A little while ago, the owner of Hilly Field Barn approached me, PanoConsulting Ltd, for a quote to build a new website. They already had a website but said it was hard to update it. So, we discussed the project at length and I proposed a solution.

The pivotal part of a Holiday Cottage website is keeping the availability calendar up-to-date so as well as re-designing and developing the website, I built a bespoke calendar management system into the owners password-protected CMS (Content Management System) that I also created. So, in the CMS, as well as being able to update the content of the website pages, add new images to the gallery, and maintain the SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) settings, there is also a separate module for Calendar management.

The calendar section of the CMS couldn’t be easier to use. Please see the image below as an example. The image below shows the month of April 2011 in the CMS as the owner would see it:

Click on the image to view a full-sized version

As you can see it looks just like a normal calendar for April but here are the key features of it:

1. Down the left-hand-side the owner simply enters the price for each week of the calendar month.

Then, for each day of the month,

2. The owner ticks the left-hand checkbox if the day is PROVISIONALLY booked.

Or,

3. The owner ticks the right-hand checkbox if the day has a CONFIRMED BOOKED.

Finally, the user would click the save button and then the changes they had made to the availability calendar would be instantly reflected on the website to their customers.

If you haven’t already done so, check out the website at: http://www.hillyfield-holiday-cottage.co.uk/

Most web developers will tell you that they are so busy building other peoples websites that they neglect their own. That is definitely what has happened with mine. Now, regular viewers of this website (I can dream) may have noticed a couple of additions I have made to this website:

Number one, rather than being a ‘flat image’, the big image above now fades in and out to reveal more images. This gives the site a fresher and more dynamic look.

Number two, I have added a sub-menu at the top just below the main navigation links. Refresh the page and see how the sub menu slides down and then the links flash once. I have put these links in place to make it more obvious what my key services are. They are:

• Web design/development
• Web hosting
• SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)
• Domain names

Click on some of the links to read more details on what we can do for you.

A couple of days later I did some searching on Google to organise my skiing trip when I stumbled across a company in Plymouth that couldn’t make it any simpler to escape to the snowy slopes. The company is called “Sound Ski’s” and they have a shop at Queen Anne’s Battery.

To cut a long story short, I got on the coach from outside of the shop on the Friday morning and returned to the same place by coach on Sunday afternoon with 8 full days skiing in between. I had a great time and met some great people the vast majority of which are from the Plymouth area.

I will definitely be going again next January with Sound Skis, so if you like skiing, consider going with Sound Skis. I highly recommend them.

Oh, and one final thing. I was really glad that I hired my boots and skis from Sound Skis rather than hiring them in the resort as I was provided with top-of-the-line gear. My skis were “Liberty” skis which I understand are a good make and they were just as fantastic on-piste as off-piste.

Briefly, the email was from a gentleman who said that he had stumbled across my blog when Googling “violins and Tavistock” and wanted to know if I could recommend any teachers in the local area.

Now, I have only mentioned the word “violin” three times in this blog and the last of those times was the 10th July 2009. That is nearly a year ago.

What’s the point in me mentioning this I hear you cry. Well, the point is, even if you don’t think you are getting much communication/business from your blog at the moment, that doesn’t matter. What matters is that the content you put on the Internet is always available and you too could be contacted about something you said a year later.

For me this communication was in relation to a hobby of mine but for you it could very well lead to business.

Take care, Nick

There are steps you can take to limit the amount of spam you get but the methods to combat spam vary depending on the blogging software you use (e.g. Blogger, WordPress, etc).

You could also take the drastic measure of turning off comments completely so that nobody can submit comments but then this doesn’t encourage a community and might make regular blog readers who like to leave a comment stop reading your blog.

Contact us if you would like to learn more.

Here are the two reasons why I get asked for a web counter along with my general response:

“We want to be able to see how many visitors we get to our website”

My response: “Instead of putting a Web Counter on your website I will integrate Google Analytics for you which will give you more feedback on visitors to your website that you will ever use”. I won’t go into the power of Google Analytics here but suffice to say it is a very powerful solution and is 100% FREE.

“We want other people to see how many visitors we get to our website”

My response: “Why would you want to give away key information about your business whilst risking the survival of your company at the same time?” Lets just say you have a website selling jam pot covers and you have only been operational for 6 months. Then, lets say your Web counter shows you have had 18,000 visits in 6 months. What you are telling people is that jam pot covers are highly sought after and therefore profitable. What’s to stop these people setting up a website in direct competition to you.

As the recession in Britain continued I was contacted by Hideaway Beds again to redesign the Hideaway Beds website. The website still has the same functionality but Hideaway Beds wanted the design to be changed to make it less flashly and more like a DIY website.

So… thats what we did and the feedback I have been given by Hideaway Beds is that it is working…

Take a look at the new-look website at: www.hideaway.co.uk