I have known “Soul” Joel Richardson for probably 20 years and he’s been a big supporter of CWS since day 1.  He co-founded Soul Joel Productions (SJP) in 2007 and let CWS build a site for one of his big events, The Staten Island Comedy Festival.  SJP has been hustling ever since doing comedy shows all over New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut. CWS is proud to be sponsoring his upcoming event in PA.

SJP, Misspel Komedy, & Connected Web Solutions Present
Comedy Night at Holiday Inn New Cumberland

Headlined by Maddog Mattern

Featuring SOUL Joel & Pete Westwood

Hosted by Matt Scarpelli

Tickets ONLY $20 in advance and $25 at the door.
Includes the show & 2 drinks!!!

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Sometimes it is the things that come along with hiring a web designer, outside of the actual web design, that end up helping clients the most.  Since I started CWS 5 years ago we have learned a few tricks that have saved us time and money.  This could be anything from a couple of hours of time to  hundreds of dollars a month.  These little tips have been passed to our clients and their businesses.

Photoshop Alternatives One simple example was providing a few alternatives to Photoshop for a client.  The client was under the impression that they needed Photoshop to resize and crop images to use in their CMS.  After pointing them along to Picnik, Aviary, and Gimp (if they wanted a stand-alone application), they were able to save a quick few hundred dollars.  This was not the first, nor the last, free service that we found …

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You have all probably seen responsive web design and not even realized it.  Responsive web designs are coded in a way that scales the content to the size of the web browser.  An easy way to see if a website is responsive is to grab the browser window and drag to make it larger/smaller.  As you hit certain widths, styles will change based on media queries in the CSS.  This is a very simple way to create mobile/tablet versions of your website without needing to create a separate mobile site.  These media queries are often used to hide or rearrange content for best consumption depending on the size of the device.

Take a look at the following list for some inspiration.  Look at them on your machine or mobile device and try different browser widths or switch between portrait and landscape to see differences.

Examples of Responsive Websites

CSS Tricks…

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5 years ago today, Connected Web Solutions LLC was formed in a small apartment in Lemoyne, Pennsylvania. What started as a budding freelance business with a few clients in Central PA has turned into a successful growing business with more than 50 clients spread over 3 continents.

I just want to take the opportunity to say thank you to all our clients, consultants (Lee & Jim), and supporters over the last 5 years.  Without you, CWS would not be here today.  I can’t say thanks enough for all the fun web projects, hard work,  feedback, criticism, guidance, advice, Facebook likes, ReTweets, and support you have given.

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Many people ask how much it costs to build a website and unfortunately there is no simple, quick answer.  It depends on a variety of things including, but not limited to; how many pages, layouts, complexity of features, and a  lot more which will be for another post.

What I will do is briefly outline the steps from the initial meeting through a full launch from one of our previous projects that is simply a brochure site for a small business.  I will outline the hours as well to give you an idea of the man hours involved.

Initial Meetings & Communication (Proposals/Agreements)

The initial meeting can take place over the phone but is preferably done in person.  It is mainly a question and answer to understand the client’s needs and goals of the site.  We have a basic set of questions that help steer the discussion but this is …

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