Waldoch is a well known Minnsota based company specializing in custom conversion vans, cars and trucks. I was completely honored with the opportunity to redesign their site, and it was a lot of fun to work on as well.

Waldoch had a variety of challenging needs outlined for the project, which I was able to find some excellent solutions for. First off, they wanted to integrate a content management system for full control of their hundreds of pages of content.  Not only that but they wanted a contemporary and efficient way to display nearly 2000 images of their amazing custom vehicle conversions.

I selected Wordpress as a platform for the content management system. Generally Wordpress is know more as a Blogging platform, however I’ve been working with it for over 3 years and watched it evolve into an incredibly powerful content management solution. It is lightweight - much more so than Joomla or Drupal, and very easy for the end user, which many web design companies don’t take into enough consideration, in my opinion.

The other great benefit of using Wordpress as a platform was that we were able to use the free NextGen Gallery plugin, which allowed us to create over 70 impressive image galleries, and vivid slideshows on almost every page of the site.

I also incorporated a custom AJAX slideshow on the home page for a little extra “wow” factor.

Overall, I think the results speak for themselves. Waldoch is a great example of how Wordpress can be applied to a complex custom web site design in the form of a content management system, and a great showcase of one of the most powerful, free and easy to use image gallery solutions.

Check out www.waldoch.com to see the results for yourself!

The first quarter of 2009 has been a busy one here at Web Contempo. Along with many exciting new projects for various local businesses, the freelance web development market has never been busier. Particularly Joomla development, consulting and administration here in Minneapolis.

Today I’ve added my two latest projects to the portfolio. Both are great looking sites using 2 totally different platforms and featuring a variety of great enhancements.

Trusted Employees:

Trusted employees is a site developed for a local company specializing in background screening services. This site is HTML based and features a completely custom design. Some notable features include a custom slideshow on the home page and over 3 full size custom graphics - unique on each page. This site is a perfect example of how a clean layout combined with vivid graphics can produce a truly elegant and professional end result.

Visit the site at: www.trustedemployees.com

Written4Learning:

Written4Learning is a website I developed for another local business here in the Twin Cities. It is built using Joomla as a platform and features a premium Joomla theme that I customized to the client’s specifications. The site features paypal integration, custom forms, and an attached Wordpress blog. A great example of how Joomla as an effective and affordable solution that offers powerful options.

Visit the site at: www.written4learning.com

Wheelbarrow Tub is the newest addition to the Web Contempo Portfolio. The wheelbarrow tub is a product which is targeted towards other manufacturers. The project is actually a very interesting case study in how these very specific micro-niches can be easily dominated on a modest budget. First, the website is a completely custom design by me. I created it as a PSD, and cut it up and created a fully functional Wordpress theme out of it. The site runs 100% using Wordpress as a CMS (content management system). Wordpress is perfect for small sites like this because the skins are usually relatively easy to create, and the lightweight CMS capability Wordpress offers is perfect for managing the small number of pages.

Not only did I come up with a great looking and efficient web site solution for the Wheelbarrow Tub project, the initial keyword research was spot on. Within 1 week of going live with the site, we captured the #2 ranking in Google for the term Wheelbarrow Tub. The site has been fully optimized, and Wordpress SEO plugins were installed, but I was able to achieve the top ranking without the help of any backlinks whatsoever. The keywords we’ve targeted for this project aren’t necessarily going to bring hoardes of traffic, but we’ve done the research and we know they are bringing some traffic, and that traffic will be highly qualified for the type of product Wheelbarrow Tub offers.

This project is a great example of how drilling down deep into your niche can provide lucrative results and highly targeted traffic in a short amount of time.

I’ve just added two of our latest projects to our portfolio. Both of these sites were developed using a templatemonster template with some heavy customization.

Action Learning

The original Action Learning design was bogged down with flash elements and severely lacking content. We decided on the new design because of the modern, web 2.0 style look, and I also particularly like the “open” layout of the site, allowing the content on each page to draw the most attention instead of cluttered and repetitive navigation elements taking up space. This site also features a custom Wordpress skin which flow seamlessley with the rest of the site.

Recycle Technologies

Recycle Technologies also had a previous design which lacked in content and was loaded down with unnecessary flash. The new layout uses a clean and vibrant color scheme, and again, allows the content to shine. I was also able to easily incorporate all of the images and forms from the previous site into the new site. The new Recycle Technologies layout is search engine friendly, and is designed to make it easy for visitors to find the information they need and ultimately increase the site’s conversion rate. Last, it also features a seamlessly skinned Wordpress theme.