Hosting
3 Things to Avoid When Choosing Hosting for Your Bend Small Business Website
Over the past 6 years we’ve built 700+ websites for ourselves, in addition to also building websites for clients. Every single one of those websites
because you want people to fall in love with your business
Over the past 6 years we’ve built 700+ websites for ourselves, in addition to also building websites for clients. Every single one of those websites
About This Little Agency: Back in 2007, in a little town on the southern border of Washington State, Trevor and Kama Wilson braved the naysayers saying it was absurd to try to earn their full-time income together online. Despite criticism and even moving into a single car garage for awhile so they could pursue their dream, they worked unearthly hours, studied endlessly, made costly mistakes, and figured out how to make their entire income online. After successfully running 700 websites (and living entirely and well off the profits), they opened Smitten (formerly Peppermint) to use their inborn, honed obsessions for alluring design, captivating content and personable branding to help other business owners get more ❤ too.
Call Kama: 541-903-1180
Projects: kama@hellosmitten.com
Support: support@hellosmitten.com
© 2018 SMITTEN, LLC (formerly Peppermint) All Rights Reserved
(The investment required for these addons varies according to your needs and the work required to integrate them into your site.)
An Online Shop
If selling anything online is what you’d like to do, then you’ll want an online shopping cart. Whether it’s physical or digital goods like online courses, ebooks, or gift certifications, or even your services, this will allow you to take orders, manage delivery, and even process refunds quickly and easily. There are several ways we can accomplish this depending on your needs, and we’ll explore this in your SmittenStrategy session so you get just the functionality you need.
A Scheduling Calendar
If your business books appointments of any kind, online scheduling can save hours out of the week and entice more people to book. It’s simple, easy, and highly cost effective. There are multiple options for how we can make this happy, and we’ll explore this in your SmittenStrategy session.
Email Marketing Integration
The gold in online marketing is your “list”. This is the names and emails that you’ve collected of current and prospective clientele. This list gives your business huge profit potential you can’t find anywhere else. There are a variety of great ways to build a list from your website and then manage it, all of which we can discuss in your SmittenStrategy session.
A Portfolio or Gallery
When you need to showcase your work, a portfolio or gallery fits the bill nicely. This allows you to display your work in a way that users can easily navigate and explore. The options are numerous, depending on your needs and goals!
A Video Library
If you’ve created or collected a variety of videos, and you want to feature on your website, then this could be a great thing for your website. It would allow your visitors to browse and view them easily.
Events Booking System
We’ve had clients that needed an event registration system on their website. Whether free or paid, being able to have visitors register for an event on your website can save you all kinds of time and effort. An events booking system, would allow you to sell tickets if you like, in addition to allowing your visitors to view dates, select tickets, and book online so the process is as easy and hands off as possible!
Website Content Created
A number of our clients find that while they know their business really well, writing captivating content is a real challenge. But the beauty is that we love writing and can totally help you with this. See our packages to find just the right fit for your business or contact us if your website is unusually large or complex for a custom quote.
Let them be Smitten!
Our goal in building your website is to create something that will allow your people to fall in love with you. So there really isn’t a limit on what we can add or integrate to make that happen. Just know that additional features beyond our above packages do take longer to build and/or integrate, so your investment will reflect that. It’s not uncommon for a client to need some additional functionality. It all depends on what you need so that your people can be Smitten!
Professional design communicates and allures. And it will also do something else. It will help drive away the people you don’t want…freeloaders, price-shoppers, and time wasters, to name a few.
We doubt your business wants afford these types of people. They not only lower your profit margins, but they can actually obliterate them. These types of people are the threat to the survival of any blooming business.
So let’s build you something that will allow your (awesome) people to fall in love with you! It all starts with a get-acquainted session.
Kama was born in New York, the middle kid of three (which basically means she’s an experienced mediator). She’s even-keeled. And, if author Gretchin Rubin were to meet her, she’d totally categorize Kama as a “Questioner”.
For some unknown reason, “Transformation” isn’t Kama’s middle name. But it should be. She’s a passionate change-artist that loves nothing more than to take something and make it better. Basically that means she can’t walk into the credit union without analyzing their various signs–mentally toying with what could be made more attractive.
Maybe her “transformation” theme came from the 40 different moves her family made before she turned 18. Or maybe it came from the family’s artistic genes… but none-the-less, it’s there and there to stay.
She’s has been designing and working marketing strategies since the mid 1990’s. After an adventurous overseas administrative appointment with a humanitarian organization to Zambia and El Salvador, she and her husband, Trevor (who you’ll meet further down the page here), along with their first two little kiddos, returned home and started an online business. By 2008, they were making their entire income in the online space–and mostly loving the rollercoaster independence.
Three more kiddos joined the family, all spaced out (thankfully). A few pets did too (not as evenly spaced, but reportedly easier to raise). Eventually, the whole big family settled in Central Oregon and now can’t imagine living anywhere else, except possibly Hawaii.
As a design strategist, Kama has an unusual background of personally designing and developing over 700 websites for the family’s own internet marketing business portfolio. Only after doing that did she and Trevor open Smitten’s doors (formerly known as Peppermint) to the public. She says it’s actually way more enjoyable to design for other people…
Strangely, she and her hubby earned a substantial living from internet marketing during the time when the internet bubble was bursting. (Nope, she never saw the bubble, just in case you were wondering. And yes, everyone said she and Trevor probably couldn’t make much money online.) She cultivated a tremendous amount of internet marketing and branding know-how during that time. Rather than keeping all that undercover, she now uses it in her design, strategy, and transformation work for her clients.
Being open and honest is the foundation of her work ethic, pervading everything she does for her clients (a.k.a friends, because she doesn’t work with a client who she doesn’t grow to appreciate as a friend as well.)
Interestingly, Kama has worked alongside the founder/owner of one of the first SEO agencies in the world (which is still in operation working with big-name companies such as Honda, Nestle, Acura, Penske, World Vision, etc.), doing web design for some of his projects. In addition, she’s done project management and web design for a highly successful social media expert out of the UK (who’s now traveling the world).
Kama’s project list includes clients who are investment bankers, entrepreneurs, a motivational speaker, interior designers, start-ups, a contemporary architect, medical and dental professionals, manufacturing companies, established businesses, new businesses, a custom home builder, marketing agencies, even other web design agencies…and possibly you.
And importantly, her favorite foods list includes ice cream (the yummy kind like at Bonta Gelato in Bend, Oregon). It also includes pizza, even though she’s also taken with ethnic foods like Indian and Thai. It totally depends on the day. Her oldest girls are such fantastic cooks, she prefers home-cooked food almost all the time.
While Kama has been said by others to have an exceptional design talent little-found inside the world of website designers, it’s possible that her greatest gift is getting personally involved in helping her clients develop outstanding impressions that allow people to fall in love with their businesses. To her, there’s little better than seeing her clients (and her human kids) become their own success stories in a larger way.
No, we didn’t sell out. We’re the same people, but we’ve completely rebranded Peppermint to our new name of Smitten! This new brand totally reflects our obsession with helping people fall in love with your business.
We hope you’re Smitten with the change! We’d love to hear from you and find out what you think of the new brand.
You’re invited to be part of a select group of Smitten-minded business owners.
We share thoughts related to our obsession helping people fall in love with your business. We reply to you personally if you’ve got questions or thoughts to share back.