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John Crothers

9 Years Ago

Want A Critque Of Your Website?

I found this company that will look at your website and give their impression of it...for free. These are people that have never met you in your life, so that is a plus!

I found out about it from this website...

http://fstoppers.com/is-your-website-frustrating-potential-clients-find-out-the-truth-for-free


I posted the link to the critique I received today (hope it works). Some good advice on what I can do.

http://peek.usertesting.com/result/013619998760


If you try it, please share the results here so we can all learn some tips for our websites.

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Warren Thompson

9 Years Ago

I started it. May take a few days.
I did it for my Artist site: http://thompson-gallery.artistwebsites.com/galleries.html

 

It wouldn't open in-browser, John, but I was able to download and view it.

That's a cool thing -- having a completely objective person test and review your site. Most of what she had to say made sense to me. I might give them a try when my new site is closer to finished.

Thanks for the link. :-)

 

David Gordon

9 Years Ago

thanks John for the info - just submitted my site.

 

Jeff Sinon

9 Years Ago

Just sent in mine,

http://www.jeffsinon.com

 

Roseann Caputo

9 Years Ago

Thanks for the tip, John.

Who is your provider?

 

John Crothers

9 Years Ago

My internet provider?

That's Frontier.

 

Roseann Caputo

9 Years Ago

Sorry, I should have said your host provider. Who's hosting your site?

 

John Crothers

9 Years Ago

I built it with Adobe Muse and it is hosted through them (bought my domain from GoDaddy).

 

Jeffery Johnson

9 Years Ago

Curious how long did it take for them to get back to you?

I know it has only been three days since I requested a review but still curious.

 

John Crothers

9 Years Ago

It took closer to a week than the "few days" they said on the site.

But that link was on a pretty popular blog (and now here) so they may have gotten behind. I am sure you'll get an email from them.

 

Ed Meredith

9 Years Ago

Yeah i can see them being over run with request...

 

David Gordon

9 Years Ago

I did it for my personal site a few days ago but haven't heard back yet.

Dave Gordon
http://dgportfolio.net

 

David Gordon

9 Years Ago

 

David Gordon

9 Years Ago

Thanks Philip. Is your IP 84.193.170.2? Try it now.

 

David Gordon

9 Years Ago

Thanks Philip. When I first switched from my html site to a Wordpress site, I was inundated with spam, content scrapers, hackers, etc. I likely got tired of blocking out individual IP's and started blocking out entire IP ranges in my frustration. Later on I realized that wasn't such a good idea and went back and fixed most of them but apparently not yours lol.

Dave Gordon
http://dgportfolio.net

 

Roseann Caputo

9 Years Ago

John,

I think you did a good job with your site. Nice clean layout and very easy to navigate. Simple and minimalistic.

Which fonts did you use for your name in the site name at the top of the pages and which is it you used for the categories? Both look familiar but I can't place them.

R

 

John Crothers

9 Years Ago

Thanks Roseann!

The font for my name is actually my actual signature that I traced in Illustrator.

The categories are Bradley Hand.

 
 

Roseann Caputo

9 Years Ago

Bradley Hand! Thank you!

Oh that was a cool idea, using your sig. You should make a font out of it. I think it's pretty cool. Ahhh, Illustrator, how I both hate and love you. LOL

 

David Gordon

9 Years Ago

@Philip - yeah he sounded a little bored - to say the least lol.

 

John Crothers

9 Years Ago

Dave's didn't seem as helpful as mine. Sorry about that.

But that was there free service.

They do offer a detailed review based on demographics and questions YOU want to ask...for $49.00.

Not terribly expensive but one would have to be pretty serious about how their website is working to pay that much.

 

Jeffery Johnson

9 Years Ago

I received mine today and some of it I agree with but it was a bit confusing.

It would be helpful to know what browser the person was using.

http://peek.usertesting.com/result/582751971668

Jeffery Johnson | Photo Captures by Jeffery
http://www.PhotoCapturesbyJeffery.com

 

John Crothers

9 Years Ago

Jeffery,

At least your review contained opinions and constructive criticism(unlike Dave's). Maybe more than my review did.

BTW, I looked at your site on IE and it didn't cut off at all. Can you tell from his window what browser he was using by the icon?

 

Jeffery Johnson

9 Years Ago

Not sure hang on John I will check.

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David Gordon

9 Years Ago

Well since its free, I don't mind and I did take a couple of things from the critique that I can look into and make changes. I know that I have much more work to do on my personal site.

My problem is that I'm torn as to whether to link to FAA (via the shopping cart plug-in) or I could link to AW site images from each image on my personal site. or I could have no linkage to FAA or AW at all.

Ideally I'd prefer to have my shopping cart from my AW site - not FAA. Also, I'd prefer to have my FAA portal closed off and my AW site linked only to my personal site but obviously this contradicts the FAA business model and will likely never happen.

Dave Gordon
http://dgportfolio.net

 

Jane McIlroy

9 Years Ago

Well, that was interesting...

Here's my site: http://www.janemcilroy.com

and here's the test result: http://peek.usertesting.com/result/4891043613437?autoplay=true

At first glance, the reviewer didn't know what my site was about, but he saw some photos on the first page and then assumed it was a professional site promoting photographic services. I'm not sure whether to take that as a compliment or not!

After summarily dismissing my bio as 'generic text' (without apparently bothering to actually read it) and spending some time criticising the site for not living up to his original (erroneous) assumption, he eventually decided to click on the link to my portfolio.

That led him to my AW galleries page and he didn't seem to notice that it was an external link. That was good, since I'd spent some time coordinating the appearance so the transition would look seamless. There were some interesting comments about my AW page - the thumbnails were too small and there was too much white space for his liking. When he eventually clicked through to one of the image pages and realised at last that I was trying to sell prints, he was distracted by the 'weird green box thing' (which luckily was working for once!) and took a while to work out what it was for. Maybe there's a case to be made for disabling it, if it's going to cause confusion?

I got the feeling that he wasn't terribly impressed with my site as a whole, but most of the specific criticisms were addressed to the AW site. It will be interesting to see what changes are made when we get the 'new look' that Sean has promised us, but at the moment I'm thinking it might be better to design my own portfolio page and just link to the individual image pages on the AW site. More work, but maybe better in the long run.

Anyway, it was a useful exercise and definitely provided food for thought.

 

Kevin OConnell

9 Years Ago

Got mine today, and the lady reviewed just about every page and even proof read them. She gave a great critique and even appologized to going over the time limit becuse of checking many of my pages. She was very pleased with my layout. Maybe my layout can help some of you if your not happy with yours.
Here it is
http://peek.usertesting.com/result/7421045451035?autoplay=true

 

Jane McIlroy

9 Years Ago

Well done, Kevin, she sounds like she was really impressed with your site!

 

Jeff Sinon

9 Years Ago

I was very pleased with what the gentleman reviewing my site had to say about it. I fixed the one thing I could, only email contact, no phone #, and the only other thing mentioned was the dark banner on my home page not going all the way down. Which must be an issue with viewing monitor size and his need to scroll to se the whole page, because on my computer it goes from top to bottom as intended.

http://peek.usertesting.com/result/422767644079

 

Tina Andreola

9 Years Ago

I would love to give this a try but they will not accept my business e-mail as valid. Anyone else having this issue?

 

John Crothers

9 Years Ago

Jane,

"At first glance, the reviewer didn't know what my site was about, but he saw some photos on the first page and then assumed it was a professional site promoting photographic services."

I disagree with the tester. Based on the images you had up it doesn't look like a "photography service" website. I didn't see pictures of brides or kids.

I do agree with what he said about the text in the banner. My graphic designer teacher used to get upset when people used the "cursive" text. For the same reason the tester said, it can be hard to read (especially in bulk).

I also agree that the images are a bit small. It was a problem pointed out to me on my review as well. I would consider a slide show of images on the front page with a new page for the layout you have now of the smaller thumbnails. Maybe just keep it so it goes to the galleries when you click portfolio and have a slideshow of what you think is your strongest work on the home page.

I think the gallery page is fine. "White space" is fine.

 

John Crothers

9 Years Ago

Kevin

Interesting how interested she was in learning about the artist. I think that was the first review that started that way. It relates to the recent thread about using a picture of ourselves versus using art as a profile picture. Sounds like this reviewer would vote for a self portrait! I wasn't too excited about creating an "about me" page on my website but now I am glad I did.

I liked how she talked about your "gift" instead of how good your camera must be!

Can I ask though why you don't have a slideshow of images on your homepage? You have a lot of good work I would have trouble picking just one to display there.

 

Kevin OConnell

9 Years Ago

Hi John,
I'm not sure if I have a way to make a slide show on my front page, but I do change the front page image every week. I also don't think all of my images go with the design of my front page, so its more of keeping images that work with the design.
Thanks

 

John Crothers

9 Years Ago

Jeff, when I pulled up your site the banner didn't go all the way down for me either. It didn't include "services" on my page in IE.

He sure liked your work. That is always nice to hear from a stranger!

Can I ask why you aren't linked to FAA to sell your prints? It seems to me a customer has to contact you to order prints?

 

Jane McIlroy

9 Years Ago

John, thanks for the feedback. It looks like I need to rethink my front page - I take your point about the banner text. The thumbnails are actually the same size as the ones on FAA, but you could be right that a few bigger ones (or a slideshow) would be better for the front page than a whole lot of little ones. Ah well - back to the drawing board for me!

 

Jeff Sinon

9 Years Ago

John,

I'm going to have to give the SM Heroes a shout about that and see if there's anything they can do about it. For me, whether logged out or in it goes from top to bottom on my 24" iMac.

As for not linking to FAA, there are two reasons, first, it's actually pretty easy to make a purchase right through my site. When in any gallery there's a "Buy" button at the top right that allows you to select any, or all of the photos in a given gallery, and when an individual photo is selected there is a "Buy" button on the lower right.

The second reason, and also one of the biggest reasons why I haven't sold a thing on FAA, is that I feel my SM site is so much more of a professional, custom looking site, and that's where I steer all of my potential clients too. If my FAA site wasn't so much of a cookie-cutter, carbon copy of every other FAA site I might be more inclined to send more people here. But at least until the much rumored changes take place here on FAA, I don't see that changing.

I do have several sponsored page links to my FAA on my wordpress blog and I've installed the facebook app on my fan page as well. But again, my Smugmug site is where I want my clients going to see my work.

 

Dan Turner

9 Years Ago

Finally got around to doing this and got my review today:
http://peek.usertesting.com/result/6131069486905?autoplay=true

I'm pretty satisfied. I've looked at a number of the other reviews in this thread, and if it isn't obvious by now, ABOUT THE ARTIST and getting in touch with the artist is critical information.

Art is everywhere, but YOU are unique. Capitalize on that.

Dan Turner
Dan Turner's Seven Keys to Selling Art Online

 

John Crothers

9 Years Ago

Dan,

Before all this I never would have guessed the "about" pages were that important. Turns out a lot of people are interested in that information. You are right, people need to pay attention to that.

I was kind of disappointed he didn't go into your gallery pages. He liked your work so you would think he would have checked that out. Do you link your work to FAA?

 

John Crothers

9 Years Ago

Jeff,

Sounds like you are using the same place that Lynn did above for your website. I missed the "buy" button on hers as well. I would want the "buy" to be as prominent as possible.

So do YOU do the printing and shipping then if someone clicks the "buy" link?


 

John Crothers

9 Years Ago

Jane,

I think you are close. Just need some larger images on your homepage.

 

Jeff Sinon

9 Years Ago

John,

All orders are fulfilled right through the site and shipped directly to the buyer. The lab used is Bay Photo, and the quality of the prints has been excellent. The only drawback is that prints sold through my website have my signature digitally applied. With my local sales, which is where most of my sales comes from, all of my prints are hand signed. And while I am now, and in all likelihood forever will be a nobody in the world of photography, I feel a hand signed print has more "value."

 

Dan Turner

9 Years Ago

John, I know! It was like watching a movie where a guy is about to drink poison -- and we're all waiting -- and puts the cup to his lips several times but just never takes that drink. My reviewer passed his courser near the Art Galleries link two or three times but never hit it. I'm pretty certain if he wanted the art he would have clicked it.

He's a musician -- and look what he clicked, one of the songs! That was cool with me. I always learn a lot watching people click on sites I've designed.

And yes, I have each piece of art linked to my AW buy page for that particular piece. Except for on the front page. There, I removed any link that would bounce viewers to a different site.

Dan Turner
Dan Turner's Seven Keys to Selling Art Online

 

Jeffery Johnson

9 Years Ago

@John No both Lynn and I use Zenfolio.

 

Georgiana Romanovna

9 Years Ago

^ Jeffrey you can do a lot with zenfolio now - my site is hosted there but with my own domain name - I rank high in google with my site.


John, thank you for this very much. I got mine back and everything was good except she thought it was more than one artist due to a box that said "entry" - which was for guests not me - I'll remove that.

But yes, very happy and was offered another one.

http://peek.usertesting.com/result/949913064335?autoplay=true

 

Congratulations on the great review, Zeana!

Have to say -- I'm a little surprised that more reviewers are not clicking on thumbnails and/or test driving the 'buy' process, even when they love the work, as your reviewer did. I'm concerned that visitors may not immediately realize thumbnails are clickable. I know the reviews are supposed to be time limited, but still . . .

Rather than assume that people know what to do, I've been adding the following blurb to my online galleries for years, and am making sure to add it to the new site, as well:

NOTE: Click on any image for a larger, more detailed view, or to purchase.

Guess it can't hurt!

 

Roseann Caputo

9 Years Ago

Hi John,

Thank you for this suggestion. I'm going to follow his advice. I'm going to adjust my header on the home page and even though he said don't go any smaller, I'm going to bump up the font size on my blog at least by one or to points.

http://peek.usertesting.com/result/8291321589356

 

Ryan Demaree

9 Years Ago

that I dont live in a mansion with porn stars yet...

 

Great review, Roseann! I really enjoyed the enthusiasm of your reviewer.

I've tried to submit my site, but Peek won't accept any of my email addresses. Apparently, Gmail and Yahoo are not Peek friendly. Go figure!

 

Roseann Caputo

9 Years Ago

Wendy - I tried my Gmail addy and they didn't like that. They were looking for an email associated with the website, I believe. I used the one I use for my site and it worked.

 

Sydne Archambault

9 Years Ago

I am just starting to put my web site together, this is very helpful in the building of it. Thanks people! Great sites and John what a great find!

 

Roseann, that's what I thought was happening. Ah, well -- guess I can live without the opinion of a random stranger. :-/

Syd -- Good luck with the new site!

 

Geoffrey Coelho

9 Years Ago

Won't accept my verizon email address.

 

This discussion is closed.