This was version #4 of my site…I have now moved on to version #5…The new thread is here.
I’ve added some screen grabs to the end of this thread for reference. ———————————————
I previewed my site earlier even though it wasn’t quite done just to get opinions, constructive critisisms, etc. Thanks to all that helped!
It’s now pretty much complete and to the liking of my clients and prospects. It’s pure css (style and positioning), not a table on the site. —————————— Geise.com...The front (main) part of the site is EE used as a CMS with my portfolio, an about/contact section. The home page uses the weblog random feature to display the design statements otherwise everything is pretty straight forward. Pagenation on the portfolio pages is a little different in that it’s off to the side rather then above or below. ————— Graffiti...This section has some blog type features, membership, commenting, etc. You might want to check out the membership area as well, I completely re-did it to match the rest of the site and ditched the tables from the default install. This section is a little lite on content at the moment as it requires me to write articles/opinion pieces and it takes a bunch of time (as Rick lamented in his blog). Have plenty of source material, just no time. This may become a “client only” section at some point. ————— Linksville...This is somewhat bloggie also as it allows commenting (no membership required) and has an RSS feed. This section is pretty well populated and growing. I find this section fun and easy to do. My clients have a hard time keeping up with technology, the net, and what’s happening so this is for them. I now do it here instead of thru email. —————
And finally, there is the Lab… MoBlog...Has several different templates. A couple for simple emails, a couple for the more complex and one each for vertical/horizontal photos (they scale differently). Amazon Plugin...this is just a working page (totally unstylized) at this point, a demo for a client. It has a weblog for entering product numbers and then pulls the rest from the Amazon database. ——————————
If you have any constructive criticism, please add them to this thread. By the way, over 500 EE’rs viewed that thread so far and over half actually visited the site. According to my logs, most had larger monitors, were using a modern browser, 58% were Mac OSX users (thought that was unusual). I always knew EE’rs were above average —————
I’ll be adding other features/sections as I can (forum, album, etc.) and will add to this thread when they are ready. If you have questions, feel free to ask
On Second Thought...
Just leave all comments here. That other thread is fairly old and I’ve made so many changes that it should probably just fade away
Updated...Had a little time tonight so updated the Amazon page (link above). It’s now styled to match the rest of the site. Also pulled in the medium-sized images and plugged in the popup script so you can get a larger view. And finally, added a link to the Amazon product detail page.
InfoPop...Added an information popUp system. It’s actually a seperate weblog and I link to individual entries as needed. You can see it by clicking on the “?” mark next to the Atom button. This will be used for everything from definitions, glossary items, etc. At some point I may tie it in with the Acronym module.
New Section...AudioBlog...DIY-Radio and PodCasting seem to be hot and I know others have played with audio blogging so I thought I’d give it a whirl and add another section. Didn’t turn out too badly
Now Rick, being an old audio pro in his former life, may find it amateurish but it is DIY and the tools to do it are getting pretty impressive (and easy). If I have the time, or do this fairly often, I may do an RSS enclosure and turn it into a regular PodCast. Go take a listen
According to my logs, seems like just as many people (sometimes more) visit the old, preliminary forum post as this one. Sure wish there was a way to kill old posts.
Very well done site! I like that it’s not cluttered like so many other designer sites these days. The navigation is easy to read and use and the content is the focus. If I had more than two thumbs, they’d all be up!
New Experiment...I have a page in my “Lab” section that experiments with the Amazon plugin (uses SOAP). I now have another page that uses REST, turns the results into an RSS feed and that’s parsed by the Magpie plugin. AmazonSOAP AmazonRSS
I have also created a forum thread that explains how to do it.
Enjoy!
Your site may just have sold me on EE. What you demonstrated is exactly the kind of thing I want for our site. The question you can’t answer is if am I technie enough to make the basic blog into a content management system and integrate my own themes.
Thanks for showing your site. It’s really good, clean and easy to navigate.
The Marauders...New Subsection Added...Way back in my youth (high-school/college) I played in a very popular midwest band called “The Marauders”. When I started, we had seven but ended up with ten regulars and several extras (at times, even three girl singers). We could put up a wall of R&B sound that would knock your socks off. And, to make us even more unique, we had our own Greyhound bus (common today but hardly anyone, even the stars, had them back then). We played with the Animals, Herman’s Hermits, the Turtles, and a bunch more. Fun times Anyway, the band is being inducted into the Minnesota Music Hall of Fame so we managed to track down most of the old band members and I did a little site for us. Actually, a two-part site… Public...The public side is really not that public in that we don’t publicize it openly. It’s really for family/friends. But what the hey, if your interested, take a look. Private...The other side of the site, our private band member only area, is actually where all the EE magic is being used. Wished I could send you there but I’d be shot. It features all the content from the public side plus. It has commenting, (stand-alone) posting/editing, RSS feeds for all the content sections. Private captions for any photos that have a unique band-member take, etc. In fact all the content has private/public content fields.
A lot going on back there but thanks to EE it was all fairly easy to pull off.
Anyway, the band is being inducted into the Minnesota Music Hall of Fame so we managed to track down most of the old band members and I did a little site for us. Actually, a two-part site…
