Why Use Forage?

I’m not a salesman. I haven’t had to go out and make a sales pitch since I first started as a freelance web designer in 2004 (though I’ve been designing and developing the web since 2001). So, here on this “sales page”, once again, I won’t try and be something I’m not.

I don’t need to be a salesperson, because my work speaks for itself. So in a nutshell, here’s my “Why You Should Use Forage”…ahem, sales pitch.

1. It’s Affordable, But Not “Cheap”

There’s a difference between something being a good deal and something that’s just cheap plastic garbage. You can go and rummage yourself up a free website right now. No one will ever see it, and it’s most likely never going to make your company a penny, but it’s certainly possible.

You can also go out and buy a $100 car. But would you drive it across the country (or even down to the mall)?

I personally specialize in custom designed and handcrafted websites…but not all of my clients can afford my $5000 starting price. So I carefully developed Forage to sell for $999 and still be as close as you can get to custom design and dev.

2. Google Loves My Code

My sites consistently rank at the top of Google’s search results. Have a look:

Beat the Big Guys…

Long lasting results…

Get to the top!

Even on Google Maps…

My hosting alone gets results…

Big money searches…

Highly competitive searches…

3. Easy to Use, Easy to Customize, Thank You WordPress!

Forage is a handmade website, yes, but behind it all is the power of WordPress. If you’ve never heard of WP–as we in the know call it–it powers around 1/3rd of the web and is the easiest Content Management System in the known universe to use. Maybe they’ve got something better on Centauri 5, but here on Earth, WP means you get literally thousands of developers constantly checking the very same code that runs your site’s backend for security flaws, user interface improvements, stability improvements and more. It’s infinitely extensible, so if you decide you need additional functionality down the road, thanks to WordPress’ plugin system, that can often be done for free.*

Here’s a quick run through of what WordPress can do, and why it’s even better with Forage:

Create & Edit Your Own Content

Need a new page explaining your latest product launch? Want to write a blog post about where your band is playing this weekend? WordPress makes it so simple you can take care of it between brushing your teeth and your morning coffee. Manage your site’s SEO, social media integration and more, all from one place.

Manage All of Your Site’s Pages

The more content you have, the more Google loves you. But it’s not just about lots of content, it’s about lots of great, well organized content. Manage it all from one place.

You Own Your Content, Forever

You’re never locked into using Forage, or any of my services for that matter, ever. Easily export your entire site’s content–including any files and images you’ve uploaded–with just the click of a button or two.

You create it, you own it.

Customers, Staff and More

Running a website can be a big job, but you don’t have to go it alone!

You can give your secretary the ability to manage incoming orders, your Human Relations department the ability to edit certain pages, or your drummer the option to write new blog posts (that you can even review before they go live…you know how drummers can be. 🙂

Managing customers, authors and administrators is a helluva lot easier than dealing with rogue employees or temperamental singers who want to go off on some solo career…

Add Files to Your Site

Upload an image to your site, choose if you want it to be right aligned, left, centered, have a caption, what size…that’s all as easy as Sunday morning pie. But you can also upload PDFs, Word Documents, ZIP files…whatever you’d like, and even give different people permission to view the pages they’re on!

Customization, without the Headaches

Forage is built around giving you the ability to edit what you need to edit, make the site yours, but never get in your way. Create a site with exactly the colors, logo and fonts you want, but don’t worry about the minutiae that is coding and managing every little detail of a website.

Or, as part of the whole service, just send me the information and I’ll add it for you!

Staging, Backups and Security

Thanks to my hosting platform–a requirement when using Forage–you get a ton of great features. One of them is Staging: the ability to click a button and get an exact copy of your site. This allows you to experiment with plugins, changing colors, logos, even content; but without screwing up your live site in the process.

My hosting platform also means crazy fast pageloads thanks to the caching platform we use, nearly invincible security and daily backups…so even if something does go wrong, it’s just a text or phone call to get it back up and running.

Infinitely Extendable

Thanks to the thousands of plugins available for WordPress, you can add all types of functionality–from PayPal donations to an entire forums system, integration with Snapchat to Slack–often entirely for free. Plugins are one of WordPress’ greatest features, though it should be noted that not all plugins are created equal.*

Forms

From a simple contact form to the ability to accept payments on your website, newsletter signup integration and the ability to add polls and surveys to your site, every Forage client gets access to my copy of the Gravity Forms plugin. Gravity Forms is the #1 plugin for building nearly limitless forms that make your site all that much better.

And of course, not satisfied with the #1 forms plugin out there, I have a host of features that make Gravity Forms even better, from how beautifully they’re displayed on Forage sites to how efficiently they’re loaded.

* Note that while there are 10s of 1000s of plugins out there, not all are professionally coded and not all are 5 star material. You are always welcome to check with me to see how any particular plugin might affect your site’s performance, and I’m always available to customize plugins–or even just flat out create one for you–if needed.

4. Perfectly Developed

Out of the box, Forage has one blocking resource: the stylesheet for the page you’re on.

That may sound like gibberish if you’re not hip to web development, but for a WordPress theme, it’s insane. 

Most themes load up five or ten stylesheets alone before they even get into the plethora of Javascript files required to make the site work. All of this leads to bloat, and slower sites. Slower sites = less visitors & an unhappy Google. Less visitors = less links. Less links = lower ranking with Google. Vicious cycle? More like website homocide.

I take this stuff incredibly seriously. That’s why my clients succeed 98% of the time.

5. Man, That’s a Good Looking Site!

I won’t go on and on about how good Forage can look. This site was built on Forage. So is the main ClickNathan.com (yeah, I put my money where my mouth is). I’ve also got examples of what you can do with Forage here, and real world sites built on Forage (along with testimonials), here!

6. Full Service, When You Need It

Need more than just a website?

I also offer e-commerce solutions (aka Woocommerce), content importation, creation & custom SEO services if you need it!

And of course, if you want more than Forage can handle, I offer full service, custom design & development via ClickNathan.com.