Customer Spotlight: Greg R Welch

We are excited to introduce Customer Spotlight, a series of posts profiling customers who are doing some great things with X. In this inaugural post, we introduce you to Greg R. Welch who was kind enough to share some thoughts and insights into his business.

Q: Can you tell us a little about yourself? How did you get your start in WordPress?

I am a web designer/developer specializing in WordPress websites, flipbooks, and emailers. My private client list includes a mix of both large and small businesses as well as creative individual professionals.

I'm an award-winning regional print magazine publisher. In 2000, I began selling print advertising which led to co-publishing my first magazine for the arts in Connecticut. A second magazine in Florida followed for which I was given an "Angel of the Arts Award" for best regional arts publication. Robert Rauschenberg was in the front row and also received an award that night for "Lifetime Contribution" in support of the arts.

In 2004, an active hurricane season devastated Southwest Florida along with the advertising accounts for my magazine. I limped along for a few more issues while I planned my transition from print publishing to web publishing.

Since 2006, I've been designing digital publications and portfolios for print as well as the web. In 2011, I struggled to develop my first HTML website template to accompany and support digital publications. Website development became an obsession which I was rewarded with a renewed confidence as a publisher.

2013 was the year that I realized I couldn't keep up with the constant changes to mobile devices in regards to the Internet roller coaster. Wearing multiple hats for sales, social networking, email marketing, while designing and developing to meet my clients' needs, became stressful. A major change was required to preserve my sanity and my business.

On January 1, 2014, Greg R.Welch LLC was formed, and a new website launched at Greg-R-Welch.com. A new suite of services was introduced with the intent of simplifying workflow and to leverage third party software and services including WordPress and X Theme.

Q: We love X (obviously), but can you tell us why you chose it for your customers?

The introduction of Stacks within a WordPress theme was unique to me. I see Stacks as separate front-end design styles and X as the back-end development. This is especially valuable with a multisite WordPress installation where each site can have a different stack without requiring different themes.

In addition to Stacks, I felt that the support site is fairly comprehensive and the forum reps were very courteous and knowledgeable. Although the number of updates that X releases can be exhausting, it's a welcomed contrast compared to my some of my previous experiences with WordPress themes that I've purchased. Time is of the utmost importance. If not checked, a poorly coded WordPress theme and slow limited support will ultimately rob developers of money and suck the fun out any project.

Committing to any WordPress theme is always a very difficult decision for me. And after investing several months with the X theme and several purchased licenses, I'm looking forward to growing my business with X well into the future.

Q: You've targeted a very specific niche in animal welfare sites. Can you tell us why you did this in addition to general web design?

To be clear, my web services are available for both commercial businesses and nonprofit organizations. However, my past experiences in magazine publishing provided me with great insight into the world of nonprofit organizations. Combined with a personal interest of animals, I decided to tailor some marketing strategies toward animal welfare groups. I've never had taken time to learn how to advocate for animals in need, so now I'm incorporating them into my business.

Q: What are some of your favorite traffic generation strategies for finding clients?

With regards to content development:

• Talk about others, not yourself… unless you're being interviewed of course.
• Don't be an expert. Expertise is fleeting. Be humble, smart, and adaptable.
• Find a personal target market on the side (like animal welfare) and participate.

Q: What are a few of the most important characteristics to building a long term relationship with clients?

I simply treat my clients the way I expect to be treated. Prompt communication is key.

Q: How can people learn more about you?

Just visit greg-r-welch.com and call me for a quick chat.

Thank-you Greg for kicking off the Customer Spotlight series! Aside from greg-r-welch.com being built with X, you can see a couple example client sites Greg has built with X over at design51studio.com and estoneworks.net. If you are a customer of ours who is interested in being featured in a future Spotlight, we'd love to hear from you.