Our Website of the month winner for November is Stewart Wood.  Congratulations Stewart!  We had a chat this week and asked him all about the terrific site he hosts with us…

What site do you host with Lunarpages

Stewart:  www.digitalheavens.co.uk

How long have you hosted your site with Lunarpages and which hosting plan are you using?

Stewart: I have been with Lunarpages since 2008 and use the basic hosting solution.

How has your experience been with us so far when using support?

Stewart: I have had a very good experience so far with Lunarpages. The support team is very quick to respond to any problems or questions I may have.

Tell us a bit about your site and what you do there.

Stewart: Digital Heavens is a website made to teach the techniques and skills we use to create our artwork. We publish tutorials that not only produce great graphics and effects, but explain the techniques behind them in a friendly, approachable manner. We currently cover Adobe Photoshop and Elements.

We also produce add-on’s like the Cosmic Pack 2 which helps the artist to create fantastic artwork without needing to an expert at Adobe Photoshop.

How many unique visitors do you receive per month, and what is your main traffic source?

Stewart: On average we have about 2000 visitors per month and growing, 50% come from web searches others from seeing our artwork and tutorials in magazines and websites.

Tell us about the design of your site.

Stewart: Digital Heavens is powered by WordPress 3.0 and runs great on Lunarpages servers.  The website currently uses the awesome Station Pro 3 theme from pagelines. I love all the pagelines themes and would recommend them to any user of WordPress.

We notice you have many social links within your site (YouTube, Facebook, Twitter etc) – Do you have a large community of users and if yes, do these social sites increase your messaging effectiveness to them?

Stewart: We don’t have a very large community but we like to provide as many different options for people to follow us on their favorite social network.

Do you use social networking to spread the word about Digital Heavens and if yes, is it working?

Stewart: We don’t use it much to spread the word about Digital Heavens, We use it so people can keep an eye on the latest news from Digital heavens.

How do you prefer to spend your offline time?

Stewart: I spend my off line time with my family. I’ve just became a dad for the third time which is great. I also spend time on my Playstation 3 when not working.

Does your online business sustain your lifestyle or do you have an additional job?

Stewart: At the moment our business is small and does not sustain my lifestyle but I’m hopeful that in the future I’ll be able to make my business a full time career.

Do you own and operate any other websites?

Stewart: I’ve built many websites, mostly online portfolios. Two recent sites I’ve built are www.xpressivemoments.com of witch I am a member. Another is www.charleswinslowphotography.com which is an online portfolio website for my good friend Charles Winslow. The only problem with them is they are not hosted by Lunarpages so they don’t get the best service

What is your favorite design tool or program and why?

Stewart: That’s easy, Adobe Photoshop CS5 – It does everything that I need it to do.

We noticed PhotoShop tutorials on your site.  How do you create these and are they well received by your visitors?

Stewart: The tutorials are written out and then recorded using screen capture software. Every tutorial on Digital Heavens has been used on the cover disc of Photoshop creative magazine. Our most popular tutorial is Photoshop Magic episode 18 – Pandora. In this tutorial I show the viewer how to recreate the world of Pandora from the film Avatar. Episode 18 has been published in over 3 magazines.

You also run a regular newsletter – What type of content do you send to your members, and is it a challenge coming up with new content monthly?

Stewart: It’s very hard to come up with new content on a monthly basic so I just send out updates when a new tutorial or product has been released.

Describe your average visitor to digitalheavens.co.uk

Stewart: Our average visitor is someone looking to learn how to use Photoshop to do basic editing or to take their skills to another level. Many of our visitors come to get more information about the Cosmic Pack 2 and to buy our products.

Now, let’s have a bit of fun.

When visiting a web site, what colors or effects make you cringe?

Stewart: Red, I hate websites made up of red. I hate photo’s with borders, especially red borders – Don’t do it people

How much does your imagination weigh?

Stewart: Too much

What is one thing you miss as a kid but no longer do or can do?

Stewart: Not worrying about money or bills, something a child does not need to worry about.

If you could be any fruit, which would you be and why?

Stewart: I’m already a fruitcake

You wouldn’t be caught dead, where?

Stewart: In a caravan, I hate caravans.

Most hated chore on the chore list?

Stewart: All of them.

And finally, what’s the best web hosting company in the world?

Stewart: Lunarpages. There are others, but then there’s LUNARPAGES!

If you would like to submit your site for Site of the month for December, become a fan of Lunarpages on Facebook and then add your site to the post for December!