Help wanted. What do you Google Search for?

multicast

Senior elf
Joined
Jul 13, 2013
Messages
715
Hi,


I'm wondering if you could help me out with a little information.. If you are googling the web, looking for christmas blinky stuff, what Search terms do you use to search on..
 

BundyRoy

Dedicated elf
Joined
Apr 9, 2014
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1,026
When I first started I seemed to have real trouble finding anything using google. I can't remember what terms I used but I think it was along the lines of "computer controlled Christmas lights". I would never of thought of the term sequenced/ing.

In the end I found out about the software options mainly from the youtube videos and most of these seemed to be LOR, hence I went there for lack of options. I also searched for Christmas light forums as I use forums to find info about most of my other sports/hobbies.

In terms of lights I would search for LED string/strip with the voltage required.

The other thing I do is I put au in my initial searches to see what I can get locally first, then if nothing take the au out and search again.

Then when people find your website the want simple info like a video showing what can be done, what is required and how much it costs. I think price is important as from my perspective if there is no prices listed I would not contact that company unless I got info from others (like on this forum) that they were well priced, reliable etc first. That might just be me though. Price is even more important info if the supplier is in another country.

I guess when starting out you are looking for simple as you don't know anything. Talk about universes/channels etc is confusing. You want something that appears to be simple to use. It's a tricky thing because obviously experienced users will want that info. But then again they are not going to read the general blurbs they will go straight to the specs page.
 

AAH

I love blinky lights :)
Community project designer
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Dec 27, 2010
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Eaglehawk
After seeing the original Wizards in Winter house video by Carson Williams via an email link in 2006 I went googling for "Wizards in Winter", "lights", "automated" and probably a few other terms before finding that the display was controlled by light-o-rama. By the end of 2006 I had my 128 channels of LOR and progressed from there. From LOR and the US based LOR forums I headed to the Aussie LOR page which eventually merged with ACL. Rather than search for things it is usually links in chat or forum posts that I use now.
These days I don't search too much for light stuff but I tend to look on Aliexpress rather than Alibaba as I prefer to have the prices available and I hardly ever need 100,000 pieces of something.
I would suggest that "animated lights", "synchronised lights" and maybe "automated" could be search terms that noobs use when they first start looking. Once they get started they will probably search lightorama as they are "the" company that brought pc control to the masses and once people get greater understanding they probably search up DMX and E1.31.
Coincidentally an ACL member has somehow managed to get their website linked on the wiki page for Carson Williams.
 

mborg10

Michael Borg
Joined
Dec 28, 2011
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Location
claremont meadows
I youtubed Christmas lights. The most popular youtube videos are American and they all seemed to use LOR. When i tried to figure out how to use the DC controller I stumbled on ACL. Now I just look at ACL in tapatalk and occasionally on the Mac.
 

arw01

Full time elf
Joined
Dec 30, 2013
Messages
384
Location
Eastern Washington
Since I got started just in 2013, I am pretty much along the lines of the others that "computer controlled christmas lights" would have brought me to LOR. I also would have searched on do it yourself christmas light animation or control and I ended up on diylightanimation.com, which I bought a lot of items from before I branched out.


I second that sights such as Stella Lights, Minleon were massively frustrating because they have no real information and pricing like LOR did. If you emailed them, you never got a response, or they have a dealer network that is completely worthless (I feel VERY STRONGLY ABOUT THAT) in getting timely information and pricing.


I don't mind paying more money, but I want a human to tell me in no marketing BS exactly WHY it's worth 2x 3x the money of aliexpress.com items.


Because I missed the LOR sale, was going to buy cosmic color pixels as that is what I saw with the circle demo and was HOOKED, I ended up all pixelnet with Ray's goods.


Not many months ago I was looking at Stella Lights and could not find real meat on the bones information, so I bought Minleon after hooking up with Ron D and him refeering me to Reiners. Although frustrating to deal with, I was able to get some pricing (agonizing getting that information because everyone wanted absolute list price to maximize their profits), bought a few sample sets (they screwed that up 2x so I had to wait for 3 sets of shipping), and could finally SEE the quality myself.


You should consider a sample controller, string, technical information item you can sell or distributors could sell quickly and easily so potential customers can see.


E.g. in the manual tell them to dunk them in a bucket of water to see the water proofing etc..


Alan
 

fasteddy

I have C.L.A.P
Global moderator
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Apr 26, 2010
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Albion Park NSW
arw01 said:
I second that sights such as Stella Lights, Minleon were massively frustrating because they have no real information and pricing like LOR did. If you emailed them, you never got a response, or they have a dealer network that is completely worthless (I feel VERY STRONGLY ABOUT THAT) in getting timely information and pricing.

Companies like Minleon and Stellascapes mainly deal with commercial clients or sub distributors and thus there is no price on their websites because the end price is more than just about the parts alone. For me im also a distributor so i dont advertise my distribution prices just like any other distribution company would not advertise their pricing to the public.
Also DIY and commercial are two very different beasts. DIY is mainly focussed on pricing because quality and the cost of untimly repairs dont usually come into the equation, but with commercial lighting quality is paramount due to the cost of labour to do repairs.

Buying from China is always going to be much cheaper because you dont have to pay the various taxes and running costs that are associated with running a local business, but also consistancy in quality and support varies when dealing directly with China as many have already experienced.

My-T-Brite do sell some of the Minleon range (in Australia) and If members here are wanting a larger more complex system then they can contact me to discuss their needs.(Australia & NZ Only)

Now as far as emails are concerned, I will reply to every email, sometimes it may not be within 24 hours due to other commitments and work load but the emails are always answered.

So there are some valid answers to your thoughts and why things are the way they are. :D
 

Bill

Keep Moving Forward
Joined
Mar 4, 2014
Messages
9
Everything. I never buy anything anymore without fear before I google it. I do look up Minleon on a weekly basis to find new things or manuals to figure out how they work.
 

fasteddy

I have C.L.A.P
Global moderator
Joined
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6,648
Location
Albion Park NSW
Bill said:
Everything. I never buy anything anymore without fear before I google it. I do look up Minleon on a weekly basis to find new things or manuals to figure out how they work.

Ill have to send you the new manual on the wireless controller i just finished writing the first cut of
 
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