Improving my website

[sagephotoworld.com]

I'm looking into improving my website.

 

I'm not into spending money on my website though - whatever it is has to be free

- my budget is nil for websites.

 

So... How would you improve the site? I'm limited to free templates. I'm kinda

happy with the template although I might change the image at the top (which

shows 4 images) to something more corporate although I'm not sure what yet.

 

I might change the start page to be the portfolio since that's what people need

to see.

 

I'm also thinking of putting in several different slideshows along the lines of:

 

Product, Wedding, Event, Brochures, Catalogues etc.

 

I'm not quite sure how to do the different slideshows however, I could have

several on the lines of the one that I have on my portfolio page - all running

simulteneously or I could have a simple menu on the portfolio page or I could

have them as separate portfolio pages.

 

I am quite restricted by what I can do with website baker BUT it works and I

want to make the best I can with it, not having the money to pay for websites. I

am trying to get my business more on word of mouth than on webvertising.

 

My website is www.sagephotoworld.com

[geoffs1]

It seems OK to me. It passes my two basic tests: 1) it loads fast, and 2) it's easy to get all the important places.

 

The green background seems out of place with the photos, though. I'd personally go for the 'Sodelicious Black' or one of the other darker (or lighter if your portfolio runs more high-key) themes.

[argv]

Whenever anyone asks me this kind of question, it's always clear that they have no idea what their long-term business objectives are. If you knew, you'd allocate your most precious resource -- TIME -- towards activities that grow your business, and thus, you'd know whether you "really" needed to revise your website, and why and how.

 

Some photo businesses rely very heavily on web presence, and thus, their website. Stock shooters who represent themselves fall into this category. If you were a stock shooter, you'd know that people need to search your site for photos, and therefore, you'd need search capabilities in a web template. And if you needed search capabilities, you'd know that you needed to keyword your photos, and to have a shopping cart, and so on.... People in this line of work know what they need because there's a direct correlation between business income and the website, making the needs from the site somewhat self-evident.

 

Other business models only need to have a sufficient site for information and sample shoots just to give people basic info and contact details, because the "real" marketing is done using non-web based resources (like local print advertising, direct mail, etc).

 

If you are asking this question, you need to step back and consider your basic business model and what you're spending your time doing (and whether that time is translating into better/more business). Given what you said and what I've seen, your website should be much lower on your priority list. But that's not important yet--what's important is that you needed to make this assessment on your own.

 

dan

[mike dixon]

If you want to sell a service with your website, you need to demonstrate that you're good at that service. The four shots you have at the top of the homepage (presumably to hook customers into taking a closer look) are simply not strong images. You don't want potential customers to look at your work and think, "Hell, I can do that!" None of the images on your site dispel that notion.

 

You claim years of international experience and numerous publications in major newspapers and magazines; you need to post tearsheets and specific references. Anyone can claim anything on their website. You need to provide images that will back up your claims.

[sagephotoworld.com]

Well, I found a way of doing the slideshows better. It's very labour-intensive but it looks pretty decent. I'm working on that at the moment. The header image I replaced but it doesn't seem to have made a blind bit of difference - guess I'll have to rethink that one.

[christianaires]

The site itself was decent.

 

I wasn't to fond of the slideshow. I'm not very patient, and like to see what i want to see, when i want to see it.

 

But that's a personal preference.

 

I second what Mike says.

The four images were not strong. And if i was looking for a photographer, id probably skip your site based on those 4 images.

 

And back up what you say on your bio. Show us links. etc.

 

Also i would make that landing page completely different.

(http://www.sageworld.co.uk)

 

It doesn't speak professional to me.