Cue the Schoolhouse Rock classic “Conjunction Junction, what’s your function?” You can probably finish the rest of the song, but just in case here’s a refresher.

Function has been the keyword around the Bighouse office lately. Everybody wants connections. Our clients want to connect to their customers via Twitter, Facebook, click-throughs and conversions, email sign-up fields and contact forms. It’s nice to see that the sites we’ve built are continuing to be used and relevant and we’re more than happy to help them stay that way.

We’re designing dynamic websites that our clients can easily manage. We’re also continuing to monitor the traffic on sites we maintain – and the reports help us to find ways to improve SEO and get better Google or Bing search results. Because helping someone find you more easily and keeping your audience up to date – well, it just makes business sense.

So, don’t forget folks: The web is for forging connections and occasionally for hooking up words and phrases and clauses and making complex sentences like: I’d like to have some of this thing or that thing that’s in your online shopping cart; it’s lovely.

Bess Chappas currently travels the country promoting her children’s books. Since her retirements, she has been telling stories professionally to both children and adult groups across the country.  She has won Honorable Mention for an article in the Writer’s Digest contest and has authored the  CD, “Savannah Ghost Stories” and the children’s book, “Kiki and the Red Shoes.”

She wanted a simple website that would allow her to sell her CDs and books along with the ability to post upcoming events and articles. Building on a wordpress platform, we were able to achieve both goals fairly simple by incorporating a simple blog into the site. This allows Bess to easily make updates, add new pages, post new articles and add new items to her store.

www.savannahstoryspinners.com

With Fatwood Kindlin’ firestarter sticks, you can start fires in no time.  It’s true, these 8″ hand-split firestarter sticks start quickly with just the touch of a match, no mess, no chemicals, no hassle.  So for that special evening  when you would rather get cooking quicker or just want to get that fire going faster, use our Fatwood Kindlin sticks, she will love you for it.  So forget the fuss and get on with the fun, with Longleaf Lighter Company’s Fatwood Kindlin’.

But seriously, we had a real blast working with this client. bighouse was excited when called on to help rebrand this product from top to bottom.  From logo, packaging, content, web presence and social media, we hit the ground running at the opportunity.  This ecommerce site had challenges written all over it, featuring flash, PHP, javascript you name it. Because Kindlin’ is sold on both a wholesale and retail level, the site had to be developed to cater to both end users and reflect two pricing structures.

One of the most important things that the client required was control of their own site, allowing them to make edits and replace or add items, change pricing, etc.  This was accomplished by using Wordpress as our CMS platform and Cartweaver for the shopping cart features. The site even features ecommerce integration with the clients Quickbooks account, allowing automated order processing and hassle free online sales. Sales can be viewed in real time, batched immediately, providing a hands-free, no hassle ecommerce experience.  And of course to get the product out quicker to their customers, shipping integration with the fullfillment operation helped round out the entire site.

So give the site a visit and tell us what you think.

www.kindlin.com

Through the recent design and launch of Harrison Development’s newest website, www.harrisonspotlight.com, we are proud to have formed a strategic partnership with Agent Shield.  The problem with many land development and community sites is that real estate agents are often hesitant to direct leads to a website for fear of losing valuable leads. Makes sense right?  In comes Agent Shield, their Web 2.0 patented pending technology allows realtors and land developers to utilize a new development’s website as a marketing and sales tool while maintaining control of their prospects and leads.

Lets see an example, first visit the site, harrisonspotlight.com. As you can see, all contact information such as phone number and address are located on the home page as well as on the contact page here.

Now, lets go to a realtor’s page where the Harrison Community is being advertised,for example here. Scroll down about half way and click on the “view details” for the Harrison Development link, which will then take you back to the Harrison home page.  See the difference?   That’s right, the site has now been masked to show only the realtors information on the contact page.   The user’s computer is also cookied in the event that he or she goes back to visit the homepage, even if they don’t go through the realtor site.  Seller gets the credit for the lead, both parties are happy.

NOTE: Use this link to clear out your cache.

Read more about Agent Shield at www.agentshield.com

Phantasia’s Jewelry is “The Original $5 Jewelry Company.” This Richmond Hill based company offers affordable, high quality products and proven fundraising strategies. The project started with the redesign of an existing Web site with the addition of an online store featuring over 800 products.

Phantasia’s is Bighouse’s first e-commerce site. The site uses a mix of html, Flash and PHP in construction. Additionally, the site acts as a tool for fundraising. We also designed business cards, roll-up banners and other print material for their on-site fundraising promotions. We worked to give Phantasia’s the tools for a strong visual presence at their numerous fundraising events and trade shows.

Phantasia’s goal is to provide the best fundraising products available, at wholesale prices, so groups can make the highest profits for their efforts. Our goal is to make sure they look good doing it.

Visit www.phantasiasjewelry.com