Website redesign and changing web hosts

Over the last few months I have been working on rebuilding my website, from scratch, and this week I was finally ready to make it go live!  In this post I'm sharing some of the reasons behind rebuilding my website and my experience of changing web hosts, which I hope might be interesting if you are in a similar situation with your own website.

My old website was hosted on Moonfruit and had served me well for several years.  I used their free package, but had found this no longer suited me for a couple of reasons.  Being free, it had always had advertising for Moonfruit on.  This had been more discreet in the past, but had changed to a big green banner at the top which I do not like.  I also found the number of pages and storage space allowed was too restrictive for my needs - so it was time I made a change! (You can see a screenshot of the old website below).

I looked at Moonfruit's paid plans and did some research into other web hosting options.  I decided that it would be best for me to move my website to another host. I was nervous of moving though, because my technical knowledge of hosting is quite limited - all the options and jargon is quite daunting!  In the end I chose TSOHost because they had the best price for the storage space and bandwidth I need and found they had very good reviews for their customer service.  So far my experience of using TSOHost has been good.  It was quick and straightforward to buy and set up the hosting (I went for their Lite Cloud Hosting plan).  I was able to redirect my domain (which is registered with another provider) easily too.  I did have some problems getting my website to go live, but found TSOHost's help articles and videos very useful and managed to work out what I was doing wrong. (It was quite a simple solution - I just needed to move my website's files to the correct folder!)

My website hosted on Moonfruit was built using their website builder, so leaving them meant that I had to build my website from scratch (again).  I have done this before using Serif's WebPlus program, but not for several years so it meant that I had to refresh my memory in using WebPlus!  I find it's a fairly easy program to use to build websites - you don't need to know code and there are plenty of tutorials to guide you through the various stages of website building.

Since I was rebuilding my website I decided it was a good time to give my logo a bit of an update too.  I've also created a new banner to use on my website, blog, shops etc and used the colours from this (teal, blue, green, pink and yellow) throughout my website.  I really like these new colours - they brighten up the pages and hopefully add a little fun to them too!  You may have noticed that I have also used these to update the design of this blog.
Here is a screenshot of my new website's home page...

I have a few things I plan to tweak on the site still, but I'm pretty happy with how it looks now.  I'm glad that I no longer have the Moonfruit advertising banner on it, so hopefully it now looks more professional.  I also have more space for putting images of my designs on, and will be regularly adding new pictures to the various galleries of my portfolio.

I've tested the website myself and think everything is working properly, but if you have a few minutes and would like to check it out yourself I would really appreciate it!  If you notice anything wrong (broken links etc) please do let me know.  You can visit my website here.

New Website Design for 2013

As it’s a new year I decided it was time to give my blog and website a bit of a new look!  I thought I would try something a bit more modern and cleaner for a change – so have a new yellow zigzag pattern background and a simpler header.
I’ve made the blog a little wider and tweaked things like colours and fonts but still have a few other things I want to play around with over the next few weeks.

The website has had bigger changes with all of the pages being updated and new pages added for wedding stationery, party supplies and craft supplies.  There are still new pictures I want to add but for now I’m happy with it showing a wider range of my work.
Hope you like the changes so far! :)

Cookie nightmare!

Maybe I've been living in a cave or something but I only heard about the new EU cookie law a few days ago so have spent hours reading up on it and finding out what I need to do to comply.  From 26th May it became law that websites based in the EU (and targeted to people in the EU) must tell people what cookies they use and get consent for non-essential cookies to be used.

See the ICO website for full details: https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-pecr/cookies-and-similar-technologies/

I am certainly no computer expert but think I have a good basic understanding - although it turns out I really didn't know that much about cookies!  And according to the ICO's statistics only 13% of people fully understand how cookies work.  I hope if I share some of what I have learnt it might help someone else!

What is a cookie?

A cookie is a small text file downloaded onto a computer to send useful information back to the website.

Some cookies are essential to the running of the site and if cookies are disabled parts of the website might not work - for example cookies used to remember the contents of your shopping basket when proceeding to checkout.  These cookies are exempt from the law.

Other cookies are used for things like tracking visitors to your site (Google Analytics) and even plugins from places like facebook use cookies.


What do I need to do?

This is a bit confusing - especially as they changed the rules to say that 'implied consent' is a valid form of consent now.

Some websites now have pop-ups with a tick box for agreeing to the use of cookies.  But as most people don't understand cookies they will probably tick 'No' which will mean websites won't be able to properly analyse how people use their sites to improve them.

Even a lot of large websites aren't using the pop-up technique yet and with 'implied consent' something along the lines of an updated privacy policy page seems more sensible.  A few lines to explain that you use cookies, what they are for and what to do if visitors are not happy about cookies being used.

Do I have cookies on my website?

The ICO recommends that you conduct a cookie audit.  Apparently it's easy to see some types of cookies you have and you should get your IT department to check for the rest.  I thought that sounded great - it's just me, I don't have an IT department and don't want to pay someone else to do it for me.
After much research I've found that you can see exactly what cookies are on websites using Google Chrome (free to download!)

When your website is up, click on the spanner symbol (top right - 'Customise and control Google Chrome').  Go to Tools >> Developer Tools and a window comes up along the bottom of the screen.

Under Resources there's a drop down box for Cookies - listing all the cookies on that page (remember to check all the pages on your site).

This site has more information on doing a cookie audit: http://www.equimedia.co.uk/how-to-do-a-cookie-audit.html

Can't I just ignore this and hope it goes away?

There are probably thousands of websites now breaking the law and I really doubt whether they will go after every small business or blogger.  But there is a maximum penalty of £500,000 and I'd rather do something now than pay a fine later!  The ICO wants to encourage compliance so you at least need to show you are working towards complying (eg cookie audit) and they're more likely to help you before handing out a large fine.

I suppose there are some cookies where this law will be a good thing and it is probably targeted at larger companies, but it seems over the top to me when most cookies are safe.  It's already annoying coming across websites that keep asking for you to accept cookies and as most people don't understand them it's more likely to scare users and turn people away from using the sites.  By adjusting the privacy settings in your browser options you can already choose how you want cookies to work on your computer.  Perhaps it should be up to users to make sure their settings are correct to protect themselves from intrusive tracking cookies, like you use anti-virus software to protect your computer.
Hopefully I have done enough to now comply with this law! (Here's the piece I have added to my website)

New Website

The internet can be a wonderful thing, a source of inspiration and edcuation, connecting people around the world.  But it can also be really annoying, especially when it doesn't work properly!
Recent problems with my internet connection have meant that I had to look for a new host for my website.  I am happy designing and building a website but all the differnet options for hosting are very confusing, then I tried Moonfruit.  So far it seems good and I have built a new site, similar to the old, but with a few changes (and some newer work on too).  In a few days time the old site will be gone and all traffic to http://www.hazelfisher.co.uk/ will be directed to http://www.hazelfishercreations.moonfruit.com/

Victoriana

Lately I've been working in my Hexley sketchbook - making notes on the town and working up to some new paintings. (I'll be posting some updates on Hexley here soon very soon.)

While researching I stumbled across an amazing website packed with everything from Victorian/ Edwardian fashion to Victorian house plans! If, like me, you have a love for all things Victorian go and take a look - you won't be disappointed!

Pick of the week

I thought that alongside my 'Quote of the week' I would start a new regular feature called 'Pick of the week'. Being quite a broad title this could include features on a website, book, handmade item or anything thing else which I have come across, like and think that other people may like too!

My first pick of the week is a website; Shop Handmade UK http://www.shophandmade.co.uk/

Rather than an online shopping site like Etsy, Folksy etc it is a directory for UK based artists/ crafters who produce handmade goods. With 15 categories including art and design, jewellery and supplies it brings together over 1100 designers from a variety of online marketplaces.

I came across the site yesterday and have submitted my shop to be added to their directory. Submitting is free and just involved filling in a simple questionnaire. Until my shop is added I won't be able to tell whether it is successful in creating new sales, but I like the idea of bringing together UK artists in one place who would usually sell on separate sites.

There is also a list for designers who supply their goods wholesale, a section for featured sellers and a useful list of events taking place in the UK.