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What a week, the new website is amazing.

What a week, the new website is amazing. I think my orders have quadrupled since the site went live. I am absolutely delighted. I know people joke about doing less work for more money but I really needed to do something about the little that I earn for working often seven days a week. I am slightly concerned that most of the orders have come from new customers. I must find time this week to email some of my regular customers. If you are finding any problems using the site please do call me. It is proving incredibly easy, if I can do it anyone can.

The stock counter is a godsend but I have found a couple of problems, hopefully (with hubby's help) I will sort them this weekend. We have already deleted the 'Tarantula Gallery', it wasn't possible to have spiders listed in two places if I only had the one spider. Once the spider was sold on a page it automatically went out of stock but the spider still appeared on the other page and therefore unless I noticed and removed it, the spider would be up for sale still. I need to sort out my special offers because at the moment the same thing could happen. It is so important to have the correct number of products showing. I hate it when you try to order from a great looking site, only to find that more than half the items are sold out. On my site everything on there is in stock! It is a shame about the gallery but it was a lot of work photographing each individual spider.

The website allows me to see exactly which animals are selling and this is fascinating, it also shows me which items have been viewed the most. It really is spiders, spiders and more spiders! When I return from my holiday (three weeks today and counting!), I will obviously be restocking and these statistics will enable me to analyze which items I should restock and which not to bother with. That brings me to praying mantids! Why do I bother? They are wonderful, beautiful creatures but in terms of sales they are hopeless and I doubt if I will ever again have the number that I have now. Praying mantids are very time consuming, I cannot leave my family caring for the huge number that I have at the moment so they have to go (before my holiday). I intend to significantly reduce the praying mantis prices this weekend. It pains me to do so when I have spent weeks and in some cases months looking after them.

We have only recently had a neighbourhood watch scheme set up in our road and I really wasn't aware of the nocturnal goings on in our village until I received regular emails detailing any criminal activity. It now seems that not everyone is tucked up in bed at night as I had imagined. I have read many reports of break ins to sheds and garages over the last few weeks. I know that most 'ordinary' burglars would be horrified if they came across my bug house full of creepy crawlies but I'm not taking any chances. I already had locks and lights on my little house at the bottom of the garden but I now have a state of the art alarm system too. I think the bugs are quite safe during the day with my Japanese Akita dog Luka (even with a heart condition) on patrol.

My open afternoons have proved so popular that I am having another one tomorrow, do feel free to pop along. It is only a couple of weeks since my last open afternoon so I am not expecting many visitors which means I should have plenty of time to chat and show everyone the bugs. One down side of the increase in orders is that I have a mountain of empty cages and boxes to clean out and store away. I need to sort out my garden shed today and make room for everything. My bug house looks like a hurricane has hit, the floor is covered in stuff.

Last but not least. Everyone is talking about postal strikes but I'm really pleased to report that I haven't had a single problem. All my Special Delivery parcels have arrived the next day as per the Royal Mail guarantee.


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