Welcome to the new website
Somebody once told me that a plumber would never try and install his own toilet*.
And I don't believe that for a minute. Which is why I decided to completely overhaul my own website, on my own, creating a new site with a CMS I hadn't used before, and writing all the content myself. Ta da!
Stubborn, moi?
It was, indeed, a painful process (writing about yourself is hard! You should get someone else to do it!) but it's done now, and here we are. Welcome.
You know what? I like it.
I moved from WordPress to Squarespace after some advice from a friend who knows a lot about these things (hi, Jake!) and have been very pleasantly surprised so far. The templates are all nice to look at and the controls are extremely intuitive. Sure, you can't easily access the HTML and CSS, and there isn't a button to insert tables (you have to add the HTML as a “code block”), but that hasn't irritated me too much so far. Also, some of the colours need a tweak to make it properly accessible and it’s taking me a while to get that right. But generally . . . I’m pleased!
I think this site reflects me and my work much more closely.
Do websites have credits?
I think they do.
So, first I’d like to thank all the friends who replied to a Facebook post asking what they liked and disliked about the old site. That allowed me to make a great start.
Then I would like to give a special shout-out Mary Krell and James Hart. When I thought the new site was nearly ready, I asked them, a bit out of the blue, if they would mind having a look . . . and they both gave me LOADS of honest, constructive and extremely practical feedback about things like the site flow, design and content. I’m still working through some points (which is to say: if there’s anything on the site you don’t like, it’s definitely not down to them!) but - yeah, a massive thank you to both of them for helping me to get out of my head, see things differently and get to the point of launch.
Finally, of course I must thank my husband Daz who – as well as giving me plenty of blunt feedback himself, obviously – has put up with all my questions, helped me with Domain Things, and been very reassuring. Thank you, you lovely man.
(All right Emma, it’s only a website.)
What’s next?
Well, that’s it really. I was going to bring over a few more blog posts but none of them are particularly relevant so I decided not to. (My mum will be sad - she liked that one about how much I hate Abba.) I do have vague plans for blogging more frequently, but . . . I'm clearly terrible at taking my own advice, so don’t hold your breath.
Nope - I shall just continue bobbling along as I was before, but with a less embarrassing website. Hooray!
Tell your friends!
If you know anyone who needs content for their website, please tell them not to try and write it themselves. Turns out it’s really hard to write about yourself and your work without getting in a mess and taking two months to do something that should have taken two days.
No, please tell them that what they need is a professional writer, editor and proof reader. Someone who will get to know their needs, who can advise them about online marketing, and who just LOVES getting stuck into words.
*Is this really a thing? There's no way this is a thing.
