My new website - Looking for opinions.

achtungbarry

Hello all and very happy new year to everybody here,

I've been working like a mad think over Chistmas to finally get my website up and running properly.

I'd love to hear your opinions on the layout, usabiliy etc. all comments and opinions are welcome and appreciated.

Thre are already 2 tutorials on in the "Photography Tutorials" section that may be of particular interst some people here.

I will be adding more tutorials (on photography technique and photosop etc) in the future so keep an eye on the site if they are of interest to you.

There is also a blog section where I display my most recent shots along with descriptions of how they were taken and post processed. Again I will be updating this regularly.

http://www.barryocarroll.com/

Thanks

I can obviously only speak for myself, but I like it.

Read both of the 'tutorials', and would be interested in reading more of them.

I do have a suggestion though, is there anything you can do to the site, possibly way that people can become registered members and get email updates when you write a new tutorial? Something like that seems like it would be a good idea, to ensure that, for you, people get to read what you write, and for people like me, to keep up to date on what you're posting. (Maybe it's already there but I missed it?)


I also like how you word your tutorials. The blog post went a bit over my head (I'm not very camera literate at the moment) but the tutorials seem to have been kept plain, straight forward and simple.

Also like the external links. Snapmad looks interesting. Must register with them.



Anyway, overall, I'm liking it, and I hope you're happy with it.

pixbyjohn

Excellent site and nice photography. Easy to navigate.

Nobrow

Pretty good effort for a what I assume is a camera nerd rather than a computer nerd.

Two things which you should fix immediately. Get rid of the hit counter. It screams of web 1.0 and gives a bad odour to the whole site. And get rid of the "Coming Soon" page(s). If you don't have the section, then don't put it in the navigation!

I feel like the font is too large in places, and that in general you have too much content below the fold.

Basically pretty good though.

dazftw

The thumbnails are a bit on the small side, I actually cant tell what the photo is unless I click it!

achtungbarry

Thanks for the comments so far everyone. Taken on board and much appreciated.

I have now added a register for updates section so people can receive news about new tutorials and website additions.

sold

Really nice. Photos are really amazing. The only change I would make is somthing other that the black background, after all, you are an artist so your website should reflect that.

sold

your Path in the Woods, Versailles, is excellent. Did you really take it? Love how you captured the sky. Can I order a copy from your website.

achtungbarry

sold wrote: »

your Path in the Woods, Versailles, is excellent. Did you really take it? Love how you captured the sky. Can I order a copy from your website.

Hi and thanks for your comments. You can go to the"Buy Prints" section for details about buying a print.

-Chris-

Why should I register for your site? What's in it for me to give you my details?

For keeping people up to date you either want to have the RSS feed very easily accessible, or you want to have a very easy "submit your email address, sign-up for the newsletter" button.

I like the overall look and feel, although I'd get rid of the "welcome" bit and "about this website" off the front page.

I really like some of the photos (the 2CV is very cool, but I'm a car guy ).

achtungbarry

-Chris- wrote: »

Why should I register for your site? What's in it for me to give you my details?

For keeping people up to date you either want to have the RSS feed very easily accessible, or you want to have a very easy "submit your email address, sign-up for the newsletter" button.

Woah, chill man.

People can register if they choose to so that they can be told when there are new tutorials available. I guess this is what is "in it for somebody" who does decide to register. Some people may be intersted inthe tutorials. But there is no obligation to register to view the site.

I guess it is like asking to receive a newsletter.

In fact it was somebody on this thread who suggested it, a suggestion I thought was an excellent idea and took on board. In fact, I now have 10 registered members so big thanks for that idea.

The rss feed is a good idea and there is one on the blog but I should maybe make it more visable.

Thanks for the feedback so far folks. Appreciated.

-Chris-

achtungbarry wrote: »

Woah, chill man.

Sorry, tone of voice often doesn't translate online, I amended my post with a smiley when I realised that it sounded a little harsh... :D

achtungbarry wrote: »

People can register if they choose to so that they can be told when there are new tutorials available. I guess this is what is "in it for somebody" who does decide to register. Some people may be intersted inthe tutorials. But there is no obligation to register to view the site.

I guess it is like asking to receive a newsletter.

In fact it was somebody on this thread who suggested it, a suggestion I thought was an excellent idea and took on board. In fact, I now have 10 registered members so big thanks for that idea.

The rss feed is a good idea and there is one on the blog but I should maybe make it more visable.

Thanks for the feedback so far folks. Appreciated.

If you're an ecommerce site, then everyone needs to be registered and verified before you can transact with them, or if you have a discussion forum where you want to control who has access to contribute, then you want to create barriers to entry like registration.

IMHO your site needs to be more of a "push" site, where you make it as easy as possible for your content to proliferate so you can build your personal brand and introduce more people to your photography and establish you as an expert.
For that I'd be setting up an RSS feed that included your blog posts, your new photos and your new tutorials.
I rarely visit my favorite websites, I get it all through Google Reader. I also tend to sign up to newsletters, but far prefer getting it all by RSS in Reader.

Do the register/newsletter/rss thing as you see fit, but be aware that some surfers are very wary of handing over personal details and email addresses. There are way too many ways to get spammed nowadays.

P.S. I'm saying this as someone who'd be interested in keeping up to date with your tutorials etc.

-Chris-

P.P.S. These are my current RSS subscriptions. I'm sure other posters can contribute more.
Get on Google Reader, subscribe to a good few feeds (especially ones like digitalphotographyschool.net or strobist) to see what your output will look like in an RSS reader - you lose all your look-and-feel and all that's left is the content.
Also subscribe to Seth Godin's blog - he's the king of permission marketing. You'll get loads of ideas from him.


http://feeds.feedburner.com/adobelightroomkillertips

http://www.greyscalegorilla.com/index.php?x=rss

http://allenvenables.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

http://www.chromasia.com/iblog/index.xml

http://wvs.topleftpixel.com/index_fullfeed.rdf

http://www.dailysnap.com/rss.xml

http://www.deceptivemedia.co.uk/rss.asp

http://feeds.feedburner.com/DigitalPhotographySchool

http://www.diyphotography.net/node/feed

http://www.filemagazine.com/thecollection/atom.xml

http://mute.rigent.com/rss/mutefeed.xml

http://www.dpreview.com/news/dpr.rdf

http://strobist.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

http://www.thenarrative.net/index.rdf

achtungbarry

-Chris- wrote: »

Sorry, tone of voice often doesn't translate online, I amended my post with a smiley when I realised that it sounded a little harsh... :D




If you're an ecommerce site, then everyone needs to be registered and verified before you can transact with them, or if you have a discussion forum where you want to control who has access to contribute, then you want to create barriers to entry like registration.

IMHO your site needs to be more of a "push" site, where you make it as easy as possible for your content to proliferate so you can build your personal brand and introduce more people to your photography and establish you as an expert.
For that I'd be setting up an RSS feed that included your blog posts, your new photos and your new tutorials.
I rarely visit my favorite websites, I get it all through Google Reader. I also tend to sign up to newsletters, but far prefer getting it all by RSS in Reader.

Do the register/newsletter/rss thing as you see fit, but be aware that some surfers are very wary of handing over personal details and email addresses. There are way too many ways to get spammed nowadays.

P.S. I'm saying this as someone who'd be interested in keeping up to date with your tutorials etc.

No problem, I guess things don't always read the way we mean them on line.

I am really interested in your idea of a feed system and I will definitley work on it.

For the moment, I just want a kind of blog and place to share photos and maybe share some photography tips. If I can sell a few prints along the way then great but that is not the principle aim of the site..... for now anway:pac:.

I teach a lot of photography stuff in my photo group so this is just another way to share info.

Thanks for the links. I'll give them a good study.

Just registered on the site. Cheers OP and best of luck with it.

veryrandom

I just stumbled on this thread, i like the look of your site a lot, its simple and straightforward and easy to navigate. I am looking into making a website myself and was just curious as to what you used to make it?

achtungbarry

veryrandom wrote: »

I just stumbled on this thread, i like the look of your site a lot, its simple and straightforward and easy to navigate. I am looking into making a website myself and was just curious as to what you used to make it?

I used webs.com. No real knowledge of website building/html etc needed although you can adapt templates by chenging the html if you want.

It is very very simple to use.

Best of luck building your website. Let me know if you need any help or if you have questions about webs.com.

Freddie59

Great site. Love the tutorials.:) Brief and to the point. Sometimes tutorials ramble on and on.

democrates

Ok nicely done overall. How about the current page being in white on the menu so you can see instantly where you are?

Having to put "Click on the tutorial you want to read." or any other navigation instruction is usually a good sign that hyperlinks need to be made obvious using other cues. That quotation above has a similar colour to the menu links but it's not clickable, maybe keep that lilac for clickables and page titles only and use some other tone for headings and other emphasis.

The tutorials list could be bulleted/numbered or otherwise made to stand out, and/or not be in body text colour.

Also, Barry, I have my own little proboard I mess about with a lot (not photography related). Changing it around a lot, I've come across a few sites that help out with different things to make your site look better. Now I'm not entirely sure how simple or complex webs is, but if they're any use to you;


cooltext.com

grsites.com


They have really easy-to-use button makers and "logo" makers (I use the word "logo" loosely, they just have a wide array of fonts). The buttons on Cooltext may be handy for you for your site, rather than plain text as buttons.


Don't get me wrong, your site is handy enough as it is, but just incase you wanted to play about with it.