My New WebSite ..

So your original post was "Please tell me only nice things about my website"?

Did you ask for help or a pat on the back?

Have you read and understood the many answers all saying the same?

Are you going to do anything about it, as a professional would, or are you going to have a tantrum?

Rik

Rik Farmer said:

If I had been a potential customer, you would be on my blacklist of
photographers not to use, because they are only concerned with the
way they present themselves, not with the needs of their potential
customers. Your images may be beautiful -- I shall never know,
because I was so enraged by the Flash rubbish that I quit as soon
as I could.

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How you present yourself is very important to how you are perceived. Flash sites are a matter of taste, you clearly do not like them. The problem with the site isn't the use of Flash, it's the slow loading times of the images. It appears the images you are displaying aren't scaled properly for the web (72 dpi) or your hosting site is very slow. In either case you need to resolve this.

Rik Farmer said:

You definitely need someone who is skilled in customer relations
and website design to amend your current site.

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I don't think it's a customer relations problem, it's a performance problem. Once the speed issue is addressed, it's a nice site.

Rik Farmer said:

You may think this is too harsh. If the dpreview rules and common
decency did not forbid profanity and gratuitous insult, this
message would have been very much harsher.

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Don't see a need for profanity or insult because you don't like his site, how about constuctive criticism, or say nothing at all.

As a general rule, you should offer both an HTML and Flash site to your customers. Some people won't have the Flash plugin, and/or won't wish to install it, this will limit your prospective customers.

Other observations, leave out the music, no one wants to hear music on a website unless it's a music website. Definitely shorten the about me, and leave off the pricing, you want the maximum number of people to call.

You may well be right in what you say about my comments. I also agree that my wish to go beyond the needs of constructive criticism should be a private matter. You have my apologies for that paragraph. My only excuse is that when a fellow poster requests website help and advice, he should at that stage have done the hard yards and produced something worth seeing, not a trap for the unwary that wastes valuable time.

I do not agree that the use of Flash is at any time worthwhile for the average working photographer. Unless your customer base is unusual or exclusive, eg you are employed to photgraph rock concerts, surfing carnivals, or similar, or your customer research suggests they all have broadband and are between 18 and 25 with high expendable income, Flash will probably not impress. If our potential customers must sit and wait on a dialup connection for unnecessary movement to load or finish, they will be gone to an HTML site.

Your other comments re the site are good, but it appears the poster is deaf.

Rik

I really appreciate your response, we all have bad days, sounds like he caught you on one.

I'm not a big fan of Flash either, but I have seen some people "ooh" and "ahh" at the presentation of it compared to HTML. I consider Flash like very rich food, it's best taken in very small quantities, otherwise it makes you sick.

As for the original poster, you have to be careful when you ask someones opinion, you may just get it.

I have no problem with what anyone might think or say.. most of what people talk reflects in many ways who they truly are.

However, I didn't design the website. I hired a designer to do the job, I simply gave them some ideas and they went ahead and did the job.. when it finally went up I asked you guys for some input.

I do understand the comments made about the speed of the site, and the forced music.. and the designer is working to remedy the issues. but what I find difficult to understand is the ignorant comments made by a rather ignorant and simple headed posters. like: "

Joe Pa said:

You may think this is too harsh. If the dpreview rules and common
decency did not forbid profanity and gratuitous insult, this
message would have been very much harsher. "

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I wonder sometimes, its mentalities like that which makes living "very much harder"
Thank you for all your kind help and worthy input..

Some shots are nice but some appear overly processed... I think your site could have been better considering your talent but that's a matter of personal taste and if you feel happy about the outcome then that should be good enough.
--

http://www.pbase.com/ecuaso

--
Pete Springer
http://www.petespringer.com

Ok, just my take on it. I didn't look at the entire thing. I'm on a cable modem and it took almost a minute to load the photos. During this time I had to listen to annoying music. That was more than I was willing to endure. Sorry.

Music is generally a bad idea on commercial websites. It will NEVER get you a sale but will likely annoy some people and persuade them to leave.

DIPics

billymokdad said:

http://www.picturedreamz.com
let me know what do you think?
thanks in advance.
Bill

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how about turning the music off, or viewing the slideshow that is playing while your waiting for the pics to load.

How long did it take you to write your worthless massage.. a minute? or two.... really simple headed really!!!

.... you're the one who put your website on this forum ...that means you run the risk or getting slaughtered. Unfortunately, your talent ain't no Primax or Proud Father so people are only too happy to give their opinions...the other guy was only being honest....

--
http://www.nomadphotography.net
http://www.pbase.com/ecuaso

When offered "kind help and worthy input" you are as rude as I was. So much for "mentality" and "simple headed" , I believe you said.

At this point any exchange with you becomes worthless. Therefore, please accept my apologies for the improper comments I made in my first post, even though they were engendered by the ineptness of your site design, and a wish to see it improved.

Good luck with your career as a diplomat.

Rik

As soon as it looked like a Flash site, I quit.
Phil

The site is still WAY too slow to load... 30 seconds to bring up each gallery is too long.

Cut the size of your images or the number of them or don't use flash... link to an external html page for the images.
--
http://www.murphymurphy.com

digicaman2 said:

The site is still WAY too slow to load... 30 seconds to bring up
each gallery is too long.

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Yes. It is hopelessly slow.

Pictures are nice 'tho, when we eventually get to them.

But I am saddened to see you decided to go ahead with that logo. It is not appropriate to social photography. It looks like the label on an own-brand sports drink.
--
Regards,
Baz

It is somewhat slow but within acceptable range.

Load photo pics do take lots computer time.

I recommended you load partial pics first, then load more pics later....