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Here is my website.
Please use the pull down tabs to see all my work.
Thank you!
🙂
Lala Photography
http://www.takenbylala.comHi there,
It’s great that you’ve got your site online. Way to go!
My first thought is that you should trim your images down dramatically.
Only choose some of your very best images to showcase on the main area of your site. You can then backfill and flush out your site with the rest of your image libary.
The title tags on your main page are:
Siesta Key, Miami Beach, Sarasota, TampaI would recommend you put at least your name there.
In fact I would recommend your name being on your site more frequently assuming you want to be known.
The contact me page needs some work as well. The facebook links don’t work and the paypal button doesn’t work either.
The site itself is a bit heavy and the main page weighs in at about 1.5MB. That’s not a problem if you expect your visitors to have fast internet.
http://tools.pingdom.com/fpt/#!/tJ8mP7tPp/http://www.takenbylala.com/Even with extremely fast internet the models inquiry page will take almost 17 seconds to load and is like 20MB (very heavy)
http://tools.pingdom.com/fpt/#!/Imwns6xwH/http://www.takenbylala.com/#!models-inquiry/c22d8So you may want to reduce the size and the number of images on certain pages.
I would remove these images from being featured prominently as they are not your strongest:
http://static.wix.com/media/f57ec0_2c228fe70173cd1ecfc22b10cbca9624.jpg (the pose doesn’t work, although sunset is good!)
http://static.wix.com/media/f57ec0_5325d00e102785992c6ded6064f0f20c.jpg (out of focus)
http://static.wix.com/media/f57ec0_703320c5a9a83bf96dca3bb05ab2432b.jpg (the tree is overpowering)
http://static.wix.com/media/f57ec0_b7236d22e692c97ceb06ca33f464849b.jpg (same)
http://static.wix.com/media/f57ec0_d8e2a3d3ba144a1def2eb861bc7cabe4.jpg (everything is great except her bikini bottoms look a bit odd…)Again I want to emphasize that the best thing to do is remove all of your weakest images and showcase only the strongest.
Also focus on what you want your users to do.
Do you want them to contact you, browse your images, or hire you?
Keep in mind when you are using a service like wix you are very dependant on them. They may not be in business in 5 years or 10 years so just beware.
Also don’t be afraid to showcase your modelling website that I saw on the contact page. You should feature the fact that you we’re (or are) also a model. I’m sure up and coming models would love to be photographed by someone who has been there and done that… One way to link the sites together is to use the footer of your website. You could put something like this:
Lala Photography by Laura Marie Odonnell
In other words I think you should feature yourself more prominently.
In any case you’ve done well and I don’t want you to be discouraged by this criticism. I just want your site to do well!
The more you work on your website the better it will do over time!
Websites are never finished. They are works in progress.
Keep shooting and having fun with it!
Thank you for such good insight.
I had no idea you could test your page’s time to upload and i agree it is a bite heavy.
I like wix but i do think they are a small company not sure. Any companies comparative to this one you feel are better? My host cite is from godaddy i think they are larger?
Will limit the images you mentioned and the main page it does feel overwhelming to a client.Still in the process and excited of setting up pay pall and facebook page for this site. So far clients have been paying on a check/cash basis but i think the pay pall looks more professional? I’m not sure… The business part of photography is still a learning curve.
I like the footer suggestion: Just didn’t know if I would be over selling myself as a model instead of a photographer (i’m a bit timid for self advertising). But currently i’m shooting a calendar for 2014/15 and the models i have gotten all said they wanted to work with me because of my previous experience so maybe this would work.
Anyways thanks for all the pointers and yes this cite is and never will be 100 percent finished! I’m always changing it as i evolve or get new ideas, shots, and critiques thanks! 😆
Just keep working on it when you can.
Add to it regularly and treat it like a garden. Tend to it regularly and cut the weeds etc etc.
I would recommend two things. One is Flickr and the other is photoshelter.
If you want to take your photography site seriously go with photoshelter. They do everything you could possibly need for a photography website.
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