This is Tevya (Jim & Sonya’s oldest) taking the reins for this post, since I designed and built the new site.
We’re really excited to let everyone know about our awesome new website!
Are There New Puppy & Dog Pictures?
Lets answer the most important question right upfront: no, there’s not tons of new Newfie dog and puppy pictures on the new site. There are some, but not lots. In fact it doesn’t even have all the photos it used to have. But more will be coming in the next few months. However, the pictures are improved: they’re much higher resolution, which means you’ll be able to see them better on your computer screen. Just click any one that “grows” a little when you hover your mouse over it to see.
Why Did You Need a New Website?
Lots of people loved our old website. But it was built a long time ago. Not only were the Newf photos optimized for screens from 10 years ago, but the design was too. Back then people looked at websites mostly on large CRT monitors that weighed as much as a 4-month old Newf puppy. Today, people look at websites on their retina-display phones while on the go, tablets of all sizes while laying in bed or lounging on the beach, high-resolution laptop screens in cafe’s, and full-HD flat-panel LCD screens when they’re at their desk. The old website just didn’t do a great job of presenting our wonderful dogs on all those different screen sizes. I think you’ll find that this new website does well on all those screens. It’s what we call fully-responsive, meaning it responds to the size and resolution of the screen you’re viewing it on.
The other reason is that the technology behind the website was somewhat dated. It ran on WordPress, just like this new site, but the theme and some of the plugins weren’t maintained and updated by their developers. That made it harder to work with and post updates and such. This new one has an awesome framework running on top of WordPress that should work great well into the future. It’ll also be easier for us to post updates. Oh, and now the blog posts don’t take over the entire home page. Just a small section, so you can easily navigate to other important parts of our site, and see some of our favorite dog pictures.
Preserving the Fun
I made sure to keep the unique and fun feel of the old website and translated it to this new one. Newfies are mostly black, with landseers being black and white, and some brown. That means not a lot of color in the dogs themselves. But we know they have very fun, bright, and colorful personalities. So our new website (like the old one) continues to reflect those Newfoundland personalities we all love. You’ll see the same blues and oranges, plus the paint splatters. The floral pattern has changed some, but it’s mostly all there, just in a new and fresh design.
Integrated Newsletter
Want to get the latest updates from us? There’s now an integrated newsletter. Just put your name and email in the signup form you’ll see in the sidebar or sliding-up from the bottom-right corner and click submit. Then check your email and click the link to verify your subscription! Now you’ll get an email with the latest news from us. That includes Newfie puppy pics of our new litter when they arrive.
I hope you love our site. And if you could use an awesome website for your dogs, or other small business, make sure to checkout my company’s website: Fiddler Online, or contact me.
