Who I Am
My name is Michael Athorn. I've been a commercial fisherman for 30 years and currently own the F/V Margaritas, a grouper boat which operates out of Apalachicola, Florida. My lifestyle has allowed me much time over the past 25 years to pursue a fascination with computers and web design. I have designed and built a number of personal web pages, commercial web sites and e-commerce sites. A few of the ones I have online right now are linked from the menu at the left of this page. I've recently stopped going offshore on my boat and now devote my energy to my web design business.
Design
I work with a number of html editors, using a combination of text based editors and more complex site editors to create and refine a page or entire web site. Tools I use include NoteTab, for editing my own code, TopStyle Pro for creating and editing CSS (style sheets), Aptana Studio to edit some page elements and upload them to the server. I also use Adobe CS3 (Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Flash, Illustrator and Photoshop) to build and edit visual elements and other parts of various sites. I can create flash based animated slide shows or intros or even whole sites. I can help you stream music or video from your web site. I can help you build and implement an online store. Some of what I can do is demonstrated at the "demo" link above. I can use any combination of design elements to build a page or site that will be uniquely your own. Contact me for a more detailed oversight of what I can do to fit within your needs and your budget.
Optimization
Every site I build is completely optimized for search engines. I will use Google Web Master Tools and other optimization tools to make sure your site is compliant with the various standards the major search engines use to rank pages and bring them higher in the list of hits for a particular search. I optimize meta tags, titles, keywords, and all html attributes to fit within the guidelines the major search engines like to see. I submit site maps to Google on a regular basis and, for sites I host, submit them to all the major search engines every 30 days to keep them high in the rankings. Nobody can guarantee a good return on a particular search but I can, and do, make sure that all the sites I build are designed and implemented in the best way possible to obtain good results from germane searches.
