The website includes a Content Management System and a protected, staff-only section that includes a discussion forum, staff resources, listing of volunteers, and other information. Custom post types and custom fields were created to enable efficient management of news, events, regions, resources, volunteers, and alumni. The site was developed and implemented to serve as a tool that helps NM MESA staff and regional coordinators more efficiently manage their tasks.

NM MESA was recently nominated as an Albuquerque Business First education non-profit of the year.

The site is built specifically for ease of maintenance and updates. While it does not contain a blog, it does contain two custom post types – news items and projects – that are added to the site feed, so that when news or projects are added the website benefits from an SEO perspective.

Evo’s direct client in the project was Key Point Marketing, owned by Judy Sterling, which has worked with Sertex for some time and wanted an easy to update website. Having worked with Drupal and heard about WordPress’ ease of use, Judy was eager to make her client’s website better (and her life a bit simpler).

When I accessed my Gmail account this evening, I got a message requiring me to reset my password—which I immediately did—and found dozens of bouncebacks from inactive email accounts that were in my Gmail contacts list. Also a couple of inquiries from legitimate contacts wondering if my account had been hacked. Then I found I could not reply to those emails, as attempting to respond brought up a message from Gmail “You have reached the limit for sending email.”

Huh? I clicked on the “Learn More” link and found the following on Google’s support site:

In an effort to fight spam and prevent abuse, Google will temporarily disable your account if you send messages to more than 500 recipients or if you send a large number of undeliverable messages. If you use a POP1 or IMAP2 client (Microsoft Outlook or Apple Mail, e.g.), you may only send a message to 100 people at a time. Your account should be re-enabled within 24 hours.

OK. Seems fair enough. But since this happened sometime early this evening, that means I could go all day tomorrow without the ability to send email. And I can’t respond to those contacts who email me asking if the spam emails are legitimate; which is frustrating, and not very helpful to people making inquiries.

To those of you who received spam from my Gmail account, my apologies. To those who inquire via email about the suspicious-looking email sent from my account, I am doubly sorry I cannot respond. Wish I could say with assurance that it will never happen again. In the meantime, looks like I’m spending the day after Christmas resetting a few hundred passwords and beefing up security on my computer and various online accounts.

Spammers. Ho, Ho, effin’ Ho.

“Nat has something going for him that many business people do not: he can write. And he enjoys writing.” said Ray Gulick, Evo principal and creative director. “As a result, he will probably continue to post information to his blog and, sooner or later, he will attract some search traffic that includes people who are ready to buy health insurance or one of the other lines Nat carries. Furthermore, his blog posts and the rest of his website contain real, usable information. His site is not just a lot of fluffy marketing messages.”

While attraction marketing is proven to work, and at a cost far below traditional marketing techniques, it requires a commitment to regular content creation. “Having a website is like having a power saw and a hammer,” said Gulick. “Hammers and saws don’t build houses just because you have them: you have to put them to use.”

Mr. Josel’s website is built on the WordPress platform, utilizing Evo’s evoWhitespace theme.

Besides lots and lots of whitespace, the theme’s over-riding visual feature is simplicity. Functional, organized simplicity that allows the content to take center stage, much like paintings hung on white walls in a gallery. OK so it’s not exactly high art, but you get the metaphor, right?

The theme utilizes HTML5 and CSS3 (if you’re using Internet Explorer, you might not see some of the styling features; sorry), and is iPad-friendly. Open Sans (Google web font) and Georgia are at the top of the font stacks.

We made use of the jQuery library and the following jQuery plugins: Anything Slider with jQuery Easing, Superfish Menu with Hover Intent, jQuery Better Show/Hide, and jQuery Tipsy.

Custom fields were created to make updating the site as quick and easy as possible (we don’t like wasting time updating our website any more than you do), and a “news” custom post type was incorporated (which means we need to create news).

While evowebdev.com was the first website designed for evoWhitespace, we’ve launched a couple of other sites on it before this launch. Getting paid to build a site speeds up the process considerably. 

Facility is a co-working and meeting space on Gold Street in Albuquerque.

Update 1/14/2013: Facility closed its doors, so Evo’s sponsorship has been redesignated to cover other expenses associated with monthly meetups.

Content management systems (CMS) make it possible for internal staff members to make timely and important updates, showing that the company is responding to customer issues and needs. WordPress’ simple user interface makes it a favorite among website owners for ease of updates and maintenance. 

WordPress has added significant functionality and flexibility over the past couple of years, with custom post types and custom taxonomies enabling specialized content such as news, events (including registration), and many more. Evo is one of the best at customizing WordPress as a CMS to make it serve the needs of a particular company or professional organization.

An ever-growing library of WordPress plugins is available to help you do almost anything you want, and you can expect WordPress core to continue to evolve to include more capability and flexibility. And Evo will continue to customize those new capabilities for the benefit of our clients.