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DPChallenge Forums >> Business of Photography >> Need website advice
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01/22/2008 06:30:07 PM · #1
Hello all! I have a big favor to ask of you whom have time. I built my website a bit ago, and have gotten very little response from it. Wondering kind of what I am doing wrong. My first thought is that it is all flash based, but it is not too "flashy", has all the right tags, etc. Seems easy to navigate, and so on. Wondering if the imagery is to weak, layout is just something that only I like, or whatever. If any of you have time to really pick it apart, I promise to return the favor on stuff of your choice! Thanks! Website is

//www.AdamMathiasPhotography.com

Message edited by author 2008-01-22 18:30:27.
01/22/2008 06:45:07 PM · #2
The site looks nice. It's a little hard at first but I caught on quickly. Although I'm not a big fan of all flash sites. I used to have a flash based site and it looked great but didn't produce much in the way of business. I don't mean to say that it won't either. It very well could have been my site and how it was laid out. At any rate I now use just HTML for my pages and my customers seem to like it better.

I will also ask you how you are advertising it? If you're only relying on free search engines you may want to explore Google Adwords and start a Pay-Per-Click campaign. I use Adwords and rely on it for 80% of my business. The other 20% is referrals.

You seem to have the talent to produce images that customers would like for sure. I think you just need to get the word out.

01/22/2008 06:55:03 PM · #3
seemed to work fine for me. I don't know what all the negative feedback about flash sites is about - I don't mind them and think they look nice.
01/22/2008 07:14:31 PM · #4
You said this "have gotten very little response from it"
Where are you expecting the response?

Also, I googled "Adams Mathias" and your site came up 4th.
If I type "photographer Dallas Oregon", and your name came up but on gatheringguide.com

I work in a company that does a lot of marketing hence I am familiar. Maybe I can help, though I need to understand your expectations.

Message edited by author 2008-01-22 19:15:39.
01/22/2008 07:21:31 PM · #5
All of you so far, thanks so much for the reply! I promise some critiques or something coming your way! Apashack, I have tons of stuff posted on the "free directories", wedj, stuff like that. Also Pictage and theweddingchannel.com. google adwords is my next venture I think. I may connect with you later, and see if you have any grand suggestions for getting started on that. Thanks for the compliments on my work being good enough! Leaf, I like the flash sites too, thats why I lean that way. Also because it is ALOT harder to steal my images :)! Monica, with a cleaner portfolio presentation than it was before, I guess that I was expecting more hits, more emails of interest, more SOMETHING. I know that I come up that high on google for "Adam Mathias", but how many people really google that term? Also, I know that I show up like that on gathering guide for Dallas, the problem is I want it to show for ALL of the Pacific NW. 1-2 jobs a month just isnt cutting it and its starting to get to me. Thanks SO much again for those replying. Anyone else?
01/22/2008 07:37:16 PM · #6
If I had stumbled upon your site as a potential customer, I would have immediately closed it and left again without even looking at your photos.

Why, you ask?

Because you forced me to listen to your music. Yes, I saw that I can turn it off, but I don't care. As far as I'm concerned, it should be an opt IN thing (unless you're a band or some such music related thing).
01/22/2008 07:41:12 PM · #7
That was one of my major concerns. While I am not sold on taking it off yet, I REALLY appreciate the honest feedback. I saw on another thread that it really got to some people. Anyone else have an opinion on that or any other part of it?
01/22/2008 08:24:57 PM · #8
Some random un-edited thoughts.....

- Yeah music is bad IMO too... I play other music and immediately close anything making a noise without me asking it to.
- I didn't listen but can I assume it's RF music? You didn't rip off another artist right (could care less about the record companies personally but it comes across as un-professional IMO)?
- Don't make people hunt for the menu... If it's too hard to figure out people don't. At least make the whole bar pull the menu down rather then just the word but keeping it there is better.
- That intro thing is too long - not sure if it is an intro, I just hot the menu once I figured it out.
- Search results is a long conversation and search engines hide what they do savagely for obvious commercial reasons; so it's a bit of a black art.
- Searching for your name & finding you+photography is not much chop if you think about it :-). They have 95% of the info anyway.
- Almost certainly (without knowing what the code is doing), the flash is hurting you... I have a flash site for my family but I would NEVER build one for a commercial site that wanted some search traffic. Yeah, there are methods of doing both but to be honest it's too complex for the do it yourselfer and it's somewhat debatable how well it works and how long it will stay working as search engines get "smarter".
- It's generally thought that most engines pay little attention to meta tags now days.... certainly without other things.
- You will help yourself by getting links from other sites to yours... link swapping or listings can help.
- How do you market the site? Is it on prints you sell... do you run an email contact list? do you run online specials?

- IMO the images need to be larger also - unrelated to the finding stuff.

Good Luck.....

Edit: Sorry, saw one of my pet hates in a reply since I started typing... If you think hitting the print screen button is harder with a flash site then normal, continue to think you are making it harder but...... All this rubbish; transparent gif's, "hiding" stuff in flash, "disable" right click with java-script e.t.c. does not make it harder... In fact, depending how you feed the flash it might be making life easier... Would not have a nice XML file with all the loaded images or anything right? :-) The bottom line is they are online and getable with even basic knowledge.

Message edited by author 2008-01-22 20:31:58.
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