My new website!
 

Rob Zirulo of http://www.flashrob.com/ has helped me design a new website that now gives me the ability to sell my DVDs directly and show clips at a higher resolution than Youtube. There are about 20 clips on the portfolio page, some I've posted, some I haven't.

Opinions welcome.

www.mikepulcinella.com

Mike I thought your original site was better from the design/information angle, it was a classy and purposeful site. On this new one, the choices of fonts and colors are a visually taxing design, and the Photoshop'd picture looks a bit rough....

The layout is such that I want to click on those three headings "Videographer..." "DVD sales" 'Documentaries" but nothing happens.

Bear in mind, I'm no web guy (my personal site benhillmedia.com is prefab, I think my YouTube page gets more traffic). I wonder if something that combines the style of your original site with the preview/purchasing functionality of your new one might be more effective. Good luck either way.

I like the new site! I visited your site before, and can't remember the exact layout, but I do like the new version better.

A few comments, some just personal preference:

- I'd take off any reference to a page that has content that is merely "Coming Soon". Specifically, the "what's new" page.

- The header of every page says "Click to Contact", but doesn't do anything if I click it.

- I see you use PayPal. Everyone I know has been screwed by them at least once. When they were the only game in town, you just had to take your beating. Now, there's Google Checkout. I encourage you to try them! That's what I do all my DVD sales through.

- On the "DVDs For Sale" page, could you include a link to each DVD's trailer, to eliminate clicking back and forth?

- Speaking of trailers, I LOVE the splash page that comes up that says you'll have to wait a moment for the video to load, but it'll be better than youtube quality. I particularly love that when the video loads, it really is better.

- In your "Contact Me" page, consider changing Apartment 102 to Suite 102. The mail will still come to you, but you won't sound like a guy who works out of his apartment. :-)

- Again with the address... I don't list my address on my website. (a) Why would anyone need it, and (b) My website brags about all my video equipment, I don't feel the need to send crooks directly to the booty. Website and phone number... that's where the money comes from anyway.

- On your index page, the cutout of you shows white around the edges... load that puppy back into photoshop and choke the matte. (Not a euphemism for masturbation.) I don't know how, I have to figure that stuff out each time I do it... but it's possible.

Overall, good job! I watched a few of the vids and was very impressed. The Photo Joe vid was very well done!

-MW

I'm working on getting the Photoshop picture outline better but I am really disappointed that you found the design "taxing". One of my main objectives was to make the site more restful on the eyes and I like the way the new one looks. I personally don't like white websites. It's like staring into a lightbulb to read them. I hope it's just a matter of differing tastes but if enough people share your opinion I will certainly change it.

I could be off-base, never know. I guess I liked the no-nonsense vibe of the old one. Like you said, see what others think. If your biz takes off with the new design well you can't argue with results.

That's true. Still, I really appreciate you taking the time to post.

Thank you as well for your very thoughtful post Mike! Those are all good suggestions and I'm going to start tweaking the site right away!

Here ya go!

JS

John!!! Why'd you do that?? That was really nice of you! Thanks!

No problem Michael, I was bored...and love Photoshop! : )

JS

Mike,
The site looks professional and clean. Someone mentioned that they wanted to click on the three main headings in the middle and I did too. You might want to make those clickable because it's prime real estate and those three headings sound like the three different areas that people would want to go to from your home page.

Otherwise I'm looking at your home page and there is no (what we call in the retail-web business) "call to action." I see that you're a videographer, and your site looks professional, now what do I do?

What if you took the three attention grabbers in the middle of the page and move them up to just under your name? Then it reads: Mike Pulcinella; Videographer - Editor - Documentary Filmmaker

Then within that round shape in the middle of the page (again, prime real estate) you can have it be a call to action and it can read: "View my demo reel" or "See my work"

Then the customer (or whoever) has a clear path to go where you want them to go and within 5 seconds they know what to do.

Am I making sense? It's a great-looking site, those are just my 0.02.

Awesome suggestions Will! You are right on the money!

Sure thing. I'm just getting started with videography but have worked on/in/with the web for a few years now. Keep up the good work.