Judge my website...

Hello, everyone!

I have recently updated my website and will be changing my name, I'm asking any photographer who's website has registered customers to look at it and see if I can make any improvements...

oklahomashutterbug.smu​gmug.com

As it is right now, it just looks like a standard Smugmug website. It may work for you and/or your customers, but for me, I would click away without even stopping by. I would loose a lot of the text and make a separate "Pricing Page" and even a "About Page". I would like to see a slideshow when enter a site and a brief intro about where you are and what you do (helps with viewers and SEO). You don't need a fancy logo, but at least something on the top of each page that doesn't say "Smugmug".

Hope this helps.

I would get rid of oklahomashutterbug's Home as the header on the page. You need to have a proper name, not just a "screen name", ya know. Also, I would use a different color font than lime green.

I agree with Hikin Mike. You need to have separate pages. You could also merge some of the galleries into one. I would also get rid of the "artistic" gallery if you are focusing on portraits/weddings. Also there are some spelling errors. You have location spelled "locatoin", and experience spelled "experiance", to name a few.

A slide show (without music!) would be nice for a front page. Also, I am unsure if you know this, but DGRIN is a great place to visit to get advice on how to customize your smugmug site! Again, just trying to help

As an exercise, I'd recommend looking at your site from the perspective of a customer. If you clicked on a photographer's site and it looked like this, what would your response be ? This is an incredibly important part of running a business (the ability to see from the customer's perspective, to know how to address their aesthetic and functional needs) if that is what you intend on doing.

First impression when I clicked your link: where are the photos ? is this really a photographer's website ?

You have, what, 10 seconds to capture the interest of most folks landing on your page ? I really think this has to be done with an image / images and not with text.

When I read smugmug I didn't even bother to check it out.

Sorry.

I don't have a website with registered customers as you asked but was intrigued enough to help, so hope you don't mind my comments.
I'd make the images more important than the text. When you first arrive at the page it is just text. I'm not sure customers really care about quotes from Ansel Adams or that "it is easier than ever for someone to be labeled as a photographer", move the text somewhere else, or delete it and concentrate on your portfolio.

Hope this helps.

Thank you for all of the help, everyone...

I defenaly have a long way to go as a business man, especially when it comes to relating to my customers.

HBOC, I'll check out the link and take as much info from it as I can, thank you!

Anke, I don't mind your comments at all. I've been on here long enough to grow some leather skin to harsh comments...

Spend some time on the dgrin.com forums. People there are very helpful and you'll see tons of options from other photographers that are using your same product and are actually helpful. I don't know why someone would read your original post then say "when I read smugmug I don't even bother to check it out."

People on this site tend to knock anything that they don't use so you'll think they are doing it right...

I found valuable advice from other working photographers: simple, easy to read text, make it obvious what you do, don't force the reader to stop and hunt to find out what you do.

Look around, there are tons of creative smugmug sites out there.

ShotByTom wrote in post #13396257
Spend some time on the dgrin.com forums. People there are very helpful and you'll see tons of options from other photographers that are using your same product and are actually helpful. I don't know why someone would read your original post then say "when I read smugmug I don't even bother to check it out."

I can't speak for if he means it this way, but do believe he's right in a way. You see smugmug and you already know pretty much what the website looks like because you can't do much too it, personally to me all smugmug sites look pretty much the same - even when you get into the templates offered the look and feel is still there, just like any other company where anyone can buy the same service as you. PhotoShelter, another good example - templates but the look/feel is similar amongst them all. Exposure Manager you really need to know what you're doing so again they all look very similar. It's VERY rare to see a creative site that makes you go "holy crap that's a (insert any service) site??" Only remember twice saying this and contacted both photographers, one hired a guy for almost 3K to do his site and the other was a web designer that did it himself.

So yea, they look similar and is probably why they said that...not because there's some evil plan to make him think the way he's doing it is the only way.

First impression: amateur sharing their photos.

Smugmug branding and URL screams amateur who can't afford their own website. Layout is a bit cheap feeling. All the information on one page means you have little to say. Selling your time including a CD for peanuts also screams amateur.

6 images per gallery page is annoying to look at. Photos are simple, not creative, not really well posed. Portfolio is tiny.

Personally i'd suggest you shoot for free to build up a portfolio and experience before you continue advertising your services.

I'm not trying to knock your website to make myself feel better, I'm not even looking at your website from the point of another photographer. I'm looking at it from the POV of a potential client. If I see any subdomain thats not part of YOUR website (blog, events, clients, etc) I look at it as an amateur using a free service to share photos with friends/family with design skills on par with most MySpace pages. It's nothing against you as a person or as a photographer.

If I were you I would spend a bit of money on a real website. Hell, it can even be a template, but make it a GOOD template that you can customize yourself. Get a domain name, find some hosting and drop $200 on ProPhoto. You'll end up with a better looking site that's more customizable, probably more respect from people who visit you, and (if you do it right) a lot better SEO... considering the way you're going now had barely any. Come to think of it I don't think I've ever seen a link to a smugmug site other than on here.

Don't get me wrong, smugmug is a great site for photographers but I think everybody on here is looking at it the wrong way. You all look at it as a portfolio when you should be looking at it for sales. I have a portfolio website that I update only when I need to, a blog that I update weekly, and I use smugmug as a proofing/sales tool. I don't have any menus, galleries, or even smugmug branding on it, it's strictly view a photo from your event, and give me money for it.

chrismallet wrote in post #13397641
I'm not trying to knock your website to make myself feel better, I'm not even looking at your website from the point of another photographer. I'm looking at it from the POV of a potential client. If I see any subdomain thats not part of YOUR website (blog, events, clients, etc) I look at it as an amateur using a free service to share photos with friends/family with design skills on par with most MySpace pages. It's nothing against you as a person or as a photographer.

If I were you I would spend a bit of money on a real website. Hell, it can even be a template, but make it a GOOD template that you can customize yourself. Get a domain name, find some hosting and drop $200 on ProPhoto. You'll end up with a better looking site that's more customizable, probably more respect from people who visit you, and (if you do it right) a lot better SEO... considering the way you're going now had barely any. Come to think of it I don't think I've ever seen a link to a smugmug site other than on here.

Don't get me wrong, smugmug is a great site for photographers but I think everybody on here is looking at it the wrong way. You all look at it as a portfolio when you should be looking at it for sales. I have a portfolio website that I update only when I need to, a blog that I update weekly, and I use smugmug as a proofing/sales tool. I don't have any menus, galleries, or even smugmug branding on it, it's strictly view a photo from your event, and give me money for it.

I'm not saying I told ya so...but....

There's nothing wrong with using smugmug as you website do display your portfolio, sell photos or list your services. If you're not doing a lot of business then smugmug will work just fine and it doesn't make sense to spend money on smugmug, then more on web hosting, site design, templates...etc... Smugmug can be customized, has SEO optimization and works well with other free products, like Wordpress..

Something for you to consider is perhaps to remove the wedding section until you have a few more 2nd shooting weddings under your belt. Shooting weddings is difficult and require for you to have top-notch gears, backups, and insurance. If you are not up for it, I wouldn't offer that as a service. If your camera equipment fails on you for a portrait session, you could reschedule, but you cannot do so for weddings.

In all honesty, if I were looking for a wedding photographer and stumbled on your site, I would probably not reach out to you. You only have a small handful of wedding photos and it doesn't even appear to be complete (e.g., start to end of wedding). This implies that perhaps you were just a friend/relative that happened to have a camera.

I really like all of the info coming my way on this subject. I must tell you the reason for lack of photos in my galleries, especially the wedding. I just shot my second wedding, by myself (did not expect that), and it was beautiful. My first wedding looked like t, NO decor, the groom split half way through reseption and no one at that church was happy about the wedding. I have a couple more shoots scheduled for the coming weeks and i'm looking to build my own site because I don't have 400-600 for a top notch site. Any suggestions for building one?

photoman21 wrote in post #13399506
I really like all of the info coming my way on this subject. I must tell you the reason for lack of photos in my galleries, especially the wedding. I just shot my second wedding, by myself (did not expect that), and it was beautiful. My first wedding looked like t, NO decor, the groom split half way through reseption and no one at that church was happy about the wedding. I have a couple more shoots scheduled for the coming weeks and i'm looking to build my own site because I don't have 400-600 for a top notch site. Any suggestions for building one?

I would suggest a ProPhoto blog. When done right it doesn't look like a blog and is highly customizable. One time fee to download the theme, then all you need is hosting.