From time to time I come across interesting articles or websites that I think you’ll enjoy.  I save them up until I have five, and then I share them with you.

Here’s today’s batch:

The Perfect Is the Enemy of the Good - Working with websites involves making a lot of choices.  PayPal or E-Junkie?  What WordPress theme to use?  What information should appear at the top of the sidebar?  I help my customers make informed choices, but there is rarely a perfect or best choice.  And that’s OK.  We build.  We learn.  We grow.

Google Browser Size Lab – Friend and client, Sara Chapman, sent me this link.  Enter your URL in the box at the top of the page and you’ll get an idea of how your page looks to others.   Because of different monitor settings and sizes what you see when you look at your site and what others see isn’t necessarily the same thing.

Speaking of Sara Chapman, have you had a chance to check out her book?  The Seattle Times called Flowers of Volunteer Park Conservatory: Blooming Month by Month a “perfect gift for the gardener on your list. Photographer and gardener Sara Chapman has done a stunning job of showing off Seattle’s gem of a conservatory in all seasons.”

Why the Road to Blog Success is Bumpy (and What to Do About It) -  I really like the simple, easy advice from this post.  As with the best posts the advice doesn’t apply just to blogging.

1,000 Visitors Per Day – Customers always ask me how they can get more visitors.  I urge them to follow the same tips that James Penn writes about in this article.

Allow me to present to you two new website owners, the FBA Moms of Amazon FBA Recipe for Success.  Suzanne and Kim had a new eBook as well as some terrific artwork.  What they needed was a new website to sell their new book via ClickBank.   The site came together very quickly.  Not only are they now selling their eBook online, but they have an affiliate program.

Check out this website redesign.  Just in time for the summer grilling season, I redid Skip McGrath’s Firepit Grills.  New elements include:

• Lighter and brighter website design
• Three column layout that makes it easy to see all the firepit designs at a glance
• New PayPal payment system

Skip was so happy with the way it turned out that he immediately added a new product line, collegiate firepits.

While you’re at Firepit Grills, be sure to take a look at Skip’s Western BBQ Sauce.  Yum!

Recently I helped four writers (Karen Burns, Mary Casey, Lynn Wiley Grant, and Christine Johnson-Duell) start a group blog called Yellow Wallpaper.  The clients provided the design and I was only too happy to make it into a custom WordPress theme.   I also proved assistance in setting up the Amazon.com aStore.

Why “Yellow Wallpaper”?  Visit their site and find out.  The mystery is solved in the second paragraph in the column on the right.

In most instances the answer is “very close.”  Here’s an example.  This is the home page of Claudette Rowley’s coaching and consulting site:

And here’s Claudette’s new blog:

Visitors to Claudette’s site will be able to move from her regular website pages to the blog and back again seamlessly.

If you’d like a WordPress blog added to your existing website please contact me.

I would love to be able to take the credit for the design of this lovely site.  However that honor goes to Sara Chapman of  Art Squad Graphics.

In addition to being a talented graphic designer, Sara is also a gifted photographer.   She wanted a website that would allow her to share her photography with a wider audience.   Love That Image features Sara’s popular Fave Photos Blog as well as her photo library.

Speaking of Sara’s photo library, you may be interested to note that the photos are free to use for non-commercial projects.  Sara just asks that she be credited as the photographer via “used with permission” text and a link back to her site.

One look at Sir Lunch-a-Lot’s Chicken and Shrimp Gumbo recipe, his version of Paella, or his German Coffee Cake recipe and you know you’re in good culinary hands.  There’s no doubt about it.  Sir Lunch-a-Lot, a.k.a. Aaron Cantor, can cook up a storm.  However, he did need some help selling his electronic cookbooks online.

We used E-junkie for the online shopping cart.  The system automatically sends out copies of the eBooks and lets Aaron know there was a sale.  With E-Junkie we could even add gift coupons.

Now all Aaron has to do is sit back and relax.  His website takes care of itself.

Don Desonier already had a business website for his legal and mediation services business.  However it no longer met his needs.  It was clearly time for a website redesign.

The new site has several improvements:

• His website now features a wider horizontal navigation area.  This gives Don lots of room for adding new pages.
• This design has two sidebars to give Don plenty of space to feature important information.
• The artwork and site colors support the website tag line,  “Helping you choose the path to respectful resolution.”

Debra Reetz had a new massage therapy practice and needed a website.  I was thrilled to be able to help.  She and I worked together to develop the design.  Note that the site features a horizontal navigation system with drop down menu items.  This is very important for businesses that plan on adding more information to their websites in the future.

Visit Debra’s site to learn more and to see her complete list of massage services.  She’s highly trained and offers many types of massage therapy.  Some of her specialized services including Myofascial Release therapy, lymphatic massage and oncology massage.