We then took an in depth look a her website to get a more accurate idea of how much work would need to be done in order to give her site an overhaul and a "fresh look". Mary was given a price quote, she told us the price quote was acceptable, and so we began....

    Her website had 16 pages. 8 of the website's pages only required minor changes such as a new background color that would match the background color on the rest of the pages that were being completely redone. 3 of the site's pages were eliminated, and the other 5 pages, including the homepage, were completely redone.

    We started the overhaul process from the beginning, her homepage. Mary didn't really know exactly what kind of look she wanted her site to have, but she knew it needed a change. We came up with a new look for the homepage and showed it to her. She liked the concepts we came up with, but she wanted a few things done different, a more "flashy" background, "like the one on your homepage" she said, and a mouse trailer, different picture and so on. We made the changes and showed it to her again. She wanted the background a little lighter and a heart for a mouse trailer. We made the changes and showed it to her again. She was now satisfied with her new homepage. We had now decided on a look for her homepage & could go about doing the rest of the website so that the other pages would have the same look as the homepage, instead of looking like they did'nt belong.

    Most of the work done to her website was standard "stuff". We designed a logo that would look more like the letter head she uses for her rescue organization. We gave the site a functional, yet appealing & memorable look. We added some custom graphics. We "optimized" the pages using "safe" search engine optimization methods, so that the site would be able to be found easily in the search engines such as yahoo & google for words such as "Ohio boxer rescue".

    Aside from the standard overhaul work, we came up with a few other things that we thought would be good for Mary's website. One of those things was to create an online submission form that people who were interested in adopting a dog could fill out & submit. She already had an adoption form, but it could only be printed out & sent to her in the regular mail. We thought it would benfit her and her website's visitors, if people could have the option of filling out the form online, & then Mary could print out the submitted form that was sent to her e-mail. The other thing we came up with that we felt would benefit her site & organization, was to set her website up to generate some income for the rescue. We consulted Mary to find out if she was interested in creating some income with her pet website by displaying a minimal amount of "relevant" advertising on the site. Mary liked the idea so we set her up as a PetSmart affiliate & we got her established as a publisher for a Google advertising program. Mary will now be getting a check in the mail each month from PetSmart & Google. It probably won't be a very big check, but on the other hand, every little bit helps. (by the way, if you buy pet supplies online, please feel free to help her dog rescue org. by using the link to PetSmart on her website)

    The last thing we decided to do for her website, was to create a page that she could easily make changes to on her own. She wanted to have a link on her homepage to a page for "boxers currently waiting to be adopted", that would have pictures of the dogs currently needing homes. We, on the other hand, wanted to set her new website up so that it would not need to be constantly updated. She didn't know anything about website design & if she had to update it constantly, then she would need to have someone do it for her & this would inevitably cost her more money. The solution we came up with was to set up the page for "boxers waiting to be ...", on a different website, and make the page so that it would be as easy as possible for Mary to make changes to it on her own. This way she would not have to rely on a friend or pay someone to make changes to it. We set the page up on a different site so that she would not be able to "mess anything up" on her newly redesigned website while trying to make changes to her "boxers waiting" page. IF she messed anything up, it could only be on that one page. This will give her some peace of mind while she adds new pictures and text to her page.