MicrostockGroup
Microstock Photography Forum - General => Symbiostock => Symbiostock - Network Building => Topic started by: Kerioak~Christine on March 29, 2013, 05:23
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Wondered if Leo (and others) would like to see how we are getting on so those of us that are are working with his theme could demonstrate how it is going, maybe we could add it here with comments such as
Things I need to do before going live:
Get lots more images up
Link to other people and get links back
Pretty the site up and get all the "paperwork" sorted
Things I would like at some point
Option to sell "extended" licence
Cookie box, I don't know about the US but in the UK (Europe?) all sites should now state they use cookies and if you don't like it please leave - well words to that effect. (http://www.ico.org.uk/for_organisations/privacy_and_electronic_communications/the_guide/cookies (http://www.ico.org.uk/for_organisations/privacy_and_electronic_communications/the_guide/cookies)) or I can do as I have done elsewhere and just add a note to the front page
My unfinished site is at www.stockimages.kerioak.com (http://www.stockimages.kerioak.com)
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Thought it might be useful to add more information
Host: Justhost.com (just needed php.ini edited, works fine otherwise)
Want to network - Yes
Current networks added as these were the first so I could try them out and they all show results from my site
Photomining
Stompstock
Backyard
Ruchos
Clipartimages
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Looking good so far! You've got quite a few images up too! I see you've done some styling too - good deal. Tonight I'm posting a child theme so you can make customizations to your site and not lose them with updates. Thanks for making this thread. ;D
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My site is starting to take shape. There is a lot of work to do yet.
Technically, it's live. I have started linking to the site in a few areas. I want Google to index it asap.
I have plans to add quite a bit more content (not just images for sale). I'm holding off on doing much customization to the site at this point.
Whenever that first sale happens, it will probably feel better than any other stock image sale that I've had.
My site: www.stompstock.com (http://www.stompstock.com)
I agree with Tinny, some way to offer an extended license would be great. At this point I'm just going to make it clear in the EULA that if people want to use an image in a way that is not allowed to contact me for pricing.
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I'm actively working as well, but stuck with some 1and1.com hosting issues at present that are impacting image processing. If I solve them (with Leo's help), I'll post full details for future users of this theme.
I'll be an active participant in these networks, but I'm a bit stuck for now. It is going to be http://www.backyardstockphotos.com (http://www.backyardstockphotos.com)
I've updated my logo and added bits to the licenses to refer to the owner of the website rather than just the website itself (my business entity), but that is about as far as I have got.
More to come!!
Steve
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This is awesome. I was able to install to a sub directory and I've uploaded my first image this morning. The only issues I'm having are host related (ie. can't set the "post" function so I can't network, can't upload over 4MB but I can FTP as a workaround.
Now I need to find the child theme thingy and learn how to use that. Here's y site: http://photomining.com/q/ (http://photomining.com/q/)
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I have my site setup. Just working on adding more images, and some actual content pages. Then I will work on some aesthetic changes.
http://www.theruchos.com (http://www.theruchos.com)
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Good job! It looks unique! Your using the child theme to make changes?
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Thanks! Yes, using the child theme.
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Great work! I like the look of the theme and how you all are customizing.
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My site is up, just working on graphics to make it my own (watermark, logo, etc.)
www.cathyslifeStockPhotos.com (http://www.cathyslifeStockPhotos.com)
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I have a test site up and am playing with it.
http://glennspecht.com/wp/ (http://glennspecht.com/wp/)
things to do:
decide if I will use it.
intergrate into the rest of my site.
rebrand
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If anyone wants to check their networking function, feel free to link to my site (http://photomining.com/q/ (http://photomining.com/q/)) and use the search term "graphic". You should see a bunch of photos come up. I'm having a blast with this.
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Farbled - Great, first time I have seen mine come up on anyone else's page :)
:( Not so great - I cannot get yours to show -- I can get Leo's , Backyard, Stompstock but even changing position does not bring up anything else from yours, not even an empty box. I tried with and without the Q and the WWW. I tried on gold as well as graphic. Can someone else try yours to see if they have more success
I do like your site logo, must sort out something better for mine.
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Leo had the same issue because he had a null link in his list before mine. Perhaps you have an inactive site in your list? I think this is a really, truly great feature.
Thanks about the logo. My strengths are not in design, but it seemed to work out with a little thought. :)
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Hmm, I am wondering how hard it would be to get networked results to open in a new window when you click on them. I don't want to direct anyone away from my site and it might be confusing to buyers to start on one site and then end up in another...any thoughts?
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Got it installed this morning. Just have to upload a few images and do a test purchase.
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Got mine happening here: www.timhester.com.au (http://www.timhester.com.au)
LONG way to go yet for anything resembling a functioning site, but so far no errors or issues with the theme, other than the common one about large files not processing.
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Some plugins that I use on my clipartillustration.com site - I'm sure there are modern ones.
FIRST AND FOREMOST
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/nextgen-gallery/ (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/nextgen-gallery/) < you want this
Others
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/broken-link-checker/ (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/broken-link-checker/)
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/contact-form-7/ (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/contact-form-7/)
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/fancier-author-box/ (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/fancier-author-box/) < helpful as well, for personalizing.
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wordpress-seo/ (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wordpress-seo/) < essential
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I'm in.
http://hitvectors.com/ (http://hitvectors.com/)
Hosted at bluehost. Seems fine by now.
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I have added some information to my first post which may be useful to others as once we all launch might be useful to know who links to who so no-one gets left out?
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Definitely! I'm finding it hard to remember who's who.
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http://aseanphotostock.com/ (http://aseanphotostock.com/) up on Bluehost, everything is fine so far
Stupid question I added travelling light to my network but it does not appear on my main page how do you do that?
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Will only appear on your page when you do a search - for an example go to my page and do a search on "animal" or "graphic" some of my network will have results but if you choose "gold" they will all come up with results
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Yes I did that but it does not work,my guess is that travelling light did not activate the network yet
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I'm in.
[url]http://hitvectors.com/[/url] ([url]http://hitvectors.com/[/url])
Hosted at bluehost. Seems fine by now.
I like your tagline "part of symbiostock network". Ok if i add that to my logo too?
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I initially left the full Symbiostock logo in and incorporated it with mine but was not happy with it. When I saw HitVector's I prefered his (her) idea as I feel it will let our clients know what we are part of as we will have to find a way of telling them as well as getting other photographers involved :D
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I'm in.
[url]http://hitvectors.com/[/url] ([url]http://hitvectors.com/[/url])
Hosted at bluehost. Seems fine by now.
I like your tagline "part of symbiostock network". Ok if i add that to my logo too?
Sure. It's our brand. and reinforce the network idea.
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nice touch:)
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For those looking for a test partner for their network, feel free to use http://www.backyardstockphotos.com (http://www.backyardstockphotos.com)
I've got about 30 images online now and am adding more, so you should get some reasonable matches. To answer another question earlier. You only see the other partner when you do a search for an image - it doesn't appear on the home page.
Steve
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Some plugins that I use on my clipartillustration.com site - I'm sure there are modern ones.
FIRST AND FOREMOST
[url]http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/nextgen-gallery/[/url] ([url]http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/nextgen-gallery/[/url]) < you want this
Others
I have loaded this plug-in and spent some time trying to make it work with my stock images.... any suggestions on how to integrate the two?
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I've looked at this as well, but I don't think we want to upload even more images - we need to point it at our existing ones and make sure that when you click on an image from the gallery it creates, it links to the purchase page. I'm leaving that as too much for me just now - and if I get to my 5000 images on the site, it will be an enormous and pretty useless gallery anyway. Perhaps it would make sense to choose 30 of your really best images and do the linking from image to the purchase page.
theruchos has done a nice approach where there is a display by category in the top menu. Not sure how that was done, but that is an approach that could work for me.
Steve
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I added this to my sidepanel using the text widget. Feel free to share/use/edit. Any ideas on where to link it to? Leo do you have a preference?
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I added this to my sidepanel using the text widget. Feel free to share/use/edit. Any ideas on where to link it to? Leo do you have a preference?
Photo AND vectors. Maybe video? Music? Who knows...
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I would make sense to link it to http://www.symbiostock.com/ (http://www.symbiostock.com/) so that people read about it
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Yes I did that but it does not work,my guess is that travelling light did not activate the network yet
Correct!
Enabled now and I can see myself from your site. It's broken for me browsing the network until I can get open_basedir unset - my php.ini setting is being overridden, probably by httpd.conf.
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great it works I can see your thailand pic:) However like I was saying in another thread if you do a china search from my site it should display your picture but it does so I guess it needs to be corrected somewhere
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great it works I can see your thailand pic:) However like I was saying in another thread if you do a china search from my site it should display your picture but it does so I guess it needs to be corrected somewhere
It looks as if the search only goes to the network after it has found something on your own site. If you have nothing, then it fails without looking at the network.
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gave up on 1and1 for the moment, and signed up with justhost.com for $3.95/mo (looked at bluehost but they charged me $142 for a 3 year contract without a confirmation screen to show me the real cost!)
install to non root was easy http://cascoly-images.com/pix (http://cascoly-images.com/pix)
i'll get the networking page updated again later today http://cascoly.com/symbiostock-network.asp (http://cascoly.com/symbiostock-network.asp) please also update when you change your current webpage to a symbiostock site
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Got mine up and running (in beta) - still have a few pages to dust down.
http://www.travelwitness.net/ (http://www.travelwitness.net/)
Hosted on JustHost - so far so good.
Found a few search and comments bugs, but on the whole I think Leo has done a fantastic job.
I love that it's on Word Press and can be skinned however we want, it's already shaping up to be far more flexible than Ktools.
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Hi Matt
It's looking good, not sure what you have done though as the search is not working on your site, I wonder if your deleting the category page is the cause. I only say this as it is the first time I have seen searches not working and first time seen categories on main page all deleted.
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Got mine up and running (in beta) - still have a few pages to dust down.
[url]http://www.travelwitness.net/[/url] ([url]http://www.travelwitness.net/[/url])
Hosted on JustHost - so far so good.
Found a few search and comments bugs, but on the whole I think Leo has done a fantastic job.
I love that it's on Word Press and can be skinned however we want, it's already shaping up to be far more flexible than Ktools.
I am very impressed with your front page...looks really good.
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Nice front page Matt:)
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Hi Matt
It's looking good, not sure what you have done though as the search is not working on your site, I wonder if your deleting the category page is the cause. I only say this as it is the first time I have seen searches not working and first time seen categories on main page all deleted.
The categories drop down uses keyword tags, it works for most of it but it gets stuck on some of the keywords. Hopefully Leo will come in and shed some light on it.
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You have the category drop downs and any keyword listed there seems to work but none of your others. You have made the "real" category page into something else
"
Oops!
You need to select a Subject from the - Categories - drop down menu.
Please try again.
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It might be it needs the "real" category page to work. If you really don't want them to show you might be able to make the text the same colour as the background
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I got a bit stuck to be honest.
I didn't want to 'categorise' every photo as it is too time consuming, so I used keyword tags instead - for the menu.
Maybe I need to add a new list in the oops page to make it less confusing?
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[url]http://www.travelwitness.net/[/url] ([url]http://www.travelwitness.net/[/url])
WOW
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After I have moved my site to bluehost it is starting to take shape and I thought it's time to say officaly Hello in the forum :)
Although there is a lot of work to do I am totally excited that it is allready technically live. I really think Symbiostock is a great idea and I hope it will grow quickly.
So if anyone wants to visit my site www.flashstockphoto.com (http://www.flashstockphoto.com) and likes to give me some feedback or suggestions for improvement you are very welcome.
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After I have moved my site to bluehost it is starting to take shape and I thought it's time to say officaly Hello in the forum :)
Although there is a lot of work to do I am totally excited that it is allready technically live. I really think Symbiostock is a great idea and I hope it will grow quickly.
So if anyone wants to visit my site [url=http://www.flashstockphoto.com]www.flashstockphoto.com[/url] ([url]http://www.flashstockphoto.com[/url]) and likes to give me some feedback or suggestions for improvement you are very welcome.
Very nice. Glad to see SY network growing every day.
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You got some nice work on your site, looking good :-)
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Count me in, http://stock.imagerion.com/ (http://stock.imagerion.com/)
I am still working on it, did not enable the Paypal and few more things yet. Now I am uploading images slowly and changing the layout and functionality.
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Looking good! I love the huge search bar.
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large input , giant output
;)
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I have set up my Symbiostock site at alanklughammer.com/stock (http://alanklughammer.com/stock). There are a few issues I am working on, and I have only put up a few old photos, but I would like to get some feedback.... :)
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Please, could someone tell me what is better on Symbiostock than on Photoshelter, Smugmug etc.?
There is no big difference in earnings between 100% and 85% (if we sell also on stock agencies)...
Please, tell me where is the difference between this direct selling options...?
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In a nutshell - Search engine optimization and a dedicated site for stock downloads. The biggest is SEO - I have had images on Smugmug for years and I have never seen them on any Google search - web or image. I've put images on my Symbio site and I see them at the top of the Google search within a week or two of getting them online. If buyers can see them, they can buy them
steve
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Please, could someone tell me what is better on Symbiostock than on Photoshelter, Smugmug etc.?
There is no big difference in earnings between 100% and 85% (if we sell also on stock agencies)...
Please, tell me where is the difference between this direct selling options...?
it's harder to promote your smugmug images -- I have a smugmug site and my sym site has already outperformed it by a large margin.
in addition, symbio lets you generate contact sheets of images you can post elsewhere (check the thread on this here in the forum) -- I had to do a lot more work to do that with smugmug
s
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Please, could someone tell me what is better on Symbiostock than on Photoshelter, Smugmug etc.?
There is no big difference in earnings between 100% and 85% (if we sell also on stock agencies)...
Please, tell me where is the difference between this direct selling options...?
The biggest perk, I think, is that with a Symbiostock site you own it. I mean, truly own the site and every aspect of it, right down to the styling details, the design, every intricacy about how it works, how people see your work, everything. There is literally nothing I can't do to my site, to make it look exactly how I want it to or to function in some different way. I don't think you can have that kind of freedom with very many systems like this.
Also, Symbiostock is built on WordPress, which as far as I know was and probably still is the most popular content management system in use on the web. There is a huge community developing WordPress plugins all the time, for pretty much anything you can think of that you'd want to do on your site. There is almost no limit to what you can add to your site, often with just a few clicks, just by searching for a plugin or widget that does what you need. SmugMug can't compare to what the WordPress community has to offer in terms of add-ons.
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I added this to my sidepanel using the text widget. Feel free to share/use/edit. Any ideas on where to link it to? Leo do you have a preference?
Sorry to go back a few months but what about this for an idea?
Everyone (who chooses to - this shouldn't be compulsory) has a "Symbiostock Ethos" page that doesn't have to be in a menu or page list but that can be linked to from such a logo that can go in a widget.
If you want an example of what I mean, I've already set an Ethos page up that I link to from my home page - here's a linky (http://stockphotology.com/ethos/). We've had a mini-discussion about promotional and PR type stuff elsewhere and this could fit into that.
Any thoughts, criticisms or corrections?
Russell
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Thanks guys!
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I have set up my Symbiostock site at alanklughammer.com/stock ([url]http://alanklughammer.com/stock[/url]). There are a few issues I am working on, and I have only put up a few old photos, but I would like to get some feedback.... :)
Site looks ok, but could use some tweaking? Once I go to your blog, I can not find a a way back to your stock page.
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I added this to my sidepanel using the text widget. Feel free to share/use/edit. Any ideas on where to link it to? Leo do you have a preference?
Sorry to go back a few months but what about this for an idea?
Everyone (who chooses to - this shouldn't be compulsory) has a "Symbiostock Ethos" page that doesn't have to be in a menu or page list but that can be linked to from such a logo that can go in a widget.
If you want an example of what I mean, I've already set an Ethos page up that I link to from my home page - here's a linky ([url]http://stockphotology.com/ethos/[/url]). We've had a mini-discussion about promotional and PR type stuff elsewhere and this could fit into that.
Any thoughts, criticisms or corrections?
Russell
I like the idea of it being optional. You have done a very nice job of pulling all the positive aspects of Symbiostock and your services together. Have we (Symbiostock members) established a central location where samples of license agreements, privacy policies, Ethos, etc have been created? That would be a great resource for new members.
I would like to use your ethos page as a starting point for my own if you don't mind?
David
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I added this to my sidepanel using the text widget. Feel free to share/use/edit. Any ideas on where to link it to? Leo do you have a preference?
Sorry to go back a few months but what about this for an idea?
Everyone (who chooses to - this shouldn't be compulsory) has a "Symbiostock Ethos" page that doesn't have to be in a menu or page list but that can be linked to from such a logo that can go in a widget.
If you want an example of what I mean, I've already set an Ethos page up that I link to from my home page - here's a linky ([url]http://stockphotology.com/ethos/[/url]). We've had a mini-discussion about promotional and PR type stuff elsewhere and this could fit into that.
Any thoughts, criticisms or corrections?
Russell
I like the idea of it being optional. You have done a very nice job of pulling all the positive aspects of Symbiostock and your services together. Have we (Symbiostock members) established a central location where samples of license agreements, privacy policies, Ethos, etc have been created? That would be a great resource for new members.
I would like to use your ethos page as a starting point for my own if you don't mind?
David
Thanks for the kind words and I've no problem with you using it, David.
And that goes for anyone else - feel free cannibalise my copy. 8)
Actually, I should give a shout out to Tinny whose homepage provided the ideas. I was just the fluffer. ;)
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Dupe.
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Hi - newbie here - please be gentle with me!!
I've been experimenting with building a storefront into an existing website. As I'm already using Wordpress to serve as a "News" page, I thought I'd see how the Symbiostock theme could be incorporated. It's fairly obvious, but the "Buy images" is the store doorway!
I've tried to maintain the look and feel of the main site as much as possible, but have only small selection of files just for testing as it's very much work-in-progress.
Any comments greatly appreciated
Host: www.anglian-art.co.uk (http://www.anglian-art.co.uk)
Want to network - Yes
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Hi - newbie here - please be gentle with me!!
I've been experimenting with building a storefront into an existing website. As I'm already using Wordpress to serve as a "News" page, I thought I'd see how the Symbiostock theme could be incorporated. It's fairly obvious, but the "Buy images" is the store doorway!
I've tried to maintain the look and feel of the main site as much as possible, but have only small selection of files just for testing as it's very much work-in-progress.
Any comments greatly appreciated
Host: [url=http://www.anglian-art.co.uk]www.anglian-art.co.uk[/url] ([url]http://www.anglian-art.co.uk[/url])
Want to network - Yes
Very nice! The only thing I see right off is on the SY site, you might want to give a little more space after the 3 blocks of copy at the bottom, before the footer. There is a lot of space above the 3 blocks, maybe a little more after? Other than that, I think you have done a good job! I could navigate between the two sites easily.
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Hi Daphne and Stuart
Welcome to Symbiostock - and thank you for the credit !
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Host: [url=http://www.anglian-art.co.uk]www.anglian-art.co.uk[/url] ([url]http://www.anglian-art.co.uk[/url])
Want to network - Yes
Nice work, but I noticed, that real address of your Symbio site is
http://shop.anglianwebhosting.com/ (http://shop.anglianwebhosting.com/)
and for networking this address should be used by others.
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Nice work, but I noticed, that real address of your Symbio site is
[url]http://shop.anglianwebhosting.com/[/url] ([url]http://shop.anglianwebhosting.com/[/url])
and for networking this address should be used by others.
Yes, some nice travel images, but shouldn't some of those with people in - the lifeguards by the sea for instance - be marked as editorial? There is a separate thread about easy ways to include an editorial banner on images that require that statement.
Steve
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Thanks for your replies - all duly noted and acted on!!