What makes an advanced, highly effective website?

Thinking through everything that happens when a person starts looking for it. Is it easy to find? What is the first impression visually? A web site needs to look professional in a way that fits the content. It's even better if it looks amazing.

Then what? Can the viewer find what he or she wants easily without wasting time? Does the site look clean, and is its organization very easy to understand? Think of the Yahoo site and the Google site. Which one is more popular?

Is the writing clear, to the point, and interesting? Can the viewer send an email easily? And get an intelligent email back quickly? If the site sells something, is it easy to find, understand the cost, and place the order? How quickly and efficiently does the order go out, and is it exactly what the customer expected? Does the seller follow up with the customer? Does the company that is either informing or selling survey viewers regularly to keep on track? And how does all this work in a back-to-basics economy?

These are the elements of web design that Patty has been researching and testing for years. She has found ways of efficiently handling the production of web sites, utilizing her extensive project management skills in video and print. She has created streamlined, easy-to-use designs that go over well with a site's customers. Patty has developed writing techniques that fit an interactive medium, paying close attention to what is too often ignored—how the site is written. She has worked out ways to manage customer inquiries and online sales to ensure that customers get what they want immediately with no hassle. She has done extensive research on what customers want to buy online, what information they need, and how that information should be presented. Patty has looked closely at what approach is most effective for informational sites and those selling services. She has also worked out how to manage the financial end of web-based enterprises to ensure, via careful organization, that they are profitable.

Green Living. (Read the review from Blue Planet / Green Living.) At a time when Americans are trying to live more green and on less money, this site provides step-by-step instructions on exactly how to do so. It includes pages on how to manage household finances, cut expenses drastically, and earn more. The site also covers how to have solar installed and how to grow food. It explains what is really happening in the economy today, and what to do about it. Patty wrote the text, designed the pages via DreamWeaver, and created the images via Corel Draw, Gimp photo editor, and acrylic painting. She arranged that excerpts from the site appear widely on the internet, including on blogs focused on consumer education, public policy, economics, and the environment, and on FaceBook and LinkedIn pages. She also participates in online forums on the subject. She regularly hears from readers who positively comment on the writing, how easy the site is to use, and how they benefited from the information on the site.

"Healthcare reform can start now with no high price tag." Article published online February 11, 2010, and distributed widely via blogs focused on public policy (including those published by the Tea Party movement), consumer issues (including Consumer Reports), economics, and healthcare. It was also featured on LinkedIn and FaceBook pages. The article received widespread attention during the congressional debate on healthcare reform, becoming distributed well beyond the sites where Patty originally placed it. It explains exactly what healthcare reforms can be put in place right now with little or no cost to the taxpayers.

"Why your web site will probably fail, and how to stop that from happening" Article published online March 12, 2010; distributed widely via blogs focused on business management, marketing, and web design; and featured on LinkedIn pages. This practical yet controversial article on how to make web sites effective spurred a lively response from readers. It explains underlying problems with sites that you don't hear elsewhere, and challenges conventional wisdom in a down-to-earth, humorous way.

Patty regularly participates in online forums and on social networking sites, generally on the topics of the environment, public policy, business management, and web design / media production.

PBZ Productions, Inc. eBay sales. Patty gained much of her knowledge of e-commerce from selling on eBay, learning how to write copy, deal effectively with customers, manage inventory, and handle online transactions. She found how keywords work most effectively. She developed ways of tracking sales and of ensuring that customers were satisfied. Online marketing is very sensitive to anything going wrong, since a dissatisfied customer no longer tells, on average, ten people about the problem, as in the past, but ten million. Difficult as it is to make everything go perfectly, this situation also provides enormous opportunity since so few competitors are well organized. Those competitors seldom realize that what appears to be an impersonal medium is actually very dependent on person-to-person contact done just right. She produced photo and description pages in templates she made in HTML code, created graphics, and shot and edited photos. You can see what customers thought of her efforts.

PBZ Productions, Inc. classes. She wrote, designed, and produced this web site that promotes her classes and regularly provides information to her students. She photographed and scanned images, cropped and adjusted them in a photo editor, and worked directly in HTML code to create and update the site. She used script from a Javascript library to produce an online slide show of her own artwork, and uploaded art galleries of her students' artwork. Customers have responded positively to its ease-of-use and overall look.

Sold It, LLC. 5/07. She wrote item descriptions and helped manage sales for this e-commerce business, using copywriting techniques that made the text both easy to read and convincing to the customer.

GeoLogics. 8/98. She converted files to JPG and PDF for use on the web.

21st Century Software. 4/98 to 5/98. Patty designed, illustrated, and produced this site (Corel Draw, Web Designer) that was to be first used by potential employees and beta-testers, then expanded to attract potential customers and press contacts. The page is small because computers had lower screen resolution at that time.

Spring-Mar. 2/97 to 3/98. She organized, wrote, designed, and produced this web site, including uploading files and troubleshooting. The site promoted and provided a schedule for this nonprofit organization. The page is small because computers had lower screen resolution at that time.

Quyen Systems, Inc. 11/96 to 12/96. She wrote and organized web tech support text for netViz, a software application used to diagram and document computer networks. Patty developed the list of common problems and their step-by-step solutions, with all information verified by internal tech support. She created a sample flow chart (GIF illustration via Corel Draw) as a way to explain more complicated solutions.

Executive Presentations, Inc. 10/95. She produced on-screen forms for online law school applications (Corel Draw).

Walcoff & Associates. 8/95. Patty did illustrations for web pages (Corel Draw).