CarlsCastles.co.uk – NOW Incorporating CardiffCastles.co.uk

 have just finished adding age range guides to the equipment pages. This is so that however you got to the page you can see what age range this equipment is rated for.

Also, I have done some code tidying, namely on style elements. On some pages big text was classhing with the lines above or below. This shouls now be fixed, and all look that little bit better. The changes are subtle thogh, so you may not notice the change. The brain is quite good are correcting little errors like that!

 

Some of the wording for the equipment has also had a minor tweak, and I hope the newer escriptions are a little more helpful to you.

 

Another new item added to all equipment pages are the Product Recomendations section. This is at the bottom of every page. Fancy putting a cistomer review in for a castle you have hired? Head to the bottom of the page, and click on the button!

 

That's it for this round up. As always, if you do find any navigation, text or links not working, or unclear please let me know. I do try to make this site as error free as possible, but after a while, the brain fixes the errors, so I start to miss them!

 

Until next time, which should be news about the new galleries, Laters!

 

USIN

USIN webs

Hi,

Just a quick update to let you know that here at USIN webs, we are working hard to make sure that this site, the CarlsCastles.co.uk site runs as smoothly as possible, and has the features to help you not just see the castles, but to feel involoved too.

 

You see, there is nothing as powerful as a product testimonial from a satified customer to help other prospective customers know that we are doing all we can to help you, the party planner! And with this in mind, a new feature has started to roll out accross the equipment pages. At teh bottom you will see a link box to allow you to add a product review. Please do add your reviewa, and help to let others know what you liked about that particular peice of equipment.

 

While CalsCastles.co.uk try to choose the equipment that they think will be just the ticket for great parties, it is you, the party planners who see this effect to the greater degree, and the ones who truely know how the kit went down. Imagine how much easier it will make it for others knowing that you have added your words about the kit you had for your latest bash!

 

There is an example posted on the Supa Bounce Monkey Castle, so you can see what they look like, and to start the ball rolling.

 

As always, whenever we ask for your name, your christian name, and maybe a first letter of your surname is allwe require, and if you do add your email address it will not be visable to the world, and we would only use it to send a thank you email, or to ask you if you would like to be added to the occasional newsletter, and update email list. This is a completely opt in opt out system that we are going to use, and it is run off MailChimp servers. They are the experts in newsletter handling, so we will trust their expertise to run them for us. We fully comply with the CAN SPAM (USA) regs, ie telling you who we are, addresses on all mails, and opt out links where ever needed.

 

The other updates that will be coming online soon are failrly numerous, and a lot are to handle spam, or intrusion attempts. This make the site more secure, and less likely to get comment spam. The advantage to you is that this allows us to open commenting, again giving you more of a voice on the site. Without these measure any comment systems get over run with junk, and I am sure no one wants to see that on here!

 

And lastly, the main thrust of the work being done by USIN webs is on load time of the web site pages. No one likes waiting for the pages to load, so a bit of careful editting, and some optimisation to the code behind the site is happening to make the pages load as fast as we can get them to you.

 

I have certainly noticed a vast improvement on the home page especially over the weekend, and I hope that for you too the speed increase make the site more user friendly.

 

Until the next update, which is likely to say the product reviews are on all product pages, and to say the behind the scenes speed tweaks are done, I am, as ever, thankful for the help and feedback we get to help us guide the development of this site,

 

USIN

USIN webs

For anyone who visited the site over the last few days, you may have noticed some changes.

We were not changing the look of the site, some of the background services started to cause errors. This started with slow page opening, and ended up with the pages being blank! Not the most helpful of situations.

I, (USIN), changed a few things, one being the theme of the site, so that the site could at least limp along until I could find the culprit amongst the options and plug-ins used.

I have now done so, and was surprised at which one it was! Now that one has been deleted, I am in the process of restoring any functions that were removed whilst I was error checking.

The F.A.Q. page is now up and running, and over the next few days or so I will be updating them. Things have moved on, and the F.A.Q. could do with some slight tweaks, as well as adding some more into the mix.

 

One feature the site has not restored since its move from V2.5 to V3.0 is the gallery. I am looking for one that can fit in with the new look and feel of the website, and will be bringing something online soon.

 

Of course, should you find a part of the website where something doesn't look right to you, let me know. Just use the contact form, and I will have it forwarded onto me.

Thanks for your help!

 

USIN

USIN webs

CarlsCastles have moved their storage to a new location.

This move should enable CarlsCastles to keep a better eye on the equipment – and provide a central hub for the drivers – better access – easier loading etc

This does not effect the office for CarlsCastles at all – that is staying exactly where it belongs – at the heart of the family!

There maybe some slight changes in the way we operate but that should settle as soon as all the kit has moved – shelvies built etc.

This should be completed before the next weekend.

USIN webs

In life, every things’ time has to come – and pass.

There is no exception – even at CarlsCastles.

And they are the very things that started it all off.

Let me take you back – back to before the beginning…

Carl was looking around the internet – and saw an advert for some bouncy castles. This was right back when they were quite a rare sighting. Having kids, he thought, Why not!

Now, most parents wouldn’t rush out to grab professional rated “toys” but on an impulse Carl went for it. I remember the day. I was working, and he called in saying he had just got back up country after going to collect two bouncy castles!

Bouncy what?

A bit of a search, and a bit of translation into American and videos were found of these bouncy castles (moon bouncers). ODD!

This was about mid summer.

It wasn’t long before Carl started to loan them out.

Then a spark struck – a thought ran across his mind. He was enjoying taking the castles around – seeing how much the kids were enjoying themselves. He thought – this would be a pretty sweet business to have!

So around August or so CarlsCastles.co.uk was born.

We started it out with a fairly basic website – or course being the wrong time of the year to start this sort of thing and only having two pieces of equipment.

By the time spring rolled around the rolling year there was more kit in stock – and not all inflatable either.

The years have rolled by since – and kit has come and gone – but through it all the two that started it have been at the core of the kit.

So if you want to hire a little piece of CarlsCastles history in their last year of active service, may I present to you

The Plain Castle & The Biff ‘n’ Bash Castle.

At the end of the season these pieces will no longer be on the kit roster – no longer ‘on deck’.

So what is the fate of this equipment? They will become “house kit”. They will be used Carl & Clare’s kids and see out their days in the back yard.

It will be full circle for the two pieces that started it all.

USIN

It appears that we had some confusion lately regarding our new “Circus World Activity Run.”

I have made some changes, and I now have two pages to describe this equipment.

If you don’t know the kit, it comprises two main bed areas, which can be connected with a tunnel (also inflatable). this kit is normally set up in a U shape.

The kit is very large – so large that “The Super Slide” fits in the space left inside the U-shape.

So – to help clarify the situation I have created a new page – one for a single piece of “The Circus World Activity Run.”

Also – as the hiring of the complete set will be less than single pieces I have removed the price for hiring the complete set. That means that the default hire for the circus world will be for the single unit.

I hope that makes it clearer for everyone involved.

Thx for reading.

USIN
USIN webs

Hi.

 

Our new site had a few errors, and a few new bits have failed in 'real life' conditions, so have been removed while suitable replacements have been tested.

 

I would like to thank you all for being patient during the site transformation, and hope you apprecate the improvements you see here.

 

Also the site navigation has had a tweak or two in its concept, which was only available by using a new site handler. We now use wordpress on USIN webs hosted servers, so we can keep the site infrastructure updatted and fresh.

 

There are a few navigation helpers to be added to the equipment pages, which should be the final step in the transformation, this is how they will work.

 

As we now only have one equipment page per peice of equipment you may not see what age range the equipment is for (unless you used the top navigation buttons).

 

What i will be adding is (to start) text to state what age ranges this kit is in. Over time, Website Artist allowing, we will improve the look by adding custom site-wide graphics. Watch this space!

 

That is all for now, and I hope you enjoy using the new site.

 

USIN