Requesting Website assistance and critique

[Kayaker72]

Hi Bob,


Great website and excellent photographs. You have quite the collection....I am definitely a little jealous.


As for comments, on a broad note, I was wondering if this was for personal use/for sharing with friends, or is this for professional use where you would like to sell pictures and, potentially, your photographic services? I ask becausethe inital page makes it appear as a personal website but then I saw a link where I could buy the images and "rwilliamsimaging" certainly sounds professional. If this is intended to be a store front, you might want to make that more clear on the initial page. Maybe a few opening lines guiding someone new to the site on how to use it.


A few minor comments:

• At least for me, your opening slide show was all pictures of wildlife with multiple pictures in a row of a wolf. To showcase all of your images, I would have the opening slideshow oscillate between the different types of pictures you have. Also, instead of back to back images of the same subject, I would gofrom a wolf to an elk to a landscape shot, to a hummingbird, etc.
• I am not sure I would change this, as it is minor, and you may have several good reasons for why you have it this way. But I noticed that you start with you menu bar on the side and then it switches to having the menu bar at the top.
• And this is really the engineer in me coming out, but you have each of your photograph categories at the same level (font/alignment, etc) as "Contact," "Resources," amd "guest book." Again, the engineer in me would be tempted to have the main headings of "Pictures," "Resources," "Guestbook,""Contact," and maybe "About Me" and then have each of the type of pictures as a subcategory (different font/alignment) under "Pictures." That works best if the menu bar runs along the side. It only really works along the top if you do a pull down menu.
• "Resources" goes to a PDF and not a HTML page. It works, and again, there may be great reasons that you have done it like that.

But overall, it is a very nice website. Easy to navigate, intuitive, and your color scheme helps highlight your images.


I hope that is helpful.


Brant

[bob williams]

Brant, Iguide thanks for the look and the comments.

I was wondering if this was for personal use/for sharing with friends, or is this for professional use where you would like to sell pictures and, potentially, your photographic services?

Actually, all of the above. I started out just wanting a place to show my photo's to friends and family and the site slowly developed from there to eventually adding purchase options.

If this is intended to be a store front, you might want to make that more clear on the initial page. Maybe a few opening lines guiding someone new to the site on how to use it.

This is the hard part, I am not very good at selling myself/work and honestly, I really have no idea where to start--if you have specific comment or know of a good example, I am all ears.

At least for me, your opening slide show was all pictures of wildlife with multiple pictures in a row of a wolf. To showcase all of your images, I would have the opening slideshow oscillate between the different types of pictures you have

Yes, this does bug me as well. As best as I can tell, my provider only allows the opening slide show to come from one gallery---so, I think I am going to develop a gallery just for the opening slide show; something that has a nice mix of my favorite shots.

[*]I am not sure I would change this, as it is minor, and you may have several good reasons for why you have it this way. But I noticed that you start with you menu bar on the side and then it switches to having the menu bar at the top.

This was done on purpose. I wanted to limit the amount of vertical scrolling one had to do to naviagte the site, so I simply saved a little head room by placing the menu on the side. But since you mentioned it, I may play with it some more.

And this is really the engineer in me coming out, but you have each of your photograph categories at the same level (font/alignment, etc)

This was also done on purpose. I had it like that before, but after rearranging the opening page, the 3 line menu didn't fill up enough of the space on the side of the slide show, so I just expanded the gallery listing.

"Resources" goes to a PDF and not a HTML page. It works, and again, there may be great reasons that you have done it like that.

The only reason I did it like that is because I haven't figured out how to load an HTML page into the zenfolio template. I know it can be done, I just haven't worked with it yet---but now that you mention it, that could be this weeks project.

Your site reflects your talent and patience. Any words I write here will pale to my impression of both. Very Well Done my man.
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Thanks, your comments are appreciated and encouraging and thank you for commenting on my site.


Thanks to all for your comments,Thay havedefinely helped me out and given me some ideas for improvement.


Bob

[Iguide]

<span class="field-item-description"]Bob Williams


<span class="field-item-description"]"<span class="field-item-description"]This is the hard part, I am not
very good at selling myself/work and honestly, I really have no idea
where to start--if you have specific comment or know of a good
example, I am all ears.<span class="field-item-description"]example, I am all ears."





<span class="field-item-description"]Iguide





<span class="field-item-description"]Hi Bob:


<span class="field-item-description"]If you are a humble person it is difficult to crow about one's achievements. There are a couple of ways to do it. You could go to a friend that knows you well and ask them if they could help you with this difficult task. Providing that this person knows you very well they most likely help you frame a brief autobiography, let them put into their words their impressions of you and your approach to your work. After they have done that you go over it and note what you like and don't like making changes from there. Often the two of you can come up with something you are comfortable with that is a good representation of you and your work.


<span class="field-item-description"]Another way is to hire a professional to help with this. They go through the process about the same way, they just have to get to know you a bit before they can write it.


<span class="field-item-description"]My wife and I have two business on the net and we had to do the same thing. Take a look at my bios page and read both of them, they might give you some ideas on how to look at yourself to come up with a "about Bob" section. You will find that people that like what you do will want to get to know you better to be comfortable and want to spend money with you, and that is what you want them to do.


<span class="field-item-description"]Lastly I wrote both of our bio's, I took excerpt from the many articles that had been written about me/us over my career and used that material to do the writing. I had first hired a writer and did not like what he came up with that is whey I suggest a friend because they know you fairly well. If after all of that and you still don't feel comfortable with it contact me privately and I can help you put something together. I'm busy now so it would take a bit of time but I could offer some help.





<span class="field-item-description"]Godspeed


<span class="field-item-description"]Wayne



<span class="field-item-description"]

[Kayaker72]

This is the hard part, I am not very good at selling myself/work and honestly, I really have no idea where to start--if you have specific comment or know of a good example, I am all ears.

I am sure there are professionals on this website that can offer better detailed advice than I can on this topic. But, in general, it seems that you want to walk the line between having a place for friends to see your photos and still sell prints. So welcoming, comfortable but still open for business. You may already have done this, as while people are perusing your photos they are presented the option to purchase. Regarding the home page, one thought would be to add a row to your menu bartitled something like "Purchase Options." The intent would be to subtlymake the viewer aware that they can purchase the photos if they want too. The link could routethe viewer to a page that described what you sell (prints/electronic files/services), how much each costs, a description of how the transaction works (VISA/PayPal, when to expect the product, etc) and any fine printlegal language you may want to include (personal use only, not for resale, etc). But again, I suspect professional photographers could contribute far more to this.


[]


I just checked your website and you are updating literally as I type. It looks very nice. I like your introductory write up. As you now have it set up, I am not sure what I just wrote is applicable, but I'll let you decide.


Thanks,


Brant

[bob williams]

I just checked your website and you are updating literally as I type. It looks very nice. I like your introductory write up. As you now have it set up, I am not sure what I just wrote is applicable, but I'll let you decide.

Your right Brant, I have been messing with this thing all morning trying to incorporate some of the suggested changes. Like you suggested, I would prefer to simply have a link to purchasing options page, But I wasn't able to figure out how to do a custom HTML page yet. So for now, I just stuck a little blurb in the welcome message. I think this works, its just not as clean and simple as I would like it. I just wrote another email to Zenfolio regarding this, so hopefully I'll get an answer today or tomorrow.


Thanks,


Bob