We Love Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo!

June was National Zoo and Aquarium Month, and in observation of that, we wanted to briefly talk about one of our newest customers at Magnolia Media! We wanted to post this in June, but it's been so busy that we're just now able to do that.

Last month, we welcomed the Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo to our client family! We are maintaining their website by announcing the most current information and posting photos for all to see! We’ll be some of the first to know about upcoming events and new additions to the zoo! If you follow us on Facebook, we’ll be sharing their special news on our page, and we suggest you follow them too. (Links below.)

The Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo is open every day of the year, except Thanksgiving, New Year’s Day and Christmas. The daily hours are 9 am to 4 pm. Special hours apply to those few holidays though. You can check their website for the admission rates, and annual memberships available.

The zoo opened in June 1989 as Zooland Animal Park, and has grown over these many years to be home to more than 290 animals! They have so many exciting animals like monkeys, tigers, peacocks, kangaroos, and emus…even a petting zoo, reptile house, aviary and daily animal shows during the summer that you can’t afford to miss!


The Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo relies solely on admissions, memberships and contributions to remain in business. The local community and businesses have been generous in donating money, building supplies and services in years past. Substantial on-going funding through sponsorships, grants, and endowments from major corporations did not exist before 1998. These additional sources of revenue are now being actively pursued to ensure the zoo's longevity.


And YOU, too, can help with funding for the zoo’s new facilities! The Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo is moving to new facilities, which should be opening in 2011. The higher grounds of the new facility should prevent flooding that has been a problem in the past, which ensures more safety for each of the animals. Read more on their website about their new facilities and the rare Bengal cubs that will make the zoo very unique!

HOW CAN YOU HELP?! The zoo is offering brick pavers as tributes, gifts, and memorials to loved ones, children, grandchildren, and businesses. Pavers will be positioned in a place of honor and prominence to be seen by all who visit. 100% of each paver purchase will go to the new zoo construction and relocation. Here’s a brochure you can download for more information, and feel free to go ahead and fill it out if you’d like to be a part of the Higher Ground Zoo Move!

They (and we!) are all so very excited about the new facilities and are looking forward to seeing you all there in 2011! In the meantime, you can follow them on Facebook, follow them on Twitter, or visit their website for the most current news!

To the Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo, thanks for choosing Magnolia Media for your future website maintenance! We look forward to working with you and growing our business relationship!

To Melanie, we appreciate your referral and hope for the best for you in years to come!

New Logo and Website for Covenant Christian School!

On May 27th, (we apologize for the delayed announcement due to lack of blogging time) Magnolia Media launched a new website for a new customer of ours that you may be familiar with (if you live in the Mobile area). Covenant Christian School, near the intersection of Hitt Rd. and Cody Rd. in West Mobile, recently hired us to design a new website, optimize the site for search engines, and provide statistical evidence to the success of the site. We are honored to have worked with this Christian school, and look forward to our growing relationship with the board members and staff at Covenant Christian!

Unlike some of our recent customers, Covenant Christian School has already had a website for the past several years. You can view the “Before” website here: http://www.covenantschool.com/old  and the “After” site here: http://www.covenantschool.com/ We also created a new logo for the school, because in the past they’ve simply used the school crest. Knowing that their mascot is an eagle, Skip created an amazing logo that they were all extremely happy with! You’ll see it with the school name on the site, and also in the background for an added effect.

The new school website continues with the same functionality of the previous site, but boasts a new design and more extensive information for prospective and/or attending students’ parents. The new site has an estimated 40 pages, with online forms for registration, online student handbook, link to keep up with student grades (via RenWeb), current news and a calendar, along with many other helpful tools.

Thursday, May 27th, we launched the new logo and website without the current news and calendar, but that should be updated within a week or so. Magnolia Media is also training the office manager to make regular updates to the site so that it can be easily managed by a staff member in house. This month you may see some of Covenant Christian School’s billboards throughout Mobile. It’s time for enrollment for the 2010-2011 school year and they are very excited about the new students who will be joining them. We encourage you to consider Covenant Christian School if you have children in the K-4 through 8th grade age group. It may be just what you’re looking for!

To Covenant Christian School: Congratulations on the launching of your new website and thanks so much for choosing Magnolia Media for this new site development!

www.covenantschool.com

Firefighters Insurance Agency Launches New Site!

Two weeks ago, Magnolia Media was contacted by a previous customer of ours concerning a new website for a completely separate company that needed some assistance. During the first week of June, Firefighters Insurance Agency will be at a convention handing out new brochures and business cards with their website address on them. Needless to say, they want a website they are excited about these firefighters visiting after the convention.

They had already set up a free Flash website through Wix.com that wasn’t as attractive or functional as what they really wanted for the company. For those of you unaware of the downsides to templates (especially Flash templates), they are not search engine friendly in the least! Especially these that are free, on a sub-domain of wix.com. They leave the least amount of room possible to optimize your site to be found. FIA’s inquiry focused mainly on search engine optimization and professionalism. Having already been a customer of ours, they understood that all of Magnolia Media’s work is custom-designed to meet the client’s needs, and definitely search engine friendly. So, they called us on Friday the 14th, we set a price and got started on Monday (the 17th), and launched the site that Friday (the 21st)…within a week of the initial contact!

The site was designed based on the same general layout as the previous site they created in house, and was only 6 pages. With a deadline of 2 weeks before they’d be handing their website address out to many Florida firefighters, and knowing we had a lot of projects to keep us busy this past week, we pushed the whole site into a one week period from beginning to end. Much credit goes to Jeff, Lisa, and Richard at the company, who had a great quick response to our questions and ideas, and also had their information ready since they had just created the first site. It makes for a very smooth and quick process!

Firefighters Insurance Agency, located in Tallahassee, Florida offers the highest quality insurance products through quality companies for the benefit of members of the Florida Professional Firefighters Association. They offer so many different insurance products, including ones related to firefighting injuries, and others such as auto, home, motorcycle, commercial coverage for secondary businesses, or even retirement and estate planning services. If you’re a nearby firefighter, take a look at what they have to offer full-time and volunteer firefighters. You may be surprised how much it could help you and your family!

Here are links to see the before and after of what we did for Firefighters Insurance Agency:

Before – Wix.com Free Flash Site

After - Magnolia Media Custom Site

Jeff, Lisa, and Richard, thank you all so much for thinking of us in this project, and we look forward to our growing relationship in the future! Good luck at the convention next week!

Your Opinion Counts! - BlueGill Restaurant

Hello Magnolia Media followers!

We recently decided to take a local restaurant, the BlueGill Restaurant located on the Causeway in Mobile, and re-design their website with no obligation to the owners! This was just an experiment we wanted to test out. Since The BlueGill has recently changed ownership, we thought that a new brand would prove profitable by enticing seafood fans to try out the restaurant if they never have, and to come more often if they've already been before. Below is a screenshot of their current website, along with a screenshot of what we just recently designed for them. You can also see the sites full size if you follow the links for a better view. 

As always, we value your opinion, and hope you'll share your thoughts with us, and recommend us to your friends, coworkers, employer, etc. if you like what you see here.

Also, we would encourage you to try out the food and environment at The BlueGill Restaurant in Mobile. They'd love to have you stop by and try them out!

Current Website:

http://www.bluegillrestaurant.com/  

Magnolia Media's New Design:

http://www.clients.magnolia-media.com/bluegill/

Latest Launch: Mobile Wall Works

Magnolia Media is excited to announce today that we have officially launched the new website for the locally-owned and operated drywall company, Mobile Wall Works. Our two companies have worked together over the past month and a half to develop a new logo and website for the company that has been providing individual customers and respected homebuilders and remodelers, with superior drywall services for over 10 years.

This is the first website that Mobile Wall Works has pursued in their years of service to the Gulf Coast. They hired us to design a new custom logo for them that would provide an updated image for their new marketing ventures. The main purposes of the site Magnolia Media designed were to provide an initial online presence, provide a very professional image, and to showcase photos of past jobs and the quality of work provided by Chuck Green and his crews.

If you aren’t familiar with Mobile Wall Works, once you meet or talk with Chuck Green, you will know that your home or company project is in good hands. This company was established years ago with the goal to supersede the existing services providing by local drywall companies. Mobile Wall Works still stands by the same principles; and timely, high-quality service is a commitment they stand behind. The new website has testimonials from customers such as Timber Ridge Services, WC Construction Services, and Chuck Dixon Home Improvements, among others.

We would love it if you would check out the new Mobile Wall Works website, and keep Chuck in mind for any commercial or residential projects he might could help you with, including drywall installation and repair, ceiling installation or repair, painting, and insulation. Find out more about them at www.mobilewallworks.com, and contact Chuck at Chuck@mobilewallworks.com. I’m sure he’d love to hear from you!