The scope of the project was to create a web site for Leo that would be the foundation for her web presence as well as answer three questions we thought visitors would ask.   “Who is Leo Sawicki?”, “What is Leo Sawicki doing?” and “How can I connect with Leo Sawicki?”

The site uses a smooth streamlined design to bring visitors in where they can interact with Leo on her blog, read articles, view photos and follow Leo around the world as well as connect with her on the popular sites Facebook, Amazon and LinkedIn.  Visitors can also browse through Leo’s publications and even purchase them from the online bookstore, built custom by Hosting Nation.

Visit www.leosawicki.com now to browse Leo’s website, and visit www.hosting-nation.com/design-community for details on this, and other projects we’ve worked on.

Screenshot of the homepage for www.leosawicki.com.

Shiloh, our corporate mascot, was adopted from the BC SPCA in 2005 by Hosting Nation GM Rick Lawrence.

Hosting Nation is more than just hosting for humans, we’re all animal lovers too.  Serious animal lovers.  So much so that our servers (Dorian and Roma) are named after one of Randy’s alpacas and his dog respectively  (Randy is our system administrator).

That’s why we chose the BC SPCA as a cause that we could all agree on.  We want to get involved in the community in a way that most people can identify with, and it’s tough to find someone who hasn’t been touched by the SPCA in some way while living on Vancouver Island.

So we’re announcing our “Pennies for Pets” promotion.  During the months of February and March 2009, 50% of all revenue from new or transferred hosting accounts will go to Central and North Vancouver Island BC SPCA organizations.  It’s our goal to raise $10,000.00 in donations for the BC SPCA, which means we need a total of 200 individuals to sign up for or switch their hosting to Hosting Nation by the deadline on March 31st 2009.

Just 200.  I don’t want to start saying things like “For Just Pennies a Day” and “For Less than a Cup of Coffee a Day”, but believe me – I will, I’m not above that sort of thing at all.  Our “Hosting for Everyone” package gives you 5Gb of storage space, 50Gb of bandwidth and a whole ton of add-ons and extras alongside awesome support for just $8.95 CAD per month.  Did we mention that half of that goes to a worthy cause?  Well it does.

No excuses citizens, we’re taking them all out of the way.  If you have hosting, it’s no problem.  We’ll credit any hosting account that you transfer to Hosting Nation with the remainder of time on your current hosting plan (up to one year).

And all you have to do is forgo 2 of your quad venti doubleshot caramel macchiatos each month.  You’ll be helping support small business in the Central Vancouver Island region and contributing to a great cause.

Visit www.hosting-nation.ca/spca for complete details of the Pennies for Pets promotion.

A lot has happened for us.  New office, new logo, new website with new features.  A lot of lessons learned the hard way.  (we’ll be talking about our new design and some of those hard lessons in our upcoming segment “Behind the Servers – How Hosting Nation found it’s groove”.  It’s a working title, but there will be a segment, stay tuned).

After the dust settled, we pushed the button to go live last week.  Which brings us to today, and what’s in it for you.

Sign up for our “Hosting for Everyone” web hosting package before January 31st, 2009 and receive an 8gb USB Flash drive.  The only criteria you need to receive a USB Flash Drive are:

• You must sign up for one years’ hosting.  That includes both transfers and new hosting accounts.
• You must sign up before midnight on January 31st, 2009.

Our “Hosting for Everyone” package provides 5gb of disk space alongside 50gb of data transfer alongside our awesome addons and support services.  Read more about our hosting for everyone plan here.

You can read the complete details of the promotion here. Remember, to receive a free USB flash drive you have to sign up for web hosting by midnight PST on January 31st, 2009.