Joe Naturals Farm Store Cafe is a “farm to table” cafe and natural foods store located in historic Leiper’s Fork, near Franklin, TN. The owners contacted me through a fellow farmer with whom I have worked on several web projects.

Joe Natural's website

The website project was languishing, after being abandoned by a designer who lacked knowledge of WordPress template coding. The site needed better integration with WordPress, including text-based navigation and replacement of scanned layout comps, which were being used for page display & navigation.

I reworked the stylesheet to replace image-based text with CSS styled text, integrated WordPress navigation, and then added a few WordPress plugins.

• Constant Contact API for automated newsletter signup
• Simple Facebook Connect for Facebook Fan Page interconnectedness
• Google Analyticator and Google XML Sitemaps for search engine optimization and traffic reporting
• WordPress SEO for simple and effective search engine optimization
• W3 Total Cache to speed up site access on a low-end GoDaddy hosting account

I also worked with the farmers’ social media person to add social media links and integrate Facebook “Likes” and cross publishing from the WordPress blog to the Facebook Fan Page.

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Light Sport & Ultralight Flying Magazine needed an easy-to-manage e-commerce solution, coupled with Content Management and slideshows.

I used Joomla plus VirtueMart, and SlideShowPro to give them a sophisticated system that is simple to use.

Light Sport & Ultralight Flying Magazine website

The magazine has been in circulation since 1975, so the publishers know how to survive and thrive. Online sales & subscriptions give the print magazine a fighting chance against online outlets in a tight niche market.

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Mark Making is a Chattanooga non-profit with a mission to enhance the town with public art and to engage the public in the creation and production of art, not merely it’s appreciation or exhibition.

Mark Making website

This project was yet another “rescue effort” to save a dying website that had been abandoned by a previous developer. Knowing how artists can be very particular about visual design and information architecture, I was a little apprehensive to take on this project… but I soon found some new PHP and JavaScript code to make WordPress behave as desired.

• Search Engine Optimization
• Fancybox JavaScript modal windows for YouTube, image slideshows, audio, video and PDF
• Google Web Fonts for a handcrafted look
• Advanced Custom Fields for intuitive addition of media player icons and project metadata

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Tennessee Galvanizing website

Tennessee Galvanizing had an aging Joomla site that needed major software updates. So, I migrated the site to WordPress for ease of use and ease of updates. WordPress is much more user friendly than Joomla, and also easier to maintain.

• Simple WordPress site with front page slide show, news blog and contact form

The post Industrial Galvanizer Website appeared first on Chris Gilligan » new media.

Office Coordinators Inc. website

I worked with Office Coordinators Inc’s talented in-house designers to update the OCI website. OCI chose an e-commerce theme, and we completely reworked the CSS and layout to match their colors and logo treatment. After a previous failed attempt with another developer, they were surprised at how quickly the site came together, and how easy it is to manage with WordPress!

• “Inquiry mode” e-commerce: customers can select items, add to shopping cart, then email for more information or price quote
• Search Engine Optimization: Google Analytics and Sitemaps
• WordPress Content Management
• Social Networking with Facebook “score card”

Thank you for your persistence. You’re our favorite website/technically savvy guy ever.
— Emily Vaughn, OCI

The post Office Furniture Retail Showcase appeared first on Chris Gilligan » new media.

Suck Creek Cycle website

I’ve been hosting and helping with Suck Creek Cycle’s website since they opened in 1998. The site was long overdue for an upgrade, so I took an existing template design and tweaked it a bit to look like the bike shop, then integrated social media and syndicated content from their vendors.

• Facebook local business page integration — publish from WordPress directly to Facebook
• Facebook Friends and Wall displayed on the website
• RSS Syndication for news from cycling sites and bike vendors

The post Bike Shop Website with Facebook Features appeared first on Chris Gilligan » new media.

Main St Farmers Market website

This is a major redesign of the website for Chattanooga’s Main St Farmers Market. Local designers Widgets & Stone came up with the logos and suggested the look and feel, and I worked with Padgett Arnold to get the visuals and content just right.

• Interactive home page presents tons of information in a compact javascript slider
• Fresh content includes recipes and a list of what’s available each week
• Facebook fan page gets automatically updated with new content
• New photos and videos are easily uploaded via SlideShowPro and YouTuber for a fun, engaging user experience
• Lightweight CSS3 design and an alternative layout for mobile browsers present the site quickly and efficiently

The post Farmers Market Website appeared first on Chris Gilligan » new media.

Craig Design Group Website

This is a simple website for a Chattanooga based landscape architect that focuses on beautiful portfolio slideshows. We’ve also added Twitter and Facebook integration to keep fans and customers updated on the latest projects.

The post Landscape Architect Website with Slideshows & Social Media Integration appeared first on Chris Gilligan » new media.

Sequatchie Cove Farm website

This site was produced in tandem with Widgets & Stone, a Chattanooga design firm. We’re members of Sequatchie Cove Farm’s Community Shared Agriculture program, so we are very familiar with the quality of the eggs, dairy, meat and produce coming out of the clean and fertile Sequatchie Valley.

(Will Work for Food!)

• WordPress Content Management System allows the farmers to easily add their opinions, information and images
• Automated updates to Facebook Pages, with linkback
• Automatic Twitter tweets for new posts, with linkback
• Social Media bookmarking
• SlideShowPro gives the site a slick Flash-based Image Management System so the site can feature seasonal images.
• MailMan manages a plethora of mailing lists for the weekly emails that keep the farmers connected to the communities and individuals they serve

The post Organic Farm Website with Slideshows and Content Management appeared first on Chris Gilligan » new media.