I grew up in Charleston but have lived in Greenville, SC since 1995. I graduated from the College of Charleston in 1984 and have worked in medical school administration, sales and sales management, and finance as a mortgage broker/banker.
I taught myself how to code about fifteen years ago when most websites were built with pure HTML, and for the past six years I have been learning more and more about CSS. It’s amazing what can be done with just those two languages alone. At some point I would like to learn JavaScript and PHP and Ruby on Rails, but for right now Google can show me just about anything I need to know with free scripts, forums, tutorials and how-to information.
I love using WordPress because it wraps all of these in a nice, neat package that is ready to use upon installation. PHP on the back-end provides all the power, functionality and scalability that you need, and HTML and CSS on the front-end allows for total control of the content, design and overall look.
If you decide to hire me you will find that I am reliable, easy to work with, and available just about anytime via email or phone. I am well aware of my strengths and limitations, and if what you’re asking for is beyond my ability or comfort level, I will tell you upfront. There is enough business out there for all of us, and I won’t waste your time or accept payment if I can’t deliver what you want.
Build vs. Design
I prefer to build rather than design, and my low prices reflect that. And it also forces you to think about what you want. Show me what you like and I can build it. What colors do you like? Google “best red websites” or any other color to see examples compiled from across the web. What fonts do you like? Browse through the hundreds of free fonts on Google Fonts, or go here, here and here to get an idea of fonts, sizes and typography in a variety of beautiful combinations. There are no right or wrong answers; it’s just a matter of your personal taste. On this site I am using Open Sans for headlines and navigation links, and Gentium Basic for the body text.
There are thousands of free and moderately-priced themes available on WordPress, StudioPress
and Theme Forest. Among the major decisions you’ll have to make is what kind of page layout(s) you prefer. The six major types are shown at right, and the two most popular layouts are full-width and content-sidebar. Many of the free themes limit you to one layout, and one of the reasons I like StudioPress is because it offers all six so that each page on your website can be customized.
Logos, Illustrations and Photography
There is a ton of good stuff on the web if you know where to look, much of free or reasonably priced. For a small fee, you can download logos, illustrations and stock photography from the huge collection at iStockphoto.
For free, high-quality photography you should browse the archive at Flickr Creative Commons … there is some incredible stuff on there if you take the time to look around. The Attribution license allows you to use these images on your website as long as you link back to the original work on Flickr. Just type something into the Search box and when the results appear, click the License link at the top of the page and place a check mark next to Creative Commons and Commercial Use Allowed (click image to the left for a larger view) to filter the images available to use under the Attribution license.