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Orange Line Closure September 10–14: What Boston Riders Need to Know

Shuttles replace Orange Line trains between Forest Hills and Back Bay September 10–14, with a fare-free Commuter Rail alternative.

Nathan Strickland

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Editorial graphic: Orange Line closure between Forest Hills and Back Bay, September 10–14.
Boston Made, Inc.Office of the Founder & Chairman
From the desk of Nathan StricklandBoston, Massachusetts ·

Dear Sir or Madam,

Orange Line riders should plan for a five-day interruption between Forest Hills and Back Bay from September 10 through 14, the MBTA says. The closure supports concrete repairs at Ruggles, including platforms, stair walls and the Ruggles Street Bridge.

How to get around

Free accessible shuttles will connect the affected stations. Commuter Rail service between Forest Hills, Ruggles, Back Bay and South Station will also be fare-free during the diversion.

The MBTA estimates the Forest Hills–Back Bay rail trip at about 10 minutes. Shuttle users should allow extra time: the agency’s example adds at least 30 minutes to a Forest Hills–Downtown Crossing journey.

Check before leaving

The closure follows the return to school and work after Labor Day. Confirm your route before traveling, especially when making a timed connection.

Source: MBTA September service advisory, updated August 19 and checked September 8, 2026. Consult MBTA alerts for changes.

Founder & Chairman of Boston Made, Inc., a Boston-based media and business portfolio company. I lead Boston Made's independent, hyperlocal coverage of Boston's economy, businesses, and neighborhoods, alongside a growing portfolio of Boston-rooted brands — including Boston Made Pets, where my passion for dog wearables and canine wellness lives on. I’m an avid reader and journaler who believes in reporting that's closer to home.

Service

Five Signals Your Website Needs an Operating System, Not Another Redesign

Nathan Strickland

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Picks & Shovels No. 07: Aehr Test Systems Bakes Chips So Data Centers Don’t
Boston Made, Inc.Office of the Founder & CEO
From the desk of Nathan StricklandBoston, Massachusetts ·

Dear Sir or Madam,

Fenway Web field note — October 21, 2026. A polished homepage is helpful, but a modern business website has to do more than look good. It needs to guide people, keep information organized and make routine work easier for the team behind it.

1. Visitors cannot tell what to do next

If every page presents the same weight, the same buttons and the same wall of text, visitors have to do the work of figuring out the business. A useful website gives each page one clear job and makes the next step obvious.

2. Updates depend on one person

When changing a headline, publishing a story or updating a service requires a specialist every time, the site becomes a bottleneck. Good systems make repeatable updates safe, documented and easy for the right people to own.

3. The site has content but no rhythm

A website should not feel frozen between redesigns. A practical editorial rhythm—briefings, case studies, guides, announcements and customer stories—keeps the site useful while creating natural paths back to the services that matter.

4. Ads and promotions interrupt the experience

Advertising works best when it has a designated place and a clear relationship to the page. House promotions, partner placements and paid campaigns should support the visitor journey rather than compete with the primary message.

5. Mobile feels like an afterthought

Mobile is not a smaller desktop layout. It is a different reading environment. Navigation, spacing, forms, media and calls to action need to be checked in the context where most people actually encounter them.

The goal is not endless complexity. It is a dependable system: clear content, purposeful templates, measured promotion and a publishing workflow the team can keep running after launch.

Fenway Web is the web design and development studio of Boston Made, Inc. This is original editorial guidance, not a substitute for a project-specific audit.

The post Five Signals Your Website Needs an Operating System, Not Another Redesign appeared first on Fenway Web.

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Boston Made Newsroom Briefing — October 21, 2026

Nathan Strickland

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Newsroom briefing featured
Boston Made Newsroom
Boston Made, Inc.Office of the Founder & Chairman
From the desk of Nathan StricklandBoston, Massachusetts ·

Dear Sir or Madam,

Boston Made Newsroom — October 21, 2026

Today’s newsroom is active across Boston Made’s editorial, sports, culture, and company desks. This briefing is a guide to the latest original coverage already published across the network; it is not a duplicate of those articles.

What to read today

How the network is organized

Boston Made Newsroom is the network’s central desk for company updates, local stories, culture, sports, and editorial projects. For the complete property list, visit the Boston Made directory. For longer-form reading, visit the Boston Made Reader.

New stories will be surfaced near the top of the newsroom by editorial priority. Related sites will receive links or original companion pieces when they have a distinct audience and purpose, so the same article is not repeated across the network.

Boston Made Newsroom · Boston, Massachusetts · October 21, 2026

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Service

Fenway Web Opens a Free Learning Center to Teach Small Businesses to Build Their Own Websites

Nathan Strickland

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New Hampshire and Maine Put New England at the Center of the Senate Map

BOSTON — October 9, 2026 — Fenway Web today announced that info.fenwayweb.com is now its free learning center, teaching small-business owners how to build, launch and grow their own website step by step — with every lesson pointing back to FenwayWeb.com, where they can start building.

Fenway Web is repositioning around a simple idea: most small businesses can launch a professional website themselves if someone shows them how. The learning center does exactly that, in plain language, with no jargon and no upsell in the middle of a lesson.

Start with Build Week

The first course, Build Week, takes a business from no website to launch in five short lessons:

  1. Build Week, Day 1: How to Pick a Domain Name You Won’t Regret
  2. Build Week, Day 2: How to Write a Homepage That Sells in Five Seconds
  3. Build Week, Day 3: Local SEO 101 — Getting Found Near You
  4. Build Week, Day 4: How to Add a Contact and Booking Form People Actually Finish
  5. Build Week, Day 5: The 15-Point Launch Checklist

Each lesson can be finished in an evening, and each ends with a concrete task — pick the domain, write the homepage, set up local search, add the contact form, run the launch checklist.

What’s in the learning center

  • Guides on web design, SEO, content writing and marketing strategy.
  • AI for small business — practical ways to use AI tools to write, design and answer customers faster.
  • News on platform updates and new tutorials.

Do the math before you build

A website is an investment, and it should pay you back. Compare the true first-year cost of building it yourself with hiring it out, and see how quickly the leads your site brings in cover the cost.

Website Payback Calculator

Will a new website pay for itself — and how fast? Compare building it yourself with hiring it out, then see how many leads it takes to break even.

Planning estimate. Enter your own builder plan price and lead value.

The five-minute website health check

  • Can a visitor tell what you do and where you are within five seconds?
  • Is your phone number tappable on a phone?
  • Does every page have one clear next step?
  • Is your business listed with the same name, address and phone everywhere online?
  • Does your contact form actually reach your inbox? Test it today.

About Fenway Web

Fenway Web helps small businesses build their own websites with a self-serve builder at FenwayWeb.com and free tutorials at info.fenwayweb.com.

The post Fenway Web Opens a Free Learning Center to Teach Small Businesses to Build Their Own Websites appeared first on Fenway Web.

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