Iowners

Get some feedback on your site or ad from other rental owners and techies. Also a library of online resources so you can make DIY improvements to your web presence.
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Jimbo
Posts: 3582
Joined: Thu Oct 19, 2006 7:41 am
Location: Charente Maritime

Post by Jimbo »

Partridge wrote:
the more people say 'bad' then I'll know where to try and improve.
A picture on a rental website has a specific purpose: it's selling your dream. At best, it makes the viewer want to drop everything and come to you immediately. Pictures make people want to experience your property but it's the combination of quality, cost, location, availability and other related factors that will decide if they eventually book with you.

You don't need others to tell you if your pictures are 'good' or 'bad', it's your property and your website and you know what you're trying to achieve. Each shot should be carefully chosen to clearly illustrate an aspect of your property and/or location. Ask yourself if it's doing the best possible job for you in that context. If you decide that it's not, then re-shoot it or pull it. Better a dozen great shots than a mish-mash where the weaker pictures dilute the intensity of the best ones.

Most people carefully write, re-write and endlessly polish their text until it's perfect but some are careless about their choice of pictures. But it's the quality of your photographs that will decide if somebody surfing through a hundred holiday websites stops long enough to read your text. If they don't stop, they don't book.

Jim
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oskar
Posts: 140
Joined: Sun Dec 19, 2004 2:22 pm
Location: Lanzarote
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Post by oskar »

Spot on, Jimbo! 8)
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enid
Posts: 5599
Joined: Mon Dec 27, 2004 4:47 pm
Location: Labretonie France
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Post by enid »

Thanks for your photo tips on this thread and another one (can't remember which) - it's good to have this professional imput. I am just redoing our website and I don't like a lot of the pictures now and will be taking some off. I have taken new ones but they don't all cut the mustard. I think my mistake has been exactly your point - I have focussed on the text and then looked through my photos for ones that will fit with the text. This time I am going to take the photos I need - i.e. really think much more about them and what I want them to show.

I am not sure that I will do the pay a proffesional thing but I will try to be more professional myself- my current site hasn't done too badly for me so far but I want to get better.
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Jimbo
Posts: 3582
Joined: Thu Oct 19, 2006 7:41 am
Location: Charente Maritime

Post by Jimbo »

Enid wrote:

I am not sure that I will do the pay a proffesional thing but I will try to be more professional myself
Hi Enid

Hole in one!

My underlying point has been that you don't need to employ a pro photographer (although maybe you could benefit from a pro's services) but you do need to think like one. People looking at pro pictures often think 'Blimy, that looks simple. What are we paying this guy for, I could do that - gissa camera!' Often, they're mistaking simplicity for clarity. The pro has refined the subject matter so it only includes the elements that contribute to the strength of the image and excluded or obscured those that don't.

If you put as much love and care into polishing your pictures as you would in polishing a glass of the finest crystal, you'll get much pleasure and good service from both in the years to come.

Jim
Fraise
Posts: 2079
Joined: Sat Oct 30, 2004 8:25 am
Location: Charente Maritime and Middle England

Post by Fraise »

Jim, that was so poetic :D
" If you put as much love and care into polishing your pictures as you would in polishing a glass of the finest crystal, you'll get much pleasure and good service from both in the years to come. "
I'm sure you're right,maybe we'll all think about what exactly we are putting in our composition and what we want to get from it :wink:

www.thepetitmanoir.ccom
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Partridge
Posts: 2701
Joined: Wed Sep 20, 2006 9:31 pm
Location: Costa de la Luz
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Post by Partridge »

You don't need others to tell you if your pictures are 'good' or 'bad', it's your property and your website and you know what you're trying to achieve.
Hmmm, well you do if you think it has achieved it's purpose but then other people point out maybe not, you look again and think either 'ah yes', or 'sorry, don't agree'. That's why specific feedback from others is always a valuable tool.

I take on board and agree with all your points Jimbo, just not sure if you were talking generally or specifically to the pics I displayed or not, so am still somewhat confused. :lol:
Don't waste energy on things you can't change.

Costa de la Luz apartment rental
www.ownersdirect.co.uk/spain/S5386.htm
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Topcat
Posts: 1888
Joined: Fri Sep 08, 2006 6:43 am
Location: Isla Canela, Costa de la Luz
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Partridge's website

Post by Topcat »

There have been a lot of comments, so i'll only add a bit.

Re the bedroom photos, the yellowy ones look welcoming, but I might either lose or re-take the one that shows the dark wood wardrobe, as it's a sort of 'clump of darkness' in the middle of the picture. Or you could try warming it up in whatever editing software you have.

And the map you have on is only minimally effective, though perhaps it's Firefox that doesn't like it.

But I think it's a great website. The main thing is that it's easy to navigate, and the information is easy to find. And it looks nice.

I also appreciate very much the comments from Jimbo. They're really timely for me, because I'm just finalising my own site, though I won't have apartment photos yet as it's not ready.

Good stuff.

Pauline
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