As many of you know, I took a bath in the last re-design of the IAAP site as was documented in this linked
post.
Now I am about to embark on yet another attempt to get the IAAP site functioning and looking the way we all want it to be. However I need your help.
Last year I spent over $8500.00 and ended up with a site that was far less than I expected, bottom line is that I was taken for a ride by a company that for all outside appearances looked legit. But as the days and weeks wore on, I realized that the promises that were made would never be delivered. I had to hire a fill in team, salvage the site, and settle for something far less than I wanted for IAAP members.
Since 2003 I have poured thousands of dollars and hours into the IAAP, and to this day I have not seen anything close to recouping my investment...and that's OK with me, really!
However this year is different. I had a very bad year financially and I got sick.. it really sucked to be blunt.
I could really use the
support of the IAAP membership to help me to finance the re-design of the IAAP site. The cost to get this site looking the way we need it to look, and functioning the way we need it to function is something in the neighborhood of $4800.00 USD.
How critical is your donation?
I'm going to continue to spend the money I may or may not have to get the site looking and working the way we all want it, but if you could spare a few bucks to help out on this endeavor I sure would appreciate it. I'm not going to ask for a dollar amount, nor will I feel ill of you if you can't help out. Believe me,
I know what we are all going through in this industry, if you haven't the reserves to spare, hold on to what you have. I think it's only going to get worse before it gets better.
But, in the meantime... I'm going to pump every dues penny into redoing this site, I'll make my money back sometime, just not now. I never got into this for the money anyway. This has been a labor of love for my fellow photographers and the profession that I so dearly love. If at sometime in the future I see a few bucks for my efforts, that would just be icing on the cake. What's another $5k among friends... right?
So when will all of this start?
The IAAP site will start a several week over haul of the look and functionality commencing Saturday 27 September, 2008.
The re-design and upgrade will be done in stages:
Phase I) Full forum software upgrade. September 27th to September 29th.
Some downtime will occur, however we should have the site fully functional by September 29th, 2008
Add better site spamming control. Currently site admin kills 10 spam forum subscribers per day, and deals with hundreds of spam RFP's per week.
Add personal photo albums to blog pages.
Add Classified ads back to the site.
Phase II) Full re-design of the front pages of the IAAP site.
Listings to be more dynamic
Updating and adding info to listings to be streamlined.
Better Google & Yahoo page rank.
Clean web 2.0 look. No Flash!
Phase two will take several weeks. However the site will remain live until we are ready to put up the new site.
If you have
any questions or suggestions,
please, please feel free to email me with your thoughts.
If you are so inclined to
donate, the link is below. Any amount helps.
Thank you so much for being such a proactive proponent of your industry. Just being here helps us all.
Warmest Regards,
Thomas Bliss
Donate here
IAAP Re-Design
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