Reality Check

The problem with the photos not loading seems to have solved itself. Now all will load; just takes a long time for all of them to appear. I have eliminated the film links and junked the destination pages for them until I can figure out how to get them up.

Lots of very good ideas coming from the boys about how to visually improve the site. Will incorporate most of them; just means I will have to spend a lot of time figuring out how to do it.

Mark, for instance, pointed out that some pages do not have ‘Return to Main Page’ buttons. He thinks that is important. Probably right.

Also, have to figure out how to get ‘tags’ since I am doing this ‘off the cuff’ so to speak.

Egads! Was checking around to be sure all had the ‘Return’ button and discovered that the ‘No’ hyperlink on the ‘Tell a Friend’ page doesn’t work! Which means someone could not order the book unless they were willing to go through the ‘tell a friend’ system. I fixed it.

Also inserted the ‘Return to Main Page’ buttons where missing.

Both sales and visits are tapering off. All who have read the book say they like it, but no new people are buying or recommending it. As mentioned previously, I had hoped the ‘Tell a Friend’ concept would help attract new visitors.

Unfortunately, this is not working out. Very few of the people I gave free unlock codes to reciprocated by recommending the site and none of the folks who actually bought the book have recommended anyone.

What all this translates to is that I have to find some new way to get the site into the public eye (without spending any more money).

Another possibility is that this is as good as it gets—there aren’t any more people who will buy the book. Time will tell.

As you, the reader, can tell, I have now caught up to real time. That means future posts will discuss current current topics, rather than commenting on past issues.

I know that I have inadvertently left out some of the details that might have been interesting due to writing about them after the fact. From now on, I will be current with news about the site, book sales progress, etc.

Also, who knows?, perhaps some tidbits from the past not directly related to the book.

Dave

Almost Caught Up

Next problem is what to edit out. The film for rescue #3 can be used mostly intact, but the #8 film has several long sequences of high altitude shots, which were included because it was originally a Commander’s Briefing film on the progress on the Kenny Fields rescue (Rescue #9). I will edit out the title and ending shots, plus the high altitude sequence, which is hard to see and relates to Rescue #9 while the rest of the film is for Rescue #8.

I am also having second thoughts about adding narrative and brightening up the film. Right now I think the film is interesting enough to stand alone, without narrative. I tried brightening up the film (being shot in 1968, and looking out at a bright landscape, much of the interior shots are very dark), but only succeeded in over brightening the portions that are OK.

Of course, if I really knew what I was doing, I could fix that little problem. My solution, at least for now, is to leave the thing alone.

David has expressed his disappointment that I am thinking of posting the film without narrative. Will have to consider that. I would like to just get it up. I can always add narrative later.

Many people have commented on the newspaper article—even got a sale from it. Of course, the newspaper article is courtesy of Kenny Fields, who contacted the newspaper with the idea. Still have not received comments or recommendations from either George Marret or Kenny Fields.

What a disappointment. I had counted on them to liven up the comments page (quotes from published authors) and perhaps get the site into a new ring of people through recommendations. Kenny said he was busy, would get to it later; George was leaving on a trip, would get to it later. Disappointing not to get anything back from them.

Actually, very few people have started the viral ‘tell a friend’ process. It will obviously take longer than I had anticipated to see any results from that.

Norris Marshall (ex-Army Heli Pilot, the one who couldn’t log onto the site), has read the hard copy of the book and given a comment to post. Thanks, Norris. That gives me four to date—Barbara, Clarence, Charles and Norris. Would be nice to have more, but they are slow in coming.

Lots of subtle changes made to the site here and there. Still don’t have the film up. Mark thinks I should drop the film links since they lead to nothing but a note that I will get the film up ASAP. He is probably right. He also pointed out some linkage errors and a better means of explaining the contest. All good ideas and implemented.

More to come...

Dave

The Site Strikes Back

Here I am back after a short layoff.

The reason I decided to resurrect the old main page is that I have gotten the idea of adding a hyperlink after each quote, so that viewers can see a little more about what is being referenced.

Problems, problems, problems, but I now know how to do those hyperlinks. I think it makes for a more interesting website. Go to www.vietnam-air-rescues.com and see what you think.

As I am in the middle of revamping everything, David has come up with a terrific idea. I returned from Vietnam with two reels of combat film from my rescues. I had them dubbed on VCR and gave each of the boys a copy. In the ensuing years and the move to Abilene, I lost my copy along with the originals, but David, bless his heart, kept his.

His idea is to convert the VCR to digital format so they can be viewed on the website. What a neat idea! Also, to make things better, he will do the converting for me. What a kid!

As much as I want to fix the film (may add a narration to it; have to adjust the brightness), I am stuck playing nursemaid to these doggone tables and pictures that seem to have a mind of their own.

New suggestion by David—add the quotes to the hyperlinked pages so people remember what they were. A good idea. Now I have to do all the pages again. But, ignore my whining; things are looking whole lot better.

I have decided to add a sample page, table of contents and tell a friend jump link. (so those who are willing to recommend friends can get there without having to plow through several pages.)
Craig’s friend now says he sent the comment to this blog. I can’t find it. Would like to, though. Be nice to have another one to add to the page.

Another friend of mine, says he can’t get the website to load, and wants to borrow the actual book. Don’t know what the problem is, counter says about 500 others have found it OK. So I loaned him the book. He says he will write out a comment for me. Sure hope so.

That 500 number is somewhat misleading, I am sure. I submitted the site to Google and their web crawlers are supposedly checking the site out. Also, I probably accounted for at least 300 (or more) of the visits.

More problems getting the hyperlinks to work. Every time I redo a page, a new problem crops up. Biggest one right now is that the Main Page is rejecting some of the pics. Have to look into that.

I am playing with the film. First step is to separate the two rescues. Originally, they were on two different 16mm reels. I had them converted to VCR, but in the process, they were merged. So, now I have to separate them.

More later,

Dave