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Etsy

Shiny New Website

Hello, and welcome to the first blog on my shiny new website.

When I started on the redesign of my website we weren’t all staying at home to avoid spreading coronavirus. But that is where we find ourselves now, and it is in that world that I am sharing with you my redesigned website. However, these strange times we are living in mean my plans for my website have changed slightly.

Why the redesign?

There were two main driving forces behind the redesign of my website. The first reason was that with a new website I could illustrate what I do better. The second was that I wanted to incorporate a shop into my website so I could sell directly to you without using a third party site.

This redesign has been a long time coming. I have made several attempts in the past but I have always come up against problems that I didn’t have the time to overcome. So now, having moved servers, sorted out my sites SSL certificate, and redesigned the site, here is my new website.

I have gone for a simpler layout, with less clutter and distraction. I have switched around the colour scheme, which hopefully makes it easier to read.

How have my plans changed because of coronavirus?

Well, as it stands there are only a few pages at the moment, and the plan was to add more over the coming months. The next page that I was going to add was going to be my own webshop. This was one of the biggest reasons for revamping my website. However I rely on going to the Post Office to post anything ordered that is bigger than a card and for anything going overseas, and following government advice to only make necessary journeys, I am only selling cards at the moment. So this doesn’t feel quite the right time to start the webshop. However, I will continue to monitor things and see if I can find a way of dispatching prints that is safe for all. For now, I am still selling cards through Etsy

What will I be doing now?

Instead of working on the shop next, I have decided to work on and share a couple of projects with you. One is a project that I started a long time ago, but has never seen the light of day. The other one is a new project that I have been planning for a little while and now seems a good time to start it, as I won’t be leaving the house for a while. I will write more about both projects in future blogs.

So, please have a look around  my redesigned website and let me know what you think.

2017 – Looking back

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2017

2017 – what have I done?

Well, looking back at the blog I wrote at the start of 2017, it seems things didn’t really go according to plan.

I had intended to give my website a complete overhaul in 2017 and add a shop. While I did manage to redesign my website, I didn’t manage to add the shop because I encountered a number of problems. I ran out of server space and once I overcame that issue, I was then unable to find a third party shop interface with safe and secure card transaction facilities that I could (with my limited web design and development knowledge) make work to my liking.

Another thing that I failed to do was to write this blog regularly. I had thought that doing it once a month would be manageable, but I failed to do that. I’m not sure why I didn’t manage it, time just seemed to get away from me.

Also, my experiment of using Redbubble to sell my images was something that didn’t work out. I’m not sure why it didn’t. Perhaps it was because I didn’t promote it enough. Maybe it just isn’t the right platform for me to sell my work. Whatever the reason, it didn’t work for me. I’m going to keep the store open for now and see if anything changes.

That was all a bit negative, wasn’t it? Well, now for the more positive stuff that I did in 2017.

Although selling my images through Redbubble didn’t seem to work for me in 2017, selling through my Etsy shop did. My sales increased, along with my product range. If you head over there to have a look before 31st January 2018, you can get 30% off orders over £15.

I’ve started selling images through a photo library. I started contributing images to it in 2016, but it was in 2017 that my images started to sell. A lot of work goes in to choosing images and preparing them for an image library. It’s work that isn’t seen by anyone else, but it has now started to pay off for me, which is always gratifying.

Also in 2017 I started selling my cards at the Three Daggers Farm Shop in Eddington, Wiltshire. They currently stock 12 different designs of my cards, and the designs they carry will change roughly every three months or so.

I did a number of photo shoots with bands and musicians, which was something I planned to do and actually managed to see though. I did photo shoots with Jamie R Hawkins, Phil Cooper and Scout Killers. 

Another thing I did in 2017 was my first craft fair. I had hoped to do more than one in the run up to Christmas, but I was about a week or so too late applying so they were mostly already fully booked. I did manage to do one, which was local to me and was only on for a few hours so it was a good introduction into what it takes to do a craft fair.

Learning

Something else I did was learn. Somewhere, I can’t remember where, I read an ‘inspirational quote’. It said something like ‘running a business without advertising is like winking at a woman in the dark, only you know you are doing it.’ Which, despite the weird winking at women thing, made me realise I really need to promote myself better. I think that is something I started to do.

Thank you

Thank you for reading, and thank you for your support. I will try to write my blog more regularly. My next one will be about what I intend to do in 2018.

thank you