Chrissy had an established Blogger blog with tons of Pinterest pins and links throughout the web, but her website had almost entirely stopped loading. She decided it was time to move to WordPress and update her branding at the same time for her new WordPress teacher website. With over 500 existing posts on her old blog, it was super important to carefully complete the transfer to preserve her traffic.
Services Used:
- 100% Custom WordPress Dynamic Package
- Blogger to WordPress Migration
- WordPress Starter Store
- WordPress Free Resource Library
- Podcast Logo
- Cookie Policy
I have put off having my site designed for years, struggling along with my blogger blog from 2011 and an old design. I finally decided it was time to get it done and I’m so glad I landed on Christi Fultz! She made the process pretty much painless (wish I’d done it sooner!) and I ended up with a site that I love. I had so many questions and sometimes I wasn’t even able to describe exactly what I wanted, but she was patient and figured out what I was looking for, providing me with options to choose from when I was unsure. She was easy to reach and followed through with everything she said she’d do. I would definitely recommend going with Christi Fultz if you’re looking for an update or a complete site design!
Branding Before
First, let’s take a look at the branding before. This was a very popular “scrapbook” style Blogger blog.
Chrissy still liked the look of her previous branding, but wanted to update it in a way that would feel familiar and new at the same time. She was open to adding a few new brand colors for extra visual interest and more design options. First, we looked at several new bee options and then I sent her initial header drafts.
Chrissy liked option 3, but wanted to see it in a few different subtle color changes.
Once we landed on the winning header, I sent coordinating round logo options.
Chrissy also wanted to use a few playful background designs in her website build, so you can see one of those here on her final brand board.
WordPress Teacher Website Design
Then it was time to build the custom WordPress teacher website. Her new design highlights her options for both classroom teachers and instructional coaches.
Each page is custom built and includes little touches to tie in her branding.
The custom blog archive uses the same doodle subject icons from the homepage to help readers find their favorite categories. The single blog page has a streamlined sidebar.
Chrissy runs an educational podcast for instructional coaches, so I also built a page to highlight top episodes.
Because Chrissy has resources for both instructional coaches and classroom teachers, I built two custom landing pages to speak directly to each target audience.
Finally, a contact page is essential for all websites.
WordPress teacher website: Free Resource Library
A free resource library serves as a lead magnet to collect email addresses.
WordPress Teacher Website: Shop
Hosting your own store is the perfect way to control your traffic. With the starter store option, you receive a turnkey store that’s ready to grow with you over time. Category covers make it easy to navigate.
Each individual product has all of the important product info and will display related products below as she adds more items to her shop.
Blogger to WordPress Migration
Finally, when moving from Blogger to WordPress it’s important to preserve your old URLs. A custom redirect means her old “blogspot.com” links will point to the new WordPress teacher website. I also did a custom deploy to assign featured images (thumbnails) to each post. This was an incredibly important step for her blog since she had over 500 existing posts.
Custom Podcast Logo
Chrissy also needed a custom podcast logo that would coordinate with the new website design.
Once Chrissy approved the final round version, she also received a series of transparent text options to layer over her podcast graphics and other promotional materials
