Clients: SkinnyChef™ Culinary Services
Stats
Note: As Iserloh Design has merged into Bright Launch, you may want to browse this page at its new location at BrightLaunch.com
Designer/Developer/Project Manager
Developed during July 2005
Launch: July 17, 2005
http://skinnychef.com/diary/ (current site in new window)
About the Client
Jennifer Iserloh, founder of SkinnyChef™ Culinary Services, is a culinary artist, prolific writer, cook and dedicated food appasionada. Over the last three years, she has been sharing many great stories about friends, culinary professionals, and everyday people who have a real passion for food and life - all on her website at SkinnyChef.com.
Design Overview
While Jennifer didn't mind publishing her diary entries in a hard-coded (static) HTML format, she nevertheless missed out on getting widespread exposure for her literary creations. To harness the full power behind a personal weblog, or blog for short, database-driven blog software has become the premier way for hassle-free publishing, enabling an author to increase visibility and traffic to their site.
- Wouldn't it be nice if the readers of SkinnyChef.com could leave comments, tips or impressions about the site or a specific article? With blogs, they can! Posting comments is one of the most exciting features of blogs, and adds to the richness of the user experience.
- Wouldn't it be nice if there was an easy-to-use, free software application that could be accessed from anywhere to publish diary entries? Wouldn't it be nice if the software also ensured that your blog posts looked good, and that the resulting HTML code conformed to web standards?
- Wouldn't it be nice if the readers of SkinnyChef.com could be automatically notified if new articles had been posted? Blog software allows for real simple syndication (RSS), by generating excerpts that are displayed on other organization's websites and in feedreader software. Without any extra work, bloggers can greatly enhance their visibility in the online blogosphere.
After Jennifer was convinced to let a blogging software handle her diary entries, Iserloh Design quickly converted her existing postings into a format that could be imported into a newly deployed database. Subsequently, our staff adjusted the default blogging template so that the new blog pages would seemlessly blend into the existing layout of the SkinnyChef™ website. Check out the first two screenshots on the right to compare the layout before and after the conversion to a database-driven site. No real difference!
Why Choose Iserloh Design?
Iserloh Design retains expert knowledge in emerging technologies, and provides its clients with exactly what their businesses need. Keeping costs in check is a big concern for many small businesses, so Iserloh Design's developers work predominantly with free and secure open-source software applications that don't cost a dime, are easily configured and benefit from a huge developer-base working tirelessly on new features.
Recent examples of Iserloh Design's work with open-source database-driven websites are in the areas of ecommerce (Julia Tan Jewelry), bulletin boards (Making It In The City) and blogs (Parmarth Girls, Uli.Iserloh.Blog, Customized Blogs for Blogspot, Blogsome, LiveJournal, MSN Spaces).
