Elena Saygo

Elena Saygo – Web Developer

Empowering authors and small businesses with stunning, bespoke web designs. Your story, your brand, beautifully showcased online.

Overview

Whether you are an author just starting out, needing a brand new website, or you already have one and are looking for some customization, I can help you out. Reach your audience with a user-friendly, engaging website that works flawlessly on every device!


Every website is tailored to your needs, packed with state-of-the-art lifetime software, and ready to start working for you and bring in leads, traffic, readers, and sales. I can create a site that’s beautiful and easy to use and will help you grow your writing career.


ʕ•́ᴥ•̀ʔっWhy work with me?

Six years ago, I started website design and development as a hobby, which made me realize this is what I wanted to do full-time. I left my Finance and Financial Reporting job as a chartered qualified accountant and followed my passion. I put a lot of work and love into each project and go above and beyond to meet the client's requirements.


I build all my websites on WordPress, the world's most popular Content Management System (it powers around 35% of all websites online). WordPress is highly customizable and easy to edit yourself once the website is built.


Services available:


• Design and development

• Maintenance

• Branding

• Training on using your website

• SEO

• Analytics

• Mobile optimization

• Hosting advice and set-up

• Domain set-up and integration

• Email account set-up

• Social media integration

• Newsletter sign-up with a lead magnet

• Landing pages

• Event and calendar pages

• Blog set-up

• E-commerce

• Graphics (including book cover mock-ups and 3D book covers, social media covers, and more)


Services I do not offer: Marketing, Promotion, Facebook, Amazon, etc. Ads


Fun facts about me:

- I love coffee.

- I lived in three different countries over the last ten years.

- I don't like potato chips (or crisps for my Irish and British friends) and haven't met anyone who doesn't like them yet.


I am happy to work on any genre and would love to hear about your project.

Let's make your website stand out!

Services
Fiction
Children's Science Fiction Thriller & Suspense Urban Fantasy Young Adult
Non-Fiction
Computers & Internet Cooking, Food, Wine, & Spirits Health & Wellbeing
Works with
Shopify WordPress
Certifications
  • Full stack web development - Coding Dojo

Work experience

Self-employed

May, 2020 — Present

I founded my Freelance web consultancy business to help authors, small businesses, and non-profits with their online presence.

Washington Autism Alliance

Sep, 2016 — Dec, 2023 (over 7 years)

I work part-time for WAA as a web administrator and offer technical support for their website and other platforms.

Projects

Mark Workman - Author Website (markworkman.com)

The website showcases Mark's debut novel, Forever We Dream, a YA coming-of-age historical novel. It was a pleasure working with Mark and bringing his vision to life. The Subscribe and Contact forms are seamlessly integrated with MailerLite to support mailing list growth.

S-DEE - Musician and Author (sdeeonline.com)

I thoroughly enjoyed working on S-DEE's website, which showcases his books and music. Each book has its own custom page, with the flexibility to add more in the future. Visitors can stream music directly from platforms like Apple Music and Spotify, and the website also features S-DEE's podcast.

Psychology of the Simple (Dan Marlowe) - (psychologyofthesimple.com)

Dan Marlowe is a psychotherapist, medical educator, and author. His website showcases his latest book and podcast, along with a consultation booking form. Visitors can preview the first chapter in an interactive flipbook, and the site offers the option to switch between light and dark color schemes for a personalized experience. The beautiful book cover inspired the color theme selections.

Rae Cowie - Fiction Author (raecowie.com)

Minimalist, clean redesign and migration from (Personal plan) to a self-hosted WordPress site. The website showcases several flash-fiction books and publications, a newly released book featuring stories inspired by photographs from Haddo Country Park, and an extensive blog.

Sarah Wood - Author of Historical Fantasy (sarahwood-author.com)

This was a rewarding collaboration for a debut author. The website showcases the first book in the series, a lead magnet integrated with ConvertKit, and a contact form.

Mike Garrett - Author, Blogger, Podcaster (mgarrett.net)

It was a pleasure collaborating with Mike to bring this project to life. The website includes a blog, media page, store, and an email list signup with a welcome email offering 10% off store purchases.

Shawna Renée Lewis - Fairytale Retellings, Fantasy (shawnareneelewis.com)

A fantasy writer's website centered on fairytale retellings, featuring a lead magnet with automated delivery through ConvertKit, dynamic book pages, and plans for a future blog.

Brian McGee - Business Blog (brianmcgee.net)

Anastasiya Serada - Fantasy and Romance (anastasiyaserada.com)

Dauna Grey - Fantasy (daunagray.com)

Keisha Palmer - Recipes Book and Culinary Blog (keishapalmerauthor.com)

A "tasty" website featuring recipes, a blog, a shot integrated with Printful, a lead magnet, and several other features.

Epithet Erased (The Sequel of the Animated Web Series) - epitheterasedonline.com

This collaboration with Brendan Blaber, the mind behind Epithet Erased, has been nothing short of amazing. The website now showcases the latest book inspired by the animated series, along with songs, videos, character profiles, and a blog.

Mother Race - Jason Burgess (motherrace.com)

Mother Race—Website design and development tailored for a first-time author of SCI-FI, providing an immersive experience for readers. The website includes a shop where visitors can order signed copies of the book, email list building and a convenient contact form.

E.P.T. Sharp - Fantasy and Historical Fiction (eptsharp.com)

The project includes a map featuring markers and details about different kingdoms and locations within the series' universe. Additionally, the website is integrated with Mailerlite for email marketing and lead magnet delivery, along with contact forms, social media sharing capabilities, and effortless addition of new books.

Pat McKee - Legal Thrillers (patmckeeauthor.com)

S.J. Cullen - Mystery Thrillers (sjcullen.com)

Shan Shan Nie - Fantasy (shanshannie.com)

Sam Woodthrush - Military Thrillers (samwoodthrush.com)

Grace Justice Evans - Historical Fiction (gracejusticeevans.com)

Dora Farkas - Writer, Coach, Speaker (dorafarkas.com)

Awakening to Ourselves - Spirituality and Self-Discovery (awakeningtoourselves.com)

Tom Harrisson - From Punishment to Peace, Memoir (frompunishmenttopeace)

Ken Evren - Fiction (kenevren.com)

Lauren Napa -Fantasy and Paranormal (laurennapa.com)

Steven J Byers - Fantasy (stevenjbyers.com)

Mario Messina - SCI-Fi and Fantasy Author (marioamessina.com)

Enter the world of Atlantis and the Seven Andarean Orbs. The website features animations, a subscribe form with a lead magnet, and a setup for adding future books.

L. Thorsrud - author website (lthorsrud.com)

Immersive and cool animations for an upcoming fiction series about a British neuroscientist who leads a team to collaborate with an advanced race to prevent Earth’s demise.

Manda Mac - Children's Books Author Website (mandamacwriter.com)

Colorful and playful design, subtle animations, downloadable coloring sheets and coloring book lead magnet.

Alder House Books - Publisher (alderhousebooks.com)

Website featuring dynamic books and author pages, donation forms, manuscript submission, fiction prize forms, blog, and newsletter.
I loved working with Nadine and bringing her ideas to life.

Tricia Elliott - Fantasy Author and Blogger (triciaelliottauthor.com)

Tricia needed a home for her upcoming book that represented the ideas of near-future dystopian, magic, and hope. I created a temporary book cover and a design to align with the elements of the story.
I also migrated Triacia's blog from another website; she is an amazing photographer and blogger.

MamaBear Books (mamabearbooks.com)

Children's Books Publisher website with a Shopify store, downloadable coloring pages, and lots of fun in creating it.

Rob Sheely - Author and Software Developer

First-time author of Fantasy and Thrillers. The website features a blog, which will be a major part of the website, along with building a mailing list.

B.R. KEID - Space Opera, Sci-Fi (brkeid.com)

Website for the upcoming book and series, email list building, and lead magnet via Mailerlite.

Stella Atrium - Fantasy and Sci-Fi (stellaatrium.com)

Stella Atrium's style is a complex mix of modern and classic, with philosophical and religious references.

Sharon Wagner Books - Supernatural Author (sharonwagnerbooks.com)

Website for upcoming books and series, with a touch of magic and mystery.

Debra Borchert - Historical Fantasy (debraborchert.com)

Debra's stories are around the French Revolution, vineyards, and strong women fighting for their rights. We wanted to capture all these in the design and of the website. The Eiffel tower is a french landmark and a symbol to commemorate 100 years since the French Revolution, so it felt like a great idea to use it for the lead magnet subscription.

Luke Villermin - Invest Now Play Later (lukevillermin.com)

Investing in the stock market for kids and teens - strong visuals presented in a fun and engaging way. Worksheets based on the books are sent to subscribers via email automation through Mailerlite.

T.I. Frazier - Inspirational and Children's book author (tifrazier.com)

Tim wanted a classy and uplifting vibe for his inspirational book and a playful and colorful look for his upcoming children's picture books. We worked to incorporate both on the website and give each genre its personality.
The website features a shop for selling signed paperbacks, and it's integrated with a shipping platform.

Myles Schulman (mylesschulman.com)

Myles wanted a minimalist and elegant website to showcase his upcoming book. The result is a slick and modern website.

Books by I.L. Cruz (booksbyilcruz.com)

Heidrun Metzler - baking and recipies book (heidrunmetzler.com)

Dayton Shaw Books - SCI-FI and Dystopias (daytonshawbooks.com)

I was intrigued by the pen name of this author, and was happy to find depth and layers in their stories.

A.E. Lee (authoraelee.com)

Stacey O'Neale - Young Adult Fantasy (staceyoneale.com)

Author website with e-commerce, mailing list signups, reader magnet delivery, and Goodreads book club widget.

Maria Lahman - children's books author (marialahman.com/childrens)

Maria Lahman - Author, Professor and Speaker (marialahman.com)

Simon Hargreaves - Supernatural Suspense for Kids (simonhargreavesauthor.com)

This project was a lot of fun. Simon had a basic website on Google Sites and we decided to scale it up and moved over to WordPress. This not only allowed for more complex integrations but also offered increased flexibility for the design. The book cover was great to work with and it fit a dark theme perfectly.
The website featured a fun animation on the home page, the ability to easily add more books, contact forms, and email list sign-up integrated with Mailerlite.

Jodi Burnett - website redesign (jodi-burnett.com)

Jodi Burnett writes suspense thrillers with K9 features, and her books are constantly best-sellers. Jodi was looking for an easy-to-navigate layout, clean, uncluttered. We kept the original hero and logo but redesigned and rebuilt everything from scratch. I organized her books with filters by series and book formats, and the entire sitemap was redone. As the previous website was indexed and cached by Google and other search engines, I set up redirects for all the URLs we changed. The loading speed was improved to an A grading from an F, and I replaced all resource-hogging plugins with more performant ones.
New books can be easily added, and all the relevant pages will automatically update.
I loved working on this project, and Jodi had great input and feedback.

J.L. Hancock - The Hawk Enigma (jlhancock.com)

Jim is a writing techno-thrillers, and he was so kind to let me read the manuscript of The Hawk Enigma ahead of the publication date. I loved the book, and this only added to my passion for working on his project. The website features a blog where Jim shares behind the tech information that got into creating the story. A lead magnet is set up via Mailerlite and subscribers will receive "free intel".

Ursula Hughes Author Website (ursulahughes.com)

Ursula's website showcases her new book release, Picking Up Breadcrumbs, in a modern, minimalistic style. The website includes a page for upcoming events and speaking engagements, a lead magnet integrated with Mailerlite, a contact form, and it's easy to add more books.
I enjoyed working with Ursula and crafting a website to suit her personality.

Betty J Head - Author and Musician (bettyjhead.com)

Betty wanted a website to showcase her personality as a musician and writer, classy, modern, and joyful.
The website includes a shop for Betty's music and pre-orders for signed copies of her upcoming children's book.
Betty can easily add more books via the custom post type created in the backend.
It was a pleasure working with Betty; her book was being illustrated while working on the website and the cover and the website launch were celebrated with balloons and announcements on her Youtube channel.

Deb Stories - Children's Book Author (debstories.com)

It was so fun to work with Debbie on this project. Her books are full of color and learning opportunities for little kids. My daughter thoroughly enjoyed them, and who is a better judge than the target audience? :)

The Anger Makeover - Synthesis Journeys (synthesisjourneys.com)

Walter Polt's new book release, The Anger Makeover is featured on the newly re-designed Synthesis Journeys website. The Sandia Mountains in the background blend beautifully with the theme bringing to you a modern-looking clutter-free site. Besides the book details and testimonials from people who have benefited from it, Walter is using his tremendous experience to offer coaching programs. With dedicated pages that allow visitors to browse the online courses or contact Walter for a personalized coaching session, everything is designed to offer a premium experience.

Dr. S.K. Burkman - The Dragon Doc (thedragondoc.com)

This was one of the most fun projects to work with, and you will understand why after seeing it :)
The Dragon Doc, aka Dr. S.K.Burkman is a vet in real life and her blog reflects her tremendous sense of humor. We thoroughly enjoyed and laughed throughout this project and Sherilynn organized a photo session with real dragons :))

Amity Grays - author website (amitygrays.com)

Amity writes western historical fiction and wanted a website to showcase her books and to allow adding new ones easily. Amity also wanted to start a blog on subjects dear to her, and we created a space for this. I loved she went for a dark theme, as it blends beautifully with her style.

Janis McCurry Author (janismccurry.com)

I loved working on the redesign of Janis' website. Janis loves the color green and tiger lilies, so I used these in the design. The style of her writing is modern and upbeat and we wanted to capture this with a colorful and modern design. Janis is also passionate about cooking and her several recipes are now beautifully featured in the Cookbook section.

Vince Young Author (vinceyoungauthor.com)

Vince wanted a website for his recent book, A Gift from the Wise Men, and a way to interact with his readers. He is planning to publish blog posts and initiate a discussion based on topics from his book. Readers will post comments and submit their ideas via a contact form.

Deborah Linn Books (deborahlinnbooks.com)

Deborah Linn is a teacher and a lover of the American written word, especially the American Classics. She is also doing workshops, speaking engagements, and conferences. Her first novel, Just Daisy - A Great Gatsby Retelling, is featured on her brand new website. The theme of the website captures her love for the classic mingled with a modern, clean, minimalist layout.

Author Antonio Rosario Ortiz (agiletechniques.org)

Antonio wanted a website to showcase his recently published book, Destined to Change. I loved working on this project as Antonio gave me free rein over the design, color scheme, and branding.
The website includes two lead magnets, a donation form, and the option for the author to add more books that will automatically show up under Books.

Writers for Rights - Nonprofit organization

This was an amazing project to work on. Writers fo Rights is a nonprofit organization, a community of passionate writers, readers, and artists who are looking to create global change with storytelling, art, and action.
The website features membership subscriptions (integrated with PayPaypal and Stripe), Donations, and Events.
WFR's founder, Chela Reyna is a write, editor, and fierce fighter for environment conservation and literacy.

Author Richard D Ross (richarddross.com)

I loved working on this project and was glad Richard chose a dark theme as it suited his genre - thriller, and mystery - and also his charismatic personality. The website also features an ARC sign-up for Richard's upcoming book.

Andrei Saygo - website design and branding (author.andreisaygo.com)

Website Redesign for Washington Autism Alliance (washingtonautismalliance.org)

Washington Autism Alliance's website was in need of a makeover and I was honored to work on this project.
Their website includes over 100 pages, a generous blog, membership, events, a fundraising platform, a training portal, and a resource directory. This large project was a tremendous source of learning opportunities and I am currently offering them technical support and web maintenance.

Elena has 105 reviews

Professionalism

Quality

Value

Responsiveness

Brad E.

Brad E.

Dec, 2024

Very thorough, very knowledgeable. Excellent resource to work with.
Elena S.
Brad, Thank you so much for your thoughtful feedback! It was a pleasure working with you, and I truly appreciate your kind words. Best of luck with everything!
Mark W.

Mark W.

Nov, 2024

Elena Saygo designed a beautiful and professional website for my upcoming debut YA novel. She set up the website’s SEO, added a contact form, and seamlessly connected my newsletter subscription form to my MailerLite account. Her communication was outstanding—she kept me informed every step of the way. She also created vibrant and eye-catching banners for all my social media platforms. Elena alw...
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Elena S.
Mark, Thank you so much for your thoughtful and kind review! It was a pleasure working with you. I value your feedback and appreciate you taking the time to share it. I wish you all the best as you...
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Sahara L.

Sahara L.

Nov, 2024

Elena was amazing and kind. Very thoughtful and thorough in her explanations and examples. The website is beautiful and exactly what I wanted. I am looking forward to working with her in the future to set up my store and handle any updates.
Dan M.

Dan M.

Oct, 2024

Elena was an absolute joy to work with! She was incredibly professional and personable and delivered a high quality, customized website. She was very responsive, and her process for designing is very thorough and detailed. She spends a lot of time up front asking questions and getting a feel for what you want from your site. Additionally, she did a wonderful job walking me through everything on...
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J.L. H.

J.L. H.

Oct, 2024

Elena is pro! Since helping me create my website she's been there to help with any issue or update I needed. Whether it be a quick edit or a video walk through, Elena has been nothing but patient, responsive, and effective. I can't recommend her enough!

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