Problems with website with concept

ecoronin

I'm kind of in a rut. I have a website that has been the same with no direction for months. I really haven't figured out the structure and what I need for a basic website to sell pictures to customers and show my portfolio to new clients.

web site: www.ofthewoodsstudio.com

steveL

While I like your site, it seems to me to be kind of dark when perhaps a brighter site might provide more inspiration to you. Maybe white for a background would allow you to experiment with some different fonts and maybe even a different template all together.

Having a SmugMug template where you have some thumbnails would make it easier to find the photo you or a clent is looking for. Also you could delay publishing folders that you haven't yet added any photos to. You should have an "About" page because I am sure there is a lot of interesting things about you and I feel that it would be one of the first things that a visitor would want to see.

Try just using paper and pencil to construct a menu that has everything that you would like including submenus and then choose a new site design that you can experiment with and tweak until you get something that is satisfying to you. You don't have to publish it until you want to go live with it -- just save it with a name that makes sense to you. Also use the tips in the forums to add some extra code to your unpublished design and see if any of that stuff works for you.

Caveat: I am not a pro and haven't sold anything so take that into account. Good luck!

denisegoldberg

ecoronin wrote: »

I'm kind of in a rut. I have a website that has been the same with no direction for months. I really haven't figured out the structure and what I need for a basic website to sell pictures to customers and show my portfolio to new clients.

The first thing you need to do is step back and design the look of your site. Right now all you have done is selected a side navbar and exposed the stock browse and search pages.

What is your photographic focus and your business? Add a page describing your services and why someone would select you as their photographer.

Highlight your portfolio. I know, you only have a few folders now - but the folders you are showing don't highlight anything specific. Make sure the galleries you expose in your portfolio show your best work.

Don't ever leave folders empty. If you aren't ready to reveal anything in a folder, set it as unlisted until it is ready for viewing.

Check your spelling - you have an empty folder titled Pollitics. Did you mean politics?

Remove the smugmug header and footer. To remove them click customize... Content and Design. Click Settings and select options for SmugMug Header and SmugMug Footer.

Clean up your keywords. It looks like you have allowed smug to use your file names (on upload) to generate keywords. Since you haven't renamed your photos you have generated a keyword list of 4-digit numbers, not useful. Take a look at http://www.ofthewoodsstudio.com/keyword. I'd recommend turning off filename keywording. You'll find that setting in Account Settings, Discovery, Search.

--- Denise