Let your imagination run free

internet connectivity?

Hi Jill and all,

Nice to meet you. I've been spending less time here in Creative Cafe than I'd originally anticipated - partly because I'm not sure if it makes sense for me (residing in the US) to be trying to sell my photography on a UK site. Maybe? Maybe not? I'd be interested in hearing others' opinions.

At any rate, it seems to take so very long to reach clicked links and to do general site navigation that my patience runs out before I've explored around. : -/
I do have DSL ... wondering if part of the issue might be all the extra jazzy pretty stuff that could possibly make the Cr.Cfe. pages load unbearably slowly?

Any ideas?

-McB.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jill on December 15, 2007 at 12:10am: Oooooh I have just had a look at your pics and they are really lovely. Will be great to feature on the main page slideshows for next week. Thanks for putting them up.

I am sorry you find the site too slow and I know I am to blame for putting up too many widgets and slideshows and stuff which slows things down. I have taken some widgets out and plan to take out more. I get carried away with slideshows as well but love to see lots of our members work up on the main page. I do not know what DSL is exactly. Will definitely look into taking out some stuff and try and speed things up for you.

As far as selling your work on a UK site is concerned I did test the Salesrooms software before we decided on it by buying a fluffy toy on an Australian site and some pumpkin seeds on an American site running in the same software. The paypal system worked fine on those but this has not been tested on our site yet. I see no reason why it shouldn't work fine and there is a system for changing currencies when you want to on the site as well. We also have quite a few US based members and I will be inviting more from everywhere! In fact we have had visitors from 23 countries already. I would just say that if you don't mind accepting paypal and raising your postage prices to cover international as well then there is no reason why selling on our Salesrooms is any different from selling locally. There is also another payment gateway that is possible as well as Paypal that we are looking into but that has not been set up yet.
I have said to other members that there may not be loads of Sales while we are getting going but it is free to list, free to have your own Salesroom and the first 50 items sold are free of any commission in our Salesrooms so it is really only the time it takes to list your items that is needed. There are instructions on the site and in one of the discussions and let me know if you need any other info at all.

And yes I will definitely look at taking more of the jazzy stuff out!

Bye for Now
Jill

Anyway; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Mandy Lawrence on December 15, 2007 at 12:52am: Hi Macbeth

I am not trying to sell anything I create...well not yet...so can't comment from a sales perspective. However, the internet and web goes global, so I think putting your work up on Creative Cafe means that others will see it and have opportunity to purchase here. Also the cafe is in it's early stages and am sure it will grow with time. It is like all new and different ventures, a bit of positive risk taking is needed. Well, I think so but I am a layperson.

As for the slowness with the pages and all their widgets and things loading. I agree, it does take time but it doesn't phase me so much. Again, I haven't got anything to sell so maybe it doesn't affect me as much as others.

Hope you stick with the cafe...I think it is going good places.:>); ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Jill on December 17, 2007 at 2:19pm: Hi again

I have now taken out some widgets and slideshows on the main page and am wondering if the site is running any faster for you?

There are still a few more I could take out but have left in the chat box in case members want to use it later. Or should I take this out until/if there is more demand? And the cooking recipes are still in at the moment. I don't know why! Also the Knowing Imagination widget as Bob whose site it is is also one of my members. I am still impressed by someone having their own widget!

Anyway would be glad for any feedback on the speed of the site at the moment.

Bye for now
Jill; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Shelagh Watkins on December 17, 2007 at 2:48pm: Hi Jill,

I set up an extra page (Author of the Week Archives) on PublishedAuthors to archive all the authors featured as Author of the Week. Would it be possible to set up a special page for all the widgets stored as blog posts? By adding links on the main page, visitors and members of Creative Cafe could visit the blog posts with widgets that interest them.

Check ouit the links on PublishedAuthors:

The Published Authors Network

~Shelagh; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Jill on December 17, 2007 at 3:28pm: Hi Shelagh

Ooooh I have just looked at your Published Authors Network for the first time properly. You have a lot of interesting things on there. I will have to go back as soon as there is a quieter time and read a lot more...I did have a report on children leaving the care system published by Campaign for Single Homeless People once ages ago. Does that count as a published author do you think?!

Anyway that does sound like a very good idea to me to have links to widgets so that members can chose the ones they like. Which also will save on the site loading times because they won't be slowing things down on the main page. I will definitely look into this when there is some quieter time as well.

Thanks very much for the suggestion.
Bye for Now
Jill; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Shelagh Watkins on December 17, 2007 at 5:12pm: Hi Jill,

Your publications count! Join us; you would be very welcome!

~Shelagh; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Jill on December 17, 2007 at 8:14pm: Hi Shelagh

Well then I will join your group. Finding the time at the moment is hard though.
In the New Year I will have more time and will be able to make an effort.

Thanks for the invite.

Bye for now

Jill; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by McBeth on December 24, 2007 at 11:48pm: Hi Jill.

DSL is a type of internet access that transmits data faster than does a dial-up connection. I have the slowest DSL speed my IP company offers, but it usually works well enough for my needs. I'm noticing a slight increase in speed in how quickly the Cr.Cafe pages load, but I wouldn't call it _fast_. I've also noticed that the bkrnd image (currently, it's a picture of xmas lights) seems to take a while to load, completely separate from the text parts of the site. Hard to say why, probably ... could be heaps of possible explanations. Am I the only person experiencing these issues? Maybe it's just me...?

Thanks for paying attention to it... much appreciated.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Jill on December 28, 2007 at 9:53pm: Hi Mcbeth
Hope you have been having a good time over the holidays.
The background image is usually one of the sky.
The xmas lights one will go soon and the sky will go back.
I do not think any particular image will be slower to load
than any other but am not sure about this and will try to
find out more.
Bye for Now
Jill; ▶ Reply to This