Lexington, KY Website Design

Rob Rowsell | Las Vegas, NV

Since 2020, I have managed web content and edited videos for Rob Rowsell. Rob is a San Diego native with a remarkable life story, detailed in his best selling book Addicted to Life. Previously, Rob owned multiple auto repair shops. He reinvested the wealth he earned there into multifamily real estate properties. Those investments grew his wealth greatly. Today, he coaches aspiring investors on how they can do the same. For the first few years I worked with Rob, I set up and managed a membership section on his site. As his clientele grew, the site demanded a redesign. This is the story of that investor website design.

Real Estate Investor Website Design Story

As the years ticked by, I consulted with Rob and his personal assistant on how to add more paying members. We all agreed his existing site needed a complete facelift. His publishing company initially created a cookie cutter template (poorly) designed to sell his book. His business model was gradually moving away from just selling his books and scheduling speaking engagements. Instead, he set new goals of attracting leads to try out one of his monthly Zoom meetings. Once they tested what Rob’s Inner Circle meetings offered, they might join his paid online coaching group.

Rob constantly travels all over the country, both buying and selling multifamily rental properties. He is also an inspirational and highly sought after public speaker. As such, he has to trust that we, his remotely based team, can carry out the vision he lays out for us in our weekly strategy sessions. Sometimes, we have to make judgment calls when he is unavailable to meet with us. It helps that I have paid close attention to his aesthetic tastes. I take detailed notes on every task that he needs done, so it is very rare that Rob requests that I make changes to his graphic design or video clips.

Building The Investor Website Design Layout With My Rental Property Manager Client

I replaced the bland, uninspiring site layout with a bold combination of blue, yellow, white, and black. These background colors organize the homepage into blocks that help emphasize Rob’s services, as well as testimonials from group members. I also included a section that highlights the newest free blog posted to the site’s library.

I sprinkled a combination of studio and casual photos of Rob throughout the site. These are bolstered by royalty free images related to real estate investment properties in both the blog entries and pages explaining Rob’s coaching and speaking services.

Simplifying the Website Content

When we planned Rob’s new investor website design, I advised him to simplify the existing content. Some of its  pages slowed down the site with large, washed out images that were not optimized. The site also suffered from overall content bloat. There were way too many pages in the menu. Many of those pages were either redundant or out of date. The only dynamic element that ever changed on the site was the slideshow on the front page heralding Rob’s awards and achievements. Therefore, I combined several pages, condensing the menu to just four important links. During my audit, I made sure not to delete any bonus content pages linked from the book via QR Codes.

As the new site came together, our team agreed that the focus of the site needed to shift. While Rob’s many awards and his life story remained, the main goal of the site was to entice investors to join his Inner Circle Community. Therefore, we made sure the new homepage boldly highlighted that membership group. Rob also spearheads mission trips in order to build homes in Mexico. Links to that information is also important featured content.

Property Investor Website Design: Behind The Scenes Features

Along with streamlining the website’s layout and content, I made many improvements behind the scenes. The secure online forms automatically add new contacts to Rob’s CRM (HighLevel). They are organized into tags as well. I also solved an issue where the forms were allowing a large amount of spam messages. Now, using Google ReCAPTCHA 3.0, only legitimate messages make it to Rob’s inbox.

In addition to the website redesign and ongoing updates, I worked with Rob Rowsell’s team to integrate direct message marketing workflows. When potential customers see his Youtube Shorts or Meta Reels, he wraps up with a call to action. The videos ask viewers to request a free PDF or other info via direct message. Customers send him a keyword via DM asking for the content. In exchange, they provide their email addresses. That then starts an automation. I set these processes up in HighLevel to add the users to his contacts under specific tags, just like the website forms. When users are added, they join a funnel of leads Rob’s PA maintains. She automates follow up campaigns to nurture those prospects.

Real Estate Blog Entries

Today, I still update and troubleshoot Rob’s investor website design. Each month, I edit his monthly Zoom call recordings into short clips. Then, I schedule them to post on his Youtube channel and his Facebook page over the following weeks. I also get even more mileage from these videos by writing weekly real estate blog entries that flesh them out in writing. Along with eye catching thumbnails, I write a blog post centered around a keyword for each video. This process of regular updates strengthens the site’s SEO (Search Engine Optimization). The site then attracts more views from Google searches.

See the investor website design in action here!

Patch and Sara Drury | Lexington, KY

When I first moved to Lexington in 2009, I befriend Sara Drury and her husband Patch. Since that time, I’ve been privileged to work with them on a myriad of projects. The Drurys initially worked day jobs, but today, they both work for themselves from home. Sara built a successful life coaching business for women, while Patch collaborated on video projects and explored podcasting on metaphysical topics. Starting in 2021, the spouses came together to start a new podcast about dream analysis. In Dream Lovers, these certified experts share their knowledge of the subconscious mind, and interpret listeners’ dreams. As such, they needed a podcast website design. Naturally, they contacted me for a quick turnaround site. You could say I was now a podcast blog designer.

Podcast Website Design Story

Patch and Sara needed a basic, two page web design. The top bar features a media player, which automatically plays their newest episode. When a new show drops each week, I write a search engine optimized blog post to recap it. I select a fitting featured stock image, and center each post around a keyword, in order to help Google and other search engines find the site.

The Home page features a brief description of the podcast itself, as well as a call to action for listeners to submit their own dreams. A feed of blog posts summarizing each episode scrolls below the description. An expanded About page gives the reader more information about the show, as well as a larger player with a feed of all past episodes. Below that, the secure form to submit dreams and sign up for their mailing list displays.

To be honest, I could take or leave Cable TV, as well as most streaming services. I am, however, a Youtube junkie. I’m always adding videos to my “Watch Later” list. I consume hours of content about retro gaming, pro wrestling, and other topics. During the pandemic, my band could not rehearse in person for over a year, so I decided to focus on creating content for our channel. I went all in, studying how Youtube algorithms worked. One of the crucial elements in building a successful channel is to make sure  your Youtube thumbnail design is on point. I observed techniques many creators used in their thumbnail creation and put them to work for both my band and my regular clients.

Youtube Thumbnail Design Story

During the 2020 quarantine, I laser focused on some of my favorite creators. I noticed that channels such as Punk Rock MBA and Top Hat Gaming Man employed an effective thumbnail design style. Since thumbnails often display at very small sizes, it is important to maximize the space you are given. The most impactful art in this format tends to employ a bright colored background. A big, bold headline occupies approximately one half of the space, usually in white and outlined in black. Most importantly, the other half of the thumbnail usually features someone’s face, with a clear, often exaggerated expression. A face with an obvious expression, when paired with a compelling headline, can spark curiosity and generate clicks.

After study time, I put all of this knowledge to work. I sharpened my thumbnail skills while editing original music videos for Sempervivi and clips of Zoom classes by my clients You Net Results and Sara Drury. One such video for the band enabled me to partner with my favorite female pro wrestler Thunder Rosa, using footage from her career before she signed with AEW.

Rich Jones | Dayton, OH

It seems like everyone is a comedian on the internet these days. My friend Rich is real life standup comic, though, and a funny one, too! There just aren’t enough of those around, especially Christian comics who don’t use foul language. When Rich contacted me to make his comedian website design, I jumped at the chance.

Comedian website design story

Rich already had an existing website incorporating his wrestling inspired nickname (“The Whole Sh’Bang”) and logo (similar to that of our mutual favorite Bret “Hitman” Hart). It was, however, very limited. Many “drag and drop” template editor sites are. Because of this, I helped Rich add a hosting package to his domain name.  This way, I could redesign it using WordPress, which is my preferred web design platform.

I included the requisite brick wall background many comedians and comedy clubs employ on their sites. However, I made it a more subtle and shadowy dark blue, so the pink and white elements really pop off of the page.

He had a wide selection of photos of himself with famous friends, as well as Youtube performance videos of his clean comedy routine. I sprinkled these throughout the site in order to give visitors an idea of Rich’s personality.

As far as features go, I added a podcast player to a sticky section at the bottom of the site. It features the most recent episode of his show automatically. He also needed a page dedicated to the podcast, which encouraged visitors to subscribe and check out past episodes.

Finally, I added a Paypal store, so Rich can sell his shirts and other merchandise directly. Perhaps most importantly, I also set up an events calendar in order for fans to keep up with Rich’s appearances. Clubs can also book Rich via his secure form.

Check out Rich’s website here!

You Net Results | Houston, TX

My former employer Gary Gunn introduced me to Brian Gillis, a former auto repair shop owner seeking to start a training business. His new company would focus on all aspects of automotive repair, specializing in service advisors working at the front counter. Since Gary trusted me years ago to handle his business coaching website design, I was the ideal candidate to do the same for Brian.

Business Coaching Website Design story

This was a huge project, which was months in the making. While I squared away the nuts and bolts of Brian’s site, he was busy behind the scenes seeking out his initial clientele. Other repair shop owners ran in the same circles with him for years, so he was a trusted figure. We planned out a comprehensive strategy together for both the form and function of the site.

This business coaching website hosts both free video clips and members only content. The site is divided into a host of libraries. Each one houses an archive of weekly webinars covering a specific aspect of the automotive repair business. Brian and his clients deep dive into these topics in each webinar. They also meet in person at conferences a few times per year.

Other features of the site include a calendar of upcoming workshops and conferences. I also created a chart comparing the four membership levels for potential customers. The orange menu button is a call to action urging visitors download a free strategy guide and opt into the email list. Finally, I connected all of the secure contact forms on the site to the company’s Mailchimp account. Each one is organized by its own tag. The business coaching website design was complete.

Once I completed the website build, Brian and his team contracted me to keep the site updated. Each week, I edit and upload YNR’s webinars to the site. I also edit and post the free video clips and blog entries, handling SEO duties for each. Check out the site here!

Sara Drury | Lexington, KY

Sara Drury is a long time friend of mine. Throughout the years, she has worked with me on a variety of projects. In the Summer of 2019, she approached me about revamping her website, since she would soon be releasing a new book. She was transitioning away from a makeup focused business model to a holistic one that benefitted many aspects of women’s lives. As such, she needed to change her primary web domain name. I contacted her domain registrar directly in order to get all of that sorted out. I had a lot of ideas on how to help her reorganize the content on her life coach website design.

There was no time to waste, so Sara and I got to work brainstorming content right away.

Life Coach Website Design story – Layout and Design

As we exchanged ideas, it became apparent that she needed to emphasize the ways potential clients could engage with her. Sara’s main point of entry at that juncture was a free PDF workbook offer. The existing site displayed it both as a featured area above the fold on her site and in a popup. The call to action added potential customers to her email list funnel. She also hosted a weekly podcast, usually focusing on female empowerment, which sometimes featured business leaders as guests. With her book launch looming, we discussed ways to update both the layout and copy to help guide users more effectively.

Sara Drury refers to her business’s specific brand of life coaching as “magik”. Her method focuses on helping women nationwide find success. She specifically stresses that practicing meditation can tap into the strength found in the subconscious mind. Positive affirmation mantras are also useful keys for building her clients’ confidence. That could conceivably sound intimidating or fishy to those who are uninitiated. Therefore, it was very important for the site to appear as friendly as possible. Sara’s spunky and inviting personality comes across in the redesign. Everything from the photography, to the icons, to the font choices is important in getting this across to her visitors.

Website Design Colors

Sara sent me a very helpful guide for her brand’s media assets. It consisted of the hex colors I needed to adhere to. Bold, vibrant shades of pink and red leap off of the page. The occasional mint green accent gives just the right amount of spice to the palette. Otherwise, the site is mostly a clean, white background throughout. This lets the site breathe.

The Magik Maker herself, Sara Drury!

Content Optimization for Sara’s Site

As far as her changes in content went, we discussed several ways in which we could streamline it. We whittled down the menu to a much more laser focused four items. We chose to de-emphasize any pages and posts that continued to promote her skincare and makeup tutorials. Since her business model was changing, the site’s content needed to follow suit. As Donald Miller is prone to say on his podcast, “If you confuse, you lose.” In fact, his best selling book The Story Brand is a mutual favorite of Sara’s and mine. We referred to it often while finding the overall tone of her redesigned site.

Sara tasked me with editing her biography as well, which was featured on the About page. She provided a great starting point. From there, I edited a few of her grammatical and spelling errors. Afterward, I tightened up some of her sentences’ structures to make them flow better. Also, I made sure to add all of the appropriate links and images. I did this in order to give her potential clients the complete picture of Sara’s personality. That way, the services she could provide to them would become much clearer.

Business Coach Website Designer – Finishing Touches

I added a podcast player for her “Inner Beauty School” show in a discreet grey colored strip at the top of the home page. It incorporated Sara’s Libsyn RSS feed information, so that users could subscribe to the podcast right from their mobile phones. Alternately, they could choose to download the newest episode of the podcast. I also reconfigured her blog section to feature the most recent podcast episode in each entry, with optimized show descriptions.

Finally, Sara had a few important lead capturing pages already set up off site. These served as order pages for her books and workbooks, which in turn added people to her email list. I made one last run through of all of her content so I could make sure that those pages were properly set up and linked. At last, everything on the site was well organized, and in harmony with the corresponding lead capturing pages.

Visit the redesigned SaraDrury.com here!

Cynthiana Harrison County Public Library | Cynthiana, KY

Word gets around amongst Kentucky librarians! I have done print and web work for Muhlenberg County Public Libraries for years. Because of this, MCPL’s director recommended me to the staff at nearby Cynthiana’s library system. Cynthiana-Harrison County desperately needed a new library web design to replace their dated online presence.

Library web design colors and appearance in Kentucky

Cynthiana’s staff reached out to me with a long list of features to add, as well as content to update. Their existing site was nothing short of a relic. It had not been upgraded in years, and was not compatible with modern users’ phones and tablets. In short, the library web design needed a complete makeover to bring it up to date.

The first order of business was replacing the drab maroon and grey color scheme. I instead used a clean, bright pallet of blues and light greens. These colors lined up nicely with their new “tree and building blocks” themed logo design.

Features incorporated in the new design

A pleasing, modern appearance is important, but if the site lacks important features, it is worthless. I worked closely with the staff to craft a site true to their slogan “Branching Out Into the Community”. From the top down, Cynthiana’s redesign is feature packed, both for tech savvy users and others who are not. Every important feature sitewide is easy to find from the home page. Whether customers are using tablets, phones, or their desktops, the site is fully responsive.

Patrons can search the library catalog directly from the search box in the header. They may also drill down by choosing from categories in the site’s menu. The menu also outlines all of the many programs, services, and spaces the library offers. As the user scrolls down this library web design, the menu sticks to the top of the browser window and follows them.

A responsive slider sits beneath the menu. It highlights key content throughout the site with relevant images. I stress to my clients the importance of featuring real people engaging in their products and services. It was evident right away that Cynthiana’s library is a crucial community hub. The photos throughout the site reflect this so well.

Below the slider, three columns of widgets expand on what the library offers. The Announcements section lists excerpts of both library and community news. It links to the library’s blog for further information. In the middle, graphics link to online apps and services. The right column features a list of upcoming events. When users mouse over each listing, a graphic and excerpt pops up. They may click to register for each event and access more information.

Visit the site here.

Sempervivi | Lexington, KY

I made this 2017 band website design for my own punk rock music project Sempervivi. We perform in Lexington, KY and the surrounding region. I have been a band web designer for over 20 years, so of course, I had to design the site for my own group.

In addition to releasing our second EP “Always Alive”, I had a lot of merchandise and other promotional material to design. I hastily assembled a new website redesign which was themed after the album art. However, I was never happy with how it looked or functioned. The layout did not flow very well on mobile devices and the blog focused home page seemed dated. Thus, I carved out some time to create a new site that retained the color scheme of the EP CD layout, but fostered a much more user friendly experience. Time to put on my band web designer hat!

Band website design story

I have been a website designer for almost as long as I have been a musician who plays in bands. Naturally, my profession and my hobby have intersected many times over the years. I am always evolving, and always reaching out to learn better, more efficient methods. This applies to writing and performing songs, as well as designing clean, responsive web solutions. My two passions come together and dovetail in this website redesign project.

The main improvements I needed to make included the overall aesthetics. The old site was, frankly, bland and boring. I needed to add some video and bring the overall look of the site up to current tastes. Fonts were to be changed from a conventional sans serif to a more trendy slab. Features wise, I sought to downplay the blog. While still important, I only updated it every few months. As such, I needed to change the focus of the site from the blog entries to the overall story of the band, the music itself, and upcoming events.

Band web designer – Website homepage overview

The home page background video loop gives a strong first impression. I stitched together  performance highlights from several venues into a 30-second clip using Apple iMovie. Since Sempervivi could appear as either a solo act or as a band, I featured footage of both formats. The video is overlaid by a muted shade of the green used for the “Always Alive” EP’s cover. In front of the video background, I embedded a compact Bandcamp player containing the newest EP. Below in large type, the site tagline summarizes Sempervivi in two sentences. Last, the call to action “BOOK NOW” button punctuates the introduction.

Visitors can hear our music and get a synopsis of what it’s about, then navigate to my booking form without ever having to scroll down. The most important content all lies squarely above the fold. The next section down reveals a list of upcoming shows on my calendar. A plugin pulls a feed of future performances from the Facebook page. By using this, I avoid having to enter event information twice, as I was before when using an events calendar plugin. If a particular date interests a fan, they can click and go directly to the Facebook event to RSVP. The section’s columns clearly display event dates, titles, venues, and cover images.

The rest of the homepage contains subsections displaying a longer “About” paragraph and an Instagram feed. Thumbnails and snippets from the most recent blog entry also keep fans up to date.

Additional band website design features

The rest of the pages on the site contain all of the information newcomers and longtime fans alike need. Each individual page displays a different featured image in its header. These range from action shots on stage to candid photos to show band members’ personalities. In particular, I am very happy with how the Song Lyrics page developed. I created an anchored list which comprises of all of the songs in my arsenal. Each section contains the verses, bridges, and choruses for the songs. If a song was featured on an album, I added its individual Bandcamp player above the lyrics. This way, the site’s visitors can listen along to the song while they read the words.

The Biography page provides the details on the band’s history. Then it features clips of glowing album reviews at the bottom.

I update the blog every so often with news to keep everyone in the loop. The blog archive page shows a list of the most recent news entries. Each one displays the featured image above an excerpt, which fans can click in order to read the full entry. Next to the blog, in the sidebar, the booking call to action button reappears above the Upcoming Shows feed. Finally, I set up a store page on the site so that I could sell my merchandise directly. I factored in shipping from my account and created secure buttons so fans who can’t attend a show can still buy our shirts, CDs, stickers, and buttons.

Muhlenberg County Public Libraries | Greenville, KY and Central City, KY

My hometown’s outdated library website design needed a complete overhaul. The existing site was rife with errors at the time. It also had a lot of content that was very hard to navigate. The design was awful as well. Naturally, MCPL called me in to step in as their new public library web designer.

Public library web designer – project details

I started by updating their web presence with a clean white design. It features their new logo, which I also designed. Then, I added an image slider including relevant stock photos. I also  streamlined their existing site menu. It now includes just four main headings with drop down menu items.

Library staff members worked with me to find the best way to simplify and condense the original content. We created a system that staff could easily update by themselves. This is so important for a library website design.

Additionally, the sleek online calendar lists upcoming events. These include all happenings such as kids’ storytimes and book signings. The website calendar can easily sync with both iCal and Google Calendar.

Patrons can access all of the libraries’ online databases in order to check out books and other media. The complete catalog is conveniently at each user’s fingertips. They can search directly, right from the library website design main menu.

I also built a separate mobile version of the site. This enables patrons to keep up with both library branches on the go by using their smartphones and tablets. Customers may still access the full catalog, making for a complete web solution.