What do you think?

[yojoe]

Just made myself a site - getting it onto google now (I've submitted it to a few search sites, (any tips on how to get it done faster?))

Please check it out and see what you think - joesphotography .co.uk


give me any suggestions and so on - let me know what you think about the content and so on!

[mke]

Firstly, I think you should think about the title of your thread if you really want busy people to bother to visit and comment. "What do you think" would suit just about every thread in the forum world in a very big world wide web. Try giving us a clue about the topic.

Secondly, I think you should make an effort to put in the whole URL when offering a site for comment. Give the individual prepared to give you the benefit of the doubt - doubt being you want us to do the work and you aren't prepared to do any - at least something they can copy and paste, even if you are not allowed to post links.

Personally, I've made the effort to guide you. I can't be bothered to go further for someone who can't be bothered.

[Dawg]

Why is it set for 19" screens? (Do you mean resolutions of xxxx by xxxx?)

Why have you got large intrusive watermarks over all the images? No-one is going to nick them at that size/quality. The watermarks are ugly, ruin the pictures and scream 'beginner'.

You say they are for sale. Where?

Does anyone give a flying f-stop about your camera? It's a bit of kit to take pictures with. It's the pictures that are important.

I suggest you go and play with something like Jalbum, Pixelpost (a photoblog platform) or Simpleviewer.

I also suggest you look at lots of magazines and portfolios, see what professionals are shooting, copy them, and try and move away from a basic 'gifted amateur' approach.

[PhilDPho]

I've got to agree with Dawg.

The only person who will have ANY interest in your equipment is other photographers, and even then a Pro wouldn't care!

What is the purpose of your site? If it's to sell images, then I'd just have a small page, and link to JAlbum with Aeneid skin and Paypal.

Or if it's just to display your photographs, I'd just stick with flickr.

Who is the target audience of the website? If it's possible clients, they're not going to care if I tell them I'm shooting with a 24-70 2.8 AF-S G N or whatever, it's the photo's.

If I was in the market for buying a photo, then a person who lists what they use, tells me that there is an insecurity in their work. A mechanic doesn't list his spanners, "I can fix your car, I have ........"

Drop the My Camera page, re-write the about me page so it has slightly more complex sentances and doesn't read like a child's book, and also look at various other photographers portfolio's to see how their galleries are done.

[PointandStare]

As above, lose the 'copyright', it ruins the shots and forget 'my camera'
Grab yourself a copy of slideshowpro (http://slideshowpro.net) with the director back-end, it'll make things so much easier.

I've used SSP for years and still use it on my own photography site (http://z6.co.uk).

[boho]

the copyright spoils the images completely, and anyone competent with photo editing software could remove it anyway so I dont see the point if I'm honest. If you must have a copyright then stick to something small and unobtrusive.

As other have said, if the purpose is to have a site thats just up there as an about me, here look at my pictures, rather than an actual trading website then I would stick to the likes of flickr.

Also on the contact page

"This is the part where you let me know if you like the site and the pictures." could be taken as quite insulting, I'm sure most intelligent folk know what the contact form is for ;)

For photography sites, particularly any where I might consider buying images from I prefer clean, white or neutral colour sites, the images should be the selling point of the site and not an imposing black background and large text, I find that all too gloomy and handmade.

Also I'm not really interested in what the pics have been taken with, not unless someone wants to write a specific piece about the image itself, ie the inspiration behind it, what effects, filters etc where used, where the pic was taken.

That said though it depends on what the intention of the site is...

Hobbyist looking for other photography people...then perhaps more about how, what, why is of interest
Trading image site...then people dont care they just want an easy to navigate, clean friendly site they can instantly purchase on
Showcase...again the camera doesn't really matter, its the portfolio and breadth of skills that count

[Dot Design]

Hi Yojoe (http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/member.php?u=35983)

Ouch! Well people are certainly giving their opinions and it might seem a little bit harsh right now but that's how we all get better at what we do!

I would agree with most of the comments, if you want to avoid your site looking handmade and your not skilled at building and designing website, then I'd highly recommend WordPress, you can download a theme that suits your needs and tailor it slightly to suit you, it cost nothing. Just google WordPress and you'll be able to find out what you need to do to get started quite easily.

Also WordPress is going to help your site get found, currently your pretty invisible on the web, but if you start a camera/photography related blog using WordPress this will add keywords and google will pick you up. Take a look around and see what other photgraphers of your level of ability are doing, learn from them. I doubt whether there are that many photographers who blog, I might be wrong but if I'm not then you have an advantage over them in terms of being found on the web.

Like others have said please take the watermarks off the images, it ruins them!

If you want an example of a wordpress blog see mine in my signature.

Hope this helps, Gareth
(http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/member.php?u=35983)

[fisicx]

Google is not going to give you the time of day: there is almost no indexable content and you use that horrid DW rollover menu.

There is no incentive for google to do any more than index you under 'just another website'.

If you want to sell photos then you need to pay someone to build you a site or invest a lot of time in researching webdesign, marketing, copywriting, ecommence, optimisation, usability, accessibility, user experience and so on. Shouldn't take you more than 6 months. And when you have finished then get to grips with HTML and CSS.

What you have done is the equivalent of taking some snapshots with a £59 tesco special camera and then asked the how to get them published on the cover of photography world.

There are thousands of photography websites, so unless you have something special to offer you are going to struggle to even get noticed, let alone rank well.

And to suggest that the site is best viewed on a 19" screen is just plain daft. I could have a 21" screen and still set the resolution to 800px.

[Dawg]

Dot, there are lots of photographers that blog, and the OP might find inspiration at:
http://www.photoblogs.org/
http://www.coolphotoblogs.com/
as well as the bucketloads of sites that people contribute to, for instance:
http://www.photosig.com/go/main

There are very few people that successfully make a living selling their own photos on their own sites. Professional snappers will only treat it as one of several income streams, and most will contribute to a pro library like Getty anyway, rather than try and shoot, webify and market their work themselves.
(I have only ever seen chocolate box photographers and food photographers run their own libraries successfully.)

[Dot Design]

Agreed Dawg I'd imagine its difficult to make a living based on just selling your own photography. Those links should be helpful to yojoe, there might be lots of blogs on photography but I still think this is worth doing and will increase his visibility and personality on the web.

Good luck yojoe!

[Dawg]

Dot, quite right.

Nice bright blog BTW. Had no idea that Madam JoJo's (http://www.dot-design.co.uk/club-flyer-design-london-burlesque-social-club-flyers/) was still going. Blige! Maybe there is a niche for YoJoe at JoJo's.
Hoho. :)

[Dot Design]

Dot, quite right. Nice bright blog BTW. Had no idea that Madam JoJo's (http://www.dot-design.co.uk/club-flyer-design-london-burlesque-social-club-flyers/) was still going. Blige! Maybe there is a niche for YoJoe at JoJo's.
Hoho. :)

Thank you Dawg! Like what you did there! :D