Website is back up......almost :)

thecarguy said:
Who would pay to advertise on someone else's business web site & why?
Click to expand...





I don't understand this question or the other poster's question either. I think Anthony posted this like he said for input from other detailers and some people with web work. He's not advertising as much as fishing for help to optimize and maybe even help out some others along the way.



That being said, there are places that pay to advertise on another business' website. It's called an affiliation system. It's not a new term and you've probably herad of it. Site A has a link to Site B and what it results, generally, in a 15% commision (Payable to Site A) on a sale generated through traffic from site A to Site B. The commissions vary greatly (based on the industry) and some work is done by a program to keep track of who's coming from where. I have not used it myself, although I have used a similar concept at different times with different clients that have related industries thus creating a Virtual Mall for their clients.



As far as the website is concerned, I am not a big fan of the design but the layout is good. Given that you (Anthony) wants it to basically showcase the work you've done, I would limit it to a small amount of pages like you have but really dress them well. Someone mentioned about the $1500 cost of a website to generate 7 details and I agree with their point. However consider what those 7 details might generate . Also consider what might happen when those 7 people tell people and those new prospectives visit your site. With a tightly designed site, and some clever low-cost marketing, you can establish a web presence that mirrors that of your "brick and mortar" and that is the goal. If you want to portray a certain "brand image", the key is to present it consistently. Not to present it strongly in one area and not another. It does cost money....money you might not immediately see a return on. But eventually, like establishing the original business itself, hits will increase and through the site's evolution and 24/7 global presence, it will gain rank and respect and atract more and more potential customers.



Having been involved in small business/ branding redesign, and the first step has usually been working with web presence. Your site does what it needs to do right now, but what could it be doing with a professional design is the question you should ask yourself. Kind of like detailing. Anyone can clean and wax a car, but only a professional can get it clean and keep it waxed.



Just my thoughts and some of my opinions based on experience.

:xyxthumbs
 
BradUF said:
1500 for a website? You could have a few page website deisgn by a college student for a few hundred.
Click to expand...



True. I have done comprehensive 5-6 page sites for about 600 as a professional and even less while in college. But I would not hire a college student to develop a site (and all that entails). For general, and eye catching, design and layout sure, but for the same reasons I wouldn't hire an accounting student to do my taxes, I would not hire a GA or IT student to develop and maintain my site regardless of what they may save me. JMO
 
Anthony Orosco said:
EDIT* - Brad or anyone else....would you do all the text in Photoshop also or would you do it in some other text application and then import/copy/paste into Photoshop? Also, what is a nice page size to use in Photoshop?



Thanks for the help, much appreciated.
Click to expand...



I would do your headings in Photoshop and your text in HTML. That way you could ensure having a nice font for a heading and plain, easy to read text.
 
Another thing your could do to help loading a more graphic heavy page is to slice up the images, save them as progressive loading jpegs, and optimize/compress them.
 
Hey man you guys are awesome.....really appreciate the help and input :up



I have Photoshop 7.0 and I am rather handy at using it graphic wise but I'll need to brush up on the slicing and dicing aspect.



So I create my pages in PS and then slice them, for say links, rollovers, etc. in IR, correct?



Then my graphics and such I optimize as jpeg.....or is png better?



I really appreciate the help,

Anthony
 
thecarguy said:
Who would pay to advertise on someone else's business web site & why?
Click to expand...

Wasnt trying to be harsh at all, I was just wondering if he was able to post because he was an advertiser. I asked the question because I had a picture removed from one of my posts because it had my buisness name in it...... And I had my website taken out of my sig. So clearly I find it strange that this post is allowed.......? So again just curious as to how things work around here. Why would I be trying to solicit to fellow detailers?
 
Anthony Orosco said:
Hey man you guys are awesome.....really appreciate the help and input :up



I have Photoshop 7.0 and I am rather handy at using it graphic wise but I'll need to brush up on the slicing and dicing aspect.



So I create my pages in PS and then slice them, for say links, rollovers, etc. in IR, correct?



Then my graphics and such I optimize as jpeg.....or is png better?



I really appreciate the help,

Anthony
Click to expand...



:welcome I've used Photoshop sparsely and I use Fireworks and Paint Shop Pro along with some Macromedia Freehand. I know it's not industry standard but it's what I was brought up on. In PSP 9.0, the user can compress and slice and even image map all using the same program. Even in PSP 7.0 I could. So I would think that PS 7.0 should have those abilities as well. Check around the options. Look for Image Slicer (or somehing like it) and Jpeg Optimizer (or something like it). I have the Adobe CS2, but I honestly never use it so I don't know where to point you to. Sorry.



As far as .jpeg or .png......use jpegs for photos and png's for artwork. PNG gives you a 5-25% improvement over GIF sizing with better compression. PNG is lossless in terms of colors and attributes and resaves and restores perfectly, but for photos jpegs look better and contain more pixels, can be resized more with less distortion, etc. :xyxthumbs
 
cj99si said:
Wasnt trying to be harsh at all, I was just wondering if he was able to post because he was an advertiser. I asked the question because I had a picture removed from one of my posts because it had my buisness name in it...... And I had my website taken out of my sig. So clearly I find it strange that this post is allowed.......? So again just curious as to how things work around here. Why would I be trying to solicit to fellow detailers?
Click to expand...



If you go back to the very first page you can see where this was brought up by an Admin. My very first page was totally different from what I now have up. It had only my biz name but no email or phone #.



I didn't see your post as being harsh, just questioning. I also had a pic removed when it had my buddies van in it which also contained hsi biz name and phone #.



MachB5



Thanks again :) I have the ability to slice in PS and I also have Adobe Illustrator which I have never used :chuckle:



GREAT!.....now I may have to go back to my original idea and change once again the whole site!! :cry: Jus kiddin, I think I may change a few things, graphic wise, but I feel a bit more confident now doing so.



Thanks once more,

Anthony
 
Anthony Orosco said:
MachB5



Thanks again :) I have the ability to slice in PS and I also have Adobe Illustrator which I have never used :chuckle:



GREAT!.....now I may have to go back to my original idea and change once again the whole site!! :cry: Jus kiddin, I think I may change a few things, graphic wise, but I feel a bit more confident now doing so.



Thanks once more,

Anthony
Click to expand...



No worries, if I can help out at all with anything else just holler. :wavey
 
BradUF said:
Hey do you know anything about GIMP? I had photoshop, a pirated version but lost it so I just got GIMP.
Click to expand...





Never used GIMP. I learned PS mainly from trial and error.....countless hours in despair and frustration and I also have alot of books on it plus went to alot of tutorial websites. Once you grasp the whole "layer" deal that's half the battle :) I'm sure there are tutorials for this also.



Here is part of my orginal idea in terms of having an interface. The blue button on the side are rollovers that turn red when pressed and when they are rollover by the mouse a link description of that page slides out from the side.



In the upper portion of the banner would go my biz name and some type of logo would go in the upper left hand corner box.



I designed the interface in PS and used filters and some tweaking to get the chrome look. What are your thoughts on this design?



Thanks,

Anthony



testhome3mc.jpg
 
You are never suppose to have a black back ground because it limits what color text you can use and its hard on the eyes.
 
BradUF said:
You are never suppose to have a black back ground because it limits what color text you can use and its hard on the eyes.
Click to expand...



Check.... I'll go with a grey gradient background. I'll post up a sample later.



Anthony
 
Well I am busy putting together my retail site and also reworking all the graphics of my other site. I feel my site right now is boring and lackluster.....so I am designing everything in Photoshop and slicing and such in ImageReady. I am going for something a bit wilder with more color.



The buttons will have the page titles across them in chrome lettering and a banner will be underneath the buttons. I have no idea why I added chains but I saw them on biker website and figured out how to make them...thought they looked kinda cool so I added them :grinno:



webpageforum0aa.jpg
 
If you're not constrained for storage space, I would suggest making the linked pictures as big as possible, perhaps a width of 800 would suffice. I clicked on your thumbnails and I was a bit disappointed by the quality of the JPG files. I know your work is a lot better than the pictures show, but one cannot see that with the low quality pictures that show jagged edges. If your hosting company doesn't have space limitations, heck put up the biggest, highest quality JPG and put a watermark on them to help prevent picture thievery.



Also, just by looking at your most current layouts, while they look cool from the get-go, you may find them to look old real quick. What I've found to work real well with effective websites is their simplistic layout graphics but balanced with great content including wording & pictures!



How about working on a killer logo? Perhaps not of a picture of a just a car, but a part of the car that emphasizes reflectivity & depth of color from your work? May be you may want to think about outsourcing that to a graphic artist (just food for thought.)



Make all font sizes the same unless they are used for quotes or to show some sort of emphasis.



That's it from me and good luck with the final design!



-Mike
 
Hey thanks Mike....I have taken all the advice given here and I really appreciate it :)



I do have ONE other more "modern" and a bit more conservative site that is in the works also...actually shelved it many moons ago as it it became too difficult for me but perhaps now I can dust it off and continue with it.



I'll post that up and see what you all think of that one.



As for name...I can't really post up my biz name so that's why I went with the UR..maybe a logo though :think2



Thanks,

Anthony
 
I just noticed in the "Ultimate Story" your picture is blocking some words at the end of the first and second sentence.
 
Thanks for the notice of that!



I am doing away with that site even though I just put it up :rofl So all those little bugs should be fixed.



I'll also have a much nicer picture area.



Anthony
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top