[Kyle Bennett]

All sold now thanks

[Kyle Bennett]

Hows this?

http://www.anrsigns.co.uk/cleaning-vag-lt.ai

Tried to upload it as an attachment but too big

[Kyle Bennett]

Edit: Doh.. .didn’t see the post date 😳

[Kyle Bennett]

Good point on the blade rotation, will give it a check

It’s definitely being cut from Bézier curves directly from Illustrator, I’ve already tested the problem being on the points/nodes by drawing 2 circles, one a standard 4 node, and one with extra nodes placed and it just notches on each node

[Kyle Bennett]

I’ve swapped the heads before in mine – like Dave said it takes a bit at first but once you’ve done it it’s a fairly easy job, as long as you’re careful and take note of what goes where.

For head alignment I strongly recommend one of them magnifying glasses with a lamp built in, and it may take you a couple of goes to understand what does what in regards to alignment

[Kyle Bennett]

This place is only going to be open at night, hence the use of the red’s for the Takeaway text – will be more readable once the shop is lighting it from the inside compared to yellow or oranges (barely any street lighting where it is).

I’ll take into consideration the white outlines, but is it necessary when it’ll be backlit 99% of the time? I’ve final will have a margin all the way around the etch film to light more light shine through (this copy only has a gap on the roundel, the final will have the text with one as well)

[Kyle Bennett]

The CD’s picture just had me in stitches :lol1: :lol1:

If my internet went down I’d be crippled as well seeing as most my work is web design, and the entire signage business is pretty much ran on Google Apps

[Kyle Bennett]

I fully agree, increasing a conversion rate from by 0.5% on a site that earns 10k a year with a 1% CR brings in an extra 5k, and all it costs you is your time tweaking the existing site, rarther than having to bring in hundreds or thousands of new visitors.

The knock on effect also allows you to be able to bid higher in Adwords and gain more visitors that way, as each per visit value is higher

[Kyle Bennett]

Conversion rate into what? Enquiries? Actual sales?

4.53% in total is VERY high for the web full stop, well done if you’re getting that on sales

My online store selling motorcycle decals is about 1.15% average, although certain keywords perform better than others, scooter decal related keywords seem to be around 3%-50% conversion rates, although generally you’ll find the "long tail" keywords tend to have higher conversion rates as people are specifically looking to buy rarther than just browsing

As for actual sign enquiries I’ve never really monitored it for them, just separated out the 2 websites last week so I can monitor it more accurately and optimise each site specifically for their purpose

[Kyle Bennett]

I dare say they all come with pre-defined layer masks for adding artwork onto

You can do this easily in Illustrator too with an outlines cd, just paste the artwork below the main drawing, then right click the body of the vehicle and click "Make Clipping Mask"

[Kyle Bennett]

quote Nigel Hindley:

Websites are great yes – but folk wont find your website unless you promote it with a brocuhre!!

Nigel

That’s what Search Engine Optimisation is for

Brochure’s I still find have their uses, they do benefit existing customers in letting them know everything you do, you can easily hand one to customers after doing a job and 9/10 they’ll have a quick flick through and see the full range of what you can do

[Kyle Bennett]

InDesign is built for the job – page templates, global styling etc all can be setup and it has FAR better text / layout options than any of the other general graphics range, the only other program I’d consider is Quark but InDesign’s taken over as industry standard now

Before handing to the printers set it to outline all type as well – this is incase your printers do not have particular fonts you’ve used installed, or it can package everything up but for one off jobs it’s far easier to outline all type, just don’t save the working copy like that otherwise you won’t be able to edit the text again!

Convert any images you’re using to CMYK in Photoshop then drag and drop them into InDesign for layout, and use CMYK when building the document, then just outline type and export a PDF for the printers and 99% of the time the job will be right, but always get a printed proof and check it first

[Kyle Bennett]

Unidirectional has cured the diagonal banding, so that’s ok for now. Encoder strip is dust and damage free so I’m thinking Slant Adjust is off slightly? Yellow’s the hardest colour to see!

And printing at 4 pass has stopped the original yellow banding, so I’m thinking ink starvation from a dodgy pump or something? Going to do the disway wash as soon as my new ink turns up

It’s running at acceptable quality now anyway, so I’ll get saving for a Mimaki tech to give the old girl a proper setup and service!

Thanks for everyones help

[Kyle Bennett]

I’ve just added a 1sec Pass Dry Time wait and it seems to have cured the banding, so I can only conclude it’s a dodgy pump, which would kind of make sense seeing as it’s been trying to pump ink through a crushed head for a few months.

Anyone in the know agree?

[Kyle Bennett]

Two test prints here, when printing larger images it’s become apparent there is some diagonal banding as well, especially on the faster speed setting

All from Signlab, all run on on Normal (HD) (720 x 720), one with fastest speed + High Speed On, and the other with Best Quality + Highspeed OFF

There’s no apparent Yellow banding on the highspeed one, but the diagonal banding is worse, and on the best quality one there’s little diagonal banding but the yellow banding is horrific

Most my work is decals under 100mm in size so it’s not usually a major issue, but I’m trying to bring in more larger printing work and this is a real problem now

Highspeed one – http://www.anrsigns.co.uk/printer/IMG_2729.JPG
Best Quality one – http://www.anrsigns.co.uk/printer/IMG_2730.JPG[/img]

[Kyle Bennett]

Just tried new Dampers and it’s still banding 🙁

[Kyle Bennett]

Just thought of dampers whilst working today actually, I’ll slip a pair in tonight and give it a whirl!

I can’t wait to get the damn thing working spot on :lol1:

[Kyle Bennett]

If you mean the slant of the text, i.e how Italic would look (leaning right) then you can skew the text in most graphic programs I’d imagine

Illustrator you can expand appearance and then skew left and right. Be warned though left slanting text looks awful

[Kyle Bennett]

quote Gareth Hankinson:

I was mechanicing over at the NW200 for SpeedFreak Racing, Paul Shoesmith, wasnt a very good meeting what with all of the accidents and delays, rain and blowing one of our 4 bikes up… DO’h.

Roll on the TT 😛

I think we used to do his decals, found a load of files with his stuff on when I took over the signage side of things, few of you might have heard of us?

ANR Performance? Andy does the race bodywork and I now run ANR Signs for the decals and signage

[Kyle Bennett]

http://www.superbike.co.uk/imageBank/b/ … 20show.jpg

The new BWM Superbike makes a good starting point

I’d struggle with this kind of job without more info and we’re motorcycle industry specialists, the trouble is most bikers want race rep and BMW’s aren’t really that sort of bike!

If he does want race rep style they’re usually easy, just a big sponsor logo in the middle with smaller ones down the bellypan at forward facing angles

[Kyle Bennett]

Anyone who does road racing has a screw loose if you ask me!

Done a fair bit of track but **** doing roads 😮

[Kyle Bennett]

42017… fun this 😛

[Kyle Bennett]

Had a few of my decals whizzin’ round there on Gaz #69’s bike but I guess they where a tad small to see from the aerial shots 🙄

[Kyle Bennett]

http://www.digiprint-supplies.com/Epson … 11614.html

Excellent service

[Kyle Bennett]

I’ve experienced very poor customer care from Signmaster, they don’t seem to be interested unless you’re giving them 4-5 figure somes of money and they have rip off prices for parts once you’re out of warranty

£25 for a bloody damper!

Needless to say when it comes to replace our JV3 we’ll not be using them, however our Mimaki printer / cutter combo is fantastic, really easy to use and get the hang of, and seems to handle anything you throw at it.

We’ve also got a Graphtec and I prefer using the Mimaki always

[Kyle Bennett]

quote James Langton:

just out of interest kyle. What machine are you running and inks do you plan on switching to. Iv always been told to stay well away from 3rd party but that was from a mutoh dealer.

I’ll find out Monday morning, my partner mentioned them to me today and I completely forgot as usual

Way I see it is the printer manufacturers don’t make the inks anyway, so the chances are these come from the same factory at the end of the day, and why would the 3rd party suppliers knowingly sell you duff ink? They’re not stupid and realise ink is worth massive amounts in repeat custom.

Hell, half the printer manufacturers don’t even produce their own print heads, so how the hell can they claim only "their" ink works safely in them?

[Kyle Bennett]

We’re moving to third party inks as soon as our current ones run out, was reluctant but another signmaker we know is now using them on the same printer as ours and has had no problems what so ever.

Also it means we no longer have to deal with a certain supplier who’s been trying to royally lift us recently

[Kyle Bennett]

Illustrator and Indesign can import and open them for editing, you may need to draw text boxes over the initial boxes though (depends how they’ve been created)

[Kyle Bennett]

I think the main question is do the amount you sell warrant it?

Cutting out the middle man does offer savings, but remember you’ll have to be buying in bigger bulk

Have you tried looking on alibaba.com? LOADS of stuff on there from China, you deal directly with the manufacturers

[Kyle Bennett]

Tried printing a test page from the printer to see if Cyans slightly blocked?

I had a similar issue with Reds looking Pink, the Yellow was half blocked

[Kyle Bennett]

Google does penalise duplicate content over different websites – if you’re doing lots of little sites just re-write the wording for each

If someone nicks your content, Google can generally tell who had it first, and you can still file a DMCA complaint with the offenders web host to get it removed

[Kyle Bennett]

Although it does amount to copyright theft, Google does penalize sites which have duplicate content too so the original authors will generally out rank them.

http://www.copyscape.com/

This site is excellent for seeing just how much exactly they’ve copied word for word

You can then send a DMCA violation letter to their web host who’ll take down the site.

[Kyle Bennett]

quote BrianBrian:

Try Looking into getting to the top of google the organic way, this is what we’re doin it takes a long time but it is free.

You need to make asmany links as you can and do things like chating on forums as that will help your seach rank. Make sure you put your web address at the end of each thing you say.

mod-edit 3 see board rules :police3:

To be honest good quality content and a well coded site is more than half the battle – I’ve just made our new website and we’re already on the first page of google for nearly all our local keywords after 1 day, and that’s without any link building.

My hardest task is going to be ranking high for the generic keywords for my online store, the local ones are normally easy just from writing good content with the targetted keywords in + titles and h1,h2 tags etc. Of course if local is a bigger city then you’ll require some link building too

[Kyle Bennett]

He’s either an idiot (for not selling), or a genius

Could be a method of link baiting – a form of viral marketing where you say something contraversial to encourage people to talk about it and post about it, letting others do the marketing for you

[Kyle Bennett]

As far as I’m aware all software CPU use is split over multiple cores in the new generation processors through the hardware

9/10 I’ve found is lack of RAM that slows machines down, considering you can get 4GB RAM for £50 nowadays it’s not worth not getting.

[Kyle Bennett]

I used to sell Scooters & Moped for a living, some of the questions we got asked where even worse!

"Does it come in blue?"

…You’re sat on a blue one mate

"Do you sell PGO?" No we’re Piaggio "Well it sounds the same, don’t you sell PGO then?"

Funniest one was the time I had to explain to this girl that the 710 cap actually was just upside down (OIL)

[Kyle Bennett]

To be honest I can’t tell the difference, I have 64bit Photoshop CS4 running on the PC I use for web design, and I used to have the 32bit Beta version of it and I swear theres barely any difference

I certainly wouldn’t not get Illustrator because it’s lacking full 64bit support, it’s a fantastic bit of kit and the user interface is miles ahead of previous versions

[Kyle Bennett]

quote John Singh:

So as I see it:

In brief as David Rogers says its down to your own web page
Only if you allow these guys to enter and alter your web page directly with key words will it be effective

Not entirely, "these" guys are normally cold calling money grabbing w***ers who’ll do nothing but take your money and run.

But anyway, the on-page SEO is generally content written for keywords and better coding – good web designers working to modern standards should do this all for you included in the price as it’s as simple as planning and coding the website properly. Content it depends if it’s written for you or by yourself, but as a matter of habbit I usually check over content written for my by clients just to tell them if they can drop the odd keywords in everynow and then

Off page is building links to your site from others, which helps boost your rankings – these you can do yourself in your spare time easily, forum signature links are a prime example, have a link pointing to your website saying "Signage Location" and various other keywords you want to target, spread over multiple sites (i.e forums you visit, local web directories, contact manufacturer’s as some list dealers etc).

Generally link building can cost nothing but your time, but I sometimes use these guys – http://www.submitedge.com/ for clients sites when they have neither the time or knowledge to do it themselves

(Please be aware that signature links may be against the rules on this particular forum, I am only pointing this out as I don’t want another post deleted LOL)[/code]

[Kyle Bennett]

It’s basically ‘microblogging’ I think

Kinda like blogging but limited to 140 characters a post, not a big fan of it myself

[Kyle Bennett]

quote Dave Rowland:

here u go
Same ISP, but my office is 12 miles away

Office (static IP) says it is spot on
My home (dynamic ip) thinks im in Stafford, which im no-where near

http://whatismyipaddress.com/

so as u can see, we can be anywhere

I’m not denying it’s not always correct, but different programs do trace locations differently – I’ve had mine show me 3 separate results from 3 separate websites, but at the same time I think it’s quite short sighted to believe that because some cheap websites tells us something like this, it means Google must be the same.

Google relys on Adwords for $16.4 billion revenue, I think they’ve invested a little of that in making it’s Geotargetting as accurate as possible don’t you?

But my main point anyway, was I find turning it off in Adwords isn’t a wise move for campaigns using broad keywords targetted locally as you end up with a lot of wasted clicks and wasted money. Afterall the aim isn’t to boost the amount of visitors to your website, it’s to boost the amount of visitors that lead to sales.

[Kyle Bennett]

Quick play I had, didn’t really focus on colour, although I’m not the worlds biggest fan of black and yellow to say the least…

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Attachments:

[Kyle Bennett]

quote Dave Rowland:

yeah i know… but i turned that bit off.

Most internet connections are coming out of london, kinda defeats it really

Always seemed accurate to me, and turning it off costs you more money as nation wide people are clicking your adverts and wont be interested when they realise you’re not local.

Still, I’m not a massive fan of PPC campaigns, I prefer working on getting natural rankings as they dont instantly stop the minute you’re budget runs out for the month

[Kyle Bennett]

quote Dave Rowland:

problem is… its very national based a lot of these google/live advertising blocks…. so i could be bidding against u lot lol

It doesn’t have to be, with Google Adwords you can select if you want the ads to show only with an X mile radius of your location, that way you’re only advertising to relevant people

I do highly recommend everyone has Google Analytics installed though, VERY comprehensive web statistics package which is a must for tracking keywords and performance

mod-edit

[Kyle Bennett]

Haha, I remember having a go at doing that style of artwork a few years back… not realising in the process of flicking it I managed to make a replica piece on my ceiling!

[Kyle Bennett]

I use WordPress blogging software with all my websites now

Search Engine Friendly

User Friendly Interface

Clean easy to understand code

Used as a Content Managment System for easy updating

Hundreds of plugins available

Hundreds of free themes and plenty of better premium ones for small prices, and they’re not difficult to edit yourself either

[Kyle Bennett]

Thanks for the information guys, can’t currently afford a course as I’ve literally just started in vinyl and still living off the website and graphic design side of my business. ( I do realise it’s an investment, however when the money isn’t physically in my bank, I have little to invest 😥 )

I’m getting a fair few enquiries for Vespa / Lambretta scooter wraps however, so me and a friend who’s had some experience working with vinyl before are going to do a bit of hands on learning tomorrow with some old Vespa panels we having laying around. I’m not even going to attempt any car / van wraps yet 😮

[Kyle Bennett]

110% Certain it’s a scam 🙂

[Kyle Bennett]

http://vectortuts.com/

They’re part of a network of sites covering a large amount of tutorials for various adobe software

http://www.bittbox.com has some good tutorials and free stock imagery too

[Kyle Bennett]

quote David Rogers:

Kyle – dunno about your personal problems with 1and1. But I host 6 business websites with them and two personal ones and well for the last 4 1/2 years….THIS site is also hosted by them.

We are all allowed our opinions – but as the OP seems to be after not much more than the most elemental site and a couple of email addresses the online builder 1and1 uses is actually very effective for the novice…and it’s results, whilst a little formulaic, are quite professional in appearance.

It’s a matter of choice, cost & owner control.

DIY wins on all three counts…web designers like yourself sometimes rubbish any attempts at buying, designing or indeed marketing your own site as this is the way you make money. The end results will in 99% of cases NOT be as slick as a paid for site design & develop, but there’s no need to dismiss them entirely. This is like us (established signmakers) rubbishing you having a go at doing your own vinyl instead of buying it.

WordPress is just a design program…that also has the ability to use preset templates, much like every other program out there. It appears quite comprehensive.

There’s nothing to be lost by ‘having a go’. Even if the results are amazing or diabolical – it’s cost nothing. If it’s decided to let a paid designer do it afterwards there’s nothing lost.

I did it all myself, and my (main) site, whilst not the most impressive does rank #1 on Google for my local keywords without me spending a penny more than the hosting fee. I get work from it weekly, including national sub-contracts.

I’d NEVER use a web designers ‘rented’ space…deal direct. There have been several recent cases where members here have lost their websites through their ‘hosts’ incompetence…

Dave

Oh please don’t get me wrong I’m all for people having a go themselves, I was just trying to put forward my opinion that WordPress is a hell of a better option compared to these site builders. It offers more features, you’re not tied into specific hosting, it’s more search engine friendly, greater variety of professional themes available, a huge online support community etc etc

And your logic of DIY wins on all 3 counts isn’t exactly true, it might be cheaper, but that’s about it if you’re a novice at web designing.

Choice & Control wise, wouldn’t you agree you only have as much control as you do skills in this area? There’s no point getting an amazing flash gallery and then finding out you don’t have the necessary skills to install it and use it

Also, it’s ok you saying you’re number one for your targetted keywords and you’ve done it all yourself, but what if someone elses region has higher competition? Or what if one of your competitors hire a professional and outrank you?

Please don’t take this as me trying to sell my services, I joined this board to learn more about vinyls and signmaking, and I hope I can offer my experience in other fields to the membership in exchange

[Kyle Bennett]

When I create logo’s I find it very beneficial to work with just straight black and white to start with, like you would if it where to be just plotted out of one colour vinyl.

This helps you focus more on the shapes / concept before adding colour and effects. Creating a logo with this method also allows it to be applied to a variety of media and still look good (cut vinyl, B&W printer, Stationary, then moving up to full colour print and web)

[Kyle Bennett]

Hi Brian

I’d avoid 1&1 they’re a complete joke of a company with naff tech support and all them "freebies" in the hosting lists are nigh on useless

I use Serverchoice but mines a private server for clients websites, their sister company http://www.lcn.biz is ok for hosting (although all shared hosting plans don’t offer a great deal of flexibility)

A lot of the time you’ll find it’s better to find a web designer who already rents out a private server for their clients, they can then offer more flexible packages and server options. For instance mines got more memory available for dealing with images and thumbnail generate on the fly, something that’s difficult with normal hosting packages.

As for the website itself, again I’d stay away from these "website builders" as you end up with poorly coded cheap and tacky looking websites, you do not want this to reflect on your company and your work.

I always recommend using a Content Management System (CMS) when having a website built, these allow you to add / remove / edit pages yourself without having to rely on a web design.

I solely use WordPress blogging software (as the CMS) for my own and my clients websites, mainly because it’s extremely flexibile when adding features and designing for, and it’s mega friendly for the end user too.

Also, WordPress is highly Search Engine Friendly to help you rank well in Google, and allows easy intergration of something called Google Analytics which are free comprehensive website statistics

With WordPress you can find lots of free or premium themes, or have a custom one designed and coded just for you. In my past experience, most businesses tend to either pay for a full custom theme, or have a premium theme adapted to a different design, which provides a good balance of uniqueness vs cost.

Money wise, it’s a bit hit and miss, basically a bigger budget allows more time to be spent on concepts and designs, the coding side of things doesn’t usually deviate by great amounts of times between projects (for basic site & CMS theme design).

I’m not sure if I’m allowed to post my prices here if it’s against forum rules or what not? (Feel free to edit this bit out) But my general prices are between £250 and £500 for most WordPress themes developed for business sites if you want a rough guideline price for getting quotes

[Kyle Bennett]

quote Andy Blackett:

Hi Kyle,

welcome, maybe a good starting post might be the best way to increase someones web presence. We’ve just started using google ad words but I’m sure there’s plenty of other ways… or is there 😀

Andy

Good idea Andy, when I get chance I’ll try and do a little write-up, just I’m working 14-15 hour days at the minute 😮

Adwords I find can be useful, but I always reccommend improving search engine ranking and getting organic visitors in as a main priority, as this tends to remain a lot more constant than Adwords, because when you stop paying, you obiously stop gaining traffic

[Kyle Bennett]

quote Derek Heron:

Hi Kyle
welcome to the boards nice bike

Derek

Thankyou, it’s actually a Ducati 600SS just with 916 race fairings on, I now own a Suzuki SV650 as of today

quote John Gregson:

Hi Kyle, Welcome to the boards – i’m sure there will be plenty of website design questions.

Cheers John

I’ve been doing it 6-7 years now, so I’m always available to answer questions.

mod-edit – please see board rules

[Kyle Bennett]

You’ll want Adobe Illustrator for working with wraps etc as Photoshop doesn’t handle vector files as well as Illy.

As for stock imagery, http://www.bittbox.com do some nice freebies, and http://www.gomedia.us/arsenal have an AMAZING collection, and the packs are nicely split up so you’re not tied into buying mega expensive all-in-one packs like other stock suppliers

For Graffiti I recommend having a look through http://www.dafont.com as they have quite an extensive collection

If you find Illustrator to have a bit of a steep learning curve (it’s a lot more fiddly than Photoshop), then you may benefit from having a read through this site – http://vectortuts.com/

Hope this helps,

Kyle