Not much has changed, to much time spent organising CAD drawings for designs.
I now realise that the design library, is going to be massive. Consume a large amount of web space, possibly enough to require me to increase the amount of web space i have. ultimately cost me more money for web hosting.
Obviously the design library helps with sales, but the blunt reality of it is. I have no intention of expanding, i like to keep the business small, so i can still keep it personal. The internet now is so impersonal, click here buy this. Gone are the days for actually discussing what someone really needs and how to get the best results.
What i do know about the design library, is that it ties in with something i was playing with on the test server ironworks-crawley.uk . Which was attempting to teach people how to design their own gate or railing. For that you need a lot of examples as a reference.
As the internet is world wide and certainly country wide, many of the people finding the library are going to be outside of the area I cover. So of little benefit to me. But great for any one looking for wrought iron designs. Don’t get me wrong it is nice to share the drawings rather than them sitting on my hard drive. But i would be sharing them at my expense.
Which kind of leaves me with a few options really.
The first and perhaps easy option is to take a large handful of the drawings, host them on here and call it a design library. Choosing 20 or 30 of the best examples from each section. Garden gates, Driveway gates, railings etc.
The second option is to put the full library here. but maybe allow paid adverts in the design section. but i have a hate of adverts on the internet, certainly on what is a commercial website. it just feel cheap nasty and a bit dirty. but it would at least go some way to paying for the extra web space needed.
The third option and currently my most favoured, is to host the whole lot on another website. Then add a donation section in, using something like “buy me a coffee”. Which is a method of people donating a few pounds, for appreciating, the work gone into it. With luck if enough people donate, it pays for the web hosting. because it is a separate website and i would be using it as a reference, it doesn’t feel like begging.
And of course any other iron work provider could use it as a reference as well. At least those that still like to give customers choice.
So for now the design library is on hold, it may get tidied up a little and where it is missing sections a small amount will be added. but i am going to restrict it to 20 or so per section. At least until i decide what to do with it.