New website C&C

Deadeye008

Working on getting my business going and just got a new website put together. The 2 things I'm not sure about are if I want to have a splash page or not and whether I like the music, need to change it, or just get rid of it all together. Any C&C is greatly appreciated.

www.hamblinphoto.com

gman33

Justin I really like this but the first thing I did was shut off the music....you will find that a lot of people do not like music on sites Was this site a flash template you got somewhere? I had seen a similar site and just curious The quick look I did was on the pricing page...when you go down to a certain sub-cat...the word "pricing" at the top dims and appears to be very dark to me Good luck to you both...you have a beautiful family Ed

dogwood

My two-cents-- kill the music. I've never heard of someone who didn't like a site solely because it didn't have music, but I've heard of plenty who hated a site solely because it DID have music.

Seriously-- I work during the days as a professional audio person-- that means I edit a LOT of audio. If I'm surfing while running Pro Tools, audio on websites can screw up my editing session. At home, I listen to a lot of internet radio-- if I hit a site with music it blares it on top of the radio and nothing makes me back out of the site faster.

All that said, the layout and flash loading on your site is nice. The photos are nice too.

Tango

lots of good work there...
my only suggestion is make your thumbs bigger, your thumbs are too small...i have to click it to see what it really is....

also, a preference thing of mine is your name in the hollow font would probably look better solid....imo

Tango

oh, and the music... i turned off instantly, but im sure my wife would have left it on and liked it.
so who knows, at least i could turn it off.

chuckinsocal

I like it ...
I think the site looks great. It shows off what you do very well. Well organized and easy to follow.

I agree with making your thumbs larger. I didn't click on any because I couldn't tell what they were.

I'm usually not a big fan of music on a web site but yours is easy and pleasing to listen to, at least for an old guy, and I rather enjoyed it. I thnk it actually held my interest in the site and I may have stayed a little longer because of it. It was a little annoying that the music stopped and started over each time I clicked on you navbar. I had to listen to the same intro over and over again.

On the other hand, I agree with the point that when I am listening to my own music on the computer, it's highly annoying when a web site suddenly interrupts it. In fact sometimes it's startling. Maybe a somewhat prominent "Turn Off Music" button would be a viable middle ground.

Generally though, it's a very nice site. It's simple, not bloated, tells your story well, and makes an excellent impression. I give it a high 8.

My $.02

Chuck Cannova
http://chuckinsocal.SmugMug.com

alex

If you decide to keep the splash screen, I would suggest to put basic contact info (name, phone, email) on there, so flash haters (like me ) can at least get in touch with you.

Also, why do I have to disable my popup blocker? The site seems to work just fine with the blocker turned on. And all those warnings, instructions, requirements, and flash download links just make me less likely to actually click on "enter".

Once I convinced myself to enter the page, I did like the design and navigation, looks good!

Deadeye008

Thank you all for your comments and suggestions. This really helps me out a lot. To answer a couple of the questions. This is a flash template that I bought from blu domain and I'm not sure why you have to disable pop up blockers but it's probably because I am able to insert links into the site that if clicked on would initiate a pop up screen. I have had mixed reviews on whether people like the music or not so I'm still a little undecided on that. And I believe that I'm gonna bypass the splash page, according to the reviews that I've gotten. Thanks again, and feel free to keep commenting. I love to hear everyones opinions.