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Built-in Freedom

Our templates are designed to display your work in the best possible light. And you get to choose which light is best. Whether your style is bold and colorful or sleek and simple, our templates give you the flexibility and freedom to design the website that's perfect for you. And with unlimited updates, it's simple to keep your website fresh and interesting.

Really flexible templates

Nine templates to choose from which you can color and style any way you want. Switch templates at any time. More coming soon.
Control every single design element including, colors, sizes, backgrounds, fonts, placement
Upload your logo (transparency supported)
Insert your own artwork into any background to really personalize your site
Choose from custom or standard scroll bars
Style your copy and place inline images and hyperlinks with our rich text editor
Mix 'n match different types of content on each page (text, slideshows, images, links, etc)
Control your navigation layout any way you want with drop-down menus and sub menus
Say as much as you want with unlimited pages
Set the mood by switching colors and music on the fly

Great user experience

All major modern browsers are supported
No excessive scrolling
No popups
No plug-ins to download
Links are always present
Use of overlay windows so user is never lost
Pages load quickly from our high speed data center
Galleries load quickly due to our exclusive next-image preload feature

No Flash but all the glitz

Flash websites can be pretty cool but it's a fact that search engines don't index flash websites as well as HTML sites, here's why.

Flash movies are in a compiled format (0's and 1's) so search engines have a harder time indexing their content than simply finding text on a web page
Flash based websites are usually contained on one searchable HTML page, so there's much less opportunity for pages to be indexed and linked to from other sites
Search engines cannot easily determine the current state of a flash movie (what content is currently displaying) so any information they do glean is difficult to assess its context and search engines are very particular about relevance and context.

And don't be fooled by companies who claim to have solved this issue by making HTML versions of your website (ghost sites). While these web pages will definitely be visited and indexed by search engines, they do not benefit from other important aspects of good SEO, such as inbound linking from other websites and traffic because these pages are not usually surfed by human visitors. It's difficult enough to get html pages to appear high up in rankings, so why make it even harder with another layer of complexity?

Because BigBlackBag uses standards compliant dynamic HTML, you get the best of both worlds. You can have all the animations, image transitions and transparency settings that one normally expects from Flash based sites without sacrificing search engine visibility to get it.

Please note that you can upload your own flash movies into your web pages and galleries.

Further important usability improvements come from using HTML sites over Flash:

No ugly or time consuming site entry pages because first impressions are everything
No full screen popups which annoy viewers by changing their preferred viewing size
No onerous animations to send viewers running
Mouse wheel scrolling works
Browser's back button works
Ability to use rich text and insert custom HTML
Can link directly to individual pages within your web site
Content can be viewed on all mobile devices including the iPhone and iPad without resorting to ghost sites

Awesome search engine optimization

Having a website that nobody visits is pointless, so our system gives you the same control as any webmaster so you can find success by being found.

Place important keywords on your home page without cluttering the design using our site map overlay window
Create and control all keywords and meta tags on as many pages as you like
Create and control alt tags on inserted images
Create and control all outbound hyperlinks
Inbound link to specific pages on your site
Ability to insert heading tags
Automatically generate Google Sitemap files for use with their webmaster tools
Use Google analytics or our own graphical stats feature to monitor the success of you search engine strategies
We submit your website to all major search engines for free
Call us for free, helpful advice about your search engine strategies

Bigger is better

Our Supersize add-on* feature automatically detects your viewers' monitor size and displays your entire website and all of your images at a whopping 30% bigger compared to the normal viewing size when able.

*$49 extra per year

Gorgeous galleries with countless viewing options

Galleries are the backbone of your portfolio website so we've gone to great lengths to provide you with unimagined control over the management and presentation of your work. Each gallery can be configured individually, allowing you to display your photos differently than your movies, for example. You can even set a mood that compliments each gallery by switching colors and music on the fly.

Set the stage by inserting a color, texture or image background
Prevent irritation with our next-image preloader for fast gallery viewing
Choose from 4 types of image transitions: none, fade in/out, cross fade, elastic border effect
Make copy and fine details legible by displaying zoom images at any size
Show all types of your work by uploading, images, Quicktime movies, Flash, FLV videos, PDF and MP3 files
Display your images with your desired ICC profile in supporting browsers
Protect your work with 2 kinds of automatic watermarking with opacity control
Allow or prevent downloading of zoom-sized images
Prevent Mac drag 'n drop downloading of images
Make image selection easier with large meaningful thumbnails
Control how your thumbnails are presented:
- In an animated slider that runs up and down, side to side or in a grid format
- Position the thumbnail viewer at the top, bottom, left or right sides of your gallery
- Control thumbnail slider animation with button or mouseover scrolling
- Hide or show thumbnails when a gallery loads
- Hide or show thumbnails when a thumbnail is clicked
- Display your thumbnails in their true proportions or as squares (sizing is automatic)
Display image/media captioning beside your media or in a semi-transparent overlay window
Position your gallery control buttons at the top or bottom of your gallery
Set a slideshow to play automatically or with a click or disable it all together
Individually color buttons and links like, "Add To Cart" to draw the viewer's attention
Allow customers to save, rate, and email their favorites with multiple lightboxes
Allow customers to market or discuss your work with image emailing and /or printing

Unlimited pages with mix 'n match content assets

Our page content and creation system allows you to choose from 33 different interior page templates. You can then mix n' match different types of content on each page. The following content assets are available:

Rich Text: add and style copy plus include inline links, images and custom html in your copy
Images: inserted images can be automatically sized and optimized to fit the available space
Slideshows: create stunning slidehosws with transition and timing controls
Flash: insert your own standalone swf files
Downloads: add a list of downloadable files with optional password protection
Links: add a list of links to other websites, supports 3rd party HTML links and banners
Calendar: add a calendar to a page so customers can see your availability
Contact Form: add a contact form to a page so people can email you easily
Guestbook Form: allow clients to give feedback and be included in your mailing list
External Webpage: import or link to a webpage from an external website, such as your blog

Really easy administration

Designing and maintaining your website is a breeze with our brand new administration system because it acts more like a desktop application than a website. All you need is a web browser and an internet connection to make changes to your website in real-time. If you can do the following:

Click to play

save a jpeg
type copy
select from available options
drag 'n drop

then you have all the necessary skills to be your own webmaster. We handle all of the tricky HTML and database stuff behind the scenes. See for yourself.

Fast servers and real-time backup

Your website's availability and data integrity is one of our primary concerns, so we don't cheap out on discount service providers. Instead all BigBlackBag portfolio websites are hosted with Rackspace, the best and most respected data center provider on the planet. All data that is uploaded to our servers is copied to 4 separate places at once for maximum fail over redundancy, including a remote data center in another state, just in case. So should one of our servers go down, we have a twin waiting in the wings to take over at a moment's notice. Further to this, we also store daily, weekly and monthly backups off-site in the case of catastrophic failures.