Two Decades of Digital Evolution: From Yellow Pages to Modern Marketing

Our journey began in 2003, at the very dawn of the digital marketing era. Back then, we were “colorizing” vector art for Great Western Directories—transforming traditional black-and-white Yellow Page ads into digital-ready assets.

During this time, we pioneered a feature we called “Premieres.” Long before the term “landing page” existed, we were building single-page websites for local businesses using Adobe GoLive and Photoshop. This was the “pre-Google” era, when Yahoo! was still the king of manual directories. We even recall the day management introduced us to Google Beta—a tool that would eventually change the world.

The Evolution of Content Management & eCommerce

As the web shifted from static HTML to dynamic content, our founder transitioned into the world of early eCommerce, managing stores like TheKnifeStore.com and ThePaintballStore.com. Working with ShopSite, he developed a “reusable block” coding philosophy—a concept that predicted the modular “Bootstrap” and “Gutenberg” frameworks used by developers today.

Building the Standard for Local Digital Marketing

Our founder’s expertise led him to a pivotal role at EricSpellmann.com, one of the region’s most prestigious web firms. Originally hired as a developer, his deep understanding of core marketing psychology led to a promotion as Marketing Manager. He was instrumental in launching the online marketing department that would later evolve into 887 Media.

Those were the “Wild West” days of Google AdWords, where $0.25 clicks were common and a $500 monthly budget was considered an aggressive campaign. Managing tools like the original downloadable Google AdWords Editor gave us a ground-floor education in what truly drives search intent.

Diversity in Platforms and High-Profile Partnerships

We’ve spent 20 years mastering the tools of the trade. From the early dominance of Joomla—which we used to build the official site for UFC fighter Paul “The Headhunter” Buentello—to specialized platforms like Miva Merchant, osCommerce, Drupal, and CubeCart.

When rebuilding the digital presence for Coolhorse.com, we integrated a Drupal front-end with a Miva Merchant back-end. This hybrid approach allowed for high-level content management and “Deal of the Day” campaigns that mirrored the success of sites like Woot.com.

The Modern Era: Accessibility and Performance

In recent years, our work within the financial industry has sharpened our focus on ADA Guidelines and WCAG 2.1 Compliance. We’ve proven that clean, fast code and accessibility aren’t just “legal boxes” to check—they are core signals that tell Google your site is high-quality.
Today, we combine 20+ years of technical history with modern PWA (Progressive Web App) design and mobile-responsive strategies. We don’t just build websites; we build digital legacies.