Let me know what you think...

kygarden

Not sure if this is in the right forum or not...

If I may be an "attention whore" for a moment Let me know what you think of my galleries. Content mainly, but also the simple format I've decided to use to present everything. I wanted to keep it as simple as possible so I'm more likely to keep everything up to date and make it easy for me to use and easy for others to navigate.

http://www.openbloom.com/

My intent originally when I signed up was a personal storage space for photos online. Then I got more interested and I think I'm in the "if something sells, great - I just made a little extra money for whatever...if nothing sells, that's fine too." I'm not looking to get rich. Well, first I have to actually get some visitors to my site that may actually be interested in the type of photos I have. Maybe then I can sell a few prints. I was going to sell digital downloads but decided against that. I uploaded lots of photos and then ended up having to delete a lot of things I think would not sell as a print that I thought had a chance as a digital download for something like stock. Anyway, I'd like to stick with selling prints - if I can sell anyting at all. Again, I first need traffic from interested visitors. Since I'm not interested in spending a lot to get the word out about my site, I'm not sure how I'm going to get traffic...but maybe I'll find a way eventually - to get some traffic I mean. Any tips on how to do that would be nice

Here's a gallery of what is probably my main subject matter. I've looked through my pictures and thought to myself..."Well, I've seen worse!...and worse from people saying they're pros and somehow they seem to sell something!" I'm no Ansel Adams, but I'm not Uncle Fred with a prosumer point and shoot trying to sell wedding photos on the side...LOL

http://www.openbloom.com/gallery/4125998#182482686

I still need to work on:
- captions
- introductions/descriptions of galleries
- maybe more work on keywords for search purposes

I've got a few interesting photos here in my "Misc" gallery:

http://www.openbloom.com/gallery/4126324#240896196

These are the galleries I'd like to sell photos from:

http://openbloom.smugmug.com/Prints%20For%20Sale%20-%20Nature,%20Flowers,%20Travel,%20Etc

Opinions are welcome Just curious to see what everyone thinks of the content and layout. And with regard to the content, do you see any reason why I wouldn't be able to make a little extra money from something like this? Or is my "work" not up to the standards you'd need to sell prints?

Thanks

schmoo

I'll move this to MYOB

ArchiTexas

Hi Kygarden,

I looked at your site and I'll post the first three things that struck me as needing improvement, again I didn't spend a lot of time at your site just a quick look and some first impressions:

1. The very first thing I saw when your homepage opened was the text about "having trouble finding something" - I thought this was going to be about "having trouble finding that right image," or finding a gift, etc. Instead this blurb was about how to use the search tools. I wouldn't locate this where it is the very first thing that you see, right next to your bio picture.

2. This one is a pet peeve of mine. My preference for the layout of the small gallery images as laid out in the standard templates is to see them either all in landscape or portrait mode or in matching side by side pairs (two horizontal images side by side, etc.). Again that may be the OCD in me, but too many mixed verical and horizontal images on the gallery preview page looks disorganized to me. The opening page should look clean.

3. Turn off photorank. You are showcasing images that you think are good enough that someone should spend money on them. There shouldn't be any "thumbs down" images there. Photorank may be kind of fun, but has no business on a site like yours. Providing photorank implies that there may be some poor images in there.

I hope my opinion is of use to you. Trust me, I'm all too aware of multiple issues that need attention at my own site.

Good luck.
ERF

kygarden

Thanks for your input. I see your point about the search explanation. I guess I'm taking too much of a rookie approach to this and ended up explaining a little too much. I'll make the info regarding search less prominent and make it more appropriate. My main goal was to make sure people know how to use the search function properly though.

I'll kill the photorank too. Good point.

I'll check out the landscape/portrait orientations too on the main gallery lists...