Virtual Imager

Your Dad isn't the only one who is proud of you... we all are!!! woooot

Just goes to show that a reward program works. TCH is probably more interested in getting the referrals than it is in your motive for referring. Satisfying your referrals once they sign up is their job, and they're very good at it! The fact that you referred them just to get a reward won't matter at all. That reflects on you, not on them. If you refer a friend to a service that you don't actually recommend and they don't actually need, that is a problem between you and your (soon-to-be X?) friend.

Maybe you should change your name to beermojo! My problem is I have champagne taste on a beer budget. VI

Speaking of "tell a friend;" there's also "tell a friend" or "recommend us" links you can put on your site... people click on it and get a place to fill in the friend's (and their own) email address and you do the rest... sending promo information that actually comes with a personal note from the person who did the recommending. I'm sure you're familiar with it.

There are multitudes of ways to structure such a promotion. I was thinking you could give a free month for every three new customers brought in who actually sign up. Creating a time/retention requirement (like Jim suggested) is a good idea too. You could also give upgrades in liue of (or in addition to) free service. I'm not so sure about the limits. If you are going to reward people who meet a certain criteria, why not reward them each time they re-meet the criteria? They will be more likely to actively work at achieving the goal if they know they will be rewarded again. And people who actually do what you hope they will do are the very ones who have proven themselves capable and willing... why discourage them from repeating their performance? They are your best recruiters. Instead of limiting the reward, you might actually want to increase it (say, two free months the third time they meet the goal). You could even make it a contest with a really good prize for the person bringing in the most new customers in a given period. The bookkeeping doesn't have to be a nightmare. After all, you guys are computer geniuses! I'm sure crediting a customer's account for one month's service is no big deal. And keeping track of referrals can't be all that difficult. Many companies do similair kinds of promotions. There must be software out there. I remember at one point there was an offer of upgrades for beta-testers. So you probably already have some system in place to keep track of who gets credits and to deliver those credits. HTH, VI

Another thing you could do that won't cost anything is to pay "referral fees" (in the form of a month's free hosting) to existing customers who refer others that sign up. Most of us around here refer you anyway, but there must be thousands of customers who don't frequent these forums who you could reach out to and make the offer. Just send an email to all your customers telling them of the promotion.

I'm seeing a problem on the /help page using Netscape 7.0. In the left frame, all the links that are more than one line have the second line cut off. Specifically: the third link down says Total Choice Something or Other (2nd line cut off except for the very top of the letters), same for Third Party Something or Other, and the last link Web Hosting Something or Other. Looks nice though! Thumbs Up VI

One thing that might get noticed is to be one of the "sponsored links" on search engines and also on other sites that have site searches. For instance, I just did a search for "webhosting" on the PC Magazine site to see if that might be a good place for you to get reviewed. There were no matches for "webhosting" on the site, but several "sponsored links" came up. Don't know if that's in your budget, but it is another way to promote TCH. Rock Sign VI

Now that's definitive! Thank You! Everyone has been so great with this... I'll let you know what I end up with. It's been an interesting learning process. VI

Thanks, Bill. I guess my biggest consideration is how they look in daylight . How washed out the images get. Is there one particular format (LCD, CRT, Rear Projection, Plasma) that is known to be better for this or do I just need to try and compare them (hard to do inside a store)? My second consideration is size. Since I print my images on both paper (small... 12 x 18) and canvas (large... 30 x 45) I know that size adds considerably to their appeal. They are just so much more striking at the larger size. Most images are. So if the difference between LCD and rear projection isn't that significant, and since the prices are in the same ballpark, I'd want to go for the 52 inch rear projection TV. I guess what I'm asking for is a definitive (you can't blame me for trying!) "You need an LCD (or whatever)." Or "The rear projection with the anti-glare screen will do the job just as well." Of "(fill in your advice here)." What do you think? Thanks, Randy

No, but they sure have a ton of dedicated unmanageable clients!

32 slimline 40 inch screens for $455,000 Pocket change I tell ya. Yeah.... I'd write out the check right now, but I left my checkbook at home. Darn. Well I'm off on my fact-finding mission....

You guys are the best! :hug: So I'm assuming that if I burn the slideshows to dvd and get a dvd player to hook up to this monster TV, I won't need the converter... one less thing to research! I also found something called a non-glare projection tv screen protector which is for use in bright rooms. Do you think this would help with the wash-out if it becomes necessary? Only $279 for custom sizes with installation. h_tp://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=1051806321569&productCategoryId=cat08097&type=product. What do you think? If the shield solves the daylight/washout problem, I think I'm all set! Just have to sign the lease (that's the scary part), get the TV (assuming the quality is good when I look at it) and the dvd player, make and burn my slideshows, and wait for the crowds! Can you tell I'm psyched? Thanks so much to everyone who contributed to this thread. Especially Bob who went above and beyond. I feel like I've gone from "clueless" to "on the right track" in just one evening. I know it's not as easy as the glib paragraph above, but it's certainly less overwhelming than it seemed just a few hours ago. One additional question: am I right that the projection mechanism is built into the TV and there is nothing that needs to be mounted to the ceiling or anything like that? Really, thanks so much! -Randy

Bob, That's a lot of screen for the money! Where did you find it? Also, these converters seem to support only a certain size (1600 x 1200). I'm not sure what that means, but would this TV that you found be supported? Would I have to use a computer, or could I burn the slideshow to dvd and show it on this? Which would be better in terms of simplicity and cost? And finally, is this an item that would have less problems with daylight than the other screens we talked about? Remember, I'm not real familiar with the technology. Thanks Champagnemojo... the windows are large... probably 6 or 8 feet across each. IF this deal goes through and I get this property, and IF I can pull off buying all the equipment I want to buy, I'll definitely post a pic. And invite everyone to the opening!!! Do you think 21" is big enough to be seen from the sidewalk/street and attract people to come inside? I like the 52 incher that Bob found... the art will look awesome at that size and it's definitely in the price range!

Yeah.... that's definitely a consideration. thanks for mentioning it. I think this would make a great and unique window display for a high-tech digital art gallery (slideshows of the extremely cool digital art inside). The idea is to attract people walking and driving by with a display that changes every 15 seconds or so with cool fades and the whole nine yards. The screens (flat panel monitors or tv screens - I don't think I'll do the projection thing) would be mounted on a short wall just inside the windows. The windows face north and there is an awning (I think), so I'm not sure it would have direct sunlight hitting it... maybe it wouldn't wash out too much? Although there is consistent traffic every day, the largest crowds are at a once a week evening art walk on the street. Even if it's only completely effective at night, it may still be worth doing. What do you think? I'm trying to visualize seeing some of these large tv's in storefront windows, but I don't think I've seen that since I left New York City. Here it's all indoor display and mall windows. Does anyone else have experience looking at these screens from a sidewalk? Did they wash out or were the pictures ok during the day? Also if anyone has any thoughts about screen size, I'd like to hear them. I'm looking at monitors and TVs from 19 inches to 37 inches. If I go with the larger size, I'll probably just be able to do one to start, but that might be ok too. Actually, two might get too distracting....

Many thanks to both of you. I'll look into all the options you've mentioned. I was a bit overwhelmed, but now that I know where to start, I'm inspired to go research what's out there and find what I need. Thanks for the link, Bob. It's very helpful. If it turns out anything like my vision, it's going to be a very cool dispaly when it's done... VI

Rob, OK... 3k each is a bit more than I want to spend! Do inexpensive DVD players come with large enough screens (self-contained) to do what I want to do (use them as a window display)? Or do I then still have to buy a tv or something to show them on? What's an SVGA input? As you can tell, I'm not really up on the latest technology... I won't even mention how old my TV is, and I still use a VCR. But I'm willing to learn!!! You just have to explain it to me the way you'd explain it to an idiot! I know there's something out there that will do what I need done! Madman, How would that work. Obviously in a window I won't have room to do front projection (doesn't the projector have to be a distance from the screen?). And rear projection would put the projector somewhere in the middle of the floor of the business, right? Or am I totally not understanding this? And if I do bite the bullet and spring for two big thin tv's or something along those lines, what will I need to show the separate slide shows on each? PS: No, It's not temporary. At least, I hope not!!! VI

I want to place two large monitors as window displays ( two separate windows, but somewhat close to each other and facing the same way) for a business. The monitors will show slide shows of images... each with a different slide show running at the same time. I want them to be large, like the plasma screen TV's currently available - but they don't need to be plasma screen and, of course, I'd like them to be much less expensive than the plasma sdcreens. I'm looking for something large enough to be visible and attractive from the street... at least three to four feet across. Besides seeking information about such monitors (like what do you recommend????), I want to know if I will need two separate computers to run the slide shows or can one computer run a different slide show on each monitor? OR.... is there some other way to get these slide shows running in the windows of the business that would be less straining on the budget? Some kind of hardware/gadget that is not a computer but would run slideshows that I put together on cd's from a group of images? Anybody have any ideas? The only stipulation is that they have to be of a good resolution so that the images are shown in their best light and the curb appeal from the street gives a feel of high tech-ness and high quality. Thanks for any help you can give... VI

Glad I got to be the first to congratulate you!

TCH-Thomas???? When did this happen? Congratulations! I'm really happy for you... a well-deserved recognition. Thumbs Up VI

Another fyi: I don't see any bullets with Netscape 7.0 either, but at least the left column is up where it belongs. Here's a thought from someone who knows absolutely nothing about style sheets or CSS: In your html source it says <!-- maincolumn continues here --> Is it possible that IE interprets that command as it continues from this point on the page and goes down, but on the left? In other words, maybe IE reads that as "move the text to the main column but don't go back up. I have no idea what I'm talking about! Sometimes I'm right just by accident though. All I know is I have a feature on my sight that works in IE, but not in other browsers (disable right click for images only) because they don't interpret the html code the same way. Maybe that's the case here. But if so, why did it work the first time I checked?

Ok Alan... I'm really stumped too. I tried again to see if I could see any bullets. This time all I got was your right hand column (with bullets but not in a frame) and it was all the way on the left side of the page. I immediately dumped that and now I get what I think is the correct page but without bullets. Just fyi: I'm accessing it from the link on your TCH profile page if that matters. I don't know what 'dynamically generated' means, but it doesn't seem all that reliable.

Now it's ok again... font and all.

I like #1. I like the background much better...it's not as distracting. I think he looks 'baby faced' in the 2nd one, much more mysterious and sexy in the first. And the composition of #1 is just way better.... the angle of the hat complements the way his body cuts the square layout and is echoed by the neckline of his shirt., the lettering in the blank area (instead of in the busy-ness of his striped shirt and whatever that bar is across the bottom of #2) is more eye-catching and easier to read, the contrast of the white shirt and the black hat. It's just a much better image. Much more artistic... Wish he didn't have the goofy smile though! <edit: I had the numbers wrong... changed now>

Uh OH! I just went back to look at the font and now I see what shussat saw on his wife's computer! And it was also not the Arial font. Tried to reload but that didn't help. The text on the left doesn't start till below the text on the right. Shussat, maybe you should just upload a new version of your home page (the other pages seem to work ok) and see if that overwrites this one and solves the problem. I've had to do that once or twice when I couldn't seem to find a reason for my pages not viewing properly.