Tweek Your Website Like The Big Guys!

[John Esberg]

Morning everyone!

This weekend I'm spending a lot of time doing upgrades on the website and on my catalogs. I really do believe in having a nice web presence. It comes from my old COB, "Chief Of The Boat", when he said, "Perception is reality."

A marketing consultant told me about a picture hosting service called Photobucket. Granted I've not upgraded to a paid subscription, I've used the free service quite a bit. If you go the the following links you can see how I used it to spruce up a couple of my web pages without having to do a bunch of extra scripting on my web servers.

The uploading of the pictures is quite easy and after that its just a matter of copying and dumping code where you need it. I love it!

Well, I hope some of you find this useful. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

DAK

[Scott Winstead]

Very nice - I really like the simplicity and the detailed pictures of your web site. I'm going through this right now and am using Dotster for my hosting/site builder. Did you code your site from scratch? Using Site builder is pretty easy but you're stuck with their templates and limited services.

With the Dotster/web hosting/site builder package, I'm paying $8.46/month for a year which I think is pretty good based on what I've compared to with other options. But, I also agree with you - "perception is reality" and I like your site much better than mine right now.

[John Esberg]

Scott,

Actually, I followed Microsoft's recommendation in going to Allwebco for a website template. I also use them for hosting. I like thier up time too. Even though I bought the template, it still takes a lot of time to customize it for your own needs.

To do all of my customization, I use CorelDraw X3 suite for the graphics and .pdf files, SmartFTP for moving things around, and Microsoft FrontPage 2002 to do all of the HTML editing. I try not to do coding, so I just look for scripts when I need them.

So, can I see your site?

V/R,

DAK

[Jim Becker]

There are a lot of nice resources available today for improving the "aesthetic quality" of web sites even if you're not a coder. For example, I've been using Blogger to make adding content easier and faster so that maybe I'll add new material more often...my site is due for a refresh and that's the track I'm taking. I've also used readily available Javascript routines withing Dreamweaver to enhance my sites...'easy enough for me to understand an manipulate without knowing how to code it from scratch. I do my photo and graphic manipulation locally, however.

[Boyd Gathwright]

.... Thanks John, I'll try to make the best of this as time allows :).



Morning everyone!

This weekend I'm spending a lot of time doing upgrades on the website and on my catalogs. I really do believe in having a nice web presence. It comes from my old COB, "Chief Of The Boat", when he said, "Perception is reality."

A marketing consultant told me about a picture hosting service called Photobucket. Granted I've not upgraded to a paid subscription, I've used the free service quite a bit. If you go the the following links you can see how I used it to spruce up a couple of my web pages without having to do a bunch of extra scripting on my web servers.

The uploading of the pictures is quite easy and after that its just a matter of copying and dumping code where you need it. I love it!

Well, I hope some of you find this useful. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

DAK

[Frank Hagan]

One thing to keep in mind is that the external Internet service can go away in an instant, so you will want to keep a backup copy on your own computer.

Amazon.com is experimenting with some shared services like Photobucket too, as Google is also. These are services that allow you to add things to your site like news headlines, photo sharing, document collaboration, etc.

I "roll my own" sites as a hobby, coding them in raw HTML with cascading style sheets doing most of the "neato" effects. Its easier for me to do that than play with a template system (and I like the fast loading that I can code myself).

[Robert Mickley]

whats the reason for using photo bucket for your images? Trying to save on bandwidth?

I noticed some where on PB and some where on your own server. My personal opinion is having pics popup from PB doesn't look as profesional.

I do like the layout and its very pleasing to the eye.

Just my 2 cents worth ;)

Added in, you don't see the big guys using PB

[Jim Becker]

I agree with Robert...I used PhotoBucket for some images for a BLOG prior to Blogger not supporting direct upload and because it made it easy for both myself and Dr. SWMBO to upload pics, but have moved away from it. Risky for long-term storage of meaningful content...

And yes, the "big guys" don't use services like PB. It's strictly aimed at consumers and very small businesses.

[John Esberg]

You guys do have a good point. The lifetime of a service like PB can be short. On the other hand, it might be long. Personally, I never really plan on keeping something like that up very long. That kind of content I actually replace every couple of months. I either put up new eye catching gimics or build something new.

You guys also asked whey don't the big guys use it? Well, they've got people on staff to cover code. I don't have that much free time right now.

You also mentioned using Dreamweaver. I'd like to upgrade, but that's not in the budget right now. I'll have to check out blogger though.

So, does anyone know of any good scripts for photo handling? Something like what you would find in PB?

DAK