Friday, April 29, 2005

Maps section done!

I finally finished the maps section, leaving only Conservation and the upgrade will be complete. I can then take it live! I am hoping this will prove to be a big boost to Jungle Photos web presence, as the site has a more modern look and much more user-friendly navigation. I added a new subsection to the Maps, called "Rainforests of the World" to put the rest of the Amazon-related stuff into context. This entailed drawing three new maps from scratch, but I think it was worth the effort. I tried to get some additional scientific maps, and wrote to UNEP-WCMC for permission to use the maps from their site, but they were very reticent so I just gave up. It defeats me why an organization like that wouldn't allow public use of their maps. Still you should check them out: http://imaps.unep-wcmc.org/
Now there's just the Conservation section, and I am hoping that will go smoothly, so that I should only be a little behind the anticipated completion of end of April.

Sunday, April 17, 2005

Artists section done!

Yes! The Artists section is complete! Now I am working on the Maps section, which should go quite smoothly as the directory structure is simple. (I had to create two higher-level directories to incorporate the different schools in the Children Artists section.) At some point I want to list the main improvements made to the site upgrade compared to what was there before. Also I am thinking how to deal with the old pages that external sites are linked to. It would be a pain to write each one individually. A better solution might be to put a redirect javascript in each page...

Thursday, April 14, 2005

Artists

That's where I am at. The children's art is taking a while because there are so many drawings, but they really enable kids to relate to the rainforest—they can see what other children have done. All that's left now are the Maps and Conservation section so the light is at the end of the tunnel. But the work never ends, and once I am done with the main parts of the upgrade, I can begin filling in other parts of the site, as well as continue with other projects.

Right now, I am working on a print-on-demand Galapagos travel guide, a science-education program and looking for a full-time job. What? You didn't realize I make no money from my website? Actually I just did my taxes, and found from Google that I made over $800 in the Adsense program. This year, I am aiming to make about $100 a month. Not enough to retire on, but it covers the hosting fees!

Friday, April 08, 2005

Onward

It's just been a matter of plugging away. The People section is now complete, along with the Scenery and Towns sections. I am now in the middle of the Artists section which only leaves three more sections: Maps, Conservation and From Space. My aim is to get all this done by May... Then I'll go ahead with the official launch and archive the original Jungle Photos. I'll need to add content to all the extra information pages on the new site, for Africa and Galapagos as well. For the old site, I'm thinking about adding some Javascript to redirect users to new pages and to get users to update bookmarks.