Melissa had a unique vision and goal in mind for her business website. While interviewing with Melissa to go over her ideas, I considered ways to turn them into a realistic website plan. She knew she needed to branch into the digital world to start up her business but she didn’t know how. I worked one-on-one with Melissa to help her understand the benefits of having a business website.
While working with Melissa, I found ways to educate her on website basics as we put the site together. It was fun and challenging for us both through brainstorming, planning and adjustments throughout the creation process.
Melissa felt strongly about having a visual experience for her visitors in order to reach her target audience. She had a lot of her own images to include on the website, which I refined for the best fit. I helped her condense a 40-year career in Earth Education, Earth Advocacy, Nature Artist and Nature Author into smaller straight-forward text sections for website format.
One of the key concepts Melissa came up with was “Inner Nature” and “Outer Nature” to organize page sets. The “Inner Nature” pages are Nature Artist, Present Weaving Portfolio, Past Weaving Portfolio and Nature Author. The “Outer Nature” pages are Earth Educator, The Great Universe Story Pageant, Grassy Games and Hikes and Earth Educator.
If you would like to see code samples, please visit GitHub or go to doing earth business as.com to view live.
The Home Page of Doing Earth Business As is made up of two slider galleries with brief text captions. While not standard for home pages, Melissa wanted to appeal to her target audience with imagery. The header images are unique to each page, and eye-catching imagery. You will find images throughout the website, giving the reader a break from the large sections of text. Sections of text are emphasized with different colors to keep the reader engaged on important points. On the top of the text-focused pages there are internal links to each section. At the end of each section is an arrow link to the top of the page.
The website features two jQuery Photo Galleries and a Contact Form that uses basic PHP. The Photo Galleries include a jQuery Tooltip Plugin to provide a quick description for each thumbnail. The footer features links to key pages of the website along with social media links. The Website is 10 pages with 2 pages that can be added at a later date.
Slideshow of key pages of doingearthbusinessas.com. Click image to visit pages.
“I hired Joseph Snethen to develop my business website because I was now starting my own business as an earth educator/advocate, as well as a nature artist/author. My website needed to reflect 40-years of experience as an earth educator, detailing key programs and projects, in an artistic way. On top of that, I chose to stick with a traditional website format because of who my clients were, but I wanted to combine that with new website techniques. Sheesh! The webmaster needed to have state-of-the-art skills and be affordable. Joseph Snethen was the great match.”
“Joseph is enthusiastic, dedicated, creative in engineering solutions, and—the key to this kind of relationship—fun and easy to work with. He gave me the freedom to be as involved in the design process as I wanted and needed to be, while keeping his eye on what was possible within my budget. Once the website launched, it was useful immediately as a credible interview back-up for the sorts of contract and volunteer work I was pursuing, and it was beautiful. It met all my goals and then some.”
“Five years out, I am now happily involved in the sort of work I was seeking. Updated periodically by Joseph, the website remains a constant networking resource and, delightfully, Joseph remains a hidden “business partner” in the process. An added bonus: I learned basic website skills and use them—Joseph is a patient teacher.”
“Yes, I would highly recommend hiring Joseph Snethen to work with you on your business website.”
—Melissa Martin