Brown Couch Consulting

Graphic designer in need of work can find plenty of opportunity with Zen Cart

Posted on October 11, 2011 by Daria Mark

If you are a graphic designer looking for work, I have an opportunity for you. Recently, I created a store for Dr. Fisher’s Mix (a high fiber and high protein dietary supplement)using Zen Cart. The default graphics on the Zen Cart are terrible and need to be updated to 2011.

Screenshot of the Dr. Fisher's Mix Store

At $50 – $75 per set, the graphics would be affordable for a developer and once you setup the proper templates, it won’t take more than an hour to get all the buttons (I think there are 3-5) into the customer’s colors and fonts. And if you have time, make a name for yourself by updating the default style of the cart for the next release.

From a quick search on Google, it looks like the vast majority of high ranking services offer integration, installation, etc. That’s expensive and not necessary for someone like me, who really just needs a small amount of graphics.

If you are a graphic designer and you’ve created Zen Cart graphics, contact me.

Dairy Free Molasses Spice Cookies

Posted on July 27, 2011 by Daria Mark

I am constantly on a hunt for desserts without dairy since my father in law is lactose intolerant. Here is a recipe I created this morning, modified from a goodie from Cook’s Illustrated.

Dairy Free Molasses Spice Cookies
2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp ginger
1.4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp salt
2/3 c vegetable (canola) oil
2-3 tbsp orange juice (I squeezed 1/2 an orange to get this)
1/3 c brown sugar
1/4 c granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 c molasses
1/2 c zante currants (small black raisins), optional

Preheat the oven to 375F.

Mix the flour, baking soda, spices and salt in a medium bowl. Beat oil, sugars and orange juice with an electric mixer until the mixture thickens. Add the egg and the vanilla extract. While beating, add the molasses. Mix in the dry ingredients into the egg/oil mixture until just combined. Add in the raisins if using.

Line baking sheets with parchment paper (or I use the Silpats which work wonders and are reusable). Using 2 spoons (the dough will be soft and very sticky), plop 6 dollops of dough on 1 baking sheet and 6 dollops on another, at least 2 inches apart. These cookies will spread quite a bit. Bake for about 11 minutes, until the cookies are cracked all over and set in the middle. Take out of the oven and let cool before removing from the baking sheets.

Posted in Recipes | Tagged cookies, dairy free, molasses | Leave a comment

Giving web visibility to an all-volunteer non-profit

Posted on October 21, 2010 by Daria Mark

Since I am in the web development business, I am always bombarded with ads for free website, “custom” websites for only $450, etc. The “custom” one I love the most. A “custom” website isn’t really custom – just like a “friend” isn’t really a friend.

But I digress. Speaking of free websites, a few months ago, a friend approached me about creating a website for the Better Health Project (www.betterhealthproject.org) , an organization that has been making large strides in improving HIV treatment in Cape Verde. Excuse my ignorance, but I first had to put Cape Verde into Google Maps, and now I know that it’s a country off the coast of Africa, comprised of small islands with a population in need of better HIV and medical treatment. The organization has its start with Tim Comeaux from the Brockton Neighborhood Health Center, but the organization stands on its own and is not part of the health center itself.

So, why build a free website? When I first started my web consulting and website building business, I decided to do one free project per year. Last year, I built a site for IBEX Tours, a bioexploration (biodiversity exploration) non-profit which sends tours all over the world as an education and awareness effort for supporting and sustaining some of the most precious ecosystems.

As 2010 draws to a close, I will start on the lookout for the next pro-bono project.

Posted in Brown Couch Consulting Business | Comments Off

Why some businesses fail

Posted on August 17, 2010 by Daria Mark

I got an excellent pedicure at a spa once and when it started wearing off, I called for an appointment for another.

Here is my conversation at 9:30am on Wednesday:

Me: Hi, I would like to make an appointment for a pedicure.
Salon: What? This is a beauty shop. We don’t do pedicures here.
Me: Hmm. I got a pedicure a month ago at your salon.
Salon: What? (talks to people behind him). Oh, call back in 1/2 hour. I don’t know how to book that.

11am conversation on the same day
Me: Hi, I would like to book an appointment for a pedicure.
Salon: We don’t do pedicures.
Me: Actually, I had a pedicure at your salon a month ago.
Salon: Oh. The woman who does it, she has a small child, sometimes she comes, sometimes she not want to come. Call on Friday at 11am. If she’s here, you can have a pedicure.

Friday, at 1:30pm:
Me: Hi, I wanted to come in for a pedicure.
Salon: Oh, did you make an appointment?
Me: No, I was told to call the day of.
Salon: I see. Well the manicurist is with someone right now and she will be busy until 4pm when she has to leave. Would you like to make an appointment for next Friday?

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Announcing a new client – Dr. Rebecca Caplan, Chiropractor

Posted on June 11, 2010 by Daria Mark

Brown Couch Consulting is pleased to announce a new client: Dr. Rebecca Caplan, a chiropractor in Brookline. Dr. Caplan has more than 20 years of experience; she practices a wide variety of chiropractic techniques including Palmer Diversified Technique, Sacro Occipital Technique, Applied Kinesiology, and Activator Methods. We are pleased to be charged with helping Dr. Caplan gain more visibility on the web.

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What you see is not the same as what Google sees

Posted on April 20, 2010 by Daria Mark

I’ve been working with the acupuncture clinic of Brookline on their website and one of the most important changes we had made to their site is replacing the logo, which was a background image with a text based logo.

The old logo was not only all image based, but was also hidden in the background. It was invisible to the search engines since background images don’t get ALT tags and the valuable words acupuncture, clinic and Brookline were losing one turn on each page. We’ve kept the lotus flower but turned the rest of the logo into text. You can see it for yourself at www.acupunctureclinicforwomen.com. This also gave us a chance to update the business tagline to Natural Healing Endorses Wellbeing. The new headline area now takes better advantage of the space at the top and helps with the business’ SEO efforts.

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The gift of the Magi?

Posted on March 24, 2010 by Daria Mark

One of our former clients – Day Spa Magi has been transferred to new ownership. It’s always a little unnerving and exciting at the same time when this happens to a business. It’s unnerving because it’s change. It’s exciting because you don’t know what’s coming and in which ways it will be different.

We’re not involved with Magi any more, but it can still be fun to exercise our thinking caps and come up with a list of things a spa should do to reinvent itself. So, here it goes:

New Name – New Image with a new brand. Choose different colors, update the entry room, basically, give a different look to your business.
Same People? This is a tough one because your customers, those who come regularly, are used to their specific hairdresser, cosmetologist, etc. And since you want to retain the customers as much as possible, it’s best to keep those members of the staff who are performing well. And of course, weed out those which are not. Try to balance this off with some new faces and some new services.
Offer an introductory coupon – you’ll need to entice past customers and new customer to come and try something new – i.e. your services, so offer a 20% off your first treatment coupon to get them in the door.
Fix the website! Of course, with every new brand, there must be a new website. I would also recommend this for spas which are also not going through an ownership change – every 3-5 years, redesign your site. It will keep your business looking fresh to potential customers.

And, as I am left with a $38 Magi gift certificate burning a hole in my pocket, I anxiously await the opening of the new spa, even if just to see whether I can still get a manicure with my certificate.

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New Client – New You? Brown Couch helps Acupuncture Clinic of Brookline

Posted on March 10, 2010 by Daria Mark

We’re proud to announce that the Acupuncture Clinic of Brookline has become a client of Brown Couch Consulting. We’re helping the clinic gain more visibility in the natural and herbal healing market in and around Brookline. They already have a website, but we’ve been making improvements in the SEO realm that are necessary to help the clinic to be more visible on the web and Google Maps in particular.

Posted in Brown Couch Consulting Business, Stores and Services | 1 Comment

Spring cleaning – a redesign of Gretje Ferguson’s Website

Posted on March 3, 2010 by Daria Mark

I’ve written about Gretje Ferguson before – she’s a photographer in Boston taking amazing images of everyone from her children and grandchildren to business professionals and authors. And now, Gretje’s site has a new look – thanks to her ever expanding list of offerings, we’ve split the menu into 2 and came up with a clean, fresh new look.

Take a look:

Posted in Brown Couch Consulting Business, Web Design Insight | Leave a comment