What do you think of my site?

lifepointphoto · Mar 8, 2009

Hi there,

I've been doing professional photography for some time now. I've gotten fairly steady business, but I want to take the business to a new level. Based on my work, how do you feel about my current prices? They can be found under "investment"? Should I raise/lower them? Also, how can I improve the site/ my business in general?

http://www.lifepointphoto.com

I appreciate any and all imput!

thanks!

Overread · Mar 9, 2009

just a few site pointers:

quite a few people don't like flash for running a site - especailly a photo site, since it takes longer to load than a normal type of webpage - this can lead you to lost sales as people will give up waiting for the site to load. Your site did load quick and without problems for me though, but my connection is generally quite fast.

Also try to avoid popups if you can - most people run a popup blocker and many don't know how to turn it on or off (its just preloaded when they get the machine these days) so if you rely on popups for things this could cause you problems

owen_wassell · Mar 9, 2009

I don't know much about the prices but I really like the website. Flash can be a little slow but yours seems quite quick.

lifepointphoto · Mar 9, 2009

Thanks, I'll try slowing it down a bit. Also, I'm in the process of making an HTML site

Rere · Mar 9, 2009

I also like your site. Prices seem okay. Do you change the music now and then or does it stay the same?

I've had problems getting wedding shoots. I do get a lot of portrait, reunion, pet, and other shoots. Do you go on location? Advertise this if you do, there are many pro photographers who don't.

Overread · Mar 9, 2009

It has music?
*checks*
it does - tip - most people either surf silent (as I was eariler) or they surf with some music already playing - unless they happen to really like the music of your site they will generally do one of 2 things
1) hunt around to try and turn it off
2) leave the site

Turn the music off perminatly - its easier and you won't be distracting people from the important part of your site - the photos.

mrodgers · Mar 9, 2009

Overread said:
It has music?
*checks*
it does - tip - most people either surf silent (as I was eariler) or they surf with some music already playing - unless they happen to really like the music of your site they will generally do one of 2 things
1) hunt around to try and turn it off
2) leave the site

3) hit the ceiling with their head because their kid was blasting away in a game with the sound cranked up as loud as it will go before they got home from work and didn't know their kid had it blasting.

If music takes more than 0.0000056 seconds to disable, I hit the back button and go somewhere else.

skiboarder72 · Mar 11, 2009

You need to raise your prices, they are ridiculously cheap and a lot of people won't take you seriously. Your photography is quite good, so charge what you are worth!

hoyinsiu · Mar 27, 2009

nice website but sometimes it's a little bit slow to load the photos

jurgenphoto · Apr 19, 2009

I have been playing with flash myself and thought it was great. Then I got sick and tired of the slow load time and realized that my site visitors would have a similar experience.

I went back to square one and did some handcoding of my site. It's not perfect yet and changes are in the making. Nevertheless, loadtime is much faster and price lists are requested more often from clients.

Photoshelter has some tips and advice for optimizing your website for SEO and improved user experience. They put some work into it. Have a look at it. It helped me a lot. You can get it here.

Your changing background colours in your slideshow are interesting, not sure, if I like it, but that's only me.

Navigation is clean and cluttered. Just great. Calendar looks great, Contact form as well. Layout overall is good.

Let me know, what you think about my comments.

DefaultArtist · Apr 24, 2009

Hello,
I love photography... I own a social networking site that is based on photography... however, my photo interests and skills are more in journal and documentation. I even hire photographers often for product photography and event, So I want to comment below as someone who is not a professional photographer:

Pros:
1. The site looks professional and is quick to load
2. It is easy to find and understand your booked dates
3. Your sample photography is fantastic.

Cons:
1. The only negative thing I see (maybe only to me) Is that it seems this is a self owned & operated business that is trying to appear as if it's not. Why?

Is this business owned and operated by the "lead photographers" in the about section? That would be fine except, why try to hide that? A self owned business is nothing to be ashamed of... but trying to make it seem as if it's not seems just a little bit off.

Besides that one detail, I think the site is great. You should have no problem getting lots of work, and this is a great aid.

Scott