We are thrilled to announce that we've launched a HUGE site we've been working on for the last few months, WineMaker Magazine.

WineMaker Magazine started in 1998, and it's about how to make wine at home, whether you start with fresh grapes, or whether you start with a kit.  The main goal for the website is to push subscriptions and sell back issues of the magazine.  The content surrounding that supports those goals.

Because the site supports a magazine, it should contain an issue-by-issue listing of all articles.  Some of these articles may be available online, while some articles might be listed, but purchasing a back issue is required to read it.

Bill and I have been working together for years now. We've pretty much figured out what each other loves doing and what ticks the other person off. We've also gotten pretty good at picking out work together. One of the things we're getting Sam up to speed with is Jen and Bill's Coding Theorem.

These days, clients call up Sam to chat, but in the old freelance days, generally the call would come in to me. They have an old site, and they'd like us to do a redesign.  Maybe there's a small database driven component to the site, or some script, or even some full-blown (but old and creaky) content management system involved.

First, I take a look at the HTML, and the CSS if there is any, on the website. I try to judge the code by the era in which it was written.  If it was a site from 2000, I don't expect to see any CSS at all.  But sites built in 2004 or later, I definitely expect to see CSS.  (Sites between 2000 and 2004 vary widely -- they should use CSS, but many still don't.)

We at 4Web are so thrilled with the way our business has gone. We've only been in business for 8 months, and all three of us are fully employed and getting regular paychecks. We even have a regular stable of freelance talent to help us as needed. That's the excellent news.

The bad news for our readers is that we're now in crunch time for a really great site we'll be rolling out in early September. We've been building this site since May and as usual, learning all kinds of amazing new things about Joomla along the way.

It's a big site, over 1000 pages, which we're porting from an old creaky custom CMS.  It was, as we say, one of those sites we could only improve, no matter what we did!

Know your team and you will come to know what it means to produce a quality product in an efficient manner. Capitalize on strengths, minimize the focus on weaknesses and put your egos aside. Make room for others and you will find that creative juices will flow and that education will abound.

Capitalize on Strengths:

Let those who are good at what they do just do their job. They will do it faster and better than you can if that is not your strength. For example: I have no graphic design skills whatsoever. Sure, I know what I do and don't like when I see it, but as far as developing concepts- not so much. I am ok with that and quite frankly so is my team.

Bill came out from Colorado to visit with Sam and me (here in Vermont/New Hampshire) for a few days last week. We had a fabulous time working on a huge project.  (We're rolling out the first half in early September and the second half in early November.)

Because  of the rare occasion we were all together, we decided to go visit our great friend, Tom Raffelt over at New England Studio, and get a bunch of pictures done for our site. Tom knows we can limp our way around Photoshop, so he gives us all of the pictures he takes.

I must say, all of Tom's pictures are great, every time.  When we need a photographer, we always call on Tom.