This morning I was lounging on the couch with a cup of coffee doing my usual mindless scrolling before beginning the day and I couldn’t help but smile when this post came up in my Facebook memories.
It’s hard to believe that it’s only been 3 years since I upgraded from my tired, flash based horizontal Showit website to the massive upgrade that was Showit5. I’ve been a happy Showiteer since 2009 (this July marks 10 years!) but the introduction of Showit5 in early 2016 really changed the game for me.
This upgrade gave me unlimited vertical design space, fully integrated custom blog design and side by side mobile and desktop design that gave complete control over both versions of my site. All this while keeping with the no-code, drag-and-drop designer that we’ve known and loved since the beginning.
There are a lot of website platforms out there these days. (And I mean a lot.) If you’re looking for the perfect place to host your business’ home on the web my advice would be not to jump to the first platform you see with a low price. Do your research, sign up for some free trials and pick the one that will give you what you need to best represent your business. For me, my priority has always been design. My very first website was a template based company that offered little to no customization options and I ended up leaving that company when I discovered that one of my local competitors was using the same exact template as me.
Why be stuck with another dime a dozen template when you can truly customize something unique for your brand? Showit does offer a full line of free and premium templates but the best part is that you’re not tied to any single thing in that template. It’s so much more than just changing colors and fonts… you can add sections, remove sections, bring in pieces from other templates or build something completely unique from scratch. Embed Instagram widgets or your Dubsado contact form. Use canvas views to minimize space while still providing quality information to your viewers. Create as many pages as you’d like and like I mentioned earlier, you have complete control over how your site looks on mobile. And have the power of a WordPress blog fully integrated into your custom blog design.
I’ll say it again…
Game. Changer.
And I’m even recommending it to you without some fancy referral link that gives me a payout or free cookies. (Rare these days, right?) Just go to Showit.co to check it out for yourself.
In fact, I fell so in love with designing on this platform that I started my own web design company in mid-2016, focusing exclusively on Showit design. I am now a proud Showit Design Partner and was even honored with the Showiteer of the Year award in 2018.
The timing of this little flashback couldn’t be more perfect because I just recently launched a brand new site design as part of my 10 year business celebration. This redesign was about brand clarification. And after 10 years I finally have a non-cheesy “tagline” that fits! This year is going to be a year of change as I adapt to life as a Mom of 2 so it was important for me to completely niche back down to what I’m best at.
Unique, specialized portrait services that celebrate life’s biggest moments.
Specializing exclusively in weddings, newborns & baby’s first year.
Simple. Clear. Professional. I infused the original custom design with some elements from my Jacob Dallas template to add in subtle pops of color while featuring some of my favorite images.
As a business owner with some pretty intense creative juices and equally intense OCD, I can’t even begin to tell you how many web designs I’ve been through in the past decade. (Why is branding yourself so hard?) But thanks to the flexibility of Showit I’ve been able to give in to every sudden attack of design inspiration that I’ve ever had. That said, I’m especially proud of my site and brand these days and I’m pretty sure it’s here to stay.
If you’d like to read the original blog post launching my first Showit5 design, click here! In that post I said that 2016 was going to be my year. And it was. Because as a small business owner every year should be your year. 😉
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