There are many compelling reasons to consider publishing a blog. Blogging can be a useful tool for:

• Business websites – to keep customers informed
• Members of online communities to share their experiences and opinions
• Families to keep in touch
• Non-profit websites – to communicate with their members
• Individuals to express themselves in words, pictures, video, etc.

We recommend WordPress for our clients who blog. WordPress is Open-Source software that runs on a web server. The benefits of using WordPress are many, including:

• Cost: WordPress is FREE. There are no licensing or monthly fees.
• Ease of Use: WordPress sports a user-friendly interface for writing and editing.
• Security: WordPress features strong online security against hackers. Multiple user accounts can be created with varying permission levels.
• Open-Source Development: A large, world-wide development community is committed to constantly improving the software.
• Plug-ins: Hundreds of plug-ins enable us to build cool features into your WordPress site. Some examples are: e-commerce, photo galleries, and event calendars.
• Access: Post to your blog or update your website from any internet-connected computer.
• Customization: We can easily create a custom theme for your blog or website.

In addition to blogs, we use WordPress as the foundation for our sites that require a content management system (CMS). We have found WordPress to be easy for our clients to learn, and its ease of use encourages timely updates. Best of all, you are in charge of how and when to update your site!

Today’s Web sites are designed primarily for viewing on desktop an laptop computers, but as technology advances with handheld mobile devices: cell phones, “smart” phones like Apple’s iPhone, and Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) like the BlackBerry, more and more people are accessing the internet on the run with their phones. Some estimates suggest that over a third of the world’s population has access to the internet through a mobile device.

If you provide content on your Web site that you would like to be accessible to phones and other mobile devices, it should be formatted to make it “friendly” for viewing and navigating on a small screen. Web pages designed for mobile devices should feature:

• navigation specifically designed for mobile devices
• small images, if any are needed
• appropriate feedback to provide context to the user
• “light” page weights to minimize cost of downloading

We keep current with recommendations and best practices in Mobile Web development as this segment of the Web grows and heads toward maturity. If you need to deliver content to phones, smart phones, and PDAs, let us know and we can build mobile-ready pages for you.

We offer two affordable web hosting plans:

Our Managed Hosting plan ($240/yr) is recommended for any site requiring content management, PHP processing, maximum reliability, and speed.

Our Basic Hosting plan ($120/yr) is appropriate for simple sites that don’t require a database.