March 2008 - Volume 4, Issue 1

In this Issue...

INTRO | The Return...Finally

I realize that it has been over four months since our last newsletter, and I apologize for that. Don't worry, we're still here and working on the business of developing new and exciting solutions for you and your customer's needs.

Similar to the changes we're all seeing in the economy, PixelMill is also in a transition period. We're focused on adding new products and services focused on adding new dynamic database, e-Commerce, and media designs and features. Over the coming months, you'll see us rolling out the new products, services, and partnerships that we have been working on over the last six months.

Thank you again for your continued interest in our newsletter and for being a valued customer. We look forward to delivering you more of what you expect from PixelMill in the coming year!

Special Offer: As a Thank You for your patience with our newsletter hiatus, we have made our monthly coupon an unlimited use 15% discount through the end of April. Use the 15% discount on any purchases as many times as you like through April 30th. See the right column for more details.

by Jason Reckers, President & CEO - PixelMill Inc.

ANNOUNCEMENT | SharePoint simpleCMS^TM Templates

Introducing SharePoint simpleCMS Templates...

simpleCMS™ templates for Windows SharePoint Services. Combining the professional graphic design of PixelMill templates with the power of a SharePoint driven CMS interface delivers an innovative solution with immediate value.

PixelMill has teamed up with WSS experts B4Contact to develop these new and innovative products focused on small to medium size businesses. Save time, money, and more importantly...get more of your team involved in the success of your web presence!

How They Work:

Load the template to your Windows SharePoint Server site and start editing. You and your clients can login and make edits to content areas of the site from within the browser. A copy of SharePoint Designer is recommended for the web site manager, but anyone with the right permissions can make most common changes without a web editor.

Features and Benefits of the web browser interface, include:

Add your pictures and images
Add additional pages
Modify navigation bars
Quickly update content areas
Edit content with full "rich text" capabilities
More...

Get Started Today!

PRODUCTS | PixelMill Skins for SharePoint (MOSS & WSS)

Our fastest growing product ever, PixelMill Skins for SharePoint are an excellent starting place for changing the look & feel of your MOSS or WSS site. Our Skins for SharePoint have also proven to be a solid solution for customers from Enterprise to small businesses requiring the lowest support need (less than .5% of customers ask for help) for any product to date. Proving the quick, efficient, and effective deployment quality in the products.

PixelMill Design Skins give your primary SharePoint pages an attractive makeover in under 60 seconds!
PixelMill Skins have been developed to provide SharePoint users the ability to transform the out-of-the-box SharePoint site design into a variety of different color schemes and designs.

What do I need to use the PixelMill WSS Skins?
You will need a Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) or Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) - local or hosted - site. You don’t need SharePoint Designer! To use one of our skins, you just need your SharePoint site. The skin is uploaded to your Gallery and you see the changes immediately.

What if I want to change the header or logo?
As with most templates or items you will need a graphics editor to make customizations. Blank images are provided with the templates so you can make these changes with ease.

Can I change the CSS?
Knowledge of CSS is recommended to make changes to any CSS file. Your changes can be made in any HTML editor or even in Notepad. Color changes are easy to make but major design changes are not recommended without SharePoint Designer.

Do more with SharePoint Designer!
With SharePoint Designer, you can take customization one step further. For SharePoint users who would like to transform more of their SharePoint site, you have the ability to customize the _layouts pages and add your Branding to the background in the Site Actions dropdown menu. Even the newest SharePoint Designer user will find this transformation a piece of cake.

Get started today with a PixelMill Skin for SharePoint...

by Heather Waterman, PixelMill SharePoint Specialist

PRODUCTS | New ProStoresTemplates.com

Over the past six months, PixelMill has been working on a cooperative project with ProStores to build a new site for ProStores Templates and new & updated template products. Now, you can find design templates for ProStores at both PixelMill and the new ProStores Templates site at www.prostorestemplates.com. A few benefits of the new ProStoresTemplates.com site are:

Instant and automatic installation into your ProStores site!
Larger selection of designs from ProStores Certified Designers.
Browse by common vertical industry categories and design styles.
A 15% Affiliate Program (Make $45 per avg. sale). This will be of special interest to SiteBuilders and Consultants.

These ProStores-enabled templates are built to fully integrate with the dynamic features of the ProStores' solution. With just a few quick steps any ProStores customer can get a head start on launching their new store or upgrade to a fresh design for their existing store.

ProStores, an eBay company, enables small- and medium-sized businesses to sell products and services online through a completely customizable virtual storefront at their own internet domain. A few of the many excellent features I like about ProStores are:

Ease of use - I built a store for my son a couple years ago, using the ProStores system, and I've continued to be impressed with the ease of working with the store. Within a few hours, I had an account set up, added a design template, added a handful of products, and was able to see the store functioning live.
Integration with PayPal - Being a long-time advocate of PayPal, I found the integration of PayPal's new Website Payments Pro to be an excellent feature. With PayPal's low-cost 'merchant' solution, it was perfect for minimizing my initial start-up costs and ongoing transaction charges. Plus, they offer a couple months free with the integration of both solutions.
Integration with eBay - Over the years, I have found that there are a number of things that I want to sell online. eBay was one of the obvious first choices, but I started to realize that there are some products that do not sell well through eBay during certain parts of the year. With the ProStores solution, I can have the product listed in my Web store and then easily post it on eBay when the timing is right.

We are proud to be connected to ProStores and a part of this exclusive group of template designers providing the first of many templates built for www.prostorestemplates.com.

Please take the time to visit the ProStoresTemplates.com site to learn more about these templates and the ProStores e-Commerce solution.