Advice

Please give me some advice on my pricing and presentation on my website. Please critique it from a client's point of view. Is it something you would entertain? Am I too high, too low, or right on the money? Thanks,
Adam

- First impression - the popup has to go. Detect whether the user has the plugin and send them to a page if they don't.
- Music is a real no-no for web pages IMHO, especially since you can't turn it off straight away. People browse at work and music at work can be bad.

I can't tell how your prices are since you have no images up to gauge how good you are.

There should be an entire slideshow running at the beginning. Are you not seeing it?

A skip intro slideshows, they're too slow. Your customers might too.

I sat for 30 seconds waiting for something to happen on your home page and was a little surprised when it didn't - I think that the blank home page is a wasted opportunity.

I also agree with the comment about the Flash Player pop-up. If I didn't have flash already I WOULD NOT go and install it just to see your web site, I'd just move on to the next one.

If you want a flash site, great, but I'd also run a basic HTML site in parallel so that you don;t lose any potential customers even before they have opened the door. The HTML site will be better indexed by Google and you can still direct users to the flash site if their computer can handle it.

As for your price structure I'm a little confused at one thing.

For an event you will do 3 hours for $250 but if the event is a wedding then you will do 3 hours for $600 and the only difference is a online slideshow and $100 print credit. £250 for a online slideshow seems a bit steep.

Finally your business model for portraits looks to be based on a session fee and the one-off sale of a CD - if this is all that your customers want then fine - but - you are missing out on a good deal of potential revenue and running the risk of the local Wall-Mart cocking up your prints.

Just my 2 cents worth

I agree that the alert pop-up has got to go. Not a good first impression.

Also, your index page needs some kind of an image/sample of your photography. Just something to grab people's attention.

Pretty nice otherwise. I don't know too much about pricing, so I won't comment on that.

John

Turbojacket wrote in post #5461630
Well most of the wedding photographers use flash, and people are usually very impressed by a flash site. I'm not going to ditch it, but the suggestion to make a parallel site is an option, but if the client doesn't have flash chances are they are on some doo doo computer and I wouldn't want to shoot their redneck farm wedding anyways. My clients have loved it so far. All good comments. The webpage is a stream of a total of 8 megabytes. Even the slowest cable/DSL connection speeds should be able to see it no problem. I am not sure why some of you are having a problem with it. I will look into that. Thanks for all the comments.

I recently got married. Because of this, I've been hanging out on some wedding forums for advice and suggestions. Let me share some things I've learned.

Most potential brides dislike flash. It's one of the most talked-about subjects when it comes to photographers websites. People don't like being "forced" to watch something. They prefer to choose what they would like to see.

The people on the forums I have been visiting are a diverse group of people, with weddings ranging from $1,000 "in your backyard" events, to $100,000 + affairs at the Opera House. But they (read: we) have a common dislike of anyone who insults one of our own.

You have crossed that line with your if the client doesn't have flash chances are they are on some doo doo computer and I wouldn't want to shoot their redneck farm wedding anyways comment. You have insulted a group of people who are potential customers. I got married in a lovely bush setting, with my car club friends and family surrounding me. Does that make me a redneck farm bride? Maybe.

But I am also in regular contact with around 200,000 brides-to-be, all of whom may or may not be advised of your attitude, along with a link to both your website and this thread, depending on how lazy I'm feeling later. Actually I probably won't, but who's to say I wasn't some rich oil baron from Texas (do they still exist anymore?) who was about to shell out $50k to have you shoot his only daughter's wedding?

Word to the wise: Never insult your potential customer base on the internet. You never know who may be reading.

Turbojacket wrote in post #5461630
Well most of the wedding photographers use flash, and people are usually very impressed by a flash site. I'm not going to ditch it, but the suggestion to make a parallel site is an option, but if the client doesn't have flash chances are they are on some doo doo computer and I wouldn't want to shoot their redneck farm wedding anyways. My clients have loved it so far. All good comments. The webpage is a stream of a total of 8 megabytes. Even the slowest cable/DSL connection speeds should be able to see it no problem. I am not sure why some of you are having a problem with it. I will look into that. Thanks for all the comments.

People surf from work, and many corporate computers are quite restricted in what they can do/see/view. 8MB is pretty huge, the usability rule of thumb is pages should all load in 6-8 seconds max.