my website

[earthlingirl Profile Private messageWebsite]

I have a website now for advertising and communicating my business. Let me know what you think? If you think I should improve something or adjust or even take it away.

Thanks,
Tracy

[pja Profile Private message]

Hi..

I enjoyed the show... I just created a slideshow for my wife and I used the same song. You can't go wrong with Nat King Cole.

Wish you well...

Phil

[BarbaraC Profile Private messageWebsite]

It's looking good! I did find a spelling error In Where to Begin: "You can chose any song you like" - change "chose" to "choose."

You might consider embedding the YouTube videos right on your site rather than sending people over to YouTube to watch.

Barbara

[GEQ Profile Private message]

If you do any photo repair/refinishing you might metion that also. Only other thought would be some pricing info. I know there are many variables but a starting point may be helpful. having to take the next step and contact you may descourage some.

Nice and clean appearance.

Glen

[BarbaraC Profile Private messageWebsite]

Glen is correct about pricing. A natural reaction people have to a lack of prices is to assume the cost is too high. I've left many a web site for that reason alone.

Barbara

[FL Views Profile Private message]

Mind if I ask a question about GoDaddy? Are you happy with the service and set up? My wife wants a web site for her jewelry business and I am investigating hosts. GoDaddy is one of the places I have been researching.

Thanks
Michael

[BarbaraC Profile Private messageWebsite]

I'll send you a PM about my experiences with GoDaddy.

Barbara

[earthlingirl Profile Private messageWebsite]

Thanks for all the tips! I like Godaddy, been using them for years. I had prices on my site but then realized there are so many different options I had no idea how to price. So I just decided to leave the prices off. I do agree though That I would leave a site also if they did not display prices. Maybe suggesting prices start at a certain amount instead of stating how much exactly. what do you think?

[BarbaraC Profile Private messageWebsite]

Mind you, this is just one person's opinion: Try to get extremely close ballpark figures for the various options so people will have a good idea of what it'll cost and so they aren't angry with you if they end up being a bit too surprised.

I have reservations about GoDaddy because they play poorly with PHP-driven web sites.

Barbara

[moehler Profile Private message]

I like that you have a good, solid navigation throughout the bulk of your site. That makes it easy for your visitors to get around easily though I agree that it would be better to have the videos hosted on pages on your site instead of sending them to YouTube. I think it will help with your SEO, too.

Along those same lines, I would also recommend removing the flash page that is your front page because it will reduce the search friendly of your site to search engines (like google, bing, etc.).

The home page seems to lack anything that really grabs the viewers attention. If you add some prominent, emotional hook, people will tend to stick around a little longer for you. You just jump into the mechanics of what they need to do, there is no why they would want to do the what.

Lastly, I would discourage the use of copyrighted music on the shows you post on your sites. I think that is just asking for trouble in my opinion.

But overall, I think it is a good first start and I wish you the best success.

I hope this helps.

[earthlingirl Profile Private messageWebsite]

Thank you mark, That advice helps a lot. I will get right on it and I'll also get those prices up. Thanks for all the feedback everyone!

[earthlingirl Profile Private messageWebsite]

Ok , I have made some improvements.. Still working hard on it but let me know if you have a minute and tell me if you think I'm in the right direction.



Thanks everyone

[moehler Profile Private message]

I really like that you have much more written content to give the user information and I think you are getting closer. I would just add a couple more, minor tweaks. Since your paragraphs are short enough, I would put the text into narrower columns and incorporate some graphics (even the video). From an SEO perspective, I would also put in some heading tags (H1, H2, and H3) that contain the key phrases people will search for that is also for your content (Bring Your Photographic Memories to Life, Slideshows Make a Wonderful Gift, etc.). Lastly, when you reformat into narrower columns and integrate the graphics, I would bring your testimonials up higher and put them into sidebars. What would be awesome if if you had a full story from one of your testimonials in a side columns with an title to draw people in (e.g., Dee's Story).

But overall, I think it is much, much better.

[BarbaraC Profile Private messageWebsite]

The graphic design for "Common Questions" should be the same as all the other pages. When clicking on the link to that page, it looks for all the world as if it leads to a totally separate web site.

You're definitely getting there. The hardest work is done, and now it's more a matter of tweaking.

Barbara

[JEMedia Profile Private message]

Greetings Tracy

I think your site is coming together well. Of course different people, including me, will have there own ideas about the look and functionality of a website.

I think you should carry a common look to all of your pages just for consistency throughout your site. Changing the look of individual pages could cause some confusion for visitors.

Also, if you can embed your videos on your page instead of sending visitors to youtube will be better. You can force them to see what you want them to see instead of having them sort through the youtube links. Vimeo is a very good video host too.

Sometimes folks will put an overload of text on their site, wanting to address every possible question or issue. For slideshow video producers, I see this happen a lot. My approach is much more simplistic. I think it's best to be concise and get to the most meaningful points. Customers basically want to know what you do, what your work looks like, and what's it going to cost.

I target a specific type of client. That being the funeral home operator. My approach is different than it would be if I were going after a diverse customer base, as you are.

Getting back to your website. I think your front page video should be scaled up in size. Also, you are using copyrighted music, if I'm not mistaken. You must be very careful doing that to avoid setting yourself up for a copyright infringement claim. The navigation bar seems a bit cluttered and not well planned. When the front page loads, content fills the screen. But scrolling down, there's a lot of double and triple spacing and a certain "emptiness" that could be corrected by a redesign.

Please don't mistake my comments as criticism. You asked for opinions so I just giving mine. Do some research on website do's and don't and it may help as you continue refining your site.

By the way, for those looking for a free website service, Microsoft OfficeLive is still providing a free site and page maker until later this year. That will be going away as they switch to Office 365 and charge $6 a month. But for several months, you can take advantage of the free service. It's not bad. I use it as well as many of the folks for whom I've built websites.