Wossy Book Club is clever down to its core. The forum functionaility itself was taken from bbPress, the open source forum software from the creators of world-leading blogging software WordPress. The idea of the book club is that it runs through Twitter – it’s a Twitter book club after all. To integrate the two web sites Twitter OAuth has been put in to the core, with user registration and logon powered through the Twitter API. Through OAuth logon, the service is able to send tweets, and communicate with user profiles making the web site an extension of Twittter, rather than a seperate web site.

And the book club is now more than a forum. Ben Sutcliffe has added functionality to bring each forum in to a book discussion with book covers, blurbs and author details.

To help users with the fortnightly discussions, TweetStreams have been created to bring discussions and tweets in to simple conversation threads. The site also operates in the browser on iPhone, BlackBerry and Android, and developers are looking in to extending the site to application form in the Android mobile operating system. If you haven’t already joined, then sign up through Twitter now!

Visit: wossybc.com

S J Stephens required a one-off refresh for their web site. The web site had already been designed, however elements had to be recreated in order to edit them whilst maintaining the site’s look and feel. I added and removed pages, created new Flash image transitions and finished the web site off to the high standard it was originally made to.

Testimonial: “Ben made extensive changes to our web site quickly and efficiently, and was happy to add additional material along the way…..we are very pleased with the result.”

Visit: sjstephens.co.uk

The PilatesPlus web site has two sections: the brochure style Flash pages about the company, and the HTML pages that allow users to browse the class programme, updated termly, and contact the owner using a simple form. Continual site maintanence means that with the ease of one email PilatesPlus can ask for their content, images or design to be updated with new or revised content.

Testimonial: “I don’t change my web site often but all requests for updates are dealt with very promptly … I have had feed back from enquiries that my site is easy to navigate and gives all the information in an easy format.”
Ongoing: Right now I’m working on a new site for PilatesPlus where clients can register to book classes, keep up to date through Twitter and where PilatesPlus staff can manage bookings.
Client for: Over two years.

Visit: pilatesplus.org.uk

Fir Tree Quilting, whilst visually appealing, has incredible background capabilities. The ‘Price My Quilt’ tool presents information relevant to the user, rather than presenting the user with a table where they have to hunt for the data they need. Background extras keep the web site looking just as good if the user doesn’t have the neccesary plugins (such as Flash Player) or is using a mobile device such as iPhone.

Visit: firtreequilting.com

MS Boat Photos is a dynamic web site using user-contributed content that can be managed by the administrator. Registered users, approved by an administrator through the control panel, can upload photos which are bought by visitors. After the customer has paid, commission is passed on to the user. The site is easy to use, with simple search functions that return results ordered by relevance, and integrated with the easy-to-use Google Checkout shopping cart.

Visit: msboatphotos.com
Suggested search term: Boatname – Bubble

The Green Scheme web site had already been designed as a simple brochure web site. At the client’s request I added a contact form to reduce the spam receieved from having email addresses littered accross the site and to speed up the users request; redesigned the ‘Plants at Work’ page to make it look more orderly and fiddled with the layout to make it look better on the screen. More importantly I have acheived a Google ranking of #1 for various search terms, increasing the amount of traffic visiting the web site. Recently we added a special news section to the web site, where posts are categorised by location – allowing users to find news and case studies from their local area.

When performing search engine optimisation I don’t employ dubious techniques like Google bombing.  The best, most consistent and long lasting results come from ensuring quality content which is easy to navigate – both for the user and a robot.

Green Scheme also have a site maintanence contract.

Testimonial: “Ben offers an amazing service – it is superb value for money. He is conscientious and listens carefully to the brief.”
Client for: Over two years

Visit: greenscheme.co.uk
Check it: Google Results

The Girl Company’s web site was focussed on appearing visually brilliant. Text had been written in to images in order to reliably use a custom font, which looked nice but couldn’t be read by Google. Various tecniques were employed to increase the site’s page rank and to increase traffic and actual orders.

Testimonial: ”Ben proved himself to be friendly, reliable and hard working, and responded quickly and efficiently to our brief … the number of actual orders we have received is 45% ahead of plan …”

Visit: thegirlcompany.com
Check it: This site is no longer maintained.