? How to increase website traffic....?

[Paul Sorensen]

Paul ~ I was wondering about that myself.... unsure at this point as to which page should be the "lead in". I was thinking about the "New Images" page, even though there's not usually more than a half dozen images on that page. At least that would put up immediate images. Any thoughts ???

Maybe the new images page. Maybe a page that has just a large image and a little bit of text. I am trying to visualize this myself for my own site that I am developing, but something like an image, a little text, and some buttons to draw folks to the various pages. As it currently configured, I would not recommend the new page because there are too few images and they are kind of small. It is designed as an internal page and this page is not internal. Also, I would probably change the home page link to this page instead of the splash page. If someone wants to return home, they don't want to have to click enter yet again.

If I come up with more ideas, I will let you know.

Paul.

 

[Dave Miller]

Looks to me like you are heading in the right direction with the changes that you have made. Good luck with your print sales.

 

[Peter Schrager]

Site

Susan-good going! Now when you're finished you can come over and help me get my site going!! (insert joke)
Best, Peter Schrager

 

[Bob F.]

I like the new design so much better than the old. Congrats on changing things so much, so quickly - learning new tools is not easy, I know.

Good luck, Bob.

 

[SusanK]

Rich ~ it worked, the thumbs are now "bigger". Figured out what I was doing wrong... I was trying to adjust the thumb after inserting it to the page. Setting the size in options prior to insertion is what makes the difference. Guess one could say I've been sitting around with my "thumb" up my bum.

The site is coming along and I've done several tweaks to it already. However, since I've been sitting here in front of the 'puter for the past several, I'm now really antsy to be outside with a camera in my hands !!! So, I think the website will remain "as is," at least for the rest of the day. I'm going to photograph my way to Cedar Rapids (about two hours if I drove staight there) where I have 30+ prints on display in the National Czech and Slovak Museum and then photograph my way back. The show runs June 19-Sept 11 and I haven't gone over to see it since dropping off the prints to begin with. Pretty sad, eh ?

Thanks for everyone's help. And as I've said, the constructive criticism has been invaluable !!! I really appreciate it.

Susan
http://www.susankopecky.com

 

[PeterB]

However, since I've been sitting here in front of the 'puter for the past several, I'm now really antsy to be outside with a camera in my hands !!! So, I think the website will remain "as is," at least for the rest of the day.

Susan, enjoy your time away from the PC with the camera. One minor detail to fix when you get back, somehow a couple of the thumbnails on the Elements page are still pixelated.
http://www.susankopecky.com/Elements.htm

regards
Peter

 

[donbga]

Any thoughts or idea exchange from the members here would be greatly appreciated. If viewing my work would give you a better idea of where it may fit in, please take a look at http://www.susankopecky.com

Thanks in advance.
Susan

Susan,

Here is my 2 cents worth:

1) I would eliminate the gallery metaphore of framed photographs. I find it to be very distracting along with the drop shadows. Your presentation should emphasize the image not the presentation itself.

2) Why do you have a black border around the image? Again I find this distracting.

3) Even though the thumb nails are a little small after clicking on one you should present a large image so the viewer can get a clear view of the details of the image.

4) I'm working with an uncalibrated monitor right now but the shadows seem to be blocked.

5) I would change the background to a darker neutral toned color instead of white. For lack of better words the white background seems to distort the perceived tonality of the print image. The images seem to look a little harsh, too contrasty. Could this be the result of how they were scanned?


6) Reduce the price of your work substaintially. If it isn't selling at say $250 reduce the price to $50 to $60 for the first print of a series. Then gradually raise the price as prints sell.

And just remember this. For most of us photography will always be a black hole monetarily. Most of us will never be able to support ourselves through photo sales of our art. If you want to make money through photography shoot portraits and weddings. You can then write off the expense of your artistic work.

Good luck,

Don Bryant

 

[Steve Sherman]

Susan,

I have been following this thread with great interest. Anyone with a web site of their own will benefit from the knowledge shared here.

I agree that your new site is much more appealing than the first one we were linked to. However, I would agree that the shadowing and blue outlining around your photographs is distracting and not in keeping with what I believe you would like to accomplish with your site. Also, I have not sold much work via the web but have sold much work through galleries and first hand through workshops and in person showings. My prices are not as high as yours and I have been doing this for twenty years, not that that means allot, nevertheless worth considering.

I can't remember who said told me this, "everyone wants to sell one print for $1000.00, a better marketing idea would be to sell 10 prints at $100.00 each. I'm somewhere in the middle.

My 2 cents

 

[roteague]

I can't remember who said told me this, "everyone wants to sell one print for $1000.00, a better marketing idea would be to sell 10 prints at $100.00 each. I'm somewhere in the middle.

My 2 cents

I would have to strongly disagree. If your work is worth $1000, then sell it at $1000. Don't compromise just for the sake of making a sale. For me, I would rather sell one print at $1000 than 10 at $100 - it is a lot less work, and a lot more satisfying.

 

[SusanK]

Steve ~ Blue...???? Where do you see blue ??? Everything is done in photoshop and is done in grayscale. There is no blue. I'm glad to hear that you've had better luck in the gallery sales than I have. Seems all I get out of galleries are damaged prints. I work too hard on the darn things to feel as though I am just giving them away.

Don ~ I appreciate your opinion, but I'm keeping the "metaphorical" framed prints. I've had many buyers say that the image with the overmat gave them a much better mental image of what the final print would look like. If you're a photographer, you wouldn't benefit from it. But, non-photographers don't have the visualization skills that you and I have. As far as getting a "large" image after clicking a thumbnail.... (general question to all) 'how larger would you like the image to be ???' Heavens, they appear HUGE to me. They certainly aren't any smaller than the full size images one sees on the websites of Scott Killian, Larry Wiese, and many others. Re: prices... the prints have sold at $250 & $500. Granted, the economy has been pretty lousy this year but, that's also why I keep my day job. My main interest is increasing the traffic to the site.

 

[Steve Sherman]

I would have to strongly disagree. If your work is worth $1000, then sell it at $1000. Don't compromise just for the sake of making a sale. For me, I would rather sell one print at $1000 than 10 at $100 - it is a lot less work, and a lot more satisfying.

I would have to strongly disagree.

Your missing the point, when just starting out a better marketing approach would be to have 10 different people enjoying and talking about your work than just one person.

 

[SusanK]

Amen brother Robert !

 

[SusanK]

Something I will lower my price for.... several years ago at an art show, a woman approached me to inquire about "Requiem for Trees". She didn't have the $250 that I was asking for it and in visiting with her for a few minutes I learned that she was in town on business from Seattle. She said that she'd always had an appreciation for art but, had never considered photography to be "art".... until she saw that print. She offered me $180 in cash for it, to which I replied, "It's not often that a piece of work will change someone's opinion about what is, and what is not, 'ART'. Knowing that one of my prints has changed you mind in such a manner is worth $70 less." To this day she's one of my most consistent clients (and she pays full price now).

The point is, for $70 less on her initial purchase, this woman went back to Seattle with a new perspective. She probably start looking at other local photographers work much more closely. So, selling the print at a lower initial cost, benefited other photographers as well as myself. Sometimes, it's just good karma.

 

[Steve Sherman]

Susan

When viewing a page for the first time each image has a blue fine line around it. Once you click on the image then the blue shifts to a dotted line indicating that image has been viewed prior. Don't see the benefit of the line

 

[SusanK]

Steve ~

Quote: Real photographs are born wet!

Love your tagline.

 

[SusanK]

Steve ~ Oh, "that" blue line.... that just designates a thumbnail. I'll see what I can do to remove it.

 

[SusanK]

Wah-lah.... no more blue lines.

 

[Steve Sherman]

can you do that Wah lah thing to anyone else's web site?

 

[SusanK]

Bibbity bobbity boo ! Granted... Wah-lah.

??? Did it work ???

 

[bjorke]

The images on your front page are mismatched -- even if the picture-content portions vary, the "matte board" frames should match.

Am I the only one who is inherently riled when I can't click from one image to the next in a "gallery" setting? If the structure is like this:

gallery_overview
-> image_a
-> image_b
-> image_c
-> image_d

There should be somewhere I can click on the "image_a" page to get to "image_b" other than to hit "back" and wait for the overview page to load then click "image_b" then click "back" and wait for the overview page to load and hit "Image_c" (or was it image_d? You mean not only am I wasting time, but *i* have to keep track of the website tree structure???)

This happens all the time, not just your site -- but it's a sign of disregard for the viewer.

 

[John Koehrer]

Susank,
The incantation goes "oo ee oo ah ah ting tang walla walla bing bang" To be fully effective.

 

[SusanK]

John ~ Ah yes, I forgot about that one !

bjorke ~ I agree with you completely. Unfortunately, so far as I'm aware, the computer that hosts my site does not support frontpage file extentions (someday I'll get dreamweaver software). Which means I'd need to manually enter every link. While not UN-doable, it would be quite time intensive and as I find myself at the end of this long holiday weekend, I am now out of time. I've been playing with inserting the "next & back" navigation bar links but haven't been able to get them to work. *sigh* Yet another thing I have to learn. Once I get the link bar figured out, I'll try uploading it and see if it works anyway. I'd switch to a different hosting company but, the gentleman who owns the one I presently work with, has given me five years of service in exchange for a couple of prints. Also, I did throw in a "featured print" page which offers a different print every month at a reduced price. Will see if anyone bites on this bit of bait.

In the meantime, some visitors will be offended... and others will realize that while they do have to: remember where they've been, as well as 'right click' once, and 'left click' on the back button, at least they didn't have to: get up from their computer, pick up their phone, dial my number, and have me describe the prints. Or, god forbid, get in their car, waste a bunch of money in gasoline, and drive to a gallery to see my work. In comparison, two mouse clicks may not be such an offense afterall.

Thanks again for everyone's help.

 

[SusanK]

"Back" and "Next" links have now been added to every large image page... by hand. Grrrrr... I spent three days trying to figure out how to use frontpage's link bars without getting the results I wanted. So, I decided I'd save more time by going into each individual large image page, typing "back" and "next" and setting a hyperlink to the previous/following image. Took me under an hour as compared to futzing around with frontpage.

Got up at 6am yesterday, headed to a local lake and shot some new images. So, I'm off to play in the darkroom for the rest of the day. Will hopefully be adding the new images to the website by the end of the week.

Happy day to everyone.

SusanK
http://www.susankopecky.com

 

[TheMissingLink]

As an alternative to Frontpage and Dreamweaver you could try the free NVU at http://www.nvu.com ... It's also a wysiwyg and also uses a kind of siteadministration ...

Horst

 

[pentaxuser]

No problem whatsoever with downloading speed or navigation in my opinion. Some thumbnails seem a little dark and it is not always obvious what they are but your type of art such as "elements" will seldom be eyecatching in the form of thumbnails.

I had a quick look at a famous( at least in U.K. circles) landscape photographer's site ( Joe Cornish) and if anything he charges slightly less, size for size, than you despite his fame. Being landscapes and with his established position, his market is probably larger than yours. I suspect when he was establishing himself his prices were quite modest. You may want to re-examine your prices. The people with the money seem willing to meet premium prices only if the artist/photographer has the fame to command such prices.

Maybe my next point is just the "Brit" mentality or maybe just mine but having a tiered pricing would put me off buying. It somehow introduces a hard nosed element into the transaction which alienates artist from buyer. It's a bit like the transaction between Telly Savalas and Elliott Gould in the film Capricorn One. You may know the film. Gould, the journalist, desperately needs Savalas' crop spraying airplane to get him to civilisation so he can expose the fake "Mission to Mars Launch" he has discovered. " How much to hire this plane?" Gould asks. "$120 dollars an hour" Savalas says. " Agreed" says Gould. Savalas replies " It's now $180 an hour. You agreed to $120 too quickly so you can afford more."

Not an exact analogy perhaps but it conveys the element that tiered pricing introduces in my mind. Anyway I hope you found it funny. Some humour can cross the pond.

Are your potential customers likely to be fellow photo professionals or keen amateurs? If not, your very good notes on the zone system is unlikely to mean much or help to sell the pictures.

I enjoyed the site and if people are into your type of photography then they'll find the site to be OK. If they are not then no amount of further tweaking is likely to help sell your work.

Best of luck

Pentaxuser