Website Thoughts
 

Hello All:

My name is Heather Coleman. I am a wedding videographer. I have been doing it for almost 3 years now.

The first thing that many clients see first when 'discovering' our business is our website so our website is basically our first impression and it is either going to to turn them off or get them to want to know more. I prefer the latter - and this is where I need your help.

I would like you to visit our site - take a look around and tell me what you think. Is it organized? Can you find all the information? Is it easy to move around? Do you think brides would stick around or move on?

Any and all advice, comments, tips are welcomed.

Thanks so much,

Heather Coleman
Coleman Videography :: Affordable Central PA Wedding Videography

Great layout, easy to navigate, and I didn't have any questions after reading your FAQ. Only thing I would mention is that some of the pictures (logo, "wedding videography for the modern bride") looked to be low res and could be a bit sharper.

Hi Michael:

I agree with you. I designed both of those parts in photoshop - any suggestions how to bump up the resolution on those? I'm not sure if it is now I'm exporting them from photoshop or if it is my site builder. But I completely agree. Thanks for the feedback!

-Heather

I like it! It's laid out well and I don't have to scratch my head trying to find what I'm looking for. Nicely done!

I also like the music selection on the opening video and the demo.

Theres weird spacing on the contact us page for the "Lets Talk" column...at least for me (google chrome), but I totally love the feel of the site!

Great job!

Hey Michael! I was given some great advice about this problem and I think it is better now. Yay! Thank you so much for pointing it out or it probably never would have got fixed. Thanks again, Heather

Add-On page, second paragraph - I think there may be a word missing, or a missing hyphen (your vs you're). It depends what you had in mind for this sentence.

"Let us spend an afternoon with you and your fiancé before your with photographer to film at the same time!"

It looks good. I like the feel and ease of navigation. Two things I would like to mention,

1. On the Fan Mail page the lower image seems squished, perhaps the aspect ratio is off? (see attachment)

2. You may want to add your phone number to every page rather than just the contact page, perhaps directly under the company logo. You want to make it as easy as possible for people to contact you. I really like your let's connect portal and it is along this same idea.

Great site!

Hi Heather

It is a nice site and great navigation. Brides don't have much time to linger nowdays so it's great to be able to create a "these people are worth considering" impression quickly, which you have done.

This is just me, but my brides like the idea that firstly all my package prices are up-front..they don't have to be exact but it would be nice to know that the most popular package is "from $1250 etc etc" That way the bride CAN figure that your middle package is within her budget. Secondly, doing an online calendar is not too hard either...that way the bride can also say "Yay!! they are free on 16th July!!"

Otherwise great site.. (I still prefer sample with audio and not only music, but that's my view)

Hope you get tons of bookings !!

Chris

Hi Heather,

The site is laid out very nicely and navigation is great. It is simple, not crowded and to the point with a touch of elegence. Very well done.

One suggestion; in my view using the shade of grey in the headings (images also where it says let's connect) doesn't go well with white background. With images, the best thing to do is to resave them as either gif or jpg with no transperancy. Your site background is white and there is no reason for using gifs with transperent background. Create different sizes of your headings instead of resizing it in html or at least resize it proportionally . For instance, the original logo size is 1050x404 but in the content pages you have set it up to be 314x112 hence the pixulated edges.Even in the launching page, it is 525x199.

Change 314x112 (content pages) to 350x134
change 525x199 (launching page) to 525x202

Same for the "wedding videography for the modern bride".

You can do this in your <img> tag but it is better if you resize it in photoshop and that way you can resize it the way it is now and the edges will not appear pixulated.

So 2 things overall:
1. You do not need transparent gifs for titles. White background will do just fine
2. Resize your images proportionally inside the html or if you want to keep these sizes, do it in photshop and use the new iamges. The latter option is better.

Make the Let's connect an image or change the shade of grey that you are using.

I am looking at it on an IE6 (we are way behind at work...) and it looks just fine, which means there is no cross-browser compatibility issues... not many people are using old browsers but it is good you have kept that in mind. I will have another look at home on a decent browser and will let you know how different it might or might not look.

I hope I make ssense, if not please do ask.

Heather, I’m sorry if you got a nice warm feeling from the previous comments because I’m
not crazy about the site. There’s nothing objectively wrong with the design - that’s a very
subjective matter but the wordage is as important.

First, I know English grammar isn’t a popular topic these days and we all make mistakes, but
there’s a difference between “your” and “you’re”.

Second, why start with rhetorical questions? If the viewer answers “no” in their mind then
you’re already on the way to losing them.

And why choose these questions? Are they really your top USP’s? I doubt it

Why tell people you’re small but exclusive when you only charge low prices. If you really
were exclusive you’d be charging ten times as much.

“Crafting” - the verb and the sentence are great - exactly right. More of this would be very
good. Tell people why you’re special, despite your modest prices.

Third on pricing I have particular views which are not shared by many others. I have a single, inclusive price, I believe in making it easy for people to buy, in being top value but not pretending that I’m bargain
basement.

You make profit sound like a dishonourable word and in doing so, in my view, you begin to
sound almost disingenuous. Rolls Royce (I’m not giving a car example - substitute the name
of the car you think is the best) don’t make the best cars for nothing, they do it to make a
profit. What I think you’re trying to say is that we’re not trying to be the Ford or GM of the
wedding video business.... if so, do it.

And in a more general sense may I suggest:

Fourthly, I think the Film heading should be Availability unless your market interprets “Film”
in a special way.

Fifthly in your FAQs I think, why give clients the choice of chaptering - that only makes work
- give them as many chapters as you think are needed, if in doubt add more. No-one ever complained about too many chapters.

Sixthly, again my views are on record regarding testimonials. You never see a bad one so
why bother including them - just more warm feelings.

Finally, I understand that e-mail addresses in sites are a gift to spammers. You already use
webforms for your availability, I’d do the same for contacts.

I do think your site is commendably the right size, more pages is over the top - we wanted to say more and do so via downloadable and viewable PDFs. It gives viewers the choice.

Sorry if that doesn’t give you a warm feeling but it is honest and I hope practical. You can
always ignore all advice - it’s just opinions and in the end what’s right is what’s right for you.
Best of luck.

PS, Hameed, if you want to check cross-browser compatibility check with Mozilla - IE likes everything.

On the topic of calendars, for those of us not booking 50 weddings a year (for instance if someone had only 5 weddings the rest of this year), I wonder if a low number of bookings communicates something negative to a bride? If I were a bride and I saw a wide-open Availability Calendar, that may make me nervous. Kind of like going to an empty restaurant on a Friday evening. It may be great food and service, but that initial impression gives you cause for alarm. I guess the other school of thought they may have is that they have viewed our portfolio, like our work, and are only concerned with their specific date. I guess it could go either way. Thoughts?

PS - Sorry if this hijacked the thread!

Actually, IE 6 is a substandard browser by todays standards. If the site runs on that, it will run on anything newer. I mentioned, that I was at work and bound to whatever browser was available on our SOE. After checking it at home on 4 different browsers, namely IE8, Firefox 3.6, Chrome and Safari, it looks pretty much the same on all. If I could get pedantic like some other people, then I could check it out on lynx too....

Hi Michael

Not a hi-jack at all but a very good point!!! I do probably 35 weddings a year and it did occur to me that brides might look at my June/July calendar and see lot's of empty spaces (it's Winter here that time and cold and wet so most bookings are last minute!!)

To be honest I was a little worried about the "emptiness" at certain stages of the year but I really got tired of having to turn down excited brides because I'm already booked!! Then again quite a few don't even bother to go to the calendar page and still ask if I'm available!!

I'm sure that one could get a little Flash or Java drop down calendar, select your wedding date and then it says "Available!! Book now" .... I'll have to look around as something like that would not show your schedule but just tell the bride whether you are free or not!!! Anyone use something like that????

Chris

Heather,

May I know who made your website?
or can anyone refer me to website designers who makes similar look and feel?

Also, how much did it cost you?

Id appreciate your help.