Website Basics | Images | Promotion

Viewers will in large part, judge your craftsmanship based on your website.  If you take the time to make it look professional, their trust in your craftsmanship will immediately increase. Here are some pointers to help your internet experience be successful.

• Easy to read text/background contrast and "clean" format

• Creative layout showing your workmanship to advantage

• Efficient format that loads quickly & dependably over time. THIS IS CRITICAL.  It means optimizing your images, so they load quickly.  

• Formatting that loads reliably across browsers, and views properly across a wide range of monitors.  If you don't understand what that statement means, then you may need assistance in publishing your website.

• Navigation system that allows viewers to move easily between all pages and back again.

• Easy site identification & contact information on each page or access to a "Contact" page from every page.

• Javascript, flashing signs, animations etc. are very distracting to many viewers, and can also cause your site to malfunction.  Use them very cautiously and judiciously if at all.

IMAGES

• When outside, choose an overcast day, or find nice even shade in which to take photos.
• When indoors, take photos in daylight hours, and augment the light from all directions (each side & top.)
• Lighting can be evened by use of a "fill-in" flash, "bounce" flash, or reflecting light off a light colored surface.  The use of flood lights, will also aid with indoor lighting.
• Generally two lights at different angles from the front are preferable. Avoid harsh lights and deep shadows

2. Background

• Look through the viewfinder carefully, to avoid distracting electrical cords, pets, etc. in the background.
• Find a background that offers reasonable contrast and is not distracting to the product.  In general chairs photograph well against medium to light walls, wood, or a corner of a room.  Your product is not shown off to it's best advantage with wrinkled sheets behind them.

3. Distance

• Get close to the object to show detail, and cut down on distraction.
• When getting in close, use a "fill-in" or "bounce" flash, or a telephoto lens to reduce the direct brightness from the flash on the object.

4. The highest resolution viewed online is 72dpi.  When taking digital pictures, standard resolution is usually sufficient. Smaller image file size will enable you to save your images to disk or transmit as attachments to your designer, and potential customers.

5. The best Image File Format for photographic images on websites is .jpg.  This gives good clarity in the photo and a reasonable file size for transmission over the internet. If you are going to use the photo for printed material as well, save an additional copy in .tiff format for better print quality.  Save the .tiff format before creating the .jpg.  Once you have reduced the quality to .jpg, you will not be able to get it back.

6.  Now that you have taken nice photos, OPTIMIZE THEM ALL.  Many graphics programs have built in optimizers and there are online services that will optimize them.  The majority of the country still uses dial-up internet connection and if you put large file size photos online, many viewers will not wait to see them load.  Images should be around 30K maximum per page.  

7. Another tip:  Do not resize your large images in the coding to create thumbnails.  When you do this, the large file has to load before they see your thumbnails.  Instead, make a new smaller images.  If you do not have the capabilities to do these last two tasks, hire someone to do it.  I cannot stress enough how very important to your online success these are.

PROMOTION

Finding links to your website is the most important effort you can make to ensure success.  The number of links to your site raises your ranking in search engines and increases your source of hits from relevant sites. There are thousands of websites coming on to the internet daily, and most search engines are ranking listings by the number of links to the site.  

To find good links to your site, visit other sites of similar subject.  Many may offer reciprocal (meaning you need to add a link to them in return) or search for free links.  Don't forget to visit some of the links on their sites also to get more sources for links. If you find a site you are interested in linking with, send them a friendly email with your URL (website address), name and subject of your site and ask if they are willing to do a reciprocal link. Most will respond one way or the other.  Many site owners update their sites infrequently, so be patient if it takes a couple weeks to be added, but do check back.  Set a reasonable goal for yourself.  Adding just one or two links per week over a few weeks will offer big results.

When requesting a link, be sure to send the person the all of the following:

1. The name of your site
2. Your site address (URL)
3. Any descriptive text you wish after your site name.

SAMPLE EMAIL:

Hello,
I visited your nice website today and would be interested in establishing a reciprocal link.  If you are interested, please let me know and I will add a link to your site within the week.

Cricket Press
http://www.crickpress.com
Affordable website design and maintenance for artisans

Once you have added a link to your site, don't forget to check their site to make sure they added you. It is a good idea to check the links on your site once a month or so to make sure you do not have any dead links, and to make sure you are still listed on their site.

I hope these tips add to your success on the internet.