When Christi Bond contacted me about helping her create a WordPress site for her Home Staging business I didn’t know anything about home staging. Since that time I’ve learned allot. Christi provides home staging, home staging consultations, and room makeovers in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis St. Paul, Minnesota.

Christi’s WordPress site contains both pages and blog posts. Many people who know a bit about WordPress think of it as blogging software, which it is. However, with the latest evolution of WordPress, it is much more. It is a complete website platform making it economical to have a full featured website that is also easy to update and maintain. We used a Studio Press theme based on the Genesis framework with the WordPress platform and finished her home staging website in just a couple weeks. And…it didn’t take Christi anytime to begin blogging with the easy authoring interface.

It’s important to note that the Home Staging Coaches is a Minneapolis St. Paul business and I work in Round Rock, TX. You might find it strange that I work long distance. It’s really not unusual at all as webmasters frequently work with clients far away.  So no matter where you are located, contact me if I can help you with your WordPress site.

The Bloomfield Real Estate Group, LLC required an active real estate website interfaced with their MLS listings. There were two realistic choices; either using the Open Realty platform or using WordPress with the IDX Broker plugin. Considering the scale of the business and the ease of implementation, the owners decided to use IDX Broker for their site.

IDX Broker is a subscription service delivering regional MLS listing data and is available to Real Estate Brokers and Agents in many areas across the United States. It is available in the Round Rock and Austin, TX area. Using WordPress with IDX Broker delivers a sharp professional website at an economical price.

While the Studio Press AgentPress theme is a natural selection, other themes and layouts can be used. The AgentPress theme colors, as well as all Studio Press Themes, can be customized to compliment your corporate or business branding.

The FusionHotelMexico.com previously used flash slideshows in their header area. With the popularity of the iPhone and iPad, the owners determined that many of their upscale high income visitors were missing the slideshows as the iPhone and iPad were not flash capable. Mike worked together the Fusion Hotel staff to create a new website that utilized jQuery as a means of delivering slideshows to all their users.

The new minimalistic design was created using WordPress on the Genesis framework. The jQuery slideshows were accomplished using free WordPress plugins.

The Fusion Hotel is located right on the beach in Playa del Carmen, Mexico and is popular with tourists and locals alike. They feature nightly entertainment on the beach and offer fantastic food and drink in their beach bar and grill.

TaxPreparerStudyGuide.com is a WordPress site built on the Genesis framework from Studio Press. The site will provide information about the new IRS regulations imposed on paid income tax preparers. The site required an e-commerce component to sale the study guide and a site membership component for user registration prior to accessing the free test bank and practice exams offered by the website.

The membership component uses a WordPress plugin by Chad Butler named WP-Members. The plugin allows for the user to register online, receive a password by email, and login to use the free test bank and practice exam.

The test bank quizzes and IRS simulated practice exam are delivered using embedded flash files in much the same way that online videos are delivered online. The flash quiz files were created by Mike using the Articulate quiz maker.

SocialMediaGroup.info is an Atlanta based social media company. Social Media Group helps companies use social media to engage with their  customers, and prospects, in quick efficient ways using Social Media Marketing. The site owners were very concerned that we create a website with a look and feel, branding, that was consistent with their print media advertising.

Again, this website was created on the WordPress platform using a theme customized by Mike.

Larry Battle’s website is an example of a HTML hard coded static website. Larry’s website required a look and feel that set the mood for Larry’s evening upstairs lounge performances at Scampi’s on the bay in South Padre Island, TX.

You will also note the use of video on Larry’s website. Larry’s video was recorded and edited by Mike during a live performance. While not quite ready for DVD, the videos on Larry’s site are an effective way of previewing or remembering Larry’s enjoyable performances. Larry’s video is delivered in Flash video using a custom Flash video player.

The GLS Communications’ website is another static website designed by Mike. One major design consideration included the use a design that was consistant with the company’s corporate branding. If there is an advantage to the static page approach to building a website, it is the ability to start with a blank page instead of a template. This gives the designer complete flexibility is designing the site from the ground up.

GLS Communications provides VOIP telecommunication services as well as data networking, print management and copier leases. The website takes advantage of vendor marketing materials and YouTube.com video embedding. Using YouTube.com videos as a part of your site is a practical inexpensive way to utilize video without the production cost.