Need help w/ Flash site creation

[capagrl]

I do some work for a local friend and her sister who run a wellness and photography center. I update their website (easy enough using Page Breeze Pro) and do their newsletter using Publisher, but the photographer sister wants to completely re-vamp her photography website, probably with some Flash on the front page. That's waaaaayyy beyond my capabilities (although if I had the software, I might be willing to give it a shot).

She doesn't have much $$ for this to be done so I was hoping to find someone who's willing to do some pro-bono work to build their portfolio and/or work for as little as possible ($200 maybe?). Either that, or maybe get some tips on where to find someone who's capable/willing OR, maybe the best option, point me toward some free or cheap software wherein I can learn to do Flash stuff myself...

Anyone have a teenager who's able/willing to do this?

[Kristine233]

I'd really recomend against flash. Its bulky and not everyone can view it and its not SEO friendly. And with current technologies where people are browsing form thier phones they can't either. The upkeep can be expensive if you can't do it yourself too. While I do flash for clients who insist upon it, I always try to discourage against it.

You can do all kinds of cool stuff with photos with DHTML, I'd look at that first.

[Mama Dragon]

:

[Kristine233]

Software-wise, I use Adobe products (CS2 and CS3 products) and the Adobe Flash software is the one that is most widely used for this type of Flash work: http://www.adobe.com/products/flash/?promoid=BPDEE The trial is fully functional if you want to give it a try, its free for 30 days.

[Mama Dragon]

Sorry for the "yeah that" earlier, my keyboard got sticky stuff dumped on it so I could only use my mouse to insert a smilie until it was washed and air dried

I suck at Flash (so I can't and won't do full Flash), but have used Adobe Flash, a program by Coffee Cup and then I use SimpleViewer for the few clients who are just dead set on having a Flash photo gallery. There are some awsome photo gallery scripts like HighSlide and Lightbox that are much more SEO friendly.

I do not like Flash sites. They load slow and are horribly SEO unfriendly, but I don't minding using Flash for small photo galleries and parts of headers, that kind of thing, if there's enough relavent information on the page to show up in search engines.

[Zadee]

I'm a flash hater too but I use it for photo slideshows. There is a wordpress plugin that will do it for you but to use it you have to have jury rigged wordpress into a website. (ducks and runs from the web designers).

[Kristine233]

Originally Posted by Zadee

I'm a flash hater too but I use it for photo slideshows. There is a wordpress plugin that will do it for you but to use it you have to have jury rigged wordpress into a website. (ducks and runs from the web designers).

I actually really like WordPress. I even recommend my clients get WordPress blogs integrated for SEO reasons.

[nursingmom]

I think for a photographer website, flash is a must. It just looks more professional, and I personally like to view flash.

Flash is really easy to learn and DIY if you have Adobe CS. I bought the CS3 from amazon.com and created it myself on my website. I know Flash is not suppose to be good for SEO... but my website seems to do fine with SEO even with it on my front page.

[Mama Dragon]

I adore WordPress. It's one of my favorite things to work with in the design world. Definitely makes my job easier!

Originally Posted by nursingmom

I think for a photographer website, flash is a must. It just looks more professional, and I personally like to view flash.

Flash is really easy to learn and DIY if you have Adobe CS. I bought the CS3 from amazon.com and created it myself on my website. I know Flash is not suppose to be good for SEO... but my website seems to do fine with SEO even with it on my front page.

The amount you have on your main page is fine =) It's when the entire site is Flash that search engines don't "see" anything...you have lots of non-Flash content. The image slideshow you do can also be accomplished by a simple javascript, looking as nice as flash and depending on the script, loading faster. It just depends on what you want. It's awesome you worked out Flash so quickly!

[Kristine233]

Originally Posted by Synthea™

I adore WordPress. It's one of my favorite things to work with in the design world. Definitely makes my job easier!



The amount you have on your main page is fine =) It's when the entire site is Flash that search engines don't "see" anything...you have lots of non-Flash content. The image slideshow you do can also be accomplished by a simple javascript, looking as nice as flash and depending on the script, loading faster. It just depends on what you want. It's awesome you worked out Flash so quickly!

Now its my turn to : you, lmao. All of it.