Moonfruit Lounge

Domain Price Increases

Walt — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 09:00:00 +0000

Following price increases by two of the major domain registries (Verisign and Neustar) on 15 Jan and 1 Feb respectively, we have decided to increase the cost of buying, transferring and renewing a domain from 1 March, 2012. The prices will increase to £11.99 per year (including UK VAT where applicable), US$15.99, €13.99 and AUD$20.00 respectively. Our full price list of the current domains, currencies and prices available can be found at www.moonfruit.com/domains-pricing.

We have deferred passing on the price increases until 1 March to give our customers time to renew at current prices. You can easily renew your domains ahead of time and over multiple years (except for .uk domains which are restricted to 2 year renewals within 30 days of expiry by the registry: Nominet).

And remember, you still get a free domain voucher with SiteMaker Standard, two vouchers with the Plus account and three vouchers with the Max account. So these are now even better value. And with all of our domains you still get 5 free mailboxes, so we hope you still think it’s a good deal.

Moonfruit sites to be published in HTML5!

Joe — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 10:16:00 +0000

As many of you know, there's been lots of talk about HTML5 being the standard for web development of the future. The exciting thing about HTML5 is that it allows the kind of design customisation (embedded fonts, vector drawing, etc.) that in ye old days was only possible using Flash. Design is very close to our hearts here at Moonfruit, so Flash was our original choice of technology precisely because it could create the kind of visually stunning sites that we liked and that we knew you would like.

But times, they are a changin'. Now that HTML5 has the design capabilities to match the richness of Moonfruit websites, and has a wide enough adoption (it is only viewable in the most modern browsers), we're ready to take it on! As you know we've been working in HTML5 for our mobile and Facebook versions of sites, so this web version will be an extension of that, but take it far beyond.

So later this year, we will be updating Moonfruit so that sites can be published in HTML5 for web and tablets (though you'll be able to keep the Flash version if you want).

And this is what it will look like as our example site goes from Flash to HTML5 (watch closely!)

Spot the difference

Flash version

HTML version

www.moonfruit.com/html5/

Yes, you spotted it, the font changes slightly. This highlights one of the lingering issues with HTML5 is that fonts are treated slightly differently than in Flash. This is something that we will be working on, but may be one area you'll need to tweak if you want to use the HTML5 version for your site.

So when's it coming? We would expect the HTML5 site display to ship in Q3 this year, after the summer. We've been working towards this for quite a long time now with changes having begun in 2010 to reorganise the way we store data about your site so that we could choose to display it in different formats for web, mobile and Facebook. The HTML5 site display will be the another point on our journey to 'publish once, be everywhere'.

So to recap. In Q3 2012 Moonfruit users will have the option to display their sites in HTML5 by default. New sites from this time will automatically be displayed in HTML5. We've made this decision because HTML5 is the future of web development, and now supports the richness we need for beautiful Moonfruit websites.

Enjoy!

Wendy Tan White helps you find the 'Business in You'

leila — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 18:42:00 +0000

At Moonfruit, one of our biggest aims is to help small businesses get online easily. So who better than our very own CEO, Wendy Tan White, to be one of the faces of the new Government Campaign 'Business in You'.

Business in You is a major new campaign from the Government, in conjunction with the private sector, to encourage UK businesses to start up successfully and grow. Their aim is to ensure that small businesses have the resources and support to help them grow and expand over the next few years. The initiative will offer workshops, web-based seminars, video tutorials and some free services from partners.

Wendy was with the Prime Minister, David Cameron, at the launch of the campaign in Yorkshire on Monday. The day of the launch was Chinese New Year and Wendy presented the PM with a Chinese Calendar and mentioned that the year of the Dragon brings the opportunity for great success or great failure. Both agreed that they are gunning for the former!

Wendy will be one of the featured entrepreneurs on their nationwide poster campaign, alongside Richard Moross (our friends Moo.com) and Paul Lindley (Founder of organic baby food, Ella's Kitchen). You can see what Wendy has to say about how she set up Moonfruit and her top tips for anyone starting out - Wendy's Interview.

So, if you're in the UK, look out for the campaign!

Moonfruit meets the Prime Minister

leila — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 17:31:00 +0000

24th January, London – Moonfruit.com, the UK’s largest DIY website builder, is one of the first businesses selected to take part in a major new campaign by the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills. The campaign is aimed at inspiring people to start or grow their own business. Based on the concept that there is "a business in everyone" and that all businesses can realise their ambitions, the campaign, launched by the Prime Minister in Yorkshire yesterday, sees the Government and the private sector coming together to highlight the support available to small firms and budding entrepreneurs.

The campaign partners will be providing free services such as workshops, web-based seminars and video tutorials on issues like finance, as well as providing mentoring and access to face-to-face consultancy sessions.

Throughout 2012, the “Business in You” initiative will showcase Moonfruit and other real-life small and growth stage business owner case studies, rolled-out using a nationwide advertising campaign, to ensure maximum visibility to small businesses who stand to benefit most from the initiative.

As a growth stage business itself, Moonfruit.com was selected as one of three businesses headlining the campaign on billboards and digital media - http://businessinyou.bis.gov.uk/casestudies/wendy-tan-white/ .

Moonfruit is well placed to support this initiative as the company is passionate about democratising the web for SMBs and entrepreneurs. It gives them the tools to build their business and promote it via the web, mobile and Facebook, allowing them to reach a global audience.

Since its inception, Moonfruit has enabled people to build more than four million websites worldwide and hosts hundreds of thousands of UK business websites enabling them to trade and win business online.

Wendy Tan-White, Moonfruit’s CEO and co-founder states, “The campaign encourages people to start and grow their own businesses, thereby boosting the UK economy, it’s very much part of Moonfruit’s DNA. We feel touched to be part of the BIS, Startup Britain campaign and very much support it.”

She continues, “Political cynicism aside, chatting to the Prime Minister yesterday was inspiring. Watching him take the time to talk to small business owners, students and staff makes you realise the steps we all take as individuals will make the difference in shifting the economy. We need to create a collaborative eco-system here in the UK where large corporations partner and support SMBs, consumers support small and local businesses and more serial entrepreneurs share their wisdom with new and growth businesses. Rather than being cynical when we see people trying out new business ideas, let’s support them. I mentioned to the Prime Minister yesterday it’s Chinese New Year, Year of the Dragon, auspicious for business and brings either great success or failure. We’re all gunning for the former.”

At the launch, David Cameron said, "Small businesses and entrepreneurs are the lifeblood of the British economy and I am determined that we, working with the private sector, do everything we can to help them to start up and to grow in 2012. I want to encourage people to go for it and make this the year of enterprise – whether that is fulfilling their dream of starting a new business or taking the leap to grow their business, to employ more staff, or to start exporting."

In further action to help small businesses get off the ground, the Prime Minister will also announce plans to make empty and under-used Government offices available to small businesses so that they can start up and grow. With over 300 buildings currently in the central Government estate with vacant space available in England, the Government will offer as much of this space as possible to small businesses, giving them space to grow at a low cost.

End of 2011, what a year it's been!

Joe — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 10:52:00 +0000

The final release of 2011 slipped out late last week, and we've now had a chance to sit back and reflect on what we've delivered over the year. What a year it's been! But every year brings new challenges, so we're also looking ahead to what we're going to be delivering in 2012…

As you know a big part of what we're striving for is to allow you to "publish once, be everywhere" all with "total design control", so that you only update your content in one place (your website) and we take care of publishing it appropriately to web, mobile, tablet and Facebook in a way that supports your brand identity.

2011 laid the foundations for this, and we think 2012 will blow you away ;-)

Here are the highlights of 2011:

Mobile optimised sites (Feb 2011)
New Moonfruit.com brand and website (Mar 2011)
Updated design tools - shapes, backgrounds (Mar 2011)
Improved customer support via Zendesk (Apr 2011)
Hundreds of new site templates (Mar – Dec 2011)
Image lightboxes (June 2011)
The Blog (July 2011)
4,000,000 sites built with Moonfruit (Aug 2011)
New File Manager (Aug 2011)
Getty Images (Aug 2011)
WebUser Gold Award - best website builder (Aug 2011)
The Shop - Web, Mobile, Facebook (Oct 2011)
Launch event with PayPal (Oct 2011)
Moonfruit office expansion (Nov 2011)
Shop improvements - categories, quantities, shipping (Nov/Dec 2011)

It's no surprise that the team look a little bit tired! But never fear we'll leap back into action early next year with even more goodies.

What's to come in 2012

Mobile version styling (colours) and include/exclude content from mobile version (probably Feb)
More shop improvements – product variants, stock control, etc. (Regular releases throughout the year)
And maybe, just maybe a little HTML5 website magic…watch this space ;-)

So that's that. We hope you've enjoyed 2011 as much as we have and you are looking forward to bigger, better 2012, as much as we are.

Until we meet again early next year, have a wonderful Holiday Season (or Xmas!), and a Happy New Year from all the Moonfruit team!

How online and social commerce is opening doors

Clare — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 10:10:00 +0000

Joe White writes: As the web continues to evolve, smart businesses look to use its new features in ways that can help them expand, compete and remain profitable - even at a time when the economic outlook seems bleak. This is particularly true when the web gives us opportunities to make money.

When Moonfruit.com was created, its aim was to allow anyone - from individuals through to small business owners and beyond - to control, maintain and customise their online identities, without needing big budgets or technical expertise. Together with the proliferation of social media platforms, this created a more equal playing field for people vying for online exposure.

Since then, people's online priorities have progressed from controlling their presence to boosting their sales. Online platforms use a number of methods to focus on money-making: traditional ecommerce, where people can buy products or services online using electronic payment; ad-supported platforms, which offer a service or content funded by commercial advertising; and paywalls and micropayments, which allow sites to monetise individual units of content.

What's new in ecommerce?

So why has ecommerce been so important for smaller businesses with a mandate to grow? Since launching our ShopBuilder tool - which allows people to publish online shops across a number of platforms, including their own site, Facebook and mobile - we have seen some innovative ways to make money using ecommerce functions. Some of these go way beyond simply selling products for payment.

Our customer Yoga Bellies, a pre- and post-natal yoga class that takes place across the UK, has done something very interesting with ShopBuilder. Its online shop function collects customers' payments for classes that take place offline. Similarly, the King's College London Symphony Orchestra is using ShopBuilder to allow people to purchase concert tickets in advance of the event.

While this isn't new in itself (most people have purchased tickets for a concert or holiday online), Yoga Bellies and King's College are integrating ecommerce into real life without using the complex online registration or billing systems required by tour operators and ticket vendors. This is hugely significant for small businesses and micro-traders because it removes some of barriers that may have inhibited growth in the past: customers not carrying the right cash, for example, or not possessing a chequebook.

Ecommerce vs. social commerce

Social commerce is a concept that builds on ecommerce by adding interactivity and sharebility to the traditional buy/sell structure. A number of studies have shown that people trust the recommendations made by their family and friends online more than they trust other types of promotion. It makes sense: Why would you trust an advert or even a third-party endorsement when you can access unbiased advice from the people you know in real life?

Facebook is a particularly fertile platform for social commerce not only because it has so many users, but also because ecommerce functions have started to be integrated with company pages. It's powerful because it allows people to buy within their own network without needing to visit other websites - and because they can engage with the brand in ways their friends and network can see. This process introduces a viral effect into the selling chain, and enables smaller businesses to grow organically using popular platforms such as Facebook.

We originally launched ShopBuilder to allow site owners to set up shop wherever their customers wanted to buy, and to fill a gap in the ecommerce market. So it's interesting to see that our users are most excited about one specific ShopBuilder feature, and that's Facebook integration! Thousands of our shops are already using this feature to publish their whole product catalogue into the social network to allow buying and selling inside Facebook itself. It will be even more interesting to see how they innovate with social and ecommerce in the future.

See the original article here

Christmas release!

Joe — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 10:28:00 +0000

Ho ho ho. We thought we'd get a few more things out in the St Nick of time just before the holidays. We'll follow up later in the week with a summary of everything from 2011 and a hint at what's to come in 2012. But here's what's just been shipped.

Updates to the Shop Checkout page

Your customers can now set product quantities on the Checkout page when buying multiple items. And we've also made more clear the checkout options via PayPal, or paying by Card (not requiring a PayPal account). Plus there's a shipping drop down box.

NB. To get the Checkout page updates, you'll need to navigate to the 'Checkout page' (by using the shop drop down list in the Editor), and then on the Page Editor click 'Update template'.

Shipping updates

We've added the ability for you to set domestic and international shipping rates for your product purchases. This is part of a long line of shipping based features that we will continue with next year, but for now this is one additional variable you can change.

Category tweaks

You can now hide categories from the list so you can organise your products in secret ways, and then link to special hidden categories without them having to appear in the Category menu. You can also rename the 'All category'

Mobile render tweaks

We've updated the way we generate the mobile versions of your site to better organise the content we show. Items are grouped more logically and additional images will now show in the HTML version. Previously images covered by text would not be displayed, but provided at least 50% of the image is 'visible' we'll now show the image in the mobile version. We have another release slated for early 2012 which will further enhance the mobile version.

New Shop templates

We've updated all the shop templates to include the categories from the last release, and also the quantities, shipping and payment options from this release. We hope you'll agree there's some lovely stuff in there!

That's all for now. The team are already working on more goodies for early next year, but we'll soon be putting on our warmest socks and settling down for a good long sleep over the hols. We hope you have a wonderful time and a welcome break too.

As always, thoughts and feedback welcome.

Shop update: Categories!

Joe — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 20:33:00 +0000

As many of you will have noticed, we launched the long awaited ShopBuilder about a month ago and as promised we're going to have a continuous stream of new shop features coming as quickly as we can bake them in the Moonfruit oven. (We don't really bake our software, but you get the idea).

We've had a great response to the shop launch with over 45,000 shops having been built in the last month. And we've also had a lot of feedback from you about the additional features you'd like us to build as quickly as possible. We love the feedback, so keep it coming.

So first out of the oven is the new Category feature. Many of you were asking for it, so here it is.

Shop homepage with Category links

Categories allow you to create groupings for your products and have different ways of ordering and arranging them to suit the different audiences you may be addressing or targeting. In the shop manager you can now add categories and assign products to categories. One product can be in more than one category and the list order of products in each category can be different.

Category editor

Categories have their own URL so you can link directly to a category sub heading. We've also created a new link type on the link tab in the Editor so that any image or link can link to a category allowing you to construct your own navigation. You can add category links direct from the menu of your site too, so that your normal site menu can offer different category pages.

Link editor with new category link type

And if that wasn't enough, there is also a new category link widget in the File Manager which automatically creates a list of all your categories and links to each of them. You can customise the style of this category link widget and change the button style, font and colours.

Category list widget on right

The mobile and Facebook views have also been updated to incorporate the category view. So if you have more than two categories, your Facebook shop will show the category names and images, which link through to the category product lists. And on the mobile view you can navigate to the category types from the drop down at the top of the page.

Facebook shop with categories

Mobile shop with categories

So that's about it for now. All these images are taken from our shopdemo.moonfruit.com website, so feel free to have a look and a play there.

So what's next?

We're working on some improvements to the shipping options and the ability to change the quantities of items on the checkout page - so your customers can buy multiple numbers of an item more easily. These should be out before the end of the year (testing permitting). Then early next year we will bring out product variants, and after that basic stock control and discount/coupon options. After that? Well, some more stuff - helped by the feedback we get from you guys.

Shop Launch round-up!

Joe — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 12:30:00 +0000

It's been a busy few weeks here at Moonfruit HQ. Our new ShopBuilder product is now live and doing well, and has clocked up over 16,000 shop builds in the first week and a half, so we're pretty pleased. Here are just a few examples, selling everything from spices to handbags, headphones to concert tickets!

We launched the product with PayPal at their UK offices on Weds 19th Oct with a great audience made up of customers from Moonfruit, PayPal and StartUp Britain. The theme was Guerrilla ShopBuilding. We had PayPal's Cameron McClean and Beverley Bergin setting up the event and talking payment solutions. We then had StartUp Britain's Emma Jones and our very own CEO Wendy Tan taking about small business strategy and how to grow and get customers in these tough times, and me with a nerve wracking live multi-device demo (watched by the even more nervous development team from the back row!).

Wendy tells it how it is

It all went (came) off without a hitch and was very well received. We had a great time too and it was fantastic to meet so many of our customers and potential customers in one place to share ideas. We had some nice press too:

http://eu.techcrunch.com/2011/10/19/moonfruit-makes-play-for-shop-identity-with-killer-facebook-integration/

http://www.three-sixty.co.uk/om4biz/?p=521

http://blog.workspacegroup.co.uk/blog/2011/10/20/tech-for-start-up-britain-week-guerilla-shopkeeping-fight-in.html

For those of you that haven't seen it yet, our new ShopBuilder allows you to publish once, sell everywhere, with your shop working immediately on web, mobile and Facebook. You update your products in one place and we publish the updates everywhere. All products added have their own page, URL and SEO data and are effortlessly connected to your main shop page.

Using PayPal's accelerated onboarding we can get you trading immediately with only an email address (no credit checking) and with their Express Checkout you can start collecting payments from your customers using web and mobile optimised payment gateways without any configuration required by you. We do the hard stuff, you get on with selling your stuff.

Web, mobile, social

Total design control

So what's next…?

…you may ask. Well the e-commerce road is long and littered with complexity, and we're not done yet. We see it as our job to make trading effortless and remove the barriers to setting up your own shop. We want to keep things simple, but also give you the features you need to run an effective store. So the challenge is to add features without cluttering the interface.

Next up is product categories, which will allow you to organise and group your products to create category specific lists and landing pages. Of course these will work across web, mobile and Facebook straight away, and here's what they will look like when you get them in a couple of weeks.

New category admin view

We hope to continue releasing new shop features every month or so (e.g. variable shipping, product variations, product quantities, coupons, etc.) so keep your eyes peeled!

Moonfruit nominated in Website of the Year award

Clare — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 10:50:00 +0000

We are thrilled to have made it through to one of the 24 finalists in the Good Web Guide's 'website of the year' awards from a strong field.

The winner will be announced by Jo Malone at the awards reception to be held on Wednesday 16th November at the Royal Institution.

Details about all the shortlisted sites can be found here.

There is also a second category called 'The People's Vote'. The organisers believe it will be a good test of which site is the most proactive on the social media front. The winner of the People's Vote will be announced at the reception as well.

If you click on the following link, you will be taken to a page where your vote will automatically be taken, click here. Visitors can only vote once.

Please help us to do well in (or win!) the People's Vote – and of course, we'll keep you posted about our success in the main event.

Moonfruit ShopBuilder launch event with PayPal

Joe — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 09:31:00 +0100

Well well, the big day is finally coming. After many months of work the Moonfruit ShopBuilder is finally going to hit the streets on Oct 19 2011. And what better way to do it than with a launch event with our good friends PayPal and Start-up Britain, and of course you - our lovely customers!

Our new ShopBuilder tool will be seamlessly integrated into our existing Moonfruit technology so will form a natural extension to your site. We wanted to make something that would not only work in Moonfruit, but take away the pain of building multiple shops on different channels – so you can really just 'publish once, be everywhere' - on web, mobile and Facebook.

We've been working in partnership with PayPal to get the payment process running with their most up to date tools. Our integration means that you can start trading immediately with just an email address. Also using PayPal's Express Checkout your customers will get a slick payment process that is optimised for web and mobile.

We also know how important it is to support small business and keep them trading in these difficult economic times, which is why StartUp Britain have been keen to get involved and support our launch. Both PayPal and StartUp Britain will have speakers at the event offering their insight into fighting for customers in a global online marketplace.

Oooh, intriguing. So why not come to our launch event to find out what it's all about. It's a great opportunity to meet the Moonfruit team, including me, our CEO Wendy and CTO Eirik, our designers and developers, take part in a few workshops for some hints and tips, and chew the fat. It'll be held at PayPal's offices in Richmond (UK) on Oct 19th starting from 3pm with drinks to follow. Tickets are limited and free, so we'd love to see you there if you're interested in selling on web, mobile and social.

http://moonfruitpaypal-moonfruit.eventbrite.com/

For those that are really excited to get started keep an eye out for the shop beta group which will open soon and allow you to get hold of an early release to play with and provide feedback.

So that's it for now. We hope to see you at the event and we'll let you know how it goes!

Startup Accelerators and Internet Bubbles

Clare — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 11:34:00 +0100

Joe White is COO of Moonfruit.com. He wrote the blog (below) for Reuters' The Great Debate UK series.

All this week Seedcamp, a UK-based internet startup accelerator, has been running its headline annual event Seedcamp Week in London.

As an accelerator, Seedcamp has mimicked a successful process established in the U.S. by Y Combinator, Techstars and others of taking early stage internet entrepreneurs and running them through an intense programme of mentoring and business development. Mentors are laid on from different disciplines and work with the entrepreneurs each day. They cover founders, product experts, venture capitalists, marketing specialists and more. The best ideas at the end of the programme get funding to get started. Seedcamp Week brings the best of the best from the Seedcamps throughout the year and around the world for a final London mentor and pitch feast.

Seedcamp has grown its fund to €5m this year and made some other announcements to bolster its success. There’s no doubt that a tie-up with Dave McClures’s 500 Startups will boost Seedcamp’s profile (disclosure: Dave McClure is also a Moonfruit investor).

But there are two questions that have plagued internet tech financing in recent months: Can Europe produce internet companies that rival their U.S. cousins in terms of success and influence? And are we in a tech bubble?

Let’s deal with Europe first. Seedcamp Week ends today – start-ups this time ranged from grabcad.com and farmeron.com, bringing the internet to engineers and farmers, to compilr.com and transferwise.com hoping to disrupt the software compiling and foreign exchange transfer markets respectively.

In my mind, for the UK to really produce world beaters with $1bn plus valuations, we need to have start-ups that play to our strengths. The UK and London in particular have strong industries in finance, design, music, and the marketing and creative industries. Some of these talent pools should help a great deal in the 2.0 world of slick UI and simplified design. NYC has done well to distinguish itself from the Valley based on a similar city profile to London, with companies like tumblr, foursquare and etsy.

Mint.com (started in 2006 in the US and acquired for $170m in 2009) was complimented for being a design-led site that happened to sell personal finance software. Wonga.com, which provides short term loans, is a UK champion in this ilk. It has similarly great, simplified design, is based in financial services, and with £73m revenues in 2010 and strong growth a high value IPO may be on the cards. Also in this vein is betfair.com, sourced from our national love of gambling, and zopa.com, providing peer-to-peer lending, sourced from the UK’s love of fairness and new found suspicion of banks. Successes like moo.com, last.fm and spotify.com show the influence of the design and music industries.

And now to the bubble. There’s been a lot of talk of tech bubbles, Angel bubbles and accelerator bubbles. Marc Andreessen says we’re not in a bubble and public tech multiples are too low, while Steve Blank says we are in a bubble, particularly at the Angel end which is playing out “by the book”.

The first Internet bubble took a long time to build, from the Netscape IPO in 1995 to the Nasdaq peak in March 2000 and subsequent crash. The U.S. was buzzing for a few years before the money, buzz and funding started to flow and build in Europe. New players piled in and more money chased fewer opportunities. Investors went further afield to chase them.

Moonfruit and I lived through that crash. We took VC funding in January 2000, and launched our business. We had no idea how close to the crash we were, and I don’t think we appreciated how long the boom had already been going when we joined the party. We have a post-crash happy ending, but this is not common. More and more of the U.S. VCs closed their European funds after the crash and many have not come back.

So what does that mean for Seedcamp and 500 Startups? Is this tie-up a sign that Europe is heating up? Is too much money chasing too few opportunities in the Valley? Too many accelerators? Are we beginning the last hurrah? I hope not.

As Mike Butcher from Techcrunch said in a recent interview, Seedcamp’s example spawning more accelerators in Europe could be a case of “a rising tide lifting all boats”. But even if the tide goes out those funds will have been injected into the economy and we’ll be left with more experience and knowledge.

For the original article, click here.

Stylist Masterclass: Wendy Tan White gives some tips to budding entrepreneurs.

Clare — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 11:26:00 +0100

From Stylist magazine:

Wendy Tan-White, founder and CEO of website-building company Moonfruit, recently joined us for our weekly Lunchtime Masterclass.

This web chat is now closed - but you can read the full transcript from the discussion in the comments section, below.

Moonfruit grows to over 4 million websites

Sarah — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 16:02:00 +0100

Today we are excited to announce that Moonfruit has just reached a new milestone with over 4 million websites around the world built using our technology making 2011 an exciting year for us.

There are approximately 4.8 million small businesses and this number is steadily increasing. We see this as an amazing opportunity to help these businesses build a presence online. Small businesses are increasingly getting to grips with doing business on the web and Moonfruit makes it easy to do this. There is a growing understanding of the importance of websites for a small business taking off, and all of us at Moonfruit feel privileged to be a part of this growth.

Moonfruit enables people to build quality websites with an array of tools available online without the need for any prior technical knowledge. There is much versatility with Moonfruit sites, as our customers are given a huge range of features including blogs, videos, photo galleries, mobile optimised sites, and e-commerce! Our ambition to improve these features and aid you in building fantastic sites is testament to the 4 million already built, and we look forward to seeing that number continue to grow as we strive to improve our services.

Lets do a quick look back over the past 12 months and review what we've updated on the site.

We have completely redesigned the Moonfruit site
We added blog functionality
We partnered with Getty Images to increase the size of our image library
We updated our file manger
We increased our template library to over 100 templates with more being added every month!
We've added an image light box and popup editor
We also added background html tiling and quick access to the page master view and enabled you to set your page lengths.
We even brought you your sites on mobile devices!

All in less than 12 months!

A final thank you must also go to the Moonfruit community, for without them showcasing the features and tools through such creativity and imagination, 4 million sites would surely be nothing but a dream. I bet you are wondering who the 4 millionth site was... well here it is! Let's Party!!!

Why angels are worth the effort

Clare — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 16:06:00 +0100

Wendy Tan White is the founder and CEO of Moonfruit

Once your business has the proof points to make it a success, an injection of capital may be required to help it scale. At this early stage, it’s much more common to get it from high net worth individuals who have made money as entrepreneurs (angel investors) and who are willing to take more of a risk. They offset this with the belief they can make a difference using their experience. Alternatively you can apply to modern seed funds like Seedcamp, Hackfwd, Ycombinator and 500startups. They use an ecosystem of experienced entrepreneurs to mentor their investees.

Why would you take angel investment or seed fund over a bank loan or a VC fund? Because real entrepreneurial experience is invaluable. If you’re growing a tech business, you’ll ideally be able to find an entrepreneur who understands this sector. In the USA, a strong culture of entrepreneurialism has meant that many people who have built and sold tech businesses have re-invested in other young companies. This ecosystem is not as mature in Europe but is definitely improving.

I saw this illustrated at the Dublin Founders Summit last year, which included the founders of Twitter, Skype, and YouTube. MicroVC Dave McClure, founding partner of 500startups.com, who is now an investor in Moonfruit, asked the European investors and entrepreneurs in the audience to raise their hands if they had bought an expensive car. He then asked them to keep their hands up if they’d invested money into a start-up or seed fund. Out of at least 25 hands, only three stayed up.

12 months on there are several new seed funds in Europe, including Passion Capital and Springboard. Things will continue to improve as more European entrepreneurs exit. To take advantage of this, you need to pick an angel in the UK with experience in the sectors relevant to you. Choosing the right one is vital. So how do you identify the right investor? And how can you persuade them to work with you?

One of the best places to start is to look at other companies that you consider to be related to yours, and find out who their investors are. You’re more likely to secure capital from someone who understands your market, and they are more likely to be valuable to you.

To then get your business in front of your chosen angel, you need to be very well prepared and also willing to go that extra mile. Angels are often incredibly time pressed and it can be difficult to get a meeting with them. If you know someone in common, ask them for an introduction: they are much more likely to take a meeting through a recommendation. You may have to really go out of your way to meet them. I know of one start-up that flew from London and gate-crashed the Dublin Summit for a ten minute meeting with an angel.

It’s a fine line between perseverance and stalking someone, but if negotiated well, it’ll be worth the effort to get the right combination of capital and experience into your company.

This article recently appeared in Growing Business. To see the original article, click here.

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The legal curse of running a small business in London

Clare — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 15:27:00 +0100

Joe White is co-founder and COO of website builder Moonfruit. He's grown the business across a decade to an international company with Silicon-Valley-based backing. But White has had his fair share of headaches along the way. Here are his tips for small businesses looking to avoid legal hot water.

Running a small business in London can be a battle at the best of times, particularly in terms of managing your own time as it is one of the most valuable resources in the company. You need things done correctly, you can't do them all yourself, and you don't want to be distracted by things you shouldn't have to worry about. I should know, as COO/CFO of the number one hosted website builder in the UK, Moonfruit.com. We're a DIY website builder for consumers and small businesses to share their passions online, based in central London. Legislation affecting your business can seem like one of those extra things you just shouldn't have to worry about, but it is real and does matter. Some of it is a real pain, some of it is good discipline with real benefits. The main kinds of legislation that affect the running of your business are:

Employment law: essentially, this concerns the relationship between you and your employees. From payment rights to varying types of discrimination.

Consumer protection: this looks to ensure that consumers are treated fairly by businesses and to ensure product quality is satisfactory.

Tax and regulations: anything from payroll taxes, VAT and corporation tax, to filing accounts and statutory documents.

It's your responsibility as a business owner to make sure you take notice of all these things. But this doesn't mean you have to do it all yourself. My first piece of advice would be to make sure you have an accountant who is looking out for the day to day stuff, particularly payroll and taxes. The revenue aren't particularly sympathetic to people who pay incorrect tax and a competent accountant will make sure you do. It is an additonal outgoing but - trust me - accountants are worth their weight in gold.

On the legal and employment side of things, treat people fairly, with respect, and you'll be okay in most cases. If you find yourself in a tricky situation, then take advice. There are several business services that will offer standard contracts and process documents (e.g. dismissal), so you can use these to save money. Smarta offers a business software bundle that includes legal and accounting software, so that can be helpful here. Most importantly, don't be afraid to do something for fear of regulation or concern that it's all too complicated. Seek to do things the right way and take advice if you're unsure, but don't get paralysed. Most government agencies want you to succeed and will work with you to help you comply, even if it's tidying up after the event! Some laws can even lead to a benefit for your business. Understanding that EU law requires us to give customers a 60 day right of refund for digital purchases has allowed us to promote this effective 60 day money back guarantee to our customers - to their delight! So it's not all bad :-)

Further reading: FREE Business Briefing: How to interview; The Comply or Die ebook

This article first appeared in SMARTA See it here

Webuser: Gold Award

Clare — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 16:23:00 +0100

The following article appeared on the Webuser blog recently in a group test of online website builders. Moonfruit received the Gold Award but we were also pleased to see that our partners came 2nd and 4th.

The full article in pdf format can be found here Moonfruit_Web_User_review_Aug_2011121.pdf while the review of Moonfruit is reproduced below:

Moonfruit ❘ ★★★★★

If you’re looking for a simple way to put together a website that looks like it’s been designed by a professional, Moonfruit leads the way. Its attractive website isn’t just a shallow bid to get you interested, but a genuine indication of the kind of site you’ll be able to create.

Considering the calibre of website it aims to produce, Moonfruit is amazingly easy to get started with. To begin the 15-day free trial, just register a username, email address, and a password. Click one of the eye-catching templates (there are 100, and every one of them looks great) and your website appears in front of your eyes, ready and waiting for your content. Click a text box to enter new text, or click an image to change it.

There are some elements, however, that you can’t immediately change. Moonfruit uses a master page, which acts as the base layer of your website. This holds the elements that appear on every page, such as the title and navigation. It’s a neat system, once you get your head around it, since it ensures key elements are identical on every page. This makes your website look coherent and well-designed.

The basic package costs £4 per month, for which you get 500MB of storage for a single website. The number of pages is unlimited, and you get 10GB per month of bandwidth. This is actually not a huge amount of space, but it ought to be enough to hold a modest website with plenty of content, and you won’t be restricted by the page count.

If you double your payments to £8 per month, you can have a domain, PayPal integration, twice the storage and bandwidth, and the ability to create five websites. If you’re feeling really ambitious, there are also £15- and £35-per-month packages available. The first offers 2.5GB of storage, 15 websites and unlimited bandwidth, while the ‘full-throttle’ package gets you 5GB of storage and a whopping 50 websites.

Verdict: Moonfruit has led the pack in offering attractively designed websites that are easy to set up. This latest incarnation is no different, and offers a collection of gorgeous templates to choose from and a good smattering of features to play around with. The site is split into two layers, so you can’t muck up the overall design by changing things on your various pages. If you find that adapting the templates is a bit tricky, there are blank ones available that let you start from scratch.

Price: From £4

Features: ★★★★★

Performance: ★★★★★

Ease of use: ★★★★

Value for money ★★★★

Overall ★★★★★

For the original Webuser page, please click here

New Release 17 August 2011

Joe — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 17:43:00 +0100

Hurrah it's release time again! Now hold your horses, it's not the shop yet, but it is creeping slowly towards the release window poised to jump out, but not quite yet. Instead we have a few previously unannounced goodies to release to you. They are:

New File Manager

The new File Manager brings file management on Moonfruit into the new decade! All your files (and ours) are now displayed in thumbnail or list view for easy review and navigation. List view allows you to sort by name, size, upload date and file type. You can also reduce or increase the size of the file manager window to see more or fewer of your files in one go. The upload process has been simplified with more feedback on progress of individual files, and you can now drag files between folders more quickly and easily.

File manager and upload

File manager list view

Getty images

Those amongst you with eagle eyes may have noticed the Getty name on our partners page some weeks ago, but we've now added a bunch of Getty images directly into our File Manager for you to use within your site. Initially there are 350 to choose from in the 'Getty' folder in the Library, but we'll be adding more as we go. Getty images are a great way of adding high quality photography to your site which can really make it look fantastic. These images are only available to subscribers, so that's another reason to upgrade ;-)

Getty Images in the File Manager

New templates

We've also added 5 new blog templates, as well as adding the blog to a bunch of the old templates, so there are now 30 blog starting points to choose from in the Moonfruit template wall! The 5 new templates look a little like this.

5 new blog templates

And that's about it for now. Let us know if you spot any unusual behaviour and as always we welcome your feedback!

Behind the Scenes with Eirik Pettersen, CTO of Moonfruit

Sarah — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 15:44:00 +0100

As an Intern I’ve been given the opportunity to sneak behind the scenes and meet the greatest minds within Moonfruit. Some of these interviews may be “less serious” than you might expect. We start the series with Eirik Pettersen CTO.

The first thing Eirik Pettersen asked me was, ‘Does anyone know where I can find a sewing machine?’ I replied ‘I don’t kn…’ ‘CAUSE I’M RIPPED!’ he roared. Bewildered, I watched him saunter down the hallway, gym bag on his back. From then on I knew who Eirik Pettersen was.

Pettersen is the self styled Chief Technology Officer here at Moonfruit. Asked to explain his role to me he describes it as three targets he likes to ‘hit.’ He oversees new product development, keeps the servers running and generally chips in with the strategic direction the company is heading in. In an attempt to find a common ground between us I suggest it’s similar to the three parts of a workout; Warm-up, muscle work and cool-down? But Pettersen quickly corrects me that there’s no time for a cool-down – He’s always pumping iron.

As one of the earliest members of the Moonfruit operation I asked him about the company’s early days. He says that it was an exciting time for Wendy Tan White (CEO) and himself, the two ambitious friends who had entertained the idea of a company back in their University days. We moved on to when the company really started to grow, noticeably as new colleagues such as CFO Joe White joined the team. I joked that Pettersen was ‘green’ over the Joe’s success – but this somehow got mistaken as a compliment concerning the Hulk. The conversation soon after turned to superheroes, Thor being a particular favourite of Pettersen.

I wasn’t surprised considering his name that Norse mythology was an interest of Eirik’s, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Thor was who he liked to model himself on. Aside from this we delved into Pettersen’s private life. ‘You cannot mix fruit and chocolate,’ he declares while mixing a protein shake. I first thought he was poorly trying to make one of those parodies which joke about food – ‘cheesecake? Cheese mixed with cake!?’ – But Pettersen was more adamant that this fruit and chocolate problem was a real concern. Seeing my puzzled face he blurted, ‘It’s as bad as mixing mustard and coffee.’ I could see this was a sensitive subject for the gastronome. Note taken not to get those chocolate coated strawberries I had my eye on.

We had moved into the kitchen so I could make myself a coffee while Pettersen started cracking a number of eggs into a bowl. I said to him ‘that’s going to be a mean omelette,’ but to my horror the colossus simply downed what was in the bowl – yummy. This was the first clear insight I’d been given into one of the key members of the team here at Moonfruit, a series of interviews I’ll be carrying out to inform you all of the going’s on behind the closed doors. I asked Pettersen where he was heading as I saw him leaving for the door, to which he asked ‘do you know any good veterinarians?’ I considered the question and asked why? To see Pettersen raising his arms and bellowing ‘Cause these pythons are SICK!’

Tony the Intern!

Sysadmin Appreciation Day!

Sarah — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 12:35:00 +0100

Today is System Administrator appreciation day. A day for all to commemorate the heroic efforts these modest workers make in maintaining the ‘structured flow’ of a company. This day of celebration was created by Ted Kekatos - a System Administrator. Considered depressed and lonely as most are in his job, Kekatos found hope in reading of a rare act of thanks for the work of a System Administrator, in which he was presented with flowers and fruit. The tough task this particular Administrator had to endure was to install the printers for the office – a classic example of one of the extra charges these kind people thanklessly do for us every day.

I took the time to interview one of our own Admins here at Moonfruit, Hiren Joshi, tired but accommodating after installing the latest coffee machine in the office. "It’s a tough job, but someone has to do it", he says, putting on a brave face considering his clearly crumbling interior.

I ask him if System Administrators are under-appreciated because no one really knows what they do. A simple answer would suffice, but Josh decided it better to use the Hindu Trimurti to describe the workings of a website office. The devout atheist described "the Designers as the Creators, System Administrators as the Preservers, and Marketing as the Destroyers." Open to debate is how I’ll leave this portrayal, but I felt it wise not to ask his opinion of the Support Team...

I get the impression Josh sees himself as a kind of maternal figure for the company - Florence Nightingale with a Leatherman and a phone flashlight. Yet he would describe himself instead in a Sherlock Holmes mould - problem solving to save the computer world of viruses and bugs.

But not being recognised for these gallant efforts clearly takes a toll on System Administrators. Josh tells me that he likes 'the odd drink’ after a hard days labour, as he trawls through the long list of his favourite Soho dives. The odd drink may be an understatement, considering his reliance on coffee to get him through the day. A medicine for a heavy night, or possibly something different – "Do you like your coffee Irish?" he casually asks.

But Josh takes solace, while drinking from his camera lens canister. He tells me that, as much as the job may appear boring, "System Administrators have a reputation for being adrenaline junkies." I ask him if it’s a case of working hard and playing harder, but he gives the impression that his work is more for medicinal purposes to control his hyperactive lifestyle. He boasts of his accomplishments like a young Brownie parading her sash of badges: "Skydiving, abseiling...", he counts with his fingers, but a significant mention should go to his pride in his fire safety certificate. "They give you a fluorescent jacket and everything", he exclaims - I was soon understanding why Kekatos felt the need for creating this day of appreciation.

So I conclude this piece with great thanks to System Administrators, for all the hard work they do in maintaining comfortable office environments. I now hope that people will not have to revert to a calendar to recognise and be thankful for the hard work they do. Oh, and I take milk and no sugar in my coffee - thanks, Josh!

By Tony - Our Lovely Intern!

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Bonus Link

A quick quote from one of the Moonfruit Team

"Moonfruit's sysadmin team grease the wheels of the company with dedicated attention to vital server hardware, good quality coffee, and trips to the pub in equal measure. We wouldn't get by without all their hard work."