One of the most plugged in industries of our time is the real estate market. “Realtors are embracing and using technology to their advantage” says Bella Web Design CEO, Desiree Scales. We are happy and excited to announce that our own, Desiree Scales will once again be a featured speaker at the RETSO convention this spring. This will be her fifth year speaking at this event.

Last year, Desiree spoke at the RETSO convention on the topic of Twitter: The Art of Engagement in 140 Characters or Less. Desiree demonstrated how to she engages her audience of 50,000 and keeps them interested in her message.

This year she will be demonstrating how to set up a mobile site using WordPress and talking about how to get your site found on Siri.

RETSO is a campground for the real estate industry’s brightest minds, most innovative companies, and greatest doers to gather each spring in North Atlanta. They share ideas and knowledge that is ready to implement to make agents, brokers, vendors, partners, and the industry better. – RETSO website

Although RETSO is real estate based, there is plenty to glean from the insightful information shared by industry professionals. This valuable information on how to better use technology can be translated and put to use in other industries as well.

Some of the past topics covered are:

• Using tools like Twitter and Blogs to get business

• Mobile – why it’s hot and how to use it

• You don’t have to be a techie use social media successfully

• Making videos to market yourself and your business

• Paying it forward: how helping and promoting others can help you

• Using Location based marketing

• Photography – taking the best pictures to showcase homes

Who: Realtors and other tech savvy professionals

What: Real Estate Technology Conference

Where: Gwinnett Center | 6400 Sugarloaf Parkway | Duluth, GA 30097

When: April 2012

Don’t miss out on attending RETSO this spring. Tickets can be purchased at RETSO.com.

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Bella Web Design is proud to announce the appointment of its CEO Desiree Scales to the Atlanta Music Project Board of Directors.

Modeled on El Sistema, Venezuela’s National System Of Youth And Children’s Orchestras, the Atlanta Music Project is an after-school, youth orchestra and choir program targeting underserved communities in metropolitan Atlanta. Founded in February 2010, the Atlanta Music Project is a tax-exempt, 501(c)3 organization.

AMP believes the pursuit of musical excellence leads to the development of confidence, creativity and ambition, thus sparking positive social change in the individuals and the communities they serve.

The AMP program is rigorous with classes taking place five-days-a-week for two hours each day. AMP believes all children are musical and there are no entrance auditions or requirements for students to have any musical experience. The only thing required for a student to be in AMP: commitment to attending all classes.The Atlanta Music Project provides for each of its students: an instrument, classes, world-class Teaching Artists and performance opportunities.  AMP classes include orchestra, choir, musicianship, African drum and dance and group lessons in the following orchestral instruments: violin, viola, cello, bass, flute, clarinet, trumpet and trombone.

Desiree’s background is steeped in music. She began singing when she was 3-years-old on her swing set, swinging to the beat of her song as her mother often loves to tell people. She was involved in choir from elementary school all the way through college graduation and sang several solos and in musical groups such as madrigals. She has performed with school choirs all over the United States including New Orleans, Illinois, Atlanta, Ohio, Missouri and Indiana. She has also performed solos with her high school choir in Europe including Sweden, Norway and Denmark. She studied for three years Vocal Performance at Northern Illinois University on a full-ride scholarship, but later decided to major in Public Relations Journalism and minor in Music Performance. Desiree continues to perform with her church choir.

Desiree first heard of the Atlanta Music Project while attending TEDxPeachtree in 2010 where she was blown away by the greatest clarinet performance she had ever heard by Alcides Rodriguez who is a member of the Atlanta Music Project’s Board of Advisors. She approached co-founders Al Meyers and Dantes Rameau and couldn’t wait to hear more about the project and how it started. Thus began her journey to becoming a Board Member. Desiree is excited about the opportunity to spread the love of music to kids and communities who may not have a chance to participate in music programs without AMP. “Music is a language which breaks all barriers and speaks to the heart of the individual in every corner of the globe.” she states. “Giving the gift of music to a child is a gift that will continue to give long after the child has grown in teaching discipline, responsibility and providing creative expression. I’m so proud to be part of a powerful agent of social change which will make a big difference in our community and, eventually, in the world at large.”

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Bella Web Design is proud to announce a partnership with BigCommerce as our recommended ecommerce solution. We’ve been searching for the perfect ecommerce platform – a solution that would encompass all of our needs. With the growth of online sales and more and more businesses wanting to reach more customers, ecommerce development has been booming. BigCommerce is a hosted solution that is easy to fully customize OR use right out of the “box” using pre-designed templates our designers can customize for you. We are so confident in this solution, we’re offering everyone a 14 day free trial. Call us at 770 509 8797 for more details and examples.

What makes BigCommerce shine? Take a look at just a few of these awesome features that will blow you away:

Just a few years ago simply building or implementing these features would have taken countless hours of heavy programming, but now they are standard additions to BigCommerce. These three features we’ve highlighted are only scratching the surface – feel free to learn more!

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The Atlanta Music Project is an after school orchestra and choir program that serves underprivileged children in communities in the Atlanta area. The Atlanta music project was modeled after Venezuela’s National System of Youth and Children’s Orchestras, called El Sistema. The Atlanta Music Project was founded in February 2010. Bella is a proud sponsor of the holiday events this year for this amazing organization.

Founders of AMP believe that studying music and being part of a band leads to many terrific character attributes including confidence, ambition and creativity. In turn, this fosters a positive impact and social change in the individuals and the neighborhoods they touch. The organization doesn’t require students to audition or even have any musical experience. All they must possess is a desire to learn and be committed to being present in all classes.

Upon joining the Atlanta Music Project each student receives their own instrument and attends classes taught by extremely accomplished artists. They also have the opportunity to perform in several recitals. Some of the classes that AMP offers are orchestra, choir, musicianship, African drum and dance and group lessons in orchestral instruments.

Who are these teaching artists? The AMP teaching artists are musicians with a special place in their hearts for serving communities in need. They have a true passion for what they do and want to share their talent with the next generation and help them reach their potential.

Teaching artists for AMP are extremely hard working and devoted who practice their skills by day, perform at night and spend many an afternoon giving back to disadvantaged communities in Atlanta.  They know that by teaching musical skills to the youth of Atlanta communities, they can set these children on a path of success.

Bella Web Design CEO, Desiree Scales, is a musician herself. She was a vocal major in college on a full scholarship and plays piano and cello. The organization is near and dear to her because of her musical history and her love of bringing music to kids. “The Atlanta Music Project is making a big impact in the lives of children who would not have the opportunity to ever know the beauty of orchestral music. Musicians require a lot of discipline as I know from experience. Music changed my life and I am so happy to be able to support an organization which will change the lives of so many great kids!”

Some may call this a social movement or a charity, and still others may refer to it as music education program, but all can agree that it has changed the lives of many forever. From humble beginnings in a parking garage with only 11 children to now helping hundreds of children in Atlanta, its effects are wide spread. Even more impressive is that with little or no prior experience, the quality of musicianship is astounding. Bella is proud to list this organization as one of the many charities we sponsor. More information about the holiday concerts can be found at http://atlantamusicproject.org/about-amp/concerts/.

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Even though Startup Princess Fairy Godmother sounds like something from a Disney movie, we can assure you, Startup Princess is a very real and thriving organization. It is an international network committed to empowering women entrepreneurs by offering them resources to support, mentor, learn and inspire them. Kelly King Anderson founded Startup Princess in 2006. Anderson had struggled to raise funding for a business venture and found that there was a need for resources for women to start their own businesses. Shortly after, Startup Princess was born.

Entrepreneur and Costco Connections have featured Startup Princess as a Top Resource for women entrepreneurs. In July 2011, Forbes listed it as one of the top 10 sites for Women Entrepreneurs.

The organization offers conferences and retreats for members. Startup Princess also provides free online resources of all sorts to support its members including:

• An Informative Blog
• Weekly Twitter Chats
• Online Networking

While these resources are invaluable to members, it would be terrific to have an expert to seek guidance from who could assist these entrepreneurs. This is where Fairy Godmother Consulting comes in. This is comprised of volunteer mentors who share their vast experiences and insights to help those women just starting out or who are in need of expert advice. Their role may be to speak at Startup Princess events or conduct teleseminars, or even write guest blog posts.

Fairy Godmothers serve as a panel of experts for the year.  Only 10 were chosen from hundreds of applicants. They will share their knowledge and expertise through online posts, teleconferences and will speak at live events.  They provide members with the additional resources needed to ensure a fantastically successful year filled with insightful nuggets of wisdom. So, what are you waiting for? Meet the rest of the Startup Princes Fairy Godmothers here (link to: http://startupprincess.com/announcing-the-2012-startup-princess-fairy-godmothers/), including our own, Desiree Scales!

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On October 20, 2011, Atlanta will experience a new kind of event. The Social TV Event will be an online “conference” which will enable viewers to interact with each other on the topic of watching television and interacting with other people using social media at the same time. Our CEO, Desiree Scales, will be one of two Twitter MCs (emcees) hosting the event on Twitter. You can follow her tweets that day at #socialtvevent on her Twitter account www.twitter.com/desireescales.

The Social TV Event is a virtual conference taking place from 9:00am – 5:00pm EST engaging attendees from across the globe in live conversation surrounding:

• How consumers are using social TV today and how they will use it in the future
• Defining social TV strategies across products
• Which products, technologies and advertising initiatives are leading the pack
• Social TV content strategies and measurement
• How the social TV revolution stands to change the future of television as we know it

Also during the event, User Insight will reveal behavioral-based, social TV consumer insights, derived from the in-depth user research conducted over the course of the last 10 months. If you are interested in what consumers really want and how they interact with products in this emerging space, don’t miss this first-of-its-kind event.

The Social TV Event is open to anyone and everyone interested in Social TV, including technology, marketing, advertising and brand professionals; reporters and bloggers; general consumers; and technology enthusiasts.

Bella Web Design fans can get 10% off their ticket by using this link http://www.socialtvevent.com/bellawebdesign/. We hope to “see” you there!

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Our CEO, Desiree Scales, has been invited to the Microsoft campus in Redmond, WA on June 13 to learn more about Microsoft’s WebMatrix platform and to participate in a high-level discussion of the Microsoft Azure cloud hosting platform. Bella Web Design, Inc. is one of only 10 development firms around the country to be invited to WebMatrixFest. Desiree and her firm are honored to be included in this event. Bella Web Design is a Microsoft Partner and was featured in a case study about hosting WordPress sites on Windows with much success.

Desiree and a web developer from her team will be sharing how they typically work with Microsoft’s tools as well as giving feedback on these platforms in a consulting role. They will meet with Bill Staples, GM for Web Platform and Tools Team, Grace Francisco, Sr. Business Development, OSS Communities and the WebMatrix development team members. They will talk about deploying websites with WebMatrix and will discuss “shifting to the cloud” and the Azure cloud platform. The day will end with dinner in Bellvue, WA.

To follow along with the event on Twitter, follow the hashtag #webmatrixfest.

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When reporter Jennifer Mayerle from CBS News Atlanta was looking for a social media expert to interview for this clip, she found Desiree through a friend on Facebook. Desiree was the perfect subject matter expert for this story on Delta’s public relations fiasco on their military baggage policy not only because of her many years of online marketing experience, but because of her airline background. Desiree has worked in Airport Communications for Delta Airlines and as a Flight Attendant for United Air Lines. The story spread quickly through social media. The interview is about why this happened and how corporations are learning more lessons from this latest viral video created by military troops. Here is the link to the transcript http://www.cbsatlanta.com/story/14871597/social-media-affects.

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Bella Web Design, Inc. an Atlanta-based web design and online marketing company, is a recipient of the 2011 Webby Awards, a prestigious international competition that honors excellence on the Internet.  The company is an Official Honoree in the Webby Awards Events category which recognizes distinguished efforts in using the web to promote events across a wide range of industries and initiatives.

Bella Web Design won the accolade for its work on WordPress site Universal Whiskey Experience, a new whisky tasting event in Las Vegas designed to attract consumers of premium whiskey beverages. Bella Web Design shared the Events category honors with organizations that include NBC for its Olympics coverage;  Major League Baseball for its World Series presence on the web; MTV Networks for its 2010 Country Music Association Festival; and the Economist Conferences UK, which was produced by the Economist financial and news magazine.

The Webby Awards organization received more than 10,000 entries from 60 countries and all 50 U.S. states for the 2011 competition. Only a fraction of those were recognized as Official Honorees. “The Official Honoree distinction is awarded only to the top 10 percent of all work entered,” says David-Michel Davies, Executive Director of The Webby Awards and The International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences, and Chairman and Co-Founder of Internet Week. “Winning the award exhibits remarkable achievement.”

“We are incredibly excited by our selection as one of the 2011 Webby Awards Official Honorees,” says Desiree Scales, Chief Executive Officer of Bella Web Design. “This is the first time we’ve ever entered any of our work into an award competition. We’re ecstatic that we won such a prestigious award for Web-based innovation with our first competition entry.”

Scales credits the efforts of her company’s highly skilled web design and development staff in creating the Universal Whiskey Experience site. The client’s goal was to create a site that would attract attendees by effectively communicating the elegance and luxury associated with premium whisky. The site won praise from the client and was a major element in helping launch an enormously successful event.

“Nothing is more important than helping our clients build their business through effective web design and online marketing,” says Scales. “That is the true measure of a job well done. The Webby Awards  honor and our client’s success prove that our design process and attention to detail can deliver big results with each and every project.”

About the Webby Awards
Established in 1996 during the web’s infancy, the Webby Awards are presented by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, which includes an Executive 750-member body of leading web experts, business figures, luminaries, visionaries and creative celebrities, and Associate Members who are former Webby Award Winners and Nominees and other Internet professionals. The Academy is an intellectually diverse organization that includes members such as musicians Beck and David Bowie; Internet inventor Vint Cerf; political columnist Arianna Huffington; Real Networks CEO Rob Glaser; “The Simpsons” creator Matt Groening; Virgin Atlantic Chairman and Founder Richard Branson; and Harvey Weinstein, Co-Founder of The Weinstein Company. Members also include writers and editors from publications such as The New York Times, Wired, Details, Fast Company, Elle, The Los Angeles Times, Vibe, and WallPaper. The Webby Awards presents two honors in every category—The Webby Award and The People’s Voice Award—in each of its four entry types: Websites, Interactive Advertising, Online Film & Video, and Mobile & Apps. Members of The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences select the nominees for both awards in each category, as well as the winners of the Webby Awards. The online community determines the winners of The People’s Voice by voting for the nominated work that they believe is the best in each category.

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When Adam Miller came to us about a year ago with a dream of building an American Made Only ecommerce site, we knew we could help. Working closely together, we finalized the site www.petriot.com and launched on July 4, 2010. Little did we all know how much attention the site would get. On March 4, 2011, Diane Sawyer featured the site in her article “Made in America Resource Guide: Where to Find American Companies.”

From day one Adam has had American companies signing up to sell from his site. The site was built on the Magento ecommerce platform.

Popularity has been slowly growing via social media and great articles and feature stories on and offline. Petriot.com now represents 25 American companies, from 17 different states, with over 600 total products. They provide customers with the ability to sort products by State in an effort to establish a ‘national grassroots’ network.  Their Facebook fanbase is growing rapidly and now has over 2,300 fans.

To quote the founder, “Petriot.com is very sincere about it’s mission to strengthen the American economy and promote the growth of American business. We are absolutely dedicated to building a stronger country, and we are here to spread the word that Made in USA is back! Together, we WILL make a difference. United, We Stand!”

We’re proud to be a part of a true American success story for Adam and his team!

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We are very excited to announce Desiree Scales has been chosen as the new Newsletter/Blog Editor for TEDxPeachtree in 2011. In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TED has created a program called TEDx. TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. Our event is call TEDxPeachtree, where x=independently organized TED event. At our TEDxPeachtree event, TEDTalks video and live speakers will combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events, including ours, are self-organized.

Desiree will work with a team of writers including Tricia Molloy, Cindi Kurczewski and Nichole Bazemore, in the creation of stories, interviews and event updates throughout the year. She is excited about the opportunity to bring TEDxPeachtree to the forefront of people who haven’t heard of the event and to update those who have attended on the continued accomplishments of past and future speakers.

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IBG Construction is one of the largest commercial construction companies in Atlanta, Georgia. They were ready to update their site and include a new project management module to showcase their work. Bella Web Design delivered an option which included a custom WordPress site plus a custom built project management plugin which allowed the client to update and add their own projects including both images and text. The results can be seen at www.ibgcs.com.

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When the owners of Rising Roll wanted to unveil a delicious, more tempting website, they looked no further than Bella Web Design for their new website. The current site lacked the food appeal the company was looking for. It also needed a new place to feature customer videos and incorporation of social media. Bella Web Design delivered all this and more on a silver platter.

Incorporating real images of their food, video onto the home page and adding a dashboard design to the homepage for easier navigation, makes a site that pops. Many customers have said their mouths actually water when looking at the site. That’s the point!

Bella Web Design will also rollout a comprehensive social media plan for the company in January.

Take a look at the finished version at www.risingroll.com and don’t forget your napkin!

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