Website in a Night with Weebly

Oh my Goodness!! Hi Everyone!!!

I have not written a post since April, but I wanted to pop in and share a really neat experience I had last night at the Weebly Headquarters in Scottsdale, Arizona.

I was invited to attend the Weebly, Website in a Night Event (#wein), and of course, I accepted! I have had my website through Weebly for about three years and I have now designed about 5 Custom Weebly sites for clients. You can say I am a bit of a fan.

This was me on the way to the event. We hit some traffic and I was worried that we might arrive a little late, but we were there 20 minutes early.

My biggest fear???  Seriously!! I really do not like arriving somewhere and having to go to the bathroom before I say hello to everyone...it's a real problem people.. haha 

As a pop in, my website was featured and I got an opportunity to share my site, my story, and a little bit of what I do. Sharing what I do is actually a challenge at times because I am bit of a creative everything...lol  My husband came along with me and was able to get a photo of me while I had my few minutes of fame. Totally RAD!

Although I love to share what I do, I especially love meeting new people and getting an opportunity to share my knowledge with other creative people.

The moment we arrived, we were greeted with smiles and an entire team of hard-working Weebly staff members ready to teach, connect, and offer help to those who registered to attend. By the way, the entire event was FREE!!

I had a blast sharing my story, but I was really looking forward to learning some SEO (Search Engine Optimization) while I was there. I arrived prepared to take plenty of notes and I filled a few pages before leaving (and I might have brought home a few free pens).


I tried to stay active on Instagram and Snapchat (@the3amteacher) as much as I could, but I found myself so immersed in great conversations that I mainly failed to share tips during the bulk of the event. Instead of trying to create bits and pieces of what I learned, I thought I would share some great takeaways I left with and include a few really helpful links that you all can check out below.

TAKEAWAYS ON SEO
1. Adding a content specific description to your website or blog can help boost traffic to your site. It is also good to add descriptions to blog posts, specific pages and product pages to help search engines find you.

2. Descriptions should be no more than 2-3 sentences and should be content specific.

3. Meta Keywords can help your site show up more frequently in search engines, like Google, if you choose words that are content specific to your site.

4. You should use no more than 15 to 30 content specific keywords separated by commas, but do not use adjectives or excessive repeated word combinations. Using too many repetitive words can actually cause more harm than good and you could potentially get flagged or penalized for doing it. For instance, if you are a plumber and you list the word, plumbing over and over in every place you can add Meta Keywords, you will most likely get penalized and not show up (so I was told).

5. I learned that I have a LOT of work to do on my Weebly website product pages. I have optimized my own site using the settings, which helps the home page and main information, but I have not taken advantage of the advanced options for SEO on my individual page links or my product pages. This is something I added to my list that I will be working on in the weeks and months to come.

Even though the SEO tips were designed for the Weebly site, this new knowledge can be applied to any site or blog to help your sites get seen. It is not just the amount of traffic that's important, but targeting the RIGHT traffic to your site.

A little peek into the SEO session

Click the images below to link to the amazing SEO Weebly help site. They have some great tips and directions to help get you started.

SEO was one area that I have really been needing to learn more about, so I was really happy to gain some knowledge in that area. I hope the links above are helpful to you as well. Weebly has provided incredible support and a wealth of knowledge to their customers and I feel really honored to have been a part of their event.

Everyone who attended had a story and a dream and I found myself so intrigued and inspired by those around me.

At one point during the event, the coordinator Dana Walsh, came up to me and told me that there was someone who wanted to meet me and had some questions.

To my surprise, the young man was a HIGH SCHOOL student who had created his own education company based on the needs of his teachers and we sat down and talked for nearly an hour! This young man was incredibly brilliant and I just want to give him a little shout out. He created a company called, Connected EDU and he built it as a way for educators to collaborate and share ideas (not resources) with one another. The concept is that new teachers can find a place to get help and support and seasoned teachers can be mentors to new teachers. The site is in it's beta form or testing phase, but this incredible young man has big ideas and I just know he is going to make such a huge impact. I feel so honored to have met him!! Below is his card (I cropped out his phone number, obviously), but feel free to check him out and follow him.. I have a feeling he is going to make some positive waves in the field of education through online collaboration and learning.

That pretty much wraps up the night with Weebly. If you are looking to create a website, I highly recommend that you, at least, take some time check out Weebly. They are an incredible company that continues to grow.  www.weebly.com

I will leave you now with a fun little snapchat photo I took this morning.. I just LoVe this app!! The image below is probably the closest thing to a white winter I will have here in Arizona.. so I am embracing the "idea" of winter... while it is still in the high 80's here!!

Thank you for visiting and I hope you learned a little, laughed a lot, and just enjoyed spending a little time reading my blog.

Custom Blog Designs: Time to Show Some of My Work

I am way over due to show you some of the designs I have completed over the past couple of months, so I am going to post a few of them below and I will try to post more in the weeks to come. I also have a little freebie set for you to enjoy at the very end. 

With each and every design, the client drives the inspiration and direction of the design. Each person I have had the honor of working with brings their own unique vision to the mix - and that is what makes creating these designs so much fun! Each design turns out completely unique and I love getting the opportunity to work with so many amazingly creative ladies and gents!! 

First Up.... Get Your Teach On
I actually get a chance to work with Deanna quite a bit and I just love when she has a project for me to do. This website had to be finished and up and running in a couple of days and I was up for the challenge, of course. Keep in mind that they had all of the colors and design ideas already prepared when she contacted me. I had the honor of meeting Hop King in person this past July in Vegas.. and what an AMAZING person she is!! I have really enjoyed getting to know these ladies. Make sure to check out their website and sign up for their conference in Orlando. I believe the space is limited and there IS a discount if you register early.... Who wouldn't want to get a chance to meet these two power-houses in person!!  Click on the image below to check out the site. 

Next up.... Is Jen Martel from Miss Martel's Special Class!  Click on each of the blog buttons below to check out the blogs below. Jen had a very cute vision for her design and I loved getting to do something nautical!! I grew up by the beach and I really miss the ocean. While working on this design, I couldn't help but imagine being at the beach everyday... maybe that is why I took a little longer than I should have finishing it.. haha... Actually, life - family and Vegas got a little jumbled and put a strain on my productivty - but I managed and my clients were the best!! 

I can't say enough good things about Michelle from Fabulous in First. Her design makes me feel calm and welcome and I just LOVE how it turned out. She was so patient and kind during the process and her vision really ended up translating into such a beautiful custom blog design.

And last, but certainly not least.... is Lindsay Jervis' blog, the Kodaly Inspired Classroom. Before doing this design, I had NO IDEA what Kodaly even meant. It was not a word that had entered my vocabulary and I had to Google it before I set up her phone conference. I don;t think I ever even admitted that to her..haha. I got a chance to give Lindsay a HUGE hug in Vegas this past July... I wish I would have snapped photos of every person I have worked with over the years while I was there!! Next year... I plan to make a board in my office that I can be proud of. Everything I do is digital, so I often forget how much I have accomplished over the years. I do get many emails from clients who tell me that their designs increased their traffic, motivated them to consistently blog, and made them feel unique, but I  rarely get a chance to meet everyone in person and put a face to the names. 

Even though the background on this design took quite a while to paint, I just love how it turned out. I had a hard time with creating just the right type of silhouette for this design, so we actually turned to another designer for those - and I think it turned out just lovely!!

P.S. If any of you have never heard of the Kodaly Method before.. here is the definition copied and pasted directly from Wikipedia (I provided the source link below):

The Kodály Method, also referred to as the Kodály Concept, is an approach to music education developed in Hungary during the mid-twentieth century by Zoltán Kodály. His philosophy of education served as inspiration for the method, which was then developed over a number of years by his associates. 

(Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kod%C3%A1ly_Method) 

I hope you have enjoyed looking at these new designs as much as I enjoyed creating them... you can check out all of my work from my online portfolio on my website by clicking HERE.  It has been a while since I updated my portfolio, but I plan to do that some time today. 

FREE on TpT just for YOU!! Thank you so much for all of your support and love over the years!! I hope you can use these in your own creative work! Click the image below to grab this free set of digital papers from my Teachers Pay Teachers Shop...

What I've Been Up to the Last Two Weeks!

WOAH!! How is it almost Thanksgiving??

Today's post is just a bunch of randomness, but you might find some things I am going to share with you quite interesting!! haha

First of all.... I had the HUGE honor of working with Deanna Jump to give her blog a new look! It is not the first time I have worked on custom work for her, but I was waiting for the day that I would get to re-design her blog! Seriously... she has got to be the sweetest woman I know AND the easiest to work with. She has such a caring heart and she wants those around her to succeed... I just love that about her! However, I never expected to be so nervous once I had the design concept ready to show her!!

Why don't I just start from the beginning..

Deanna has a close relationship and loyalty to Mel Lloyd {Graphics from the Pond} and before she completed the order form a while back for a new custom blog design, she asked if she could use some custom graphics from Mel in the design.

Even though I LOVE some of the work I have seen form other artists, I prefer not use graphics from other artists in my designs. The reason I don't like using other graphics with my designs is because I am forced to have to change my own creative style to try and "match" it with someone else's. For some this is an easy task, but for me... I like working with a clean slate and endless possibilities.... haha

HOWEVER...in this case.... I thought..."I could be designing Deanna Jump's blog!!" PLUS ALSO (in my best Junie B. voice), I couldn't say no to an incredibly talented gal with a southern accent!! So, I said, SURE!!

I am sure most of you are familiar with Mel's graphics...if  not, then you're missing out... they are super cute! Most of you might look at her graphics and think, "I could EASILY" draw that myself." But what most of you might not realize is that, sometimes, the most simplest form of art  is often the most difficult to draw! Mel is incredibly talented!

Before working on this project, I knew of her, but had never actually chatted with her..and let me just say that  I am in love with her sweet, easy-going personality. When I first contacted her about using the graphics she custom made for Deanna, she had the cutest response....

"You can do whatever you need to do to the graphics... It's Deanna... she basically owns the copyright to them... haha."

It wasn't until I got started on the design process that I began to get really nervous. I always place an incredible amount of pressure on myself, but the more I thought about how many people follow Deanna's blog, the more pressure I placed on myself to create something amazing... I literally created about 3 different designs and as soon as I thought I was ready to send over a preview, I would question that design, scrap it out and start over. Nothing I was coming up with was working quite right with Mel's character graphic. I played around with different options for hours.

One night...after scrapping another design concept, I finally just sat down and decided to read through Deanna's Facebook posts, blog posts and watch her interviews again. I completely cleared my mind of the amount of people that would see her design and just focused on who she is as a person to try to come up with a design that would best reflect that. I wanted the design to be a reflection of her and I just could not do that without completely illustrating every element within the design. From the background to the title letters, every element in the design is hand-drawn. I wanted the design to be clean, but also friendly, inviting and unique.

When I had the test site ready for her to look at, I can't even describe how nervous I was to send her that link. My palms were sweaty, my heart was a racing and I had that weird roller-coaster feeling in the pit of my stomach. All of her previous responses had always been, "I trust you" and "Sure, whatever you think. I know it will be great".  I really didn't want to disappoint her.

As we were about to sit down to eat dinner I heard a little ping notification from my phone, which at the time, was about 10 feet away from me on the couch. I walked up close, but did not dare pick it up. I glanced down and ...sure enough... Deanna's floating head in a round bubble was on the face of my screen. I contemplated whether or not to wait and read the message after dinner, but couldn't muster up enough self-control to wait. I pushed on the floating bubble of her head (haha) and read...

"I LOVE IT!"

I can't even tell you how exciting that was for me to read!! I felt like I had just won a gold medal and bounced around the house... "SHE SAID SHE LOVES IT!!"

Yes, I am a Geek... and YES, I get that nervous every time I send over a new design concept. I always put a great deal of time and effort into every design and, more than anything,  I want to "get it right" -  and for every client to be in love with their completed design.

Deanna is so wonderful to work with and I am beyond thankful for this experience! Here is a little fun before and after screenshot for you to enjoy.

Well, I hadn't planned on writing so much about Deanna's blog design, so I will just give you snippets of the rest of some things that happen...

Yep, this happened.... on Facebook
I caught a glimpse of Ginger Zee's coat and felt compelled to announce my obsession... little did I know, she would RESPOND!!! To think, Ginger from Good Morning America, just happened to see my post.. I wish I had written something more profound.. hahaha!! Either way.... It was definitely the highlight of my day!

I became a Team Beachbody Fitness Coach... yes, you did read that correctly... haha
In the midst of getting healthy, I decided to take a leap of faith and become a coach! I started a 30 day self challenge to really get my eating in check. I hope to start a challenge group soon, but I need to get organized before I start in on another project. Even though I have been on track for three months, I still have been struggling to change the way I eat... I have lost 6 pounds, but I am on track to losing 30! I have been drinking a Shakeology shake once a day and doing PiYo religiously now. I don't really want to go into much detail about my experience quite yet, but I am in LOVE with the PiYo workouts and completely obsessed with Chalene Johnson!

Keep me encouraged people.. I need it! I hope that by coaching, I will keep myself in check...

Here is a link you can check out if you have been in search for a fitness program. I will be posting about it very soon!

When I first signed up, I purchased the challenge pack with PiYo and Chocolate Shakeology... The chocolate is really yummy... not sure about the other flavors yet.. I was too afraid to try them out.. haha. Here are a couple of links you can check out.


 I ALSO finished an amazing website design project with two of the BEST NERDY gals I know!! This project took a great deal of time and many weeks to complete, but the website turned out beautifully and the girls were AMAZING to work with!! You must check out Getting Nerdy with Mel & Gerdy's newly designed website! They have a ton of amazing science resources. They will be adding resources and products to the site, so make sure to check them out!

Last, but certainly not least, I spent a great deal of time updating the design pages on my own website { www.3amteacher.com }!  I am also booking custom blog design orders for January 2015!! I have three spots available and if you place your order now, you will have another business expense to write off for tax time! ha! Click the image below to check out the Blogger package details and reserve a spot by completing the custom blog design order form!! You can check the Queue page to see what spots are open.

I know I mostly rambled through this post, so I planned a fun surprise post with a gift for all of you tomorrow!! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!