Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Done

The site is fairly well laid out, but it does have a few problems. 

Your navigation bar.  When I go to a page, the nav bar segment for that page disappears. (Well, white text on white background disappears).  I have a short memory, and I didn`t know what page I was on.  This is also a good place to mention the title for each page - they are all the same.  The page title should be relevant to the page contents.

The more I listen to the music, the more I dislike it.  You are trying to appeal to an upscale market, but rap???  In my book, rap is not even music.  I am at the age of many of the MOB`s that you want to reach, and rap is a quick way to get me to go elsewhere.  I just kept listening to see how much worse the music got.  OK, the music didn`t get worse, but it is like your typography - all over the place.  (To everyone else - MOB means the Mother of the Bride.  It`s an inside term for wedding businesses).

Now that I mentioned typography...  Your fonts are usually too big.  One line is: "http://www.borkgren.co" and the next line is: "m".  I say usually because you change font size all over the page.  Very amateurish.  Also at the bottom of the "HeartNotes" page, there is some HTML showing.  Something didn`t close correctly.  More typography problems on the "Investment" page.

I would change "Investment" to "Prices".  You can explain how it`s really an investment in the page text.  Why prices?  People don`t search for "wedding photographers investment", they search for "wedding photographers prices".  Also in "investment", you change font size and color all over the page.  Yukk.  (The general rule in typography is no more than two fonts per page).  Further, your list in "investments" changes paragraph spacing twice.  There`s a gap between point 1 and point 2, and again from point 3 and point 4, but no gap between 2 and 3.

"Giving Back" - again the typography problems and the incomplete html code at the bottom of the page.  Nice touch, though.  It does make you more human to share this with your clients.  Clients are much more likely to work with a professional that they feel comfortable with.

On your home page, notably the many meta-tag keywords.  You seem to be preferring a Hispanic (Italian or Italian?) theme to your music and keywords, but you don`t put "Spanish Wedding" in the list?

It looks like your pages are mostly flash.  It`s pretty, but search engines can`t see the content inside a flash page.  That could seriously hurt your page rank with Google.

I really like your Photojournalism link, but this is a wedding photography website.  I would make the invitation to see your photojournalism work a small line at the bottom of the home page, not as a main entry on the navigation bar.

One more critique and I`ll be done with the bad news.  GET A PROFESSIONAL EMAIL.  Yes, I am shouting.  A gmail, yahoo or aol email account is the mark of a genuine amateur.  You have a domain, get a few mailboxes for names like: info@lovesimplyhappens, and sales@ and sherrlyn@.
But never, ever use yahoo or gmail for business email.  It just doesn`t project a professional image.

I said that I would have some good things to say....
Your photography is among some of the best that I`ve seen.  Your tribute to Ashraf is touching and the world needs to see more of these stories.

Final verdict on the music...  I would be willing to bet a dinner that the music is not licensed.  You so properly point out that your images are copyrighted and that you are using tracking code embedded in the images, but did you get permission to use the music?  This is not aimed directly at you, but I find it hypocritical of many wedding photographers that scream bloody murder when a MOB scans the images from the album to send to Aunt Martha who is in a Hospice and can`t possibly travel to the wedding, but they think nothing of putting popular songs on their Photo Album CD`s without ever seeking clearance from the artists` agency.

So, on the music.  Dump it.  It does not add value to the purpose of the website, which is to get the attention of the MOB and the brides.  Remember, people will do business from those professionals that they feel they know.  If I were designing this site (don`t look at mine - it sucks) I would put more of your images in the demo slide show, use some appropriate background music from one of thousands of royalty-free websites, and narrate the slides *in your own words and voice*.  It`s as if you are talking directly to the bride and her mom.  It will quickly break down the "stranger" wall and the first time you talk to them on the phone, they will feel like they already know you.

Hope this helps, now I gotta get back to work.



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Steve Mann
Internet Videographer
MannMade Digital Video
My Email

Hi there :-)
Fantastic photographs!!

That being said, and in addition to Steve`s extensive analysis, I`ll say that I didn`t like the site at all. Primarily for two reasons: Flash!, and almost complete lack of any kind of persuasive sales information.

Yes, you have some words. But because they`re in the Flash! slide show, they go by so fast, I have no idea what you said. Okay...not THAT fast...and they do stay there, but with things fading in, fading out, this and that...I just didn`t "see" anything.

I know enough people involved in planning weddings to understand that the one thing they don`t have is a lot of time and patience. They`re swamped, have a million details they`re trying to organize, and if they`re not using a professional wedding planner, they`re overwhelmed.

You, like EVERYONE on the Web, have about 4 seconds to persuade me to read more of your site. Your splash page (which has become sort of an obsolete way of doing things) has an astoundingly beautiful image! Then it just goes away.

When I started looking at the high-speed slide show, I didn`t see the "off" button for the music right away. I have a 19" LCD panel, high resolution, and I had to scroll to see it. Then, I only knew to look for it because you`d said it was there in the above post.

The images went by so fast I couldn`t really take time to look at them, see their beauty, and *feel* to myself, "Wow!...that`s the kind of thing I`d love to see in our wedding!"

Setting aside that I had no time to enjoy the site, there was nothing for me to read, nothing that tells me immediately what you`re offering---other than pictures---and nothing to catch my intellectual interest. You have nothing connecting your photography with the idea of "Buy my services and I`ll produce your wedding in images."

So bascially, it`s a copywriting issue. I`ve seen the same mistake in other photography sites, where the initial approach is to show photographs. Unfortunately, that`s not part of the *business* of photography. There are millions of photographers in the world, most of them amateur, all of them believing they`re "as good as" the best photojournalist on the planet.

Why should I choose you?

That`s the key to the business side of things. I`ll assume you`re a great photographer, and some of your images are excellent as attractions. That`ll get me to the site.....for 4 seconds. I`ll also want to *later* check out your portfolio, but it`d be nice to see elegant and tasteful examples sprinkled throughout the content and text.

But ultimately, I want to "talk with you." I want to hear you tell me why you`re a great addition to the wedding event. I don`t want bragging and hype, I`d just like to know that when it`s all said and done, I`ll have a fabulous memory book of the most important day. See?

How would I make it better? I`d spend some time looking at the layouts in news magazines with real longevity, which also focus on photojournalism. I`m thinking of People, Newsweek, Forbes, Business Week, Vogue, other fashion magazines, and so forth.

Look at the way they have headlines, pull quotes, font pathways, and how they use images to illustrate the content and to guide the reader`s eye to where they want those eyes to focus. If you must use Flash! you can create some glitz and shine, but I don`t see the point. You can just as easily do it in something search engines can read as well.

People "notice" photographs and images before everything else, but they "see" headlines first. Those headines transmit information that`s specific, where images transmit feelings. You can use the images to immediately get me feeling interested, but unless you focus that feeling into something I can remember, think about, and act upon, I`ll click away feeling good....but shopping elsewhere.

One thing I really don`t like, and barely realized was there at first ..... on the investment page in the right panel, at the bottom, is a 1 and text after it .... like there is a list, but it`s impossible to scroll it in Firefox ..... it barely works in IE ..... and its hard to read over the background image.

The music ... drop it completely .... even if it is appropriate, which I don`t know because I turned it off immediately, is one of the biggest annoyances on a site.

Your page titles and descriptions are tooooooooooooooooooo long .... make them unique and relevant for each page ..... since your site is flash, you need all the SEO help you can get on your pages.

On some pages, your name on the right side doesn`t even show up.

Great photos, love the simplicity of the look, and the flash aspect may appeal to viewers at first .... but this site is not designed to be effective for you.





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M Hall
Website Critique Community
International Society of Curmudgeons

Like where you are going.... I can tell that it is made from a template.  I would recommend getting a web designer to clean this up for you.  I work off templates for customers on tight budgets sometimes.  It is very doable.

Other comments:
1.  Music is fun, but many people find this annoying.  Especially if they are browsing at work.  Think about if you really need this or if you can let the site speak for itself.  If you choose to keep the music, you should have the OFF button in an obvious place so people can choose to turn it off.  As it is now, it is not easy to find right away.

2.  Why don`t you just have this as your homepage?  It is much better than the "entrance" homepage  http://www.lovesimplyhappens.com/index2.php?v=v1

3.  It may be frustrating to brides that each page takes time to load.

4.  You should consider setting up a merchant account or ecommerce package on your site instead of paypal.  Because you are dealing with transactions in the thousands of dollars, you have to consider that the average bride will not have paypal and probably will want to settle her bill with you online, rather than in the old fashion check form.  This puts you a cut above the rest.

5.  Nice pictures though... keep in touch and I would like to consider you for my destination wedding :)


best,

Media fairy I couldn`t disagree with you more.  Obviously you do not know the wedding business because it is all about who I am as a person and photographer.

 I am now booked into  2009 and I have been in business less than a year.  I have had to turn 2 couples away. 

 I just sold one of my upper end packages which is not cheap. The couple hired me because I am  photojournalist, the images they enjoyed in both wedding and journalism, and because they were able to learn enough about me that they like me as a person. They wanted a "real" photojournalist to shoot their wedding. Most couples who have hired me want a photojournalist and love talking about this at the wedding.

My new blog which  will soon be up and running will have even more personal information about me! Couples want a professional but they also love knowing who their photographer is.  Every  couple that has hired me has cared immensely where I have been educated.  I`m always open to suggestions but please know what you are talking about before trying to give advice.  I love constructive thoughts when they are correct. I had some very good wedding planners go over my site last week on another forum and received such different reviews than here.

 I definitely gleaned a few good details of advice from here and it made me go over my spelling. It`s so darn hard to write into these tiny little boxes that I am given on the website and there is no spell check. It won`t let me insert from word.  It`s frustrating to say the least. I would never buy a site in this style again. It`s just that I paid for it and now feel I need to use it. Yay my customized blog is coming soon.
I am always tweaking.  I`m going to see if I can get my website question off of startupnation.