Here are our top tips for planning your time when building websites so you can take a methodical approach to maximising your productivity.

1. Create To-Do-Lists

To-Do-Lists are really effective for making sure you’re on track with each stage of your project. Beyond jotting down your tasks, use a system to break up items into top priority, mid-level priority and low priority categories based on how crucial the action is and when it needs to be completed by.

These lists help to show a wider view of the website you are working on, give you a record of what you have already done and make you less likely to forget key tasks even if they do not need immediate action. There are many excellent online task list tools to help you make the process even easier. Examples include TeuxDeux, HiTask, Remember the Milk and Todoist.

2. Use down-time to your advantage

Even when you’re busy building websites, there are periods of time during the day when you have the opportunity to come up with new ideas about how to produce better results and get pages finished more quickly. Whenever you are walking somewhere, driving, travelling on public transport, showering and so on, you have time to consider the details of the project and develop further approaches to help you perform more efficiently.

Down-time also gives you space to unclutter your mind and this makes it much easier to envision the website as a whole and make better overall decisions. Try carrying a notepad and pen during these times so you can write any ideas down as they come to you.

3. Focus on the task at hand

Working on one website from start to finish makes it easier to streamline your work. We can often be tempted to work on different projects simultaneously but this is likely to take more time because you have to remind yourself of the finer details of each task when you return to it and immerse yourself to resolve any issues you encounter.

There is also a variety of potential distractions that are best avoided if you are working to finish a website on a tight deadline. These can include social media, surfing the web, personal email, unexpected requests and personal calls. Although it can be difficult to keep your concentration when you encounter these distractions, you will have a much better chance of getting the website finished on time.

4. Distribute the workload

Projects can often require much more work than we had anticipated and this is why, if you work in a team, delegating small tasks to others, like image editing and acquiring relevant content, will help you meet your deadlines. Delegating tasks does not have to be a negative thing and can provide great benefits for those you delegate to as well as yourself. When people receive small projects they have the opportunity to develop and enhance their skills and to learn about the larger task that you are carrying out.

Even if you are working on a website by yourself there are plenty of online apps that can help to speed things up and take care of jobs for you. For example, try Privacy Policy Generator if you need to create professional privacy policies for websites. Launchlist is another great tool that helps you check your work before launching a project. CSS3 Generator and HTML2 Canvas are also available to make the coding process quicker and there is Colour Scheme Designer 3 to help you develop colour combinations as well.

5. Make a log of your time

This is an excellent way to get a clear picture of how you spend your time and to identify periods in which you can be more productive. Use time-tracking applications, such as Harvest, TimeSheet or ManicTime, to make a note of everything that you do during a typical week. Give this a try; you may see ways in which you can merge tasks together to save time or find a few vacant periods that can be used to complete smaller tasks.

6. Set realistic deadlines

There are potential issues with setting deadlines that are too soon, too far in the future and not setting deadlines at all. If you don’t give yourself long enough to finish set tasks, this can result in making you stressed out and over-worked, negatively impacting your ability to produce high-quality websites. Having a deadline that is much further in the future than is needed can create problems because there may be less of an incentive to perform at your best and you will often be losing time that could be used more effectively on different projects. Even worse is not setting a deadline at all, because you don’t have a target to aim for and this can make your work less structured and focused.

To get a decent balance, carefully consider how long building a site will take based on the information you have and allow yourself a reasonable cushion of extra time in case any issues present themselves.

7. Develop routines

Getting into routines when you’re working can make it much easier to manage your time. Using the information from making a time log, it should be quite simple to group together certain types of tasks that you regularly undertake when building a website, such as coding, launching the site and adding extra resources. Creating routine actions for these means that you will be able to speed up these processes over time and plan to complete crucial items at the times when you are most effective.

We hope that you have enjoyed this article and that you can use these methods and tools to reflect on how you are currently managing your time when building websites and identify ways in which you can optimise your productivity.

What are your top tips for managing your time when building a website? Let us know in the comments below.

Image credit: William Warby

Name:Robert Mathers

About:Rob is Heart Internet’s Marketing Assistant and is responsible for managing and contributing to a variety of our marketing initiatives.

Posts by Rob-m (8)

Here are 19 stunning free web design resources you can download from Dribbble. As with any work like this, be cool and credit the authors of the work if you use it on your website.

Flat UI Kit
http://dribbble.com/shots/947782-Freebie-PSD-Flat-UI-Kit

44 shades of free icons
http://dribbble.com/shots/885207-44-Shades-of-Free-Icons

Receipt PSD
http://dribbble.com/shots/888613-Receipt-PSD

Free stamp PSD
http://dribbble.com/shots/238594-Free-stamp-psd-including-live-demo

Sign in widget
http://dribbble.com/shots/723600-Sign-In-Widget

Push notification UI
http://dribbble.com/shots/820198-Push-Notification-UI

Drop down menu
http://dribbble.com/shots/1027783-Dropdown-Menu

UI cream style
http://dribbble.com/shots/629461-Ui-Cream-Style

Moonshiner typeface
http://dribbble.com/shots/877205-Moonshiner-New-Free-Typeface

Presentation control settings
http://dribbble.com/shots/1047882-Presentation-Controls-Settings

Detailed UI kit
http://dribbble.com/shots/338473-Detailed-UI-Kit

Radio player
http://dribbble.com/shots/1022701-Radio-Player

Clock
http://dribbble.com/shots/1036844-Clock

The social gunman free icons
http://dribbble.com/shots/310444-Growcase-Friday-Freebie-The-Social-Gunman-Icons-Concept

Calendar
http://dribbble.com/shots/518702-Calendar

Pretty banner
http://dribbble.com/shots/179082-Pretty-Banner

Flat UI buttons
http://dribbble.com/shots/941313-Flat-UI-Buttons-PSD-Included

Search box
http://dribbble.com/shots/871091-Search-Box

Icon
http://dribbble.com/shots/946621-Icon

Name:Matthew Telfer

About:Matthew is Heart Internet's Marketing Manager, and has held senior marketing positions in the web hosting industry for over 7 years. With a passion for online marketing, Matthew is responsible for shaping strategy and developing the Heart Internet brand. Connect on Google+

Posts by Matthew (309)

The PC Pro awards is the UK’s biggest IT survey, and it’s extra special to us because it’s entirely controlled by customers submitting honest and genuine reviews of our services.

The survey takes just a few minutes to do and the good people at PC Pro are entering everyone who completes the survey into a free draw to win some great prizes, including an Intel powered Ultrabook, an amazing Samsung NX300 camera, and a brilliant DS213air storage device.

The last 12 months alone have seen us bring exciting new products to our customers to help improve their choice of web hosting products including Hybrid Servers, SSD VPS and new super powered Dedicated Servers. We also helped to improve the reseller hosting experience by introducing multisite FTP – allowing resellers to group customers together and make it easier to manage multiple accounts simultaneously.

But, more importantly, we’ve strived for customer support excellence. We’ve continued to recruit more and more customer support team members to deal with growing demands and always look for passionate and technically excellent people to provide the support our customers have come to expect from us.

To make your vote count, go to http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/382048/vote-now-in-the-pc-pro-excellence-awards-2013

Name:Alex Kellett

About:Alex is responsible for all of Heart Internet's print and PR marketing activities. Alex is a Leicester City fan, but please don't hold that against him.

Posts by Alex (31)

1. A nationwide network of volunteer-led coding clubs for kids
2. How to build links to your blog – A case study
3. The difference between fun and useful content and social sharing
4. 15 awesome websites that tell a story as you scroll
5. The alarmingly high cost of bad customer service
6. How to make a brilliant infographic
7. 23 free professional fonts for graphic and web designers
8. Getting marketing miles out of your superfans
9. 25 creative shopping bag advertisements
10. Newspaper covers from around the world
11. Google launches a G+ dashboard for managing business pages
12. Six interesting examples of gamification in ecommerce
13. The 8 habits of highly productive people
14. Guest blogging: Build your author trust
15. Archive of infographics to get inspired by

As always, if you have come across, or created, any resources you think we should link to leave a comment below.

Name:Matthew Telfer

About:Matthew is Heart Internet's Marketing Manager, and has held senior marketing positions in the web hosting industry for over 7 years. With a passion for online marketing, Matthew is responsible for shaping strategy and developing the Heart Internet brand. Connect on Google+

Posts by Matthew (309)

Hi Dan, congratulations on winning the award! What does being named young designer of the year mean to you?

To be given recognition by your peers for something that you love doing is very humbling. I consider myself very lucky to be able to spend every day practising my craft and working on great projects, the fact others recognise that is amazing.

What do you think swung the votes in your favour?

I’ve worked really hard this year to build myself a portfolio I was proud of, I think my work reflects this and I also stepped out of my comfort zone and organised a conference. This was not just hard financially but the hours were long and it’s pretty scary when attendees with Twitter at arms length were ready to tell you exactly what they thought. I think people respect that.

But I did offer everyone a cat gif if I won, which I’m hoping no-one remembered, so maybe it was that.

 Who did you speak to at the awards ceremony?

I finally got to meet Dan Eden and Ben Howdle. I’ve spoken to these guys over Twitter for the last year but never met, so that was nice. I also met Steve Buckley from HN London, a really nice guy who I hope to be working with soon. I met so many other great people too, everyone was so friendly.

 What are your tips for gaining recognition within the industry?

Be nice, work hard, don’t quit and don’t settle. I think it’s important to keep learning, it doesn’t matter if you’re a designer, developer, content strategist, user experience ninja or whatever; I dedicate at least a day per week to learning something or doing something other than client work. It allows me to be at my most creative, no brand guidelines, no framework, nothing but a white canvas and all the tools at your fingertips to go and make something.

You organised Altitude last February, what’s it all about and are there any plans for another one next year?

Altitude was born because I love events, I’d been to a few conferences and what I always enjoyed most was talking to the speakers after the event or listening in to Q&A sessions. On these occasions there were no slides or time for rehearsals, just off the cuff advice and answers. I wanted to bring this to the stage, get rid of the slides, and just sit down and talk. That’s exactly what we did. I teamed up with a friend of mine and we organised the whole thing in under three months. And yes, there are absolutely plans for another.

How important are events and conferences in helping to build your professional network?

I don’t attend events or conferences to build my own network, I go for the content. However what happens when you get a few hundred like-minded people in a room is pretty magical. You meet great people, finally put a face to the name of that guy you spoke to on Twitter and work seems to come naturally off the back of it. People like to work with people they like, so be nice, get out there and talk to people, you’ll make some great friends if nothing else.

What advice would you give to anyone trying to organise their own web design event?

My first reaction would be – don’t.

That would be wrong though, when I think about it. I would recommend it, it was by far one of the proudest moments of my career but it was really hard work – I mean really hard. We worked for three months solid, evenings and weekends trying to organise speakers, sponsors, website, brand and then finally selling tickets. You don’t (well we didn’t) make  any money from these kind of events, they are absolutely a labour of love but I wouldn’t change it for the world.

What are the most important lessons you’ve learned from working as a web designer?

Collaborate. Working with others gives you such a different look on design, especially working with those that you admire. I learned a lot from creating projects for fun that were either part of a collaborative project or just a Dribbble rebound. It’s all collaboration of some kind and getting feedback on this and making mistakes is all part of the journey to becoming the designer you want to be.

Are there any projects you’ve worked on that you are particularly proud of?

I am particularly proud of Altitude, however from a web point of view I’m working on a couple of projects right now, one is called 52 Freebies and is launching very soon. It will be a way for designers, developers and font lovers to download a high quality resource once a week. Another I have been working on is a book creator app and marketing site both launching fairly soon. The .Net Build Off was really fun too, there is a case study for it online.

Now that you are the young designer of the year, what are you going to do next?

I’m working on both projects I just mentioned, as well as other client work. I’m also going to be designing my first app as part of a collaboration with Ben Howdle and Daniel Tomlinson which I am very excited about. I’m also (hopefully) going to be speaking at a couple of events later in the year which will be a nice change for me – and a huge challenge.

Name:Alex Kellett

About:Alex is responsible for all of Heart Internet's print and PR marketing activities. Alex is a Leicester City fan, but please don't hold that against him.

Posts by Alex (31)

If you want to find out more about flat design and how to make it work for you, check out the following articles:

Principles of Flat Design
The Flat Design Era
Flat UI Pro
A Showcase of Flat Design Websites
30+ Best Flat Web Design Examples
Making it Work: Flat Design and Color Trends

We’ve also scoured the web for some of the more attractive flat design resources out there; take a look at our list:

200 Beautiful Flat Icons

A fantastic set of icons by Freepik and Noupe. Free to use for any kind of project.

Freebie PSD: Flat UI Kit

Several different widgets that can be used for commercial and non-commercial purposes.

48 Free Flat Icons

Resizable vectors for websites, apps, infographics and anything else you can think of.

Square UI Free Kit

A great big UI kit covering everything from video players to menu items.

20 Flat Icons (PSD)

128 x 128 icons that easily adapt to a wide range of projects.

Plex

A set of Google-inspired icons for mobile/personal use.

Cosmo Mini Free

Lovely 40 x 40 PNG icons available for commercial use. These are also available in vector/hi-res format for a small fee.

Flat Apple family

Free PSDs of the Apple LED Cinema Display, MacBook Air, iMac, iPad, iPhone, and MacBook Pro.

Flat Credit Cards

A uniform set of flat design credit cards.

Flat Blog UI Kit PSD

This free UI kit is great for blogs.

Flat Design Icons Set Vol1

A series of 16 lovingly crafted icons.

Flat Design Icons Set Vol2

Sixteen more beautiful free icons for you to use.

UI Kit

Great flat design UI kit available in both PNG and PSD.

Free Flat Social Icons

Free downloadable flat social icons in EPS/Ai format for Illustrator.

Flat Icon Set

Plenty of excellent ‘pay with a tweet’ icons.

Flat Vector Social Icons

These EPS vector icons are perfect for representing your social profiles.

Flat UI Stripe design PSD

A stripe and icon combo provided in four different colours.

Flat UI

A practical widget set in PSD form.

Minimal UI Kit PSD

Free for both personal and commercial use, this simple UI kit is worth downloading.

Flat Design PSD

This layered PSD design can be easily adapted to use almost as-is on a website, or provide the skeleton of a more complex design.

Free Web User Flat UI Kit

A huge collection of elements ranging from icons to colour swatches.

Free Flat Design PSD Template

Complete web design template in PSD form.

Flat UI Buttons

A small but perfectly executed set of buttons.

1262 Icons

A huge collection of over a thousand 40 x 40 icons.

Simple Browser PSD

A minimalist design mockup of a browser.

Name:Jenni Brown

About:Jenni is Heart Internet's Senior SEO & Social Media Marketing Executive and is responsible for Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Google+ activity. Jenni also manages various projects and campaigns for the Marketing department as well as organic SEO.

Posts by Jennifer (194)

How going the extra mile can help you

Being known for excellent service is a hugely valuable way to make yourself stand out because people will be far more likely to return for future work and there’s a good chance that they will let others know how impressive their experience with you was. This can be a big help when trying to get new clients as the 2012 Freelance Industry Report confirms by stating that the most effective ways to find and land new clients according to freelancers were referrals (chosen by 27.4% of those surveyed) and word of mouth (chosen by 23.8% of those surveyed).

It only takes a bit more effort to go the extra mile and over-delivering does not have to mean working many more hours on every project, it can be achieved simply by working smarter and thinking of ways to make life easier and to provide better results for your customers.

In this post, we’ll give you some ideas regarding what going the extra mile can do for your freelance web design business and how to go about it.

1. Adopt quick response times

Responding quickly to your customers can help to increase trust and your perceived reliability. To make sure you stay on top of all your tasks when dealing with multiple clients, it’s a good idea to use Customer Relationship Management software because anything from forgetting a scheduled phone call to not performing significant parts of contracted work can easily upset and annoy people. To make sure this doesn’t happen, there are some brilliant CRM software packages available that are ideal for web designer users. For instance, base and StudioCloud both have free package options and come with great features to help you streamline your work processes.

2. Enable feedback and communication

When you start to work on projects for a customer, you could encourage them to engage in a dialogue with you either through email or social media so they can ask you any questions that come to them during the project. You can also use this line of communication to find out how you can help them more and, therefore, how you can make them so satisfied with your service that they never think to look elsewhere.

3. Exceed your promises

If you promise to build a website for a customer by a certain date and then miss this deadline, this can negatively impact your relationship with them. The best thing to do is to promise things that you can definitely provide and then exceed these expectations. This is an easy way to show customers that you will over-deliver for them and to give them a memorable experience of using you.

4. Provide some extra service for free

After building a website for someone, why not finish off the package at no extra cost by setting up hosting for them, installing analytics and setting up their email addresses? These small jobs are quick and easy for you to complete and will make life easier for the customer. Offering these extras before starting to perform work for a customer can also help you to win the job in the first place by giving an excellent first impression.

5. Support your customers

If one of your customers is having problems that aren’t directly related to your work with them, try to give them some good advice anyway or point them in the direction of someone you think can give them what they need. This can be achieved very quickly but will mean a great deal to the customer, especially if their issue is causing them worry or eating up large amounts of their time. Doing this will also make them remember you long after their problem has been fixed and will show that you are interested in helping them, rather than just looking for them to pay you.

An example: Zappos

Zappos is a fantastic example of a company that consistently creates a ‘wow’ factor with their amazing customer service and they have achieved this through a range of different initiatives. For example, there is no limit to the length of customer service calls at Zappos, with the longest customer conversation to date lasting 10 hours. The company also gives you up to an entire year to return an item if you are not happy with it and their shipping is free and often done overnight. Zappos understands that high quality customer service involves developing a long term relationship; this is why they will search three different competitors’ websites and direct customers to those competitors if they do not have the requested item in stock. The benefits of this approach have been clear, with the company reaching $1 billion in sales after only eight years of trading and the fact that 75% of their customers are repeat customers.

Name:Robert Mathers

About:Rob is Heart Internet’s Marketing Assistant and is responsible for managing and contributing to a variety of our marketing initiatives.

Posts by Rob-m (8)

Infographics enable you to fuse aspects of PR, SEO and networking as the content you create will spread a strong, positive message about your brand, become link bait on social media and other key media portals, and introduce you to important decision makers that can get you in front of your target audience.

Speaking from personal experience, infographics are also an extremely enjoyable project to be involved in and can be a great exercise in writing short copy, researching, getting creative, building links and swelling your contacts book.

Infographics are a chance to go beyond some of the more traditional forms of marketing such as press releases, guest articles and print advertising. You can simultaneously entertain and inform your audience about best practices, key research, advice, news and more.

They can take many forms such as stories, walkthroughs, guides, reports, comics; we’ve even seen some that are CVs! The tone is another diverse feature, with some cracking us up in hysterics whilst others have driven home more serious messages.

Basically, if you’re looking at producing some great content marketing, you won’t go wrong with an eye-catching infographic.

Where to start

One of the most important elements to an infographic is a story, flow, or narrative. There has to be some kind of angle or central focus of the piece, otherwise it can end up as an information dump with limited appeal. Traditional infographics are a visual representation of a set of data, and this is, by far, the easiest way of constructing an infographic.

With this approach, you have two choices. You can either generate the data yourself through a survey, or you can use secondary sources to pull information together. Both of these approaches are fine, and both have their pros and cons, but it’s all a question of resources.

Create the data

Generating data yourself can be time consuming and costly, and if you think of something you wished you’d asked after you’ve conducted your survey, you’ll kick yourself. On the other hand, conducting your own research can establish you as a thought leader and expert in your field; great PR as well as great content. If you have the budget, there are lots of market research companies that can do the research for you, but be prepared to barter. If you don’t want to spend as much, try using Google Consumer Surveys to get your results, which is considerably less expensive.

Hunt the data

Using secondary sources limits your data to what’s available, and it can shred your patience trying to find what you’re looking for. Also, you have to make sure that the data you acquire is from an authoritative source, otherwise your infographic won’t carry much weight or authority. However, this method can prove much quicker and help you build links with the data sources.

There’s no reason you can’t mix and match these approaches. If you have one big juicy stat that can form the basis of your infographic but nothing else, try beefing it up with some secondary sources to give it more longevity. As long as you source the data somewhere on your infographic, you’ll avoid any complications in terms of plagiarism or intellectual property theft.   

Explore

At this stage, the more data you can get your hands on, the better. See what other information is out there that you might be able to use to beef up your infographic. If nothing else, you might get another idea that you can use at a later date.

Of course, you are ultimately aiming for quality over quantity, but casting your net a little further may just give your infographic that little something extra that it needs.

Get organised

Once you’ve collected your data, start thinking about how you are going to communicate your findings. You might have pages and pages worth of data and if so, you’re going to need to trim it down. Try to pull out the most interesting bits of information you’ve found and which are the most relevant to your original idea. Think about it from a reader’s perspective and ask yourself which are the most interesting stats you’ve found, put to one side any that don’t make the grade.

Once you’ve separated the wheat from the chaff, start thinking about how you are going to present your information. Sort it out into a logical flow of information and how you’d like to guide your reader through the infographic.

The data on your infographic is the skeleton of the finished piece. If it isn’t put together properly, it will fall down in an instant. Before you even think about the design, it’s critical that what you are saying has substance, and that’s why you should start here. Once the skeleton is constructed, you’re ready to put the flesh on.

In the next post in this series, I’ll go through some important steps in briefing designers. If you’re already a designer, stay tuned for tips on how to distribute your finished infographic.   

Name:Alex Kellett

About:Alex is responsible for all of Heart Internet's print and PR marketing activities. Alex is a Leicester City fan, but please don't hold that against him.

Posts by Alex (31)

Tell us a bit about yourself and the Amanda Mercer business.

Amanda Mercer, Ceramic Design and Loveliness is a collection of vintage-inspired ceramics created by me from my studio based in Cumbria. Each piece is individually handcrafted from fine porcelain and my collection is made up of buttons, jewellery and homeware with each piece being influenced by different forms of nostalgia.

I like to incorporate vintage buttons and lace by imprinting the clay to create surface texture. I also screen print found postcards, letters and images and use decal transfers that are created from my own drawings and collages of different found objects. I am particularly interested in surface form, texture and decoration.

I have always been creative and passionate about designing and making and have wanted to take it further for a long time. After graduating in 2009 with a first class B.A HONS in Contemporary Applied Arts and with promising interest from my degree show, I felt encouraged to set up my studio and start my business. I began selling my collection of items through shops and galleries across the UK. Since my degree show, I have also shown my work in many exhibitions and trade/retail events and in 2011 my highlight was being awarded the Editor’s Choice award at the Country Living magazine Christmas Fair in London.

What makes your business different from other ceramic designers and makers?

I think what makes me different is that every single piece is handcrafted and original. In my work, I combine a variety of techniques and processes to achieve different finishes and everything is my own design. I have also developed my own collections of jewellery and homeware, which all complement one another and show my personal style.

My work is seasonal so I have different collections, such as tree decorations for Christmas and nests for spring. I offer a bespoke service as well by undertaking commission work to create something special and personal.

Your items are all individual and you allow people to commission pieces based on their individual needs, can you tell us about why you are committed to providing unique products?

I think it’s the fact that I am producing something very personal and unique to my customers. I like to create something that echoes their ideas and input. That certain piece that I create, no one else will ever have it. From an imprint of lace from a wedding dress, to a special photograph fired onto porcelain, or your own handwriting placed on a ceramic envelope, any of my original pieces can be adapted to produce a personalised special keepsake that can be given as a gift or made for yourself.

Your website was designed by Carys-ink and built by Kinetic Pulse, why did you choose them to create your website and what was it like working with them?

I approached these two because they both offer bespoke service. I wanted to work with Carys-ink because I love what she has done through her own art work and websites for her clients. I also knew that she could custom design a website that would suit my products and be unique and personal to me. Laura from Kinetic Pulse brought Carys’ designs to life and built the website down to the last intricate detail.

We had discussions about the particular requirements I wanted to integrate with the site and which platform should be used. I really enjoyed working alongside them from the design process to the final outcome. It was great to see and hear their ideas and be involved in the whole journey. They also provide a comprehensive aftercare and support service, which means that they are always on hand if I have any questions.

The site has a really elegant and consistent style, how did you arrive at choosing this design and how was it achieved?

Amanda Mercer: We had detailed discussions about the look of the site and what I was specifically looking for. I wanted something that reflected my personal style, captured the delicacy of my work and complimented my products, which is exactly what was achieved.

Carys Tait, Carys-ink Illustration & Design: My aim in designing the logo and website for Amanda Mercer was for everything to complement her products. I felt that the designs needed to reflect the inspirations and details of her work. So, at the outset, I asked Amanda to send me a stack of her reference materials – a large brown parcel promptly arrived with lace samples, old postcards, vintage stamps and buttons and a range of other ephemera.

In the design process, I used elements of these to provide texture to the site and combined them with my own illustrative details and ‘stitch-lines’. The colour palette is subtle and faded so as not to overpower the products and fonts that were selected to add to the handcrafted, ink-stamped and nostalgic feel of the site.

What advice would you give to someone using a web designer and a web developer for the first time?

Amanda Mercer: I wanted my website to be creative yet professional, so I had an idea of what I was looking for. I think it’s always good to research and look at the previous work done by web designers and web developers that you might want to work with to make sure that they suit the style of what you want for your website. It’s also great to talk through your ideas so everyone can get on the same page regarding what is needed. It can also help to go by personal recommendations and testimonials, have a budget in mind and ensure that you keep in contact with web designers and web developers as projects progress.

You provide regular content on Facebook and Twitter. How do you approach using these platforms and what benefits do they have for your site?

The little icons on my home page link from the site straight to my Facebook and Twitter pages, giving visitors from the website the option to join me on there. I also have the social icons next to my product listings so certain items can be ‘tweeted’, ‘liked’ and ‘shared’ easily and instantly.

Social networking sites are a very important factor in my business because they are so popular and current. Social Media is a great way of ‘spreading the word’, keeping in touch and telling your followers what you are up to. The qualities they have, such as being able to ‘retweet’, ‘like’ and ‘share’ with friends and family are useful too. I have recently joined Pinterest, which is great because of the effect that comes from people ‘re-pinning’ your images and sharing with their followers. Social networking sites also allow me to engage and meet a lot of other designers, makers and people that share the same interests and I can use these sites to interact with my customers and people who appreciate my work. I have a blog and a mailing list from which I send out a newsletter every couple of months too.

One of the core challenges in operating an online shop is getting noticed. What tips would you give for someone looking to run their own e-shop?

Make sure that you’re using something that reflects your products and enhances them in the best way possible. You should make your website simple and easy to use for your customers and easy to maintain and update. Keep your site current by updating it as much as you can with new products and news. Customers have the option of creating an account with me, which enables me to provide them with free delivery and promotions, thereby giving them something in return.

Why did you choose to host your website with Heart Internet?

Laura James, Kinetic Pulse: Here at Kinetic Pulse we have a reseller hosting account which we offer to our clients as an option when they approach us to build a site for them. We find that this provides great reliability, an easy to use Control Panel interface for the client and fast UK-based technical support. We love it so much we’ve bought a VPS account at Heart Internet too!

How would you like to see the Amanda Mercer company develop further in the future?

Amanda Mercer: I have lots of ideas and am constantly designing and developing new products to add to my existing range. I would really like to focus on creating a wedding collection including keepsakes and special pieces.

Building up the website by adding new items is a priority and I also want to continue with my trade and retail shows and supplying my products to galleries and shops and hopefully outside of the UK.

Name:Robert Mathers

About:Rob is Heart Internet’s Marketing Assistant and is responsible for managing and contributing to a variety of our marketing initiatives.

Posts by Rob-m (8)

Alfie Boe! Alfie’s website provides clear and informative content about his career as a tenor and contains an excellent e-shop including a mix of clothing, bundles and accessories. Congratulations!

We would also like to congratulate our second and third place runners-up, Pied Piper Children’s Clothes and SouthHams.com. Our thanks go to everyone who took part this month and we’re proud to host sites of this high standard.

If you would like to enter next month’s competition, here’s how you can go about it.

How to enter June’s Website of the Month competition
If you have a website hosted with Heart Internet, you can enter it (or a client’s site) for our next Website of the Month competition. You can enter as many websites as you like; simply email the URL(s) to wotm[at]heartinternet.co.uk before midnight on the 7th June. Six finalists will be selected to go through to the voting stage, which will take place from the 10th June, with the winner announced at the beginning of July. Good luck!

Name:Robert Mathers

About:Rob is Heart Internet’s Marketing Assistant and is responsible for managing and contributing to a variety of our marketing initiatives.

Posts by Rob-m (8)