Question about own website

[RBL]

I was only joking

Nah, don't care about any awards (not that they give awards for websites anyway). I also don't think it will bring me any profit as well, but it is still nice to be able to showcase some of my pictures. Whenever somebody asked I always had to give my flickr name and ask them to look me up. Kind of unprofessional.

I removed the logo as well and will probably re-design it. Just the name left on the frontpage now.

Thanks again :thumbup:

 

[RBL]

I forgot to add, if anybody thinking about going Zenfolio way, I have the referral code that could save you some money.

I used somebody elses when I was paying for my website and it went down from £100 to £90. So £10 for beer :thumbup:

When in checkout just enter this code and see the price go down by 10%:

G7Y-JQH-W9X

 

[etnad0]

I'm not sure why people suggest Zenfolio. However, if you go through GoDaddy you can get your domain for $1.99 per year and hosting for $5.00 per month. They also install wordpress for you if you request it. Usually takes about an hour. Wordpress also has a ton of themes, plugins, and support. I'm not a fan of the website design, but if it works for you stick with it.

My main issue is the flash at the top. Flash is terrible for SEO. You're better off having a tagged picture gallery. If you don't care about people actually finding your site through search engines, the design will work.

 

[RBL]

I got my domain through 123 (I'm in UK) and hosting is from Zenfolio, so is the template. Zenfolio is actually very helpful with SEO and their templates are already SEO optimised (at least that's what they say). All I had to do it to prove ownership by including metatag onto my homepage. I can use keywords to make the wbsite easily searchable. I am yet to tag my pictures. I want the website to look as good as possible, before going public (not that I expect much interest anyway).

Can't see anything wrong with Zenfolio TBH. Yes, their templates are nothing spectacular, but spectacular is not what I need. I want the website to be as simple as possible, the photos should be the main interest, not flashy animations (at least that's what I think). I paid Zenfolio for 1 year. After that, I can migrate somewhere else if needed.

Thanks for taking time and looking, also for your suggestions. I will definitely check the GoDaddy and Wordpress out.

 

[RyanSands]

I'm not sure why people suggest Zenfolio. However, if you go through GoDaddy you can get your domain for $1.99 per year and hosting for $5.00 per month. They also install wordpress for you if you request it. Usually takes about an hour. Wordpress also has a ton of themes, plugins, and support. I'm not a fan of the website design, but if it works for you stick with it.

My main issue is the flash at the top. Flash is terrible for SEO. You're better off having a tagged picture gallery. If you don't care about people actually finding your site through search engines, the design will work.

Actually Godaddy is horrid for Wordpress installations. Go use Hostgator...its light years faster, installs Wordpress in about 5-7 seconds...yes I said seconds and their support is ten times better then Godaddy's. Not to mention they are cheaper and their interface is way better.

 

[RBL]

Question: Google Analytics is showing that I had 38 unique visits yesterday, while Zenfolio stats are only showing 4. Confusing. Any ideas who's right?

 

[etnad0]

I'm not sure why people suggest Zenfolio. However, if you go through GoDaddy you can get your domain for $1.99 per year and hosting for $5.00 per month. They also install wordpress for you if you request it. Usually takes about an hour. Wordpress also has a ton of themes, plugins, and support. I'm not a fan of the website design, but if it works for you stick with it.

My main issue is the flash at the top. Flash is terrible for SEO. You're better off having a tagged picture gallery. If you don't care about people actually finding your site through search engines, the design will work.

Actually Godaddy is horrid for Wordpress installations. Go use Hostgator...its light years faster, installs Wordpress in about 5-7 seconds...yes I said seconds and their support is ten times better then Godaddy's. Not to mention they are cheaper and their interface is way better.

I disagree, I've been using wordpress on GoDaddy since 2007 and I've never had a problem. Wordpress can't install in 5-7 seconds. It takes longer than that to put in your log in information to get it set up. I highly doubt they refresh their servers ever 5-7 seconds where you can use it immediately. I've manually installed wordpress and at best you can expect 20 minutes. As far as interface, I guess that's opinion. I've used host gator back when I dabbled in internet marketing and that's all they promoted because of affiliate commissions. I was very unhappy with their service.

 

[TimGilbertson]

Question: Google Analytics is showing that I had 38 unique visits yesterday, while Zenfolio stats are only showing 4. Confusing. Any ideas who's right?

Google Analytics is generally right.

Looks good, I think. However, it looks like your flash isn't loading for me. I can't get it to run.

Websites can be tough. I've spent a lot of time with HTML and PHP (I just wrote a reciprocal backlinking program for photographers if anyone's interested in free backlinks!), but I'd never be happy with what I could make myself. We just bit the bullet and dropped a big chunk of money with Deb at dstripe.com | custom flash websites. Best decision we ever made.

I think if you keep tweaking it, it'll be a pretty nice site. But yeah SEO is a HUGE thing. Don't trust when a web hosting company says things are SEO friendly. Everything (keywording, backlinks) comes from what you put into the website, not what Zenfolio does. Flash is a hinderance (I've got an entirely flash site) but it's not a non-starter. It's not 1999, Google can crawl flash pretty well I assure you.

Ours is Edmonton Wedding Photographers | Paper Tiger Media

 

[Bossy]

What about something like etsy? They get a lot of traffic, it would be less work for you I'd think.

I looked at your website. I'd either make it All Photographs or Gallery, I wouldn't do both. I like where you're going with street signs.

Have you printed any of these and hung them on your wall?

I would put portraits and creative editing together, as well as street people. You could condense even more and put most of your misc into landscapes, along with signs. Or create an Architecture tab.

Your homepage takes forever to load, I've been to your page 3 times and haven't waited for it to finish yet. I also didn't scroll down until the 3rd time. I would either make it a splash page with an Enter link, make it a single photo, or ditch the photo completely and just have your entry words. You don't need the About on the main page and in a About tab

I would also show photos of your actual prints or canvases (professional photos of photos, crazy ) and narrow down your offering list. Select a couple print sizes, canvas sizes, and maybe a couple more things, then add a "I can also do shirts bags stamps dancing unicorns" disclamer on your contact me or about me page.

Just my 2 cents!

 

[RBL]

Google Analytics is generally right.

Looks good, I think. However, it looks like your flash isn't loading for me. I can't get it to run.

Websites can be tough. I've spent a lot of time with HTML and PHP (I just wrote a reciprocal backlinking program for photographers if anyone's interested in free backlinks!), but I'd never be happy with what I could make myself. We just bit the bullet and dropped a big chunk of money with Deb at dstripe.com | custom flash websites. Best decision we ever made.

I think if you keep tweaking it, it'll be a pretty nice site. But yeah SEO is a HUGE thing. Don't trust when a web hosting company says things are SEO friendly. Everything (keywording, backlinks) comes from what you put into the website, not what Zenfolio does. Flash is a hinderance (I've got an entirely flash site) but it's not a non-starter. It's not 1999, Google can crawl flash pretty well I assure you.

Ours is Edmonton Wedding Photographers | Paper Tiger Media

Fantastic page, simple yet effective. I was thinking about replacing the slideshow gallery with a video montage as well, but am yet to try it out.

Zenfolio has a nice SEO tutorial, with all the steps that I, as an website owner, can do to make it more SEO friendly. I followed it and included most of the stuff already, but more work is, obviously, needed. This is never ending story actually. I keep getting new ideas and keep changing the website every few days. Probably because it is all still very new to me.

I don't even have a clear idea what I want my website to be. Is this going to be purely a portfolio website, or maybe I'm trying to sell prints, or maybe provide photo editing service, or maybe jump straight in deep water and offer photo service? I'm pretty sure my website is showing my indecisiveness, which, I'm sure is not a good thing.

One thing for sure, I am happy I got it. I can learn all the basics BEFORE showing the website to potential clients/customers. The website is there now, I know, but I haven't really advertise it anywhere yet. I'm giving myself this year to decide what I want this website to be and also where I want my photography to go. I don't think I'm ready to go pro just yet, that's for sure. Because I paid for this years hosting already, I will also decide do I want to stay with Zenfolio, or go somewhere else. Maybe I'll try building my website myself, I'm not bad with PCs. Never tried creating websites before, but I'm sure its doable.

I am a bit worried about your and Bossy's comment about the flash gallery being slow/not working properly. I'm hoping this was because I was tweaking something at the time (I got the new idea for slideshow I work on), but am not sure. I tested it with another computer and it seemed to be fine.

What about something like etsy? They get a lot of traffic, it would be less work for you I'd think.

I'll have a look on Etsy. I'm just not sure I'm ready to go out to the world with my photography just yet TBH. That's why I don't have a clear idea what the website is for yet. I know, crazy! :er:

I looked at your website. I'd either make it All Photographs or Gallery, I wouldn't do both. I like where you're going with street signs.

Initially I had only 'Gallery' with the drop down menu and 'All Photographs' tab wasn't there, but I tried the website with my mobile phone and the flash gallery did not work (stuck on the first image and linking didn't work) and also the Gallery drop-down menu did not work, so there was no way to enter the website to see the pics at all. I added the 'All photographs', as the link to the master gallery, just for situation like this.

Have you printed any of these and hung them on your wall?

No, I haven't print any of my photographs yet... ever... I know crazy, isn't. Trying to sell prints, but never actually seen one in real life. I'm thinking about ordering a canvas for my living room as I have space for that on one of my walls. The thing is, and I'm sure I'm not alone with this, is that I have seen my photographs so many times already, that I'm sick of looking at them I know that I'll hang one of them on the wall and take it down after few days. Though, I know I should order bunch of prints to: 1. see how they look with and without the Printlab colour correction (I'm not sure I should allow this for customers to do), 2. to test the service. It's on my list 'to do'.

I would put portraits and creative editing together, as well as street people. You could condense even more and put most of your misc into landscapes, along with signs. Or create an Architecture tab.

The idea was to spread pictures accross few galleries to make the website look more professional (doesn't work, I know). I didn't want to end up with either one or two galleries on its own. I also have some more older photos I am yet to add to the website, so the collection should grow and maybe it will make the amount of galleries more relevant. I also wanted to create 'Creative Editing' gallery on its own, to promote the photo editing service. Not so sure is this a good idea, but I think I'll keep it like that for now. There is many more pictures to add to the Street Life gallery. I stopped, because I'm not sure selling prints/photos with people on them without the model release is a good idea. For now I have the 'buy' option disabled from few of my galleries (like portraits, street life and creative editing). I need to read more on the subject, as I don't want to get myself into any legal problems.

Your homepage takes forever to load, I've been to your page 3 times and haven't waited for it to finish yet. I also didn't scroll down until the 3rd time. I would either make it a splash page with an Enter link, make it a single photo, or ditch the photo completely and just have your entry words. You don't need the About on the main page and in a About tab

The comment about the front page is very worring, as I spent lots of time tweaking the slideshow, adding/removing photos from it and also I work on a completely new slideshow at the moment. I need to gather some more feedback to decide what to do. I like the idea of a slideshow, but on the other hand (like Google Analytics is showing) most visitors never go beyond the front page and after watching the slideshow they just leave. Like I mentioned before, replacing the slideshow with a video montage is one of the ideas.

I added the text on the front page as a Zenfolio recommendation for SEO. The words from the text are used by search engines to make the website easier to search (at least that's the theory ). I probably added too much text as well, but this is something I need to work on some more. The text on the front page and the 'about' tab, both have been created in few minutes without giving it much thought. More work is needed.

I would also show photos of your actual prints or canvases (professional photos of photos, crazy ) and narrow down your offering list. Select a couple print sizes, canvas sizes, and maybe a couple more things, then add a "I can also do shirts bags stamps dancing unicorns" disclamer on your contact me or about me page.

Just my 2 cents!

This is a very good idea, to show the clients real life examples of the products they can buy. This is added to my 'to do' list now. I was advised to narrow the offering list already, and I've done it already, but then changed my mind and allowed bigger choice. I need to decide which sizes and which products are the most important and apply it.



I can't thank you enough, Tim and Bossy, for taking time, looking at my website and commenting on it. This is invaluable to me. I haven't got much feedback yet, so any piece of advice is very imporant and very welcome.

Big THANK YOU!

 

[RBL]

It's me again

Just a quick update.

I decided that I don't like the name of the domain I had and that it won't fit to my new idea, so I paid for a new one.

I also decided to take my photography to the next level and go pro. I'm not sure if this will work, but I won't know until I try. Worst case scenario is that I'll have to sell all my equipment and give the money back to my bank. I hope this won't happen though.

My new website is


Please wish me luck, I will need it

 

[o hey tyler]

I guess I'm having a hard time remembering what separated your previous site from this one as being a "pro" website, other than the fact that it has 'pro' in the name.

 

[RBL]

There is much more content, it's more organised and it has a lot more information about what I offer.

Yes, it's still Zenfolio template (with a different theme) and hosting. It might look a bit similar (all Zenfolio themes do), but this time it's directed at costumers. Please feel free to say what you don't like about it. I don't think it will win any awards, but it's functional.

It also has a portfolio (which I still build), it has my contact details, it has information about what I do and offer and basic pricing, I added a blog. Previously the website only had few of my landscape pictures and that was about it.

The website is still work in progress, so please feel free to comment if you wish.

Besides my costumers won't know that this site is similar to the one I had before, because the other one does not work anymore.