Bio

I’m never quite sure how to fill in these About Me type pages.

Do I start from the womb and work my way up? Surely nobody wants to know about the time I was 5 and decided to “cut out” windows in our screened in porch and then when found out, proclaimed the devil made me do it?? Or the time I ate a daisy and was pretty sure I was gonna die at the tender age of 8!

Not that there isn’t plenty to entertain with, in addition to some of the tougher stuff, but I’m assuming anybody reading this page simply wants to know a little bit about the author of this site, along with why it, and I, am here.

The Early Days

I started out online in 1999, after the birth of my youngest daughter. Because her days and nights were mixed up, (and so was I by this time!), it became necessary to stay awake, so aside from delving into my lifelong love of writing, I also began surfing the net in search of some form of work. I started reading about affiliate marketing and the concept of getting paid to promote products and services.

As I decided to take on the exciting challenge of creating my own “web page” (MyFreeOffice, anyone?), I made my first online friend. Lisa Irby is still rocking the net with her vast knowledge of building and marketing websites. She answered so many HTML and table questions I hounded her with, HTML stood for How To Make Lisa (crazy!). I’m so happy to see her continued success!

I soon realized it was the visual elements of a website that I loved far more than internet marketing. I purchased a copy of Ulead’s Photo Impact and created my first beveled button! As I got better (you will find no beveled buttons on this site!), I started getting compliments on my “work”. While I look back now at those designs and want to throw up just a little bit, I created Darlanne.com in late 1999 and have been designing myself silly ever since. It wasn’t until three years later that I got the guts (and the money) to take on Photoshop.

Over a Decade Later

As the years went by, an array of new technologies were born. Just when I had HTML tables mastered, along came CSS, and now today, CSS 3. Where DHTML used to be the in thing, now it’s all about Jquery for fancy sliders, zoom effects and more. Illustrator is the new graphic design standard. Also “back in the day”, a website was primarily developed and built offline. Now it’s all about dynamic interactive developing, and WordPress. I develop 95% of client sites using this wonderful open source software. What used to be used to create a blog, is now used for developing just about any kind of website your heart desires. Indeed, a lot of changed, but the reason I still do this for a living is, I truly enjoy it. Designing (and Photo Retouching) are my passions and what I hope to be doing for decades more.