It’s alive! The new Forward Multimedia website

At long last, I thought the day would never come, when I can finally launch the redesigned Forward Multimedia website I’ve been promising you and promising myself for ages.

There are many finishing touches I would have liked to put before I let it go live, but I’ve reluctantly accepted that I can’t wait till it’s 100 % complete, and that I’ll have to live with 95%.

And why not a hundred? Because it will take at least another month or two and I’m running out time I can squeeze out to work on my own site. When it’s live I can still close the gap much quicker (at least that’s what I tell myself).

Yes, the new site is a mix of brand new items and improvements on the old, all done with great attention to detail for optimal visitor experience and inbound marketing… AND… to maintain my site as an example of ‘everything I do on my site I can do on yours’.

There are too many new features of the new site to exhaustively cover here. I eventually will, but for this news update, and since I’m anxious to let it go live, it will take far to long to do a comprehensive write-up. But I promise I will at a later date. Meanwhile I’ll let you be pleasantly surprised.

And being that I have the 5% yet to finish, which I’ve already started, you will notice only a few pages that are pending, but I’ll let you know what they are at the end of this update.

It’s a brand new template so it’s a different design, and chosen specifically for the following new elements. All of these features are the current trend in website design.

• FULL WIDTH TEMPLATE so no more ‘boxed’ layout like my old site. This trend in web design started a a while ago.
• LAYER SLIDER where text and images are superimposed on a static full width background, and appear in many different transition styles, and each can be made into clickable links.
• MEGA MENU that spans the entire menu with full control of elements placed. Menu is also ‘sticky’, so it remains visible at the top when you scroll down pages.
• RESPONSIVE so it displays properly on other devices like laptops, tablets, mobile phones.
• FLAT DESIGN GRAPHICS are used extensively in keeping with the current web design trend, as opposed to the glossy icons and buttons of the ‘Web 2.0’ era.
• COLORFUL ELEMENTS via boxes, buttons, graphics which is my own use of the template’s options of pinpoint color accuracy. I’ve also created my own ‘standard’ page format which is hard for you to miss. I’ll fine-tune this as I go along.

I refined some of the old page structure, dropped a few pages and added some new services, among which are:

• MOBILE APPS which is brand new and I’m offering it via my partners in India for affordable mobile app design. I already have a couple of apps in development for clients.
• WEBSITE SECURITY has been introduced as a separate service to encourage clients to secure their site. Database driven sites like WordPress are targets for hackers and I want to head off any issues as I launch more and more WordPress sites.
• CYBER SECURITY is different from website security and I’ve observed it silently manifesting itself locally. I’ve partnered with a local company to offer this.
• PARTNERSHIPS with individuals and companies I know are going to bring additional services that I don’t offer as part of my core business. Clients trust my recommendation and my partnerships are without financial consideration.
• CLIENT NETWORK has been a dream of mine to promote inter-client business. This is something I’m going to actively develop and promote, including paid advertising on Facebook on a regular basis
• CLIENT AREA for exclusive client-oriented services like WordPress and Magento tutorials, online marketing tips, support ticket system for updates and maintenance, online payment of services.

ALL ORIGINAL PAGES HAVE BEEN REWRITTEN. Some of the original content was absorbed back into the new format and speaking of format, layout was improved, new graphic elements added etc.

The reason for rewriting was to make the content more relevant, substantial and to add better CALLS TO ACTION for inbound marketing purposes.

The following pages are still works in progress. Some are not totally accessible, some are in initial minimal stages and I’m going to continue working on and advise you when they’re totally ready.

The reason why I’m okay with keeping them visible is that they are not critical to my core website design services as they are supporting value added features like:

• Client Network
• Client Area
• Partnerships

Well there you have it. I hope you enjoy the new style and look and feel. Have fun browsing. This template happens to be the BEST template I’ve ever discovered, and I bought it and had it waiting for a few months before I decided to keep it for myself.

Please feel free to comment, like, or drop me a line and let me know what you think.