My new website

[SenorNikonMan]

Loupey and his website inspired me to get one of my own. I've been a serious amature at nature and wildlife photography for many years and I think that over the years I've improved, but I've never been good at promoting my work in order to sell it. Seeing how Loupey has used his website to sell his work, I thought I might be able to do the same. Now that I'm getting into sports photography as well, I decided it was the perfect time for me to get serious about promoting my work and my services.

I realize that there are many other things I can do to promote my photography but I see this website as the first (and an important) first step. At least now I have a way of showing potential customers what I have to offer.

I'm not finished with it yet, but so far I like the way it's coming out. I used Go Daddy's Website Tonite service and got unlimited number of pages, an e-mail address, live phone support and a choice of several pre-designed sites and it's only costing me $10.00 a month. So far it's taken me about 48 hours, working on it as I had a chance, to get to this point. Let me know what you guys think.

http://bugsbirdsandbeyond.com/Home_Page.html

BTW, be sure to read my disclaimer at the bottom of the home page and then try right clicking anywhere on that page. I customized the window that pops up when you do that with my own special message.

[scott-devon]

Very nice job on the webpage. I'd like to put one together sometime. I like the pop-up!

[big baldo]

Very cool site!
The only thing I would change is to have it where you can click on the pics and they go full screen. You have some beautiful pictures there but its kinda hard to appreciate them when you can only see small pics. Other than that, it looks great!:thumbsup: Keep us posted.

[Xia_Ke]

Looks good Geese, I should make myself one of those My only worry would be about your disclaimer. While I like it and agree completely with it, if you intend this to be a business page, I wonder if it might be sending the wrong message to potential customers/clients.

[SenorNikonMan]

Very cool site!
The only thing I would change is to have it where you can click on the pics and they go full screen. You have some beautiful pictures there but its kinda hard to appreciate them when you can only see small pics. Other than that, it looks great!:thumbsup: Keep us posted.

Thanks! Your suggestion is definitely something I am considering. I would however need to put some kind of a watermark on the enlarged versions so that they could not be taken directly off the site and printed.

I've seen others do this with a semi-transparent copyright symbol and their name right over the center of the photo. I'm not sure how to do this however. Is this normally done with software like PhotoShop?

[Xia_Ke]

...I've seen others do this with a semi-transparent copyright symbol and their name right over the center of the photo. I'm not sure how to do this however. Is this normally done with software like PhotoShop?

Here's a tutorial you should checkout... http://www.oman3d.com/tutorials/phot.../watermark.php

[SenorNikonMan]

Looks good Geese, I should make myself one of those My only worry would be about your disclaimer. While I like it and agree completely with it, if you intend this to be a business page, I wonder if it might be sending the wrong message to potential customers/clients.

You may be right. Since my website is not even finished, I'm not really promoting it yet and I'm just having fun with it now. I'll probably change it but I'm still going to have fun with it. I think that most people will take it in the tongue-in-cheek way it will be intended.

[Xia_Ke]

That's pretty much what I figured and that's how I took it. Just wasn't sure how far you wanted to go with it down the road business wise. I'm curious, did you do all the html yourself or do they have templates to set it up through godaddy? For that price, you've really got me thinking about getting my own.

[SenorNikonMan]

That's pretty much what I figured and that's how I took it. Just wasn't sure how far you wanted to go with it down the road business wise. I'm curious, did you do all the html yourself or do they have templates to set it up through godaddy? For that price, you've really got me thinking about getting my own.

They have templates with all the HTML already. I do know some HTML, I used to know a lot more but have forgotten most of it, but I didn't really need to know any for this website. You just enter the text, choose the font, size and color and they take care of the rest. Same thing goes for the pictures. You upload them to your very own image library and then you put them in wherever you want. You can even hyperlink them, as I did on my home page, with a few clicks of your mouse. Once you get the hang of it, and I have to admit that it took me a few hours to get the hang of how it all works, it's very simple.

You can also vary the color of the background. I don't think that you can change the header image though which is one thing I'd like to be able to do. But I can live with the one I have on there now.

One of the things I like the most is that there are no ads anywhere! Well Go Daddy does have a small button with a link to their website at the very bottom, but it is barely noticeable. I also like the fact that they have free phone support (except for the cost of the call since it is not a toll free number).

One hint for you though, whichever of the three packages you choose (I chose the Premium), click on the one month option first. Then when you go to the next page, they will offer you an even better price on the 12 month option than what they were offering you in the previous page. This will save you around $20.00 per year!

Good luck should you decide to create your own website! It really is fun once you get into it and you know what you're doing.

[PMW518]

[COLOR="DarkRed"][B]
BTW, be sure to read my disclaimer at the bottom of the home page and then try right clicking anywhere on that page. I customized the window that pops up when you do that with my own special message.

Just a little FYI this doesn't work when using Firefox, and there are full right click options on all of the pages.
I tried right clicking because I was curios to see you message, but nothing happened, switch page to Internet Explorer and it worked as its supposed to.
You just need to write some more code for the Firefox to recognize that command too, the joys of writing pages in a multi, not completely standard, browser world. I don't know enough to tell you what it is or what to change, probably something with your "function click" command, but it shouldn't be too hard of a fix.

Other than that it looks great, maybe as suggested bigger versions of the shots, even it they weren't a huge full screen version, just something a little bigger than than the ones on there so that you can see more of the details, and appreciate the great work.

[SenorNikonMan]

Just a little FYI this doesn't work when using Firefox, and there are full right click options on all of the pages.
I tried right clicking because I was curios to see you message, but nothing happened, switch page to Internet Explorer and it worked as its supposed to.
You just need to write some more code for the Firefox to recognize that command too, the joys of writing pages in a multi, not completely standard, browser world. I don't know enough to tell you what it is or what to change, probably something with your "function click" command, but it shouldn't be too hard of a fix.

Other than that it looks great, maybe as suggested bigger versions of the shots, even it they weren't a huge full screen version, just something a little bigger than than the ones on there so that you can see more of the details, and appreciate the great work.

Thanks for letting me know that. I'm not worried about people copying my pics anyway, especially those I have on there now. They're such low resolution that they're not good for much other than viewing them online anyway. Once I provide larger images then I will use watermarks.

One more suggestion for anybody wanting to make their own website is to be sure to back-up your work frequently. That way if you mess something up, you can always go back and restore any of several previously saved versions.

[SenorNikonMan]

I don't think that you can change the header image though which is one thing I'd like to be able to do. But I can live with the one I have on there now.

Well, I was wrong. You can change the header image after all and I just changed mine. Check out the new version and let me know what you think if you have a chance.

[Loupey]

Looks great!

Keep in mind that you have the option of placing Google Ads. I know ads don't seem appealing but I think people expect to see some. Will help you offset the cost of the website hosting. You can put as many as 2 ads per page.

FYI