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Home: Video University Forums: Wedding & Event Videography:
Web sites

X-David_R
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Nov 14, 2002, 7:34 PM

Post #1 of 9 (697 views)
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Web sites	Can't Post

Another marketing type question. How important is it for a wedding videographer to have a web site? Does anyone feel it is essencial to there business, or is it just a "nice to have" expense?

X-George_Loch
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Nov 14, 2002, 8:24 PM

Post #2 of 9 (696 views)
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Re: Web sites	Can't Post

It depends on you and how you market. They can be very helpful as a place to present yourself and your work but, a) You have to do it well(A bad website will hurt not help your company image) b) You have to promote it - they do not go looking for people to come look at them. It will allow you a way to show your work without you *having* to be there. It will also allow you to market even when your asleep :)
GL
: Another marketing type question. How important is it for a wedding videographer to have a web site? Does anyone feel it is essencial to there business, or is it just a "nice to have" expense?

X-Scott_Brooks
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Nov 14, 2002, 8:44 PM

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Re: Web sites [In reply to]	Can't Post

I have to imagine that I'm like almost everyone else on this board in that many brides are planning to get married "back home" but live in another city. They can't come home every weekend to plan their wedding so they start out with a phone call. Wouldn't it be nice to point them to your site with streaming video?
Before you do that I suggest you find a professional to design it for you. On that "other" professional video forum that I love to frequent we often have those that post ... check out my website and tell me what you think. I always check it out but never post what I think unless it's very good.
I'll tell ya right now that a good number of them really stink. Don't believe me? Go to Yahoo and do a search on wedding videographers and do some surfing tonight. You'll come up with some of the nastiest looking sites you've ever seen. Everybody thinks it's so easy to do it yourself.
Remember this is your your first or second contact with the bride. If it doesn't provide a professional impression then you might as well save your money.

X-Coleman
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Nov 14, 2002, 8:53 PM

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Re: Web sites [In reply to]	Can't Post

I want a nice classy website designed by a pro. What is an estimate of how much that will cost? I want it to have about 5 minutes of video on it.
Also, please direct me to great videography websites.
Coleman

X-Scott_Brooks
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Nov 14, 2002, 9:04 PM

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A few sites [In reply to]	Can't Post

Coleman,
As I recall you�re not a big weva fan, but if you go to their home page you can go to the left to the members links and spend the whole night looking at sites. Some are great while others really suck wind.
I have a personal preference to the softer look, but your tastes may not be the same. Here�s a couple:
http://www.bigskymovies.com/
http://www.bluecoremedia.com/
http://www.cannonvideo.com/wedding_and_events1.htm
http://www.customvideobyterry.com/
http://www.marcsmiler.com/

X-George_Loch
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Nov 14, 2002, 9:25 PM

Post #6 of 9 (696 views)
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Re: Web sites [In reply to]	Can't Post

I know there are a few folks doing their own sites here on the forum but, just like Premiere and a VX2000 don't make a videographer, Dreamweaver and an FTP client don't make someone a web developer.
If you are going to have someone else do it(I recommend this unless you have experience with doing it or are really motivated to 'do it right') you can expect to pay anwhere from $500(Uncle Harry doing websites and wedding videos in basement) up to a couple thousand. If you contact a good developer they can put something together that would allow you to do simple maintenance yourself (Driven by templates and a database). This is what I have done for my clients and it makes sense for companies that change their information from time to time.
The list Scott gave you is really helpful in deciding the 'feel' you want but, also make sure that the feel of the site reflects what you have already done with your companie's identity(business cards, stationary, brochures, lables, ect). It may also be an opportunity to have your whole identity take a new direction.
If you do have an inclination to do it yourself, let me know and I could give you some starting points. I am one ofthose crazy people who feel like they need to know everything about media stuff...and everything else :)
GL

: I want a nice classy website designed by a pro. What is an estimate of how much that will cost? I want it to have about 5 minutes of video on it.
: Also, please direct me to great videography websites.
: Coleman

X-Eric_Miozzi
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Nov 15, 2002, 2:57 AM

Post #7 of 9 (696 views)
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Check these guys out [In reply to]	Can't Post

Hi David,
You might want to give Justin at www.videoeventsnetwork.com a call. They do website design, as well as hosting and video work. They are geared more towards accomodating videographers as well. I switched over to them a few months back, plus they designed my sister companies website and I was very happy with that as well. If you talk to Justin, I am sure he will show you the other videographers sites they have done. Plus, they are very affordable.
Take care,
Eric Miozzi
Platinum Video Productions

X-Thom
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Nov 15, 2002, 4:29 AM

Post #8 of 9 (696 views)
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Re: Web sites [In reply to]	Can't Post

So you would like a quality website for your videography biz catering to women? Here's some numbers to guide you...
Divide CAD by 1.6 to exchange to USD:
Design: $2000-$5000CAD (depending on how fussy you are; how many mock-ups you go through; how good your designer is at crawling into your head)
Development: $2000-5000CAD (unless you don't care about what mac users see on their screen...in that case shave 30-40% off your dev fee...I always offer this option and the past two years has seen a dramatic rise in takers -grin-).
Domain: negligable
Hosting: with a quality service expect nominal setup fees ($50-$100CAD) plus your monthly fee ($30-$80CAD) plus fairly heavy transfer fees ($0.10-$0.30CAD per mb over your limit) if you're attracting lots of visitors and streaming video. Of course, like anything in life you get what you pay for and there are lots of hosts pumping video out that either aren't doing it correctly or they over-subscribe their service and, consequently, your performance suffers BIG time (actually, even if they DON'T oversubscribe your performance can suffer if they don't execute properly).
I started an ISP in 92 and cashed-out that entire infrastructure about six months after AOL announced their unlimited (lol) access (now there's a joke for ya...but Case is a genius and, consequently, millions of folks bought the crap and just LOVED it...AOL users are cut from the same cloth as Mac users, IMHO). Now we're hosting exclusively, but we won't take on small-ish outfits with high bandwidth requirements (such as the one-man-show videographer, pornographers, hi-res image banks, etc.) because most don't have the money to pay for quality business-grade service (except for the porn guys who have bags of money but there's other reasons to not host those sites).
Speaking of porn, while you are looking for a new host you should definately ask the question:
"Do you host ANY porn or gambling sites on your shared servers???"
You don't want to hear the gory technical details why, just take my word that you don't want them for a host no matter how inexpensive they seem.
Regards-Thom
P.S. Please don't ask me to host your video-based website as I can't do it for you, I'm sorry.
P.P.S. I have nothing against porn, I actually have two friends in the biz...we just can't host their websites for technical resaons! :)

: I want a nice classy website designed by a pro. What is an estimate of how much that will cost? I want it to have about 5 minutes of video on it.
: Also, please direct me to great videography websites.
: Coleman

X-Bill
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Nov 15, 2002, 11:59 AM

Post #9 of 9 (696 views)
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Re: A few sites [In reply to]	Can't Post

To: Coleman
I went to:
http://www.bluecoremedia.com/movies.html
I have been going to tons of sites trying to find the best videos out there on the net. And you mentioned one site I thought was terrific and that is:
http://www.bluecoremedia.com/movies.html
There is the link called something like "photo shoot/at last"
That video is awesome to me. It just seems classy in a modern way, there are very fine things in that video such as the butterfly, the subtle circular rainbow effect. Now I now the meaning putting hints of creativity were it counts!
I just can't say enough about that video.
Bill
I have been to that site before and thought you are right on by giving that link!

: Coleman,
: As I recall you�re not a big weva fan, but if you go to their home page you can go to the left to the members links and spend the whole night looking at sites. Some are great while others really suck wind.
: I have a personal preference to the softer look, but your tastes may not be the same. Here�s a couple:
: http://www.bigskymovies.com/
: http://www.bluecoremedia.com/
: http://www.cannonvideo.com/wedding_and_events1.htm
: http://www.customvideobyterry.com/
: http://www.marcsmiler.com/