jermscentral
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 p.1 #5 · Website Pricing/Options...? | |
I designed my own site and wrote it in Notepad, but it's nothing like a BluDomain site.
I opted against the Flash design after reading about search engines and finding sites, blah blah blah. Being a Lightsphere user, I started reading Gary Fong's Xanga blog (yeah, it's often full of random and nonsensical/useless information), and he had a post from a bride that was talking about what websites appealed to her.
Someone mentioned in another thread how photographers seem to design their sites to wow other photographers rather than to present information to potential clients, often resulting in barely navigable pages or having music just start blaring from the user's speakers. Sure, it can be aesthetic to listen to soothing music while watching pictures fade in and out in Flash, but a lot of user control is lost by doing that. First, I have to manually mute the music, especially if I'm already listening to something else -- as photographer website music and rock music don't mix -- and then in a lot of cases, I watch the photo slideshow and am unable to go back to a picture until it cycles around again (this isn't always the case, since so many have Portfolio links).
My advice would be to not take the easy way out by having someone like BluDomain make your site. Granted, I would probably get blasted by several that think BluDomain hung the moon. Don't get me wrong -- they have great looking sites. By creating it yourself, you can think about what brides are looking for and implement it in to your design rather than getting a cookie-cutter website that looks identical to so many other photographers that all went with the same host. Think about the layout and what a bride wants to see rather than what you or a web designer think the bride should see. Remember, it's two totally different audiences. In many situations, the crappy-looking sites get more bookings simply because of how much easier it is to find information on the site. Give her the option to navigate freely, and especially let her be able to get to samples of your work quickly. That's the main reason they're at your site -- to see your pictures, and, if they like you, how much you cost. Don't make them sit through a slideshow over which they have no control. As an added bonus, it doesn't cost you anything more than time spent writing the code for the site.
Edited on Feb 06, 2008 at 03:38 PM
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