E.Webscapes Design Studio

Merging with WebDevStudios – effective Jan 1

Lisa Sabin-Wilson — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 16:13:17 +0000

TL;DR: I’ve become a full partner at WebDevStudios, alongside Brad Williams and Brian Messenlehner, effective January 1, 2013.

Scott Basgaard, Brad Williams, Lisa Sabin-Wilson and Brian Messenlehner – WordCamp Chicago 2009.

I started referring work to WebDevStudios back in 2009 when some of the requests I was getting at eWebscapes were more advanced, from a programming standpoint (custom plugins, etc), then what was currently within our scope. I first met Brad & Brian and their team at WordCamp Chicago in 2009 and have enjoyed their friendship and business partnership ever since.

I have been fortunate enough to spend time with them over the years, regularly, at events like WordCamps, Blog World and SXSWi – each time they’ve impressed me with stories of the work they are currently involved with and amazing tools and applications they’ve been building. Usually those times involved Brad, Brian and I having a few drinks and joking around about how awesome it would be if we joined forces and took over the world, building rainbows to the moon and back. One time, on a rooftop in NYC, after several beers, I, jokingly, gave Brad a number of what it would take for me to merge – - I am pretty sure he didn’t speak to me for an entire year after that.

Lisa Sabin-Wilson & Brad Williams WordCamp Raleigh 2010

Over the years, WebDevStudios has always impressed me with their work – as well as their involvement in various aspects of the WordPress community, either through live events (Brad is a co-organizer for WordCamp Philly and the WordPress Philly MeetUp group), contributing core code to the WordPress and BuddyPress projects, free plugins in the repository and more.

Brad Williams is a fellow Wiley author with an impressive bibliography of his own as the co-author of the successful line of Professional WordPress books: Professional WordPress and Professional WordPress Plugin Development. Between Brad & I – we have 5 best selling books on the topic of WordPress, with more to come down the road!

Brad, Brian and their team have a passion for the work they do that equals my own, and if I really think about it, our pairing was inevitable – it was just a matter of timing. That time came earlier this year at the WordCamp Baltimore event. The after party to that event involved more than a few adult beverages where Brad, Brian and I, once again, began to talk joining forces and dominating the world….or at least our little corner of it. One late night – after a short journey in the Inner Harbor, which involved pirates, a pirate ship and a bottle of rum, we were all three in agreement: Let’s do it, Arrrrr!

After each of these events, and years of similar conversations, we would usually travel back to our respective homes and get back to the tasks of running our respective businesses. This time, however, when I returned home from Baltimore, I sent an email to the two of them that basically said “Hey guys, what if we stopped joking around about it and had a serious conversation?”

Brad & Brian apparently think I bring a thing or two to the table and were interested. Several phone calls and one trip to Philly later – it was a done deal.

It sounds so easy, doesn’t it? Actually, the merging of two small business LLC’s is a bit more complicated than it seems like it should be – involving lawyers, accountants and LOTS of frank and honest discussion between partners to figure out the fine details. To me it seems like we’ve been working on this for a long time – - and on the same hand, it feels like it’s moving really fast, too! It’s been a lot of fun trying to keep this quiet, as we worked on the details, and went through the process of hiring a handful of new staff – it’s been HARD keeping my mouth shut.

We’re not quite done hiring yet, and with a few more new staff announcements to come in the new year, we’re excited!

For friends of ours who knew of our plans over the past few months (You know who you are – it was kinda hard to keep it from our happy WordPress family of geeks!), I thank you for keeping it our little secret until we could get all our ducks in a row to finally make it happen!

I’m happy to announce, effective January 1, 2013, I am officially a full partner at WebDevStudios and am excited to be joining this talented team of code pirates. We have some really exciting plans in store for WebDev in the new year and I’m beyond excited about it. Aside from Brad and Brian, I get to work with amazingly talented folks like Brian Richards, Justin Sternberg, Ryan Duff, Jayvie Cannono, Corey Collins, Michael Beckwith, Tom Carney and April Williams, to name just a few.

For my clients and partners at eWebscapes – you, as well as our history and services, are an important part of the plans we have in store for 2013! After 14 (!!) years of providing web solutions to my clients and partners at eWebscapes – I am more than a little excited about this new chapter and merging with a company like WebDev with their collective caliber of talent and brains – this is a move that I feel awesome about!

So, well….happy new year!

(cross posted from Lisa’s personal blog: New Chapter: WebDevStudios)

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E.Webscapes is hiring

Lisa Sabin-Wilson — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 23:27:34 +0000

We’ve been in the business of creating custom designed web sites since 2002 (ish) and we are looking to expand our team by one (possibly two) remote, part-time designer/developers. If you are interested in building custom web sites and making a decent income from doing so – this opportunity may be of great interest to you! Our projects will challenge you and if you’re up for it – then we’re up for talking with you!

Here’s the down and dirty:
Minimum Requirements:

Documented experience in graphic design and web development
Experience with WordPress is a must (Expression Engine, Movable Type, Typepad skills are nice, too, if you have ‘em)
HTML/CSS knowledge is a must
Good communication skills.
Excellent time management. Ability to work on a deadline
While the number one qualification for this opening is a strong sense of design (aesthetics) along with strong web skills, we’re also looking for individuals with great critical thinking skills, a good work ethic and customer service skills.
We run shop like a consultancy, which means you need to know your stuff- and their stuff (whoever they may be).
Do you have references from folks you’ve worked with in the past on web projects?? I’d LOVE to hear ‘em!
Maybe an online portfolio of work or client sites you can point me to so I can see your work in action? (screenshots are nice, but I like to dig a bit more beyond the pretty, ya know)

Types of Projects we’re doing lately:

WordPress web sites, mainly (some with and some without a blog) for small and large business, multisite networks, social communities and lots of social media integration.
WordPress with E-Commerce (Cart66, Shopp or WP E-Commerce experience greatly appreciated!)
WordPress MultiSite (and BuddyPress)
Membership sites with WordPress
(…do you get a feeling that we do a LOT of WordPress sites??? we do!)

Work Environment

Your home because this is remote work – how cool is THAT?
In your pajamas, if you like
This is part time work

We’re looking for someone who

Thinks design is about solving problems, not making them
Likes to have a lot of fun tinkering around inside the guts of a blog
Gets more kicks out of removing elements from a page than adding them
Wants to learn, push themselves, and make the web a better place to be!
Wouldn’t mind making a few extra $$’s doing something they love! How much, you say? Well, why not apply and find out (hint: we ain’t talking about coffee money here!)

If you’re interested – you can apply using this form only (any other method of application will most likely get overlooked – - so don’t try to DM on Twitter or send a message on Facebook — please use this form only.)

I give each application consideration – but please do be patient as I go through all of the applications received. I will read them all and will be contacting you within the next week, or two. Thank you!

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Post tags: designer, employment, hiring, job, posting, Wordpress

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Sheltie Nation WordPress Blog Design and Migration

Lisa Sabin-Wilson — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 04:29:04 +0000

Sheltie Nation is a blog about Shelties! Kelly, and her readers, have a real love for all things Sheltie (which is a breed of dog, btw) and her blog is a huge repository of photos, articles, resources, tips and advice to Sheltie owners everywhere. Kelly wanted a cute design to go along with her cute pups and we worked together with her artist, Diane Troese from EmpireShelties.com for illustrations, and together with our graphic design work – Kelly was thrilled with the result! …

Project Details

Specs

Kelly from SheltieNation provided us with the design specs for her web site, which included things like fun, cute, natural and playful. Kelly wanted something colorful that also integrated artwork from her favorite Sheltie artist, Diane Troese from SheltieEmpire.com. Once we had the artwork in hand, Laurie created a very cute three-column layout for Kelly. We chose three columns because Kelly wanted space for her usual blog sidebar stuff (navigation links, categories, comments, etc) as well as areas for advertisements from her affiliate partners.

The challenging part about Kelly’s design was that we also needed to do a migration from Typepad to WordPress. Previously, she was using Typepad as a blogging platform, but ultimately, decided that she needed more control over her own content so she opted to host with us at our hosting division at BA Hosting, and then we dug in and started the import process of over 4 years of archives from TypePad to her newly hosted WordPress installation. Importing content from Typepad is a pretty easy process because WordPress provides a handy import tool – - the challenge came with bringing over 4 years of photographs that she uses in her blog posts. If you visit Kelly’s site, you will notice that user-submitted photographs of Shelties are a BIG, big part of what she includes in her blog posts. TypePad does not provide their users with an easy way to backup photographs – - well, heck – let’s face it, TypePad doesn’t give their users ANY tool to backup photographs or include them in their export file. So we needed to get creative to make sure we 1.) migrated them from TypePad to her new hosting account and 2.) make sure that all the images had correct paths within her blog posts so that they showed up when readers visited her site. We wish Typepad made it a bit easier – - but we got the job done!

SheltieNation also features user polls, social media integration (Facebook and Twitter), custom Google Search, Ads and monetization, our custom design applied to her vBulliten discussion forum site: Sheltie Forums, and a handy contact form allowing her site visitors to contact her, directly via email.

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Custom Graphic Design
Web site design with WordPress
Typepad to WordPress import
Customized Cascading Style Sheet (CSS)

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Post tags: CSS and Design, Dog Blog, import, shelties, Typepad, Wordpress

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dvDepot WordPress Custom e-Commerce Design

Lisa Sabin-Wilson — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 02:08:40 +0000

dvDepot is a brick and mortar store in New York City that provides digital camera and video rental equipment and supplies to their local consumer base. Their web site gets lots of traffic, locally and they needed a reliable e-Commerce platform so their customers could rent equipment online, and then drop by their shop to pickup the equipment. dvDepot came to us for a full overhaul of their web site including graphic design, migration to WordPress and development …

Project Details

Specs

The folks at dvDepot really left the design of their site up to us by providing us with some early, preliminary requirements such as color scheme, feature set and their own logo file. They wanted an updated, modern look to their web site while making sure that we paid attention to the underlying development work for their e-Commerce shop and making sure it performed they way they needed it to.

The first phase included the design work which includes a static front page that features a dynamic, tabbed slidshow that runs through some of the important content from within their web site. I developed this slideshow using jQuery and built-in WordPress post query features, because I could not find a plugin suitable to fill the need. The design met their color scheme requirements of black, dark blue, light blue and silver. I also used photographs provided by dvDepot of their equipment and facilities to individualize the site and provide their client base with a visual representation of their physical store. dvDepot provided me with their existing logo that I integrated into the custom design work that I did

For the e-Commerce solution, I used the WP e-Commerce plugin for WordPress and customized it at bit to act less like a shop and more like a quoting engine. dvDepot does not sell products on their web site, rather they list the products they have available in inventory and allow their visitors to fill a shopping cart of a list of products they would like to rent, including specific rental dates. This information is then sent to the dvDepot offices and the equipment is assembled in their shop, where the client picks up the equipment on the pre-determined date. So, the e-Commerce solution for dvDepot is not performing any payment transactions, but the features of the shop allows them to do everything else, such as provide a shopping cart, product listings, product categories, images, inventory, etc.

In addition to the static pages, slideshow and e-Commerce solution, I created a blog as a part of their web site, along with social media integration, easy video and photo embedding and different contact and web forms using the Gravity Forms plugin for WordPress. I also worked closely with Kevin Palmer at Social Media Answers in providing enhanced SEO, analytics and social media work on their web site.

Powered by WordPress
Custom Graphic Design
Web site design with WordPress
e-Commerce Development
Customized Cascading Style Sheet (CSS)

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Post tags: digital equipment, ECommerce, graphic design, shop, Theme Design, Wordpress

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WordPress e-Commerce Design: Hallie Friedman

Lisa Sabin-Wilson — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 13:02:42 +0000

Hallie Friedman makes her own jewelry and decided to graduate from an Etsy shop to an e-Commerce shop on her own domain, using the WordPress platform along with the Cart66 e-Commerce plugin. This plugin, combined with WordPress, gives users the freedom to run their own shop as it is a full featured online shop plugin that handles products, sales, pricing, payment, inventory and more. Hallie’s jewelry is so beautiful, it deserves it’s own domain and beautiful design to compliment her work …

Project Details

Specs

Hallie Friedman provided us with the design specs for her web site, which included a very minimalistic, monotone type of design. Since she uses amazing photographs of her custom jewelry – we agreed that the design surrounding her work should not be the focal point, but rather, a clean and subtle wrapper to encase her beautiful work.

The front page of Hallie Friedman Jewelry features a simple slideshow of photographs that represent different areas of her internal pages, as well as specials and sales she is currently running. The large photographs link to the corresponding pages and on the back end, it’s crazy easy for her to add new photos and links to the front page slide show. The navigation menu up top provides easy and clean navigation to the different sections of her web site, including her shop, information about Hallie, contact pages and product categories.

The Cart66 e-Commerce plugin for WordPress makes it easy for Hallie to add new products, and edit existing ones. It provides a full featured shopping cart that handles customer orders, payment, inventory, sales, coupons, and more! More and more, Cart66 is our ‘go-to’ e-Commerce solution for our WordPress clients.

Hallie also hosts two different web forms on her web site; one for general contact from site visitors, customers and information seekers, and the other handles orders for custom-made jewelry. The different form handling is powered by Gravity Forms, which is a nifty, easy, yet powerful forms plugin for WordPress.

Powered by WordPress
Custom Graphic Design
Web site design with WordPress
e-Commerce Development
Customized Cascading Style Sheet (CSS)

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Post tags: Cart66, E-Commerce, Wordpress

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iPod Nano Giveaway

Lisa Sabin-Wilson — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 17:55:43 +0000

We’ve been having lots of fun over the past few months with some specials and promotions that we’ve been running here at E.Webscapes – - THIS month, we’re really having fun by giving away something fantastic! This month – with every order placed between 10/13 and 10/30 – we are GIVING away an iPod Nano 16GB ($170.00 value)*. Yep – with every order*

October 13 through October 30, 2010 – we are giving away one iPod Nano (16GB) with every single order that comes through our doors*. What gave me the idea to do this? Well, a few things… first, just LOOK at the colors of the iPod Nano logo … does it look familiar?? I thought so! It’s a perfect match and figured I just HAD to do something to tie two entities together who had such amazing tastes in schemes of color! Secondly, to offer our clients some thing a little extra this month to show our appreciation and excitement for what we do here at E.Webscapes!

That, and everyone could use a little music to make their lives a little brighter, right?

If you don’t know what the iPod Nano is – here’s the rundown…its a music player, to say the LEAST. In sleek anodized aluminum and seven bright colors – - coincidentally, the colors you find right here at E.Webscapes! The orange, pink, blue and green that we’re so fond of here!

The iPod Nano is tiny, portable and has an easy access touch screen, built with the same technology as Apple’s iPhone and iPad – to make it easy for you to choose, sort and play your music on the go! It hooks into your iTunes music collection – - sync it up with your computer or other iPods and go!

If you’ve thought about a sleek and beautiful new design for your web site, or blog – now’s the time to do it … between 10/13 – 10/30 of 2010 – we will not only rock your web site – - but we’ll rock your world with a little music fun. And, don’t forget, with only 73 shopping days until Christmas – and iPod Nano makes a GREAT Christmas gift, as well.

Here is what you do: place your order for our services and complete your order by 10/30 and the iPod Nano 16GB is yours – in whatever beautiful color you choose! Rock on!

Also!! Tweet about this sweet deal and let your friends in on it, too – - they’ll LOVE you for it! Tweet

*terms and conditions apply – view details

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Post tags: CSS and Design, giveaway, ipod, ipod nano, Music

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EduPlan Custom WordPress Theme

Lisa Sabin-Wilson — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 15:40:05 +0000

EduPlan offers an entire, diverse range of educational consulting from College and Grad School Admissions to resume writing and transition from academics into the corporate world. They approached E.Webscapes to do a complete overhaul of their WordPress powered web site, from graphic design to the overall layout and architecture of their site…

Project Details

Specs

EduPlan approached us with ideas they had for their web site design. They wanted their site to appear less like a blog, and more like a full blown web site that spotlights all of their service offerings, as well as a blog where they write content pertinent to their industry.

I started with their preferred color scheme of blue and orange and designed a new logo for them, as well as a new design and layout for their site. The front page of EduPlan acts as a direct portal of information that invites you deeper into their site – but at a glance, you’re able to see their offerings and content. I included easy and stylish navigation tabs to make it easy for their readers to navigate in and around their site.

The focal point of their front page includes a content slide show that brings forward all of their different service offerings with associated photographs that highlight each of the specific content areas. They are easily able to update that content slide show through a back-end options page that I built for them in the Dashboard of their WordPress install. The other areas of their front page pull in information about their members, an informational video and their latest offerings from the EduPlan blog

Internally, their static pages have a layout and theme that coordinates well with the front page, and offers sub-page navigation, depending on which page you happen to be reading. Additionally, their blog offers the same coordinating design and layout, bringing the entire package together into a dynamic, professionally designed web site.

Additionally, we provided the design for their Spanish translated site, as well

Powered by WordPress
Custom Graphic Design
Web site design with WordPress
Social Media Integration
Customized Cascading Style Sheet (CSS)

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Post tags: blog software, computing, content management systems, Custom, custom creations, Designing, Education Blog, graphic design, logo designs, php programming language, power web, resume writing, robogallery, Themes, web design, web site design, Wordpress, Wordpress Theme, Wordpress Themes, world wide web

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LeCommis Custom WordPress Design

Lisa Sabin-Wilson — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 22:22:44 +0000

Did you know that the term “Le Commis” is basically French for “Soux Chef” ? I didn’t either – but the privilege of being a design shop is that we get educated on all sorts of nice industries and things that we normally may not have been exposed to, otherwise! Dan runs a web site at Le Commis where he is obsessed with cooking, eating, sampling new ingredients, styling and food photography, and he uses his newly designed site, published with WordPress, to show off his obsession to the world!

Project Details

Specs

Dan is lucky to have lived in a few countries, continues to travel the world for his job and documents his discoveries with words and photos. That is what his new web site at Le Commis is all about – - that, and his passion for food! He considers his blog to be a privileged place where he can share his food discoveries, stories, experiments, and where he can be as creative as he wants and can. That is what is beautiful about publishing a web site with WordPress – - it is accessible to everyone and makes web publishing easy!

Dan approached us with an idea for his web site and was looking for a classy theme that will display all of his passions, content and photographs. He decided that he did not want to have a standard blog on his front page, but rather a portal type of display that had specific calls to action for his favored areas of his web site, including a “Chef’s Journal”, a “Culinary School” for education and resources and a “Test Tests” area where he shares recipes with you, and his readers.

We provided Dan with several iterations of designs to chose from, and he had such a difficult choice choosing between a few of them, that he opted to use one of the designs for his front page and internal static pages; while opting for a second design for his blog and blog-related pages. Click the large image at the top of his post to see his front page, and then check this out: his blog and blog related pages are completely different, yet still using one theme and one installation of WordPress:

We had great fun doing the custom, premium WordPress theme for Dan’s brand new site! Can’t wait to start seeing all the great Taste Tests coming there in the future!

Powered by WordPress
Custom Graphic Design
Web site design with WordPress
Social Media Integration
Customized Cascading Style Sheet (CSS)

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10% OFF WordPress Design Packages

Lisa Sabin-Wilson — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 14:00:50 +0000

We’re pretty excited here at E.Webscapes this week, aside from the fact that this month marks 7 whole years since I quit my full time job to pursue self-employment in design and web site development – we’re trying something new! We’re running a great promotion for the next several days.. or weeks… on WordPress design packages. Have you ever considered custom design work to really set your web site and/or blog apart with a unique design? Now is the time, if you have!

Place your order with us for custom WordPress design work – and get 10% off! This promotion is only running for the first 25 people who submit an order using this promo code: EW10

This promotion applies to ANYTHING related to WordPress design – - need ideas?? Check these out:

Have a theme you’re happy with? Consider a custom header graphic design to individualize it to YOU.
We can create a snazzy background graphic (maybe something special for upcoming holidays? or something that says something unique about and your site?)
We create fully customized WordPress themes based on the specifications you provide. We design it, code it, install it and support it…. top to bottom.

This promotion will run for as long as it takes for all 25 promo codes to be used for custom WordPress design packages. It’s pretty simple – hit up our order form with your great ideas and we’ll make it happen for you. Prices on WordPress design packages greatly vary depending on what your needs are – so once you let us know what you need, we can provide you with custom pricing – with your 10% discount for hitting up our form with the promo code: EW10 and we’ll get the ball rolling together with a customized look that is unique, just for you!

Questions? Check out our FAQ and our Services page to answer some of the most frequently asked questions our clients have when they are starting out with our services. While you’re browsing, check out our portfolio of work, and some words that our clients have to say about their experience with E.Webscapes.

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Post tags: CSS and Design, Custom, promo, Wordpress

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Writings from the Foxhole – Custom TypePad Design

Lisa Sabin-Wilson — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 22:06:26 +0000

Tarsha runs a blog on the TypePad platform, but was looking for something a bit more custom and more unique to her own personal style. She approached us for some design work to her TypePad templates and had a very specific look she was going for. The name of her site, Writings from the Foxhole, comes from her last name (FOX) and how she has viewed and lived her life (from a foxhole…a battle position).

Project Details	Specs
Tarsha had specific ideas that she wanted for her site, starting with the color scheme she wanted to see. She wanted a dark scheme with black, chocolate brown, gold and a dusty rose color. She wanted a military look, but wanted it to maintain a feminine feel, at the same time. Tarsha provided us with some ideas and photos to work from, and our designer, Alicia, went to work and created a beautiful 3-column blog design and used TypePad’s Custom CSS feature to apply the new style to her site.	Powered by TypePad Custom Graphic Design Web site design with WordPress Customized Cascading Style Sheet (CSS)
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“The whole process with E.Webscapes was very professional, well managed, and organized. With my limited knowledge of web design language and techniques, I pleasantly surprise at how smooth the process was.” I cannot say enough to give Alicia the proper praise and credit owed to her. She did a fabulous job with my site, she understood every idea I had and the overall vision I wanted for the design and within no time, came up with the perfect design that fit my personality as well as the message I wanted portrayed on the site. She was very professional, courteous, and patient with me…very knowledgeable, proficient, and consistent with feedback, suggestions, and ideas. She left no question unanswered and no issue unresolved. I couldn’t have asked for a better designer. Just glad that I chose the right people for the job!! How would you rate your overall experience with E. Webscapes: Exceptional – I will recommend you to my friends!!

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Post tags: Blog Design, CSS and Design, Feminine, Typepad

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E.Webscapes Design Studio

Merging with WebDevStudios – effective Jan 1

E.Webscapes is hiring

Sheltie Nation WordPress Blog Design and Migration

Project Details

Specs

dvDepot WordPress Custom e-Commerce Design

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Specs

WordPress e-Commerce Design: Hallie Friedman

Project Details

Specs

iPod Nano Giveaway

EduPlan Custom WordPress Theme

Project Details

Specs

LeCommis Custom WordPress Design

Project Details

Specs

10% OFF WordPress Design Packages

Writings from the Foxhole – Custom TypePad Design

Project Details

Specs

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