The winner of August’s Website of the Month competition is Liz Usher, who built her website www.mummymakes.net  to showcase her range of home-made fudge, bunting and cards. Since getting started last year, her business has gone from strength to strength – and her website has really helped the business grow! The site is packed with attractive pictures and the content is quirky, funny and very well-presented. Particularly impressive is how Liz has chosen fonts and graphics that tie in perfectly with the ‘home-made’ ethos of her business.

Liz commented, “ From a small beginning only a year ago, my hand-made enterprise was starting to grow and many customers as well as the organisers of craft shows I was attending were asking me if I had a website. I figured that a modest web presence was needed. I had bought the Mr Site package a year or so ago and it was perfect for the building the site I was looking for. I wanted the site to visually reflect the handmade goods I sell, so I used lots of drawings and have made the text into JPEGS – the site’s basically built of pictures! I found the whole process extremely easy and trouble free and it only took me a couple of days to build (really...!). I'm delighted that so many people comment on it.

 Next? Maybe I'll be brave enough to add a shop so customers can buy direct online - and I'll certainly be exploring the extras Mr Site has to offer , as so far the process has been simplicity itself.”

Massive congratulations to Laura Swain, whose website www.dreamofsilver.com was voted July’s Website of the Month. We had lots of people voting, but in the end you were totally won over by the site’s attractive, easy-to-use layout, not to mention the delicate colours that really make the products stand out.

Laura, who set up her website in 2007, says that she tried to make it clean, modern and as straightforward as possible for visitors to navigate. Judging by your positive reaction, her recent redesign of the homepage and header to give a more professional feel has obviously paid off!

She said, “I have been using Mr Site for almost 4 years now and it's perfect for selling my jewellery.  My favourite tools are the ‘Google Analytics’ widget, which allows me to see where customers are coming from and what they are looking at, and ‘Sub menus’ –  perfect for grouping my jewellery into different collections. It's taken me a while to get the website to where it is now but I’ve  found the Mr Site Support Team to be very useful when I'm stuck with something. My advice would be if you want full control over your own cost-effective website then choose Mr Site!”

Many thanks to everyone who sent us an entry for Website of the Month. Huge congratulations go to our winner this month, Charlotte Essex. At www.petitefeve.com, Charlotte sells gorgeous baby booties made of natural yarns. We were really impressed her use of design and colour, which ties in exceptionally well with her products.

“I have been a Mr Site fan for some time. My husband is a driving instructor and when he first started out we decided that we should set up a website to attract customers. Since then, I have learned so much and the business has gone from strength to strength. I soon decided I wanted to have a small business of my own, too. So, I have spent the last few months putting together a collection of baby booties and developing my own Mr Site website. I am thrilled with the results and everyone who has seen it cannot believe how professional it looks! I think it is fabulous that Mr Site enables people like me to put together an e-commerce site so affordably.”

We’re so pleased that developing new skills designing her husband’s website not only boosted his career, but gave Charlotte the confidence to set up a business of her own. Congratulations!

Another brilliant month for Mr Site websites – thanks to everyone who sent an entry! March’s award goes to Danielle Plowman of www.ellieellie.co.uk who has finally overcome a long struggle to break into the fashion industry using her fabulous Takeaway Website.

“I founded Ellie Ellie in 2006 and, initially, was making children’s wear – however, I found it difficult balancing a part time job, whilst developing a brand. Then, in 2009 a friend suggested Mr Site and everything changed! It’s great for enabling small businesses to set up and run an ecommerce site. Without it, a similar website would have cost me a fortune and maybe I would have never got to live my dream. Ellie Ellie is now growing by the day and I even had to employ someone to help me over the Christmas period. Now I’m thinking about renting out my own office space as it literally is taking over my whole flat. I feel so lucky to be able to work for myself doing something I truly love and I really do believe that its success has come from using Mr Site!”

If you'd like to be the next Website of Month all you need to do is submit your story by emailing us at stories@mrsite.co.uk and tell us why you deserve the award! Please don’t forget to include your domain name in the email.

Thanks to everyone who submitted a website this month – as always we received lots of great entries! February’s award goes to Jennifer Mullan of www.jeniusimageanddesign.co.uk who found a niche in the market to start her own business:

“After being made redundant from a full time design job, I have decided to work for myself as a freelancer, offering graphics and illustration services. I plan to specialise in logos and imagery for businesses such as hairdressers, beauty salons and wine bars, as well as designing stationery for parties and weddings.

I wanted to make the website myself so I could give it a strong female theme but as I am not experienced in digital design, I didn’t really want to get bogged down with learning website development. Takeaway Website is perfect for me as it lets you design bespoke sites without all the technical stuff – I’ve even been able to do all the illustrations, banners and flash graphics myself!”

If you'd like to be the next Website of Month all you need to do is submit your story by emailing us here and tell us why you deserve the award! Please don’t forget to include your domain name in the email.