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Web Site Woes
Every writer needs a web site. If you are a published author, you can use your web site to promote or sell your book. If you are still trying to get published, you can use your web site to showcase some of your work. An editor will tell you to send just a certain amount, perhaps three chapters and a synopsis but you can always include your URL so he/she can go have a look at other work you have done. For the technologically challenged reader, URL stands for "universal resource locator". Each URL is unique. That’s an important point to remember. If you are a free lance writer, the web site today takes the place of clips. Instead of mailing a bulky envelope of your previously published articles to an editor, you send your web address, where hopefully you have posted the most brilliant pieces of work you have ever produced along with the information about the periodical that had the good taste to publish your piece.
Now that I’ve convinced you that you cannot live another day without your very own web site, I’ll try to give you the benefit of some of the mistakes I’ve made along the road to web mastery (no, I’m not a master yet.) Very few worthwhile goals are reached without a few missteps. There is no need to reinvent the wheel. It’s a lot easier to learn from other people’s mistakes than to make them all yourself.
One important thing to look for when you seek a web host is that they will be then down the road. There is no way you can be sure a host won’t just fold their tent like the Arabs and silently steal away one night - probably the day after you create a master piece site. A good indicator is how long they have been around so far. My first little web nest was on "Treeway.com" I struggled with uploading photos and copying text and was rather happy with my efforts. Then I began to get messages from all the friends I proudly directed there saying, "I can’t get into your site!"
I realized the problem was in my URL. This host gave you a name like "mytreeway.com" no "www". Everybody is geared to typing that www automatically. But I learned to stress that point whenever I gave out my address. Life was good. All of a sudden I couldn’t get into my site. They had a message up that said "Please bear with us while we improve our program." However, the program stayed unavailable for around a month. When they finally came back to life, I could not get into my site.
I next decided to build my Internet home on a host called "Homestead.com" At least here I had my www on the URL. I was www.homestead.com/kwalls. At this point in my career, My book, " Last Step" had just been published as a Print on Demand book with iuniverse.com. I am still writing for travel and food publications. So I gave the new URL to everybody. I printed it on my cards. I put it on all my publicity material. I went to a lot of trouble to set up a page on the site to sell my book in all versions- print, disk and e-book. Their site building tools had become more familiar and I was feeling pretty proud of myself. Indeed life was good again.
But there is a serpent in every garden. With "Homestead. Com" it reared its ugly head in the form of money. One day I got an e-mail from the CEO of the company. Now I rarely get communications of any kind from CEO’s so instead of trashing it like I usually do with anything not directly addressed to me, I opened it and read to my dismay. "We are staring a professional program on Homestead and it will only cost you…"
At that point I began to worry. I e-mailed the CEO back to ask if they were doing away with the free hosting program. "Of course not. We have no plans to eliminate the free program AT THIS TIME."
I became even more worried. My fears were realized a few weeks ago when I received the dreaded. "We are going to start charging for your type site" notice. They still offer a tiny site with no support for free but how long do you think that is going to last?
It’s back to the drawing board again. This time I asked for advice from two lists of which I am a member. The answers were varied and helpful. Many people strongly advocated using a paid site host. Their reasons being that you should believe in your work enough to invest money in it if you want others to buy your book. True enough but if you are just starting out and have a limited budget, that’s not a feasible option. Others recommended using a site that offers a free plan with the option to upgrade for a reasonable price later. Makes more sense to me. Many people recommended Geocities.com, however some told me they had experienced a lot of downtime there. I looked at it and had the feeling it was geared more towards the very young more playful type of sites although there are many very good sites located there. Since my book deals with a serious problem, drug abuse, woven into the mystery and romance I didn’t feel happy with my site being here. However, they are the largest site host so they must be doing something right.
Several others recommended Angelfire.com. When I checked there, I had a window pop up on my screen advertising something before I even got into the site. Another recommended Myplanet. Which is geared towards women. I went there to check. They offer sites ranging from the Gardens, a free hosting site to the Villas and the Shops, which are paid sites. You pay $120 per year then if any other people wanted to set up a site on your shop or villa the company would pay you a "commission" of $30. This didn’t turn me on. Then when I went into the "Books" section, no sites were listed there. This told me no other authors had used this host. Then there was www.members.nbci.com, which is sponsored by NBC and is a lovely site host but it doesn’t host your own domain name. All of these hosts are probably good since lots of people are happy with them but I kept looking.
Another person had suggested netfirms.com. He has used it for over a year and is happy with it. I looked and liked what I saw. It is free with just a small banner on the page. It has an option to upgrade to a banner free site for just $60 per year when I reach that point. It is aimed a businesses and allows you to transfer an existing site or build one on any program that uses "HTML". I have Print Shop or Microsoft Publisher that will let you build a site in that format. ( I have since started using front page and fine it a much better tool but a bit more difficult to learn). If I was able to download my existing site I could use it but I haven’t been able to do that so I will have to build a new one. I did it on Publisher so I can save it for use later in case. Then just before I set it up with Netfirms, I considered Freeservers or Hypermart.net, both of which I liked even better. Both have site-building tools available if you do want to build it there or add to your site using some things you may not be able to do with Publisher. Netfirms has none. I decided on hypernet and am still there.I am sure a lot of other programs to build site are also available out there it just takes research. One spot to check out comparisons on sites is at www.earnmoney.freehosting.net/Webhosting.htm. They offer a nice comparison chart but it is far from complete.
The most important point I got in advice from others is register your own domain name. If I had done that and found a host that allowed me to use it I would not have all my cards and other publicity material floating around with my old URL. I can use www.katywalls.com any place I put my site. My best find for purchasing names is www.godaddy.com. Remember, it takes about 72 hours for a site to be registered and posted.
To salvage what I can from a bad situation, I kept my free "preview" site at Homestead as long as possible- I don’t kid myself that it will be too long. I just used that site to provide a link to my new site.
Of course, there is an easier way if you can afford it. There are plenty of people that specialize in building and maintaining your site. Most of these professional sites are beautiful. You do miss out on the satisfaction of creating your own little part of the World Wide Web that way however. If that’s not an option, remember you can build a site and find a place to host it for free. There are many more hosts out there that I have mentioned. Just be careful. Remember theses important points; find a host that has been around at least a year, make sure you can use your own domain name and try to build it off line on some program of your own so it can be transferred or reused if you move. Most important, spend the few dollars (about $8 at godaddy) to register your own domain name. Learn for the mistakes I have already made. After all, there are plenty of new mistakes you can make on your own.
Digital Dialogue
Digital cameras are the wave of the future. Just don't get swamped by all the backwash of purchasing options available.
There are plenty of choices you need to make. First decision; what kind of camera do you want? "That's simple," you say, "I want one that takes perfect pictures in any light at the touch of one button. I don't want to pay much for it either."
Sure! We all want it to rain pennies from heaven, too. Realistically, there are a lot of factors to balance. Price, performance, ease of operation and quality. For any digital camera to work, you need the electronic version of film; Smart Media memory cards. There is a difference in number of pictures each type can hold. Another big option in today's e-commerce rich society is where to purchase your camera.
Since knowledge is power, learn all you can about the available cameras. Digital technology is changing so fast, the local library isn't likely to have much in the way of helpful books. The magazine rack might yield some more nuggets of information in the photography magazines. The real gold mine of facts about digital cameras can be found online. Sites dealing with digital cameras and photography e-zines, such as Apogee, are out there and can be located by your favorite search engine.
If you aren't already familial with CNET and similar sites now is the time. Their "Digital camera review and product list" allows you to compare prices and read reviews, including comments sent in by users of any camera you are considering. Good and bad points are discussed. Cnet's top five picks under $400 are; HP Photo Smart C30, Olympus D340R, Cannon A5 Zoom, Kodak DC215 Zoom and Fuji DX10.
Equally good sites are springing up all over the web. Snap.com offers a similar service. Some sites such as dcresources.com offer sample photos taken with various model cameras as well as reviews, and information about ongoing scams and alerts.
Pc Magazine throws out several lifelines with their online camera sites. It has an interactive site where with a few clicks of your mouse, you can narrow the choices based on price and features desired. It also offers a site that gives reviews and samples. Their Heave-Ho-Silver site gives a lot of technical information. They can be accessed at zdnet.com/pcmag/features/camera/-open.htm
Pcphotoforum.com offers information, feedback from users and contests. Photo-on-pc.com offers free software and a photo contest as well as a lot of technical information.
Mac users can get in the swim of things at macworld.znet.com/pages/star/starratings.digitalcameras.html
These sites are just a drop in the vast ocean of available sites that cater to digital camera owners and prospective owners. Of course each manufacturer also provides a site to tout its products.
Type of batteries used is an important factor as these cameras are real battery hogs. If you can use a rechargeable you can save a lot in the long run. In the upper ranges, there are even solar powered rechargeable batteries. Smart media cards replace film in the future. The type of card your camera can use is also a factor. Much data on these items can be found at the camera sites, too.
Unless you are one of the lucky ones for whom price is no object, cost will eliminate a lot of your choices. There is a drastic price range among digitals, from $49 for a toy like product to professional gizmos with all the bells and whistles priced in the four digit range.
After you have studied all the data and made an intelligent choice, comes the hardest decision of all. Where to purchase it.
Should you stop in at Pete's Pawn Shop? Not the best option unless you're really an expert in determining if the gem Pete offers really works at all or has a fatal flaw that will become evident as soon as its ten minute warranty expires.
You could trot on down to your local Wal-mart. You will get a new item there and it will have a good warranty. However, the sales clerk probably just transferred from automotive and knows a lot more about lug wrenches than cameras, never mind the digital variety. On the up side of the scale, if you get it home and it blows up your computer, you can just take it back to Wal-mart and it will be cheerfully exchanged. (Try that at Pete's Pawn Shop)
Your local camera shop is another option. The clerk there will probably be knowledgable and helpful. Warranties will be excellent. But price? That's another question.
Unfortunately, the combination of best price and the camera of your dreams will be located far away in cyberspace or New York City. You will be dealing with either a e-market or an e-auction. What then? I'll give you a true example.
After carefully researching all the cameras and where to get the best price, we set our heart on an Agfa 780 from a large internet electronics outlet. It was listed for $179.95 with free shipping. Just before we tossed it our electronic shopping cart, we noticed that it was refurbished. So what that should be the same as new, shouldn't it? It arrived promptly. We rapidly snapped a few pictures, loaded the software and tried to download the camera. We tried and tried and tried. All to no avail. Worse, the serial port no longer worked on the computer. Fortunately, that was still under warranty.
The company was happy to refund our money but we had to wait almost a week for them to send us an air bill to cover the cost of return shipping. They had since sold all of their other Agfa 780's. Every other company that carried that camera was a lot more expensive.
We finally located another one for $185 plus $20 shipping and handling. We ordered it and sat back to await delivery. It never came. After a week, we called the company back. The conversation went something like this: "I was checking on that Agfa 780 I ordered a week ago."
Clerk, "You need to call the shipping department." He called out the toll number.
Me, "Don't they have an 800 number?"
Clerk, "Naw. Call them, I can't help you."
I called the number and was informed, "We don't ship out of New York."
I patiently (more or less) called back the original number. "That number you gave me doesn't ship here."
Clerk "I didn't give you no wrong number!"
Me, "I can't imagine how I just happened to call a New York shipping department number if you didn't give it to me."
Clerk, "Here, call this number." He gave me another number. Of course it was a toll number.
I called it and inquired. The clerk who answered informed me, "Thatsa nota in stock. Musta been a computer error. We donta have thata one so can not ship it."
The patience was wearing thin now. I called back the original helpful clerk. We were getting on each others nerves by now. "Sorry," he barked. "If we don't have it in stock you'll just have to wait for it to come in."
Me, "When do you expect it to come in?"
Clerk, "I'donno. Maybe next week?."
Me, patience totally gone, "I want to cancel my order."
Clerk, "It's already debited to your credit card," as if that settled the matter.
Me, with no attempt at patience, " I want a refund. Now."
Clerk, "Than call your credit card company. I can't help you."
He hung up and left me listening to the dial tone.
After I corrected the matter with my credit card company, I wrote an e-mail to his company. I did receive an apology and a contact person to call if I had any more problems with their company. Did he really think I would ever buy from them in the future?
By now I had decided on another camera; the Olympus D340R. I waded once more into the electronic pool and ordered it online, from a different company of course. This time, the shipping and handling was $49. I was getting desperate.
I received it promptly and, wonder of wonders, it worked properly.
Obviously, if you are purchasing the top of the line and paying megabucks you can expect all the bells and whistles. However, you can still buy a medium range camera and get good quality pictures. In spite of my problems with it, the Agfa 780 is a great camera for the price. The Olympus D340R has a few additional features that make it worth the few extra bucks. It produces great photos. The 2X Zoom lets you take a picture cropped as if you were twice as close. Be aware that a digital zoom is not the same as an optical zoom. Think of it this way. An optical zoom does what the 35mm camera zoom lens does. It actually takes a picture as if you were closer. The digital zoom takes the picture as if you took the non-zoom picture and then cropped it. You would have the same quality in a 3 X 5 picture taken with a digital zoom as you would have in a 6 X 10 taken with the same camera. So if you have the software to crop, this feature doesn't do an awful lot. Still, sometimes it is handy to see what you are photographing.
The Close Up Display lets you zero in on the part of a photo you want to examine carefully on your LCD screen. You have an option of taking higher or lower resolution pictures. It does have some bad points. The LCD screen is not easy to see in poor light. Also, if you shoot using your viewfinder, what you see is not exactly what you get.
Perhaps the most important factor in choosing a camera is the resolution. Resolution is just another way of saying what size you can blow the picture up to and still have a sharp, clear image. This is measured in pixels. A pixel is a small square that composes the image on your computer screen. When you study the specs for a camera, the number of pixels tell you the size print you can get from that camera. For a 4 X 6 image, you need 640 X 480 pixels. Clarity moves up as the pixel numbers increase. Thus, 1024 X 768 will give you a 5 X 7. To get an 8 X 10, you need 1600 X 1200. Much of a camera's effectiveness is determined by this. Of course, the higher the pixels, the higher the price if all other features are the same.
A big part of digital photography is the software. Agfa uses Agfa Photowise. In my opinion, this is a better program than Olympus Camedia or Adobe. Agfa, however, will not download the Olympus but you can download on Camedia and put the image in Photowise or whatever program you prefer. A lot of photo editing software is available at the above sites or by following links from them. They range from free to several hundred dollars.
If you do your homework well, owning a digital camera can be a dream. If not, it might turn out to be a nightmare. Ask before you buy about the return policy. It can save you lots of grief later. Most important, don't stop learning after you get your camera. This technology is changing so fast that what's cutting edge today will be old hat tomorrow. So what are you waiting for. Jump on in. The water's fine.
