Every Nook & Cranny

Hello and welcome! Have you spotted the difference yet? Maybe not if you haven’t visited since my last email went out but if you have, you’ll know Jo Blogs Jo Bakes has evolved into Every Nook & Cranny. 

All my old recipes are still here but the blog has had some full on reconstructive surgery, never mind a little nip and tuck!  I’ve finally taken the plunge and gone self-hosted which means I own my own site and have created the design for it from scratch (more or less). Scary! But exciting scary.  

I hope you enjoy having a good rummage around and rediscovering my old recipes whilst I finish the tweaks the site needs and then get started sharing the recipes I have planned for you. Lots of exciting stuff is coming, I promise!

I’d wanted to call the blog Every Nook & Cranny not long after I launched Jo Blogs Jo Bakes but I thought, “I’ve started so I’ll finish” which meant I shelved the idea for nearly 4 years.  Old readers may have noticed that my tagline was “Cake fills every nook and Cranny, down at the Apple Chapel” and close friends will know the relevance. Not only does food little occupy every nook and cranny of my spare time, there was a reason I capitalised the “C” – it is my married name!

As time went by, I became more and more dissatisfied with the functionality of my blog (a free one from WordPress.com) despite purchasing the custom upgrade package. I spent a lot of time researching how to create your own site, asked an awful lot of friends and readers opinion and finally decided it was time to just do it.

It took three near on 12 hour days to do the transfer and set the blog up so the May Day Bank Holiday weekend had been earmarked for some time after I made the decision to rebrand and renew the blog. If you’re thinking of doing the same my advice would be make sure you have at least 3 days if not a week to devote to it as there is more work then you realise and expect the unexpected.

And for the Brits amongst us, remember Americans don’t add the tax in when they publish prices so your hosting service and blog theme will be more expensive than it appears! There is a small financial outlay associated with owning your own site but if you’ve got plans to have sponsorship, advertising or affiliate links on your blog, this will be quickly recouped if you have enough traffic.

The benefits, however, regardless of self-hosting out weigh the costs when you consider you can customise your blog exactly how you like and you have full control over every post, every page and you can make the layout exactly how you want it. That does mean it’s your responsibility to make sure your content is secure, maintained and backed up but it’s not impossible. Considering I have absolutely no knowledge of web design or even a related subject, it just goes to show what you can do with a little bit of research and a few helpful friends willing to explain what on earth the technical terminology means!

It’s going to take me a little while longer to put all the features I want into the site but my recipes will be up and running before you know it (I need a weekend off first!). If I can be of any assistance please just ask and do let me know what you think of the new blog. I’m so happy I’ve made the change I just hope you come to love the new site too.

And finally, a gigantic big thank you to all the friends who have helped me out with advice and encouragement – you all know who you are xxx