An Update on Current Projects

The EP|Club Project;

I love the ideas I have come up with for this new site I am in the process of developing. The ideas spring from previous ideas mentioned by some developers, and I've done some expanding on these ideas. Here's the Beta0.1 proposals;

Beta0.1:

• Implement community weblogs so it is possible for each member of this small club to post their own weblog. I am using Simplog for this. You can view a dummy version of Simplog that I am working on by following this link: Simplog on Edwardstown Photography Club.
  
• Implement a community photographer database. This is similar to the community weblogs, but instead each member has their own page, displaying their profile and a few other peices of information. I am modifying Simplog to do in-depth profiles.
• Implement community galleries. This is the main purpose of the site. I am using a script called 4images to do this, as it is the only one which enables you to have a page dedicated to images by a specific member. You can view a dummy version of 4images that I am working on by following this link: 4images on Edwardstown Photography Club. It is crucial that 4images runs in the same or similar manner as Simplog. This is because of the following proposal;
• Implement weblogs and galleries on the photographer database. This means when you view a members page, you get along with their profile, their recent Simplog weblog posts, and their recent uploads to the 4images galleries. This poses a problem, however one which I intend to work around, with a member logging into their page, what I propose for this is the following;
• Implement a global member editing center. When a member logs in they get a similar page that is displayed in their profile, yet they have easy editing options. This will probably require the user database of Simplog and 4images to be merged together. I have a few extra editing options that the member can use that I want to implement. One being an option to post an article on the main weblog for the entire site. This post, however, should be moderated by the admin.
• Implement an events manager that will be displayed on every page, and alert reminders to those members that login. This seems like a very easy add on, I'll leave it for something to do later.
• Implement simple add-ons. These will be like the DHS Threat Level Script and the Google Page Rank Retriever Script. Most of them will monitor statistics of certain pages so people can easily view how well certain pages are doing on a scale larger than the site itself.
• Implement some API opions for the site. This was originally suggested by Dan or Clockwerks as he prefers to be called. He suggested as a promotional tool that I implement the Flickr API, so that images posted on EP|Club also get posted on Flickr. There are other API's that I should invest in to promote the site, and they should turn out to be valuable to a quick success curve for the site.
• Implement an option for visitors to buy prints. This should be added later, after the site has achieved a good search engine saturation status, and the API's are fully implemented, as it would be pointless to do if there is no audience. I might need to look into options for art printing through other businesses, as I do not have the facilities to conduct such a business. Also, I need to explore ways that a member might suggest his or her photograph for a print status. Maybe this might stem from the current statistics of the photograph, or from visitor suggestions to obtain a print (ie. a link, similar to a voting script, that would allow the visitor to "vote" for this photograph to be printed, implying that the visitor themselves would like a print [this might even go into a marketing territory for prints]).
• Implement a Photographer Directory to obtain links to the site. This is easy, and the simplest way of doing this would be to implement the same Directory Script that I have on FireInIce.com.au. Hehe, I can do this one in my sleep. You can view the current version of the Photographer Directory that I am working on by following this link: Photographer Directory on Edwardstown Photography Club.

Currently, I have a lot of work to get through, but the content side of the site seems easy to put out. The site itself is now hosting an old/mainly text version of all the information that is on the site. You can see most of the information that will be on future versions of the site, but as far as functionality goes, this version is not up to any industry standard. You can visit this version by following this link: Edwardstown Photography Club Main Page.

I should document all aspects of this site, as other clubs may be interested in a similar kind of club site, that is easy to run, and has some sort of proven success. This may even spawn a collection of club sites, that could be hosted/promoted under one domain, which also promotes the benefits of signing your club up for this.

I know I'm a bit naieve about this, but currently I see no problems with at least trying this out.



The Current Status of FireInIce.com.au;

It has been a long and arduous project, but I love the final result of this jewelry site. The graphic layout is very light, and the colour composition works great. This was the first site I have done that has discarded flash files and graphic menus, with great, low bandwidth results. It was also unusual for me to focus entirely on textual content, but there is now an incredible amount of content on the site, all of which can be easily changed by the Business owner.

Recent Improvements:

• I have implemented RSS feeds for both the news section and the jewelry collections, so that visitors can be informed instantly of any changes to the site and the new offers that appear for a short time.
• I have included an order/request form that works perfectly, and it also avoids the troubles accossiated with an online store, and emphasises the need for a salesman to sell a product.
• I have trawled the web to create the jeweler directory, and currently there are over 32 sites pointing a link to fireinice.com.au, with at least 100 links pending....arrgg!!!
• It is now possible to print and email news from any computer using the "print" and "email" links on each news article.

I am glad that this site is "finished" and its fully oporational, however, there is a lot to improve upon in my marketing ideas over the web. Ohhh well.