Tonight I worked on the website a little bit more. Lately, I have been working on the image licensing module, which has taken a lot out of me. I’m hoping to be PLUS compliant so naturally, it’s difficult to work under the standards and terms of someone else; it’s one thing if I create a schema, but it’s an entirely different thing if somebody else does and it doesn’t conform to my standards.

I decided to take a step back from that though because during my lunch break at work today I played around with my website to see if there was anything minor that I could change in order to make the user experience divine. There were many things:

1. There was a disconnection between adding something to the cart and the indicator that displays what is inside the cart.  This was a simple addition of a object update.
2. There was no indication on how to view the cart just an anchor link at the top so I’ve made it to where the cart is viewed directly after adding something to it.
3. When a lead was added to the cart, the lead still remained in the list of available leads to purchase.  While I do check to see if the lead is already in the cart before adding it, it didn’t make sense to display it so I created an object update for that, too.
4. When adding or deleting something from the calendar the “Upcoming” section of the site would not refresh.  Yet another object update.

There were a couple of other minor things, but not really worth mentioning.

I want to take a break from the licensing module, an extended break, because I really feel like it’s time to start looking more seriously into the feel of the site and how easy it is for the user to use.  I got this idea from using the new vending machines at work.  The old vending machines were easy, and self-explanatory, to use, but the new ones are SO cool, however, I didn’t quite understand how to use them.  After that first experience I realized that this may be exactly what my users are facing.  How do they create a PDF estimate?  It seems simple enough, and it really is, but there are no instructions on how to do so, so I’m thinking of creating a FAQ.

Also, it’s time to really start thinking about marketing the site.  I’ve been experimenting with Google, but have not been satisfied with the results.  I think I need to create an RSS feed for the site that displays news about what the company is doing and what it plans to do next, etc.  I also considered writing a blog which could be connected to that same RSS feed.  It’s a toss up, though.

At the end of the day, I think I really need to focus on userbility of the site combined with the overall aesthetic of the site.  The external goods need to really convey what the site is all about and I’m not sure that they do that effectively.

There’s a lot in the works though… I mean, from image licensing, to the RSS feed, to the FAQ, to tweaking the site, to the aesthetics of the site, and not to mention that I still need to do some work on the client side of the site.  Granted, the client side will be much easier to code, it’s just sitting down and having the time to do it, is all.

These past few weeks have been very fruitful in terms of getting the uploads and advertisements working on the site. I am confident that the uploads are 95% finished and the ad script has just moved out of the prototype stage and is about 25% developed. When these two things are complete then adding license management, image management, profile images, and ad management will be easy.

I can’t wait!

Finally!  The site is active!  There have been many developments since the last update.  The site didn’t launch on January 1 as expected… in fact, I took about a two month hiatus on it so that I could just figure out what exactly I wanted to do with the site.  I guess you could call it refining the concept.

I have been back at work at it though… I’m moving the entire site over to Dreamhost since early tests have shown that their servers are much faster… this, along with their easy integration into the Amazon CDN, makes my site fit right in.

I have just integrated an upload script from Aurigma.  This is the script that I believe Myspace.com uses for image uploads… it’s versatile and allows multiple uploads with ease.

The direction of the site has changed.  The estimate creation algorithym is going to take more data than what I have available before it will work accurately.  In lieu of this, I am creating an image licensing portal.  I don’t want to go into great detail about this, but I think it will add a great value to photographers all over the United States.  It’s tools like this and the networking aspect of the site, that are the reason why the site will do so good.

Once the image uploader is complete this will speed the process of the creation of the other scripts, for licensing, networking, and project completion… many things really depend on this one script.

When I get leads in I am sending a message to photographers letting them know that a lead has arrived in their area…  well, since there is very little traffic to the site at the moment, the users are forgetting their passwords.  This means that I’ve added the function where a user can log in with either their username or email address.  They can also request a new password the same way.

At this point I’m not speculating on the official launch of the site–when we will push the marketing of the site.  There is still much that needs to be done.

It has been a while since I have updated here… I’ve been quite busy building the website, so I’d say that’s a pretty good excuse.  So much progress!  I setup the SSL certificate yesterday and today… I’m moving the main domain over to Dreamhost and mirroring on thenpg.com for the time being… I’m really unsure what I’m going to do with the 70-something other domain names… I just don’t have a lot of time to develop them into something useful, but I’m hoping that will change once I get the main site active.

Aside from the SSL certificate, I have done a major change to the style of the site and have received great feedback–the other two styles blew compared to this one.  Thanks to my Graphic Design/Video friend, Matt, who has offered his expertise on the matter.

Also, I’ve started implementing the networking portion of the site and I will probably do some more work with that this weekend to get the basics down.  It’s not unlike many of the other networking sites except that it will have a professional flare to it.  I understand the need to keep people interested in the site, which is why I am currently working on the ability to build a private lead.  The scenario goes like this:

• A potential client navigates to a photographer’s website–not directly associated with my site.
• The client wants to get in touch with the photographer, but maybe the photographer doesn’t encrypt this personal data, or maybe the photographer only has an email address listed.
• Well, I’m proposing that the photographer put a direct link to my site, and their networking profile, where the client can register, using an encrypted site, submit the information for the project and then ONLY that photographer can see that lead, at no charge.  If the photographer feels that she/he doesn’t want the lead, or maybe she/he isn’t available, then the photographer can put the lead into the pool to have other photographers purchase the lead, and provide the client with the services they need.
• This helps the photographer in many ways… it lets my site handle the hard work in terms of gathering the proper information on a secure site; it builds the credibility of that photographer because even though the client wasn’t able to hire her/him, he was able to connect the client with a photographer who could do the job; it allows easy management of the photographer’s projects and, above all, it also helps the photography community.  It’s a great thing.

Another thing that I will add towards the end, which I already have outlined, is the “Featured Photographer” section… this section is on the very front page of the website and is the first thing that anybody will see when they navigate to the main page… it’s purpose is to promote photographers and the fine work they do… in the begining of the site I won’t be charging for this, pictures will be posted based on merit alone; however, this does have viable potential once the site is popular… with the domain tools that I have, I can tell where a visitor is located in the world and can customize that featured section to that area of the world, which, when combined with the private lead service mentioned in the last paragraph, would offer a great opportunity for photographers.

Other than all of that, there are a few bugs that I’ll be working out here and there… I also need to add some more data to the various options used in the project survey… the data I have there now was put there as test data and doesn’t fully cater to a real-world situation.

I’m excited!  This is going to be a great thing for photographers and the photography market.

Ok, so maybe I’m pushing it a bit to say that November would be a potential launch date… I’ve done some more research regarding web site use, in particular the use of the client side of the site, and learned a lot which means changes are being made to that portion of the site… in short, the script wasn’t flexible enough, so some things have been moved around, and there have been some database changes–which will affect the other scripts and queries which are already in place, which means more time to change those things.

One huge addition we made is the ability to suggest cities and states, or even zip codes, when the client is entering the location of their project.  The old way was to simply have the client enter the zip code and then an AJAX call would determine if the zip was correct.  While this was helpful, it was an extra step that didn’t need to be there… why not allow suggestions to be made while the person is entering their text?

Another large addition, which is in the works and may not be fully function by the time the site launches, is the update of the zip code database… this database now includes census information, city aliases, and even information on financials for businesses in the area.  While I won’t go in to how this will affect the backend processing of the script, I will say that I think this feature alone will be extremely helpful to the photographers as they attempt to create their estimates.

Other than that, there are relatively smaller changes and additions being made as the site develops… we continue to remain focused on the core function of the site, and its purpose, so as to work towards the launch of the web site.  Motion in progress, progress in motion.

Today, the early tests and troubleshooting of the payment gateway were a success.  We were able to positively create transactions based on our custom shopping cart and payment transaction gateway.  This is big news for the company and moves us a heaving step forward to meeting a October-November launch date.

Yes, I said it.  October or November the site will likely be done if we continue to make the leaps we realized today.   This is exciting and I can’t wait until that fine launch day.

We have a nice marketing plan in the works as well… we’ve created a temporary identity which I think will work nicely with our business model, but these things can always change.

Stay tuned for more exciting news in the near future.

Well, it’s almost a year into the development of the new site… many neat things are happening which are making me extremely excited about the possibility of a launch in the near future.  We’ve been working on the payment gateway/shopping cart script, which is a farily complex script in itself, but this is what has me so excited.  I mean, the next step is debugging, right?! lol

So, as the launch date approaches I’ve had the userbility folks take a look at both the front-end and back-end of the site to see how we can improve efficientcy… for the sake of simplicity, I initially kept all of the database tables inside one database, but since we are now using a class to access the database we now just create objects of the database class and then set the connection properties so that we can compartmentalize the information into a better organized, and efficient operation.  I tell ya… the speed of the script increased dramatically just from that one change.  I think this will also allow for a much easier integration of our analytics script.

In other news… Chris Kirkpatrick [Nigels 11, N'Sync] had yet another awesome party at his house over Labor Day so more networking took place.  What a guy… I tell ya.  Finally got a picture with him, but I’ll refrain from posting it here as I’d like for this blog to be somewhat professional in nature. lol

So when is the launch date?  Everybody’s asking this… I can’t say right now… it’s not that it’s some secret, it’s just that we still have a lot of stuff to do, along with plenty of testing, so I’d like to not speculate on a launch date as of yet.