My New Web Site

Not really a web expert but it looks quick enough (a bit of a delay loading the images but not to bad). I'd say the only thing is it opens up to many new many windows. For example clicking on the "enter site" link opens a new window, when I don't think it should, as well as the cart, and get a quote links. Though tbh when I got in on there, started paying more attention to your actual gallery
 
Thanks for taking the time to take a look. The pages are still under development and will no doubt be changed before I finish, point taken about flash btu I will be building in some static links to my other pages. Thanks again for the comments. Ian :thumbs:
 
Very pretty indeed. Only had a couple of minutes to fire up the gallery and it wasnt too bad at speed. (I am on a 7 meg connection at the moment).

The one thing I noticed was that I selected Gallery > New Brighton, then an image.....once I'd finished looking at the image...I naturally clicked "Back" on my mouse.....Which didnt take me to where I expected.
Not sure how you can get around that with the flash of course, but if I were to browse for a while, it might nark me a little, having to go through it all again.
 
Marcel
Thanks for looking. I checked out what you said cant actually see a way round this other than the close image selection in the top right corner which takes you directly back to the gallery. Thanks for looking and please check back when I have done some more work on it.
Ian
 
Have you gone for the 10 day trial with them or bought the hosting package.

Looks a good bit of software though
 
It works very well for me on a fast internet connection in the office. I like the flash site. How did you program it?

All I would say is that I hate music on websites. At home I have my own music on, at work I'm trying to not draw attention to what I look at. I know I can turn the volume down but I would much prefer not to have to...
 
Took the 10 day free option but have since taken month to month as I ($30) was favouable inmpressed with the ease of setting up a reasonable good looking site. I like the music feature but I take your point but I will leave it on at present so you will have to turn it down. Thanks for looking and your useful comments.
Ian :thumbs:

PS You can actually turn off the music if you don't want it.
 
markgray said:
http://www.ifp3.com/?source=poweredByIfp3

They have some nice sites on there, and to be honest $30 a month is a good price for a full ecommerce photography site.
Click to expand...

Would certanly agree with you there, best I have found on the net, up to now. The software is excellent and the hosting is fast and I have not had any problems with it at all and if your like me HTML illiterate then it is a good option for a nice site. The link to PAYPAL is also a boost. :clap:
 
seriously looking at using them myself now, great find by the way.
 
On the ecommerce side of it are you able to change the currency from Dollars to Pounds
 
Sorry, I don't like it. The splash page isn't really needed and the font on it is nasty. It loads in a popup window :( Then the entire thing is Flash. Never use Flash when HTML will do the job. Its always best to use HTML + CSS. Its bad for SEO, can be bad for usability, and various other reasons. It all seems like throwing Flash at a problem hoping to impress rather than having something that works and impresses. I mean, sure it works in some respects but HTML + CSS would achieve both. I don't like these off the shelf solutions as they're always generic and your address is a little hard to remember.
 
There is an option to use a proper domain name with it
 
I haven't got a site with them, just been reading through their website FAQ's
 
or you could try just setting up a redirect through your existing domain straight into the gallery (for free)
 
petemc said:
Sorry, I don't like it. The splash page isn't really needed and the font on it is nasty. It loads in a popup window :( Then the entire thing is Flash. Never use Flash when HTML will do the job. Its always best to use HTML + CSS. Its bad for SEO, can be bad for usability, and various other reasons. It all seems like throwing Flash at a problem hoping to impress rather than having something that works and impresses. I mean, sure it works in some respects but HTML + CSS would achieve both. I don't like these off the shelf solutions as they're always generic and your address is a little hard to remember.
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Sorry you dont like it, yes these sites are less workable than actually building you own with HTML but as I have said my HTML skills are pretty bad so I am quite happy with this at present. I have only been working at it for a day so I am sure that I will be able to get out what I want from it. Thanks for looking and your opinion. :thumbs:
 
Must say think the gallery works well, would loose the music as it kills the load time and i personally turn it off anyway.

I bad point is the first page, the pic takes a while to load and the yellow text is the wrong colour and font for the style of the site. I would also have picked a different picture for the first page as while it si a good pic the one you have picked is quite depressing/emotional.

good job overall though and some nice pics there
 
ppp said:
Must say think the gallery works well, would loose the music as it kills the load time and i personally turn it off anyway.

I bad point is the first page, the pic takes a while to load and the yellow text is the wrong colour and font for the style of the site. I would also have picked a different picture for the first page as while it si a good pic the one you have picked is quite depressing/emotional.

good job overall though and some nice pics there
Click to expand...

Have made a few changes, front picture changed, music deleted. Thanks for your comments. :thumbs:
 
I'm with Pete I'm afraid, I really don't like splash pages, what's the point of them??

I'm not too keen on flash galleries either, too slow to load for my liking. I upset one of the international mx riders saying exactly the same thing to him :(

Having said that I do quite like the overall layout and the service/product does look reasonable for an e-commerce solution though :) I'd prefer to see your prices on the site though, making someone mail you to get a price could put casual buyers off unless the image is exactly what they're looking for and can't get it elsewhere.
 
dod said:
I'm with Pete I'm afraid, I really don't like splash pages, what's the point of them??

I'm not too keen on flash galleries either, too slow to load for my liking. I upset one of the international mx riders saying exactly the same thing to him :(

Having said that I do quite like the overall layout and the service/product does look reasonable for an e-commerce solution though :) I'd prefer to see your prices on the site though, making someone mail you to get a price could put casual buyers off unless the image is exactly what they're looking for and can't get it elsewhere.
Click to expand...

Sorry you dont like the site or at least the flash workings, I think this is a personal thing you either like flash or you don't, I do. I have made some changes, the splash page stays I afraid but the music has gone and some development on the menus and colour scheme, this is a work in progress and willalmost certainly change again until I'm satisfied. Thanks for looking and your useful comments and of course no offence taken about anything said.
I have done no work on the pricing system as yet but intend to have a set pricing system in place soon and therefore get rind of the 'mail me'. It all takes time but I will get there in the end.
Thanks again.
Ian :thumbs:
 
What reason is there for the splash screen and the popup? I'm not having a go, but I don't quite get why people do these things. When someone goes to your site it should appear. Why do they need to goto 1 site, click a link, load the popup and then start browsing? I've been doing web design for 12 years and never seen a valid reason for this style of design other than "I liked it."
 
petemc said:
What reason is there for the splash screen and the popup? I'm not having a go, but I don't quite get why people do these things. When someone goes to your site it should appear. Why do they need to goto 1 site, click a link, load the popup and then start browsing? I've been doing web design for 12 years and never seen a valid reason for this style of design other than "I liked it."
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I don't disagree with you Pete but this is just the way this program works and I can't see any way of getting rid of the splash page, it is programmed into the software and as I am not writing the programing but just using the software provided. If I could get rid of the splash page I would but I don't see how at present, I will contact the site support and see if it can be done. Thanks for your comments.
Ian :thumbs:
 
Ah right. I thought it might be something like that, sorry shoulda said. Shame really :(
 
kissfoto said:
Have made a few changes, front picture changed, music deleted. Thanks for your comments. :thumbs:
Click to expand...

Yeah i like that now, would maybe make the text colour the same red as you have your name on the gallery, or white as the yellow seems a little out of place, maybe its jsut me.
 
Answer recieved from support


If you are talking about the enter page, no.

The enter page is a must for all sites. It is where we
do all the "sniffing" to determine if the user:

1) Has the correct flash player.
2) Has Javascript enabled.
3) Accepts cookies.
4) Has a mild or aggresive pop up blocker.
5) And a few other things.

You may notice an enter page on most high-end flash
sites just for these reasons. We pop the site up in a
new window so the user can see all the elements of a
site. If they have the entire toolbar at the top and,
lets say, they don't have their task bar at the bottom
(that has the start button, etc.) set to autohide, and
have a resolution of 1024 x 768 (which is the vast
majority of users), then there is a good chance they
will not have enough real estate (viewable area) to see
the entire site.

The only way to avoid this, if the user has such an
aggressive pop-up blocker that we can't open a new
window, is to open the site in the same browser window.
We try to avoid this at all costs, because the browser
back button and flash sites don't do well together. A
flash site is more like a movie than a typical website
where you go from one page to the next. If you hit the
back button (which we take away in the pop-up window)
you start the movie all over again. Another reason why
the top flash sites are designed to show up in their
own windows.
 
ppp said:
Yeah i like that now, would maybe make the text colour the same red as you have your name on the gallery, or white as the yellow seems a little out of place, maybe its jsut me.
Click to expand...

Have now changed the general lettering back to white, does look better. Thanks for your comments and taking the time to look. :thumbs:
 
Hi, i like it, the actual content page is good but the splashpage is not a good idea. The only thing else I could say is that , what I have found so far, is that not everyone has flash and you have to remember that alot of folk that use computers are not computer literate nor have fast connections.
When designing my new site this year I toyed about using flash or just HTML.
HTML is quicker and it will load on most folks computers, so the chance is more folk will be able to browse and buy.

cheers
Iain
 
Iain MacIntosh said:
Hi, i like it, the actual content page is good but the splashpage is not a good idea. The only thing else I could say is that , what I have found so far, is that not everyone has flash and you have to remember that alot of folk that use computers are not computer literate nor have fast connections.
When designing my new site this year I toyed about using flash or just HTML.
HTML is quicker and it will load on most folks computers, so the chance is more folk will be able to browse and buy.

cheers
Iain
Click to expand...

Take the point about using flash. The flash page actually checks if the viewer has flash installed and if not offers a download I think, part of the reason for a splash page.
Thanks for your comments.
Ian :thumbs:
 
What they say about the splash page is about 2-3 years out of date. I have Flash on my site and it detects the version and whether you have javascript on every page. If you have javascript turned off it will not display the Flash and tell you. If you have the wrong Flash, it'll tell you to upgrade. There is so much more that people can do these days with HTML, CSS, and Javascript to make sites run smoothly. What if the user doesn't have Flash installed? How do they contact you? From reading what they say its just all wrong and would give me cause for concern.

http://www.georgiew.de/
http://www.annamoller.net/
http://www.rogovin.com/
http://www.carolacord.com/
http://www.chrismcpherson.com/
http://www.dcianfarra.com/2006/flash/main_new.html
http://www.glolondon.com/
http://www.dankenyon.com/
http://www.manipulator.com/
http://www.sonjamueller.org/

I could keep going :) Everything about their site just seems like its designed to impress people who don't know better. Oooh it does this, and I can sell prints, and its got Flash like pro's have. Everything that actually makes a good website is thrown out the window just so they can get paid. I just noticed that they're using frames! I haven't used them in 7 years.

Think about a few things. How are people going to find your site? Are they going to buy prints from it? This is how Google views your site.
 
petemc said:
What they say about the splash page is about 2-3 years out of date. I have Flash on my site and it detects the version and whether you have javascript on every page. If you have javascript turned off it will not display the Flash and tell you. If you have the wrong Flash, it'll tell you to upgrade. There is so much more that people can do these days with HTML, CSS, and Javascript to make sites run smoothly. What if the user doesn't have Flash installed? How do they contact you? From reading what they say its just all wrong and would give me cause for concern.

http://www.georgiew.de/
http://www.annamoller.net/
http://www.rogovin.com/
http://www.carolacord.com/
http://www.chrismcpherson.com/
http://www.dcianfarra.com/2006/flash/main_new.html
http://www.glolondon.com/
http://www.dankenyon.com/
http://www.manipulator.com/
http://www.sonjamueller.org/

I could keep going :) Everything about their site just seems like its designed to impress people who don't know better. Oooh it does this, and I can sell prints, and its got Flash like pro's have. Everything that actually makes a good website is thrown out the window just so they can get paid. I just noticed that they're using frames! I haven't used them in 7 years.

Think about a few things. How are people going to find your site? Are they going to buy prints from it? This is how Google views your site.
Click to expand...

Pete
As I said before ' I know NOTHING'.
Ian :thumbs:
 
I am not a fan of flash sites either but am aware that a number of artists use it for multimedia, and to good effect. This site is pretty good for an off-the-shelf solution and I had no difficulties navigating it. If it works and you gets sales will be the true acid trest.
 
HIMUPNORTH said:
I am not a fan of flash sites either but am aware that a number of artists use it for multimedia, and to good effect. This site is pretty good for an off-the-shelf solution and I had no difficulties navigating it. If it works and you gets sales will be the true acid trest.
Click to expand...

Early days yet, still finding my way around the program, its certainly not perfect but its not overly expensive and seems to work smoothly, despite some of the concerns raised. Thanks for looking and commenting.Ian :thumbs:
 
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