The road to the PagePlay image in paragraph feature
We’ve been getting requests for the ability to put small images into paragraphs since the early days of PagePlay. We’ve always prioritised new features on a how-much-it-hurts basis, it was a no-brainer to include the feature into our recent 24 days of PagePlay.
Here is a little about how we went from just the idea to a fully fledged features on the live system…
PagePlay support this December
We pride ourselves on providing great phone and email support for our PagePlay subscribers. From 9-5 every weekday we’re available by phone and you can still call out of hours if you have an emergency or believe something is not working properly.
Over December 2011, we’ll provide a mixture of ‘Full’ and ‘Emergency’ service. Here’s the detailed breakdown…
Thursday 15th December (we’re moving to new offices)
AM – full
PM – emergency
Friday 16th December (Christmas Party)
AM – full
PM – emergency
26 & 27 December
emergency
28 – 30 December (inclusive)
full
Fri 31 December
AM – full
PM – emergency
2 January
emergency
3 January
Back to normal full service
If you need assistance – call 0161 850 0561 or email help@pageplay.com and we’ll be pleased to help. We hope you have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Why PagePlay is better than DIY web packages
TV commercials have begun to appear recently for various DIY web design tools. A couple of good friends asked us whether we see such tools as a threat. They asked how similar these services are to PagePlay? Our answer: not at all.
The market for web design is very competitive. There are thousands of web designers and hosting companies out there.
Why do we believe PagePlay still offers the best value for small business and charity websites? Here’s five reasons:
1. It’s always good to have a helping hand.
PagePlay’s entire approach is about looking after you so that you can look after your content. You can email or call us and we’ll help you with your website. Behind the scenes we’ll take care of anything boring or complicated so you can stay focused on what’s what’s import: the pages, words, images and videos which make up your site. PagePlay is a subscription service, and because customers aren’t locked into a contract, we have to make sure our service is really up to scratch. If our customers were not happy with our service, then we would soon go out of business, so it’s something we take very seriously indeed.
2. Web technology constantly evolves.
Digital technologies and the standards for how they are used constantly evolve. Rather than building everything from scratch each time we create a site, then moving on to the next, all PagePlay sites share our common core architecture. You can’t tell as a visitor – the sites look just like individually created ones. The difference is under the hood. We constantly update the system not only to improve site performance for speed and search, but also to add new features for you to add and edit your content. Because the web constantly evolves, you need a system that constantly evolves too – and to know that someone will be there to help you through the changes when they come.
3. We make it easy to connect all the dots.
Domain names, name servers, email accounts, hosting, FTP, forwarding and re-directs. Who really wants to get involved with all of this when setting up their new website? Everyone’s setup is a little bit different so the one-size-fits-all approach from most DIY website providers is usually inadequate. The PagePlay team takes the strain by dealing with anything boring or complicated about your site setup and ongoing hosting needs. Whether you’re a one man band or a large corporate company with an IT department, we have a personal setup approach which means everything will be taken care of, without you having to read any manuals or submit any support tickets.
4. You don’t need to learn anything.
PagePlay sites are pretty impressive and their owners have full control over all of their content. But that’s not what we’re most proud of. We have never met a customer who takes any longer than 3 minutes to learn everything they need in order to manage their own website. The whole system has passed the Mum-test and ongoing improvements only serve to make things even easier. Why spend time learning how to be a web designer unless it is your job?
Put that time to better use by creating some great content and building your business or charity to achieve its aims.
5. PagePlay is extremely good value.
It isn’t ‘cheap’ because there are more affordable ways to simply throw a website online – DIY website tools for instance. But PagePlay is amazingly good value for what it really is.
A fully content-content managed website; with no limits to the amount of pages, text and images you can add; which requires no training for people to update; which performs very well in search engines; which plays so well with your social media channels; whose technology is constantly being improved; with email accounts included and personal service as standard.
These kind of web projects and systems are usually quoted in the tens of thousands of pounds whereas PagePlay subscriptions start from a very affordable £24 per month.
2 years ago today
2 years ago today the Modlia office received a call to tell us that our – then very young – first product PagePlay had made it through to the final three of the New East Manchester EnterPrize All Stars competition.
At the time it was massive for us. Just by getting that far we knew we’d won some – much needed – funding and would receive publicity across the manchester business community.
The award ceremony took place in the amazing Gorton Monastery where myself, Chris, Matt, family and friends were wined, dined and interviewed for a likely very embarrassing official awards video.
It turns out we didn’t win the competition, a very worthy Wigs Up North did, but the experience was invaluable and the money we did win was used to stabilise and push PagePlay forward to what we knew it capable of.
In the last 2 years the company has changed beyond recognition. We now employ Matt full time as our first employee, our second product Cluster – which you will hear a lot more about in the next few months – is live on its first few projects, and we have a third product in the works which is currently under wraps, but has the potential to be much larger than either of its siblings.
Although still based on producing easy to use web tools, Modlia is far more organised and stable now, with operations manuals and procedures. PagePlay has become the strong oak tree we always hoped it would and the number of people who end their subscriptions is still astonishingly low thanks to the A1 customer service Matt often provides and the ease-of-use we bake in to our products from day one.
So here is to the next 2 years and the exciting developments in Modlia and the products we so carefully cultivate for our fantastic and supportive users.
I can assure you that we love what we do at Modlia and will try our best to keep you enjoying the products we build and continually develop for you.
Harry
Happy 3rd Birthday PagePlay
Today is Pageplay’s 3rd Birthday. We’ve come a long way since PagePlay launched to its first 10 customers.
Imagine Pageplay with no Photobanner, PayPal, SubPages, Feeds, Hidden Pages, Statistics or Gallery! Your can see all our bolt-ons.
Some of the things we’ve helped people to sell include cakes, crafts, rosettes, educational artistry, lighting design, consultancy, graphic design and door stripping.
Some of the things we’ve helped gain awareness of include a double olympic gold medalist, a gay choir, Manchester Airport’s Enterprise Zone and The Young Advisors Movement.
We also have our first full time employee, the wonderful Matt. If you’ve given us a call in the last 12 months then you’ve more than likely spoken to him.
Here’s to the next 3 years!
Make and Save Money with PagePlay
For many, times are tough right now, so we’ve been thinking of ways that we can save you money whilst also growing the business. We think we’ve hit on two that do the job really well.
Refer-a-friend and earn 10% every single month
Everyone knows someone who’s been talking about setting something up on the side, or who needs a website for a new project they are involved in. Why not help them to discover the joy of PagePlay? As a PagePlay customer, if you recommend someone who includes your email address in their signup form, we will give you 10% of all of their future subscription revenue. So on a starting subscription of £24 per month, that means you’ll be getting almost £30 per year just for helping someone out! There’s no limit to how many sites you can sign up, so you might be able to more than cover the cost of your own site.
Remember small charities and social enterprises get their subscription half price – so think of community groups, sports clubs and voluntary groups who you know that could benefit.
Sign-up for another site and get your own 10% discount
Of course – you might well have another string to your bow and fancy starting another website in addition to your current one. If this is the case then we’re very happy to give you a 10% discount, not only on your new subscription, but on your existing one as well! The discount will apply for as long as both sites remain active.
If you’re interested in more details on either of these offers, then we’d love to have a chat. Give us a call on 0161 850 0561 or email help@pageplay.com
Downtime this morning
PagePlay and Cluster customers were affected by downtime today. Whilst this only lasted for around 40mins, we still take it very seriously and have discovered the cause of the problem.
The problem was caused by a fire alert at the data centre where our main servers are based. As is normal procedure when the system suspects there could be a fire, power is cut and the local fire brigade are called.
Usually an uninterruptible power system (UPS) will activate as a backup to keep things online during the alert. This morning’s alert affected 3 out of 5 of these systems meaning there was a delay whilst emergency generators powered up.
Whilst events like this are very rare, we understand how much disruption they cause to you. We will be very interested to read the full report from the data centre and will share any further useful info with you.
As with any PagePlay service incident, you can always find our latest updates on twitter.com/pageplay
If you’d like to know anything else, please call us on 0161 850 0561 or email help@pageplay.com
Best wishes,
Chris Charlton
Business Director
What makes great content?
Are you a PagePlay subscriber? Do you want to increase exposure for your site by taking part in our new eBook?
Over the past couple of years, we’ve noticed that the most successful PagePlay sites (and websites in general) are those with great content. But we’ve also noticed that what makes great content can differ widely depending on who your website is for and what your organisation does.
With all of this in mind, we’ve decided to produce a short, high-quality and freely available eBook on the subject of creating great content. We’d like to invite you to contribute some of your thoughts on the content that has been most successful on your site. What do you think your visitors have found most interesting / useful? What do you try to achieve with your content: are you selling, encouraging or just informing? How has your content helped to achieve these goals?
We’re going to produce the high-quality eBook in PDF format and will invest some considerable effort in distributing it online, to potential customers and through our reseller partners and industry friends.
Would you like to be featured in the book?
Please email help@pageplay.com if you’d like to be involved.
Praise for PagePlay
We often say that we pride ourselves on delivering a service to our customers. Sure, we make great online software – but we believe people really buy service and peace of mind. It’s for these reasons that we’re particularly happy to have received this praise from one of our newest customers…
I just wanted to say a big thank you to you and your team for our great new website.
PagePlay is simplicity itself to use. The results of just a few hours work, loading text and images, look fantastic and the speed and helpfulness of your support is second to none. I am delighted with the results and more importantly, so are my customers.
PagePlay is innovative, creative, cost effective and very high quality. It has huge potential, both in the UK and internationally. Foot to the floor guys – the world’s your oyster!
Richard Balfry – New Equine Wear
We’ve worked for years to build the product and the service that supports it. We know that Richard is a very discerning customer. So this testimonial both reminds us why we’re doing what we do – and encourages to push on and continue to grow the service and it’s loyal following.
PagePlay gets an exciting update
PagePlay websites always benefits from our continued fine tuning. We’re constantly looking for ways to improve the service to benefit you and all of your fellow subscribers. This PlayDay we made two big announcements we know our subscribers will love, plus lots of small changes which all work together to make PagePlay even better.
Here’s an excerpt of our latest PlayDay update:
Gallery lightbox option
If you’ve tried PagePlay’s Gallery item, then you’ll already know that you can add groups of images to the pages of your site. It’s the best way to allow your visitors to browse lots of photos. As you roll over the thumbnails of a gallery you see their titles. When you click a thumbnail, you are usually taken to the photo’s own page so you can view a larger version.
Now you can also set your galleries to show in a ‘lightbox’ instead of each photo linking to it’s ‘own page’. This means that when your visitors click on a gallery photo, they can see the larger version without leaving the page. Next and previous buttons in the lightbox allow easily navigation through all photos in the same gallery.
It’s a really nice browsing experience and something which has become standard for many sites – so we thought “this should be something PagePlay offers”.
PayPal Basket
Many people have said to us that they would like a simple way of selling products through their PagePlay site without buying a full e-commerce website.
We’re very pleased to announce a new monthly bolt-on: PayPal Basket. With PayPal Basket added to your site, you can connect your existing PayPal account with your PagePlay site and then add ‘Buy’ buttons wherever you like within your content, just like you do with paragraphs or headings.
We’ve deliberately kept it very simple. All that’s required is a product name, product code and a price. When visitors click Buy, the product is added to their PayPal basket, the world’s best known and trusted online payments provider. They can then return to your site to shop more, or continue to the checkout to pay.
If you’re looking for a simple online payment solution or you’re only planning on selling a handful of products then this is definitely for you.
Google Webmaster Tools
You may already be reaping the benefits of using Google Analytics to monitor visitor statistics for your PagePlay site for free. Another free Google service to help manage your website is called Webmaster Tools. Webmaster Tools helps you improve your site’s Google rankings and view basic information about visitors.
Read more about Google Webmaster Tools online and if you think you would like to integrate it with your PagePlay site, give us a shout and we can tell you how.
The devil’s in the detail
We’re always keen to make small improvements to PagePlay and this update is no different. Here’s just a few of the other changes:
- Drastically improved print styles, so pages print consistently and appropriately to paper.
- Fixed a small issue with file uploads for those using a Windows computer to edit their site.
- YouTube videos no longer show related videos at the end – which were not always desirable.
- All insert bars are now the same size within Photobanner editing, following feedback from some that it was confusing in its previous state.
- Noticeable improvements to page loading speed especially across sites with complex designs or a high number of images.
Call 0161 850 0561 or email help@pageplay.com if you want more information about anything in this update!
Thanks to the way we have set PagePlay up as a hosted subscription service, all of our customers get the best we have to offer at all times. This applies whether they have been a customer for 10 minutes or 10 years.
You can also keep up with PagePlay on the PagePlay Facebook Page and the PagePlay Twitter account.