Now, I work by the hour as well as the project, so I don’t have any problem with helping her out. Dealing with product images for a web site is an ongoing challenge for small businesses, particularly craft oriented business where the product and the pictures are produced by the owner. Her question (and I’ve seen it before with several clients of my own), raises several issues.

What does web-ready mean?

Yikes! This baby picture is huge!

All of us have received those baby pictures in our email where the image is so large, it takes 5 minutes to open and all you see is a giant eye. This is how the image came off the camera. Different cameras produce different size pictures, the more megapixels, the bigger the image. The primary purpose for these giant images is so you can print them. Print likes high resolution. Web images need to be at a lower resolution and as small as file size as you can manage. No one want to wait 5 minutes for your pictures to download on your site. So, web ready means pictures that have been cropped to the size that will be used on the web page and “saved for web” at the low resolution of 72ppi (pixels per inch) – the resolution that your computer monitor is. Size is determined by pixels; a rule of thumb might me that thumbnails are not bigger then 150 px in either direction, “medium” images no bigger than 300 px and “large” no bigger than 800 px. Most websites are between 750 and 1024 px wide.

Photoshop is the most commonly used program to get an image web-ready, but it’s lighter version Elements, Gimp and my favorite little share-ware program Irfanview all have the ability to help you re-size images. For more information on resolution, file management and other image related web topics you can check out my article Creating Graphics for the Web.

Find Those Images!

Along with getting the images web-ready by sizing them correctly, paying attention to how the files are named and described will go a long way to optimizing your site for search engines.

Titles – no one knows what dsc0012.jpg is but everyone will know what sparkly-butterfly-barrette.jpg is. Naming your images to match what they are or what your customer might be searching for will go a long way to helping them find you.

“Alt tags” – along with the file title, every web image has the opportunity to have an alt tag or alternate description attached to it. This serves 2 purposes; for those who don’t have the image, (cell, screen readers) they know what it’s supposed to be and like above it helps the searchers find you. Use keyword rich descriptions in your alt tags. If you’re handing off the images to a designer, give them the image descriptions along with your regular page copy.

DYI

If you are running your own craft based business and taking product pictures is going to be an essential and ongoing part of your business, then I really do recommend finding a class or tutor and investing in a decent camera and software. Of course, you can hire a photographer to do all of this for you, but if saving money in the long term is your goal, making the up front investment and learning to take and edit your product images yourself will save you real money when it comes time to have your site built and updated.

Like with most things it all comes back to time and money and how much your time is worth. If you spend 20 hours doing something I could do in 5, was it worth it? Many people only look at what something costs, but don’t factor in what their own time is worth.

I’m not a real advocate of doing everything yourself when it comes to web design. After all, I’d like to have enough clients to pay my bills, I’d rather have my car serviced by someone who has been trained and really knows what they’re doing and if you’re running your own business, that should be where your expertise lies. I do think however that understanding enough about how images and files are prepared for the web so that you can talk intelligently to a designer and even do some of the repetitive work yourself is a good thing.

Further Resources

The Secrets to Optimizing Your Site for Image Search

How to Create Better Graphics for the Web

Creating Graphics for the Web

Glossary of Web Terms

The question I always come back with when someone asks me this question is “How long will it take you? Do you have your content ready?”If I send you a mock-up for design approval, how long will it take you to get back to me? Are you ready to move the process along with comments, approval and the next payment?

The reality is (and one of the main reasons I teach the seminar) is that while all small business owners want and need a website, most are unprepared for all the work that needs to go into it. Unfortunately, I’m not a fairy godmother. I cannot just create a site for you with my magic wand out of thin air. My job is to create a design that works for your business and makes it easy to use and compelling for your customers. Your job is to sell your products and services. I can help you with structure,design and functionality, but only you can tell me about your business.

The other reality is that while my priority is getting your site designed and coded, it’s not yours. You’re still running your business. Getting back to me in a timely fashion with comments and feedback may not happen and that stops me in my tracks. I used to design a layout and then ask for content. One time that process took over 6 months. I’ve come to the conclusion at this point that I really need content first, before even thinking about design. Having the content first does several things.

• It forces me to design a layout that actually works with the existing content, instead of finding out later that there really isn’t room for that form here.
• It forces you to really think about the whole project and all of the details ahead of time.
• It allows both of us to plan for as many contingencies as possible while still in the design stage.

This creates a win/win situation for both of us and hopefully keeps the project on track so it really doesn’t take too long at all.

Then he directed my attention to a completely different site that was not his. “I want my site to look just like this one.” Oh. Now we’re not talking about a few minor changes, now we’re talking about a whole re-design. This is basically building a new site. Except for having most of the content already written (and really that probably needs some work as well), everything will have to be done from scratch. I can charge hourly for this, but most small business people like to have a clue on cost before starting such a project.

Once I had this information, I would be able to send him an estimated cost and a contract. While I have no problem just billing for a few hours of maintenance, for a complete project, I need to have a signed contract and a spelled out payment plan. It is typical to ask for 1/3 up front, a 1/3 after the design has been approved and the final payment once the working site has been approved, but before it gets launched.

Close to a week went by and I hadn’t heard from him, so I sent him a friendly follow-up email asking him about getting the login information so I could correct the current site. The reply I got back is “is the new template ready yet?”

What we have here is a failure to communicate.

My bad, I should have followed up the conversation with an email spelling out my understanding and the action points that we both needed to take.

The cost of designing and building a site is often one of the first questions I get and probably one of the hardest to answer. This is not an evasion. If you went into a Home Depot and asked how much a new kitchen was would you expect a direct answer? No, you know that you would have to pick out the appliances, cabinets, counter top materials, etc. before a price could be generated. So what do I need to be able to write you a quote? Some of that depends on what you need or want for your site, but some of it is pretty basic.

1. How many pages do you want?
2. Do you have the images you need or do you need stock photography or?
3. Do you have the written content ready or do you need a writer?
4. Do you need a contact form? (What happens when someone fills it out, does it go to you email or a database?)
5. Is there ecommerce needed?

As you might imagine, I’ve just gotten started. The discovery stage is a very important collaborative effort and one of the main reasons I encourage my clients to fill out my questionnaire. It may seem like a lot of work and it is, but without your contribution to the project there isn’t much I can do.

The good news is that every new client and project is a fascinating learning process and this faux pas on my part has at least given me good material for an article and a reminder to never assume anything. Now excuse me while I go reply to that email with some detail about what I need to get this project rolling.

For the small business owner the over whelming amount of information on these subjects can be intimidating, so let’s start with a small primer and understand why you should care.

Social Media – This includes things you’ve probably heard of like Facebook and Twitter, but almost anything online that you can contribute to (like YouTube or Wikipedia) counts. Most mere mortals use this kind of thing for personal enjoyment, but the growing thinking is that this is the new way to communicate and sell to your customers. 20 somethings have never used a phone book, they look it up online. And it’s not just 20 somethings anymore, the biggest growing segment on Facebook right now is boomer aged women. If you watch television on demand or like I do on the Internet, then your exposure to commercials is way down. But if I know my local business and connect with them on Linked In or Facebook, then I know what they are up to. Then as the theory goes, the friends of my friends also know what they are up to and the potential for a new customer is born. Small business competes with large on a more even playing field.

SEO – Search Engine Optimization is the holy grail of getting on the first page or 2 of Google. Not when someone searches for your business name, but when a complete stranger searches for the product or service that you provide. There are many ways to make this happen for your site and there are many experts out there that specialize just in this. This is where content has to be king. Pictures and art have a definite place in telling your story, but as far as the search engines are concerned, words are what they understand.

A really beautiful site that has just the right fonts and colors is just the beginning. If the content is not optimized so that people searching for your product or service can find you, then that’s all your site is – pretty. Most people build a site hoping to increase sales in some fashion. If that’s what you want, then your budget for the project needs to be more than just the design and coding. Without careful content planning and a marketing strategy that includes making it personal with social media and making sure that the search engines find you – no one will come.

Am I an expert in all this? Hardly, but I can direct you to some people who are. I’m the one who makes it all work and look good. But I am learning more all the time and trying to participate more regularly myself. (Which by the way is probably my next article – this stuff is time consuming, how do you manage it?) Adding recent and relevant content is something that Google loves too, one of the reasons we’re becoming a world of bloggers. So, I’ve done my bit, so help me out and do yours. Let your friends know about me and post this on Facebook or tweet it on Twitter for me will you? I’ll do the same for you.

If your business doesn