New Website Critic

Spent a couple days last week putting together a new website and wanted to get some opinions. It's not near finished as far as content goes, but I think the style is pretty much as I want it. I need some help as far as the contact and about pages go, it feels likes its missing a lot but I don't really know what to put there, any ideas would be appreciated. I also want to redo the galleries but I just haven't had the time, but those will be getting redone.

Thanks guys!

http://chrisschlumpf.com/

 

The front menu system, about page, contact etc. look good.

My only 'complaint' is that I don't like flash-based galleries. I used to run a flash gallery on my site, and it always bothered me (but it was an easy plugin to the joomla system I installed). I eventually migrated to smugmug. When you re-do them, maybe think about java or straight HTML.

 

You images are great but that site layout needs a lot of work and doesn't do your photography justice..

For starters it is difficult to navigate and there is no content for search engines to index. I went to the "auto" gallery from your main page and got a 404 error when I tried to navigate back. That was a dead end since there is no other nav elements on your individual pages and in 9 out of 10 cases your going to get a high bounce back rate from visitors when that happens.

I think it is smart to have all your major nav links predominantly displayed on every page so that the user can jump around without hesitation.

My advice would be to check out other photog sites and see what works. You MUST have standard text content that is searchable if you ever want anyone to find you. Plus it never hurts to explain what makes you and your work different from the next guy. If web design isn't your strong suit you can always just buy a site template designed for photography for @$65 from any of the major template sites and then just add your content.

 

What's the point of the site?

If you just want a slick looking site to show off your photos then it looks great.

If you are trying to make money off selling your service, it needs to be geared for SEO for potential customers to find you in the first place.

 

You asked, so here goes.....

- I don't like the purple "box" around your name on the home page - IMHO, not needed and makes it look "messy".

- I do like your font and the "clean" layout.

- +1 on adding links on all pages. [I too got the 404 error, but presume you've got a way to go yet.]

- As noted, you've gotta add some text for the SE's.

Pretty good start though!

Cheers,
Ian

 

Thanks guys,

Really it is just to show off my portfolio, I just want it to look good and be professional. I'm not "actively" trying to earn money through photography, but having the website allows people to see my work and be able to contact me.

Blackwood, do you have any suggestions for a very good looking java or HTML gallery? I'm really not good with programming but I can piece things together and make it work, took me 3 hours to figure out how to change the background pic with a mouseover of just the link.

HotShoe, the galleries I have now are going to be gone soon, it worked decently with my old site, but here it doesn't. I was thinking of modeling the gallery pages after the about/contact pages and have the gallery in the large top portion and then a pano of some type on the bottom. Maybe I will redo the about page with plain text, its just a huge pain doing text in dreamweaver and I go a backwards but easier way of just creating a gif in PS, layers are so much easier to use than tables and such in DW. I have yet to go in and do any SEO and that is one thing that I have never done before and something I need to, the thing is people aren't looking for me so it hasn't affected me all that much. I either give them my card with the site on it or a google search on my name brings it up first.

 

Shouldn't be like that sorry, for some reason a border automatically gets added to all my links and my local version showed up fine in both Safari and Firefox, but I do see it on the normal site now.

I think Blackwood is right about the flash, especially with so many people using phones to access the internet and them not being able to see it.

edit: Ian made me realize another reason I don't use plan text is that the font I use is a downloaded font and would not show up on 99% of people's computers.

 

Chris, when looking at pictures i clicked the back to galleries button and got a 404. Tried the same thing 3 times and kept getting the 404.

 

You gotta be *real* careful on that one! [Don't ask me how I know ]

Do you have a Windoze box of some kind? The majority of people are still using IE, and while it's basically broken, it does remain the "lowest common denominator".

I too am interested in hearing about Java options - I agree, while Flash is the "standard" getting away from it is probably a good idea.

Cheers,
Ian

 

It's only on your name, not the other links..... [F/Fox under OSX btw.]

Cheers,
Ian

 

I still have XP running on bootcamp for my computer classes which need the Windows Office and a couple laptops around the house with XP, I'll check it out on those today.

The border issue should be resolved now, but I can't seem to get the galleries updated, Lightroom won't export a new version of gallery.swf.

Also just realized it should be "New Website Critique", just so everyone knows I'm not completely illiterate.

 

Not for me..... Screen capture below. Also, what's with the vertical grey bar you can see in the shot?

EDIT: My bad! - Damn cache caught me out - Looks good now - Sorry!
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Good, the grey was because the images are all split and in tables and the border was throwing off the smoothness. Cache got me too with the galleries which should drop you back to the main page now, it will have to do until I find a better gallery option.

 

Maybe a free smugmug account you can point to from your domain? It's nice because it keeps high quality images, makes various sizes, and is very easy to control through their interface.

If you pay them (I canceled my hosting and am just using them now), you can point it directly to your domain (dropping the .smugmug.com extension) and do a lot of customizing.



Alternately, things like http://jalbum.net/ work well.

 

I love the site, design, colors etc. Only one complaint from me.

Stop talking about yourself in third person when you have wrote/done it all yourself.
Be personal. The other sounds too phony, sorry.

 

Idea I had an I'm not really sure if it is pointless or not, thinking of creating a simple client login page so that those I do take pictures for can have online access to all their images, too much hassle or is this something that could be worth doing?

Interesting, I have never liked using "I" on about pages, doesn't sound that professional, I don't want those who view the site to know I created it. Thoughts from others?

 

See what the clients think maybe? [Hi res? or just screen views? Do you sell or license the images?]

I'm with you here - I think I prefer the 3rd person approach - Dunno why, but "I" just sounds wrong to me..... To each his own?

Cheers,
Ian

 

High-res, I do photoshoots if asked and provide high-res images through email or a CD, thought this would be a cool way to do it.

 

Your site is IMHO excellent, nothing to be ashamed of. And it show you have more skills than most when you use "I" instead of using yoiurself as a 3rd person.
So show people who you really are and what you can do. That you are not just good at taking pics, and you can actually design as well. Who knows, it may open up for more possibilities??

And using yourself (not talking about you perosnally ) in third person many times make you come across as a pompous a**.

"I" is much more personal and invite more people "inside" where as 3rd person may "scare" people away thinking they write the wrong person or whatever.

But you are okay either way. Had it been on a Youtube account it would have been a deathsin to write about yourself in 3rd person

 

Thought I would bring this back since I redid the gallery pages and incorporated them into the site. Still went with Flash since it is so much easier to update right from Lightroom. I did rewrite the about section in 1st person and I still don't like it, decided I didn't like the last version either. I'll set-up a fake client page so I can get some feedback from that as well.

Thanks guys.

EDIT: To get to the client page click "Contact" and "Client Log-In" or clients.chrisschlumpf.com. Use "test" as the username and "password" as password. The one issue I have is with the galleries and how the images aren't resized, anyone have any better way to automate a gallery with smaller images but the ability to download the high-res?