360PICS Calgary VIRTUAL TOURS&PHOTOGRAPHY

Frequently I ammazed at the poor quality and overpriced virtual tours being provided out there. So i thought i would throw together a quick list of items you should ask your provider before you purchase a virtual tour.

question one

1. How long have you been in business??

why is this important? what happens to your listings that you paid good money for when they go out of business 2 months later. Lots of fly by nighters think they can get into this business just beacuse they own a camera and a website. make sure you know who your doing business with.

2. what format are your tours published in?

this is extremly important if you want to reach your tageted audience. you do not want your viewers not to be able to view your tours...lets face it thats what you paid for.

a couple of formats to stay away from-

Java- requires a 50MB donwload

quicktime (apple) require a another dowload

shockwave - poor quality big download

the web standard is adobe flash adobe is embeded in about 90% of all computers see adobe for sats

http://www.adobe.com/products/player_census/flashplayer/

3. How long does it take for your tours to load up?

virtual tours done right should not take more that 30 secs ( high speed) OR ABOUT 90 SECS lOW SPEED. Any more than that and you will lose viewers. Lets face todays internet users have the attention span of a flea. A huge percentage of users are high speed lite keep this in mind. Tours overdone with unneccesary feature take a long time to load.

4. How much do your tours cost?

lets face it in this market every dollar spent needs to be worth it! Check your prices they vary greatly a good tour should not cost more than 150.00 for a typical tour any more and you are getting ripped off. Also if someone does not post their prices and offer you a custom quote be prepared to be ripped off.

5. Do they charge for hosting and for how long.

In this day and age hosting should be free and permanent. Most hosting companies do not charge for space so your virtual tour provider should not be charging you or putting a time limit on your tour.If they are they are ripping you off.

360pics Virtual tours & Photography can provide you answers to all these questions and more please feel free to see my webstie www.360pics.ca or email me at 360pics@telus.net