Clickbooq vs Livebooks vs anything else

<p>Hi,</p>

<p>I've been putting off my website project for a while (I already missed a nice Livebooks promo for March) and I want to formally have a photography business, even if it's on the side. I'm torn between Clickbooq's unlimited package and Livebook's middle package (only because they're around the same price).</p>

<p>What I like about both is the easy updating on content and the business-to-client features, i.e. the database back-end that can enable me to just upload results from a shoot and have clients pick out what they need, etc. Although I think for Clickbooq there are no password-protected areas -- just private galleries that no one will get to unless they know the exact URL.</p>

<p>What I like about Livebooks over Clickbooq is the navigation (drop-downs, etc.) and the little things that are customizable (loading graphic, etc.). Well, its a little more custom in general. I also like the thumbnails on the side better.</p>

<p>What I like about Clickbooq over Livebooks is for the same price, it's the unlimited package. Athough it's not as customizable, I can change the general look and feel with the background changer functionality. I can design and redesign at will (I'm a designer type as well, and I change my mind often) even though I can't really change the site's architecture or navigation scheme that much.</p>

<p>For branding, although Clickbooq doesn't put their name on their sites, because of the similar elements throughout their sites, it's like they kept their branding anyway, so it's a toss up.</p>

<p>So far, I've read that both companies provide pretty good support.</p>

<p>What I'd like to know is if there is anything else out there. I've read all the threads on Livebooks vs Clickbooq out there or if I'm missing anything. I know either solution would be beyond my needs and expectations (as much better and more experienced and established photographers use both) but I'm trying to find out if there's anything I'm missing since I can't just switch from one or the other later after spending a lot of money.</p>

<p>Thanks in advance!</p>

<p>Im a Clickboop user for the past 2years, and the support was unbelivable before and after! They help me make a smooth transfert from my old server to theres, but i still can keep my old name and all my ftp acces and email form the old server(im with lunarpages for my commercial ftp server + email + domain name).</p>

<p>I have take the full package, pay once and dont regret it at all. I like simple and design navigation, i like the simplicity of uploading new images, adding mp3 or not, slideshow etc...</p>

<p>I dont know anything else and i dont care! It give me a professional look without having to learn html..uplaod image, and voila!</p>

<p>I am a liveBooks user. What can I say? It lives up to the hype. It works well, the SEO work helps clients find me, and my clients tell me how much they like the site design and navigtion. I do use the password protected galleries, which clients appreciate, but I haven't tried the shopping cart feature yet. You can check out my site I still need to update my client list page, but otherwise I love the ability to update mythe contents of my site on the fly. Dealing with the liveBooks support and design teams could not be easier.</p>

<p>good design -looks and usability --really do count no mattter how or who you set up your site with.</p>

<p>Thanks Patrick and Ellis.<br>

But I guess I'm still back to square one. Maybe I should just pick either and it doesn't really matter?</p>

<p>I have www.aphotofolio.com site. www.delrossiphotography.com<br>

I looked at Livebooks, they had a 6 week lead time. I needed something sooner.<br>

Considering that most of the sites they supply are canned code I would have thought they would be able to knock out something sooner. Yes I know the designs are "custom" but the underlying code is mostly variations on a theme.<br>

The sales staff were just that sales staff, I asked them about an iPhone compatible site, they said Apple should support flash.<br>

Not really that helpful. <br>

Email support with Rob Haggart (he used to be an art director and art buyer) is excellent I haven't had the need to speak to then yet.<br>

Both companies offer the same basics<br>

1) flash site with a html duplicate site (for good seo), also if a client sees a photo they like they can either bookmark the page or send an email with the image.<br>

2) good back end (the place where you upload images and sort them) though the vote goes to Livebooks here just better usability.<br>

3) easy navigation for the clients.</p>

<p>Aphotofolio has 3 basic different designs( more to come, you can change one time for free and $100 for each change thereafter) that you get to customize with different graphics, colors fonts and layouts (positioning of elements) and you can change them as much as you wish whenever you want.<br>

The photos resize with the browser window, so If your prospective client is using a small or larger monitor they can adjust as they wish.<br>

One thing I noticed on my MacBook in windows, the live books site (because the elements don't dynamically adjust to the size of the window) the nav buttons would sometimes be half hidden.<br>

Livebooks has a shopping cart Aphotofolio doesn't yet, but you can external link to one.<br>

One last thing, Aphotofilio is $1,000.00 unlimited pages, images, and photo size. Livebooks $1,700. for the medium site and $3,200. for the big site (bigger photos and unlimited pages) they also offer an ala carte menu of extras. There is also a 30 day money back on Aphotofolio.<br>

This isn't meant to knock one site or another but I spent 4 days researching and looking at various photographers sites, and found the service that would work for me.<br>

if you have any questions please don not hesitate to contact me.<br>

good luck<br>

mdr</p>

<p>With Clickbooq i was up and running in less than 24hrs, the site is fully customizable to my taste and the change are applied in 2 sec. The site is automaticaly *smart phone ready* as it generate a html version of it WITHOUT you doing anything. Clickbook cost me ONCE 1800$ for LIFE, with a 99$ per years, no monthly fee. I have so many extra option available for free ..and i dont use them at all : )</p>

<p>Michael -- Thanks for the info. I'll check out Aphotofolio.</p>

<p>Patrick -- yeah, the one time fee makes sense in Clickbooq. The yearly package will add up really quickly...</p>

<p>FREE TRY BEFORE YOU BUY: I have one thing to add to this thread. liveBooks has changed their pricing. You now get all the features liveBooks has to offer for just $39/mo. No set up fees. You can go to the site now, pick the ready made site design you like, sign up for the 14 day free trial, and get the site instantly. http://sites.livebooks.com/site-chooser/<br>

So, try before you buy.<br>

If you decide you want a fully customized design, you can buy a customized design package any time in the future. If you just want small design tweaks, you can buy them a-al-carte as needed. -Michael Costuros, liveBooks founder.</p>

<p>If I had been asked this same question over a month a go I would have said liveBooks are awesome but with the continued issue that myself and many other liveBooks clients are having with falling in and out of Google SERP's I would say avoid them and any possibly other Flash based site that use a HTML mirror until its proven that this system still works with Googles ever changing indexing algorithms.</p>

<p>LiveBooks dont control Googles search rankings of course so cant be held responsible for websites falling down the rankings but the way they have handled this current issue (if you can call sitting back with crossed fingers as handling) really shows a deterioration of what used to be class leading support and a lack of willingness to try and resolve this issue leaves me currently looking at ditching $3,000 of livebooks website for a HTML based site.</p>

<p>For over a month now over 50 liveBooks clients (and probably a whole lot more that haven't noticed yet) have suffered their websites being penalized by Google to a point where they dont even show up for searches that they previously ranked as high as page one for and during this time livebooks support has been pretty dreadful.</p>

<p>Initially a standard response was trotted out stating that it wasn't their fault and clients should stick to good SEO practices. That concept was debunked by myself and others when we looked at the effected sites and saw vast differences between how users had optimized their sites, some people had done nothing at all, others had done everything possible via the livebooks GUI and external links ..... all were similarly effected by the google penalty. During the last month there has been extended periods of time when we have heard nothing from liveBooks at all, days have passed with no word from the company at all despite pleading from many irate and desperate users on their support forums.</p>

<p>Currently the latest words are nothing of substance, just some promises to look at the issues but a month after this issue started I dont regard that as good enough.</p>

<p>Heres some of the questions I raised about how their websites are configured that I am still waiting for a proper response to.</p>

<p>http://forum.livebooks.com/livebooks/topics/plugging_the_seo_holes</p>

<p>Heres a thread that grew so long with peoples complaints that it only shows part of it now.</p>

<p>http://forum.livebooks.com/livebooks/topics/petition_livebooks_to_issue_a_statement</p>

<p>and another thread with more desperate liveBooks clients whose businesses are suffering as a result of this.</p>

<p>http://forum.livebooks.com/livebooks/topics/ive_lost_my_web_search_ranking</p>