[MJB DIGITAL]

it's kinda chunky, not so smooth...it's the first live website i've had. check it out and tell me waht you think...

MJB DIGITAL

[Adam]

That's definitely not a bad start! The only thing I'd like to point out is that image-based websites are horrible for SEO, as search engines can't index any of the text. As a result, few customers will learn about you from the web. I'd recommend a CSS-based approach using styled div's for both the main page and the navigation menu.

[cwood]

As a small time vendor in a big city you have no hope of paying google enough money to ever make any rankings with your main website so i wouldn't worry about the SEO from that perspective. Focus on your blog and use it to direct people to your website. You'll have countless opportunities to plug your blog full of all the key words you could possibly be interested in... and if you have a good blog engine it should already be optimized for helping you get ranked.

So when you make a blog post ALWAYS think about key words. Notice what I did with this post - there is some confusion about how exactly to spell Windansea so I just tried to plug in all the most common variations to make sure I got ranked no matter what. Its not the most clever piece of writing ever.... but I doubt anyone will actually read what I wrote anyway when they see a bunch of pictures to look at.
http://www.christopherwoodphotography.com/wordpress/?p=567

[FullertonImages]

MJB- I think ther are a number of things I would liketo see different. For starters, it looks slightly pixelated on my browser/monitor and I checked to make sure I wasn't accidentally zoomed within my browser.

Secondly, The splash page group of pictures seem to not fit well together. No one image in particular, but I tried again to rest on the image as a whole, and my eye just couldn't find a place to sit and was constantly moving around. You want people to scan around to all the images, but the group has a ceratin busy feeling to it for me, and I feel like my eye is constantly scanning around but never actually stopping to look at any of the pictures.

Third, I really don't like how the gallery opens up in a new window. On my broswer it also opened up in a small window, which is even more annoying. don't know if it does that for everyone. I'm on FF.

fourth, you look VERY bored and uninterested in you About photo. You want to look creative, excited and energetic for something like that. Or at least you want to look happy. When I clicked onto that section, I didn't read a single word. I just saw the photo and was no longer interested in anything that page said.

Onto personal pet peeves... Are you really a collection of artists? Is there really more than one of you, or are you just using the "we" thing because it sounds more professional. Lots of people do that and it drives me insane. If you're a "we", then that's fine. But I would even consider taking a slightly different stance on it. Because so many people do it disingenuusly, whenver people actually are plural, it still sounds fake. Not knowing anything about whether you are one person or 10, when reading that, it immediately had a feeling of trying to sound bigger than you are. Maybe you are that big, and that's fine, but it doesn't mater if it still comes across as sounding fake. About sections are really hard to write, especially for wedding photographers. I feel like everyone just uses it as their one opportunity to convince the world that they are the most creative and passionate person the world has ever known and that the sole prupose of their existence is to create amazing wedding photos. I think it works a little better when you take a little more low key approach and just let your work speak for itself.

That's all for now. It's a decent start, but like you said, it's pretty chunky so far. Keep smoothing it out!

[cwood]

Is there really more than one of you, or are you just using the "we" thing because it sounds more professional. Lots of people do that and it drives me insane. If you're a "we", then that's fine. But I would even consider taking a slightly different stance on it. Because so many people do it disingenuusly, whenver people actually are plural, it still sounds fake.

Haha - I thought I was the only person who felt that way

[MJB DIGITAL]

MJB- I think ther are a number of things I would liketo see different. For starters, it looks slightly pixelated on my browser/monitor and I checked to make sure I wasn't accidentally zoomed within my browser.

Secondly, The splash page group of pictures seem to not fit well together. No one image in particular, but I tried again to rest on the image as a whole, and my eye just couldn't find a place to sit and was constantly moving around. You want people to scan around to all the images, but the group has a ceratin busy feeling to it for me, and I feel like my eye is constantly scanning around but never actually stopping to look at any of the pictures.

Third, I really don't like how the gallery opens up in a new window. On my broswer it also opened up in a small window, which is even more annoying. don't know if it does that for everyone. I'm on FF.

fourth, you look VERY bored and uninterested in you About photo. You want to look creative, excited and energetic for something like that. Or at least you want to look happy. When I clicked onto that section, I didn't read a single word. I just saw the photo and was no longer interested in anything that page said.

Onto personal pet peeves... Are you really a collection of artists? Is there really more than one of you, or are you just using the "we" thing because it sounds more professional. Lots of people do that and it drives me insane. If you're a "we", then that's fine. But I would even consider taking a slightly different stance on it. Because so many people do it disingenuusly, whenver people actually are plural, it still sounds fake. Not knowing anything about whether you are one person or 10, when reading that, it immediately had a feeling of trying to sound bigger than you are. Maybe you are that big, and that's fine, but it doesn't mater if it still comes across as sounding fake. About sections are really hard to write, especially for wedding photographers. I feel like everyone just uses it as their one opportunity to convince the world that they are the most creative and passionate person the world has ever known and that the sole prupose of their existence is to create amazing wedding photos. I think it works a little better when you take a little more low key approach and just let your work speak for itself.

That's all for now. It's a decent start, but like you said, it's pretty chunky so far. Keep smoothing it out!

I say that the best way a person can grow and learn anything is good critique like this.8)

Most of the issues you cover are issues that I'm aware of and want to take care of when I have the time. Unfortunately, it will probably stay the way it is for a while.. 8(

as for the 'we' thing, there are about four of us who really get into 'the business', me being the owner along with an associate who i'm trying to train into a lead, an assistant i want to train into an associate and an IT guy. I'll have a secretary type as well...when i get more business volume. everyone is an artist, and everyone works on self contract basis....

oh yeah, and the picture: i don't really like it either. i'm glad you brought it up! my girlfriend, my IT guy and a couple of other people picked that picture and I went with the consensus. I might have to get on their case about in now....