Saturday 3 October 2020

Plan for the worst, hope for the best......

 Not entirely unexpectedly, the old Tower House Dolls website has disappeared in a puff of smoke.  We had hoped that it might remain online a a marker of our presence but the recent server upgrades completely annihilated it.

The end of an era.

However, there is no time to mourn and work continues on the new, improved website.  It's all fresh and shiny but the back end is really unfamiliar, and I'm proceeding on the basis of trial and error... trying things to see what works and what doesn't.  My learning curve is practically vertical and I'm way out of my comfort zone, also every time I learn something new it pushes old stuff out of my brain... but so far so good and progress is steady, albeit slow.

It's the first time I've been without a website in 25 years so I do feel a bit cast adrift, but hopefully it's only temporary. 







6 comments:

Dorothy In PA said...

Best wishes as you make the transition.

Thanks for continuing to post during these very challenging times.

Sandra Morris said...

Thanks Dorothy...
It's all a bit 'two steps forward, three steps back' at the moment, but I'll keep plugging away at it and I'm sure it will come good in the end!

Megan Schetsche said...

Hi Sandra
I've been meaning to pop you a message to find out how things are going with the website. Did you keep your domain? I think you did because I just googled towerhousedolls.co.uk and got your new page. If your URL was transferred, hopefully your Google ranking won't drop and you will continue to show up in search results. I don't know how important it is for you to be findable on Google anyway, I think a lot of your business comes from referrals and social media. If you need some pointers to improve your Google ranking and someone's not already helping you with it, I'm happy to make some suggestions once your pages are up and running. (Says the woman with the eternally unfinished website...shoemaker's children and all that).
Progress on the book is fantastic news! I would love to order a copy for my birthday, which is early in November but no pressure, I will wait until you have it published, it's always nice to have a good long birhtday with treats for weeks and months afterwards ;)

Sandra Morris said...

Hi Megan,
Yes I kept my domain and yes the new website is there in fledgling form. I think most of my website visits are referred from the newsletter, blog and FB, but I'm always up for suggestions on increasing reach.
Although the book is finished I'm having a major struggle with the DTP software and trying to achieve a workable PDF. Having another go at it today so fingers crossed! Sx

Megan Schetsche said...

Once your website pages are up, I will have a look at them and make suggestions if I think there's anything to improve. I'm sure you're doing a great job.

Sandra Morris said...

Thanks Megan.... I'd really appreciate it. Website tech stuff is definitely not my forte so feedback would be helpful. :)