I just wanted to take a moment to say thank you for your support and kind comments that you made as you took a look at my site this last week. I was touched and humbled by your emails, tweets and FB messages. I have passed on all of your comments on the ease of the site navigation, and the design, to my web designer at SmartDeCat, as apart from my sign up box, and inclusion of four photos on the homepage, the design is one of their templates.
It’s been really exciting launching the site, there were a couple of butterflies on Monday as it went live, and then it took a while for it to sink in that you are now able to see it, which is fantastic! I’ve kind of had to keep pinching myself this week to realise that it’s really happened, but the fact I don’t have to go to the site via the admin page tells me it’s real. A few months ago my web designer said it’s been ages since he’s been to the front of the site to see what his customers see, and I have to say I thought this was a little odd. Hmm, well actually my ego thought this was a little odd, wouldn’t I be on my site every day to look at my beautiful photos? Why of course I would!
Well actually I’ve not! I’ve found a far more addictive thing to do; watch the footfall of visitors across the site, it was, and well still is, really addictive. The software lets me see how many people are on the site and how many visits each page has; it was a bit like when I first got a Twitter and Facebook account, where I felt the need to check it every two minutes.
It is giving me added incentive to keep the momentum going through Facebook and Twitter, though when I came to go out, to take some spring photos in the lovely sunshine we’ve been having this week, I felt a bit like I was leaving the baby at home unattended. But it’s fully automated and does look after you whilst I’m away.
One thing I did find a bit tricky last week, was setting up Paypal, I only need them to collect the money, as a cart comes with the site. Yet once I’d signed up for a business account, I came across a myriad of options, many of which it turns out, I don’t need to work my way through, they are simply there as a landing page for those who might need it. Though I only discovered this after a good few hours of frustration of going round and round in circles trying to understand which option I needed!
Another important thing I’ve been doing this week, and it is important for anyone who is UK based, and gathering email or other personal information about your customers, is signing up with the ICO, Information commissioner’s Office. The ICO are responsible for making sure that people comply with the data protection act. It’s nothing scary though, it just means that you must follow their guidelines to keep all the personal information you collect about other people, as secure as you possibly can. Do make sure you register with them as it’s a criminal offence not to.
So then, the site is launched, now what? Well for me this week it’s been forums, which offer a good opportunity to promote yourself and your site. By your continual presence in conversations and adding something of value to the people on there it allows you to start to build relationships. To use any forum you have to sign up and create a profile, giving you the opportunity to list your website. And by replying to questions, making posts, it shows your name and maybe a photo, and from here people can click through to read more about you. I have to warn you though, it’s very time consuming, and I haven’t spent half as much time in the forums this week as I expected to.
Well, now that the site is up and running, it is starting to give me some time to think about other projects that I’m working on, or have been trying to whilst working on the site. But that’s for another article.
Notes
- Remember if you run a website you have a responsibility to look after the personal information you collect from your members & customers. If you are in the UK you are going to need to register with the ICO, and pay them a small fee.
- If you are outside the UK, double check to see what data protection laws your country has and how you need to comply. The ICO have a very long document on their site which will tell you all the things you need to do to be complying, lots of coffee might be required, but it’s important information so give it a read.
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Living in the beautiful rural county of Yorkshire it was perhaps natural for Ruth to have an affinity with the countryside and its wildlife. Creativity is Ruth’s driving force finding an outlet in television & radio she worked for many years as producer for BBC & ITV.
However a love of photography and for being surrounded by nature called her to go back to her photography training and bring pleasure and joy to people through her connection with our planet.
Staying in the moment when taking her images allows her to experience the natural magnificence unfolding before her eyes. It is this moment of mediation, of gratitude, that she evocatively conveys through her images.
you need to expand on the ‘it’s a criminal offence if you don’t bit’ – leaving it like that is a bit of a frightener – you don’t need to register as a data controller for several reasons – you should include those in this article to balance it out