BluDomain webites questions

rgrebby

rgrebby

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Richard
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Im wondering about getting a bluDomain webite in order to sort out a few problem and basically have a more professional website.

How does it work? for example, is it based in flash and you edit it in a flash program or something else.

How much can you customise it? Can you go further than their design by editing it yourself?

How quick do you get it, will it be instant?

I have my own website address so I guess I need to pay $100 not to use theirs...why??

Any other advise is more than welcome.

Thanks
 
I originally set up a Bludomain site, but got hacked off waiting for them to reply to emails, caused partly by the time difference and partly by the fact they just weren't very quick to reply. Nice sites though, I think customisation depends on which template you use, but it's only very basic. It's normally set up within 24hrs, depends on how long it takes your domain name host to sort out the DNS settings to their servers. it's very easy to edit you do it from a control panel which you log into.
FWIW I ended up going with Photium, customer support often within the hour, all round very helpful, and it works on my iphone. Appreciate though their style won't suit all tastes.


P.S I think the site you have now is pretty cool.
 
How does it work? for example, is it based in flash and you edit it in a flash program or something else.

You get a CMS backend program that allows you to upload and edit text etc. All flash generation is done by the template.

How much can you customise it? Can you go further than their design by editing it yourself?

You can change colors/fonts/logos/music etc but no tweaking of layout or graphics.

How quick do you get it, will it be instant?
Took them a week or so with me. Dreadful customer service and eventually got results by contacting through facebook. Well worth the wait though.

I have my own website address so I guess I need to pay $100 not to use theirs...why??
As far as I know it is an admin cost for transferring all files to your server and any time it may take their tech to get it working.

Any other advise is more than welcome.

You cant link pictures to TP from it. A big thing that put me off in the end and made me consider clikpic and making my own by buying a custom designed template for iWeb.
The sites look simply awesome but only work well as a standalone showcase. IMO I should have waited and only considered Blu when using it for marketing and business portfolio.

Overall: VERY slick and professional looking site but in practical terms not that user friendly for day to day web use. It looks fantastic if you are using it as part of a sales pitch to gain business/recognition.

HTH. And these are my own personal opinions.
 
Hmm, not sure I want to go with a company that has such terrible CS.

Ideally Im after a site that looks a little like http://www.joeyl.com/ large photos that fit the screen and resize when the page is reduced.
 
rgrebby said:
Hmm, not sure I want to go with a company that has such terrible CS.

Ideally Im after a site that looks a little like http://www.joeyl.com/ large photos that fit the screen and resize when the page is reduced.
Click to expand...

I think that's a custom edited Simpleviewer gallery. Would assume a Pro licensed version. You need Flash to edit the viewer.
 
rgrebby said:
Hmm, not sure I want to go with a company that has such terrible CS.

Ideally Im after a site that looks a little like http://www.joeyl.com/ large photos that fit the screen and resize when the page is reduced.
Click to expand...

These guys might be worth a try. They do a template service then if you want, they offer a customisation service charged by the hour I recall, allows you to pretty much do anything.

Here
 
I've just set up my new site as a move away from Photium to Bludomain for a more swish looking site, which as a front-end marketing tool is definitely is much better

I accepted from the start that their replies wouldn't be quick, but they have always been within 24 hours and always totally helpful with easy to follow instructions/advice

The Control Panel is much easier to use than Photium's as it's so much more obvious what everything means & does; so for me, I couldn't recommend them more highly for ease of use and overall look

I even have plans afoot for buying more from them in time :)

DD
 
DiddyDave said:
I've just set up my new site as a move away from Photium to Bludomain for a more swish looking site, which as a front-end marketing tool is definitely is much better

I accepted from the start that their replies wouldn't be quick, but they have always been within 24 hours and always totally helpful with easy to follow instructions/advice

The Control Panel is much easier to use than Photium's as it's so much more obvious what everything means & does; so for me, I couldn't recommend them more highly for ease of use and overall look

I even have plans afoot for buying more from them in time :)

DD
Click to expand...

Sorry to bump an old thread, but this is the route I'm considering going down. How long did it take you to get around the template and to get up and running? Can you use your own header with logo? I love the look of these sites, the SEO thing does bother me a bit though as 95% of my work comes from Google searches.

Oh, and do they charge for the shopping cart? This is a big thing for me, the fact that Photium don't take a cut.
 
go to Creative Motion Design ..... great CS and the price is good and they will even set up a blog for you if you want
 
I also have a bludomain site but it can be customised if you know what you are doing.

If you have no web design experience and you use just what you get then you will have a very nice looking website with minimal SEO on it. The reason is that google can only see the spash page and the indexable tags at the top of each page. It can't make any sense of what is contained in the flash site itself. So you could write a lovely keyword heavy piece of text about you and what you do and google can't even read it.

If you do have web (html) experience then you can actually change some things in the template. My splash page now looks rather different to the template ;)

Their customer service has been great for me too and other than the fact that they are not the best for SEO I'd recommend them tomorrow.

As for the hosting? I don't host mine with Blu and it's a one off $100 to host it elsewhere.
I also have a blog on google and it links in no problem at all and is fully indexable by google.

Hope that helps.
 
AliB said:
If you do have web (html) experience then you can actually change some things in the template. My splash page now looks rather different to the template ;)
Click to expand...

Was this down to your own personal knowledge or did you get some help? I'd love a Bludomain site but if it means I'm going to lose out on being up on page 1 for certain keywords like I currently am, I don't think it's worth the switch.
 
I got some help Dave, some very good help :)

Apparently Blu uses Java for it's html (I thought it was coffee!)
 
So in terms of setting it all up, how long did it take you to customise it, move your galleries over etc? Do you just then point your existing domain to it once you're ready to go?
 
Took me about a week Dave.

Selecting all the images and resizing them to make the most of the templates. Writing all the copy and doing all the keywording.

The templates are really easy to use and you can dip in and out as much as you like and the control panel takes care of it all.

I have to say though, if I knew then what I know now about SEO I might have made a different choice and if your google ranking is THAT important to your business Id investigate every available supplier out there!

I'm in the process of making the most of it and I don't know if that's where you would really like to be.
 
Thanks for this, it's a big help.

One final thing, the client area, how does that work? For example, I currently have a client area which lists about 20 different galleries, each have a password to gain entry. I notice on Bludomain that when you go into a client area, you just enter a password without choosing a gallery, does this mean anyone can view other client's images? Or does the password you put in take you to a specific set of images?

I'm concerned that I don't get enough gallery allowance for my $100, the FAQ section doesn't really answer most of my queries.
 
The client area is great. You put in the separate galleries with their own passwords and as soon as the client enters their password they go straight to their gallery.

I also found a way to load completed album pages so when my clients log in they see two galleries, one of images and one of their completed album once it is ready. Now that's neat! ;)
 
spxxxx said:
go to Creative Motion Design ..... great CS and the price is good and they will even set up a blog for you if you want
Click to expand...

Those look stunning Simon.

Is it possible to customise them yourself?
 
Excellent, did you go for a £100 or £400 site? Do the different galleries within the client section count as a gallery each? (Sorry, I lied when I said final question!)
 
£100 Dave and you can set up as many as you like in the client area in my template. :)

They are also very easy to manage in the control panel though and once the album has been delivered it's easy to just switch off the visibility or delete it altogether.

In fact that's another great point. I've set up a boudoir section for my website but since I've only just started shooting the images for it, it's sitting there in the control panel with the music, all ready to go. It's just switched off until I'm happy with it and then it's a really easy job to just switch it on.
 
Dave, is yours the Oscar template? Looks the same but with the links at the bottom rather than the top.

Cheers for all the help Ali, I'm going to bite the bullet and go for it, Photiums SEO isn't magical by any means so I doubt there's that much in it, plus I can have a splash page with Bludomain which is html, so I can get some keywords in on that.
 
Dman said:
Dave, is yours the Oscar template? Looks the same but with the links at the bottom rather than the top.

Cheers for all the help Ali, I'm going to bite the bullet and go for it, Photiums SEO isn't magical by any means so I doubt there's that much in it, plus I can have a splash page with Bludomain which is html, so I can get some keywords in on that.
Click to expand...

Yep - that's him 'Oscar'

Loving it :)

DD
 
boyfalldown said:
not sure how far you can customize yourself - but CMD will write (paid) customizations for you
Click to expand...

Yeah, saw that, some of the custom sites only have about 3 hours work done on them so not too bad.

I have looked at the bludomain ones now, gosh it's a minefield - how do you select one?
 
CMD was a bit too expensive for me so I've gone for a Bludomain site, just waiting for it to be sent to me. At the end of the day, Photium is superb and I'd recommend them to anyone, but it's costing me £17 a month, so it's saving me money going over to Bludomain plus I get a better looking site.

Can't wait to start playing with it now!
 
First impressions - Very impressed. There's a lot of negativity about Bludomain not delivering the sites, but these seem to go back a couple of years so perhaps they've got it all sorted now. Anyway, mine was delivered as promised and the back end is unbelievably simple. I reckon my site will be transferred over within a couple of days, it's just getting the images back from archive that will be the time consuming thing.

Will report back when I've managed to spend a few more hours on it.


BTW - I ended up going for the 'Liam' template.
 
Dman, may I ask what sort of costs are involved?

Having got a photium site, is it as simple to alter stuff as the photium one?
 
tiler65 said:
Dman, may I ask what sort of costs are involved?

Having got a photium site, is it as simple to alter stuff as the photium one?
Click to expand...

It's 200 dollars, 100 for the template and 100 for the hosting. Then it's just 100 dollars a year for the hosting, so a saving of around £140 on the top Photium package which I currently have.

It's very simple to alter stuff, I'm just setting up my links and copy and pasting across from the old one. The only difference I can see is that with the template I've got, I have to resize all the pictures prior to uploading them, whereas Photium does it for you.

All in all though it's just as easy as Photium.
 
Well, I've transferred all the galleries and other bits, just having one issue with the contact form, I can't seem to get it to send to my domain email address, which is run through Google apps. I've sent them a support request, once I've sorted that I'll be able to go and switch sites.
 
Just to update this in case anyone does a search for Bludomain in the future.

All the negative stuff I read about them online worried me a bit. They must have sorted themselves out because they've been superb over this past week. Queries have been answered the same day, they sorted out an email problem I had and have been first class so far. I wouldn't have any reservations about recommending them to anyone.
 
AliB said:
I also have a bludomain site but it can be customised if you know what you are doing.

If you have no web design experience and you use just what you get then you will have a very nice looking website with minimal SEO on it. The reason is that google can only see the spash page and the indexable tags at the top of each page. It can't make any sense of what is contained in the flash site itself. So you could write a lovely keyword heavy piece of text about you and what you do and google can't even read it.

If you do have web (html) experience then you can actually change some things in the template. My splash page now looks rather different to the template ;)

Their customer service has been great for me too and other than the fact that they are not the best for SEO I'd recommend them tomorrow.

As for the hosting? I don't host mine with Blu and it's a one off $100 to host it elsewhere.
I also have a blog on google and it links in no problem at all and is fully indexable by google.

Hope that helps.
Click to expand...

Alib - I know a little about HTML code, enough to rewrite what I need to for keywords ect, however in the CP I can not seem to locate the file that contains the HTML splash page text... could you point me in the right direction? I thought it was the index file but it does not seem to contain the same back end html source information.
 
AliB said:
I also have a bludomain site but it can be customised if you know what you are doing.

If you have no web design experience and you use just what you get then you will have a very nice looking website with minimal SEO on it. The reason is that google can only see the spash page and the indexable tags at the top of each page. It can't make any sense of what is contained in the flash site itself. So you could write a lovely keyword heavy piece of text about you and what you do and google can't even read it.

If you do have web (html) experience then you can actually change some things in the template. My splash page now looks rather different to the template ;)

Their customer service has been great for me too and other than the fact that they are not the best for SEO I'd recommend them tomorrow.

As for the hosting? I don't host mine with Blu and it's a one off $100 to host it elsewhere.
I also have a blog on google and it links in no problem at all and is fully indexable by google.

Hope that helps.
Click to expand...
Do you have any idea on how I can access the file in the CP for splash page HTML? The "index" file doesn't seem to be the file that contains the coding on the splash page... I hope am I making since...
 
Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but I'm looking for advice on website providers, I have used Creative Motion Design for a quite some time, but I am increasingly getting brassed off with their slow, and quite honestly abysmal customer service, so on the back of this thread, is anyone still using Blue domain ? and are they still as good ? or have you had your own site built now, through natural progression, I would just like some recommendations really, whether it be Blue Domain, or anyone else with great customer service to boot. Many thanks in advance.
 
I have my 'old' but still live Bludomain site - its been changed significantly since this thread began, you can see it here... Barnsley Wedding Photographer

My newer (not quite complete site) is Wordpress with a Prophoto template over that, you can see that here... Wedding Photographer Barnsley

The most current BluDomain sites no longer use Flash so they work much better on mobiles, and as most people are apparently searching on mobiles rather than desktops/laptops that's obviously important

It's often said that Google doesn't like BluDomain websites, though mine has been on page 1 for over 5 years now in 3 formats that I've had from them. Generally, I think they look great but they aren't as customizable as the ProPhoto ones by far. I may well keep my BluDomain one for at least another year until my newer site also hits page 1

So - if you want to be up & running quickly with a great looking site go for the BluDomain one, if you like tinkering and have more time I suspect the Prophoto one would serve you better as it does me now - HTH :)

Cheers

Dave
 
Thanks Dave, nice websites, I will have to look further into it, what are the prices of the Wordpress with the Prophoto template ?
 
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