DEVELOPING YOUR ONLINE PRESENCE TAKES MORE THAN DESIGN SKILLS
You need a creative problem-solver with editorial and marketing skills, along with design savvy.
In an engaging visual way, I’ll help you tell the story of who you are, what you do, and why you’re unique.
Questions...
I use a holistic approach to telling your story online. Beyond layout and design, I bring an editorial and marketing eye to bear on your project.
First, I will help you identify 3 important aspects of your website:
Who you are?
What you do?
Why does your unique story matter?
Then we will discuss:
Who is your audience?
What is the main action(s) you wish them to take?
How do we ensure they take this action?
In addition:
Your site will feature your unique point of view in a smart and concise manner.
The custom graphics and logos I design for you will be the foundation of your larger branding plan.
The website platform we choose will be one that works best for your needs and abilities.
While a website with your name on it is an excellent marketing base, we can also explore telling your story in other media, such as books, slideshows, videos, and social media.
I specialize in working with authors, entrepreneurs, coaches, creative artists (including writers, photographers, painters, actors, and more), and nonprofits. My clients range from people who already have a well-established brand to those who are launching or expanding an entrepreneurial business.
These people often come to me after trying to create a website on their own and getting stopped at the earliest steps. They will ask me: How do I succinctly describe myself and my work for online readers? How can I find the right images? How do I figure out what kind of feeling I want my brand to evoke? Or How do I market myself? How do I communicate with an online audience? Who is my target audience? They say: Help me take this to the next level.
We work together to answer questions about your goals and audience. Once we have clarity, we can move forward confidently in writing and designing your story, whether it’s told via a brochure-style website, over a series of blog posts, in a book, slide presentations, videos, or social media.
Your website is both a showcase for your latest book and a marketing hub for yourself.
The author sites I’ve created range from striking one-page sites to sites that have dozens of pages and many blog posts.
The goal is to make the site look simple, but that takes a lot of behind-the-scenes work! I will be your partner through the whole process.
At its most basic, your author site will feature:
Your latest book cover as the center of attention
A grabber of a plot teaser
Prominent “Buy” buttons
An author bio that give readers a glimpse into why you wrote this book
An engaging author photo
Personal touches that reflect your book’s world and/or your personality
A way for your readers or others to contact you
Search optimization for each page
Responsive-design to make sure your site shines on cellphones and tablets as well as larger screens
Here are some other possibilities to discuss:
Do you plan to feature an excerpt of your book?
Do you plan to feature promotional or review blurbs on the site? If so, have you collected them?
Are you trying to build a mailing list for marketing purposes (future books)?
Do you have some free downloadable content to act as a “lead magnet” to build your list?
Will you be doing a lot of author events and need a onsite calendar or listing?
Do you want to incorporate a blog into your website? If so, do you have a list of writing topics designed to entice readers?
How do you want to use social media on your site? Feature a lively feed on the site? Connect to your socials via buttons?
For the ultimate personal touch, do you want to feature a videotaped Welcome message to your reader fans?
Find out more by contacting me (in the page footer).
Our collaboration goes something like this (click to expand):
My fee is not a set one, because it will depend on what you’re trying to achieve and how far along the path you’ve gone by yourself.
For example, some clients have finalized all their text by the time they come to me. Others need help conceiving, writing, or editing their story and graphics. Some have a well-defined idea of who their audience is and how they want to present themselves; others really aren’t clear yet and we’ll need to do a competitive analysis.
The bespoke websites I create for entrepreneurs start at $800 for the simplest and can range up to $10,000. In the end, the fee will depend on the sophistication of what you want to put out in the world and the agreed-upon scope of the project, which I will outline in a memo of agreement after we talk.
Have more questions? See my contact area at the foot of this site!
FEATURED PROJECTS
AUTHOR BLOG
An elegantly simple WordPress website for erudite author Philip Caputo. Redesigned annually to promote his latest book project.
Each of Phil’s 18 books gets its own showcase page, and the site hosts a variety of video and audio interviews.
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PHOTOGRAPHER’S
PORTFOLIO
This custom WordPress portfolio/blog was designed and copywritten by me for fine-art photographer Barbara Erdmann. The site was launched in 2012 with 30 or so special photos, and now has several hundred striking photos showcased on it.
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ONLINE STORE
greendesignGOODS.com is a Wix e-commerce site for sustainability consultant Jennifer Prescott. It features carefully curated pages of “green” products.
The store is the offshoot of Jen’s sustainable living advice-filled blog, jennygreenjeans.com, a separate multi-page WordPress site I designed.
MORE WEBSITE PROJECTS
Hover over each project to find out more. (Note: Some older sites are now closed.)
HAPPY CLIENTS
“Laura Kelly is beyond knowledgeable in building digital representations for businesses, blogs, and individuals. Personally, I’m most grateful for her intuitive skills. She is fast and thorough. Most of the time, she knew what I wanted/needed before I did! And she never once screamed at me to “MOVE!” à la Jimmy Fallon’s tech geek character on SNL.”
JENNIFER PRESCOTT
I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my website! And I receive numerous compliments from all who visit it. After only being live for a week, I secured a new client and 2 new courses. Amazing! The website is beautifully designed and so ME! Laura helped me write content, edit and organize my site to perfectly articulate and showcase my expertise and experience. She is a brilliant designer. So easy to work with and responsive. She kept me on task with patience.
I highly recommend working with Laura. Not only is she a wonderful editor, designer, brand creator, she is one of the kindest humans that I know.
KATHY MARGIASSO
“Laura Kelly is a magician, or that’s how it looks to an ungeek like myself. But that’s not why I’m so pleased with the work she’s done for me. Laura was an editor before she tackled the web. She understood immediately how I felt and constructed a site that presents prose—mine and that of other writers I admire. It’s clever and inviting, but it’s all about the music and meaning of language.”
BENJAMIN CHEEVER
“I have been getting compliments on how beautiful and well organized my new portfolio site is. Laura listened carefully to determine what I wanted, and made it all happen very quickly and easily. I especially appreciated her help with organizing the voice and writing the text of the site, since I had never gathered information about my business all in one place before.”
BARBARA ERDMANN
BARBARAERDMANN
PHOTOGRAPHY.COM
“In addition to her extensive experience in web design, Laura brought more to my projects than I could have ever anticipated, including her creative vision, solid design and editorial skills, and excellent judgment. She helped me stay on track so my projects could reach fruition quickly and she was always patient, easy to communicate with, and accessible.”
IRENE LEVINE
MORETIMETOTRAVEL.COM
“Major thanks go to web guru and all around awesome person Laura Kelly, who helped me with the campaign in every possible way: getting my website ready for launch, enlisting people to contribute, creating badges and banners, and providing moral support.”
EDIE JAROLIM
“Thanks to Laura for all her efforts in creating and maintaining my website and social media connections. My memoir The Longest Road sold 1,000 copies for the holiday season and I’m sure a lot of that is due to what she did.
“If you’re thinking of building or rebuilding your own site, I highly recommend her. ”
PHILIP CAPUTO
“Laura is the best! She is not only an excellent website designer, but an accomplished editor. Her trained eye catches typos and grammatical errors.
“She works quickly, doesn't overcharge for her services, and is a patient tutor, if you need one for blogging. Laura understands social media and knows how to use it to enhance business.”
WESLEY DAVIDSON
WESLEYDAVIDSON.COM
“Laura did an outstanding job with my website, handling both the creative design elements and the nitty-gritty technical details speedily, and with my priorities in mind. She also had great suggestions on what to include in my text.
“If you don’t want to deal with the stress of setting up your website yourself, I highly recommend Laura.”
PHYLLIS KORKKI
“Thank you so much, Laura. You are simply amazing! Not a day goes by that I don’t think of you and thank my lucky stars that you found us. Your contributions have been priceless and your friendship means a great deal to me.”
ROBERT KESTEN
ELECTKESTEN.COM
“I’m very happy with the website! It looks great and I love the bridges between the sections. Thanks for your work.”
PAUL NARAD
“I’m very grateful for all your help with Finish Strong. You are a woman of many talents! Editing, typesetting, promotional know-how, and graphic design, too. You are amazingly prolific and endlessly helpful—the best partner I could imagine in this struggle to communicate difficult truths. Thank you for being marvelous.”
BARBARA COOMBS LEE
AUTHOR and PRESIDENT EMERITA, COMPASSION & CHOICES
I was given Laura's name from a friend of mine who had just finished her website. When I saw the site, all I could think was wow, this person perfectly captured who my friend is!
From the start, Laura was everything you could want out of a website designer; she knew what to ask to help guide you, immediately got a feel for what I wanted from the site as well as the aesthetics, and gave me the space to make it my own.
She is also a fantastic editor and writer, which was important to me since my site is very focused on educating and connecting with my prospective clients. She was always timely with her emails and communication, and we met our deadline of 2 months to launch!
I am eternally grateful to Laura for building me a beautiful site and also taking the time to teach me the basics once it launched. She was a one-stop shop for me which was also super helpful. Thank you so much, Laura!
LIZ RODRIGUEZ
LIZRODRIGUEZCOACHING.COM