Wightbay

Supporting England in the Rugby World Cup 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Jitender) — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 14:53:00 +0000

The Rugby World Cup is getting interesting, with UK teams doing well in the pool games.

England had a marked improvement in their second game against Georgia, although fans will still be expecting them to lift their standard of play to be competitive in the quarter finals. There has been some upset over Mike Tindall’s behaviour on a night out, but this can hopefully be put behind the squad as they move forward in the tournament.

Ireland did their country proud when defeating the mighty Aussies with a score of 15-6 and look set to finish at the top of Pool C.

The Welsh came close to beating the Springboks and then defeated the Samoans. Based on their performance thus far, they should have no problem in their matches against Fiji and Namibia. Pending success in these games Wales should finish second in Pool D.

The Scottish players find themselves battling in Pool B, where they have yet to face Argentina and England. If the Scots can pull off a victory over Argentina on the Sunday 25 September, they stand to make it to the quarter finals.

Upcoming games worth watching:

24/09 England v Romania 07:00

25/09 Ireland v Russia 06:00

25/09 Argentina v Scotland 08:30

26/09 Wales v Namibia 07:30

01/10 England v Scotland 09:30

02/10 Wales v Fiji 06:00

02/10 Ireland v Italy 08:30

Win with Wightbay.com

It is a long way yet to the final, but to help you enjoy the day in style, Wightbay is giving away a huge 42" LG HD LCD TV, with built-in Freeview.

But that’s not all! You can also win £100 worth of Sainsbury's vouchers to buy the food, drink and whatever else you need to enjoy the big game.

The Return of Internal Messaging

noreply@blogger.com (Jitender) — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 13:01:00 +0000

Great news today at Wightbay HQ

Due to popular demand, Wightbay is proud to announce that the Internal Messaging system is now back... and it's better than ever!

You can once again contact other registered Wightbayers through our internal mail system.

When logged in, the little envelope in the top right corner will glow and alert you when another user has contacted you.

In addition to this you can find "My messages" under the "Members" tab.

You will also be notified via email when someone has sent you a message on Wightbay so you don't miss out on a response.

The other top feature of the new messages is that your conversation history with other members will be saved so you can go back and read the whole thread.

We hope you are as pleased with this fantastic new system as we are! We'd love to hear your views on it so please comment here or at Facebook.com/Wightbay

Thanks to all survey respondents

noreply@blogger.com (Jitender) — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 10:39:00 +0000

Hello everyone,

Our survey is now closed and we'd like to thank all who took part in it very much. The feedback has been great for us and shows us the way forward in creating the best site we can for all Wightbayers!

We will be sending out free Wightbay t-shirts in the next few days to all our respondents (subject to availability).

Thanks again!

What are your thoughts on these Wightbay homepage designs?

noreply@blogger.com (Jitender) — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 09:17:00 +0000

Hi guys,

We've tweaked the design of the Wightbay layout and come up with 4 new versions.

We'd love to know your thoughts on these. Comment on this post and let us know!

Wightbay Homepage Design

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 13:54:00 +0000

Hi All,

Ok, after what has been a VERY busy week working on teething issues, talking to users and establishing feedback for changes, I think we're getting there.

On Monday I expect the re-list / renewing old ads to be resolved and any expired ads you had on the old Wightbay will be available for you to rebook/re-use should you wish. Will keep you posted on this!

Within two weeks we should have the brand new Wightbay Messages service up and running - Put into immediate development after user requests told us you missed this A LOT! We are listening! :)

So this leave the homepage...

In our attempts to try and get people into content quickly and let them find what they want, we're getting feedback to say we have over-done it, that the homepage is now too cluttered and is somewhat scary to look at! So, again we've listened and today we've mocked up a few initial designs for improvements. And we want your opinion...

We've posted four mock-ups on our Facebook page for you to view. Please take a look and give us your thoughts. Any of them an improvement? What else would you do? Etc.

This is your chance to help us tweak the new Wightbay and deliver a site you are all proud of and love to use.

look forward to reading the comments :)

Rob

Tell us what you think and get a free Wightbay t-shirt

noreply@blogger.com (Jitender) — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 10:35:00 +0000

We're giving away free Wightbay t-shirts as pictured to anyone who responds to our survey about the new Wightbay (subject to limited availability).

We are welcoming all your feedback and are taking your comments very seriously indeed. Now you can let us know what you think by taking a quick survey.

Take me to the survey now!

FAQs to help you around the new Wightbay

noreply@blogger.com (Jitender) — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 13:51:00 +0000

Afternoon all,

There are now some top tips available to make finding your way around the new Wightbay site much easier. These can be found in our Frequently Asked Questions section or in our articles section.

Thanks for your patience while we transition to the new and improved Wightbay.

Not long now...

noreply@blogger.com (Jitender) — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 15:27:00 +0000

The new site is very nearly ready for your delight and we're getting super excited here at Wightbay.

All that's left are the finishing touches, a bit of polishing here and there, and we're good to go!

We hope you are all looking forward to a shiny new Wightbay too.

New site imminent...!

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 12:31:00 +0000

Ok, so it's been a long time coming but a new era for Wightbay.com will soon be upon us (cue dramatic music!).

The blog, which has been severely neglected in recent months will be back in full use and will undergo a make-over of it's own in coming months.

So to kick-start the return of the blog, I would like to give you first visual of the new look Wightbay site in preparation for it going live next week. (Fingers crossed!)

Here it is...

noreply@blogger.com (Jodie) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 13:53:00 +0000

Here is the first draft for the new Place an Ad process... I have condensed the current 3 intial steps onto one page... What do you think?

noreply@blogger.com (Jodie) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 08:23:00 +0000

I am currently looking to improve the 'Place an Ad' process to make it straight forward and less complicated. Below are a few suggestions of what I may remove etc. Your input, advice and thoughts would be extremely helpful...

noreply@blogger.com (Jodie) — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 08:27:00 +0000

follow me on Twitter

noreply@blogger.com (Jodie) — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 13:51:00 +0000

The traffic on Wightbay has grown excessively over the last year. Above shows a direct comparison to the Isle of Wight County Press, iwight.com, iwbeacon.com, ventnorblog.com.

noreply@blogger.com (Jodie) — Tue, 26 May 2009 08:31:00 +0000

I have finally got myself on Twitter... http://twitter.com/JodieOliver
I down loaded TweetDeck and now I am hooked.

noreply@blogger.com (Jodie) — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 20:43:00 +0000

Great News!! All testing is complete we are moving Wightbay to a bigger and better server. This will improve the speed of the site and stop the down time. This is due to be switched first thing Friday morning.

We had to do this due to the increased traffic levels we are now getting. Wightbay is more popular than ever with over 70,000 visits each week.

noreply@blogger.com (Jodie) — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 13:33:00 +0000

It’s been a really hectic start to the new year as usual, not even had a minute to update the blog!

Great news for the start of 2009... Wightbay is getting more and more popular and last week saw us break new records for the number of visitors (nearly 62,000 visitors in just one week!).
Most the island must be surfing the site every week.

I have made some changes today to help us make some money to keep this great community site running smoothly. We’ve introduced a very small fee of just £3 for all motors listings. The extra revenue we hope to generate will help us cover the increasing costs that come with being such a popular free site (web servers, technical development, moderation etc etc!). Everything else is still free, so if you need a bit of extra cash to start the new year, start placing your ads now!

noreply@blogger.com (Jodie) — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 10:37:00 +0000

Give your Advert Extra Exposure!

There is going to be a chance for you (the users) to get that bit more extra exposure for your adverts. Due to the site growing in popularity and the increase of ads being placed on the site, we want to offer the ability for users to gain that bit more extra exposure. You will have four options...

Featured Ads - For £2.80 per week, your advert will get maximum exposure by remaining at the top of listings in the relevant category

Highlighted Ads - Will Cost £1.50 per week, this will give you an orange highlighted ad which will help your advert stand out from the rest.

Bold Ads - For a small fee of 50p, you are able to make your ad text bold. Again this should help your advert stand out (subtle approach).

FREE LISTINGS - free listings still remain! You will still be able to place an advert on the site for free.

We will also be introducing a new browse feature on the latest ads page. This is designed to help the users delve deeper into the site and find exactly what they are looking for.

On the latest ads page and on the search results, every ad listings will have a link to the category in which the advert is placed. This will allow the user to see similar ads and will hopefully (fingers crossed) stop people relisting there ads everyday to get extra exposure. This Browse feature combined with the Enhanced Ads (described above) will help get advertisers the extra exposure that they are seeking. An example of the browse feature is shown below;

noreply@blogger.com (Jodie) — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 16:15:00 +0000

I thought this was worth sharing... Make sure you click on the faces!
Click here

noreply@blogger.com (Jodie) — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 11:04:00 +0000

After deliberating over this for a while and having feed back from a couple of users I have decided to change the name of the Property Category on Wightbay from 'Houses/Flats/Rooms' to 'Property-Houses/Flats/Rooms'.
http://www.wightbay.com/XCClassifieds/CPViewInCat.asp?ID=464

noreply@blogger.com (Jodie) — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 13:41:00 +0000

If you’re stuck for what to buy someone for Christmas...Why not buy them a chance to win a beautiful house on the Isle of Wight!

I think this is a very fun and exciting revolutionary way of selling your house. Imagine owning a house that you got for just £25.
http://www.rafflemybricks.com

noreply@blogger.com (Jodie) — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 13:17:00 +0000

There's still time to Do Something Different for BBC Children in Need.

Here's your top ten quick and super easy ways to have fun with Pudsey and help disadvantaged children and young people in the UK:

1. Get your Pudsey Bandana! How will you wear yours? Available at your local ASDA and Boots stores.
2. It's not too late to hold a bake-athon and sell lots of yummy cakes to all your friends. Our recipes are available here
3. Have a sponsored sleepover - who can stay awake the longest? Yawn!
4. Download a penalty box and start charging for all those naughty habits!
5. Get bidding on some fantastic celebrity signed goodies and experiences
6. Sponsored three-legged day using your bandana as the tie!
7. Offer a Christmas gift-wrapping service and donate your earnings.
8. Hold a computer games session and get everyone to donate.
9. Tune in to watch the live show at 7pm on BBC One this Friday!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/pudsey/

noreply@blogger.com (Jodie) — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 09:41:00 +0000

Logo Designs

I have discovered how to change the logo by editing the site html templates...who needs developers??

I am going to be having lots of fun changing the logo designs each Week, Day & Month. So keep your eyes peeled.

noreply@blogger.com (Jodie) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 09:27:00 +0000

Wightbay is leading the way for Isle of Wight websites!

Hitwise is a program which allows the users to observe website traffic. This allows us to compare our traffic (visitors) to other Island based websites. See the graph below I am flabbergasted at how much more traffic we are getting than well established sites like 'Isle of Wight County Press' (iwcp.co.uk).

noreply@blogger.com (Jodie) — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 15:26:00 +0000

Interesting stats for businesses that aren’t advertising because of the recession...

I was forwarded this very interesting information that I thought I would share with all the local Island businesses...

noreply@blogger.com (Jodie) — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 12:23:00 +0000

Count down to Halloween...

Only 1 week to halloween! Hope you all like the Halloween/Bonfire Night logo?

Here is a great idea for Halloween...Want to play a trick on those, Trick or Treating rascals that call on your house this Halloween? We have the perfect Trick or Treat, treat - Chocolate covered brussel sprouts!
We all know how much children hate to eat their greens, especially brussel sprouts. So this little treat is sure to trick them. Just imagine their little faces when they bite down on these festive goodies! Ad remember, he who laughs last, laughs longest.

All you will need is a bag of brussel sprouts, some milk chocolate cooking chocolate, some greaseproof paper and some Hundreds and Thousands to decorate (Optional)

First take the brussel sprouts and prepare them as if you were going to cook them by taking off all the outer leaves. Give them a wash and pat them dry. If they are wet the chocolate won’t cover properly.
Now take the chocolate and break up into chunks and put them in a microwavable bowl and microwave for 1 minute. Take out and stir. Return back to the microwave for 30 seconds if needed. Be careful not to microwave too much because it burn the chocolate and spoils it.

If you don’t have a microwave, don’t worry. Break the chocolate up into a heat proof bowl and stand in a saucepan of boiling water on the hob. You need to make sure that the pan doesn’t boil dry, and that no water splashes out of the pan and into your chocolate, else it will spoil. Remember to keep stirring your chocolate.
When the chocolate is melted, add the brussel sprouts and give them a good mix to ensure that all the brussel sprouts are evenly covered and no green leaves are showing.

Then carefully lift each brussel sprout out with a spoon and leave it on a sheet of greaseproof paper. When you have all the chocolate covered brussel sprouts out of the mixture, use a tea spoon to drizzle chocolate over each brussel to ensure coverage and use up the left over melted chocolate.

If you would like to decorate the brussel sprouts sprinkle some Hundreds and Thousands over them whilst the chocolate is still warm. They will stay in place when the chocolate sets.

Place the chocolate treats in the fridge to harden for about 30 minutes. Divide into little goodie bags ready for the Halloween trick or treaters, wont they be surprised? Please do expect to have your garden covered in half bitten chocolate covered brussel sprouts, however, that all adds to the amusement!