First web site

[CG]

Hmmm,

The right click thing ... First: I 'm not as philosophically opposed, but instead, it just messes with my kinda fast surfing habits, so it becomes an annoyance, and like many people, an annoyance on the web generally impels me to leave a site rather quickly.

Second: It feels like someone is expecting me to be thieving their images, and I tend to feel like I am not fully welcome on the site.

The flip side however is that I suspect a tremendous number of web images get swiped as roughs for ad layouts, and that your image once on the web, is in more danger of being replicated to some degree by another photographer assigned to do something "like this", meaning your shot. I'm not sure I see any great defence.

Best,

C

[Saulius]

The "reality" I speak of it that the "right click disable" function just pisses people off and they jump from your site to sites they perceive to be more friendly. It has nothing to do with your intent... It's just how cyberspace works. Similar to using all caps being shouting, etc.

This and other comments have now made it clear to me why the right click disable ticks people off. I just got some time to take it out and seems to allow it on all pages now. I guess the biggest issue was my ignorance as to why people do use the right click so much. Thanks again to all for making that clear.

[Saulius]

Oh, and the reason I did do the disable right click was not so much to keep people from copying it. I knew there were easy ways around it. But in the off chance someone did, and by some chance they did use it for some financial gain, and if by some chance I found out about it I figured if it ever came to it that from a legal standpoint it might help my cause because it was there as is my copyright notice at the bottom of each page. Never realizing there were so many out there who use the right click for various other proper activities. Oh well, live and learn.

[Rob Champagne]

Oh, and the reason I did do the disable right click was not so much to keep people from copying it. I knew there were easy ways around it. But in the off chance someone did, and by some chance they did use it for some financial gain, and if by some chance I found out about it I figured if it ever came to it that from a legal standpoint it might help my cause because it was there as is my copyright notice at the bottom of each page. Never realizing there were so many out there who use the right click for various other proper activities. Oh well, live and learn.

There you go again. All negative about everything. I'll just write my website so its geared up to help the lawyers just in case I need to sue someone.

[Marko]

Oh, and the reason I did do the disable right click was not so much to keep people from copying it. I knew there were easy ways around it. But in the off chance someone did, and by some chance they did use it for some financial gain, and if by some chance I found out about it I figured if it ever came to it that from a legal standpoint it might help my cause because it was there as is my copyright notice at the bottom of each page. Never realizing there were so many out there who use the right click for various other proper activities. Oh well, live and learn.

OK, let's say you find out that someone indeed stole one of your images.

1. What do you think they would do with it?
2. How much would they gain by stealing it?
3. How much would you stand to lose in the process?
4. How much would a legal action to recover your rights and expenses cost you?
5. How much do you think you would be able to actually recover from them?



Now that you have answers to these questions, here's a few more:

6. How many visitors are you going to lose by having your site NOT function properly OR even acting offensively in their browser?

7. How many of those visitors would be prospective clients? Or to phrase the question differently, how much would you lose in sales by losing these visitors?

8. How much would it cost you to hire a designer/developer to create a professional looking and behaving site?

[Saulius]

Well, like I said several posts ago I was going to re-able the right click and I did. So I see no point in discussing this further.

[Kuzano]

How much would it cost to use a professional web designer.

As a computer consultant and with 20 plus years of marketing background, I would recommend a veeery careful approach on this score.

1) There are a lot of players in the web design market and there is no control on certification and/or professionalism. It's a lot easier to get someone who will charge a lot of money and deliver a questionable product.
2) The sketchy ones are just as likely to charge the big dollars as a qualified and proven professional. Again, as a result of the lack of control in this market.
3) There are a lot of technically qualified web makers (note I did not say designers) who have little or no concept of a visually attractive web site, ie lots of white space, and appropriate use of color.
4) There are a lot of design worthy individuals in the field who lack technical expertise.
5) There are tons of Web Design and Layout firms out there who want a big fee for getting the site up and running, but want nothing to do with ongoing maintenance.
6) Control over timing of updates and fixes to the site can be frustrating when your income is predicated on having 24 and 7 operation of a functioning web site.

I tell you this. The best way to find a web designer is to find a site that you would like to emulate, and that you see updated frequently, and that is up 24 and 7. Then go talk to that designer.

Little will be gained by just getting recommendations from people who have other types of web sites.

There is a strong argument in my mind for DIY on your web site. For these reasons:

1) If you are a good photographer, you probably have a better eye for the composition of a web page than most web design firms.
2) If you can learn how to use Photoshop and a scanner and all that digital photography equipment, you can surely learn how to make and be responsible for your web site.
3) Why pay anything other than hosting and connection fees!!!!!!!!!!
4) I seriously doubt that web sites generate enough income to pay someone else to do them.
5) Make sure that you understand the importance of the "registration with search engines" properly before spending any time or money on your site. Search engine registration is an art in itself. Many web design firms don't even address registering with search engines. It's a specialty field for some. WHO NEEDS a web site, if it cannot be found by searching the web.

[Dave Parker]

How much would it cost to use a professional web designer.

As a computer consultant and with 20 plus years of marketing background, I would recommend a veeery careful approach on this score.

1) There are a lot of players in the web design market and there is no control on certification and/or professionalism. It's a lot easier to get someone who will charge a lot of money and deliver a questionable product.
2) The sketchy ones are just as likely to charge the big dollars as a qualified and proven professional. Again, as a result of the lack of control in this market.
3) There are a lot of technically qualified web makers (note I did not say designers) who have little or no concept of a visually attractive web site, ie lots of white space, and appropriate use of color.
4) There are a lot of design worthy individuals in the field who lack technical expertise.
5) There are tons of Web Design and Layout firms out there who want a big fee for getting the site up and running, but want nothing to do with ongoing maintenance.
6) Control over timing of updates and fixes to the site can be frustrating when your income is predicated on having 24 and 7 operation of a functioning web site.

I tell you this. The best way to find a web designer is to find a site that you would like to emulate, and that you see updated frequently, and that is up 24 and 7. Then go talk to that designer.

Little will be gained by just getting recommendations from people who have other types of web sites.

There is a strong argument in my mind for DIY on your web site. For these reasons:

1) If you are a good photographer, you probably have a better eye for the composition of a web page than most web design firms.
2) If you can learn how to use Photoshop and a scanner and all that digital photography equipment, you can surely learn how to make and be responsible for your web site.
3) Why pay anything other than hosting and connection fees!!!!!!!!!!
4) I seriously doubt that web sites generate enough income to pay someone else to do them.
5) Make sure that you understand the importance of the "registration with search engines" properly before spending any time or money on your site. Search engine registration is an art in itself. Many web design firms don't even address registering with search engines. It's a specialty field for some. WHO NEEDS a web site, if it cannot be found by searching the web.

Some good points being made here, but not all quite true, there are good web companies around that don't charge big buck to design maintain and host a website, I know this for a fact, because besides doing ground glass, My Wife and I have owned a web design and hosting company for over 10 years now, and have done hundreds of websites, our average customer has been with us at least 5 years, and many of them over 7 years(almost un-heard of in the web business)

But if you are diligent, you can hire a reasonable web company with a proven record and not spend to much money. That said, if you have the time and put in the effort to learn correct web design techniques as well as search engine registration, you can successfully design your own website. The biggest mistake most people who do their own website make, is:

1. They don't follow proper web design rules and thus, it is not correctly displayed in all web browsers.

2. The get it designed and then never update it, so it becomes stale an not worth going back to.

3. They have no clue how the search engine business works, hence never gets seen except by friends and family, and we KNOW how much they will spend for your pictures!

One of the best reasons to hire a good web designer, is because that is their job, WEb design and maintenance is all my wife does, I am her partner and help when their is a programming problem, but for the most part, I do glass, she does websites 8 hours a day 6 days a week.

Before you take on a website of your own that you design and maintain, you need to ask yourself a few questions...do you have or want to take the time to keep it current and professional looking to keep interest in it?

Are you comfortable learning the search engine submission business, which is very important to become successful on the web, the best looking website, don't mean squat if you don't know how to work the search engines.

And lastly, can you set your ego aside enough to design and maintain a website that will appeal to your target market and not your vanity, IE quirky little features that may cause problems for others that don't for you.. AS you found out with the right click, a whole bunch of people really get angry when they run into that, and won't look any further through your website, hence lost viewers and lost income.

Take your time, learn along the way and be willing to change as the web changes and you should do fine.

Good luck on your new venture.

Dave

[Ed Richards]

While I like the frame on the homepage, I find it very busy and distracting in the gallieries. The black and white images are very nice.

[Marko]

2) If you can learn how to use Photoshop and a scanner and all that digital photography equipment, you can surely learn how to make and be responsible for your web site.

Sure. Just as you can learn how to make great looking photographs if you know how to use Photoshop and the latest Kodak EasyShare P&S camera.

In fact, there are lot of websites like that, even on this very board, and even more such photographs flying around the Internet. And they all have two things in common:

1. Everybody can make them.
2. It shows.

3) Why pay anything other than hosting and connection fees!!!!!!!!!!
4) I seriously doubt that web sites generate enough income to pay someone else to do them.

For the same reason anybody would pay a professional photographer to create professional looking photographs. Because web design/photography is their job, that's what they do for a living. Chances are they are better at it and more current with all the intricacies than you can ever be simply because they do it every day. It's not the knowledge that makes professionals so good at what they do, it's the practice.

If you can't generate enough income to pay for it, then your business doesn't really need it (website or photography) or your business itself is not really a business but more of a hobby. You certainly don't need a pro to create a website so that Uncle Bob can log in and look at all the great snapshots you made last summer. But then again, you don't need a professional photographer to capture those either, Uncle Bob won't see a difference anyway.