new daily blog about where to take travel photos

[jeff_greenberg]

http://WhereToTakePhotos.com

 

Any suggestions for improvement appreciated!

regards jg

[christopheroquist]

Hey Jeff,<br><br>

Checked out the blog, it's a cool idea, but there are some things I would consider changing:<br><br>

1) The bouncing red title: That kind of visually loud element screams "amateur" in a website and is a bit

annoying. I would definitely make it static. Also, all the big sans serif text in the header over the divider

line looks adds to the amateur look - I would try a similar font that's maybe not as generic, like a heavy

Verdana or Tahoma.<br><br>

2) Structure: I would consider taking the title/header and justifying left, flush with the journal entry text. It

will give everything a more "laid-out" and organized look, which you've already started to go for by segregating

the "About the blogger" and other info in the gray box on the left. Actually, if you put a few breaks between the

header and journal entries, you can do away with the double-line separator and it might look a little cleaner

while still implying the division.<br><br>

3) Consider setting up an archive, table of contents, or some other kind of organizational page, linked to the

homepage, right under the header or in the navigation on the right. After you've added a bunch of locations, no

one will want to sift through the page to find a specific place, and if there isn't a way to browse, they might

not bother looking. For instance, you may have a page on The Berkshires but I wouldn't necessarily bet on it. If

I reached your page and was interested, I wouldn't bother searching for it, but if you had an archive index, I

might look at the New England section and give it a quick scan.<br><br>

4) The watermarks on your images are a bit intense and detract from the look of the site. I don't now too much

about how much is stolen in the visitor bureau industry, but if there's no need for protecting these lo-res web

images, you might consider putting the contact or copyright info out of the way, on a corner of each image.

People who will come to the blog will ideally also want to enjoy the photos you're putting up, and all that

diagonal text is distracting.<br><br>

Looks like your off to a good start though. By tightening the design up in general it should look pretty good!

Just some constructive criticism, hopefully you find something useful!<br><br>

Best of luck,<br><br>

[jeff_greenberg]

Thanks. Have limited website building skills but applied some of your advice.

 

The bigger problem is lack of visitors -- first day was 400+

Have simultaneous blogs at blogspot, wordpress, etc., which is attempt to funnel visitors to my domain name but there are few or no readers to funnel -- e.g., a flickr "Travel Photography" discussion group with 25K+ members is where I invited others to visit blog but discussion group, it turns out, only gets a few postings daily! I naively envisioned easily building up to 10K+ daily visitors whom visitor bureaus would view as potential tourists...

 

Your other point -- as a stock shooter I have to do what I can to hinder unauthorized useage of images.

 

Jeff Greenberg / http://WhereToTakePhotos.com

[gordon_lukesh1]

Consider using a white text "crawler" at the top, less distracting IMHO.