When Dr. Christopher E. L. Toote came to us, he already had the hard part done: a body of work and a message he had spent years preaching. What he did not have was a home for it — one place where his book, his ideas, his speaking, and his ongoing writing could live together, be found, and keep growing. So we designed and built SuccessCELT, the author website and publishing platform for the writer of The 10 Biblical Laws of Success.
- Client
- Dr. Christopher E. L. Toote
- Project
- Author website & publishing platform
- Scope
- Strategy, design, development, hosting & management
- Live site
- successcelt.com
The brief: give a message a place to live
A book can sell on a retail page, but a message needs somewhere it can be found, returned to, and shared. Dr. Toote’s work — his book, his ten laws, his teaching — was scattered across bookstore listings and separate links, and a reader who connected with one idea had no single door back to the rest.
He also had far more to say than any one book could hold, and he wanted to keep saying it — without having to call a developer every time. So the brief had two halves: build a home that makes the message clear in the first few seconds, and hand him the keys, so he can keep adding to it himself for years.
A message-first approach
We did not start with colors or layouts. Kevin, Reno, and the team started with the books — reading the descriptions and studying the ten laws before a single page was designed. The question that guided every decision was, “What should a visitor understand in the first few seconds?”
That answer became the homepage. The site opens with the heart of the message — that success was God’s idea first — so the promise of the work is clear before a visitor scrolls. Every other page is built to support that opening rather than compete with it.
The site: five pages, one message
We built SuccessCELT as five pages that each do one job well, tied together by a single navigation and a consistent voice:
- Home — leads with the core message, presents the ten laws as “memorial stones” a reader can explore one at a time, and carries endorsements and a contact form.
- About — Dr. Toote’s story, credentials, and convictions, for the reader who wants to know who stands behind the message.
- Speaking — keynotes, workshops, and consulting, with an inquiry form so churches and organizations can invite him in a couple of clicks.
- Books — his full library, each title linked straight to its retail page, so discovering one book leads naturally to the rest.
- Journal — his own writing, updated by him, and the reason readers come back.
The part that keeps the site alive: a writing studio of his own
Most author websites go stale because updating them means emailing a developer and waiting. We didn’t want that for Dr. Toote, so we built him a private writing studio — a simple, password-protected place where he writes and publishes his own articles, and the site handles the rest.
The workflow is deliberately plain. He clicks New entry, types a title and a one-line summary, writes (or pastes straight from Word), picks a topic, and adds a cover photo if he has one. He clicks Preview to see exactly what readers will see, then Publish — and within seconds the article is live, in his fonts, his colors, his layout, signed with his name and monogram, without him touching a line of design. He can save drafts, edit a published piece and update it instantly, quietly move a post back to drafts, or delete it.
On the public Journal, his newest piece is always featured first with a pull-quote beside it, older pieces stack below, and readers can filter everything by topic — Faith, Success, Leadership, Ministry, Thinking, or Notes. Every article gets its own clean web address, so he can share a single piece anywhere. He is already using it: recent entries range from “Is It Wrong for a Christian to Want Success?” to “What the Pulpit and the Boardroom Share.”
Built to be found
A site only helps if people can reach it. SuccessCELT is registered with Google, and the list of pages Google reads updates itself every time Dr. Toote publishes — so new articles typically appear in search within a few days, with no extra step from him. Each page and article has its own shareable address, and the whole site is served securely over HTTPS.
Fully managed, fully his
Dr. Toote focuses on writing; we handle everything else — design, hosting, domain settings, security, backups, and email routing, so messages from his contact form, speaking inquiries, and newsletter sign-ups all land in the inbox he already uses. And he owns all of it: his domain, the website, his articles and photos, his logo, every asset we created. If he ever moved on, it would all go with him. That is the opposite of the arrangements our Fraud Alert warns authors about — no lock-in, no hostage domain, nothing hidden.
The result
SuccessCELT gave Dr. Toote what a retail listing never could: a door — and the keys to it. Pastors, small-group leaders, students, and seekers now have one place to find his message, move between his books, invite him to speak, and keep reading between releases. And because he can publish himself, the site grows every time he has something new to say, instead of freezing the day it launched.
For an author, that is what a website is really for. It is not a brochure. It is the one property you control on the whole internet — the place a search result, an interview, or a recommendation can send someone, and the place that turns a single reader into someone who follows your work.
Thinking about your own author website?
Author website design — and a platform you can actually run yourself — is part of how we help writers publish, present, and promote their work. If your book, your message, and your speaking are scattered across a dozen links, we can bring them together into a site that looks professional, reads like you, updates on your terms, and stays yours. See the finished site for Dr. Toote →
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