newsletter no. 20 – December 2016:

Hello!

Well – what was supposed to be newsletter 19 part 2, due shortly after part 1 in September, has turned into newsletter 20.

Immediately after a weekend course in early October I had an attack of something that turned out to be brachial neuritis. After a night of agony in my neck and shoulder I’ve been left suffering a significant weakness/loss of control in my right shoulder and arm, both hands and my diaphragm. Hopefully only temporary but there’s no improvement yet … I think it will a long haul – I’m resting up as much as I can until the new year.

Very frustrating! – it has slowed me down considerably and a lot of stuff that should have been done hasn’t been! I had to cancel a 5 day course, literally at the last minute, and I also had to cancel a weekend. My heartfelt thanks to the would-be participants who were very understanding and are all now booked in on replacement courses in the spring.

2017 courses:

Posting the 2017 course dates
is the main reason for sending this brief newsletter out now – and as it’s late and I haven’t given newsletter subscribers the usual priority notice of the dates, I AM offering a further 5% off the discounted full payment [so excluding deposit payments] if booked by December 24th. I’ve also included weekend and 5 day course gift tokens in the offer.

Click here to book your place – you will need to enter the following code at checkout:

2016dec9276ttfs3

The key for the new smartLock is taking a long time to get just right, and due to my not firing on all cylinders I’ve rather taken my foot off the smartWare pedal. So I’ve decided that the grand launch of the complete range I had planned for November will now have to wait until the new year.

Until December 24th I’m offering subscribers 5% off smartHinge orders using the same code as above – 2016dec9276ttfs3. But even without the launch and associated advertising I had planned, ordering has been brisk – the stainless steel and gold plated hinges have been particularly popular and I only have polished brass hinges currenty in stock. All finishes will be back in stock in the new year for the main launch.

Please note that delivery times might be longer than stated leading up to Christmas, particularly for non UK customers. Wherever you are – if you need your order quickly please email me first for the options. UK customers can always have them delivered next day by ‘Special Delivery’.

fine boxes slideshow:

I have too many websites and a total re-design is underway, a distillation from 4 sites down to 2.

These will be:

box-making.com – incorporating the smartBoxmaker range of box makers’ hardware, materials, books and aids.

fine-boxes.com – incorporating flute-cases.com

The two sites will be simplified and rationalised whilst trying to preserve the level of information, the personal feel and look of the sites for which I’ve received much positive feedback.

The work was originally scheduled to be completed to coincide with the re-launch of the complete smartWare range around the middle of November – but the best laid plans …

One thing that rather pleased me: the company I’m working with to produce the new sites were very sceptical about the value of a slideshow with so many images – 1600, not the modern way at all. In fact, more than 5 or 6 seems to be rather frowned on! But I’ve remained confident that it is of value and a good intro to what I do here.

This view is supported, much to the surprise of the company [and slight annoyance I suspect] as Google analytics shows that the average time visitors spend on the slideshow is around 5 1/2 mins – an eternity in internet terms. I think this vindicates my position – whether or not I get more sales or business as a result is another matter, of course. But it suggests a certain … engagement!

If you haven’t already visited yet, please give it a go …

Happy Christmas!

Well – that’s all for this one – next time I will catch up wth some of the items I intended to include in this one.

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Wishing everyone a very Happy Christmas and an excellent New Year!

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Thank you for reading.

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