Zach....if you want big names..you might check the ones that Bigfolio.com has in their stable....david beckstead...jeff ascough...bambi cantrell...jose villa... to name a few...and all of their sites load much faster than showits example sites..including jasmines and davids.
Dont get me wrong I LOVE the backend functionality...but they are slow...jasmines videos had the audio break up several times....and they just are not snappy...not a huge deal...but that IS the one thing that would give me pause to use them. I think that there are things you could probably do to speed up the process though....
bb
The Grays wrote:
Like I said, David Jay uses the Showit and does not have a problem booking weddings. You can't disagree with that, it's just a fact. I know sometimes everyone wants to have a great opinion about everything, but if you want to be a great success at anything that you do, then you need to look at those who are number one in their industry and listen to what they say. That is why you don't ever hear us saying that we are It and we are right about anything or everything, but we point to those that are the best at what they do (with David Jay, it's marketing) because they are the ones to learn from, not the average Jo photographer that is doing average.
For the record, David Jay announced late last year that he will no longer be shooting weddings. He will be spending all his time selling Showit sites and his other stuff to photographers.
What's that? Someone's talking about David Jay? Where's Rick Rosen Oh... there he is
I LOVE my SIS (http://www.bobbyearle.com)! Love it. I have similar bounce rates (mine are at about 1% right now) with 17 pages and 7 minutes per visit. And mine is bogged down because I've uploaded WAY too much to the site I think it'll be faster once I clean up all that crap...
And not that it really matters, but DJ's shooting some weddings this year, for the record Just hung out with him, J*, and the bride of the upcoming wedding.
I think even non-graphical SIS are slow, its not the graphics and image loading that makes them slow, just the animation transitions and loading are slow.
I've been really, really pleased with them. Love how easy it is to customize, and it took me some time to really get a hang of how to use the software but... great experience with them, and definitely a fun way to build your site if you've got the creativity flowing for your own ideas!
Nordlys do you have to use their templates? I do not have any experience with writing HTML or flash is showit something that one can do with out having too much experience?
Yo Aleks!
You do not have to use their templates. Those are merely a starting point so you can get your feel for using the program. Once you get a hold of how to operate the app, then you can build your own from scratch! Of course, you can absolutely use those templates and tweak them to your taste!
You do not have to have ANY experience with writing html or flash. If you can drag around objects on a screen and make them look good, then you can definitely build an entire site using Showit Sites. It is...without a doubt....the easiest program to operate.
Definitely give it a shot, and let us know if you have ANY questions at all!
Their sites are nice, but does anyone have an issue with the subscription based payment plan instead of a flat rate purchase? After a few years that subscription winds up costing a *lot* of money.
deepbluejh wrote:
Their sites are nice, but does anyone have an issue with the subscription based payment plan instead of a flat rate purchase? After a few years that subscription winds up costing a *lot* of money.
I believe normal monthly webhosting is included on that price, but don't quote me on it.
Showit Sites is a different business model so they really can't be compared to other website provider companies. Tmiller is right on. Your hosting is included within the cost of $39 a month.
Take for example Blu Domain. You can get a template site for $100 - $200, and you still have to pay an annual $100 hosting fee. If you want video then that's an additional $150. This brings your total to $350 - $450 for cool site that looks like everybody else's. Most photographers, I for one, love to change my site at least once every year or two. With Blu Domain your stuck, but with Showit Sites you can completely change everything as you please.
When you see the numbers broken down, it really comes out to be about the same cost in the end.
Showit Sites is a different business model so they really can't be compared to other website provider companies. Tmiller is right on. Your hosting is included within the cost of $39 a month.
Take for example Blu Domain. You can get a template site for $100 - $200, and you still have to pay an annual $100 hosting fee. If you want video then that's an additional $150. This brings your total to $350 - $450 for cool site that looks like everybody else's. Most photographers, I for one, love to change my site at least once every year or two. With Blu Domain your stuck, but with Showit Sites you can completely change everything as you please.
When you see the numbers broken down, it really comes out to be about the same cost in the end....Show more →
What about the people who already have hosting? Honestly, all I want is the software and server files. I dont need hosting when I'm already paying $15/month for excellent hosting of my own.
In all honesty, I feel like they are padding their profit margins here.
@deepblujh - IMO, your paying double what you could be for hosting. We pay out $6.95 a month for unlimited bandwidth, unlimited space, unlimited domains, and unlimited emails. Totally check out Blue Host. I've been with them for years and I've only had one problem that was fixed via online chat within 5 minutes.
@spxxx - I'm curious what your internet connection speed is. Would you mind testing it for me?
It's not the app that has to develop, it's that the user has to understand how to build a site that will cater to US internet connections. It is impossible to cater to all connections right now, especially when there are still people using dial up. Jasmine Star's opening video is 7mb in size, combined with another meg for the site loading. This means theres a total of 8 mb that has to load before you see it. Even on a modest DSL connection, the site should load and play smoothly. If it's not, then there's something on the user's end that's causing the hiccups.
Videos are THE hardest element to deal with, especially when your building your own site with Showit. Folks have the tendency to make the videos 800px in width, resulting in a total flv bitrate of over 4000 kb/s. This means that one must have a 4mb/s internet connection to stream videos properly. That is NOT good...considering that the average connection speed for US users is a meager 2.3 mb/s. Compare this to Japan at speeds of 63 mb/s. It'll take more than 50 years for the US to catch up to Japan, so my advice for video is this; keep the width to 640, or the equivalent of your aspect ratio.
Sorry for the long reply, but the builder is directly responsible for how fast the site will load and if it will be smooth. It is not the application.
There are two problems with showit sites from my perception (that may be limited).
1. They leave the design to the photographer. A very bad move. Most photographers are mega crap when it come to design and most don't actually belive that to be the case so we will end up seeing a host of poorly designed sites flooding the net.
For someone with design skill or the honesty to get a designer to work on it that doesn't apply of course.
2. They are sluggish. You just cannot get away with that these days.
I've only done a little research as i was thinking of getting one but the slow loading times would cost me work. Perhaps in a year or two when they can get them to load faster.
Great points! I totally agree with you that a lot of photographers are not designers. I wouldn't say "most," but I definitely agree with saying that "a lot" of them aren't.
I will say this again though...the app does not produce sites that load slow. Showit Sites itself is not sluggish. Sites that load slow are the designers or users fault, not the application.
Nick is there something that showit sites are doing to educate people of that and how to avoid it when doing there own sites.
No doubt you know what you are talking about. My opinion has only been formed by checking out a number of their sites but i am surprised that buyers are not offered some level of education on how to avoid what appears to be common.
Perhaps showit do offer that advice but it's just not heeded.
I use Showit and have been very happy! I haven't had any complaints and I love being able to customize it anytime I like. Most people comment on how good it looks if they say anything at all.
Marcus,
Showit Sites does offer tutorials (http://tutorials.showitfast.com/) that are basic. Albeit they are very basic, I do agree that buyers are definitely in need of tutorials dealing with more in depth issues such as the topics we're discussing. Video being the most important. This is certainly something I will bring to their attention and we'll definitely do something about that. Thanks so much for you feedback. It is really appreciated.
@Scott - Duuuuude that rocks! I LOVE how the intro image deflates like that! That is super sweet! I have a quick tip for you; if you nest your gallery style group inside of your main style group then your navigation will not disappear on the gallery style group. Just drag and drop that sucker into the main style group. You may have some overlapping objects but that can be fixed quick. Then you'll always have that navigation up on the top of your site making it totally easy for people to browse your site!
As I said - I would consider the site but of probably the 6 or so I tried I clicked off 5 waiting for them to load.... ones that did have video - they started playing before fully loaded so that the result was a pixelated not very good show.
Oh... there he is 
I think it'll be faster once I clean up all that crap...
Just hung out with him, J*, and the bride of the upcoming wedding.