Only Network » Hosted Sites

Anyone remember Only Postcards

Owen — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:36:25 +0000

Well, it’s been some time now since I took down Only Postcards, and I haven’t had anyone email to say they miss it. Basically I moved the server off a Windows platform to a *nix box and it was the best move I’ve ever made. The one thing that kept me from doing it was a handful of ASP websites that wouldn’t run without a Microsoft OS. Only Postcards was one of them allowing people to send holiday cards and holiday cards from all around the world. It was a bit of a headache as it proved a magnet for spam and had to be managed.

There were another couple of sites that had to be dropped, but I had a soft spot for that one as I had devoted quite a bit of time and effort to it. Who knows, I may rebuild it some day …

New theme on the Honeypot

Owen — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 22:18:36 +0000

I’ve moved onto a different theme on Ugh!!’s Greymatter Honeypot; not that I was unhappy with the the theme I was running before, but I wanted to try out the latest and the greatest new theme from FreshPress themes. It’s called Freshtweet and is as nice and clean as you would like a theme to be. It has some funky features too, like some cool AJAXy features and integration with social networks.

Choosing a theme for your blog is a bit like putting a statement out there as to what you like and what you don’t. It’s like getting a custom usb drive made with your favourite colours. The nice thing with themes is that there are always lots of different choices around.

The Ballet Shop 2.0 goes live

Owen — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 11:17:38 +0000

: Image via Wikipedia

And The Ballet Shop is live again, available for people to shop and purchase anything they want from. The new website is built on Magento and we’re using a number of features that come out of the box to help enhance people’s experience. It now supports customer reviews for example, so people can share their views about different products. The checkout experience has been enhanced no end and there are a host of new features that people can use. It still needs some work, and the team is busy adding on different products and categories, but feel free to browse and shop for your dance shoes, ballet outfits and other dance paraphernalia.

The site was due for a revamp for some time. Just like a teenager looking out for the best acne treatment on the market, we’ve been racking our brains on the best way to improve the site and give our customers the experience they deserve. It was quite lucky that we came across Magento as part of our evaluation of what was available on the market. We gave it a try and fell in love with it right away. It also took us surprisingly little time to set up the new shop, theme it and start getting products in. I’m looking forward to learning more about it and potentially using it for other projects too.

Playing with Magento

Owen — Fri, 29 May 2009 21:32:40 +0000

I’ve had the opportunity to play a bit with Magento over the last few days. It’s an Open Source shopping platform that is just awesome in the amount of features it offers. Everything you can think a shopping site would need has been included; features like cross-sells and upsells, customer reviews, custom promotions, stock management, configurable products, invoicing, everything.

The website I’m working on is The Ballet Shop, a website that came to life a few years ago based on some ASP/Access code I had developed. It ticked over nicely for a few years, but now needed a major overhaul. So rather than rebuilding it from scratch, I decided to investigate the open source option, and I’ve been blown away by this package. It works for any online shop you’d like to try, whether it’s a dance shop or a website focusing on Green shopping. If you decided to try and put your business online it comes very much recommended.

In the meantime, watch this space; I’ll let you know when the site launches.

Looking to revamp LouisBriffa.com

Owen — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 18:41:31 +0000

I’ve been speaking to Fanina and we should be revamping LouisBriffa.com, a website I built for her husband a few years ago. He’s a Maltese author who has published a book with a collection of his poems called Bil-Varloppa. The website is in Maltese but doesn’t have all the plastic knobs, bells and whistles it could have; but we should be putting together some more ideas about what we can do.

It’s nice to be able to go back to a website to add enhancements and improve on things. I’m looking forward to have a play with this.

Are you into shopping?

Owen — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 21:38:28 +0000

If you’re a shopping fan, then you really need to check out Shopaholic? Me? a website dedicated to shopping and shoppers everywhere, from teenagers to pensioners, from Australians to Americans; all walks of life joined together by a love of shopping. It’s an eclectic collection of anecdotes and reviews about products from stink bombs to the best diet pills review.

The website has been running for some time now and has a nice collection of interesting posts to read; so if you’re interested in shopping in any shape or form, just check it out!

When bots bring you down

Owen — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 22:41:47 +0000

We had a small problem yesterday when the server’s processor got maxed out. Turned out that one of the scripts on the server, a guestbook script, was getting hit over and over again by a bot. This was happening at a rate of around 4 hits per second, which was causing a massive drain on resources.

We resolved the problem by blocking the two IP addresses that the traffic was coming from, but it did raise the question of what to do if someone decided to launch a DDOS attack on the service. I guess it’s a matter of hiding in the RV and heading off to Mexico, huh?

SG Coaching

Owen — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 10:20:35 +0000

Just wanted to announce that we have a new website making use of our service. It’s a website called SG Coaching and is an online brochure for a company that specialises in shooting, both for sport and as organised events. Their clients have some great things to say about them:

?Superb coaching, what a fun day!?

?? attention to detail, very happy clients, thank you?

??such a difference in a couple of hours.?

?Great location, great team, great event, thank you?

??made this very nervous lady feel like a star, good work?

We’re happy to help them with their online presence and wish them all the best online.

I’ve been shooting a couple of times myself and can vouch that it’s great fun, both challenging and rewarding. So, put away your stamp collection, pack away your Adams golf drivers, and get your teeth into this great sport.

Rethinking Stay Near Heathrow

Owen — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 21:41:26 +0000

I might have to rethink Stay Near Heathrow as things aren’t quite happening to plan. The idea for the site was to use it for B&B purposes, but that isn’t happening yet, so I might use it to put up some affiliate links to hotels in the area. I might even use it to advertise places you can go to from Heathrow, maybe Paris, European cruises or Disneyland Paris.

Anyway, I’ll have to look around and see what to put up there; in the meantime, it’s just there gathering dust.

JoJo Zen Girl

Owen — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 21:58:00 +0000

So this week I put together a blog for my sister-in-law, who might be persuaded to start blogging. The blog is called JoJo Zen Girl and is obviously build on WordPress. It’s using a really pretty theme called Strange Little House which is really, really cute. Now all we need to do is get Joanne out of bed (she’s been stuck in there ever since we got her these heated mattress pads), and persuade her to start blogging.

If I had that theme, I’d want to blog; wouldn’t you?