Polraen Country House near Looe was built in the 18th century as a coaching inn. It is now a well known and established family run hotel with en-suite bedrooms, wonderful gardens, a fully licensed bar, guest lounge and dining facilities.

Run by Gill and Martin Bridges, Polraen has undergone extensive refurbishment and it was time for their old website to undergo an update.

The new website

Polraen’s new website is run by a CMS (Content Management System) which enables Gill to update and manage the complete website whenever she wants to. She can add photographs, latest offers, new pages, blog posts and more.

Not only does this save time and money, it will inevitably make money too.

Do you own a hotel, guest house, B&B or self catering cottages?

If you’re local to Looe, there’s a chance it’s time for an upgrade.

I recently surveyed 100 local websites and found 95% of them to be ‘unsound’! So many accommodation websites in Cornwall are old fashioned and out of date.

If yours is one of them it will be adversely affecting your business and the number of guests you could be getting through the door. Why jeopardise your business when all it would take is a makeover and update?

Websites must be kept up to date and fit with the times. It’s no good believing you can build a website and then leave it forever! They need some tender loving care every now and again and to keep visitors coming back and re-booking.

It’s not rocket science but it does take someone with a fresh eye to make a difference.

Call me anytime (01503 264422) or send me an e-mail via the contact page, I’m local and I’d love to help.

Link

Visit the Polraen Country House Hotel website.

The Windsor Workshop in Sussex is owned by James Mursell and specialises in teaching Windsor Chairmaking courses. Participants get to make their own chair throughout a week long course, which they then take home and use.

James also makes chairs, specialist woodworking tools and tables to order and has just written a new book on Windsor Chairmaking too! He’s a very busy man!

About a month ago James contacted me (having being recommended by another client – thank you Alexis) about  an update to his website.

The Windsor Workshop website was made in Frontpage and created by James himself but he decided it was time to update the website and add various new functions such as ecommerce, pdf downloads and a CMS (Content Management System) facility.

The new website had to pre-empt the launch of his new Windsor Chairmaking book which is due out on December 18th 2009.

The new website hit the ground running and in it’s first few weeks has seen significant sales of the book, courses and tools. I can’t tell you how satisfying this is.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) services

After completing the new design and creating the pages, I spent considerable time working on the SEO of The Windsor Workshop website. There is still more to do but already the SEO work has rocketed the website to the top of Google for most of the keywords and phrases relating to Windsor Chairmaking.

Both James and I are very pleased with the results and hopefully the Windsor chair makers who visit it are too.

As far as UK holiday destinations go Looe is up there at the top.

Ranked as the third best place to be in the UK on New Years Eve, it’s worth moving here just for that.

Anyway I digress! Looe is special and because of this I now run a website dedicated to promoting Looe to the whole world!

Looe is a small fishing town in South East Cornwall with a tidal harbour and child friendly beach. It attracts people from all over the world who choose Looe for their family friendly Cornish holiday.

I write all the articles and take the photos for the website so you can see it’s a passion of mine.

You can check out Looe and all it has to offer here: www.ilovelooe.co.uk

If you’d like a new website or a website for your town, please get in-touch as I have plenty of experience and know I can help.

More information

Please call me on 01503 264422 or click here to contact me by e-mail.

It’s close to the sea front, within the town centre, on the South West Coastal Path and in a quiet location!

What more could anyone want from a bed & breakfast? OK I have nothing to do with the beds or the breakfasts but I’m sure they’re just as amazing!

My client came to me asking for a fresh, clean and informative website that could take bookings and payments online, whilst showing availability.

Bed and breakfast accommodation websites are generally pretty poor. Many are old fashioned, most do not work and others are downright awful!

I wanted St Johns Court B&B in Looe to be different. It had to stand out and still be clean, easy to use and simple enough for my client to update.

Google statistics are built in and the ability to take payments online via my booking calendar script simplifies the whole online booking system.

If you fancy a break in Looe give them a call.

Click here to visit the St Johns Court B&B website.

It’s a shocking statistic but one that could easily be lowered if men were given the knowledge and encouragement to seek help and advice about prostate cancer.

Please ‘Read More’ – it could save a life!

Doug Gray is a friend of mine and back in January 2009 he was diagnosed with prostate cancer.

Doug cannot be cured but if he had known two years ago what he knows now, then things might have turned out very differently.

www.loveyourprostate.co.uk is Doug’s personal website. It explains the facts, symptoms and risks associated with prostate cancer and aims to raise awareness, whilst campaigning for National Prostate Cancer Screening for men in the UK.

Please visit Doug’s website and read through the information as it could save your life or that of someone you know.

Thank you.

More information

Please call me on 01503 264422 or click here to contact me by e-mail.

DSUK host fashion sample sales in the UK and are famous for their sales in Brick Lane in London.

Dedicated followers of fashion can pick up all kinds of unique, one-of-a-kind bargains at the DSUK sales and the new website is used to direct, inform and entertain visitors.

Designer Sales UK asked me to re-design their latest website using a CMS (Content Management System).

The brief was that it had to be:

• Easy for visitors to navigate.
• Informative, useful and entertaining.
• Easy to update – so many CMS are over complicated.
• Credit crunch affordable.

Well, one week later the old site was down and a new site was up and running better and smooooother than ever before!

Incorporating video, newsletter and invitation subscriptions, Google maps, press pages, galleries and an online shop, the new DSUK website is positively buzzing!

You can view the Designer Sales UK website here – be sure to check out the Real People Catwalk video and mention me to Elaine if you go along to the sales.

Please contact me if you need a website, hosting or email account. I know I can help.

More information

Please call me on 01503 264422 or click here to contact me by e-mail.

Alexis makes wonderful hand crafted contemporary jewellery from her studios in Sussex. Check out her website Alexis Dove Jewellery to see examples (and buy) some of her work.

Anyway back to the postcard, from briefing to delivery in 4 days and litho printed with matt laminate to both sides to boot. You can’t get much quicker or better than that!

I love it when the pressure’s on, it creates a buzz around the studio.

Alexis came to me saying she needed a postcard designed for a show she was doing but needed it delivered to her pronto!

Well, never someone to turn a challenge down I accepted and here it is.

Front of the Alexis Dove Jewellery postcard

Back of the Alexis Dove Jewellery postcard

Let me know if you ever need anything in a hurry – postcards, brochures or a website – I’m sure I can help.

More information

Please call me on 01503 264422 or click here to contact me by e-mail.

Things have been really busy round here lately and I had to put the website on hold so it’s great to be able to get stuck in again and deliver you some great and useful content.

Whether you’re a client of mine, another designer or potential client looking for a someone to work on your latest project, stick around as I’m sure you’ll find plenty of useful information on the site.

Hey, hold up, this isn’t your average design company website. What’s going on?

True and I’m glad you noticed.

Don’t you just get fed up with all those glam Flash websites that take ages to load and are full of industry speak and self-hype?

Well I do, which is why Mind’s Eye Design is structured as a design resource tool, enabling you to find really useful design related information all in one place.

So what’s going to be on the website?

Good question and one that has limitless possibilities!

I shall be packing the website with useful information, examples of my work, helpful resources and links to items that could really benefit your business.

I plan to launch a range of pre-priced website packages, enabling you to ‘pick and mix’ modules such as ecommerce and photo galleries all for a set price. I’ll be throwing in free hosting and a .co.uk domain for the first year too!

You can get the gist of other areas from looking around, especially at the links at the bottom of each page. All in all I want Mind’s Eye Design to be a super-dooper online resource for anyone interested in increasing their bottom-line(!).

Thanks for popping by, stick around and see how the website develops. I should be finished in a week or so.

Cheers

Chris