Need website help....please?

Okay, I was directed here for website questions...... so here goes....

My website sucks. It does. I did it myself but I am not a webmaster at all and while I know a bit about what I am doing, I obviously do not know enough. I want a really sharp, more modern site. I tried doing a new site and my husband (gotta love him for being honest) said that it looked outdated....... So now I am back to square one.

So where do I start? I can't afford to pay someone to create my site, plus I would like to do it myself, but I do not know where to even begin.

I use Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 and have access to all Flash products, etc. I have looked a little for templates but the free ones I have found are not quite what I am looking for, and the pay ones are too expensive....

:cryin: I am getting so frustrated!! :cryin: Can anyone help me??

I would say the thing with websites are personal preference.

I would scrap the "links" page - you want to keep people on your page.

I would add a gallery page instead of the images below.

Let the photos do the talking.

Alot of black and gold ..... maybe a different color scheme ???????

your "home" links from your galleries don't work either ....

I'm in the same boat as you Summer. I want to redo my site, but don't have a lot of time or money to spend on it right now. I have Dreamweaver MX, but I am far from an expert when it comes to using it. I too have looked at the templates but can't justify the cost right now.

Here are a couple other options you could look into. If you use PS or Lightroom, they both have some nice features to automatically create web galleries for you. It's as simple as selecting the images you want, telling the program where to save them, and letting the software do the work for you. I used the gallery function in CS3 to create mine. I haven't used the LR2 gallery function yet but from what I have seen, they have some pretty nice looking galleries.

Another option that I'm really interested in is a Smugmug Pro account. A pro account is $150/year and they are customizable. I don't know how hard it is to customize them, but the sample sites I have soon look really nice. They also have unlimited storage so you can store your high res files with them as back ups. They also have an ordering function built in as well so a client can purchase images right from your site. Smugmug does the printing and shipping for you. If you use the coupon code "flickr" when you check out, you will save 50%! (No, I am no way affiliated with this discount. I heard it on the podcast "Digital Photography Life")

I'm kinda in the same boat. Right now I have an exposure manager site for hosting images & selling them, I have my own domain & site space that I'm hosting my own Wordpress blog and am currently using it as my site.

What I'm working on now though is a flash site using a template from FlashPalette.com You can download one of their site templates and use the trial for as long as you want, you just can't upload it to your site. The prices range from $150-$400+

I have a smugmug site. My site needs a bit of tweaking at the moment, but they are pretty darn easy to build. You just go to the digitalGran forum and there are tutorials that explain everything in fine detail. If you have any questions, you just ask and you'll find a prompt and accurate response.

Whoooops, forgot to add that you don't have to build your own. The format is there and if you want to get fancy you can at your own pace.

I will look into SmugMug..... Thanks

I am also trying to figure out how to make a flash site. Overwhelming.

Also, thank you mjs for your input. I appreciate it!

ChowChi-Ching,
Don't be too down on the site. All it really needs is some tweaking. First, spend some time rewording text. You want to be professional and readable. Next, look at the flow. You designed the page to be taller than it is wide. Computer screen are wider than they are tall. Adjust accordingly. I'm not sure who is hosting your site, but it loads very slowly. I suggest you find someone else.

Last, flash does look good, but search engines don't like flash. Currently if you want to place in Google stay away from the flash.

ChowChi-Ching,
It seems you've registered with Network-Solutions so you should be using a back-end management tool called Cpanel. Take a look under an icon called "Fantastico" to see what options Network-Solutions offers in preloadable content management software. At a minimum you should have PHP Gallery / GALLERY2 / COPPERMINE available to you. All of these offer plug-ins for shopping carts from third party developers, free. All of these are customizable and offer things like password protected areas for client review. They are very easy to set up and you simply link the gallery to your home page (You design the cover and the program basically does the rest. There are also plug-ins available for LightBox which gives the look of a Flash site without the search engine drawbacks of Flash. Check it out, you may already have everything you're looking for and just don't know it yet :)

I run a version of the COPPERMINE gallery just to host photos for friends and family, on a site of mine that's unrelated to photography. You can see it here - http://jet-visa.com/gallery
(the part that says password protected, use 12321 as the password)