Thread: Have a look at my site

Got your attention?
This is our first post... seriously we would greatly appreciate you guys taking a look at our site.
We have been with VH for about 7 months now since we opened out retail store.
I have only just noticed this forum.
One of the greatest needs we have is a pre-loader.
We have permission from a well known recording artist/actress to use one of her hits on our site however, due to this file and all the pics we have it takes too long to load.
(We have taken the music off for now)
Can anyone offer suggestions on where we can obtain a pre-loader and apply it to our site.
Any other suggestions would be appreciated.
www.hotdogz.info

As a VodaHost client, you have the ability to incorporate Soholaunch (the website builder and eCommerce solution that allows downloads and eBook options) or osCommerce as foundations, both of which import (load) via .csl and .xcl formats without difficulty.

osCommerce singularly can be serviced by a Cart Manager, which allows for remote and multiple seat administration in an accelerated environment from your own desktop! > Learn More Here and find Another Version Here

Apparently, you need to choose some type of eCommerce solution/shopping cart, as your current BV-created site is little more than an informational or "presentation" site, doomed to insignificance inasmuch as the pages are not properly titled nor the Page Properties (Page Description, KeyWords, Meta, etc.) completed yet......these are essential to make your site "Search Engine-friendly" and SEO-prepared for proper ranking and caching!

If you mean by pre-loader - that your site will load faster on other people's computers, there is no such thing. The only way it can do that is if they've already been to your site and they keep you in their cache. Then on return it will open faster. However, most people, at least occasionally, clear out their cache (or they should - as it will end up slowing all of their computer down).

Since I looked at your site - but there is only one page in English, it's hard for me to really judge - but first, lots of pictures will always take longer loading. So you need to optimize the pictures. Have you used pic resizer (or any tool) to do this?

You aren't in the site review room- but I suggest you head over there for a site review- as there is much else you can do to help your site - like adding navigation from all the pages, title tags to pages, make it so I can find my way to the store without having to search for it :) But then all I see is a picture of your retail store? Do you sell online? Lots you can do to make this site work for you!

Whaa?
Indeed this thread IS in the VodaTalk "Showcase" and some solid suggestions were mentioned, weren't they Beth???
Or are my posts in invisible ink?

Since I had this thread opened before you typed and my multi-tasking got me sidetracked, I had not seen your post before I posted, Vasili - as it wasn't there yet then.

I simply suggested he might want a site review that would go in more depth to what I was saying (and actually to what you said, now that I read it). And I got confused what room I was in, it appears.

Don't go getting paranoid on me - lol

I side tracked her.. lmfao.. YOU can blame me.. and my halo!

Karen

No Big.....just another instance of my "beating MY wings" I guess?

LOL
angel wings, you goof!

Thank you people.
The purpose of our site is not to sell online from (mail order) as such.
However we can sell online but do not wish to publish pricing or add a shopping cart at this stage.
It is primarily to show people what we stock in our store.
We usually only publish our website address in our advertising,
helps us measure stats.
Thank you again for the suggestions thus far, I will have my partner look at them today.
Beth... re- the pre loader I mean the percentage bar that goes from
0 -100% loaded prior to a page opening.
prevents half or slow loading pics as a page opens.
All the best fashion houses have them.

In that case it looks great, loads fast for me as I'm on DSL.

What you are calling a preloader I only see on movies, etc - have not seen on pages of pictures. Can you provide a url of one using what you're looking for?

Ok we are placing titles on the pages as I write this.

Beth... please refer to http://www.dkny.com/ re- example of a pre-loader I am after (see percentage loading mid screen)
PLEASE if anyone can assist in regard to this we would be very greatful.

As I stated in my previous post - they did not simply put images on the page - that is input using flash - and that will give you the loading information.

Your pages are simply, at this point, pictures added to the page. Totally different. If you want to do a flash/movie presentation of your pictures, then there are many, many programs out there that would do this.

< I think there is some confusion regarding how a 'status icon' for either Flash/Flash8 , Swish, or Java element is being confused with a function itself. Depending on which medium he seeks to use, he may be able to script up a dialog bog to present, but as mentioned earlier, it is not a "preloader" intended for pictures or static elements. >


Whoops! Beat me to it, Beth....no big....I'll let it stay anyway...

Ok seems like we need to make a flash movie or the like to allow the music track we want to use to load faster.
A bit too complicated for us I am afraid.

Would you people mind having a quick look at this page and tell me how long it takes for the music to come in.
the web is a little slow here so I cant tell if its taking too long.
www.hotdogz.infñ/en.html

its a long track so may take longer than expected???

thanks

BTW on your first page you have written click here to enter. It would be nice if that particular text worked as a link, in addition to the picture. I clicked and clicked on the text to enter but no joy.. now I am a bit of a dim bulb and others will get it right away. but there may be more like me out there..

Liz,

Thanks for that, the ammo I needed to get David to do something about that!
I agree.

en la primera página está escrito:

Al haber visto que e la Unión Europea

it should be:

Al haber visto que en la Unión Europea


just caught my attention is all.

near the bottom its says

este australiano ha teneido...

it should be

ha tenido...

when you're talking about stars in the sky its las estrellas,

but when it's movie stars and stuff like that,

it should be

sorpresa de ver a LOS estrellas

Acon,

Thanks for the corrections... And to think David is a uni teacher of Spanish English and German.
Glad I am not paying him... hehehehee

Originally Posted by aconstas1

when you're talking about stars in the sky its las estrellas,

but when it's movie stars and stuff like that,

it should be

sorpresa de ver a LOS estrellas

The correct word is las estrellas. Eventhough Spanish will generally use the masculine 'los' to refer to both, the word "estrellas" is feminine (as indicated) and would apply to both the stars and the actors regardless of gender. This is one of those grammatical exceptions.

Originally Posted by Hot_dog

Thank you people.
The purpose of our site is not to sell online from (mail order) as such.
However we can sell online but do not wish to publish pricing or add a shopping cart at this stage.
It is primarily to show people what we stock in our store.
We usually only publish our website address in our advertising,
helps us measure stats.
.

Well done.
The market in that region has not fully developed to the point where customers buy on line, the page becomes more information based, a must have and a marketing teaser inviting potential customers into the store, which by the way appears to be very well located.

HotDog: I think you have done fine with your site for what your intended purpose is. I personally reviewed all images (lol) and they all loaded pretty quickly, but like Beth said earlier, you really need to optimize them more so they aren't so large, but still retain good quality images. Your C-In2 page loaded the slowest for me. Good luck with your business!

Thanks Bill.
Dream lady... we have reduced the size of many images.
We will look at the C-IN2 page and see what can be done,
thanks for mentioning it... hope you liked the pics... hehehehe.

Hi there
I looked at the site and you have some great brands and some great products but I was totally confused with the site as it looked more like a photo album rather than a store. I would suggest to plan a little more in advance what you want to convey to your shoppers and maybe put a description of the items. make the whole experience more web friendly. Beth was right but nav buttons there so you always have a point to go to rather than searching. As with the products you have I think that you could have a very interesting site but at the moment it does not reflect on the type of high end designers that you stock
if you want any help with it I would be all to pleased to give you a hand.
Regards
james

hi there i did a sample page for you .. maybe you like maybe you dont but i thought i would
click on link

sample page for you
bye

hi there here is a front page for you could not do flash but did movie instead

click this link

if you like it then i will send you the files
cheers james

Hey James,

We do realise the site is fairly basic, I am sad to say we simply could not afford to pay to have a website done professionally as we should have, after investing thousands in renovating the store, fitting it out and stocking it.

*Many thanks not only for your suggestions but all the work you did as examples, we are very blown away at the trouble you went to.
Of course we would love the files, we simply dont have the knowledge to build the site as we would have imagined it to be.
drop us a line at... sales@hotdogz.info

Mark

" with a little help from my friends...."

Bravo!

Hi Mark
Really you do not need to spend thousands on having someone design your site for you, just takes time and some patience and experimenting.
just trying to work out how you can take the webpage >>>> anyone got any suggestions?
lets keep in touch and i will try and help you with the site,
regards
James

James: You did some wonderful samples there for Mark! Hopefully Mark will have the time to implement. I'm with you Eric..."a little help from my friends" goes a long way!!

thanks dream lady
well i think we are all needing some help with something. and people were great to me when i first arrived on voda a couple of months ago as i never did anything
but i think people get scared to try.. and also there is alot of time involved

quick question
how do i transfer the pages i did to him so that he can use them
as they are on my domain at the moment
thank in advance James

You can email BV pages no problem (since he has BV, he can open them), but you will also need to email any images configured as you have so he can establish the same path for BV to find them and open on the pages: in other words, if you have some images in a folder called "images 2" he will also need to create a folder called "images 2" on his HD to put the emailed pix into, so BV can 'find' them.

If each image has a different path originally (different folders) you might provide him a screenshot, so he can re-do the page himself "by the numbers" re-save, and then publish it.

Thanks for that i had no clue
what i am going to do is just send all the pictures to him so he can load them into his computer and give him instructions on how to do the page set up
but i will also try what you said .thanks

Hi James

I want to tell you that your site is looking awesome these days!!

And, why not leave your page up for him to view while putting his page together ... you could give him written instructions too if needed....

What you have done is great ... you are quite the designer in all areas, I always liked your site, and it is looking awesome!! Congrats James!

Thanks so much for that.
I am working ona new one now as we design jewellry and I am opening a stioe online so watch this space....
you could be a customer, wish we could advertise on here.
there should be a forum for that or is there?
Love James

Originally Posted by webb and romic

Thanks so much for that.
I am working ona new one now as we design jewellry and I am opening a stioe online so watch this space....
you could be a customer, wish we could advertise on here.
there should be a forum for that or is there?
Love James

yw James, Awe, ooh, ahh, sounds very interesting James, and yes I could be a customer ... who knows ...

And actually, when you get your site up, you can advertise your jewellry, there is a classified section down near the bottom of this forum, it would be a great place for you to post your site link ...

I look forward to seeing this ... I am certain it will be just as spectacular ...

People... we finally got some flash tutorial and made a new website that looks more professional.
we still need to add a pre loader.
problem is how to attach it... if anyone can advise.
does one attach the pre-loader to the movie file or the website directly?
www.hotdogz.info