Pictures

[Alan Knighting]

This is just a thought and probably will not work but, here goes.

The listing sites offer a very limited number of pictures for an individual’s page. Some of the sites charge for extra pictures and/or for changing pictures.

Would it be possible to include in one’s individual page a link to a picture album on a site such as PhotoBox? Sites like PhotoBox are free and you can create an album of numerous pictures which can be displayed and/or printed. They can even be displayed in slideshow format.

Any thoughts from our techies?

Alan

[Fraise]

Obviously I'm not going anywhere near anything approaching technical but I really like the idea!!

[vrooje]

That would definitely be possible from the standpoint of the listing sites -- in fact, I think it would be fairly easy for them to code an integration of that into their sites.

However, many of the sites (notably h-r.com) don't allow outside links, so to do this from a user's perspective one might have to get creative.

Also, many sites like to charge extra for extra pictures -- I doubt this is to cover an actual cost but rather a premium charge, and I also doubt the sites would want to give people an option to bypass that, so they'd probably charge for the privilege of linking to the photo album.

[alexia s.]

I'm not a techie (understatement) but I have just managed (last week) to "create" a web site on wanadoo which is free. I could have about 72 photos if I wanted to, but since this would be over kill I have settled for 5 pages of photos. When people enquire I give them the address. The next stage is to see which commercial sites will let me link to this (HR please note!). The few enquiries I have had since last week have been very positive.
So, Alan, I would have asked your question if you hadn't beaten me to it!
Advice to anyone in France using wanadoo: if I can make a web site on wanadoo, anyone can, so go ahead.

[Alan Knighting]

Alexia,

That is the DIY version of what I was thinking, and none the worse for that!

It will be interesting to hear how many rental sites will allow such a link. I am guessing not many. After all, they make their real money charging for extras such as links, extra pictures, editing text and changing pictures, don't they? Oh, what a cynic I am!

Regards

Alan

[paolo]

Alan,

Rather than link to a site like that I would create my own site, because personal sites are basically picture albums with text. I find that most owners' sites have too much text and too few pictures - pictures are what punters want to see.

But if you do go ahead with the album page, I don't see why listing sites that allow a link would not allow that. The thing that they don't like is linking to a site that links to other (/competitor) sites.

[Alan Knighting]

Paolo,

Rather than link to a site like that I would create my own site

Just as Alexia has done?

[paolo]

Just as Alexia has done?

Yes, although I haven't seen Alexia's. If there are no outbound links from it then a listing site won't object to linking to it (except those like holiday-rentals.com that don't allow links).

[PaulHigham]

I think one of the reasons that listing sites do not allow / charge for outbound links is that each link out of the site reduces the ranking score on the major search engines. (And obviously competitors sites do come into it somewhere)

But if you set up your own site full of photos and offer a reciprocal link back to the listing site, i can't see any problem with that.
Paul