I would think that by now with just over a week to go until Christmas, most of you who were planning to order a sword for Christmas have already done so by now. Or at least, I certainly hope you have – as we wrote in our Christmas Sword Buyers Guide special article – the later you leave it the greater the chances that your gift will be lost, banged up or delayed as couriers and delivery services are always near the breaking point right around now.
And requesting overnight delivery, or otherwise trying to rush things is honestly NOT a good idea. Much better to simply buy a gift certificate if you are leaving it to the last minute and let your loved one calmly select a sword of their choice at a more leisurely pace. SBG Sword Store Gift Certificates never expire and can be purchased in $10 increments from as little as $10 to as much as $500..
This actually brings me neatly to my next point – I just noticed that the Gift Certificate page is a completely different format than the rest of the store. Our last store overhaul was in December 2015 and since then I have noticed lots of annoying little glitches and things that just don’t display the way I want them to..
So despite paying professionals, it seems that the only way to get something done right is to do it yourself – so in the lead up to Christmas I will be burning the midnight oil to tweak and overhaul the blog, the store and the main site to finally give it a completely consistent look and feel that no professional would bother to do.. (or at least, not a price that I could afford..!).
The change should not be TOO jarring or dramatic, and the basic theme will remain the same – for example, just cleaner, more consistent and faster loading across the board.
I am kind of looking forward to it as those small inconsistencies have been bugging the heck out of my OCD. But it is going to be a mammoth task – so please bear with me if I am a little slow to reply to emails or if you stumble upon the site(s) looking a little bit funny. The store security will not be compromised at any time during this process – so no need to worry about that. But it MAY (especially if you pop in during the wee hours when I hope not too many people are looking) appear completely weird looking at times if some of the cosmetic changes don’t work as planned (which always happens)..
The first overhaul is the blog, which will take place in the next few hours – then the store and finally the main site. After which, I will be exhausted at just the right time – so please note that I will be taking a break from the 25th of December to the 1st of January and we will resume business as usual from Monday the 2nd of January 2017.
Time to roll up my sleeves and get into it. I will update you all here as we go as I do plan to expand the scope and the frequency of posting on the blog. So see you all on the other side. 🙂
– Paul
