchase and maintain way over 1200 domains that I bought through the site. But there was a nagging problem. The fat zero I always got from Google for my PR.

A couple weeks ago I built a new site for it on WordPress using a great Nick Roach Theme called Chameleon and it had an optional “roundabout” slider. Really beautiful to look at. I used the all-in-one-seo plugin to configure my SEO and I only manually configured the homepage. I even added 4 or 5 affiliate links on the sidebar for my favorite themes and hosting partners. (Not that I will ever make a penny from them – lol). Just as an experiment for some laughs. The end result…

I went to Google PageRank 1 within 24 hours.

That’s service for you. That’s one of the many powers of WordPress and that’s why I switched to building WordPress sites commercially in 2008. One of my favorite things to say in the business is that “Google Loves WordPress“. Yeah, so true. One of the biggest reasons I instantly was promoted is that the interlinking on a WP site is so good. It’s got what some in the business call “linky goodness“. Plus the site looks incredibly good. This is a top professional theme right now. Take a look here:

So my point is that WordPress is better than old style HTML for dozens of reasons but this is clearly one of the best. Google rewarded a site that had been online for 7 years with PageRank just because I converted it to WP.

Thanks WordPress !!

Filed Under: Learn About WordPress, Web Designer's Corner

Mal’s Recommended Resources

October 20, 2011 By einstein99

I’ve been a paid I.T. Professional since 1985 and I’ve passed along boatloads of recommended links and a few discounts along the way. I’m using this web page to put up recommended sites – some of which offer discounts and some are just so darn good I have to suggest them. So to all my friends who are web developers and to anyone else who may be so inclined, feel free to use this page as a resource from time to time.

I highly recommend StudioPress Themes and I’ve purchased 3 developer licenses from them since 2008.

http://StudioPress.com

I also have a developer license for Gravity Forms. I’ve used Contract Form 7 on about 50 sites but the captcha on Gravity Forms is better as is the setup.

Gravity Forms: http://www.gravityforms.com/

I’ve purchased about 5 themes from Woo Themes at: http://www.woothemes.com/

I’ve also used ThemeForest twice and I recommend checking them out at: http://themeforest.net/

I’ve also had a developer license for Elegant Themes for 3 year and I’ve rolled out a couple of their Themes on production sites. Check them out at: http://www.elegantthemes.com/

For all my attorney friends looking at the Big Box offerings… here are links to their portfolio sites. This is great food for thought if you’re a developer or you’re looking for ideas for your own site:

Paper Street   http://www.paperstreet.com/portfolio.php
LexisNexis   http://lawlinks.com/our-work/
Justia   http://www.justia.com/web-site-portfolio.html
Einstein   http://www.einsteinlaw.com/html/showroom.html
Scorpion   http://www.scorpiondesign.com/Our_Portfolio.aspx
Findlaw New Portfolio   http://www.findlawdesign.com/#/work/
Findlaw Personal Injury   http://www.personalinjury-websites.com/
Findlaw Criminal Defense   http://www.criminallaw-websites.com/

Filed Under: Web Designer's Corner

WordCamp Philadelphia 2011

October 20, 2011 By einstein99

WordCampPhiladelphia is arriving shortly on November 5th and 6th, 2011. It’s being held at Temple University in:

Alter Hall
1801 Liacouras Walk
Philadelphia, PA 19122

Click the image below to go to Google Maps…

Temple University Alter Hall

I just signed up to attend and I’m looking forward to my first WordCamp since NYC in 2010. On my last WordCamp I helped Steve Bruner as an organizer. I got lots of great “GeDunk” from Jane Wells and Steve for helping out. And a lot of my friends showed up to harass Corey Eulas who was doing his first Camp speaking session.

So this time it looks like Corey is going to speak and another mutual friend “Sam I am” Sam Napolitano is speaking, and another mutual friend Brad Williams too. I hope they are all scheduled for different times.

Here is a link to the speakers page: http://2011.philly.wordcamp.org/speakers/

I’ve seen Brad Williams speak at 2 NYC WordPress Meetups and also at one of the NYC WordCamps. He’s a very engaging speaker and his knowledge of WordPress is incredible. In March I watched him describe the process for creating a WordPress Plugin. After the Meetup I went in and fixed a plugin I had been using where the original author was unresponsive.

Brad wrote 2 books that are great sources for anyone who gets under the hood building WordPress websites. I bought the first one (Professional WordPress) and last night at the meetup I won the next one (Professional WordPress Plugin development) !! I’m one of those guys who buys a copy of every book ever published about WordPress and this is the first time I ever got a great brand new book that I was going to buy anyway for free.

Don’t get me wrong, I love reading books and everything, but I don’t just read books, I sort of abuse them. Every page gets written on, I underline and write blocks around key parts, I earmark and fold pages down for super important information. Then I go over them again a couple months after I finish them to do lookups. And I throw them out after 2 or 3 years when they are dated. I’m much kinder to Lynda.com video training… lol.

Here’s a link to the WordCamp page and hope to see you there… Regards Everyone !!

Mal

WordCamp Philly 2011

Filed Under: Learn About WordPress, Web Designer's Corner

Website Design and Web Development

September 3, 2011 By einstein99

At Web Design WorkPlace, we focus on building you a valuable internet reputation while generating more business and more revenue for your firm. That being said, our clients remain clients because of the unparalleled support. Our service and support is quite possibly the best you’ve ever experienced with any product. “I cannot adequately express my level of satisfaction with the work done by Mal Milligan. The quality of product exceeded my expectations. The immediate support was beyond any customer service I’ve ever received.” Attorney Cody L. Cofer, Counselor at Law.

Our genres include: attorneys – lawyers – law firms, embassy – consulates – government organizations, non-profit organizations, and business.

Our sites look stunning, they rank well on Google, and clients can add content easily using the power of WordPress.

We take websites that were originally purchased for $30,000 and we convert them to superior WordPress sites for prices starting at $2,500. And we host them and maintain them for a fraction of what the big brand “big box” vendors charge. Our custom designs feature the “design and challenge” process you would expect from a world class and supremely experienced web artist. We encourage you to entertain the big box vendors for a price quote to see how they propose to inflate your costs with their over head maintenance inefficiencies… and remember, you are paying their salesperson’s commission based salary.

Web Design Workplace can move your business into a state-of-the-art WordPress website that your staff can add / change / or delete pages from at prices that will make your accounting department happy. All of our websites are professionally tuned for Search Engine Optimization (SEO). We have a variety of products and service levels to fit the needs of any firm. Call today to speak with the founder, Mal Milligan. With 25 years of experience from being a Wall Street Senior Technical Officer for several of the top Investment Banks in the United States, to a world class web developer and Google ranking expert, Mal has your answer.

Filed Under: Web Designer's Corner

Timthumb pwnd

August 2, 2011 By einstein99

Nick Roach is one of the premier WordPress designers of all time and his brand of premium themes can be found at Elegant Themes. I’ve owned an unlimited access pass to Elegant for 3 years and I’ve used them on rollouts a few times. Nick Roach has really pushed the envelope for the WP design world and I’m glad to see his brand get more recognition and a bigger following as time passes.

A couple years ago some of the [now older] Elegant Themes and bazillions of other WP Themes from other vendors started using a game changing script called “Timthumb” (sometimes referred to as Tim Thumb) to automatically resize images. It allowed a WordPress editor to upload an image and display it in a blog post, but also to automatically resize it for the homepage thumbnail saving incredible amounts of time. Tim Thumb finally got pwnd and any security problem in the WordPress world is taken super seriously. The bottom line to all my administrator friends is search your containers for older sites that run with Tim Thumb and update everything ASAP.

Here is the letter I got from Elegant Themes tonight…

Hello,

You are receiving this email because you are an active member of ElegantThemes.com. In the past, our themes have used a popular image re-sizing script called Timthumb (http://www.binarymoon.co.uk/projects/timthumb/). The script is used by millions of sites and is quite popular in the WordPress themeing community. That being said, it was noted yesterday that a vulnerability exists within certain versions of the script (http://code.google.com/p/timthumb/issues/detail?id=212), and therefore this vulnerability may also exist in your theme (depending on when you last updated it). While that author has provided a fix, it is highly recommended that you update all of your EelgantThemes themes to their latest versions. The latest versions of our themes no longer utilize the timthumb script and therefore are not subject to this security hole.

Regardless of when you last updated your theme, I would strongly suggest that everyone update their themes to the latest version and insure that the timthumb.php file and your /cache folder has been removed. To update your theme and remove the file, simply delete your current theme via the Appearances > Themes section of the WordPress Dashboard. Then you can re-download the theme from the members area and re-upload it normally:

https://www.elegantthemes.com/members-area/documentation.html#installdashboard

The latest theme versions require that your thumbnail images be hosted on the same domain name where WordPress is installed. If you were previously using timthumb.php to allow external image source by editing the file’s $allowedSites array, then these thumbnails will no longer function.

Before updating the theme, make sure that you are using the latest version of WordPress. I would also disable all of your plugins temporarily before doing any update to insure that no compatibility issues exist. Remember to always keep WordPress, your Themes and your Plugins up-to-date to help protect yourself against any vulnerabilities.

I am sorry for any inconvenience this has caused.

–
Best Regards,
Nick Roach
www.ElegantThemes.com

Filed Under: Learn About WordPress, Web Designer's Corner

Lawyer Website Fonts

June 13, 2011 By einstein99

Many lawyers and attorneys ask about fonts that are suitable for web design. What font is the best for their website? Can they use the same font for headings and content? Is there a single font I can use for letterhead, and the website?

The answers are very subjective and ultimately it does not matter what a typography expert says or a web artist says, the client usually makes the final decision. Sometimes attorneys just don’t care to get that involved into the website production and in that case they leave it up to the skilled hands of the developer in which case it still does not matter what a typography expert says. Web designers and especially web artists are very opinionated. As a web developer, it can be very frustrating if I pick a color palette or a font and the client rejects it and instead picks one I don’t like. The first 10 times that happened to me, it generated a little bad emo and I was left feeling bad and anything but empowered. After experiencing it enough, I learned to take it in stride with no ill effects… as long as I got paid at the end of the day.

There is actually a definitive book on the subject written by Matthew Butterick and it’s aptly called “Typography for Lawyers“.

And a lot of it is available on the internet in excerpts but it’s recommended reading for attorneys involved with document production.

Matthew is not a fan of Google Fonts for a number of reasons and that may be largely due to the fact that the font directory started small and it’s taken a while to get to the first 100 fonts. It’s not actually there quite yet in fact. But Google Fonts are an outstanding resource for lawyer web design. A website built using Google Fonts will look similar no matter what browser or hardware platform the user surfs in on. Matthew points out that no matter what font the designer uses that “It’s possible to do excellent typography with system fonts; it’s also possible to do awful typography with great fonts.”

OK that being said here is what he likes and does not like in terms of lawyer fonts:

These are recommended:

Sabon
Stempel Garamond
Lyon Text
Miller
Minion
Williams Caslon
Mercury

These are what he calls “bad fonts”:

Bodoni
Bookman
Sans serif fonts

What is the closest to a font he would recommend that’s currently available on the free Google Fonts directory?

EB Garamond

Slim pickings indeed. Well I think it’s time to research what other font-face resources are available that might meet Matthews “good” list a little better. When I get them I will add to this post. Until then I’d have to mention that Web Design Workplace clients have picked a very wide array of fonts and there seems to be no way to predict how any individual client will feel when she or he sees one font compared to the next. Sometimes the entire discussion of it is a moot point.

Filed Under: Web Designer's Corner Tagged With: lawyer fonts, typography legal websites

Web Design for Lawyers

June 13, 2011 By einstein99

We specialize in web design for lawyers, attorneys, and law firms… but we take on any web development project that interests us. Our websites focus on building you a valuable internet reputation while generating more business and more revenue for your firm.

Our sites look stunning, they rank well on Google, and our service and support is quite possibly the best you’ve ever experienced with any product. “I cannot adequately express my level of satisfaction with the work done by Mal Milligan. The quality of product exceeded my expectations. The immediate support was beyond any customer service I’ve ever received.” Attorney Cody L. Cofer, Counselor at Law.

We take websites that were originally sold to law firms for $30,000 and we convert them to superior WordPress sites for prices starting at $2,000. And we host them and maintain them for a fraction of what the big brand “big box” vendors charge. Our custom designs feature the “design and challenge” process you would expect from a world class and supremely experienced web artist. We encourage you to entertain the big box vendors for a price quote to see how they propose to inflate your costs with their over head maintenance inefficiencies… and remember, you are paying their salesperson’s commission based salary.

Filed Under: Web Designer's Corner Tagged With: attorney websites, web design for lawyers

Custom Design Process for Attorney Websites

April 19, 2011 By einstein99

I’ve been building websites since 1997 and I started building custom designs for attorneys in 2008. I’ve worked on a little over 30 attorney sites and yes I’ve actually done enough of them to have nightmares on occasion. Well it’s usually when I’m behind schedule that I get stressed out about a lawyer site… most of the time I can appreciate them like an art form and I feel peaceful looking at a really well balanced design.

A question prospects always ask me is to describe the custom design process as it pertains to an attorney site. As I’ve gone around the block 30 times on the design and build cycle I’ve got it down to a science.

If a prospect approaches me then I try to answer their questions with the big picture in mind and answer specific questions and describe details with the “right amount” of information. I can talk for hours or days about web design so I tell a prospect right in the beginning that I can give them as much or as little information as they prefer.

If I’m bidding on an Elance job I submit an initial page of text that is tried and tested… but specifically configured with the particular bid in mind. I do a lot of research before I take out the template and modify it for the specific job.

I begin to exchange emails with the prospect and I make sure to respond to every question as fast as possible. I give a lot of helpful info to the prospect and I spend a lot of time on the bidding process. I doubt that any other firms that are Elance providers spend as much time as I do working with attorney prospects and no one has as much experience with the genre. I’m successful with a high percentage of my bids.

After I win a bid I’ve usually exchanged 3 or 4 emails with the client either in straight email (when they approach me)… or in the Elance “work room”. I then try to setup a conference call with the principal and anyone else in their office that may be able to help with the project. The conference calls usually last 30 to 60 minutes and I describe my process and I answer every question. I also ask a lot of questions myself. And I take notes.

After the initial conference call I produce the “Design and Content Worksheet”. It’s usually 5 or 6 pages long in MS Word format and it has a lot of details about the proposed site. I add all the information I’ve gleaned from the client such as name and address fields, and various terms of the contract like are they hosting with me or on their own platform. The client has to fill in a lot of questions on the Design and Content Worksheet but the most important is “give me 3 website you really like and 1 website you really hate”. I give them links to hundreds of beautiful high end designs that I find in portfolios and I ask them to pick sites that I can use as an inspiration for their custom site. I don’t just copy websites. I borrow design elements at times, color palettes sometimes, typography, themes, anything I can identify or the client can identify as being functional and relevant and artistically stunning when possible. The Design and Content Worksheet becomes a guideline that speeds the overall process of building a custom website. It also contains terms that may be thought of as part of a written contract although it remains a guideline more than a contract.

When the client has completed the worksheet, I begin a PhotoShop comp and I hand it to the artist. I’ve worked with a half dozen web artists over the last 3 years. To make an attorney site it requires a lot of conservative foundational and traditional elements, but there is a creative flair that makes the design pop. And no matter how much a person like myself studies and trains to act like an artist, there’s part of the job that just can’t be learned. There has to be natural talent. A good web artist can look at a PhotoShop comp and tell you in 30 seconds what’s wrong with it and in another 30 seconds recommend 5 changes to make it better. When the artist has completed the comp it goes back to the client for challenges. I sometimes add 4 to 6 backgrounds and post the various comps in a NextGen Gallery so the client can comparison shop different overall looks. Sometimes I just send the comp without adding the comparison backgrounds just to get the reaction so far. I recommend to the client that she or he ask everyone in the office what they think and to ask relatives and friends as well. The better the comp is the faster t will be to get the site built and online.

So after we agree on the comp I build the site. It can take me up to 4 or 5 full days to code the most complex designs. There is a 2,000 line programming file called the “CSS Stylesheet” and I’m usually intimate with 2/3 of all the lines in that file when I’m done building a custom attorney website. The CSS Stylesheet takes anywhere from 2 hours when there the site is fairly standard and simple to maybe 16 hours for a site that requires a lot of customization. And the images can take up to another 16 hours when I have to do a lot of work on them. For one thing it can take a long time to pick out the appropriate royalty free stock images from iStockPhoto or Dreamstime. Then I do all sorts of things to change the size and crop the images and add text. After all the smoke clears I ask the artist for her opinion on the layout and color matches I’ve made to her original vision. I’ve worked with the client a lot since she gave me the comp at this point and I can tell her new requirements from the client and explain myself when she asks me about things that vary from her design. Then I present the site to the client and I ask for their opinions and challenges.

After we are agreed on the build, I add content the client gave me. If the client wants to learn how to add and modify content I have a teaching session with them on their site or I setup a special site I made just for them to practice. Invariably the client has learned about a lot of new features since we agreed on the Design and Content Worksheet, and they ask me to add new things to the site. It’s part of the job and I’m really educating the client all along and I want them to be super satisfied that they are getting a truly custom unlimited website. They think of new pages to add, new choices for the menu system, new links and images. We put a lot of time into that Design and Content Worksheet but on a custom design it’s expected to have a lot of new features added before we wrap it up.

When the client is satisfied with the build, we take out the blocks I had installed to keep Google out. We launch the site and add it to the main index of Google, Yahoo, and MSN / Bing.

The job has now reached a milestone… it’s launched and live… but we can expect a lot of new content to be added over the next couple months and I’m ready with 24 hour turnaround on any new request.

web design comp