New website powers Windmill Museum's marketing efforts

As a long-time supporter of local tourism and a past president of Visit Noble County, I have been a champion of efforts to market Noble County's many, extraordinary tourism assets for decades. Among those assets is the Mid-American Windmill Museum in Kendallville. When I ran into a museum volunteer while working on another local website project, I grew pretty exited about the prospects of helping the museum create a new, modern presence on the internet.

Sure enough, just a few weeks after our impromptu meeting, I received a formal request to submit a proposal for a new site for the museum. This project promised an opportunity to fix the display of images, an issue that resulted from upgrading the "old" website to operate with an SSL certificate. I had seen this issue occur on other sites, but did not expect to find that the content of this site was (still) being managed in a challenging and somewhat archaic way - manually, using raw HTML code in the site's file management system.

In 2022, in my opinion, no one should be expected to maintain a website's content without a modern, user-friendly front-end editor. Clearly, the museum's directors understood this and were quick to accept an affordable solution offered by Catchy Creations. Not only would a new website (in this case, using Wix) give a fresh look and feel to prospective visitors, it would also provide countless other updates resulting in an attractive, modern, interactive site for the museum to promote, raise money, and serve visitors.

The museum's website, before the relaunch, was only displaying its images if the user specified https:// in the URL. This indicated the site's SSL Certificate installation did not include necessary changes to the directory path for images. Though this "before" screenshot does not illustrate this issue, just imagine that where you see an image on the web page you would only see this placeholder instead:

The museum was also excited about the prospect of providing a responsive website. The existing site, still operating on the old platform, looked like this on a mobile device:

So let's look at the new website home page:

Visitors will enjoy the ease of viewing the new site on mobile devices:

In addition to improving the site's responsiveness, we also incorporated digital forms. Now, enthusiasts can apply to volunteer, send donations, and become members of the supporting organization safely, electronically, and instantly! (We used Wufoo forms, integrated with the museum's Square account, to accomplish these upgrades.)

Lastly, we recognized an opportunity to offer a more engaging, interactive look at the 52 windmills that make the museum a destination for wind wheel and history enthusiasts. The simple website table looked like this before relaunch:

The new site, using dynamic content (easily managed from a dashboard accessible to designated volunteers at the museum) allows visitors to see (and enlarge) images and even search the database for specific manufacturer models:

Working on this project was truly a privilege and satisfied my desire to support a local non-profit that has done great work to enhance quality of life and boost tourism and our local economy. I hope you'll find their new website easy to use as you plan your next visit!

Windmill Museum website

The scoop on Rake & Take's new business & website

Jory Baugher, a resident of Kimmell, IN, reached out to Catchy Creations LLC at the start of 2022. He requested a quote for building a website for a new company he was just starting called Rake and Take Pet Waste Removal.

While Rory described his website needs as "not very in-depth", envisioning a one-page site with links to social media, he was rightfully concerned about finding a solution that could grow with his business and also remain completely under his control and ownership, desiring a site that could be easily transferred should that need arise.

Following a series of e-mail exchanges, as Jory and I managed this entire project without ever meeting in person, we agreed on an affordable yet reliable choice: a WordPress website hosted by HostGator. We chose a shared hosting plan with a dedicated IP address and some optional upgraded security options.

By choosing WordPress, we were able to select one of the top WP themes, Neve Pro, which came with the option to use Elementor to edit the site. Elementor is very popular editor that allowed us to design custom headers, footers, and page content for Rake and Take. Jory also wanted to capture leads through a contact form on the site, which required us to find an SMTP mailer that would integrate well with his Google Workspace account using WP Forms (lite, free version).

We are proud of the results of this challenging project, one that may appear to have used a more-complex-than-needed back end for a small company's launch, but one that was based on informed, intelligent decisions by an entrepreneur who can see the future of his businesses with intentions to grow!

Rake & Take website

Exploring EditorX was an "exercise" in learning something new

Hidden Ego, a 24/7 fitness center founded in downtown Albion in 2015, grew in 2022 to include a second location in Kendallville. Founder and owner Doug Ebey, with whom I had already worked when we launched the KVegas Bowl website, knew it was time to launch the gym's first website to help raise awareness of the new expansion.

Doug is a pretty cutting-edge entrepreneur, so his business needed a more cutting-edge presence. This is why I opted to up my game by learning a platform called EditorX, offered by Wix.

EditorX is built on the concept of complete control over design "responsiveness", meaning the designer can literally build and alter every single element on the site to appear exactly as they intend on any - literally ANY - size of screen. There is no limit to making adjustments for various sizes of displays, from mobile to tablet to gaming desktop screen.

While I by no means became a "master" of EditorX, I had a great time learning about the possibilities this platform provides and am happy with the result. The use of EditorX features helped bring a modern look to feel to the site.

The quick capture clip above shows the animated motion on the new Hidden Ego website. This image shows the appearance of the site on a 16:9 format screen.

The screenshot above, of the same website, shows how the page appears on a smaller monitor, at 1366x768px. Notice the imagery is not compromised, but has "responded" in a way that keeps the layout intact, even though the screen got smaller.

As the screen gets even smaller, the layout proportions change to fit a tablet (768x1024px). The layout maintains integrity because of the settings for elements on the page.

As the size transitions to a mobile device (360x740px), the design shifts as well, made possible by the tools of EditorX. Wix's standard editing platform allows design for desktop and mobile, however the "bells and whistles" of EditorX are far superior if the client wants to see the design change and morph to be the best it can be on any device.

For this project, Doug (trusted and) indulged me in my desire to try something a bit more edgy than my usual work. For that, I am grateful!

Doug is a great community partner and investor who also owns and operates Hidden Ego Event and Recreation Facility. Be sure to get out and have a great time at one or more of these great local entertainment venues and STAY ACTIVE!

Hidden Ego Gym