Re-launching Bubble & Flute after a virus shut me down

How long does it take to re-build a website? In my case, about a year!

About a year ago I noticed my website was running really slowly. My tech guy looked into it for me and diagnosed my website with a virus. We tried to clean the virus out (didn’t work) and then we tried to copy everything over to a new site (#epicfail) – this virus wasn’t going away quietly! So I planned for the worst and started manually building a whole new site from scratch which I hoped I could switch over to once it was ready. But things escalated quickly with my old site and it went from being ‘a bit slow’ to ‘totally broken’ in a few weeks so I had to close it down. 

It’s not the worst virus we’ve dealt with over the last 12 months. Perhaps a lot like many of us, I used the virus shutdowns to have a good long think. 

And I distilled that down to five reasons I re-launched Bubble & Flute to share what I uncovered or re-discovered in the process…

1. I still really, really, really love champagne! I had a really honest moment when I asked myself if I truly wanted to re-launch or should I take it as a sign from the universe. The answer was yes! Yes – it was a sign from the universe…  that I needed a new website! My old site was four years old and I had neglected some of the basic technical upkeep on it so I learned my lesson (the hard way). And yes – I truly wanted to re-launch my site for exactly the same reason I started Bubble & Flute almost five years ago…

2. There is still very little else out there about champagne that’s not written for wine professionals or serious wine connoisseurs. Every day people who know nothing about wine are falling in love with champagne and need a Champagne Coach more than they need a master sommelier.  

3. Because I still want to live in a world where happiness and joy and pleasure and fun and celebrating with family and friends is part of my everyday. I love connecting with family, friends, and you, through something that makes a lot of people smile and feel happy – champagne. And champagne still does that for me.

4. And behind that, there’s a bigger story I want to tell about champagne. Having the freedom to tell all kinds of stories about champagnes, the people who make the champagnes, or the stories of people like you, who love drinking it.

5. And after the freedom, comes the fun!  I love writing, and writing about champagne but I have always wanted B&F to be a ‘fan site’ first. To be a bit fun and silly, cheeky and cheery. And you can’t have a fan site without fan merch! It was always my dream to have an online shop full of fun champagne fan merchandise. So the deal breaker for me when I re-launched my website was to bring back the shop – bigger and better! 

Which explains part of the reason it has taken so long to re-launch. I have been sourcing and road testing apparel so I could launch with styles and designs for women and men who can’t get enough champagne in their lives.

I did my homework and found a lot of online t-shirt shops have limited styles of t-shirts and they are mostly a ‘unisex’ design and the fit is usually awful on ladies! So I have spent six months pulling together a collection of women’s and men’s shirts that will suit most body shapes and personal styles. The downside of offering the quality standard and variety I wanted for you is that I use a number of different suppliers around the world so the shipping times and processes may vary for different items. But I truly believe my shop is one of a kind and the quality and variety is worth it for dedicated champagne fans. 

I have tested everything in my collections for fit, comfort and style before adding them to my shop so please read my recommendations on each product to find the style that’s right for you. 

I will add styles and designs and new products to the shop regularly so please reply and share your ideas and feedback!  The idea for a men’s range actually came from one of my email subscribers who asked the very simple question when he started getting my emails…

“Why don’t you have anything for men?”… 

So simple and obvious…  and so now, I do.