eric wissing Posted June 24, 2009 Report Posted June 24, 2009 Pete, I navigated around your site. Very nice. I really liked the Cutter Home. (Not the same Cutter family as "In Cold Blood") If I brought you a fuel pump from a 1948 Plymouth and asked you to design around it, would you raise an eyebrow? Your wife and you are very talented. Eric Quote
blueskies Posted June 24, 2009 Author Report Posted June 24, 2009 Pete, I navigated around your site. Very nice. I really liked the Cutter Home. (Not the same Cutter family as "In Cold Blood") If I brought you a fuel pump from a 1948 Plymouth and asked you to design around it, would you raise an eyebrow? Your wife and you are very talented. Eric Thanks Eric... and yes, we can design around your fuel pump. For a price... Pete Quote
radioguy7 Posted June 24, 2009 Report Posted June 24, 2009 Here's a site I built using Dreamweaver and has been up for about a year. Subscribing to google ad words has boosted traffic x10. http://www.MasterArms.net Quote
blueskies Posted June 24, 2009 Author Report Posted June 24, 2009 Here's a site I built using Dreamweaver and has been up for about a year. Subscribing to google ad words has boosted traffic x10.http://www.MasterArms.net Curious how much the ad words have cost? I put Google Analytics into my site, and it is very interesting to see the traffic patterns. Especially on the portfolio pages, I can see which projects generate the most interest. Pete Quote
radioguy7 Posted June 24, 2009 Report Posted June 24, 2009 You have many options with ad words and also set yourself a $$ cap. I have mine set to max out at $50 each billing cycle and that's about what the cost has been. Site traffic has slowed down a lot lately so I may stop the service for a while until business picks back up. I also use analytics, very cool to track your site traffic and then adjust to meet the traffic's interest. Quote
BobT-47P15 Posted June 24, 2009 Report Posted June 24, 2009 Eric......I believe that was the Clutter family. Borrowed the following from wikipedia. The book details the brutal 1959 murders of Herbert Clutter, a wealthy farmer from Holcomb, Kansas, and his wife and two children. When Capote learned of the quadruple murder before the killers were captured, he decided to travel to Kansas and write about the crime. Bringing his childhood friend and fellow author Harper Lee along, together they interviewed local residents and investigators assigned to the case and took thousands of pages of notes. The killers, Richard "Dick" Hickock and Perry Smith, were arrested not long after the murders, and Capote ultimately spent six years working on the book. It is considered the originator of the non-fiction novel and the forerunner of the New Journalism movement, although other writers, like Rodolfo Walsh, had already explored the genre in books like Operación Masacre Quote
blueskies Posted June 25, 2009 Author Report Posted June 25, 2009 Thanks everyone for the feedback on my new site. I think I finally have the contact page working... I called Network Solutions, and they dispatched their team of highly trained monkeys to sort it out. Turns out it was simply that the new service has to be in place a minimum of 24 hours before the mail server on the host will function, apparently to thwart spammers. Seems to work when I send an e-mail to myself. Mean time, I crawled under the hood of my $3000 dollar plotter, to change the belt that it chewed up. The service place wanted $600 to replace a $72 dollar belt, with the trip charge from Boise, 2 hours away. Had them deliver the belt and 3 hours later it works like new. Had to disassemble the entire plotter to get the old belt out. Didn't think it would go together as easily as it came apart... Now I can focus on more important stuff, like my Plymouth- Pete Quote
Mr. Belvedere Posted June 25, 2009 Report Posted June 25, 2009 What does a web page designer professional typically charge to design a set-up like yours? Quote
blueskies Posted June 25, 2009 Author Report Posted June 25, 2009 What does a web page designer professional typically charge to design a set-up like yours? I'm sure there are lots of variables... but I had quotes from $3,000 to $10,000. I paid about $80 for the software that I used to generate my site, and have about 30 hours into it now. If I paid myself my hourly rate, I'd be in for close to $4,000. And lots of that time was learning how to use the software, redoing parts of the site multiple times, preparing all the images in photoshop, etc. If I had to start over, I probably could do it in less time. Pete Quote
Mr. Belvedere Posted June 25, 2009 Report Posted June 25, 2009 Hmmm, seems like you might be on to a new career there. I have often thought web design would be fun. The kinda job where you could let your creativity run wild. Best of all it could be a home based enterprise. BTW I thought your site looked real sharp. Quote
blueskies Posted June 25, 2009 Author Report Posted June 25, 2009 ...BTW I thought your site looked real sharp. Thanks- Check your e-mail:cool: Still not getting the e-mail, unless I sent it myself, damn. Looks like another call to Network Solutions. Maybe the system automatically dumps e-mail from ARCH RACE RIVALS... Pete Quote
TodFitch Posted June 25, 2009 Report Posted June 25, 2009 ...snip... The kinda job where you could let your creativity run wild. ...snip... Actually, if your are doing that as a business, then you need to be sure that the organization, appearance and function of the web site meets the needs of your client(s). Doing that takes some creativity. But it takes a lot of thought about the clients needs and a lot of discipline to do it well. Striking the right balance is hard. Letting your creativity run wild and doing a lot of bells, whistles and fancy graphics or animation just for the sake of showing that you know how to do bells, whistles and fancy graphics or animation are not the sign of a good professional graphic or web designer. The goal is effective communication not showing off. Pete could go into that business if he so desired as he obviously has the ability to strike that balance. It shows in his web site. And it shows in his photographs. I suspect that the talent he shows in the design of his web site is the same as he brings to architecture: His houses don't all look the same. They fit the location they are placed in and they seem to fit the clients they were designed for. That comes back to lots of hard thought about the needs of the client. Quote
blueskies Posted June 25, 2009 Author Report Posted June 25, 2009 ...I suspect that the talent he shows in the design of his web site is the same as he brings to architecture: His houses don't all look the same. They fit the location they are placed in and they seem to fit the clients they were designed for. That comes back to lots of hard thought about the needs of the client. Thanks Tod, for that observation, that's what we are all about. I believe the process of design is the same regardless of the project. It doesn't matter if it is a toaster, a car, a house, or a website. The same fundamental principles apply. I had fun putting together my wesite, but I don't think I'd want to do it for a living, just like I enjoy working on my Plymouth but wouldn't want to be a full time mechanic. If I had to do these things around the clock to make a living, for me it would be tedious and get old in a hurry. What works for me about architecture, is that each project is a new clean slate. The relationships we develop with our clients are what matter to us, we make lifetime friends with just about every project. I wouldn't trade that for anything else. Pete Quote
Mr. Belvedere Posted June 26, 2009 Report Posted June 26, 2009 Actually, if your are doing that as a business, then you need to be sure that the organization, appearance and function of the web site meets the needs of your client(s). Doing that takes some creativity. But it takes a lot of thought about the clients needs and a lot of discipline to do it well. Striking the right balance is hard.Yes, I know what you mean I would in most cases, for business purposes, rather have an easy to navigate, user friendly site then a fancy one with lots of visual goodies, though I think you can have both to a certain extent. Quote
blueskies Posted June 26, 2009 Author Report Posted June 26, 2009 ...I think you can have both to a certain extent. The trick is to pack in all the goodies and make them look clean, simple, user friendly, and effortless. Less is more. Pete Quote
Don Coatney Posted June 26, 2009 Report Posted June 26, 2009 When I try and access your web page on my laptop I get this message. I tried it from the link you posted here and from the link you sent my via e-mail. I can go to other web pages such as this one. Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage Most likely causes: You are not connected to the Internet. The website is encountering problems. There might be a typing error in the address. What you can try: Diagnose Connection Problems More information Quote
blueskies Posted June 27, 2009 Author Report Posted June 27, 2009 When I try and access your web page on my laptop I get this message.... Don- I was having trouble updating a page, so I deleted the entire site and did a new upload about the time you were trying to access it... I just had a look from my home PC computer, and it seems to be working now. Pete Quote
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.