with Created Expression

Site: Created Expression
Template: RocketTheme BentoBox
Extensions: AkoComment Tweaked, iJoomla Magazine, iJoomla SideBars, Joom!Fish, RokGuest, RokMember, slimbox, VirtueMart

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For a brief history of the evolution of this site, please read on...

The debut...

The very first version of this site wasn't a site at all. It was a page. And it was a rather empty one at that. But... it represented a bunch of stuff for me.

This page was possible once I had picked a business name and had come up with a logo. This page was possible once I had acquired a digital camera, had figured out how to use it and then had managed to get the images onto my computer. This page was possible once I had purchased a domain name and had sorted through the hosting "stuff". This page was possible once I sorted through the how of creating my web page and then the how of getting this onto the host server. This page was possible once I had decided that I would do this "for real".

So... even if it doesn't look like much, it was a huge "now done" step for me. And it opened up the doors to the next steps.

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The next step...

In lots of ways, this still-"page" was the hardest one for me to put up.

Once I had gotten over being happy that I had "something" up on the web, I began thinking about what exactly and really I wanted up and out there. Initially, I wanted a place where people could see my jewellery. So... that's what I put up. 5 images. 5 images of my "stuff". 5 images of "my" stuff that I wanted people to like. And as soon as something matters, well... it matters. And this made posting it rather nervewracking.

This page was still a page but on clicking on any of the images, a larger version of the image would pop-up on the screen. That was it except... it was the declaration of my intentions. It showed the types of jewellery that I was about to make available. It was the beginning of the development of my web style. It was the beginning of my frustrations with photographing jewellery for the web. It was the beginning of firsthand introduction to the world of search engines. It was my next step.

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First "site"

This "web moment" had a more elaborate first page. And, notably, this web moment *had* a "first" page which for me made it a "site" :o)

Where before clicking on one of the front page images would pop-up a larger view of that image, now mousing over an image would roll it over to the next image in that sequence and clicking on it would take you into the site. At this point then the front page became a "splash page" given that it served as a mini gallery as well as affording a choice of entry into the site in English or French.

The site itself was (let me count) ten pages overall and contained galleries of the different jewellery piece types. Clicking on a gallery thumbnail would bring up a larger image of the small one clicked on. I also added in a gallery of some of my "other art" images and I began writing text. This was my first encounter with an "about" page :o)

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The next version...

This version was about the organizing of "more" content. "Jewellery" became a section all its own and had more information added to it (like links to suppliers and artisans). The pop-ups of the pieces themselves now contained titles and descriptions. And given the growing number of pieces that were being added to the galleries, I added two different gallery views to the standard one... "small images" and a "text version".

Notably all of this was with an eye towards selling work directly from the site. (I'm not sure how far away from the launch of this version it was, but I had set a date for myself for the "when" of selling directly from my site.) Also towards that end, it was somewhere between the last version of the site and this one that I began selling work on eBay both to gain online selling experience (I was pretty good at the buying part :o) and to begin to let people know about my work and my site.

I guess at this point the web work was more about functionality than anything else. My other web efforts were about stirring up some interest in my work, building some knowledge of my existence and continuing to make sure that any contact built confidence.

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Possibility to purchase online

At this point I let out a huge sigh...

Getting to the point of adding the PayPal shopping cart to my site was a long awaited step for me. After getting the last version up and running, I had the basics of the functionality working. With the eBay experience, I felt comfortable with the payment options and I had learned more about shipping than I could have imagined, so... onto this part of my site.

Everything else basically stayed the same, excepting the addition of "add to cart" and "view cart" functionalities where appropriate.

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Continued organizing

The site stayed pretty much the same for a while. Most of my activity was organizing and reorganizing the growing information pages as well as optimizing the galleries/images.

It was at this point that I split out "available" from "gallery" jewellery pieces. It was at this point that I began tracking visits to the site in order to learn how people how people found and used it. And because of this I dove deeper into the world of search engines and the uses of meta-tags. And with respect to all of that, "traffic" is one thing. Setting up appropriate connections is another.

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Fine tuning

For the longest while I just kept maintaining the site -- adding stuff, moving stuff -- and with browser updates, I spent some time reworking the styling of the site. A few minor layout changes but nothing major. More optimizing. More meta-tag and link work. A time of general upkeep.

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More "stuff"

Same basic site, just more "stuff"... Bookmarks and jewellery rolls. Workshop "stuff". More images. More experience with what I hadn't quite thought through "enough" at the inception of the site (like how much work is involved in adding new things :o)

It was probably somewhere between the last instantiation of the site and this one that "blogs" and "blogging" came into being in full-force. To that end, I took a course on blogs with HWG and set up on being.

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New version

After having worked with the site for a while, it was time for re-write. I was ready for a new look. I was ready to make things easier to maintain. I was ready to add a new "esoteric" section. I was ready to benefit from the experience of my first site in all of its carnations. So, to that end, you can see a few of the screenshots of the results of my re-write here...

I really liked this site. I liked the aesthetic of it. I liked the space of it. I liked the ease of maintaining it. I had integrated Milonic menus which made changing things around a breeze. I had changed my own database stuff to make keeping it up easier. I had worked the code and the content so that all of the "stuff" loaded as well as so much stuff could. And even the tracking software I was using came out with a "simpler to maintain" version. Life was good and inspiring. The content changed and evolved but the site itself stayed pretty much the same for its lifespan.

And during this site's lifespan, a couple of blogs came into being...

The Created Expression blog and the Created Expression - How To blog. Sites are great for presenting content. They are not great for any sort of ephemeral "news" nor are they great for exchanges. So... I added these. Well, actually I added one blog. In adding articles, it quickly became clear that speaking to buyers is different than speaking to co-creators so I split the single blog into two.

So, in short, this was a very inspiring time. The site came online and went offline in basically the same "version" even though the content changed along the way. It lasted not quite a year.

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Another new version

Another major update bringing things up to today's version of the site.

I actually spent a lot of time and quite a bit of effort in order to not need to do this. And, I wasn't trying "not to do this" because of the work involved but because I really liked the last version of my site. So... after a bunch of very active "trying to not do this", I finally gave in to the fact that the functionality, the clarity and the ease I was looking for only came with a(nother) re-write. Once this was clear, my work became bringing all of the stuff I really liked about my old site to this new one. And... I am now happy. (And, along the way as life is wont to do, I was once again reminded that working to not do something you don't want is sometimes more work than "simply" doing what you do want :o)

The layout. There are a lot of different sections to this site and people of quite widely varying interests visit. I tried to best reflect this in the layout.

A "shop" functionality. Although I still use PayPal for payment, the shopping cart is managed within the site before it is passed along to PayPal. This means that things like "inventory" and availability (of all of those "one of a kind" things) are now managed in a "shop" with more than the usual "cross my fingers" strategy. And, both shipping and taxes are handled "better". Still not perfect in this oh-so-variable-by-area world but better. In addition to this, this software allows the offering and use of coupons.

Galleries. With the shop showing only active and available items, I added a "galleries" section for past work.

Searching. Searching the site or searching only within the shop is now possible.

Registration. I am a very "public" sort but like intimacy sort of always actually. This new version of the site (as the one you are currently visiting) satisfies both of these things for me by allowing but not obliging people to register and log in and, as such, to access different things. To that end, to share comments and sometimes to read comments, registration is necessary. And, for the "how to" side of things, registration is necessary in order to access all of the material. The point was to break through any shyness barriers and inspire participation by providing "shared" intimacy.

Blogs. The "Created Expression blog" was integrated into the site with news and the possibility to comment scattered a bit throughout (and/but hopefully where appropriate :o) The Created Expression "How to" blog was integrated into the site as its own section.

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So... that's it for the history. And even though it looks long on the page, I still consider this version "brief" given the number of years this evolved over :o) And, up to this latest version of the site (excluding the menu code for the version before that), I actually handcoded everything. And not that I have anything against handcoding -- quite the opposite actually -- I like handcoding stuff that doesn't yet exist otherwise or that does exist but isn't quite to my liking. Given that, given the number of people developing great (and very much to my liking) things for Joomla!, there is lots of room for thinking up "new" stuff while absolutely making use of the wonderful work that has and continues to be done. "Strength in numbers" and all of that.

That written, I still find sharing my "history" relevant. It isn't only about the tools. It is about knowing what you want to do, why and when. No software can help you with that but... once you know, the current tools available can sure get you moving in that.

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