| How will clients find my work?
1. Potential clients will come to Architect Search and use our search forms for free to find practices. They can search for specific words, by practice name, by location, by project budget, by practice strengths and by project type.
Click HERE to see the professional search form or HERE to see the private search form.
2. The client clicks ‘Go’ and up will appear a results page of images, each one linked to pages about practices.
Click HERE to see how a results page might look.
3. The client can look through practice pages, adding their favourite practices to their short list.
Click HERE to see an example of how a PAGE BUILT BY YOU might look.
4. The client can email practices straight from the shortlist or print it off to make contact later.
How do I subscribe?
All you need to do is REGISTER, add text and images to build your pages using our simple layouts and click "go" to be part of the live database. If you have electronic images ready this could be done in under 20 minutes. You can change the content of your pages or add new pages at any time. Registered practices will pay an annual subscription for the pages used (see prices below) only once they go live.
The process
1. You register (You will need to give a short practice statement and an ARB number for one of your architects.)
2. You choose how many pages you want and add text and images to the pages.
3. You make the pages live at the click of a button when ready, paying an annual subscription by cheque or BACS transfer.
4. If your practice doesn't already have a website, you then have the option to buy an internet address, a unique URL, which will allow your pages to double as a web site operating totally independently of the Architect Search database. Click here to see how your pages will look when accessed in this way
5. Clients (ranging from private developers to Housing Associations and private homeowners) will find your work through the site and make contact.
6. You can return at any time during your subscription to update images and text.
Building your pages
You build your pages using our simple ‘Page Builder’ – Click HERE to see how this works.
You can preview your page at any time to see how it will look in the browser.
Images
Good electronic images of your built and planned work will be a key part of the database. Our software compresses images to a manageable size for the internet, and fits them into your web pages.
However, you will greatly reduce the time it takes to upload your images and improve their quality if you take the following steps when preparing them:
1. Convert your digital photographs into Jpegs, the best image format for viewing photos on the web.
2. If your images are from PDFs or of plan drawings converted from CAD or other drawing software, these are bext saved as Gif files. The details will end up looking clearer saved as Gifs.
3. Each image that you submit will be turned into three: One small thumbnail which will appear in search results and short lists; One medium sized image that will appear in your practice pages; and one large image, which will pop up when clients click on each image in your practice pages.
To ensure best results, when preparing each image, you should make the image dimensions as near to 400 X 400 pixels (either vertically or horizontally) as you can. The smaller the image file the better. The system can handle images as large as 2MB, but to keep downloading time to a minimum you should aim for below 300K for each image. Please call on the number below with any questions.
To choose each image, you point our software to browse for it on your computer, upload it, give it a title and keywords and check box from the list of Project Types to identify it further.
Click HERE to see a sample submission page for images. Then all you have to do is make your pages 'live' and you are away.
Even though the system is designed to be easily usable for most people, if you do not wish to arrange images and build your pages yourselves WE OFFER FULL SERVICE FOR THIS. For a minimum additonal fee of £75, which covers 5 images, + £10 per image after that we will take care of the whole process for you. All you need to do is supply the text for your pages and the images in any format and then fax individual image details on forms which we will send to you. Please contact our team for further information on this.
If you have any questions please call us on 020 7631 0823 or email info@designforhomes.org |
