Re: [OT] What makes a good miniatures web site

At 5:00 PM +0100 6/18/01, steve@pugh.net wrote:
>
>>  And not being computer literate is _not_ an acceptable answer.  If
>>  you're going to be on the net, you'd better be computer literate or
>>  find someone who is.  The consequences are to high for everyone
>>  otherwise.
>
>It is very, very easy to make a web site. This is both a good thing
>and a bad thing. I would argue that a commercial organisation should
>hire a professional to make its web site (of course I would, I am one
>of those professionals) but for many miniature firms that is simply
>an unacceptable cost.
>
>So they do make the web site themselves. Now, how long does it take
>to photograph 1000s of miniatures? How long does it take to prep
>those photographs for use on the web (a different set of requirements
>to prepping them for print use)?

Over the course of 2 years one can put together an nice website with 
very little effort. Given the number of web staff that we at CNN have 
laid off and due to the number of people I know who are capable, HTML 
literate folks are very common.

Eureka in particular has the templates already. Photoshop has 
automated functions (crop, size, adjust contrast, save as a thumbnail 
and fullsized image all in a batch). If I were paid to do a small 
amount of photo processing (all digital) I could handle 500 figs in a 
week doing nothing else.

>Now remember that this is being done by a regular member of staff
>(and there may only be one or two of those in the whole company) who
>won't be available to pack orders, sculpt new miniatures, make
>moulds, cast miniatures, do the accounts, etc. whilst he or she is
>working on the web site. For a small company that may be an
>unacceptable cost. A lot of miniature companies are very small and
>anything that costs them business today, even if it would generate
>business tomorrow, is simply not an option.

Hire one of the many out of work dot-com-ers. They'll work.
>
>Does that apply to GZG? Last time I checked the GZG web site (which
>is only semi-official so may not count in your opinion) doesn't have
>pics of large portions of its range. So do you refuse to buy from GZG?

Most of what I have I purchased locally after seeing the fig. I only 
just recently jumped into $100+ from Eureka.

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