What Do You See In A Good Website?

Composition and ease of use/navigation - My website is the one here on FAA www.rdEricksonfineart.com

a good site should have:

easy to navigate
fast loading
content and intention.

so many sites assume they are great, but they don't tell people why the site exists in the first place. others have no content at all, they are just a bunch of pictures. no titles, no descriptions, not even a link to some other place. there needs to be a point of why someone is on that page in the first place. and if there is no content - google can't find it. it really depends on the intention of the site though. is it a gallery? an instructional site? it all really depends.

http://www.suburbanscenes.com


---Mike Savad

Hey, Mike, why do you have a bright pink box on the front page of your site asking for help with voting in the FAA contest that ended over two years ago? Having something so obviously out of date on the front page of your site makes it look like you haven't updated anything in over two years, a cardinal sin for a good website.

http://www.johnnyleungphotography.com/

this is mine. I just want is as simple as possible...

I like your site Josh. It looks pretty professional. I like How the white space is used and I like the layout. Here's my website: http://thejulianbanks.com/

that site is out of date. i don't get really any money from it so i never really spend the time to do stuff with it. i guess i should remove that bit.

---Mike Savad

Josh -- I like your website a lot. You put the product right in there bold. Nice work.

Hare is my blog at the link below. I keep it clean and stay away from the hard sell. Why? As the saying goes, "people don't like to be sold, but they love to buy". Also, as photographers we try to make our websites / blogs 'pretty' with great art and composition. This is too confusing and too much eye candy for the buyer when your main objective is to get your stuff in front of them. My WordPress stats show consistent click through to my ArtistWebsites and Pixels.

http://FrankJCasella.Wordpress.com

I'm a WIP on new site: http://www.meafineart.com and my first effort at a cover site for everything (FAA, Zazzle, blog, etc).

I agree certainly with what other have said navigation, content, but also you want fresh and engaging. I think you want a website that feels like you work there to people and really the only way to pull that off is to treat it like a work site and show up yourself there every day. To me many people build these elaborate offices to work in called website, and then never use them.

I would also agree with Mike in that there is a lot of sites where you have no idea what the site is about.
--mary ellen anderson

Very nice website Josh! It is clean, crisp, easy to navigate and immediately shows your appealing work.

My site has a bit more color and sidebar action going on because I wanted it to feel like a book with colored pictures that would capture the viewers interest and entice them to explore further.
Good luck!

Information that I'm looking for - a solution or answer to what I need. http://edwardfielding.me/

Josh, why do you have to keep reminding us of your age? You'll be 13 before you know it. Then what?

Nothing on your website talks about age.

"Josh, why do you have to keep reminding us of your age?"

Probably because he's 12.


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

I don't think its a selling point.

It could do with a picture of yourself..I think.

Mine is very much a WIP... kiwionline.us

All a matter of taste


http://pfleghart.wix.com/franziskus

Actually, the "about me" section of Josh's website says that he is 13. Which is, of course, a bit confusing since he has so clearly identified himself as a 12-year-old here on FAA on several occasions.

As mentioned before, content is king. That being said, how does one define content? Letting your visitors know who, what, where and why is always important. I don't hold myself out as any type of expert, far from it. Having more than just images is helpful for a website's page rankings, and will get you more / better attention (SEO).

Having a vision of what you want visitors to see and know about you is important, letting them know where your vision may take you is important too. A client or customer wants to know that if they decide to purchase something from you, they can rely on you to be producing more interesting images in the future.

Getting someone to visit your website is fairly easy. Having them come back for more is the tough part.

http://.yopedro.com

Nice site Josh.
My newest site-
Fine Art Nature Photography

deleted

Hi everyone,
Yes, on my website, I am aware that I said I am 13. I will change it when I have the time,
And I am Definetely looking for a photograph of me, but I might get it professionally done.

Edward, every single reply you have given me, is not related to the question, just asking me how and why I have to do that. You know why?
I don't know. I think I just like saying I'm 12, because I am. Is that not very obvious to you??? I will apologize if I offended you for saying I'm 12, but I think you asking that question is ridiculolous. And then you still post your website to be seen on here? Wow...

I have checked out everybody's website, I love the looks. So different, but so unique. Amazing!

Here is mine
http://crystalwightman.com/

I think a good design, layout, easy to navigate and images.
I personally don't just like websites that only have text. Or very little images. I like a combo of both. I also like an active site, meaning... if it's a blog, keep it updated. Not saying everyday, but enough to know the person behind the scenes is still alive.

Josh, I like your website. Really nice job! I see you recently join FAA. Maybe at some point, you could add FAA link to your website. Allowing people to order right from your FAA, instead of having them fill out the form on your site to contact you to buy a print. Really nice work!

Thank you!

fyi: I recently found out that there is a bug in FAA where every time you edit an image its link switches it between at least a 1 or 2. That means that if you have a domain website linking to your FAA image you must remember to double edit the image on FAA so it switches back to the correct link.

You still need to test it as on the rare occasions it's more than a double edit job.
--mary ellen anderson

I would agree with Crystal that it's critical you keep things active. No web design (or even great art) will over come poor website maintenance and promotion.

You really should be clocking into your store and working on it daily... FOREVER. One of the biggest myth artist have about business is that business is a tasklist; a build it and they will come belief.

You don't have to add blogs everyday, but new products, change backgrounds, rephrase, seo work, etc. There is always plenty to do, you just have to show up.

But I see artist site after artist sites that are beautiful but are abandoned and dead.
-- mary ellen anderson