New Website

[tomdi]

Hi,

My new website is finished. Please have a look and let me know what you think.

http://www.tomdimaggio.org

Cheers,
Tom

[scrumpy]

Hi Tom I had a look;

1 I personally don't like black and whte. After a while it hurts my eyes and I see lines for an hour afterwards. So I tend to stay away from black and white sites.

2 I found the font annoying - why have 'joined-up' text? It isn't easy to read.

3 I would re-organise the page links on the navigation bar. ie 'Home' 'About' 'Gallery' 'Contact'

4 The 'Home' page is rather bare. I didn't think I was at the 'Home Page' and wandered off looking for it. A nice image from the gallery would look good and be more inviting. You could change it after a while, keeping the Home Page fresh.

5 The Gallery is good, I liked it, and saw some impressive photos. One I like in particular is the Meadow Brown butterfly converted to b&w. It's beautiful.

I hope my comments have been helpful, Good Luck.

[tomdi]

Hi scrumpy,

Sorry I was not able to reply earlier, but you know how it is, .... work, family and time goes by.

Thanks a lot for your comments.

I've decided to redo the whole site. I was "experimenting" with a black & white site, but the feedback I've received globally was as you also mentioned : a bit dull .

I hope to have a new version up and running by the end of the month.

Cheers,
Tom

[GrendelZ]

Its a good first effort. It really looks similar to mine as far as layout and rollover images. I agree that you should put a nice image on the homepage to grab the viewers attention (winter tree shot). I agree also that you should reorganize your titles to, Home-Gallery-About-Contact as I have observed this is the order most people view sites. The B&W and font dont bother me (see my site) but this is personal preference as I have had over 1000 views with no complaint. To me garish colored backgrounds are much more distracting from the work, maybe try a nice neutral gray.

The only thing that I dont like that sticks out is the "all prints are for sale" line. It just doesnt sound right for some reason. I dont know what would work better but maybe say "for print sale inquiries please contact...." and have your email or phone #.

All in all man I like it, with just a few tweaks it could be really cool.

[tomdi]

Thanks GrendelZ.

Things have moved on for me in Photogrpahy, and the need to change the "look" and "feel" of the website has become quite urgent ;)

You're right with the "selling" part.

I like your website a lot too. You've got some nice pics on there.

Cheers,
Tom

[ebob]

I personly like your website, But still need to be down more in some sections.



www.vipagency.com

[MommaB]

-Not crazy about the font.
-You need a photo or collage on the home page
-Not crazy about the double bars at the bottom

Great first site and the links work so that’s a plus. ;)

[tomdi]

Thanks for the feedback MommaB and ebob.

Ebob, I don't want to have too many menus and submenus. I tend to keep them to a minimum.

MommaB one thing is for sure, the font will change on the new site and the "home" page will include both, .. a collage on the top and the latest pic on the main part.

The only thing I am still not sure about is if I am to keep a flash gallery or try a HTML, or DHTML one.

I'll post the link on here once I am done. :)

[shesgotthepic]

I don't have a problem with black and white but I think it would work better if it was in black and light grey. Slightly easyer on the eyes.

However - the big mistake you have made is that you have focused too much on what font to use and thus lost all ability for search engines to find your site and index it. Your text is built in to images and search engine rely on being able to scan text which means they can't find you.

Sometimes you have to compromise look for being able to be found. Your site would still look great using a standard font like arial, verdana serif or sans serif.

Have a look at www.nikkipilkington.com she helps companies with search engine optimisation but she also has a lot of free stuff on her website, like pointers on how to get it right.

[tomdi]

I've finally finished updating the site. I will make a new post to get some new feedback.

Thanks
Tom