Tom Benson

Hello guys. As we might do for our personal websites or blogs, I thought it would be appropriate to produce an ‘end of year’ post.

Paul Ruddock started this website as a sister blog to the Facebook page, and it was a massive undertaking. He was kind enough to hand it over to the group, so the effort made has been for the benefit of the group, but never forgetting where this whole thing started.

Our founder isn’t on top form at the present time, but I’m sure he knows we’re all wishing him a speedy recovery.
Thank you for what you’ve started Paul.

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In October along with Paul, and Ian, I set about the restructuring of this blog to convert it into a functional website for the IASD. A handful of aims were discussed in private messages, and then we brought in the bulldozer, scaffolding and allocated ourselves some renovation tasks.

* Select and develop a new theme.
* Restructure the menu
* Create 3D covers
* Amend the About message
* Author Contact
* Create a logo
* Featured Author idea

* We have to thank every member for the comments, suggestions and even the ‘likes’ while we were in the process of choosing, and then amending the theme.

* Anybody who has kept up with progress will have seen the Main Menu go up to around 25 items at one stage. For the main part, I’ve practised ideas on my own blog before trying to refine them here.
I believe with only five main topics we have a professional looking website now. If necessary we can afford to increase by one more, but I’ll strive maintain the streamlined look, by increasing sub-menus rather than the main.

* The subject of 3D covers was one I know appealed to everybody – including me!
Ian D Moore has continued for weeks in a sustained effort to produce what is a superb effect throughout our collection, and it was already a pretty damn impressive collection.

There will be more to do in this area as books are produced, but the best thing members can do is to let us know when a title is published and available – not before.
Thank you Ian.

* One area which proved problematic was Author Contact as a separate issue to an author’s name with their titles.
I’ve managed to produce the Author Contacts using genre. It may be that the majority of readers will look for an author’s details under the name rather than genre, so if I get some feedback on that area, I’ll amend it to a sub-menu using alphabetical order instead of genre.

Please let me know your opinions.

* We needed a new banner for our website, and I believe it was produced by Eric Lahti – so thank you Eric.

The idea of a group logo was thrown around and Eric quickly produced one for us. Only a couple of weeks ago we got a new solution (using the globe), from Ruth Coulson. Like everything else we’ve done in the group, Ruth developed the initial idea, and the result is now showing at top left of our site – thank you to Eric and Ruth for your efforts.

Several of us have now added the logo to our own blogs or websites. If you’d like to have it on your blog / website – go ahead. If you have issues, somebody will be able to help. Personally, I can assist anybody who has a WordPress site.

* I amended the About message so that it more closely reflected the website and the group. It reads like a mission statement now, which isn’t such a bad thing if it’s accurate. I will revisit the statement in the New Year.

* We established a Featured Author, who remained in that coveted position throughout the time we’ve worked on the website. I don’t think anybody would disagree – our very own Patrick (Max) Power was a fine cover and ambassador during our restructuring.
Thank you Patrick.

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We have a lot still to do, but we’re now established, so don’t listen to rumour, and don’t jump to conclusions when you read the threads. I’ll produce an update early in January.

That’s about it for the three months we’ve been working together, as Admin and Group. An Admin team is only as good as the Group behind it, so please bear that in mind.

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There was an interesting fact I thought you guys might like to know, which concerns our ‘Followers’.
October (prior to restructuring) 1,780 followers.
December (as we take a brief rest) 2,092 followers.
Imagine how many visitors we’ll have if we all get behind the website next year.

We’ll be making a few more tweaks before we open for business with our new Featured Author on 1st January 2016. From January, the author will be featured for one month.
Who is the new face of IASD for January 2016?

You’ll find out in January. 😀

From the Admin team, thank you for your patience and support – and have a pleasant end to the holiday period. We’ll see you in the New Year.

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