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Microstock Photography Forum - General => General Stock Discussion => Topic started by: Peter on March 06, 2008, 15:01

Title: my personal web site for promotion
Post by: Peter on March 06, 2008, 15:01
Here is my new web site to promote my stock images, and make some affiliate partners:

http://www.dinostock.com/


what do you think about it? I like simple design. And I am not web designer too. :)
Title: Re: my personal web site for promotion
Post by: nickp37 on March 06, 2008, 15:14
I like it!

It's nice and clean, a simple one-page design. The portfolio links open in a new window, that's good. The only problem I see right off is the referral banners at the bottom. The fotolia and stockxpert images won't load. I had the same problem on my site, so I just copied them to my server rather than linking to the images on their servers.
-Nick
Title: Re: my personal web site for promotion
Post by: takestock on March 06, 2008, 15:23
As above - it's nice and clean and uncluttered.

I had no problem with the portfolio links.
Title: Re: my personal web site for promotion
Post by: Peter on March 06, 2008, 15:26
tnx nick, I'll solve this problem tonight. (but it loads for me OK, but anyway I'll put an image to my server).


tnx all.
Title: Re: my personal web site for promotion
Post by: MikLav on March 06, 2008, 15:43
I like simple design too (you can check my site) but putting everything on just one page isn't truly simplicity in my opinion... and having many small pictures without any links doesn't help either - I would either link them to larger previews, or to the same images on a stock site.

this is my 3 cents :)

P.S. BTW any feedback/constructive criticism about my sites is welcome and appreciated (links in my signature)
Title: Re: my personal web site for promotion
Post by: nickp37 on March 06, 2008, 15:46
tnx nick, I'll solve this problem tonight. (but it loads for me OK, but anyway I'll put an image to my server).


tnx all.

Strange, perhaps the problem is on my end? All I got was red "x"'s for FL and StockXpert. The istock banner loaded fine.

Oh, and I agree with MikLav, link those images to one of your portfolios!
Title: Re: my personal web site for promotion
Post by: Peter on March 06, 2008, 15:56
nick, I fixed it. Try to refresh site, now baners should load from my server.

miklav, thank you, but those 16 images at frontpage are just tiny fraction of my work, I have almost 6000+ images online, I can not decide what to put... I dont see the purpose of puting links to 16 of 6000 images...  there are links to portfolios and I think it is enough. Also, I am not web designer, this design is enough complicated for me! hehehehe....
Title: Re: my personal web site for promotion
Post by: nickp37 on March 06, 2008, 16:32
I see the banners now! Looks good!

Linking the images is a pretty simple process. If a designer sees an image they like, they probably won't want to search through other sites just to find it again. Especially if the image is in one portfolio, say fotolia, but not in another, like istock, for whatever reason.

...pause as I check  your site again...

Ah, I just noticed that the images are not thumbnails, but rather a single large image!  Because they look like thumbnails, I, and presumably others, assumed that they were. If you are going for a single image composition, I would suggest making it look like a single image. Then people won't try clicking on the individual shots to get a closer look.

If you like the thumnail look, you could set up a simple table with an image in each cell, this should be pretty easy in most editors, but it would take a little time. Alternatively, you could create an image map of the large image to add links, but that can get more complicated.

Here's an example of the table on my site (the featured images section):
http://www.piccillophoto.com/stockphoto.html (http://www.piccillophoto.com/stockphoto.html)

And here's an image map (from an old site I designed):
http://www.piccillophoto.com/purelight/plindex.htm (http://www.piccillophoto.com/purelight/plindex.htm)

Let me know if I can help with any of this.
-Nick
Title: Re: my personal web site for promotion
Post by: Peter on March 06, 2008, 16:51
tnx for your sugestion. At contrary if the buyers like some of those images, I want them to visit my porftolio because there is whole series of simmilar images they may want to buy... :) I dont  want to make links to few images, because I have so many of them, I want buyers to visit my porftolio. I suggested fotolia. :)

Thank you for your suggestions, but I wont make table or any links on each image... And on which site would I do that? Those images on front page I have on almost every site. It would be unfair to make a link. I put all my portfolios (some are in building process like istock), and the buyer will decide where to buy. :)


Those 16 images on the front page are just to show my style, and technique.... there are much more to explore within portfolios....
Title: Re: my personal web site for promotion
Post by: nickp37 on March 06, 2008, 17:05
That makes sense.

If you could just work the images into a single composition it might eliminate the confusion, however. It might be as simple as adding a border around all of them, or something. Just so they don't look like clickable thumbnails. Just my 2 cents though (probably closer to 10 by now  ;D).
Title: Re: my personal web site for promotion
Post by: Peter on March 07, 2008, 02:14
 :) tnx. We'll see what can be done :)
Title: function toString() { [native code]}
Post by: ff on March 07, 2008, 02:46

function toString() {
    [native code]
}
Title: Re: my personal web site for promotion
Post by: fotografer on March 07, 2008, 03:33
Nice uncluttered looking web page.  I would put more variety in the photos that you show rather than 3 images of the stones and flowers.
Title: Re: my personal web site for promotion
Post by: null on March 07, 2008, 07:56
I agree about the simple lean and mean fast landing page. Always keep the  2 or 5 seconds rule in mind: visitors click away after 2-5 sec when the page doesn't load fast and when basic info is obscured on screen #1. So avoid anything Flash or Slideshow or whatever.

After catching attention, interested visitors will digg deeper, so avoid to have too much info on the landing page. You can layer it down on more specific pages. Iofoto.com is a great example.

I agree with the previous posters that you should make all thumbs clickable to sales pages. Except for random images in the sidebars, all my thumbs on FlemishDreams (http://flemishdreams.com) are clickable to a sales page where I get most and that is non-subscription.
Title: Re: function toString() { [native code]}
Post by: Peter on March 07, 2008, 16:50
thank you all. I will keep in mind all that in next site update.... :)



function toString() {
    [native code]
}



? translate it to me please. I am now web designer.... :) what does this code do? where exactly should I put it?
Title: Re: my personal web site for promotion
Post by: Peter on March 09, 2008, 09:58
now, refresh the page, and try to click on the thumbnails....


I know, its not a big deal, and again, there are no links to buy, but you get detailed view. hehe.


I would love If I could embed this flash instead of this static image on the front page, so you dont have to open new tab. But I dont know how. I tried but I messed thing up:

http://www.dinostock.com/test2/front.html

hehe....
Title: Re: my personal web site for promotion
Post by: oboy on March 09, 2008, 10:54
Very nice and clean design. I guess my page http://photo.hlehnerer.com/Resources.html would definitely fall under been cluttered compared to yours.
Title: Re: my personal web site for promotion
Post by: Peter on March 09, 2008, 11:08
tnx


I want to embed this fash like a frame in front page like this:

(http://i32.tinypic.com/sf8n05.jpg)


I am figuring out how to do it....  :(
Title: Re: my personal web site for promotion
Post by: Peter on March 10, 2008, 08:57
it is finished! :D


http://www.dinostock.com/


(click refresh if you see old v1.0 version. you should se v1.1)

:)
Title: Re: my personal web site for promotion
Post by: nicemonkey on March 10, 2008, 09:55
Nice flash animation, great idea but it loads a little slow for my liking (there is a long time between each picture flying in)
Title: Re: my personal web site for promotion
Post by: Peter on March 10, 2008, 10:20
what is your connection? for me (1mbps) it loads all 16 images in 10 seconds....  that is for the first time, second time is almost instantly because images are stored in cache.


for slow connections there is NON FLASH version of site link below flash animation  :)
Title: Re: my personal web site for promotion
Post by: graficallyminded on March 10, 2008, 10:35
loaded quick here - cool design!  I love the 3d flash stuff, but then again-  I'm a designer by trade, so I'm partial to cool stuff :)
Title: Re: my personal web site for promotion
Post by: nicemonkey on March 10, 2008, 10:42
I have a 1mbps connection but it can be a bit temperamental!