Lay My Hat

Ok, I'll stop moaning now. I've been a bit quiet over the weekend but hopefully I've proved that even technophobes can make a site this way. Let me know what you think.
http://www.spanishalgarverental.iowners.net/index.php

A huge pat on the back is what I think ! Well done- your appartment looks lovely and you've loaded lots of piccies onto your site which shows it off beautifully.

Very nice! Some of those views look familiar, we must have an apartment in the same development!

Great job Partridge, well done! The site is clear and easy to read. I really like the way you've blended the colour scheme of the beach on the left hand side into the rest of the page....love the background colour. The links at the top and bottom of each page are a good idea. (Thought you were a bit quiet over the weekend!)

Crystal wrote:Great job Partridge, well done! The site is clear and easy to read. I really like the way you've blended the colour scheme of the beach on the left hand side into the rest of the page....love the background colour. The links at the top and bottom of each page are a good idea. (Thought you were a bit quiet over the weekend!)

Thanks alot guys, makes me feel quite chuffed with myself BUT Crystal, I can't take design credit, remember it's the iowners site, so you just choose a template and how many of the pre set pages you want but it still took me AGES. I did find one niggle on the subtitles, when you add to them the type will not paragraph out, so can't put too much info on or it looks all scrambled. Also the pics, I have 4 left to use but although you can edit the title, you can't just substitute one pic for another, you have to add it at the end, meaning if I find another lovely lounge one I want to use, it has to go right at the end of the gallery, shame.

Felicitaciones, Partridge.

Are you able to link to your rental listing webpage?

Saludos, Maria

PS. Weather page, last sentence needs some editing. Is the weather range really between 10ºC and 30ºC? For the past 2 years, local temps here on the Costa Blanca have dropped below 0ºC.

Hi Maria

I can link to Owners Direct for free, which is good. Oh no, please don't tell me I have to double check everything written, I got the weather blurb from the IC sales site, then again, what does that say

Partridge,

You've done it! Congratulations.

I like the look you've chosen, and these iowners sites seem to be put together well.

A couple of suggestions:

Is it possible to change the large title from "costadelaluzapartment" to something else, perhaps just "Costa de la Luz Apartment"? Likewise with the page title -- it would be great if you could change it to something more descriptive. Then again, I don't know if that's possible within the framework of the site's construction.

Your photo gallery is great! A couple of them seem a little "this is the family vacation slideshow," though. Is that level of informality what you're going for? It's true that showing a bunch of happy people can elicit the "I wish I was there, too!" feeling. However, my personal preference is to try and keep posed people out of the pictures on my web site, so that potential clients can visualize themselves there, rather than seeing me or my friends/family there. But I can see arguments either way, so... your choice.

There are a couple of shots that might be worth re-taking:
1) Your first picture of bedroom #3 (picture 7 in the slideshow) is taken in low light, or at least it looks that way. The overwhelming color in the photo (for me) is brown, and the feeling I get from it (for me) is "blah." I hope that isn't too harsh, and if so I'm sorry. But I only mention it because it's clear from the next picture of the same bedroom that it's actually quite colorful and cheerful. For example, the walls are a sunny yellow, not a faded cream. So I think the first picture could use a re-take to bring those colors in, because right now it's not doing that room justice.
2) Picture 3, of the lounge area, is smaller than the others for some reason.

Is that an orange tree in your lounge area? Cool!

One other thing I was wondering. Does everyone who considers the Costa de la Luz as a vacation spot know that it's just across the river from Portugal? If not, it might be worth mentioning briefly on the home page. It's like staying in two countries for the price of one! Like I said, perhaps all Europeans know that, but I didn't until I looked on Google Maps.

Overall, I think you (and iowners.com) have done a great job!

Well I think that you ought to feel very chuffed with yourself.

Congrats!

Partridge,

Well done, this package could save hours of frustration for all.

What do the technical folk think of all of this?

Hi Vrooje et all

I tried changing it to 'costa de la luz' but it wouldn't let me, mind you it's the same, just without the gaps. I seem to remember reading whether SEO was relevant for costa de la luz / costadelaluz / costa-de-la-luz but can't remember the outcome and wouldn't it take longer to type in the '-' bits.

The photos were funny, my hub wanted to put ones of us in that were close ups, I said no way because I tend to swing the way of 'no personal or guest close ups' although realise there was some differing of personal opinion on here. That was the only one though, and it was fairly distant, did I miss something, were there others ? I have included hub and son on 3 golf pics but I think golfers like to see other golfers out on the course, so to speak, speak up if anyone else has opinions on these pics.

The bedrooms are a pain, they are cream but according to the light seem to change colour. I remember my sis doing an interior design course and telling me that North facing cream rooms can take on almost a 'greenish' tinge. Will get better ones when we can. The smaller lounge shot, yes, well, hub did re size all the pics but for some reason the site didn't take that one so had to use a thumbnail, again will change when he tries resizing it again BUT as said, the annoying thing with the site is that it will have to go right at the end of the gallery because you have to 'remove' the photo, you can only edit the text.

Yes, it's an orange tree, but not a real one I'm afraid. Have included Spanish algarve in the title page, not sure how to include it in the title though, 'Isla Canela Spanish Algarve' ?

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

Hi Partridge,

If you go to the part Website Management then Edit website name you can change the name there. (I just double checked with mine just now to make sure it works.)

Eileen2 wrote:Hi Partridge,

If you go to the part Website Management then Edit website name you can change the name there. (I just double checked with mine just now to make sure it works.)

Thanks Eileen, I was looking at the domain name bit, so have finally worked it out. Problem is, they advise to have the website name similar to the domain and there is not enough room for costa de la luz apartment. I have changed it now and hope that's better.

ps Andy, tried to pm you but it sits in the 'outbox' and has not sent.

Partridge wrote:

hopefully I've proved that even technophobes can make a site this way

Hi Partridge

You've certainly proved it to me. A terrific result.

The bedrooms are a pain, they are cream but according to the light seem to change colour.

This is where a photo editing programme like Photoshop is so useful. Even a basic package like 'Elements' will enable you to drain off unpleasant colour casts (green is particularly nasty) to make the picture look more normal. In the same way, you can 'warm up' a cold looking shot to make it more appealing. Also you can lighten or darken, improve colour contrast, sharpen, crop - a hundred things that make a snap into a photograph.

Your photo gallery is great! A couple of them seem a little "this is the family vacation slideshow," though.

I love the idea of a big photo gallery but it's important to ruthlessly edit your pictures. Cull the weaker shots and give the better ones room to breathe. There's always a temptation to use a weak picture because you want to illustrate a particular facet of your property but I'd advise against it. Go back instead, spend some time and re-shoot the image until you get it right.

Jim

This is where a photo editing programme like Photoshop is so useful. Even a basic package like 'Elements' will enable you to drain off unpleasant colour casts (green is particularly nasty) to make the picture look more normal. In the same way, you can 'warm up' a cold looking shot to make it more appealing. Also you can lighten or darken, improve colour contrast, sharpen, crop - a hundred things that make a snap into a photograph.

I love the idea of a big photo gallery but it's important to ruthlessly edit your pictures. Cull the weaker shots and give the better ones room to breathe. There's always a temptation to use a weak picture because you want to illustrate a particular facet of your property but I'd advise against it. Go back instead, spend some time and re-shoot the image until you get it right.

My hub uses it at work, the only thing is, we don't seem to agree on what looks better. For example, he lightened up the main bedroom and I hated it because it made the walls look yellow and I hated it. We often have the same conversation, him 'that looks much better', me 'Yuk, no it DOES not'

Again, very difficult and people seem to have different views.
If you think any are particularly poo then by all means tell me, the more people say 'bad' then I'll know where to try and improve. :lol Tried to do two lots of quotes but couldn't seem to get it right, still a technophobe