Two and a half years ago I began to think about having a website. I
mentioned this to Andy Roberts. I told him that I was not in a
particular hurry but that I felt I needed to make a move in that
direction and asked for his advice. He advised me that it would be a
good idea to at least lay claim to the ciderbyrosie domain name and
then think about the website later on. I thought this was sensible and
so I asked Andy if he would kindly arrange it for me. Me being me, I
then procrastinated for ever and a day about getting my own website.
After all, what need had I of a website, with absolutely no intention
of ever selling cider on the Web? However I now had a web address that
led to nothing at all so, I asked Andy if the address could link
automatically to my Cidermaking Year on UKcider. He agreed and this
interim measure this has been useful. As well as the UKcider
connection, the wiki pages were found and read by a number of people
who happened on them after seeing the web address on my cider boxes in
pubs. A few even became fans, telling me that they were keeping up
with the latest episodes! A lady in our village likened me to Eddie
Grundy on the Archers; a somewhat dubious compliment!
I had come to the conclusion after the first year or so, that I really
ought to have my own site. I’d noticed that other craft cider makers
had already taken this step and I found some of their sites very
appealing. The problem was that I had no idea how to go about it.
Following our real cider pub sticker campaign, Jez, who having clearly
demonstrated his design expertise in providing us with no less than
three versions of the sticker to choose from, mentioned that he could
even be persuaded to design websites if asked nicely! I thought that
this was very civil of him but did not like to ask, and so was
delighted when some months later he suggested it to me directly. I’ve
gradually been getting bits and pieces together for it and still have
some writing yet to do. In the meantime Jez has started the technical
bit and produced a temporary home page that is activated by www.ciderbyrosie.com
or www.ciderbyrosie.co.uk . I’m looking forward to having a site of
my own. Being already familiar with Jez’s smart and purposeful Cider
Workshop site, I know that I am certain to be pleased with my own,
when it is up and running.
I intend to keep updating The Cidermaking Year. During the
construction of my own site, this still remains available via the
UKcider wiki. The ‘Year’ is now 6 years old but I can’t just cast it
off like an old jacket. Entry by entry it builds the picture of how my
little cider business came into being, so I want to have a link to it
from the new website.
Rose
PS. Thanks to Andy’s recommendation, Cider by Rosie is now going
down well with the holiday visitors at the Castle Inn in Lulworth
Cove. Alex the landlord emailed to say that he had seen the Real Cider
sticker at the Square & Compass and asked if he could have one or two
of them for his pub. I will be happy to oblige him tomorrow on my
delivery round. Fortunately I still have a dozen or so of the batch
that Dick printed for us.
Recent Comments