This week I have been working with Alice of Auckland offering consultancy and website editing on the Vida Essence website. The challenge was to design and implement a Booking System and Buy Now buttons for the range of health and healing services offered by Vida Essence. I had been approached to do this work as a New Zealand Weebly website professional. While the Vida website was well developed on Weebly's 'Business' (ecommerce) platform, it was not quite working as desired.

A recent blog article from the Weebly Inspiration Centre challenged me to think about how I network as a freelance web designer.  In summary the article offered the five challenges summarised in this extract from the article.

I have to confess to some disquiet as compare my work style with what might be gained from good networking as suggested in the article. At best my networking attempts are relatively disorganised and spasmodic. I attempt to maintain regular and supportive communication with clients present and past, but I could do far better in relation to professional colleagues. As a generalist I tend to have a go at most things when some of them would be better contracted out to others more qualified. As a relative introvert I am not afraid of my own company as a worker, but I recognise that the stimulation offered by (net)working alongside others is important for creativity and motivation.

Having said that, I have recently connected with another web media and design professional with complementary strengths in our fields who lives in a nearby city. We have agreed to consult and cover for one another as the need arises, and to keep in touch. A liberating step forward and a challenge to take more seriously the challenged raised by the Weebly blog article.

Value Websites regularly provides online registration and payment forms for various conferences, conventions, forums and other institutional gatherings.

Two forms currently live relate to the July SCANZ Convention to be held in Wellington and the August Myeloma Summit planned for Queenstown. In addition to gathering contact information these forms offer various registration categories, social function attendance and accommodation booking. A feature of the SCANZ form is its provision of hidden fields which are activated when a trigger field is clicked. For instance, if a partner registration is required then further fields appear. This provides cleaner form appearance.

Once the required information is gathered, amounts owing are calculated and displayed and the GST component is indicated. When these forms are 'Submitted' two things happen. A copy of the registration information is auto-sent via email to the form email address provided (as well as of course to the conference organisers) and a PayPal payment screen appears. Payment from a PayPal account or Credit Card is invited. Alternatively, those preferring an invoice have been instructed to exit at this point.

These forms have been individually designed and mirror manual (PDF) forms that are available for those who are not yet ready to do their registering and paying online.

Typically, depending on complexity and number of fields required, Value Websites provides this service for $300-$500 per event.

Those of us who have been with Weebly for awhile have become used to regular platform upgrades. Today's upgrade is a biggie. Weebly introduced their Carbon launch like this...

No need to hold your hand. Take a look for yourself and note the many new free and charged apps that you can incorporate into your website.
Weebly rocks,
​Terry