Jet Web Pages and Such
 

As I bounce around to various Mfg. websites, I feel sorry for them that there content is not richer and that they are slow to display pages due to some of the graphics.

I'm not saying all Mfg sites are like this just alot and I choose not to list names.

If anyone would like help with Website design let me know and we can work something out. I would just love to see sites with more content than what is currently out there.

Mike

Web sites
 

Top Gun Aircraft is probably the worst I have seen :-)
www.tgajets.com

Glennis is one of the nicest.
www.glennis.com

PW

Website low budget
 

Most of us are not good or don't know how to built good website. That is not our field. But to hired a proffessional. We don't had the budget for it. In this hobby industry. Is very hard to make money. I think reputation is more important than how good the website look. But I still like to had a nice website if I had the budget for it.

Brg,
Tam
First time learn doing website.
www.tamjets.com

Jet Web Pages and Such
 

Hey... Tam... I just checked your site out and
I think its great. Lots of color and all the info
you need to buy your stuff. What else is there.. ?

Eddie Weeks
(my site suc%s)
http://www.corpcomp.com/weeks1/

Websites
 

Tam,

Trade schools are great places for help with websites. I do web design as a hobby. I don't want to start a war about who's site is better than who's.

Mike

keeping web sites up to date
 

For what it's worth, hobby related web sites don't have to be high dollar investments. The key though is to keep them current with updates and new imagery. Without continuous updates users will not return on a regular basis. Furthermore if the info. on the site is out of date, then there is no reason for users to go there at all.

I am continually disappointed that the AMT web site is only updated every 6 months or so, as a result I hardly go there. By contrast David Shulman and Bob update the BVM website many times a month. I probably go there once or twice a week. RCUniverse has new content every few minutes. I come here at least once a day.

Antony

-----------------------

Websites
 

I have designed a couple of web sites for R/C related stuff:

The Official Top Gun site @ www.franktiano.com/topgun.htm

The Scale Jets International site @ www.franktiano.com/SJI.htm (Still in progress)

The Simjet site @ www.simjet.com (Not doing updates for them anymore, so more than 75% of the photo's in their gallery are of planes that no longer fly Simjet, and the formatting is now all screwed up. But I think it looked pretty good when new. )

FTE's online shop @ www.franktiano.com/store/index.htm

Most of them where done in a couple of nights of work. It does not take much work with the right software, but it is fun to do.

Jet Web Pages and Such
 

Profit margin is slim with most of the hobby based business and creating websites can be costly. Unless you have someone in house that can create and update the site on a regular basis like BVM, the costs can outweigh the profit margin the website provides. True, website construction is not extremely difficult with the right software and time but you do have to be computer literate to create them. I am far from a web designer but have spent a few months teaching myself how to do it in my spare time. Most of the small manufacturers just dont have the time or funding to construct elaborate pages.
I offered what little spare time I had to help Jetcat USA construct a new site. Although far from perfect or professional the page has all the information required and it is manageable. Site was created for them at no charge. Those who complain and wish to see more information or better quality website might try helping these small companies out by doing the same....

Todd

Jet Web Pages and Such
 

And how much did you pay for the new turbine when you made the switch? (JK)

Jet Web Pages and Such
 

Dan and I are one day going to get our web site started. what is some good easy to use software that we can get..what software are yall using to teach yourselves.

P.S.----Eddie, I think your site is cool. when we get ours going you can teach us how to do the movies.

Doug A
Austin Gang

Web design
 

Hi Dough,

I do everything in Microsoft Frontpage 2002. If you want a simple website you can use one of the many designs already included with the program. That way you ccan make a website in a couple of hours. It may not be the most acvance web design program on the market, but it is simple to use.

Jet Web Pages and Such
 

No discount there! Not even bought through JC USA, was purchased through Planes Plus and was purchased before I touched JC's site!

Dont expect any discounts, just offered to help....

I am using Dreamweaver 4 and Adobe GoLive 6 to create the sites only because I want to learn the software. Easiest software to use is Front Page 2002 and templates found on the web although the above mentioned software can be self taught fairly easily too.
Todd

Re: Websites
 

I'm not bashing you or try to make a website war. I just want to point out what is going on at our business position.
Yes, website can be easy to learn if the person can have little spare time to learn.
Like Todd said. Website had to be updated at least once a month.
The cost to update that had to take out from profit.

Brg,
Tam

JetCat site
 

Nice job on the JetCat site, but for the past week or so, the central panel is compressed so you cannot view a whole frame at a time. Bad for photos of the L-39.

Just wondering what happened.

Otherwise, a great site.

Tom

Jet Web Pages and Such
 

My entire process behind is this thread is being in the High Tech world everyone goes to the web for information. If your website is not regularly updated then why have one at all.

All of us would love to see websites that are regularly updated with information about kits. If you don't updated your website then the information that was posted orginally quickly comes outdated.

I would love to see all mfg do updates to include MSRP of their kits even if distributers sell them at a discount. At least we would have an idea as to what they cost. Along with what accessories are available from the mfg.

Everyone can think of 1 - 5 mfg that haven't updated their website that they don't even bother going to it since the information is useless. I can even think of a few that have updated them then never went back and added content where they had "Under Construction" for certain pages.

I apolojize about my ranting and raving. Back to your regularly scheduled program.

Mike

Jet Web Pages and Such
 

The only thing really required by a website is the content be updated frequently, and the information is easy to find and read. All the fancy graphics, colors, animations, and sounds are pointless if someone doesn't stay on your page to read the information presented.

It's been proven over and over you have 30 seconds at the most to capture a reader's attention before they move on to another site.

I find Tam's site quite easy to read, quick to find the info I want, and it loads rapidly. Same with BVM. It's very easy to navigate and find what I want.

I've done a lot of website development over the past 6 years, and as with many things.. its not always what you put in.. but what you leave out that makes a good website.

Doug Cronkhite

Web sites
 

Hey Tam,

If you paint a Hot Spot for me I will paint your web site :D

Re: JetCat site
 

Hey Tom!
May I ask what your screen resolution is?

Todd

Jet Web Pages and Such
 

Mine is same Todd. cant see all of center area anymore, used to but something changed.
Running 800x600 here

Jet Web Pages and Such
 

Todd,

I am not having any trouble viewing it but I am also running at 1024x762 and on a 21" monitor at work. Only thing I see is that the page does not go all the way across my screen.

David Reid

Fly JetCat!

Oopss just tried something, Tom can you drag the frames over on the JetCat website?

Re: Re: JetCat site
 

Yep Todd: You blew the frames. Keep your day job :D

JCUSA site
 

1024x768. No problem till about 10 days ago.

What does it look like on your machine? On mine, the right 1/3 of the page is empty, with everything squished to the middle with sliders on horizontal and vertical, that weren't there before.

Tom

Re: Re: Re: JetCat site
 

Ok: Here it is at 1024

Jet Web Pages and Such
 

Just to be contrary... ;-)

I'm gonna differ with you slightly on that...

If I can buy the same (or similar) product in multiple places, and only one of those places has online ordering, then that's the one that will get my business (even if they do cost a bit more).

That's because convenience is valuable to me, especially since I do most of my hobby purchases at a time of day when no-one's gonna be around to answer the phone to take my order.

I understand that developing a good website with on-line purchasing is not necessarily cheap, but against that one should presumably balance some additional facts:

(1) Taking the time to put certain types of info on a website can reduce certain costs (a FAQ is a perfect example of this), and

(2) That website may get the company additional sales that they would not otherwise have received (there's a lot of companies that have gotten purchases from me just because a Google search found their website!)

Clearly the above will not apply when you want to buy something that is single-sourced - but for multi-sourced items I belive it applies.

"It costs me too much" could also be used as an excuse why some businesses would not accept credit cards (for the same purchase price, the store gets less money out of a credit card transaction than a check or M.O.) - but a lot of businesses would lose out on significant sales if they did not take credit cards, so they balance the cost of the CC transaction against the increased sales. Seems to me that (within limits) the same argument could be made for websites with on-line ordering.

The above isn't meant as a bach against any companies that have no, or limited, websites - I'm just giving an alternate point of view to the ones posted so far.

Later,
Gordon

JetCat site
 

Still working on the frames and site layout! The site is a far cry from what is was and I am working on it as I can find time. No plans to quit my day job, nor am I a web designer...Just helping out a company that apreciates the effort... Your welcome to help Ken if you think you can do better :rolleyes:
Todd

Oh, Oh! Now i did it---- veddy sorry---
 

Didn't want to wake any pit bulls. :eek: Just a little FYI. Nice job as I said before. :D

Tom

Re: JetCat site
 

Not me, I hate frames! :D
Don't care for Java much either :cool:

web design
 

On website design! One of Dave Platt's (Scale Guru) sayings come to mind here. This quote applys to web design as well!

"A Scale model (website) is never complete! you just stop working on it"

Jet Web Pages and Such
 

what the hell are yall talking about?-----does this have anything to do with jets.---





Doug A
Austin Gang

Jet Web Pages and Such
 

As the owner of Houston Hobbies.com and Greater Internet Hosting I would be happy to help any R/C related company with hosting their website or in web site design. I use Dreamweaver and Photoshop as these 2 tools are one of the best combinations for web development. Dreamweaver has 2 powerful features, Library items and Templates, which make creating and more importantly updating the web site easy once setup. And Photoshop can manipulate images in every way possible.

Visit www.greaterinternethosting.com for hosting plans that will knock your socks off. We offer fully featured web site hosting for a little as $7.00 per month for 500mb of space with 5 gigabytes of transfer per month. We can also can register your new Internet domain too for only $12.99 per year.

Visit www.houstonhobbies.com for an example of how to do ecommerce and sell products over the Internet. In business since 2000 doing online ordering soley for hobby products.

As some people have mentioned, creating a website can be costly if done by a professional, but consider the amount of people currently online and surfing the Internet, it is a great way of advertising and providing information 24/7 without using traditional ways which can be more costly.

If you would like to work on site design please contact [email protected] and we can discuss the possiblities.

JR Gautreaux

Jet Web Pages and Such
 

HHOBBIES;
With prices like that you might have my business in the future. Do you have cold fusion also?

Webmaster
 

Todd:

Nice Job on the JetCat USA website update------

Tom

Re: Webmaster
 

Thanks Tom, Still much work in progress but I hope things are easier to see now!

Commin to FIJR or lake whales in november?? Be nice to see you again...!

BRG,
Todd

FIJR
 

Yep! Planning on Lake Wales again. Except for the offshore hurricane that took it's toll on our birds, that was pure fun, and a great time of year for us early snowbirds. In fact, I am going to call Green Gables for reservations tomorrow.

Are you coming up for Superman? Just made my reservations at the Comfort Inn starting on Wednesday.

Catch you later----Tom

Jet Web Pages and Such
 

todd,

welcome to the world of volunteer web site management. i've flat given up on getting every version of aol to read ours cleanly. but a few of the members still complain.

Jet Websites & Such
 

Our web site has been totally revamped.

Check it out. I believe you'll agree that it is quite an improvement over our prior four 4 year old site in design and content.

http://www.Arts-Hobby.com

;)

Jet Web Pages and Such
 

You guys throw the word design around fairly loosely. Because a person uses software to publish content on the internet does not make that person a web designer. No amount of updating, credit card online sales, etc. can make up for just flat out mediocre graphic design. You spend so much time trying to organize–and make work–the most boring concepts. Hire a graphic designer. Even if you are going to build the site yourself, have a designer develop the elements and provide them to you. Trust me, it is worth the money. People have better taste than you think they do. Look at Arts Hobby site, a fine example of less is more. Easy to look at with a consistent look and feel. Will be a very recognizeable look. I hope they are carrying the "branding" they have developed throughout all their materials. Good Job!
Sorry to come down hard like this...I just can't take it any more.
Recap...The results of an opinion that spending money on professional graphic design is too expensive and is not necessary, unfortunately leave the marketplace with the opinion that your company is cheap and unnecessary.

Jet Web Pages and Such
 

Or possibly they are to busy creating quality products and filling customer orders?
If the information is there and the site is easy to navigate what more do you need? Would you prefer they spend the money on cool graphics and flash for their website or R&D on the products you spent thousands on???

ART'S HOBBY WEB SITE
 

Art and Marcy your new web site is awesome!!!!!!!!!

I encourage everyone to check it out!

P.S. Both are great people to deal with!!! Pat Jossey

Jet Web Pages and Such
 

Would you prefer they spend the money on cool graphics and flash for their website or R&D on the products you spent thousands on???

I would prefer that the company's image add assurance that my thousands were well spent.

And yes, absolutely, a company should focus their talents on R&D and customer satisfaction. After all, that is their business. Their business is not graphic design. Effective graphic design is not an afterthought to the items you mentioned. It is a precurser. A successful company always allocates a percentage towards advertising and marketing. As the "filling of orders" increases the company's bottom line, so should that budget also increase. In fact, successful advertisers know that when the economy causes belt tightening, those companies actually try to increase their reach and frequency, because less sophisticated company's automatically cut advertising expendatures first, leaving less competition in the marketplace.
It always puzzles me why a company would put so much time and effort into a quality product, hoping to gain a heaping helping of market share...and then put a half-arsed foot forward. Professionalism reflects professionalism and vise versa.
Customer mindset, contrary to what you may think, is not one of "Oh, crappy unprofessional materials...I must be getting a good product at the best price because they are not spending money on professional graphic design."
A schlocky image can belittle an awesome product. A great image campaign can make a schlocky product fly off the shelves (at least until the customer receives it). It's all about perceived value.
The "my brother-in-law can draw, I'll have him do my logo" approach is never in the best interest of a company looking to make headway in a competitive marketplace.
OK, enough "marketing 101"...I do admire your hard work, and know that you are trying to be helpful.
That said, If Humpty Dumpty had been more attractive in the first place, I bet all the Kings' horses and men would have had a different work ethic.

Paul

PS: Flash is not necessary, and "professional design" has nothing whatsoever to do with "bells and whistles"