ThisisDana.com is my massive online brochure that promotes my Mobile Disc Jockey career. The entire site is written by me in first-person to give readers an accurate taste of my personality without the hassle of contacting me personally. The site features all of the information about me that a prospective client could ever want (rates, availability, testimonials, requirements, FAQs, contact info, etc) and my somewhat outrageous and widely-read blog called "Dana's Six Cents." 

My other business is a Personal Assistant Service called Whatever You Need! Our website posed immediate problems because we really wanted the commonly used .com. WhateverYouNeed.com wasn’t available, though. We settled on WhateverYouNeed.biz … With the popularity and ease of acquiring .coms, .bizs were created to provide more website naming possibilities. At the time, most consumers had never heard of a .biz, which we saw as a huge problem. “Aren’t web-surfers going to be looking for us at WhateverYouNeed.com?” or “Will folks know that WhateverYouNeed.BIZ is a website?” we asked ourselves.

This very problem proved to be a blessing, thanks to our ingenious advertising in other facets. Our radio commercials, for example, poke fun at our website address by interjecting an obnoxious “.BIZZZZZ” noise (me singing it, actually, with a bunch of effects added) after every time that “Whatever You Need” is said. Now we know that our website is our best form of advertising because we hear our clients refer to us as “Whatever You Need dot biz.” We know that the radio commercials are working, too, because we hear complete strangers singing “dot bizzzzz … dot bizzzzz” as they walk past our company vehicles.

Our business is focused on making our clients’ worlds more neat and clean-cut, so the design of our website is … well … neat and clean-cut. It’s simply black and white and as clutter-free as possible. In contrast to ThisisDana.com, WhateverYouNeed.biz is more formal, doesn’t require updates as frequently and remains naturally less interactive.

Gabe Josephs had had a vision of creating a heating and cooling service company that wasn't like the rest of them out there. He wanted to focus on things like maintaining a non-smoking workforce, leaving a work-site cleaner than it was when he arrived at it, unmatched customer service, installing products that help save the environment and staying abreast of the development of technology within his industry.

Gabe was about to embark on a voyage into business amongst hundreds of other heating and cooling businesses in the area…some of which have been around longer than he has been alive! Gabe and I created his site in the very early stages of his business because he knew that others in his field either didn’t keep their website up to date or only had a single webpage that was given to them for free on one of their supplier’s websites (those pretty much have the value of a business card…torn in half).

JosephsIAQ.com features a colorful rotation of photos, links to information about available products, customer testimonials, in-depth descriptions of the various facets of the business, and profiles for each of the Josephs employees.

Local Fiddler Katherine First gave me a call because she decided that it was time to quit her day job. She wanted to create a website that reflected her unique personality and promote her new lifestyle as a Professional Fiddler.

Her site includes her schedule of live appearances, Katherine's bio, musical cowboy boots and samples of her music. Soon, visitors will be able to purchase her CD directly from the site.

The Leeds Civic Association

I grew up and still live part-time in the quiet little village of Leeds, Massachusetts. I love it there…it’s scenic, rich in history and tucked away just far enough for almost nobody to know that it exists.

I didn’t create the platform for LeedsCivic.org, but I took over the maintenance when I was a teenager. It features a calendar of events in Leeds, the most recent LCA Newsletters and photos taken at the various happenings in the neighborhood. My personal additions to the site include an interactive quiz, a page to let supporting businesses show off their business cards, and an option for non-LCA-sponsored events to be posted by their hosts.