Over the next day or so, I am going to blog about the 3 newly designed websites that I am launching this week. These are all a part of my Project Spotlight series, which is intended to provide a glimpse into some of the behind-the-scenes thoughts and work that go into each of my website projects.
Today, I am talking about Crandall Coffee Roasters.
John and Janet Crandall were referred to me by the local web hosting company that I work with regularly. The existing website was outdated and fairly difficult to use, and the Crandalls were not able to manage and update it themselves because of the lack of a user-friendly content management system.
The new website is designed on WordPress. This gives the Crandalls the ability to sign into their website’s admin panel to make changes and updates to their own website.
I used the WP E-Commerce plug in for the online store. I found the plug in easy to use and modify (I had to edit some of the plug in template files in order to display the shipping options that the Crandalls offer). It was easy to integrate into the website and set up with both PayPal and USPS, which allows customers to calculate real-time shipping rates before checking out.
I used the NextGEN Gallery plug in from WordPress to create the photo gallery page of the website. This is one of my favorite photo gallery plug ins to use, as it is very customizable and integrates easily into your website.
The home page is set up to display the latest post from the blog, which will keep the home page fresh and up to date.
Overall, the design of CrandallCoffee.com went smoothly and without any major hiccups, and the Crandalls were great to work with and get to know.
I am also now a regular customer of theirs, and highly recommend all of you coffee drinkers who read my blog to try the Crandall’s organic coffee. 
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Twitter: ideasbubble
says:
Wordpress makes it so easy; just install a plugin here and there. I think i’m going to focus on, when i have to develop a website for someone, to make sure that its running. Even the extra time to coach them how to use the software is well worth it and will help them in the long run.
Peter J recently posted..Is blogging now a religion or something
Twitter: TheLibzter
says:
Hey Peter J! Good to see you around here again!
You’re right, WordPress does make things “easy” in some ways. Although a lot of times, to get a site just the way you want it, there is a lot of editing and template customization for the plug in files as well as the actual website files. But I like doing that anyways
I think the WordPress admin panel is pretty user-friendly and most people can learn to use it fairly quickly. Which is one reason why I use it a lot!
How is your social networking theme coming? I had no idea you were into developing WordPress themes too!!