BlueSpruceInventory.com Website Design

From 2010-2012 I operated a home inventory service that would document all of a client’s belongings so they would have the necessary information if they need to file a theft report or an insurance claim. BlueSpruceInventory.com was my primary means of organizing my marketing stragegy. The website was built on the WordPress Content Management System (CMS) and was customized using HTML, PHP and CSS.

Purpose: The website was designed to be THE storefront for my home-operated business. It was used to educate consumers and market my inventory services.

Solution: I used WordPress for the basic framework of the website with Home, About, Services, Blog and Contact Us pages. The Services pages was used to keep track of service packages and promotions. The Blog page was used to keep the site fresh with new content. I mostly used HTML and CSS to create custom pages for the business.

Challenges: Since the website was for a part-time, home-based business I did not have a lot of time to customize the site. A more WYSIWYG (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) type of CMS would have been a better use of my time. I also had a hard time coming up with timely blog posts to keep the site current. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) was difficult since a home inventory service was such a unique service, I was unsure if which keywords and phrases to use to get people to the site. I used a Facebook page and Twitter account in an attempt to drive traffic to the site, but I was mostly unsuccessful.

Outcome: I closed down Blue Spruce Inventory at the beginning of 2012, but still had bluespruceinventory.com until the end of July 2012 so I changed the site to a list of links to online do-it-yourself inventory sites until the site went dark.

I never thought of keeping any screenshots of the full site while it was up and running. You can view what’s left of the site in the Internet Archives Wayback Machine: http://web.archive.org/web/20120115001521/http://bluespruceinventory.com/

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