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Author Topic: Ktools Photostore  (Read 76211 times)

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Xalanx

« Reply #150 on: August 07, 2011, 15:22 »
0
I saw HostMonster on the "not recommended hosting" list at KTools. Has anybody installed the photostore on a HostMonster account?


« Reply #151 on: August 17, 2011, 00:19 »
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How's everyone doing? Just thought I'd drop by to let you guys know that I have joined the bandwagon recently. I struggled quite a bit setting up my PhotoStore site, and after 2 whole weeks of sleepless nights... I finally got my site up and running. Yay!  :D

The hardest part was the customization of the site, since their original themes were all...er...notsuitableformytasteatall. And being a noob in HTML/CSS and the sort, it was a really painful process for me. Support was okay, but you can only ask support for technical stuff and not the customizing part in particular. You have to ask on their forum for this, and their forum is pretty much dead.

It's actually a premium stock vector site, exclusively authored by me and my team at Wizmaya Design Studio. Most of the items there are our unused graphic stuff, experimental items etc. I'm not aiming for sales at the moment. The site is just there for the sake of it, and I know I'll be needing it sooner or later.

Anyway, feel free to browse the site at www.vectoriffic.com. I would really appreciate any feedback / bug reports / critics from you.


Cheers!

« Reply #152 on: August 17, 2011, 01:45 »
0
Nice work - site looks great!

You customized the 3.9 theme, correct? This is a totally different process than every previous version. At v3.9 ktools started using the smarty template system rather than the previous tables, etc, setup. So at least you are working in a more modern template system.

TheSmilingAssassin

    This user is banned.
« Reply #153 on: August 17, 2011, 03:33 »
0
.
« Last Edit: August 18, 2011, 22:30 by hasleftthebuilding »

« Reply #154 on: August 17, 2011, 04:26 »
0
How's everyone doing? Just thought I'd drop by to let you guys know that I have joined the bandwagon recently. I struggled quite a bit setting up my PhotoStore site, and after 2 whole weeks of sleepless nights... I finally got my site up and running. Yay!  :D

The hardest part was the customization of the site, since their original themes were all...er...notsuitableformytasteatall. And being a noob in HTML/CSS and the sort, it was a really painful process for me. Support was okay, but you can only ask support for technical stuff and not the customizing part in particular. You have to ask on their forum for this, and their forum is pretty much dead.

It's actually a premium stock vector site, exclusively authored by me and my team at Wizmaya Design Studio. Most of the items there are our unused graphic stuff, experimental items etc. I'm not aiming for sales at the moment. The site is just there for the sake of it, and I know I'll be needing it sooner or later.

Anyway, feel free to browse the site at www.vectoriffic.com. I would really appreciate any feedback / bug reports / critics from you.


Cheers!


It looks great. I was about to comment on how astonished I was that someone that was a noob in html/css managed to customize that well, considering the site is built in php. Until I got to the bolded sentence above.

Since you're not aiming for vector sales, maybe you are aiming for customization work from people who are setting up their own stores? Looks like that's what you and your team are actually in business for...to build web templates?

« Reply #155 on: August 17, 2011, 05:25 »
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Nice work - site looks great!

You customized the 3.9 theme, correct? This is a totally different process than every previous version. At v3.9 ktools started using the smarty template system rather than the previous tables, etc, setup. So at least you are working in a more modern template system.

Thanks! Yes, it's 3.9 and the theme is called V4 if I'm not mistaken.

Looking good Louis.

The only thing I would change is replace the word "SUBSCRIBE" with "REGISTER" in your top menu.  If you want to do it, you can by going into English.php but only change the word "subscribe" that's in the quotation marks.

The other thing I'd do is change:

Regular RF Licence - $10        to         Regular RF Licence: $10

Just so it doesn't look like negative 10 dollars.

Your vectors are great by the way.

Thanks a bunch for the input, I'll revise them as soon as I have the time.  ;)

It looks great. I was about to comment on how astonished I was that someone that was a noob in html/css managed to customize that well, considering the site is built in php. Until I got to the bolded sentence above.

Since you're not aiming for vector sales, maybe you are aiming for customization work from people who are setting up their own stores? Looks like that's what you and your team are actually in business for...to build web templates?

Well I still am a noob in HTML/CSS. You wouldn't believe if I told you I bought a bunch of books about HTML and CSS just to be able to start customizing the site. My graphic design studio specializes in branding, logo creation, illustration, print and web design. However, when it comes to web design, we don't do any of the coding. We usually finalize the design in layered PSD format and let the web developers take it from there. ;)  And NO, I'm NOT accepting any customization work for anybody. I need to rest my brain after this one... programming is not for me, hehe.

« Reply #156 on: August 18, 2011, 00:56 »
0
I've started mine too

http://www.photostockit.com/

next mission

1) get to first page "stock photo" for google in my country
 
2) find those local buyers who has been buying from me and sell direct


it seems k-tools is pretty technical and you need to have good  web knowledge to be able to manage it

« Reply #157 on: December 27, 2011, 09:59 »
0
The software itself requires a huge re-write if you want to have your images found by search engines. The default setting is to write names with underscores, which Google doesn't recognize, rather than dashes.

They do relative links everywhere, which is also a big programming no-no. So if you want to move your file to an SEO and user friendly directory structure like /stock-photos/animals/dog-playing.html, you will have a war on your hands. You can do it in the PHP or htaccess, but then all of your styles will be lost and you will have to change like a million different files to get them to be read again. They want everything kept to the root directory.

If you get Photostore you will have a ton of customization work to do. It might be easier to build a site from the ground up, or hire someone to do it.
« Last Edit: December 27, 2011, 11:47 by djpadavona »

« Reply #158 on: December 27, 2011, 13:29 »
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I just wanted to report back...for all those naysayers who think it is a total waste of time to create your own site.

I was away for a few days and just got back last night. I had a wonderful surprise waiting for me. A buyer, who had previously purchased one of my images on an agency, realized they would need an extended license for an image. Rather than purchasing again from the agency with the correct license, they saw my direct link, realized it would be better to purchase from me directly, and did so.

So it appears that buyers DO care about the contributors, and buyers ARE willing to purchase from contributors directly. I got complimented on my images, took away virtually 100% of the sale (paypal keeps their share) and don't have to make too many more sales this year to surpass my sales on some of the agencies. And hopefully this will be a repeat customer.

Just a little encouragement for those of you who have taken the leap.  :)


that's great!  what is the link to your site?  when I go here I get an index listing http://www.cathyslifestockphotos.com/  :(

« Reply #159 on: December 27, 2011, 13:33 »
0
The software itself requires a huge re-write if you want to have your images found by search engines. The default setting is to write names with underscores, which Google doesn't recognize, rather than dashes.

They do relative links everywhere, which is also a big programming no-no. So if you want to move your file to an SEO and user friendly directory structure like /stock-photos/animals/dog-playing.html, you will have a war on your hands. You can do it in the PHP or htaccess, but then all of your styles will be lost and you will have to change like a million different files to get them to be read again. They want everything kept to the root directory.

If you get Photostore you will have a ton of customization work to do. It might be easier to build a site from the ground up, or hire someone to do it.

Dan.. wow.. I knew it was some work but that just seems like a lot of work for sure!  You've done some great stuff with WarmPicture!

« Reply #160 on: December 27, 2011, 13:53 »
0
Thank you Jami. There are a lot of things I still haven't figured out because the software is so convoluted and lacking documentation. Asking questions on the forum is pointless as the admins rarely post there. And you can't ask the admins because they don't answer customization questions.

Unless you are very proficient in PHP and making htaccess changes, I don't recommend it.

« Reply #161 on: December 27, 2011, 17:25 »
0
I just wanted to report back...for all those naysayers who think it is a total waste of time to create your own site.

I was away for a few days and just got back last night. I had a wonderful surprise waiting for me. A buyer, who had previously purchased one of my images on an agency, realized they would need an extended license for an image. Rather than purchasing again from the agency with the correct license, they saw my direct link, realized it would be better to purchase from me directly, and did so.

So it appears that buyers DO care about the contributors, and buyers ARE willing to purchase from contributors directly. I got complimented on my images, took away virtually 100% of the sale (paypal keeps their share) and don't have to make too many more sales this year to surpass my sales on some of the agencies. And hopefully this will be a repeat customer.

Just a little encouragement for those of you who have taken the leap.  :)

that's great!  what is the link to your site?  when I go here I get an index listing   :(

I'm almost to the end of my year with bluehost...I made back the money I put into the project, but I just don't have the time to put into it to continue to do it justice. My images are still available at Warmpicture, SS, DT, BigStock, and Stockfresh. I am concentrating my time and efforts in other avenues of business.

RacePhoto

« Reply #162 on: December 27, 2011, 20:23 »
0
I just wanted to report back...for all those naysayers who think it is a total waste of time to create your own site.

I was away for a few days and just got back last night. I had a wonderful surprise waiting for me. A buyer, who had previously purchased one of my images on an agency, realized they would need an extended license for an image. Rather than purchasing again from the agency with the correct license, they saw my direct link, realized it would be better to purchase from me directly, and did so.

So it appears that buyers DO care about the contributors, and buyers ARE willing to purchase from contributors directly. I got complimented on my images, took away virtually 100% of the sale (paypal keeps their share) and don't have to make too many more sales this year to surpass my sales on some of the agencies. And hopefully this will be a repeat customer.

Just a little encouragement for those of you who have taken the leap.  :)

that's great!  what is the link to your site?  when I go here I get an index listing   :(

I'm almost to the end of my year with bluehost...I made back the money I put into the project, but I just don't have the time to put into it to continue to do it justice. My images are still available at Warmpicture, SS, DT, BigStock, and Stockfresh. I am concentrating my time and efforts in other avenues of business.

Good to hear some positive news and that at least you did it and broke even on the project. Nice Going!


 

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