What's the point of a blog?

July 05, 2010

Amy Rouse over at Backyard Remedies hired an agency to create a brand for her new business. They did a great job with her mark, collateral and website. But they totally missed the point on her blog. What I don't understand is why they even bothered to use Wordpress as a platform.

Here's an image from their blog when I got my hands on it:

In case it's not obvious, let me lay out where these folks missed the boat. There's no way to search the archives, the posts and photos are in tiny iframes making them hard to see, there's no way to post comments and pingbacks, and there's no sidebar for Amy to add widgets like an RSS feed. I mean, really, I just don't get it. Why did they use Wordpress as a platform if they weren't going to use all the advantages of Wordpress?

So Amy hired me to go in and fix the situation. I used graphical elements from the rest of the website and applied it to a more functional blog that does all the things you want a WP blog to do. Here's an image of how it looked after I turned it back over to Amy:

Now Amy has alot more mobility and freedom in her blog to post photos in a slideshow, highlight featured products and post upcoming events, encourage conversation through comments and social media such as Facebook.

It's important to use your tools well.

Welcome to my new site!

April 29, 2010

So you may have noticed... I just launched my brand new website! I'm pretty excited about this launch. I wanted a new site that would allow me to better present my portfolio with a more personal touch. I'm also excited about my sidekick, Gigi "the poodle". Wondering what the deal with that is? Some folks pronounce my name as if I were french, as in "XiXi". I get that quite a lot. It makes me feel like a little, pink poodle. And while I have nothing against poodles, I don't think of myself as one.

Take a walk around and let me know what you think about my work and new site!