Cake Decorating Courses

Site Update:

Announcing the new Local Cake Decorating Courses Directory

I am very pleased and proud to announce that the Local Cake Decorating Courses Directory is now live on this site.

This exciting new addition has been developed after the many queries I have received from visitors who were finding my site looking for information about courses local to them.  The courses are listed by county and city/town, and course features are assigned to each one, enabling visitors to easily find the best course for them.

Along with the new Course Directory, the Cake Decorating Courses website has a whole new homepage, making it easier for visitors to find exactly what they are looking for; be it local cake decorating courses, information about online cake decorating courses, or to connect with cake decorating bloggers.

Lindsay.

A new home for Cake Decorating Courses

As some of you may know my cake decorating site empire is spread over three sites.  Part of the reason for this was keeping the size of the sites to a minimum.  This was important because no one likes to visit a site that takes too long to load.  Also the sites were hosted on shared hosting, which is basically a computer that hosts lots of different websites and shares its resources between them.  The largest of my three sites got a little too big for shared hosting.  This meant I was unable to add any new blogs to the site, and it was probably at risk of crashing if too many people visited at once.

So, a little sooner than planned – and with the help of my wonderful husband Derek – I have transferred all three sites over to my own new dedicated server.  Now the web sites are free to get as big and busy as they like.  I make no secret of the fact I am a bit of a geek, so I am really thrilled by this move.

We did have a few glitches with the transfer and it took a couple of days to get everything back on track.  So, if you did experience any problems over the last few days, I’m sorry, but we have fixed everything now.

I can now turn my attentions to a very exciting new feature that has been in the works for several months.

New Basic listing type in the Cake Decorating Blogs

I have added a new listing type to the cake decorating blog directory, called Basic.  On the category pages, it will appear as a smaller entry and side-by-side beneath Standard and Featured listings.

There are several reasons for this new listing type.  The main one is it enables me to enter blogs I find quicker than before and without having to review them.  I still intend to work through all blogs and write a review, but this means I can add them for others to find much sooner.  There will be more changes to the Basic listing over time, but for now I am busy with other features for the site.

Blog directory updates

After lots of graphic fun, I’m back to adding blogs to the directory.  Oh yes, there are still plenty more to be added.

So without further ado here are today’s additions:

• Cake off – not a cake decorating blog, but definitely cake fun.
• Jenny’s Cakes
• Extra Icing on the Cake
• Let Her Bake Cake

In other exciting news I have created a graphic to appear on entries for featured blogs, variations can also been seen in other places featured blogs are  displayed.  I think they brighten up the directory no end, and also make the featured blogs look very special.

Hope you like it, as I am rather proud of my shiny star creation.  I do like graphics.

New country buttons in blog directory

Something new has arrived over at the cake decorating blog directory and the blog category pages… new buttons!

Well, I think it is exciting.

Let me explain.  Clicking on the new buttons will take you to a similar directory.  How are they different?  I hear you cry.  Well, each directory contains blogs from either Australia or USA and elsewhere, depending on which one you choose.  Simple really.

Hopefully you will find something new and exiting there.

Enjoy,

Lindsay

When mind and body align

Last night I was doing a bit of yoga on my Wii and was feeling all pleased with myself and healthy then I had a major light bulb moment.

On Tuesday I made some changes to my site by adding a navigation bar under the header banner, but something about it wasn’t quite right.  It still felt a little messy and disorganised.  Well, like I said I’d just done a bit of yoga and for once wasn’t thinking about the site, and hey presto – I got it!

I’ve split up the navigation, with a lot of help from Derek (hubby), because it was a bit complicated for me to figure out on my own.  Now things like ‘Home’, ‘Blog’ and ‘About’ appear above the header and the real contents of the site appear underneath when you leave the homepage.

I’m well pleased with the navigation now, and a little proud of myself for figuring it out.  Not that I’m resting on my laurels.  Oh no, I’m working on another exciting change, which fingers crossed will be unveiled soon.

Yay, I love it when a plan comes together,

Lindsay

New cupcake favicon

It may not be BIG news, but I have added a cute little cupcake favicon.  It may take time to change for anyone who has visited the site before, but it is there honest.

I do like having a favicon that matches the site.  There was no way I was going to get a whole cake squeezed in, so a cupcake seemed the best alternative.

I’m a total geek,

Lindsay.

PS.  For those of you who may be wondering what a favicon is.  A favicon is the little image that appears next to the websites URL in your browser, and if you have tabs it will also appear there.  See I told you I was a geek.

All featured blogs will now take priority

I have changed the blog directory so that featured blogs are now shown ahead of non-featured blogs.  This is not a huge change, but I think it is an important one.  A featured blog will still be displayed on the home page and at the top of their category page in turn, as normal, but now the rest of the featured blogs will be displayed alphabetically below it, followed by an alphabetical list of non-featured blogs.

If anyone has any thoughts on this change, good or bad, please feel free to comment.