As a communications designer, I am occasionally called upon to perform acts of magic. Most consultants will know what I am talking about: asked to exert considerable effort and deliver significant results on a short schedule, often with little or no warning. While I am no magician, I do keep a number of tricks up my sleeve for use in select times. This past week presented such a time.
A client contacted me late Wednesday afternoon with an urgent need to upgrade his web presence. This client needed a new website by the following Monday at the latest.
Such a request was a tall ask, but I knew that it was definitely possible given one of the aces I keep in my back pocket. WordPress.
My client was running a WordPress.com website. As a free service WordPress.com is a fantastic way to get a very functional website and up and running in minutes. Yet my client’s needs had outgrown WordPress.com, so I suggested that we go with a self-hosted site with the same WordPress software, offered for free through WordPress.org. The approach agreed, I was off and running.
Within a short while, I had the latest version of WordPress software running on my server — I had lent my client web space given the short timetables — and had begun to make edits to the selected WordPress theme. I didn’t make a lot of edits to the theme, just enough to make the look and feel of my client’s website not look so ‘out of the box’.
The theme edited, I used the export/import functionality on WordPress.com to bring all my clients website content to the new site. I made a few more design and functionality edits to the PHP templates and the CSS, then called it a day.
The following morning, I showed a draft version of this new site to my client. The words of praise that I heard on the phone gave me much reason to expect this client to continue to rely on my services for years to come.
It’s great when a plan comes together.
@ Forkboy1965,
Every once in a blue moon, when my plans do come together, I am grateful.
In this case, so too was my client.