Well done Tools and Hardware Direct
Congratulations goes to Rob and Liz of Tools and Hardware Direct that have been trading online using SitesPlus for only 2 months. Their niche is to sell hardware from their shops in small quantities, undercutting the big DIY traders online. They’ve already started to get customers from all over the country, but yesterday they secured a big, bulk, sale from Ireland!
Rob has been so dedicated to ensuring his keywords are in every product phrase and title and it has paid off!! Well done 
Kate@SitesPlus HQ
Time to ‘up the ante’ for Christmas selling
71 days to Christmas and retail businesses are thinking about ways to increase their share of that important Christmas wallet.The key is to start early and build Christmas into your website now.
Get your loyal customers to buy early. Let them know about your Christmas products, any specials you have (maybe a free something the first 10 customers?). Or other value-added services; are you willing to hold Christmas wish lists for your most loyal customers? Do this easily by email.
What about Google? Now is definitely the time to get your Christmas range on your site so that Google can crawl your pages. Change a catalogue page to ‘Christmas gifts’. Remember to make sure your product titles contain the product keywords and be specific. Include a SitesPlus free text page ‘Christmas ideas for Children’ or women or whatever your market is, and include links to various products you are selling.
What about Google Ads? If you’ve never used AdWords before, now is the time to start, look on the blog for a link to a free £30 starter voucher, so have a go, call us or email SitesPlus for some insider tips to get the best out of your adverts.
Get going now and beat the competition!
Kate @ SitesPlus HQ
September wrap up
As September is coming to a close and only 91 shopping days left till Christmas (read the World of the Web blog for ideas to boost your christmas sales), I thought I’d share what you’ve been up to this month.
Congratulations goes to Helen Botrill, Kindred Rose for gaining the near-celebrity status of getting her products on Notonthehighstreet.com For those who’ve never seen this site, it’s a great way to market your own website and products. If you have something unique and crafty/arty to promote, then have a look. It is difficult to get accepted, as Helen knows. She said her SitesPlus website was key to getting approval. ‘They loved my products and the website was a key influencing factor. without it I wouldn’t have got a look in’. Well done Helen and keep going!
Well done to Pyle House Bed and Breakfast too, for gaining their Alistair Sawday recommendation. It’s such a beautiful place, we’re really pleased for you!
In term so our news, We’ve broken our record for new sites this month, most of our purchases are by recommendation, so please keep passing the message on, we really appreciate it. We’ve re-deisnged the SiteBuilder home page and have created a new resource centre, please let us know what you think. We’re working on more video tutorials that we’ll post soon.
Other news, I’ve been doing a lot of sitting down in the office this week. Last Sunday I completed my first Marathon, in Berlin. Myself and Nick have been training for 3 months for the day, but sadly Nick had to pull out. I’ve still got tired legs, but thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Not sure I’ll be repeating it again too soon though!!
Notice: Enquiry form support
We’ve been receiving support calls about unreadable enquiry forms that are occasionally arriving in your inbox from your own websites.
They look something like this
Enquiry received via web site
Name: wksvyom
Email: sanehj@picauy
Tel.: LFuWTHcZp
message: .;.c/////rdfose [podfg/////
Don’t worry, they aren’t real people trying to get in touch. Please just ignore and delete them.
I hope that helps.
Kate @ SitesPlus
Try Google Adwords for free
For a limited time Google have produced a £30 voucher for new Adwords customers. Adwords are the ‘Sponsored Links’ that appear at the top and to the right of their search results page.
They can be really a really useful way to get your products noticed as the adverts appear instantly and you only get charged when someone clicks on your ad.
If you’d like to have a go, click on this link and start an account. We’ve also got an Adwords briefing that may help, email us if you’d like the briefing or any additional support or ideas.
Kate @ SitesPlus HQ
Thanks Greenthinking
Thanks to Laurence of Greenthinking, for spotting the deliberate (cough, cough) mistake on the new welcome page.
The new image on the top of the page had the title, SitesPlus man, which of course it is not.
Thanks – any others, please let us know!
Kate @ SitesPlus HQ
New Welcome Page
Welcome to our new SitesPlus welcome page – what do you think? We’d love to hear your comments……..
Our aim is to provide you with information and updates on this page, so do let us know how you feel it works for you.
Click on the comment link at the end of this post to tell us your thoughts….. Personally, I’m not sure about the photograph (but then it is of me so I can say that.) No mean comments please!
Any ideas for the new blog too? ‘The World of the Web’, please let me know what you want to know about.
Thanks
Kate @ SitesPlus HQ
4 star accolade for Monkton Court Hotel
Congratulations to SitesPlus subscriber, Monkton Court Hotel, on being awarded an AA 4 star for their hotel and an AA Rosette for their restaurant.
The assessor specifcally mentioned their website had contributed to the award saying that it was easy to use, provided great information for guests and the pictures of the food were brilliant!
Monkton Court Hotel, near Honiton in Devon, are delighted with their SitesPlus website. Jenny said ‘It’s doubled our guest visits and visitors are staying longer, using the Hotel as a destination rather than an overnight stay’.
We at SitesPlus are so proud with the way Jenny has managed her website. She says, ‘SitesPlus has helped me build my own website, which I never thought was possible! They’ve given me great support every step of the way’
Well done Jenny and all the hard-working staff at the Monkton Court Hotel
Kate at SitesPlus HQ
New template engine developments
We’ve been working super hard at SitesPlus on some exciting new developments. All this work however is pretty much ‘under the hood’, meaning that although you won’t see much change, it helps us move a lot of other things forward.
For one, it will allow us to create new styles and themes, so you’ll see more new and interesting styles coming on line soon. We’ve also improved compliance, making your sites more compatible with newer technologies such as mobile phones and PDAs.
We’ve re-built the old styles so you may see some small changes to your sites, but utimately it is a massive gear-shift in our ability to deliver new styles to you.
So with one last car analogy, we’ll be launching the new ‘engine’ very soon, we’ll send out a newsletter to let you know. Please help us by checking your own site when the change happens.
Kate at SitesPlus HQ
Catalogue pages – sort order fix
Thanks to subscribers for reporting the sort order error.
We’ve updated the site with a fix. Please test it and report any errors you may come across. Email us on support@sitesplus.co.uk
Many thanks
Kate at SitesPlus HQ
