New website

Hi everyone. I just got a new website up and I would appreciate any comments and/or critiques.

Thanks in advance.

http://www.visionhaus.com

Nice.... I see you used site-grinder to create this, I assume with some sort of template? Turned out well and doesn't look too generic.

So the technology is there, but the marketing, seo, etc isn't yet. Remember the majority of your impression is made in the first seconds. The first seconds on your website are a bit confusing and unclear. I like that you have a slideshow running, but it shows products with no context.

Instead feature one item from each product line with a large cutline over the image ex:
1st slide -- PROfiles : Your Kids in the Spotlight with our photographers
2nd Slide -- STUDIO17 : Graduation photos with a finer touch
etc etc

That way each slide both shows you what you do, how you do it, and what it looks like.

I'm editorial so I take more of a 'stay updated' rather than fixed look. Put your blog posts on your front page and always have fresh work, but my site is meant for editors who regularly re-vist it and follow me. However you might want to consider the same.

Also, don't take it too personally, but the front images need to be stronger, the initial slideshow is a bit underwhelming -- your better work is buried, don't expect your customers to go looking for it.

Very professional but little too much info if I might say! Less can be better. Not keen on the orange and green page colors, I was left with eye fatigue.

On the first page on the right was some offer that caught my eye, and I tried to read it but then it disapeared before i had finished.

Also it said Vision Hoys at the top but Dream toys at the bottom! What actually are you called. Confusing. Sorry if I got the names wrong but they change too quickly too.

I think the viewer sholud decide when images change, unless they specifically hit a slideshow button by choice. How do you know how long someone wants to look at an image for? One second, three? Let them choose.
Jules
--
Wouldn't it be great is the ESC key on PCs did something?

In a browser with flash installed it was fine, but in one without flash, there was no prompt to install it, just a blank frame or when clicked on it kept on trying to download the gallery to the computer, profiles_gallery.swf etc.

There are still users without flash by default so there needs to be prompt of some sort.

Good luck
--

'The computer allows you to make mistakes faster than any other invention, with the possible exception of handguns and tequila'

Pretty nice images, which is probably the most important element. I didn't like the colors, especially the bright green, didn't like the big, "Brand It", "Print it" wording ...garish and a bit overwhelming. I don't feel that a Blog has any business being on a website where you are showing your best stuff in hopes of gaining clients. Sticking a Blog in there makes it less professional... in my opinion, of course.

I have to respectfully and strongly disagree here, as your statement seems completely unfounded and is more akin to a "in my day" opinions rather than facts.

Blogs help a photographer professionally by showing that they are:
1) constantly active
2) growing in their work
3) exploring new ideas
4) engaging customers

To say that a blog is unprofessional seems silly in light of the fact that the industries most popular photographers all keep blogs which are very popular and well read.

http://www.photo-mark.com/notes/
blog.vincentlaforet.com/
lens.nytimes.com
news.cnet.com/underexposed

I could go on... listing newspaper photog blogs, national geographic blogs and so on...

but I still feel that putting it inside of your client-based website isn't the way to go. Of course, it depends what you put on your blog, so for it to work, I think you'd have to be very careful what you write if it's a part of your pro website.

A bit cluttered for my tastes. It looks like information overload to me with too many navigational choices, too many fonts, too many colors etc.

I got the feeling that I would need to look around for 5 minutes at LEAST before I knew what exactly you did as a photographer and what your capabilities are.

My personal feeling is that your very first page needs to tell the viewer what you do if they did not click on any links at all to go deeper into the site. If you can do that then you have made an impression without their interaction. That would then lead to their exploration of the site.

--

'Truth is stranger than fiction, for we have fashioned fiction to suite ourselves.' G.K. Chesterton

http://www.jimroofcreative.net
http://www.jimroofcreative.com

I have only had my site up since the early part of June. http://www.photosbypike.com

or just Google photosbypike. Photoshelter has a good free SEO kit that you can download for free, that explains how to direct people to your site using key words. Also, description of what we are looking at can be filled out in Photoshop or NX2 and many other programs. I may add a blog to my site, but it will be about the many towns that I have on my site. I take pictures that are used by magazines that are about the towns either in NC or along the Blue Ridge Parkway. I have found that I can Google a site and come up with several key words that I might not have thought about. Another thing that can help all of us is Google Analytics. It is free, and tracks who is coming to your site. I have people from Alaska, Canada, USA, and one from Spain. It tells you how long people stay on your site, and what photographs that they looked at and for how long. It is a little like big brother, it can even tell what res your monitor is. Best of all Google Analytics is free. Just go to Google and if you look about half way down the page, it is under business.

One more thing. To get publishers to our sites, I just read that we need to send out a post card once a quarter to the publishers that we are trying to reach. This should only have one picture, and just our email address and web site on the back. Your just trying to remind them that you are there to help them if they need it. The biggest problem I had with you site was figuring how to get from one page to the next.

Just a word of advice, i've know a few photo editors who actually hate those. I was previously a photo editor and my acquaintances at mother jones and nytimes magazine used to get together and laugh about these postcards. They'd throw them out with the millions of others and pretty much say these are as big of a waste of time as those casting call mailings actors put out.

If you want to get your name out, produce a decent pitch and send it to a photo-editor. He could care less about a 'single image.' Fact is he gets hundreds of those a week and yours wont stand out. A good idea will.

Thanks for the advise.

Thanks for the input. That is a good idea about the cutline. I think I will try to implement that. I am working on skinning the blog now.

As for sitegrinder, I created the entire design from scratch then brought it into Dreamweaver and added many elements. Sitegrinder is a great for creating the CSS layout, but I do not use it for much more than that.

As for SEO, each and every page was created with SEO in mind. What makes you say that it is not? I am just wondering what you know that I am missing.

Thanks for the input, it was quite helpful!

When I clicked on the "Contact" link the page opened and right above your phone number it says: "Form Object". Maybe you haven't put in the email form yet or there is an error.

Other than that, I liked your site. I normally hate flash, but your's is fast and didn't bother me.
--
Greg Koop

I only looked briefly and I thought the site was good. one thing did stand out to ME and may not to anyone else. but on your "Authentically" page, you have the following

Just a choice of words but wouldn't IMAGES project the higher level of quality better then "pictures"?
--
I shot the White Album and other untruths by,
David Phipps

When you visit the professional sites of the people you mention and a host of a few more, in nearly every case you find the blog is merely a component of the main site, not the home page as yours is Chris.

I think blogs are great tool of personal and professional attributes of some photographers, but to make the blog the main focus of your website seriously dilutes the perceived value of your work to an editor or art buyer....you need an actual portfolio driven website with a blog component, not the other way around.

You seem to consistently make technology the focus of your efforts rather than images them selves.

That is going to hurt you in the long run...

So it is probably best that you refrain from giving advice until you have matured in this regard. Your provocative and yet uninformed post about Leica shows ignorance and naiveté and a need to mature by the way.

TsunamiFury said:

I have to respectfully and strongly disagree here, as your statement seems completely unfounded and is more akin to a "in my day" opinions rather than facts.

Blogs help a photographer professionally by showing that they are:
1) constantly active
2) growing in their work
3) exploring new ideas
4) engaging customers

To say that a blog is unprofessional seems silly in light of the fact that the industries most popular photographers all keep blogs which are very popular and well read.

http://www.photo-mark.com/notes/
blog.vincentlaforet.com/
lens.nytimes.com
news.cnet.com/underexposed

I could go on... listing newspaper photog blogs, national geographic blogs and so on...

Click to expand...

--

'Digital is like shaved legs on a man - very smooth and clean but there is something
acutely disconcerting about it.'