New Mexico Rides! A Motorcycle Community

[glenmike]

Ok, good folks, here it is...

http://www.newmexicorides.com

Have not promoted it as yet. Purpose is to reinforce rider safety awareness, and promote group motorcycle ride adventures in New Mexico... kind of a travel and safety combo. 90% of the photos were taken by my wife on the back of my Harley Road King at highway speed.

Thanks in advance for taking the time to look and comment.

Regards

Michael 'Poppi' Layne

[choco777]

Nice job. I really liked the site. The BG sometimes loaded slow but not too much not to wait for and enjoy. All links I tried worked. Gongratulations.

[glenmike]

Thanks, Choco. The BG stuff got a lot of thought before I waded into it and it could be an issue for some folks. I was after something different than typical tiles for the primary pages. That was all stuff my wife shot from behind me while we were up in the Chama area of New Mexico.

Another issue I have to deal with is the font size on the information pages. When I added the BG photos I basically decided that the text would not overlap the frame of the photo. Most of the text was written prior to the pic add which resulted in reducing the font size to fit the space. So I'll have to do some judicious blue pencil editing and rewrite much of the informational stuff so I can enlarge the font for easier reading.

Many thanks for your review.

Poppi

[Collectors-info]

Hi, I like the site. Mind you I like most things to do with bikes. Could do with dropping the front page image size down dramatically. Its at just over 1meg 1054kb & should really be about 60 to 100kb max. The main banners is at about 158kb & should think about this being 30 to 50 kb or smaller. Its only that it will take ages for those on dial up to open a page?

Good luck.

Chris.

[glenmike]

Thanks, Chris! Your point is well taken. I struggled with this one. I knew the pics used as background images were going to be whoppers when bumping up against a 56k socket. I'm looking at methodology to optimize the pics, and... if it just doesn't work, I'll have to look at an alternative. But dang it hoss, those pics sure set it off! At some point down the road this will be tied into podcasts, at the very least, and I'm in serious review of information for doing live Internet radio. The website will be only one aspect of the entire platform, but it is definitely the key.

How important is it that someone still on a 56k ride is going uphill at a slow loading site? Pretty important, since at least half the Internet surfers are continuing to use roller skates instead of Vipers. It's about the easiest way to lose traffic... so I guess you could say that I'm testing this rather than being blindly locked into it.

As noted in my original post, the website has not been promoted. This is basically the first exposure of the site to others outside my immediate circle of friends and associates... and where I'm counting on commentary just like yours to be placed on the table. Good stuff.

I appreciate your insight.

Poppi

[bill2006]

Nice site,
Not too slow on this computer, checking from an old laptop with slow connection and Windows 98. Pics loaded as expected, anyone with a newer PC wont have problems. I'll take another look later in the week from my own comp.

One thing though, the text is pushing against the right margin, consider indenting a bit to read easier.

Good luck.

[glenmike]

Thanks, Bill. I'll make that adjustment. I'm looking forward to your second look at the site with the other system. My box loads everything in about 2 seconds, but then again it's fairly new and I'm using wireless cable... not exactly a fair setup to judge what a person on a 56k stream is going to experience.

www.newmexicorides.com/safety.html

The above page is what all of them looked liked before adding the background. I left it as is due to the length of the commentary that was written; the one piece of writing that I do not want to pare down significantly. Probably better on a blog, but at this point not a serious concern. However, the page is simple, loads quickly, and does not have a lot of distractive 'noise' swarming over it. That makes for a quick load, but a static environment... 7 or 8 pages of that is boring. The background pics raise the asethic, at least in my opinion. But again, nothing is ground in granite.

I'll be watching for your continuing assessment.

Thank, you!

Poppi

[Collectors-info]

Thanks, Chris! Your point is well taken. I struggled with this one. I knew the pics used as background images were going to be whoppers when bumping up against a 56k socket. I'm looking at methodology to optimize the pics, and... if it just doesn't work, I'll have to look at an alternative. But dang it hoss, those pics sure set it off! At some point down the road this will be tied into podcasts, at the very least, and I'm in serious review of information for doing live Internet radio. The website will be only one aspect of the entire platform, but it is definitely the key.

How important is it that someone still on a 56k ride is going uphill at a slow loading site? Pretty important, since at least half the Internet surfers are continuing to use roller skates instead of Vipers. It's about the easiest way to lose traffic... so I guess you could say that I'm testing this rather than being blindly locked into it.

As noted in my original post, the website has not been promoted. This is basically the first exposure of the site to others outside my immediate circle of friends and associates... and where I'm counting on commentary just like yours to be placed on the table. Good stuff.

I appreciate your insight.

Poppi

Hi. Had a look at your images & most of them will reduce ok as they are not close up & detailed. I droped this one down to 279kb from about 1meg.
If you have a look at the url below
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b387/COLLECTORS-INFO/Rides4279kb.jpg

and then cut and paste the Url into this other site in the “Enter Url of an image”. Then press optimize.
http://tools.dynamicdrive.com/imageoptimizer/index.php

it will give you about 10 images to choose from. If need any help reducing the images, give us a shout. Just a handy way to view the image & choose whats best for your site.


Good luck

Chris

[glenmike]

Hi Chris! Thanks! I really appreciate the follow-up. I'll check it all out this afternoon. I'm on the run right now... headed out to earn the bread and bacon stuff.

Have a great week!

Poppi

[motoxxx]

Nice site with lots of good information. Congrats and keep up the good work.

[ryanhitchings]

One thing about your site mate, I love it!

[bill2006]

Thanks, Bill. I'll make that adjustment. I'm looking forward to your second look at the site with the other system. My box loads everything in about 2 seconds, but then again it's fairly new and I'm using wireless cable... not exactly a fair setup to judge what a person on a 56k stream is going to experience...

Ok, had another chance to look at your site, this time on broadband, pictures load very quickly. Consider:
-change page title NMR Home Page to New Mexico Rides, NMRd doesn't say anything and difficult to find.
-center this page: http://www.newmexicorides.com/
-add a Home button on most pages.

Good luck

[zigzag]

Ho Poppi,

The overall feel of your site is good, and once you have seen some of the slideshows, you want to stay in the site and see more. I'ts a happy place to be in.

I found it a bit difficult to navigate around your site at first. for example when you go to "Photo Albums", there is no menu to get you home.
Your home page and some others need a 'Center in Browser' set. You have to get into the habit of checking this b4 publishing, because when you add new items to a page, they sometimes land up outside the rhs of you web building page, and this automatically changes the page width.

Here are some stats on USA monitor resolutions. I am mentioning this so that you might consider resizing some of your backgrounds or pictures.
57% use 1024x768
17% use 1280x800
20% use 800x600
06% unknown

I believe that 50% of users are still on dialup. So in resizing pictures, the screen resolutions and lines speeds of all viewers need to be considered for now.

I have a speedy line and I found your slides shows great. And that it what your site is all about.

Regards

[circuspet.com]

glenmike:

Would love to see more of your site, but after waiting 3 min for your banner to load I fell asleep. A falling tree took out my cable and I'm on 28.8 dial-up ( and people still use this ). Check back with you next week.

[glenmike]

Bill, Zig Zag... Thanks for the heads-up. Good stuff. I'll be working on the pages a little later today and will incorporate your suggestions.

Circuspet... 28.8? Ouch! That's not sleep, more like comatose! Hope your cable service will be quickly responsive to the repair.

Thanks one and all!

Poppi
www.newmexicorides.com

[asirimarco]

Nice Site! I like the tours - the Quarai page needs to be centered. - everything came up fast for me on broadband.

[circuspet.com]

glenmike:

Always looking for that silver linning, I have deciced to use this slow moving web dinosaur to edit my site to load faster. By the way the 600 X 800 format loads the fastest and is the easiest to read ( larger print ).

[glenmike]

asirimarco, circuspet...

MUCHO THANKS! I'm working on the centering piece and format as I write this. I'm also going to take a look at the logo per circuspet and others comments. I created it in my logo software, but the bg pics may have to go if it remains the one element that is continuing to slow the page load for slower systems. Dangit! Really liked those mini maps in the bg.

As always, thank you for taking the time to critique the site. All suggestions have been on the mark.

Poppi
www.newmexicorides.com

[LadyEye]

Site is real nice, lots of nice photos ... one thing I noticed is that when I go to the albums and finish looking and close that page, I am bumped off your site ... no way to get back to your home page .... maybe your albums should be set to _blank in the target of your page properties

[glenmike]

Thanks, LadyEye. Shooting pics from the back of an iron pony at sixty mph is my wife's thing. The more she does it, the better she gets. I just drive and mess with the website. We're going to invest in a better camera system to improve the quality of the photos.

I'm talking with my photo service about the link back. There's a way to do it... but I haven't discovered it as yet.

We appreciate your taking the time to have a look and give us the suggestion.

Best Wishes,

Poppi

[Bethers]

I love NM - and your site brings back good memories!

The pics I looked at are fine quality wise - you just need to optimize them the best you can so people with dial-up can see them - lots still have dial-up here.

[glenmike]

Hi Beth! You're right. I'm digging into the tertiary tweaking and tuning. I've had an opportunity to view the site on some other systems. Continues to need some more work to reach what I'm after, and photo op, as noted in other member posts, is one important area.

Thank you, Beth, for taking the time to review the website.

Poppi
www.newmexicorides.com

[LadyEye]

I agree, your pics are great and looks like you are having a blast, you can accomplish this little task however of having your albums open on a separate page, just by the properties of the link you click to get there, there is a target on the properties of the link and if you set the target to _blank, a new page will open for your albums and when people are finished viewing they can close that and your site is still there to view the other albums etc.

[glenmike]

Good info, LadyEye!... now dumb it down for the old man (:>)... this sounds like something I need to learn. Take it slowwww. Once again from the top...

Poppi
www.newmexicorides.com

[LadyEye]

lol ... okay here goes

well the place that you inserted the link that takes you to your albums,
if you go there and highlight the word again that you used to insert the web address to your album, you will notice the box that comes up for that, (the spot where you type the web address for the link) you will notice an area down below in that very box that says target, it is empty now probably, there is a drop down menu there and click it and find the one that says this _blank this will then open another page for your albums, leaving your main page of your website in their browser so that when they finish looking, they still have your website open ....

1. highlight the image or word you chose to apply the link for the album, go up to insert to apply your web address for the album and
2. when the box appears, look for target, change the target to _blank

try that ....

[glenmike]

Viola!!! Neurons made the connection! Old dog learns new trick! And once again the world turns in greased grooves! Wife would prefer that I spend more time tending the garden than listening to jazz, but that's another story. BV Rocks... Excellent!

Thanks, LadyEye!

Poppi

[Bethers]

I disagree with opening new windows on your own site - it's something that makes me leave a site immediately. Now, if you open new windows for another site, that's another story - or to enlarge a picture - that's ok also. Make sure you're careful about using the target=blank for your own pages too often.

Opening up pages within your own website should always have a way to return to your other pages without making people open multiple windows.

[LadyEye]

I disagree with opening new windows on your own site - it's something that makes me leave a site immediately. Now, if you open new windows for another site, that's another story - or to enlarge a picture - that's ok also. Make sure you're careful about using the target=blank for your own pages too often.

Opening up pages within your own website should always have a way to return to your other pages without making people open multiple windows.

Do you have any suggestions as to how you would do that for a photo album Bethers, other than this way??

[Collectors-info]

You could place your album in an iframe like this test one i was playing with http://www.collectors-info.com/test.html You can have the rest of the page for menues & alike. I know a lot of us are not keen on iframes, but for an album i dont think this would be a problem.

Chris.

[LadyEye]

You could place your album in an iframe like this test one i was playing with http://www.collectors-info.com/test.html You can have the rest of the page for menues & alike. I know a lot of us are not keen on iframes, but for an album i dont think this would be a problem.

Chris.

Oh okay Chris, Andy mentions this as well in the jalbum thread, I had asked the question as was confused. I'll post that link in here so that glennmike can also read up on it ....

http://www.vodahost.com/vodatalk/rev...ed=1#post81945

I like the look of being on my own page, if I can master the devil that I am unfamiliar with, that being Iframes. Hope it is not too difficult. Will have to do my reading ...

Thanks again, I'll see what I can do ... :)

[glenmike]

Hi Beth! Could you please be a little more specific about why the method of linking suggested by LadyEye doesn't work for you? I'm one of those odd balls that actually likes the detail.

FYI for anyone else joining at this point... the photo album in question resides on a secondary vendor's server. Basically it's another website. The back button works to return someone to the New Mexico Rides! website, but the issue is having a direct page link back. LadyEye notes that if one closes an album page, they are finito. A link on the photo page, or some return feature, would be very useful since the ride photos are the main entertainment feature at the site.

Poppi
www.newmexicorides.com

[glenmike]

Thanks, Chris! Not familiar with iframes, but the example you give is interesting. Appreciate the link, LadyEye, and I'll start doing my homework.

Best Wishes

Poppi

[LadyEye]

Just hang on a bit there Poppi, as noted in another thread by Bethers, she doesn't like using I frames either

"but I, like Vasili, do not use the i-frame method." quote from Bethers ....

but she is investigating into CSS, another devil I suspect, lol .... but she may have the method downpat and can give us yet another option ....
I think I am reading about search engines not liking I frames, well that part doesn't bother me, so if that is the only part of the I frame that is dysfunctional, I like my header and navbar being on the photo album better and guess I would choose to master the I frame with Navals, Chris and Andys help :) (thanking you in advance guys)

oh my ... so confusing, I look forward to getting it all figured out ....

[glenmike]

To All BV Friends, Teachers, and Critique Gurus... There is now a link back to the homepage on each photo album! I'll now adjust each to return to the specific ride page. Took me about an hour to figure it out and some basic html cut and paste... but it worked just dandy. On to the rest of the tweaking list!

Poppi
www.newmexicorides.com

[LadyEye]

To All BV Friends, Teachers, and Critique Gurus... There is now a link back to the homepage on each photo album! I'll now adjust each to return to the specific ride page. Took me about an hour to figure it out and some basic html cut and paste... but it worked just dandy. On to the rest of the tweaking list!

Poppi
www.newmexicorides.com

Well good for you Mike, you found your own way around it .... any chance you could spare that html you worked on ... lol ... I am reading the I frame but it seems oh so complicated for me, maybe I am tired, lol, but I would like to rid the extra window opening, so maybe your way is the way for me ....

[glenmike]

Here's the actual code piece...

<FONT style="font-size:13px" color="#FF6820" face="Arial"><B><A href="<A href="http://www.newmexicorides.com/index.html">RETURN">http://www.newmexicorides.com/index.html">RETURN TO NMR! HOME</A></B></FONT>

My approach was this:

I opened up a page in the BV Page Maker... didn't care which one... a blank page, now that I think about it would probably have been easier.

I used the Insert Text to write: Return To NMR! Home, then used Insert Link to create the return link.

Then I opened up the html code on the BV page, found that piece of code per the above, and copied it.

My reasoning was that any customer text area on the photo page might accept some simple html code. So I pasted it as is right in the text box at the end of the welcome message, and in a similar spot on each of the album pages. Then I crossed my fingers, wiped the sweat from my brow, took two quick shots of iced tea (ok I'm a wimp), and went to the site... and there it was.

Seems to work okey dokey!

Now I'm up to my... ah,... well I'm working on some other fix it stuff on the pages.

Hope everyone's week is going well!

Poppi
www.newmexicorides.com

[LadyEye]

Thanks ... shall give it a try ... appreciate the time you spent doing this and passing it along ... :)

[glenmike]

I owe much. Happy to make a contribution.

[glenmike]

I'm working on the next best super slimfast low cal testpage reformat for NMR!:

Does anyone know how to eliminate the extra text space between the second to last and last line of text? It shows up when I look at the test page in the browser. I saw it in another post, but can't for the life of me remember where.

Thanks All!

Poppi

[LadyEye]

hmmm .... not really sure if I know exactly what you are referring to, but I'll take a stab at it

If you are talking about when you have added text, and then there seems to be some spacing between what is you line of text and the blue handles, then you just enlarge your blue handles a little more and that empty space below will disappear ....

if you are talking about a space in between two lines of text, then take your cursor to the left of the text and hit backspace, this will then take the last line of text up ....;

I am sorry if this is not what you are referring to ... but if it is, hope it helps ...

[glenmike]

Hi LadyEye! Let me try to be a little more specific...

After I've entered text in the text box it looks fine. No problems with that or sizing the box if necessary. At this point everything 'looks' good. It's when I've switched to the browser view to check how the page will

look that it seems an extra line space has been added to the bottom line of text.

(kind of like the above line... except I did that).

I know there's a simple way to correct that extra space, and I believe it is at the html level... but I just don't remember which code symbol to remove... it's like an extra carriage return, or something like that.

Have a great week!

Poppi

[glenmike]

Here's the test page link...

www.newmexicorides.com/testpage.html

Look at the text at the bottom of the primary text box.

This page is 735 x 600. I'm comparing it to the other pages. The purpose... is smaller better? Same content sans the photo and a bit different format. However, should fit most screens and load faster. On the other hand, the photos page to page give the site some character.

Thanks!

Poppi

[glenmike]

That's 785 x 600... I need more coffee.

Poppi

[Bethers]

To correct that space, simply enter another character - even a space - after the last one.

The 785 width will allow everyone to see your page without scrolling right to left - which is a good thing. I'm experimenting with using a 1000 width and careful placement of items - hasn't hurt my sales - so still going with it - but to guarantee everyone will see the page and stay on it - staying at 800 and below is the way to go. People will do some up and down scrolling.

The test page looks good - but so do the others - I think now it's a matter of your taste/judgement.

[glenmike]

Thank you, Dr. Bethers! Your prescription worked.

I'm not going to switch the pages to the test page format... at least not for awhile. I do like the slimmed down look... and my goal if I go that route is to consolidate the text so that all will fit the 785 x 600 format... fewer words, better writing. But I need to sit on it for a few days... then we'll see.

Thanks for taking a look.

Best Wishes,

Poppi

[circuspet.com]

glenmike:

I'm glad to hear your making yor site load faster on my dinosaur 28k dial-up. When you want me to tell you how it looks on this pre-war format
send an e=mail to me through my site and I'll be glad to time your loads.
Also when redoig your text don't forget to use the magic dot to keep from
crowding the bottom of the page. ( see magic dot under tips & tricks)

[glenmike]

Hi All! To Robot Meta Tag, or Not To Robot Meta Tag?

I've gotten each of my pages from 86% to 100%, and mostly mid 90's in terms of relevance factor. But each of the analyzers mentions that I do not have a robot meta tag in the header. I now have several sources for the html snippet required, but the question is... so what? Does the tag improve search speed, ranking, the drag coefficient of an airplane wing????

Poppi
www.newmexicorides.com

[Bethers]

The robot.txt file is really only necessary if you want to tell the se's to NOT follow to some pages. Otherwise, just forget it. It won't do any of the search speed, ranking or promoting you to king things LOL

The meta that you have to have (IMO) are the title and description. And some of the lesser se's still look at keywords - just don't spam them.

[glenmike]

Thanks, Bethers! You cleared that up nicely... as always. (I'm only shooting for Duke at this point.) I'll move along to the next thing.

Another article I ran across had to do with the duplicate page issue. The analysis I ran on that indicated that my pages were somewhere in the 25% to 50% range of duplication, depending on which pages were being compared to each other.

The relevance of page duplication within the site to being viewed as potential spam by a search engine seemed to be a significant issue per this article. It was my impression in starting out that having similarity (for a site like mine which is more travel targeted and information oriented, rather than say catalog sales) was a good thing; with the empahsis being different page content page to page.

I'm I getting bogged down with more esoteria & and trivial pursuit?

Thanks!

Poppi
www.newmexicorides.com