jennea Posted January 2, 2005 Share Posted January 2, 2005 Does anyone have any recommendations of companies that design/host websites? I've found one that specifically works with photographers (bludomain.com) but I was hoping you all might have others I could check out. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wedding-photography-denver Posted January 2, 2005 Share Posted January 2, 2005 I love bludomain.com I am in process with them and think for the $$ they are great. Aundrea is the contact I have and I can recommend her and the team highly. Others offer similar (although not as good IMO) but don't seem as artistic. Just my $0.02 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jennea Posted January 2, 2005 Author Share Posted January 2, 2005 Thanks David! They do seem quite good. It's nice to hear from someone who's actually worked with them. As you can probably tell I'm working on starting my own business and trying to cover all the bases. Having a hard time coming up with a name, though. Wish me luck! Jennea Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gmahler5th Posted January 3, 2005 Share Posted January 3, 2005 The thing I didn't like about BlueDomain is that they force you into their hosting plans. I already have a web hosting provider and I want more control over design/development than they offer. (As a Web developer myself, this is to be expected.) There is not doubt that they create stunning designs, but they want to keep control over their products. For photographers who need to outsource their web hosting and development, its probably a fine choice. Another thing that I didn't like is that, while their visual styles are all different, the Flash web page functionality of the sites they make are the same. Your Flash site will look and feel like a cookie cutter website, in spite of the razzle dazzle flash interface. Best of luck to you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve_hovland Posted January 3, 2005 Share Posted January 3, 2005 Use your own name as the company name. A cute name will hurt your business. HTML is not much harder than word processing. Start with HTML for Dummies. A lot of photographers have outdated web sites because they can't afford the cost of keeping them current. If you do a simple site yourself then you can keep it up to date. The people who provide your email account may also provide web space at no additional charge. My Earthlink account gives me 80 mb of web space, more than enough. Earthlink and others also provide tools for building your own site. A company like www.1accredited.com can host your domain name, which can link to the website on your email account. There are people who strongly disagree with me, but I advocate extremely simple sites, even though I am a professional programmer and could do anything I want in terms of technology. I am about to rewrite my site and it will be pure HTML. You can go to my site www.stevehovland.net and look at the events section to see how the next version of my site will operate. If you are interested I would do web work for $50 per hour or coach you for the same rate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m_p7 Posted January 3, 2005 Share Posted January 3, 2005 I'd recommend learning HTML and CSS and building your own. I'm taking the week off to build mine. For hosting, I use <a href="http://www.bluehost.com/track/pynephot/photonet20040103wed"> bluehost.com </a>. HTML isn't that hard to learn, and you'll have control. I don't like flash websites. They look cool, but how are you going to make changes later? Some people don't have flash installed, or don't like it either. IMHO, XHTML and CSS is the way to go. For an example of what can be done with CSS, look at <a href="http://www.csszengarden.com">csszengarden.com</a>. Same HTML, different CSS gives you endless design possibilities. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricM Posted January 3, 2005 Share Posted January 3, 2005 Michael, glad the bludomain.com worked out for you. I didn't realize you had to host with them though. In a perfect world, I thought you could just buy a template off them and even alter the flash if it didn't suit you. I do not recommend building your own site. For some reason, wedding photographers more than any other genre in photography, have a go at making their own graphics and web sites. Who do you PERCIEVE to be more successful, a professional driving a fancy german car or a beat up domestic? Who would you instill more confidence in? I can't understand why some people make lousy web sites on their own when they are competing with so many professionals. Your web page is often your first introduction to prospects; what kind of car are you going to drive? Event photography is highly competitive and an amateur web site pegs you as such. If you care about your craft, demonstrate and present it as such. If you can build this on your own then go for it. Otherwise and expert is invaluable and it will pay for itself in the long run with more bookings. I recommend html for wedding photographers for ease of updates and maintenance. The easiest thing for people to remember is your name, and also for search engine results, should be used over a gimmick name like Steve mentioned. I wouldn't even put photo in the url. On your front page, include your name as many times as tastefully possible as the search engines distinguish this as legitimate info and you'll soon pop to the top if anyone enters your name in google. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jennea Posted January 3, 2005 Author Share Posted January 3, 2005 Thanks all. Eric, I have the same feelings as you about both a business name and using a professional to create my website. I relate creating your own website to having uncle Bob photograph your wedding. Not a good idea. My forte is photojournalistic photography (documenting weddings and other events or important happenings in life). Typically, people in my target market have more money (thus can afford a higher speed connection to the net) and are more web-savy (thus would be able to use basic java, flash, etc.). As for a name...any ideas? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve_hovland Posted January 3, 2005 Share Posted January 3, 2005 Ah, but what do you mean by professional design? There are a lot of people out there building sites who are indulging themselves at the expense of their clients, actually hurting them by making sites that are slow and incomprehensible. Also, more and more people are running tighter and tighter security these days. How many people still use popups, not knowing or caring about the common use of popup blockers? Or Flash blockers? You could start by looking at a lot of sites for your competitors, and noting which ones you find irksome. And you will find them. If someone calls you after finding you on the web, they have probably called a bunch of other people too. When the phone rings, what will you do to separate yourself from the crowd? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricM Posted January 3, 2005 Share Posted January 3, 2005 i don't know your first name, but i recommend that with your last name. just for giggles i searched, with crossed fingers for moore.com and of course it is taken, but expires on mar 17 if you want to be quick and they sleep at the wheel. how do you pronounce your surname? like 'more'? maybe moorephotos.com ? i didn't include photo or photography in mine or an underscore. you need something people can remember, and a name in one word is the easiest with .com imo. i also think domain names, and .com the most popular, will be snapped up like phone book registrations soon, so i grabbed mine while i could. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jennea Posted January 3, 2005 Author Share Posted January 3, 2005 My first name is Jennea. I actually own the rights to jennea.com (and have for about 5+ years, not that I've ever put anything on it), but I don't know that I want Jennea as my business name. If I could somehow play off the Moore (as in more) thing. This has been plaguing me for quite some time now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricM Posted January 3, 2005 Share Posted January 3, 2005 "Ah, but what do you mean by professional design?" <a href="http://www.fotografz.com/">This</a> instead of <a href="http://www.photobyalan.com/">this</a> for starters. Did you really need to ask this question Steve? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricM Posted January 3, 2005 Share Posted January 3, 2005 The biggest trick to site registration is choosing something that works with verbal communication and memory. Your first name is difficult for strangers to pass on via word of mouth and have them enter it into google or as an url address. You probably hate being called Jen? And if anyone says check out your work at moorephoto.com they might be trying to spell it with a single 'o'. Oh conundrums eh. I dropped the ball a few years ago by not registering some really simple urls that of course are now snapped up. jenmoore.com, I can remember that by the time I get home or type it in from a verbal que. Sometimes we hate personally what we have to do for marketing, but sometimes we have to do what works. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve_hovland Posted January 3, 2005 Share Posted January 3, 2005 Marc's home page is basically OK, but the music is irritating. The layout is nice but the movement uses up bandwidth without providing any information or functionality. The moving graphic display of the music in the upper left corner will distract the user from the pictures. The opening image on Alan's is much more graphic than any of the images on the home page of the other site. All of the functions are clearly labeled using common terms. Yes, Marc's site looks more sophisticated but it has usability problems which will actually impair its effectiveness. The best professional web designers are good with both graphics and usability. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jennea Posted January 3, 2005 Author Share Posted January 3, 2005 Unfortunately jenmoore.com won't work because in my 27 years of life I've never once been called Jen. My dad made everyone stick only to jennea. I wish I could think of something that had nothing to do with my name. Why is this so difficult? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve_hovland Posted January 3, 2005 Share Posted January 3, 2005 Your first name is quite distinctive. Your whole name is 3 easy to pronounce syllables. If a company name choice has been holding you back it may because you are overlooking the obvious. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricM Posted January 3, 2005 Share Posted January 3, 2005 Marc's page is great because you don't need to use a single back button. The music is an option. There are only two galleries, an idea I really like. You can surf through it quicker even though it has three times the content of the other. It demonstrates that he gives a sh*t about his work and how it is displayed and this is an underlying feeling people will get when comparing photographers for their day. Again, this about first impressions and who gets hired. Like it or not, it's about choosing between a well dressed person in a german import and someone wearing ripped jeans in a rusty Honda civic. This is about marketing Steve. Something you keep demonstrating you know very little about. It is not about building an easy site for someone to be referencing material from the library while working on their masters degree. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve_hovland Posted January 3, 2005 Share Posted January 3, 2005 Eric, you seem to be hung up on the issue of not using the back button. It so happens that usability research indicates that the back button is one of the most commonly understood and used features on the web browser. I do agree that going back and forth between thumbnails and enlarged images is slightly irritating, which is why the next version of my site won't have them. Yes, a nice display is important, but it can't compensate for bad pictures. And what is nice display? Something loaded with visual gimmicks? Go to the high end magazines like Town and Country and learn from them. The people who do usability studies use video cameras to see what people do with their eyes. I bet that if you video'd a visitor to Marc's site you would see their eyes wandering around trying to figure out how it worked, and you would see their eyes jumping back to the equalizer graphic from time to time. That would not be good for Marc. On Alan's site you would see 4 decisive eye moves, first to his name on top, then to the menu (because we read top to bottom, left to right), then to the picture, then back to the menu to look at the portfolios. Actually marketing is a long-term interest of mine and every day I think about where the money is and how to get more of it. When I go out to initial meetings I dress well enough to make a strong impression. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jennea Posted January 3, 2005 Author Share Posted January 3, 2005 Okay, I didn't mean to start a fight guys. The site I'm looking into doing is a happy medium between the two (for an example go to http://www.sergiophotographer.com/). It gives the simple yet technologically advanced first impression that I feel would motivate my target market to hire me. And, yes, I am talented so I'm not just trying to hide my inability with a flashy website. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricM Posted January 3, 2005 Share Posted January 3, 2005 you didn't start a fight. this has been going on for a half dozen threads, hasn't it Steven? we can agree on that one at least, right? :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve_hovland Posted January 3, 2005 Share Posted January 3, 2005 Re Sergio: The home page design is good, but doesn't really require the additional cost of Flash programming. If you run across a site that says "Flash required" the message that comes across may be: "Go away, I don't need your business. That's why I loaded this site up with techie stuff, to keep dummies away." The music is a problem. It is irritating the 2nd time you hear it and I think it is impolite to force it on the user. Also, if the user is cruising in the office, it may draw embarrassing attention to her. The menu is confusing: Weddings, More Wedddings, Featured Wedding. Don't be cute with menu headings. Use common words like Home, Portfolio, Contact Us. I don't know what the heck "Sergio" means on this menu, or why it is where it is. It is not blindingly obvious that you need to roll over the word "menu" to get the menu. The first thing that may come to mind is "Where is the *()(*)(*)(* menu." Don't talk about the menu. Show it. The galleries take quite awhile to load even on DSL, and visitors might bail out before viewing them if they have a slow line. Eric is right about first impressions, so don't mystify people, don't irritate them, don't confuse them, and don't keep them waiting. To learn more, go to: www.useit.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricM Posted January 3, 2005 Share Posted January 3, 2005 both Marc and Serg's site have off buttons for the music. how much time are you actually analyzing these sites? Marc's however keeps the equalizer bouncing around for some reason. music is a silly idea i think anyway. however, an audible click or something should happen to confirm an action. back buttons: we don't need them in well designed photo sites. we don't take a step backwards in any other form of navigation, photo web sites should be designed similar. Could you imagine walking back to the front of the grocery store every time you wanted to go up a different aisle? That's why you can view three times the content in half the time from Marcs' site over the other one. I like Segio's proofing section very much. One, it's very convenient for online proofing and sales. Two, you can further view what he has shot and what his typical results are for a gig if you book him. Three, you can see how busy and in demand he is. I think couples want to see who they are hiring just as imortantly as the images, so I don't mind the bio up front and first. It displays confidence and arrogance, something that may be a positive attribute here in wedding photogrpahy. I, like Steve, would of worded the weddings into something simpler like weddings 1, weddings 2, etc. as the featured wedding isn't much different. It's one of the better wedding sites I've been to, thanks Jennea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jennea Posted January 3, 2005 Author Share Posted January 3, 2005 You are very welcome. P.S. That one was done by bludomain.com. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricM Posted January 3, 2005 Share Posted January 3, 2005 you can tell it was done by them, like someone mentioned above, it's become cookie cutter like. which is okay, people like the familar. i think they have a good product for the price too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve_hovland Posted January 3, 2005 Share Posted January 3, 2005 Here's an important point: When software engineers start to design a web site or a piece of software, we don't start by thinking about cool technology. We start by asking: what do the users need to do here? Once we know that, we build the functionality and test it. Only then might we consider "cool technology." On a photographer's site, the most important things are seeing some pictures and being able to contact the photographer if you like what you see. The main problem with Flash is that by now everyone has seen a whole bunch of those sites with things moving around on them. The novelty has passed, and now irritation, not admiration, is an increasingly common response, particularly when people have to wait. And those sites that offer you a choice of flash or html are totally off the planet in terms of understanding their visitors. But there's a bunch of impoverished webbies out there who don't know what else to do, so they just keep selling it like it was the lastest and greatest gotta-have-it-or-you're-dead. Since I live at ground zero for the dot.com bust (the Mission District in San Francisco), I step over their corpses on a regular basis :-) You might not think too much of this site: http://www.danheller.com/ but Dan tells me he gets so many print orders that he doesn't bother with any order less than $250. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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