re did website what do you think?

I know it’s not great but I can’t afford to have an awesome website yet do to limited experience with building a site and money to have someone build it for me. I am using a thing called Website Tonight. It's not finished yet but I was wondering your thoughts on the Flickr hosting. The wedding section is the default Website Tonight image uploaded...idk if it’s just me but I don’t think the IQ looks as good as the flicker ones. Also, some say the music has to go too... It’s not finished but I was just looking for some critiques and whether or not this a decent site to advertise my business for now until I can put together a better one.

Thanks


Removed the website

You're not running a business, this is a hobby - that's what the site says to me. The overall layout is very boring, looks randomly thrown together with no direction.

A counter, nobody uses one anymore - they went out of style in the '90's. Your hosting should have stats if you really want to know them, nobody else cares about how many "hits" you got and everyone knows most them are rigged anyways in that you can set the amount to anything you want. Only if you're selling advertising does that number matter outside of trying to get people to visit and buy your services. So it has no point.

Guestbooks went out with the 90's to, haven't seen a guestbook in years!

Music, first thing that ticks people off in many cases. Some people enjoy it but a vast majority don't...if anything have it so they have to turn it on, not it plays automatically. Also, is it licensed? Is it royalty free music, where's it from, the site come with it? Only use music, if you do, that you have permission to. Nothing more ironic than a photographer complaining about someone ripping off their photos while they are ripping off songs.

The top "logo" doesn't match the layout and it sends you to flick, flickr screams amateur.

If this is a business run it like a business, pay for what you need to get done. I'm doing my site right now after buying a template, they are CHEAP!! Though it's best to write it yourself, if you have the knowledge, templates help get things going quicker. I hate using them personally, would rather write the code but chose not to for some reason on this site. Also waiting for a graphic designer to get back to me with the logo he's designing, paid to design. The logo you have is very, very, very, very, very boring.

The side links are also all over the place, home should be on top - where's the about page? As a customer who am I hiring? What experience do you have? Who's your insurance company? Are you a registered business or hobbyist? I need to be an informed consumer visiting your site but there's no info of who you are at all.

So in short, long ways to go if you're calling it a "business"...

"I need to be an informed consumer visiting your site but there's no info of who you are at all."

I respect you're honesty with the layout of the site but I did say the site was not finished if your read the post the first time.

"if you have the knowledge, templates help get things going quicker. I hate using them personally, would rather write the code but chose not to for some reason on this site. "

Again, if you read the post.. I clearly said I had very little experience with it.

Can anyone explain to me what you need next after you buy a template? I have a domain with go daddy but I am assuming I need to switch from the website tonight plan to a basic hosting package? Is that correct?

Nickc84 wrote in post #11436054
"I need to be an informed consumer visiting your site but there's no info of who you are at all."

I respect you're honesty with the layout of the site but I did say the site was not finished if your read the post the first time.

Then why post it up if it's not finished? He gave you a critique of what you have done so far.

I have to agree with much of what he said. I can't stand website music as I'm usually listening to my music while I'm browsing and to have to figure out where the other song is coming from gets an immediate X out of the tab. Not saying everyone is like that, but I know quite a few people who do the same.

Since it's a photography website, I would expect most of the focus to be on the pictures. However, they're very very small. If I were to be browsing for a photographer to hire I would want to see large shots that show detail. Most people can hide blurry shots as somewhat good shots (not saying this is the case for you) because of the size rather than displaying them larger which is what most clients would do.

And I'd also add in a tab for a spot about yourself. Personally, I don't think it needs to be that in-depth. Just a couple sentences about yourself and maybe a pic so they can put a face with the work.

My $.02, take it for what it's worth.

who wants to see an unfinished project?

Seems like another post it up and get offended if not hearing what you want to hear.

If you look at the entire context of that statement it talks about the reason adding an about page that you do not have, that's what it was talking about. You can't just pick and choose what to take out of context and have to look at the big picture of what lead to that portion from the entire statement.

I read the post, problem is with the poor structure of the sentence had no clue what you meant. Now I see you meant "due to little experience", upon first read thought it meant you "do have little experience", as in some.

You take the template, you change what they have into what you want. Depends what type of template you get, there's majorly advanced ones out there to really basic 1-2-3 sites that anyone can pretty much do. Problem is with them though they are not always the easiest to get your own feel with it, you almost have to go with what is there unless you know how to write html and do flash. So in other words, you'd need a basic one.

They have nothing to do with each other really, I used a hosting company that has two of my domains...but have another 3-4 domains through 1&1 (heavily preferred over GD) that point to my site as well. You can point a domain anywhere, though it's nice to have it all in one.

I saved myself the trouble and cancled my go daddy website tonight account and went with www.portfoiliositez.co​m