Lowcows.com

Add Your Business to Google Maps

johng — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 14:13:28 +0000

If you’re a business owner, you’ve probably purchased a listing in a phone book at one point or another. Not so long ago, phone books were the best bang for buck way to generate new business. As technology changes, so does the way we do things though. The Internet has changed the way people search for information such as a businesses address or phone number. If you were able to place a lifetime listing for your business in the worlds biggest phone book and its free for those who know how to do it, would you? If so, please read on.

Adding your business to Google Maps is easy, beneficial, and free. To begin, you’re going to need a Google Account which is again, free. The best way to get a Google Account is to sign up for a Google Email Account aka Gmail(also free). You can do this at www.gmail.com.

Now that you have a Gmail account, let’s continue.

Go to http://places.google.com/business. You will need to login with your new Google account info if you’re not already. This is the same login information used to login to Gmail.

Note: Google will require you at the end to verify your business. One of the two choices, which is the fastest way, will be verification by phone. It is best to do this from your business since Google calls your business phone number to give you a verification code.

Once you’re logged in, you’ll see a button that says List Your Business on the right side of the page as seen below.

At this point, Google is going to want you to enter your business phone number so they can perform a record search as seen below.

After clicking the “Find Business Information” button, one of two screens will come up. Screen 1 is when they have found your business phone number in their records, you’ll want to click edit. Screen 2 is when Google Places has not found your business. Here is where you’ll begin filling in information about your business.

Screen 1

Screen 2

We should now all be on a page that looks like the one pictured below. Fill out as much information as you can about your business. Once you’re complete, click the submit button at the bottom of the page.

Once you have submitted your information, Google is going to give you two choices for verification, by phone or by mail. After you decide which is best for you, follow their instructions from there and your business will now be on Google Maps.

Van Asten Tree Nursery

themadcow — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 20:22:37 +0000

Tom Van Asten was looking for a way to help improve business in the form of a website that was as attractive as it was easy to use. As always, the obvious choice was WordPress.

We started this project with an in-depth phone conversation to find what needs Tom had for his site as well as the direction he was hoping to go in with the design.

From our talks we put together two design mock-ups for Tom to pick from. After some slight modifications to one of the designs we had approval to start developing the custom WordPress theme. In a matter of 2 days the theme was done and we were set to get the new theme online and the site populated with content.

Key features of the site:

Custom WordPress theme
Custom WordPress theme options
Custom artwork
Widget ready theme
Contact form
SEO ready

Van Asten - Main Page

Van Asten - Header

Aldo’s Pizza and Pub

themadcow — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 20:13:44 +0000

Aldo’s Pizza and Pub is a restaurant located in Germantown, WI who approached us to help revive their website. Their old website was doing nothing for their business, was bland looking and very outdated.

Their number one need for their new website was that it needed to be easy to update and maintain themselves. The obvious choice was to switch over their static website to WordPress and teach them how to manage their site and content on their own.

Key features of the site:

Custom design based on previous sites background and their logo
Custom WordPress theme options
Custom artwork
Widget ready theme
Upcoming events
Daily specials
Contact form
Map and direction integration
SEO ready

Aldo's - Main Page

Aldo's - Menu Sample

Aldo's - Footer

Custom WordPress theme options allow for the website administrator to easily add icons in the footer for additional social media networks.

Joanie’s Cherished Creations

themadcow — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 20:00:40 +0000

Joanie is a talented, crafty woman who is selling her scrapbooking and craft items on her etsy.com shop. The only problem was she needed a banner that she could use both on her shop as well as at other sites to draw in more traffic.

Being very open to suggestions we started the design of her banner off a piece she was selling at the time. We didn’t hit this fist design out of the park so we went back for another 2 designs before she found something she liked.

We were glad she liked the work, but we never stop until we hear our clients say they love what we’ve done for them. We asked if we could try something new in a completely different direction and she gave us the go ahead – after all it was on our own time, non-billable hours.

One quick design and one even quicker change and we had something that Joanie loved.

Joanie's Cherished Creations

Photo-52.com

themadcow — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 19:59:31 +0000

Photo-52.com is a website created by photographers for photographers. As there were already countless sites out there teaching amateur photographers how to use their cameras, Photo-52 wanted to fill a niche it saw was missing: having fun with your camera and your photographs.

The site design need to be fun and fancy yet still not be too cluttered for content and supporting article images. The resulting WordPress theme was a completely custom design that was hand coded to provide the many features it required.

Key features of the site:

Custom artwork
Custom WordPress theme
Custom WordPress Theme options
SEO ready
Page and post thumbnail support
Author pages
Category, tag, date and archive pages
Drop down social media icons
Slide down accessibility notice
Contact form
Easy advertising management
Image credits

Photo-52 - Main Page

Photo-52 - Accessibility Slider

Photo-52 - Comments

Photo-52 - Social Icons

Project Photo

themadcow — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 19:38:58 +0000

Project Photo is the online photography portfolio and group project website of one of designers. Initially the website was handled using custom PHP code to display, upload and sort images. A backend was created to help organize the website but once other photographers were interested in joining the fun the move to WordPress was the logical choice.

WordPress now allows the site to have multiple users (photographers) while allowing the administrator to limit access to those users in order to keep the site secure. The content of the site is easier to update, organize and find reducing the time the administrator spends on the site by fourfold.

Key features of this site:

Custom WordPress theme based on previous design
Custom WordPress plugin
- List Category Child Posts
Custom theme options
SEO ready
‘Page’ to handle individual images in a given gallery
Quick post to ‘News and Updates’
Ability to feature specific projects
Page and post thumbnail support

Main Page

The main page of the website shows and links to ‘Featured’ and ‘Latest’ projects as well as displaying recent site news and updates.

Project Photo - Main Page

Category Page

Project Photo - Category Page

The category page shows the description of the category and also allows visitors to view a sample image from all of the projects that fall under that category or sub-categories.

Project Page

Project Photo - Project Page

Project pages show all the images of the project as well as the project description and details which are handled by WordPress custom fields.

Individual Image Page

Project Photo - Project Page

The image page not only shows the image selected from the project page but also allows the visitor to cycle through all the images within that project.

Tag Page

Project Photo - Tag Page

Each project can be tagged with keywords to allow visitors to easily find projects matching specific terms.

Loaf and Jug Restaurant

themadcow — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 18:09:13 +0000

The Loaf and Jug Restaurant is a favorite local restaurant located in Brookfield’s Towne Centre. Their website features a downloadable restaurant menu and catering menu. It also utilizes drop down navigation to organize the many pages of content allowing for an easy to navigate website for their users. Some of the other features you’ll notice are contact form, map and directions to their location, Facebook Fan Page Integration, printable coupons, quick links, and comments page.

Loaf & Jug - Main Page

Loaf & Jug - Menu

The drop down navigation makes is easy to group pages so your visitors can get to where they want to go in just one click.

Loaf & Jug - Map

With a simple WordPress plugin you can provide your customers with a map and directions from their door to yours!

Daisy Chain

themadcow — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 17:24:59 +0000

Daisy Chain is a Milwaukee based hard rock cover band who were in need of an easy to manage website that would be flexible enough for changes down the road.

As with Spellbound’s website the Daisy Chan website is a great example of our low cost WordPress solution which utilizes a WordPress framework to save both time and money. Working with a framework allows the site to take full advantage of all of WordPress features making the Daisy Chain site one that is well prepared for easy changes down the line.

Key features include:

Photo galleries
Blog
Contact form
Band member bio pages
Facebook fan page integration
Gig management system plugin

Daisy Chain - Main Page

Daisy Chain - Gig list

A quick and easy way to let their fans know about your upcoming shows, the Daisy Chain website make use of a gig management system WordPress plugin.

Brookfield Car Wash

themadcow — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 17:13:01 +0000

Brookfield Car Wash is a Brookfield based gas station, car wash and detail center. Their website utilizes drop down navigation, contact from, advertising management plugin, printable coupons, mailing list, and a widget to update their gas prices. Its a very simple yet highly effective website. The majority of their budget went into search engine optimization. Some of the Google Search Phrases you’ll find them under are Brookfield Car Wash, Brookfield Detail Center, and Brookfield Car Cleaning just to name a few.

Brookfield Car Wash - Main Page

Gas Prices & Coupons

As a way to keep customers informed of their current gas prices a WordPress widget is used. If you’re prices are going to be lower than your competition you might as well let customers know before they leave the house.

Another great way to reward your online visitors is to provide printable coupons on your website. Let your website visitors know how much they’re appreciated by saving them money.

B&B Services

themadcow — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 17:00:51 +0000

B&B Services is a Brookfield Based Small Engine Repair Service. This website is a very simple and cost effective website. They utilize an email address capture system, Google Maps, contact form, social bookmarking plugin, and advertising management system. Their primary focus was search engine optimization. Some of the Google Search Phrases you’ll find them under are Brookfield Lawn Mower Repair, Brookfield Snowblower Repair, and Brookfield Small Engine Repair just to name a few.

B&B Services - Main Page