Hi Everyone! Happy New Year! To start 2017 off, I’m officially launching the New Look for Say Hello Spot. I’m very excited about this New Look… For over a year, I have wanted to upgrade the look of my blog.
When I started Say Hello Spot back in 2010, the very fact that I was starting a blog to write about my experiences living and working with therapy dogs was a big deal for me. I have always enjoyed sharing my work with others and encouraging them to become involved with their own dogs and this was a way to expand my audience. Thanks to my son-in-law Jay Stebbins, the blog was set-up and he took a nice photo of my dogs and me walking on the bike path to use in the header. With my posts appearing on Facebook and Twitter, I began to hear from readers all over the United States and other parts of the world.
After six years and a readership of 65,000, the time had come for a New Look for Say Hello Spot. But, I needed some really good photos to use – not just the quick ones I snapped on the-go with my phone, plus I didn’t have any photos of myself with the dogs. And, I needed someone who would create the New Look.
Last spring, I located Ashli Konieczny, a talented photographer who came to my house and spent the entire afternoon snapping photos of King, Lily, Annie, and me. It’s no easy fete to capture three dogs and a person and have them all look picture-perfect. Throughout the afternoon, Ashli snapped continuously. By the end of the day, I just hoped for a few photos that I could use to launch my New Look. I couldn’t wait to receive the finished product. Late August, a package containing three CDs was waiting for me in my mailbox. Turned out, each CD contained 500 photos. I had 1500 photos in all to choose from! Surely, there would be some good ones I could use. I was elated!
Now, who to use for my New Look. Luck had it, my long-time friend, Nancy Fields of Fields Graphic Design, had started adding development of Word Press websites to her offerings. I checked-out her website and signed up to receive her e-newsletter full of tips on having an engaging website. I liked what I saw and what I read. Nancy is someone I have worked with professionally off-and-on since 1998 and she helped me set up my website when I founded Bright Spot Therapy Dogs in 2004. We work well together. She “gets” what I’m striving to convey to my readers in visual form and she’s got great advice to share, as well.
The creation of the New Look for Say Hello Spot didn’t happen overnight. Selecting great photos for my homepage slider (most are Ashli’s, a few were taken by me!), selecting the right font for the header and the perfect Word Press theme, took hours of time.
It was all worth it. I am thrilled with the outcome. For me, a website needs to draw the viewer in by being visually attractive and easy to navigate. I feel the New Say Hello Spot does just that. I hope you enjoy viewing it as much as I have enjoyed creating it for the purpose of sharing the meaningful work of therapy dogs with you.
If you like my posts, please consider signing up to receive posts as soon as they come out.
The new Say Hello Spot has a convenient SUBSCRIBE TO MY POSTS form for you to fill out, located along the righthand sidebar. I’d really appreciate it if you would fill it out and be among the first to receive posts and other announcments about Living and Working with Therapy Dogs. I look forward to sharing my work and my wonderful dogs with you in 2017 and beyond. Thanks for reading my posts – and, if you will, please SHARE them with your friends!