Blog archive 2011
Festive break and opening times
Christmas is nearly here and we'll be taking a break to join in the festivities and recharge our batteries. We will be closed from 5pm on Friday 16th December to 9am Tuesday 3rd January. Emergency support arrangements If you have an emergency hosting support request during that time, please use our online support helpdesk to send us a message. It ... read more
Client News Roundup November 2011
Lots of awards and things to celebrate in this month's client news roundup... New Green Hosting Clients: Third Rock - Communications consultancy specialising in environment and green PR. My nPoint Exactly - A print and online magazine created and produced by a group of friends. Project Warren - Hand crafted home and garden projects Parents Carers ... read more
Our clients’ websites are green, good and effective
Switched-on businesses and organisations like our clients are well aware of their social responsibilities and that they have an important role to play in reducing their impact on the environment. Many other businesses are also reviewing their energy consumption, the waste they produce, the activities they support and the suppliers they choose. Consider ... read more
My Week
The Nottingham Post ran an article in their business section recently on my week (a few weeks ago) at Make Hay. The My Week features follow local business owners and professionals from a range of industries. This was an interesting experience for me because, like most people, I'm too busy getting on with the job to stop and reflect on the past week. ... read more
Client News Roundup October 2011
Happy Halloween! Here are lots of treats and no tricks from our clients this October... New Green Hosting Clients: Angels Housekeeping - Cleaning and domestic services for older people in Leeds. Chinese Calligraphy Society of Europe - Promoting the skills of Chinese calligraphy. Douglas Lee Dental Practice - A caring family dental practice. Marumi - ... read more
Guest Post by Dr Isobel O’Neil - Thoughts on the Role of Authenticity in Careers Transitions
Welcome to my guest blog! Let me introduce myself, I’m Dr Isobel O’Neil a lecturer in Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Nottingham University Business School. You might be wondering what I’m doing hijacking Make Hay’s blog? Well, Vicky was kind enough to take part as a case study for my research and invited me to share this with ... read more
Client News Roundup September 2011
It's that time again! Here's what our web design and Green Hosting clients have been up to in September... New Green Hosting clients: Planetary Collective - Filmmakers and visual media creatives working with cosmologists, ecologists, philosophers and futurists to inspire people to look deeper. Marie Krag Therapy - Psychotherapist and counsellor ... read more
Client News Roundup August 2011
They say that August is traditionally a quiet month but that's not the case for our busy clients. Take a look at what some of them have been up to... Support for Carers are beginning a new project to help carers find and set up support groups in Leicestershire. Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust launch the new nature reserves smart phone app Climate East ... read more
Future Factory, Supporting Sustainable Design
This morning I had a very interesting meeting in the beautiful Newton Building at Nottingham Trent University. This is the home of Future Factory, an impressive project set up to support sustainable product and process design in the East Midlands. As Debra Easter, Project Manager, explained this project aims to help SME businesses to become more ... read more
Support for Carers - New Website
Here is our newly launched website for Leicestershire Support for Carers. LSFC supports full-time and part-time carers across Leicestershire via independent online information and a telephone helpline. This brand new website is a full content management system, allowing LSFC staff to manage and publish content to the various dynamic website ... read more
The Manual
It landed with a loud thud when it hit the floor through the letterbox this morning, the very pretty first issue of The Manual. This brand new printed journal promises to give a fresh view of design on the web. Over several issues it will document voices of web craftsmen and women about our maturing industry as it defines itself as a 'distinct ... read more
Client News Roundup July 2011
Here's the latest from a few of our web design and Green Hosting clients: Newly launched websites using Green Hosting: Clarendon Press - Environmentally friendly printing services in Gloucestershire. Planetary Collective - A collective of filmmakers and visual media creatives working in partnership with cosmologists, ecologists, astronauts, ... read more
Nottingham Green Network & Eco Show
For folks in Nottingham, here's some great green news: Nottinghamshire Green Network First of all, the fledgling Nottingham Green Network has just taken flight, newly launched a couple of months ago and looking for members and supporters to join them. I only found out about them a couple of weeks ago and have recently joined the team as the green ... read more
Our Web Design in Showcase Gallery
Show-ee "the official ExpressionEngine showcase gallery for the best designed and built ExpressionEngine sites on the internet" has included our design of the Foxglove Covert website in its showcase gallery. We are delighted of course to have our site listed alongside other stunning designs from some great developers. You can see our entry on the ... read more
12 Acts of Kindness for Businesses
Business isn't usually associated with kindness, in fact, it's often associated with quite the opposite. The idea that bosses are mean and companies are greedy are almost accepted as the status quo. But isn't that sad? The virtue of kindness doesn't need to be linked only to charities and non-profits, business has a great capacity for ... read more
New Adventures in Web Design Audio & Slides
You may remember that back in January we wrote a very enthusiastic post about a most inspiring conference that took place here in Nottingham. The conference was New Adventures in Web Design. 'Colly' (Simon Collison), web designer and creator of the conference, promised that the event would have "inspiration, thinking, and intelligence at its ... read more
Client News Roundup June 2011
Where did June go? This month has flown by but it hasn't stopped our clients from getting up to all kinds of interesting things... Newly launched websites using Green Hosting: Cycle Hire - Helpful online search for cycle or cycle equipment hire in the UK. pickIT - Bespoke IT and e-learning training company with a green and ethical ethos. Read ... read more
A week in the life of Make Hay
Well, strictly speaking this is a week in the life of one half of Make Hay. I should add that during this busy week and every week, the other half of Make Hay, Jez, is even more busy managing projects, designing, developing, building and providing support to our Green Hosting clients as well as a whole range of other tasks. I thought I would write about ... read more
Updating Wordpress
For those of you who use WordPress as your blog or website platform you'll know that the guys over at WordPress regularly release updates for the software. It is important to make sure that your website is using the latest version of Wordpress to ensure its best security and functionality. Updating your WordPress installation is relatively easy. You ... read more
Client News Roundup May 2011
It's that time again! Check out what some of our clients have been up to. Newly launched websites using Green Hosting: Barnes & Adams - artisan apple products & cider Green Talk - Short talks, big ideas from leading thinkers and doers on climate change, energy and food security and the natural world. Bradford Personalisation - a network of ... read more
Wildlife charity celebrates after teaming up with Make Hay
We were in the news yesterday with a story about our work with Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust. Here's what it said: Visitor numbers to Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust's website have nearly tripled since a new online presence was unveiled. The number of people signing up online for membership has also increased as a result of the new-look website, ... read more
Great Green Printers
Its a lovely thing when you find a local business that reflects your ethical ethos, provides a great service and is good value to boot! I was so pleased to find green printers, Print Revolution, the other day. They're just down the road from us here in Nottingham and I couldn't believe we hadn't crossed paths before. After chatting to the ... read more
Green Office Week
Did you know that next week is Green Office Week? Well, we would advocate making moves for a greener office all year round but this a good time to think about how to save energy, reduce waste and purchase greener products. The organisers of GOW are encouraging businesses up and down the UK to take action in their offices, tackling a different area each day ... read more
Client News Roundup April 2011
Well, with all of the recent bank holidays and festivities our April round-up has been slightly delayed. Where did April go anyway? If you have exciting news to share let us know. Here's the latest from some of our fab clients... Vote for Climate Change Gardening in the 'One Small Step' business competition. Climate Change Gardening provides ... read more
Happy Spring Update Newsletter
Our latest newsletter 'Happy Spring News Update' is out now. As the weather is sunny and we're heading into a long weekend we thought we'd keep this newsletter light with some nice updates including: Welcome to our new clients The UK Aware Show & Finding Services for Green Businesses New Adventures in Web Design Movie ... read more
Finding green & ethical businesses
Recently a couple of clients have asked me where they can find other types of green services, such as energy providers, banks and printers. When I'm looking for a green service or product I turn to directories that specifically register ethical and eco-friendly businesses and I've built up a little list of them over time. So, I thought I'd ... read more
UK Aware 2011, the sustainable living show
Last Friday I hopped on a train headed to the big smoke for a day out to the UK Aware show. Despite this being the longest running sustainability lifestyle exhibition in the UK, this was my first time attending and I was curious to learn what the two days of workshops, seminars and exhibition stands had to offer. I arrived at London Olympia, the ... read more
Client News Roundup March 2011
Here's the March edition of our client news round-up. If you're one of our lovely clients and you would like to share your news here, just get in touch. My Climate Change Garden celebrates Climate Week with a post-a-day on things you can do in the garden to combat climate change. Foxglove Covert and their volunteers prepare for the massive task of ... read more
Uganda Carbon Bureau - New website
Here's our newly launched website for The Uganda Carbon Bureau. UCB provides a range of services around carbon management and offsetting. They help organisations measure their carbon footprint and take steps to reduce its size. They also provide advice and support to projects planning to develop and sell carbon credits and carry out a range of ... read more
Share your Make Mail Newsletters
If you use our Make Mail e-newsletter system then why not try its clever new social sharing facility? Using the Quick Links inside your newsletter editor you can add Facebook 'Like' and Twitter 'Tweet' links so that your readers can share your stories in their social networks. You don't even need to worry about creating the icons ... read more
Client News Roundup February 2011
We love what our clients do and so we like to talk about them. Here's the latest news from a few of them: Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust launch their wildlife photography exhibition at The Museum of Nottingham life. Gertie & Mabel get their Danish ribbon featured on the cover of Not on the High Street's latest catalogue. Well done ladies! ... read more
reecovid: waste not chaste
reecovid, the stylish, eco-friendly stationery company, first came to my attention when our friend Katie at Ethical Weddings wrote about them. I'd been looking for exactly this sort of thing for ages. When I learned that their products are made entirely from post consumer waste, and being a bit of a stationery geek, I had to find out more. You can ... read more
Wildlife in the City
Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust have started an exciting new project to help people in Nottingham discover and explore wildlife in the city's green spaces. We've launched the new holding page for Wildlife in the City which will be in place until the full website is ready. Visit www.wildlifeinthecity.org to sign up to the newsletter, follow ... read more
New Adventures in Web Design
On 20th January 2011 at the Albert Hall the plans of Mr Simon Collison’s New Adventures in Web Design were realised here in Nottingham. This conference (‘naconf’) had come to our attention last summer and we pounced upon the tickets as soon as they were available. We knew from the line-up of speakers (web industry leaders we had followed ... read more
New Year, New Look, New Website
Happy New Year! Welcome to our brand new website. As you will see we have freshened our look up, with an updated logo and pretty new colours. We are still the same Make Hay, an ethical web design team, creating beautiful websites for positive organisations. We still run Green Hosting too! Aside from our new brand we have lots of exciting plans in place ... read more