About Harness Media
Harness Media is an award-winning digital marketing agency based in Salem, Oregon providing web development, web hosting, website maintenance, and search engine optimization (SEO) services to businesses locally and nationwide.
Geeking out since the 1980’s
In high school, Wendell Harness was a full-on nerd, complete with black-framed plastic glasses, with distinct interests in computers, math and science. He began tinkering with the Atari 400 console his Mom bought for him one Christmas. After becoming bored with playing games, he hacked into the Atari’s operating system using the cassette deck accessory and began writing his own adventure games.
Established in 1986
Shortly after high school, Wendell built his own bulletin board system (BBS) after a self-taught crash course. He dubbed it “When Pigs Fly” after a competitor challenged him with that very phrase, claiming there was no way he could figure it out that quickly. People were soon asking Wendell for help with their own projects and Harness Technology was born.
Transitioning to the WWW
In 1989, a British scientist invented the World Wide Web (WWW) Project. It didn’t take long for it to catch on among the geeks of the world, and Wendell was no exception. While working full-time days as a Land Surveyor, he moonlighted throughout the 1990’s building various types of online entities. By 1999, he decided to get serious with his company and began building websites for clients.
Embracing WordPress
Up until 2005, Wendell had been building websites manually using PHP, HTML and CSS. He wanted to find a good starting point instead of reinventing the wheel with each new website. After spending a few years working with myriad content management systems (CMS) such as PostNuke, Joomla, and Drupal, he eventually settled on WordPress. By 2008, WordPress became the official CMS of Harness Media and Wendell would spend the next several years moving away from other platforms.
A pioneer in Website Care
In 2014, we pioneered the Website Care trend to offer all-inclusive website hosting and maintenance services, becoming a virtual “web team” for businesses across the nation. Our clients soon realized that our Website Care services would relieve them from dealing with multiple third-party services for domain registration, web hosting, web development, ongoing website maintenance and SEO. Harness Media handles all of that so our clients can focus on their own businesses and organizations.
Focused and dedicated
Over the years, we’ve offered our clients a huge array of services involving IT, web technologies, mobile devices and social media management. In 2010, we decided to focus our attention specifically on building and maintaining websites. Harness Media builds fast, secure and professional websites that become your digital marketing platform, featuring mobile-friendly design and proper SEO foundations that meet current legal requirements for accessibility and privacy. How’s that for focus?
Rewarded & Awarded
After the devastating Santiam Canyon wildfires of 2020, a team of local businesses banded together to form the Santiam Rebuild Coalition. In a collaborative effort with VanNatta Public Relations, Harness Media donated the website build and ongoing maintenance for the SRC. This was a rewarding experience that allowed us to see the collective kindness of our communities, who came together to rebuild a town that was totally destroyed. Subsequently, the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) recognized our hard work with an Award of Merit.
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Having a clear and effective plan helps your website project to be a great success for your business. Taking the time to think about each element from your vision and how this can be brought to life, will benefit your business.
