I would like to take a moment to address all the fellow Easypano product users and suggest we now have the perfect opportunity to set a new standard in VT production and clearly separate ourselves from other VT providers.

I, like many others on this forum, have been a firm believer that the TW product has been the best tool on the market to date.  Utilizing TW 1.3 and our own internal enhancements and creative flare we have created tours for our clients that are leaps and bounds above our competition. With the release of TW 2.0 I think we are going to take that even further and that all of us will be able to give our clients a product that no other provider will be able to match.

Having said all that I wanted to revisit a topic that comes up time and time again on the forum....."Price"

The reason I am addressing this is we all know that there are new VT companies popping up everyday and there will always be the need for some low-end virtual tour providers mass producing non-customized, non-spherical, low-quality, so-called virtual tours.  We have chosen the TW product and internal customization to not fall into that category and be a high-end virtual tour company that provides our client an interactive marketing solution that they can not get from our competitors.  I am making an assumption that fellow TW users on this forum are taking the same approach. ( and I know from many of your posts you are)

I would suggest that with the additional enhancements of 2.0 and what you are going to able to provide your clients you make sure you are not giving it away.  There have been many discussions on this forum about the cheap low quality providers and how to price VT services.  I think now is the time to easily set a  new standard in VT production that will allow all of us you to do very well.

To put this all in perspective I will let you know how we at VirtualVue approach our virtual tour projects.  We now only create fully customized tours for our clients.  We have a sliding rate sheet based on the amount of scenes our client needs in their tour.  Our tours start at $375 per pano image for 5 or less.  We adjust for 5-10, 10-15 , etc.  We then also charge for additional enhancements like hotspots, audio, still images, voiceover, CD creation, etc.  

Keep im mind that we cater to corporate clients. If your company focuses on residential real estate you will need to provide a cheap alternative.

My main reason for this post was to start a discussion and let everyone think about ways to separate our tours from others and also be properly compensated for providing a final virtual tour product that they can get from no one else.

Set your sights high!  (text removed at clients request)

I hope that this post makes sense and sparks some additional discussion.  I am also always happy to discuss this with anyone privately via email or the phone.

Thanks, Matthew 

(text removed at request of client)

The point here is to be able to offer and sell a complete interactive marketing concept as opposed to just a basic virtual tour.  If, of course, that is a goal for your company as it is ours.

The tours are listed on this page of our website.  http://www.virtualvue.com/recent_projects.htm#

Hi Matthew

I just looked at some of your examples, and I could really use your help woth something.

1) When you start the tour of Beleza Salon the pano spins slowly. I cant get my tour-panos to start spinning so slow. How did you do that?? I know that in "Scenes" in Tourweaver it is possible to set the "auto rotating speed" but this only works when the viewer select the scenes individually. Not when the tour run automatically.

2) You have taught me how to use the "text link" button to make thumbnails with normal still images. Thank you. But how did you make the roll over effect? I have to make 2 text links. 1 for the image, and then one with the scene name, that have the roll over effect as it changes colour.   

You can see an example of both my problems here:

http://www.wideeyes.dk/tours/visitdenmark/norsmindekro/Tourviewer_norsmindekro.html

I hope you will help me improve my skills so I can provide my customers with a more complete product.

Best regards

Morten

Hey Morten,

Hope all is well across the pond. :)  Answers to your questions are below.  If you need more detail just send me a pm or call.

1) You need to create a new default movie and set the autoplay parameter to "no".  By doing this the initial spin speed is set by the parameter you set  in the individual scene options.  (ps. with TW 2.0 this is much easier to do for the entire movie)

2)  To do this we use the "scenelink" tour button which allows you to use three different images for the button state.  You have default, mouse over, and mouse down.  You need to create three button images in your graphics program of choice and then apply them to the button parameters.

Hope this helps.

Matthew