Website development suggestion

Jewelry Discussion
21

One reason to use a good professional web page person is that the
normal commercial do-it-yourself software packages such as
Dreamweaver
etc. can produce very code-heavy pages. Another problem with some of
them is that they produce pages which are not compatible with all
browsers. What does this mean? Well, if you are paying for your
hosting on a bandwidth basis - either as a charge per Gigabyte of
download or as a fixed download limit per month, a code-heavy page
will either cost you more for a given number of views or will limit
the number of people who can view the page per month. Cross browser
compatibility means that your page created in Windows may not be
formatted correctly if viewed on a browser on a Mac or Linux machine
or even on the various browsers in Windows - Firefox, Opera, Mozilla
etc. Typical problems are that pictures appear in the wrong position
or that text runs over or under pictures. Code-heavy pages (meaning
those with a lot of tables, frames, Javascript etc.) will also be
slower to load which will put a lot of people off staying on your
site. One easy way to speed up loading of your page is to run all the
photos through Photoshop and do a ‘Save for Web’ on them - this cuts
down the file size of the photo by up to 75% and so makes it load a
lot faster. While I am not saying don’t create your own webpage, I
would suggest that when you have uploaded it to the server, you ask
as
many people as you can (maybe on the list) to view it an tell you
whether or not it is working OK on the whole range of browsers.

As an example, my brother recently used one of the best known
commercial packages to set up a new webpage to advertise the book he
has just had published. The final page looked good on his Mac but was
hopeless on Windows browsers so he asked my son to look at it (he
does web and graphics work for a living). In quite a short time he
had
the pages fully sorted and had cut down their file sizes to less than
a quarter of what they had originally been.

Best wishes,
Ian
Ian W. Wright
Sheffield UK

22 
Are there places out there that allow you to "do" your own
website?

Carla, this has actually been mentioned, I think. I’d suggest
(anyone) doing a Google for “Web hosting” or “website hosting” -
you’ll get hundreds of hits - and then just look at the features.
Pretty much all of them have a design feature, templates, etc. I
guess you can also use things like myspace and youtube for what you
ask, but that’s not exactly a website, though it is a space online,
if that’s all you want in the end…

23

Carla,

You might find a Blog just right for what you want and use the blog
to link in to your professional site. I put works in progress,
travels, etc. in mine. I don’t use a blogging site, but run it out of
our jeweler’s resources Spectrum site.

Louise
http://www.jewelryspectrum.com

24 
I couldn't disagree more. There is a huge difference between a
static site where you only show pictures but where there is no
customer-seller online interaction (which indeed can be built
through Dreamweaver or similar programs) and a dynamic online store

Yeah, Isabella, I thought I’d catch some flak for that, but I tried
to stress that a professional site - that is, one that’s beyond most
of us metalsmiths’ capabilities, will require much more. The
original post (by Kim) said that she was having troubles getting a
template-based web server figured out. For someone like that to get
into a PHP or ASP driven dynamic site is probably similar to
becoming and astronaut. And, as you say, that’s when you call the
pros. I understand how a dynamic site works, and how to set it up,
but I’D probably not undertake that myself - it’s just too tricky to
get good results. No, what you say is true, but I also stand by what
I said - someone who wants to put a up a good site even with a
shopping cart by themselves on the cheap doesn’t need to write code,
these days - that’s just to give the newbies in web design some
hope, really. Then again, yes, building a sophisticated site with
dynamic content and other bells and whistles is going to require at
least some knowlege - maybe a lot - of HTML, Perl scripting and ASP
and more. Really my point is that someone wanting to put up a site
can do that in a week, without writing a line of HTML, and evolve
into more as they learn more and more the deeper things. That it’s
not like the old days when it was REQUIRED to know it all before
even starting out.

25

My reply to the original post, again, was to a complete newbie trying
to get a site up and running - that’s the context of my thoughts.
Certainly, if one wants a professional site one needs either
professional skills or to hire someone who has them, but that wasn’t
the question. The question was, “How can I break the ice?” I’m not
suggesting that everyone should make their own site under all
circumstances by any means - my own site is a perfect example. It has
some of my own personality, which is the whole idea, and it’s my own
creativity, but it needs a complete redesign (which I need to make
the time for) because it’s creaky, messy, and has many issues. But
it’s MY site, and I think many others want the same. Plus I didn’t
pay $5,000 for it, and I think many others are looking for that, too.
My thoughts about code are very simple (again). Someone CAN get a
site up without taking a college course in HTML. As I said, they’ll
be better if they do know it, or learn it, but they don’t HAVE to to
get a website up and running. And the nice thing about Dreamweaver is
that you can type code to your heart’s content - it’s got everything.
There’s nothing to disagree about - If one wants a slick,
professional, streamlined site, then they need to hire a pro or gain
pro skills. If one wants to get a site up that they are happy with on
their own, it’s not very difficult to do in today’s world, and it
doesn’t require a degree in computer programming, like it used to.

http://www.donivanandmaggiora.com

26

I’m sure there are lots of ways to debate this. I’ve never used any
of the website authoring programs, I can’t speak for how easy they
are or aren’t. I started from scratch at the beginning, writing my
site in HTML. Now, maybe it’s the cheapskate in me that didn’t want
to spend $100-200 on the software (they’ve probably gotten cheaper
now), but I was absolutely amazed at what your site can look like
with literally only a few lines of code. Granted, I was already a
bit of computer programmer, but really, truly, HTML is simple. I had
a “how to” sort of magazine that had me open WordPad, type in a few
lines, and then see what I’d created. My reaction was, “What?! I did
that with only that little bit of text?!” Now, of course to place
lots of images on the site, go from one page to another, etc,
requires a few more lines of code text, but it’s pretty repetitive.
You learn a few basic things & use them over & over. And so long as
you don’t need anything fancy, it really can be learned pretty
quickly, I think. I’m sure there’s a “dummies” book that can get
most people off to a good start, much like that magazine I used
several years ago. Then, too, surf the net & see what others are
doing with their sites, find colors you like, etc, then just do
View/Source to see the code that’s needed for it (if you in fact find
it amognst all the notes inserted by that writer’s software program).
Plus, there are countless websites out there with sample code for
doing various things. A nice & simple, yet still very professional
site, does not require a lot of fancy code. As I mentioned before,
you learn a few basic things & then just use them throughout the
site. I think the idea of writing HTML really shouldn’t be shied away
from just because it’s “code”, people shouldn’t be scared of it.
Sure, if after a couple days of trying it just isn’t “your thing”,
then by all means spend the money on the software. Heck, maybe it’s
only a few bucks these days. And, actually, some programs you already
have might have the ability to “publish to HTML”, although I don’t
imagine they have the versatility you can get with either the
“official” authoring programs, or just writing the code directly.
I’ve been doing the authoring myself long enough now that I couldn’t
switch to one of the programs, even if it was super cheap. I like the
control I have, I suppose. Anyway, just something to think about.

Lisa
Designs by Lisa Gallagher

27

Blogger.com was surpirisingly easy. It took a bit of clicking around
to figure out how to. add/move pictures, but no HTML knowledge
required.

Bev Ludlow
Renaissance Jewelry
http://www.wirewrapjeweler.com

28

Hi

Thanks so much to everyone for all of the tips. I didn’t imagine that
I would get this much You all have been very helpful.
After much wringing of the hands, I found a company called Homestead.
I decided to pay 5 dollars a month for a couple of months and I put
up a very basic contact page with a nice picture at
hstrial-kstarbard.homestead.com/index.html

Right now I’m working on getting my page to be at
kimstarbarddesigns.com instead of the trial page…they say it takes
2 weeks to forward to the new address (seeing as how I’m married to
the director of an IT dept, I personally don’t think anything in
computer land takes that long but whatever)

I would like to learn something about HTML and all the other things
people have brought up. I’ve checked out a book. I don’t think I
need to become an expert though because we can’t all be great at
everything and I should be more focused on learning new jewelry
techniques.

Now, I have to set about putting together a “body of work”. In a
couple months, I would like to have enough images to have a shopping
cart on a more extensive site. When I figure this all out and make it
nice I’m going to be sure to write everyone and tell them exactly how
I did it. I think people should be able to do these things themselves
if they really want to (like I really want to).

Being married to a tech guy, I can pretty much just ask if I want
anything that has to do with computers, but, for some reason, it is
(right now) very important to me that I become more independent. It
might have to do with all the marathon training (which makes one
feel like a superhero) I don’t know. Oh, if anyone has time, please
let me know what you think of the site. I know it’s tiny, but more is
coming.

Thanks for everything
Kim
Kim Starbard
http://www.kimstarbarddesigns.com

29 
Granted, I was already a bit of computer programmer, but really,
truly, HTML is simple. I had a "how to" sort of magazine that had
me open WordPad, type in a few lines, and then see what I'd
created. My reaction was, "What?! I did that with only that little
bit of text?!"

Thank you, Lisa, for the voice of reason. I’ve been active on this
thread because I’m probably in the perfect place to talk: I decided
to do a website (being extremely computer savvy is part of it, in my
case), so I gathered the tools, read some books, and made a web site
from scratch - then I did it again, now I SHOULD (and will) do it
yet again. In other words, I speaking from having done the learning
curve, but far from professional. I’m not saying, nor did I ever
say, that’s there’s no use for code. What I said, and again, is that
a newcomer doesn’t HAVE to know code in today’s world - they’ll have
do know enough about it to do debugging and such, at least, though.
I don’t just think Dreamweaver is a good resource for the serious
web designer, I think it’s one of the finest programs of any kind
ever made - ease of use, features, docs, interface, “the driver’s
seat.” One of the nice things about it - most likely other programs,
too - is that if you draw a table or anything, and highlight it and
hit the code tab, the code for your table is highlighted front and
center. Also vice-versa - highlight the code and in the other view
that element will be highlighted. Plus it has on-the-fly debugging
and syntax checking - and a library of clips. It permits complete
freedom in website design - code, graphical, both. I was a little
put off, and curious why, too, some writers chipped in with stuff
like “you have to have a full fledged, “perfect”, streamlined,
clean, absolute, don’t offend anybody, you can’t do it, go to
school, there’s more to it than that, you’re nuts” advice. Well, yes
I can, and yes I did. With today’s tools it’s pretty easy to get a
decent site up - then you can tweak it and update and redesign it as
you know more. And if you want a site like SNAG with 10,000 members
(what that has to do with a lady working in her garage I do not
know), then you can and should hire a pro. If you do that keep an
eye on them, too. I went to David Austin roses and had 175 hi res
images load every time the page hit. Pro is a relative term, too.

30

Code… ick. I’ve had to do it here and there, but being a visual
person, I really prefer to see images rather than and other bits that
only make sense to geeks.

The templates from most internet service providers are rather
limited and rarely designed for artists or anyone selling off their
site. If you haven’t already committed to a host, you might check out
what kind of templates some of the more pro hosting sites offer. I’ve
been happy with iPowerweb, and while I don’t use their templates,
the demos I’ve seen look promising.

My site was originally designed by another artist, who liked
designing sites but hated maintaining them, so she taught me what I
needed to know to change out the work, and I’ve learned enough over
the years to give it occasional makeovers. Another option is instead
of forking over for Dreamweaver, cheap software called ‘Contribute’
is available, which allows a non designer to add or change content
to an existing site if you go that route.

Rather than a shopping cart for my one-of-a-kind work, I opted to
use links that send emails to me requesting info. That made it easier
to manage having pieces at galleries drop shipped from there. For my
video and my prints, I used the shopping cart plug in from my host,
and was rather amazed that I could do it in the first try!

Best wishes,
Victoria

P.S. Whoever said s/he was also a Mac user, YES, all sites should
work on Safari too!!!

Victoria Lansford

31

For those who do want to do their own coding or editing, I
recommend a piece of free software called HTML-Kit by a company
named Chami, down-loadable here http://www.htmlkit.com. You can get
lots of plug-ins to accomplish anything you want - it edits html,
css, xml, xhtml, javascript, php & others, and it formats and colors
your coding structures so you can more easily see errors. Its
basically a tool that makes hand-coding easier - doesn’t generate
code, except for basic tags.

I use it exclusively, even tho i have Dreamweaver. Actually, I don’t
like Dreamweaver as it has a funky UI and doesn’t work consistently
with either a Microsoft or Unix paradigm, and I wasn’t into learning
yet another way to make software work. Just to be truly good,
HTML-Kit is available to run on either Microsoft or Unix platforms,
for those who care…

Ivy

32 
I put up a very basic contact page with a nice picture at
hstrial-kstarbard.homestead.com

Kim, I gotta tell you, that’s about as fine a site as I’ve ever
seen!! They told me my domain name could take 24 hours (two weeks is
a looooooong time for that), and it came in 10 minutes. Your
template is nice, but as you learn it all you’ll be able to make
your own - a template can be a “canned” page, but it is also one
that you make that keeps your site consistent. Finally, the first
rule of web design is not browser compatability, or colors, or
loading time, or streamlining, or keywords. The three rules of web
design are 1) Content 2) Content, 3) Content. Good luck! As with all
things, breaking the ice is the hardest part…

33

Hi John

I gotta tell you, that's about as fine a site as I've ever seen!!
They told me my domain name could take 24 hours (two weeks is a
looooooong time for that), and it came in 10 minutes.

Thank you, thank you, thank you…sometimes, all I need is a little
boost in confidence and I am good for another 5000 miles…The
domain thing for me is taking longer because I had to transfer it
from a company that I was not happy with to Homestead. The domain
name has to pass through a company called Tucows up in Canada and
then all kinds of legal stuff that (honestly) I don’t really
understand. They have to make sure that I really am who I say I am,
that I actually own the name, and that I really want it to be
transferred.

In another thread, someone asked about the protection of a domain
name. It is actually pretty difficult to fool around with the whole
system. The only way anyone could ever take my domain name is if I
let it lapse (I don’t pay for renewal in a timely manner). Even then,
a certain period of time has to pass before anyone else can buy it.
There are companies (outside the U.S.) that “squat” on names. They
buy them cheap (with every available extension) and then offer to
auction them back off. If you find a good domain name, buy it and
keep it until you want to use it.

One more thing, if you are putting up a site and buying the domain
name for the first time…don’t let your web designer or anyone else
“buy” the name on your behalf. Always have that name bought under
your own name. The reason…if you have a dispute later, the person
who bought the domain name retains it and if he/she doesn’t want to
give it to you, there is nothing you can do to get it back. I am not
proud to say that I had a dispute with 3 former business partners who
did not want to pay the buyout amount on my contract…guess whose
name the domain was in and guess which 3 former business partners
never got to use it again…

Thank you so much for the kind words
Kim

Kim Starbard
http://www.kimstarbarddesigns.com

34

This whole thread has inspired me to retool my site - I started the
first of the year, but I guess I just gotta sit down wit’ it. I
rediscovered this link buried in my favorites - MUCH very useful
info: http://www.webdesign.org

A comparable site for flash:

http://www.donivanandmaggiora.com

35

Kimberly:

I did my own website using Yahoo’s “Sitebuilder.” Does not require
any use of programming language and has many templates to use or you
can do it from scratch. Easy to update your site with this program
too. Just make changes and publish it again. I also use Yahoo as my
website host and have no complaints with their customer service.

It takes a while to put up a nice site but this is part of your
marketing so it is worth the effort if you cannot afford to hire a
web designer (took me about two weeks of solid work to get it up and
running including web sales through PayPal). See the results at
www.touchstonejewelrydesign.com.

Cynthia Clearwater
Touchstone Jewelry Design
www.touchstonejewelrydesign.com

36

I haven’t been following this thread that closely, so I apologize if
I’m kinda off the gist of this topic…

I love my website: http://www.amerycarriere.com

It was done by artist Grant Searcey grantsearcey.com.

My business has doubled since the website went up and you can’t even
order from it! Almost everyone who visits it compliments it. I can
brag about it 'cause I didn’t design it :slight_smile:

I’m working on a password protected wholesale only section where
there will be a shopping cart where buyers can place their orders
online. I’m using a company called “cart keeper” www.cartkeeper.com.
Her name is Nina. It’s going to be a lot of work to get it all set
up, I’ve been dragging my feet for months. But once it’s up it’ll be
great-- on-line catalogs and I’ll be able to update my pics myself as
soon as I make new pieces. I’m very excited.

Please if you use either one of these great people tell them I sent
you. It probably won’t do anything monetary-wise for me or you, but
it shows what good service and word of mouth can do!

-amery

37

Hi Amery

My business has doubled since the website went up and you can't
even order from it! Almost everyone who visits it compliments it. I
can brag about it 'cause I didn't design it :)

Thanks so much for writing. I do like the way you did your website.
When you say that your business has doubled, do you attribute that
only to the fact that you have the site? Which has doubled…the
wholesale or the retail business? How do people know how to find you?

Thanks
Kim

Kim Starbard
http://www.kimstarbarddesigns.com

38

I just put up a new site - still have to caption all the pics,
though. That’s not why I’m writing, though - this is a tip that most
of you experienced site designers surely already know. Search engines
like Google read your HTML file for keywords and other things to make
sure it’s legit, and then a search will pull up your name. That’s why
a pure Flash site won’t come up without some tricks, because there’s
only a Flash movie and no text. Me, I don’t want to have my header
done in Arial font or some such that a browser can read. So, I go
into Photoshop and design a header as I please, with any font I like,
flatten it, save for web, and use that as my background image. But,
you say, that’s not text either, and a search engine won’t see it
either. That’s true, and here’s the trick - also if you have a Flash
header or something: Anywhere on your page that has one color (on
your template is best), type your site name, your name, anything else
you think might be good to put, and then make the color of your font
the same color as the background (use the eyedropper). It will be in
the HTML file, but no one will see it. This is an addition to meta
tags and keywords - it will just plaster your file with your name,
with little overhead…

http://www.donivanandmaggiora.com

39

Hi John,

I’m sure there will be lots of response to your post… but…

Search engines got wise to the trick of having text and background
colours the same, they’ll ignore this, and often will ignore the site
too.

Try using Alt tags for your pictures (you should anyway just for
accesability) - if you’re putting your name in a picture format,
it’s logical to put the name in the alt tag as well.

Alison

40

Putting words in the same color as the background is frowned upon
and some search enginges will list you as a spammer site and drop you
from their engines the proper way is below

The best way is to use meta tags in the site code in a flash site
you can insert html that will be read by bots but not be seen on the
page insert this between head tags

Silver & Cameo Heritage Jewelry
www.corneliusspick.com