my new site

[hammy]

Right as most of you know i had a new site built by a company at a cost of £600, Now this company have done nothing for my seo or added photos I have sent them, Thankfully I have only given them £200 the rest is due end of this month. It is a really nice website but as I have no control over it I can see myself having a lovely looking site which has no ranking whatsoever and no help when I ask for it.

I have now built my own website with thanks and help from Ian (Discofever) so please rip holes in it and after ripping please send some guidance ;) .

I am going to change the header and that line up the top (if I can find it)

Be as harsh as you want, I`m a man and can take it

www.weddingdis.co

[mattydinx]

The main thing that stands out for me is the poor quality images, The layout is nice and clean - but those images just spoil it.

[hammy]

Best I can do im afraid Im a dj not a photographer, I have tried and tried.

[Mark Wild]

What's with the key phrases right across the top?

[hammy]

What's with the key phrases right across the top?





I am going to change the header and that line up the top (if I can find it)

As above

[Matty12]

Sorry hammy I don't like that at all I.M.O.

First of all I would just have a normal banner fading in and out with the photos at the side removed, One thing a did notice if your on a page the menu goes white and you can't see what page your on.

Matt.:o

[Mark Wild]

My apologies, I'm not with it today.

[hammy]

Sorry hammy I don't like that at all I.M.O.

First of all I would just have a normal banner fading in and out with the photos at the side removed, you need to make the lines and writing a bit darker. One thing a did notice if your on a page the menu goes white and you can't see what page your on.

Matt.:o

Matt I would love to remove the side photos, Dont know how. The site map of the page your on goes white and I hate it doing that but guess what, I dont know how to change it.

Believe me it has been an effort to get it to where it is now, Im still learning as I go along so will look into the above.

EDIT: Took pictures off the side

[BVD]

With reference to the images within your gallery I notice that

1: You have left intact all of the Exif data. Best to strip this info out.

2: Your images are far to large. 4000x3000 pixels and then relying on the browser to resize to 800 px along the longest side. Not only do they take a long time to load (comparatively speaking) but relying on the browser to resize is a recipe for low grade images. Resize the images to a usable size (800x600) in a graphics software such as Photoshop before uploading to you web space.

Steve

[hammy]

With reference to the images within your gallery I notice that

1: You have left intact all of the Exif data. Best to strip this info out.

2: Your images are far to large. 4000x3000 pixels and then relying on the browser to resize to 800 px along the longest side. Not only do they take a long time to load (comparatively speaking) but relying on the browser to resize is a recipe for low grade images. Resize the images to a usable size (800x600) in a graphics software such as Photoshop before uploading to you web space.

Steve

1. What is an exif
2. resizing now

[Jiggles]

Also the bold look text just makes the site look cheap same with the colour just doesn't match the theme.

[hammy]

Also the bold look text just makes the site look cheap same with the colour just doesn't match the theme.

now sorted on text, Thanks Jiggles. What colour doesn`t match the theme?

[DAVESOUNDS SERVICES]

Ive just spent around 20 or so minutes limping through yr website
and have to say your pictures are poor.
Surely if you do alot of wedding you could agree to purchase some classy pics from the couples or photographers .
Mrs Sounds would prefer to see pics of your disco equipment showing its quality tidyness and its up to date PAT testing labels ( her words not mine!)
Ps I Dont have a website because mine would be even worse that this ( only having a 30 pounds camera!)
good luck with the project
do you have the link to the 600 pounds site?
Thanks Dave

[Jiggles]

now sorted on text, Thanks Jiggles. What colour doesn`t match the theme?

The black text and lines. With the yellow/ cream it just looks really out of place. What withe gold colour banner text and such.

[BVD]

Exif is data that is held within the image file giving all the details of equipment used, dates, settings etc.

http://spanielman.smugmug.com/Other/Forum-Uploads/i-qsrwv95/0/XL/66542163058a98a24991o-XL.jpg

And the page goes on even further

Steve

[Mark Wild]

Why not use the pics from your Hammy Weddings site, are none of them yours? I notice Mr. Pete Stead is the DJ in one of them.

Also the content on your site makes you out to be somewhat of a wedding planner, is that your intention?

[hammy]

do you have the link to the 600 pounds site?
Thanks Dave

www.hammysweddings.co.uk


Exif is data that is held within the image file giving all the details of equipment used, dates, settings etc.

http://spanielman.smugmug.com/Other/Forum-Uploads/i-qsrwv95/0/XL/66542163058a98a24991o-XL.jpg

And the page goes on even further

Steve

Still means nothing to me, how I would change it would interest me though.

[hammy]

Why not use the pics from your Hammy Weddings site, are none of them yours? I notice Mr. Pete Stead is the DJ in one of them.

Also the content on your site makes you out to be somewhat of a wedding planner, is that your intention?

I paid the designer for stock photos so dont know if i can use them as i only paid not purchased, So dont know wether I have the copyright or they do.

[Vectis]

I notice Mr. Pete Stead is the DJ in one of them.


Indeed...
www.petesteaddj.com/weddings.html

at a much higher resolution leads me to suspect his is the original source. Even though this picture appears on dozens of sites across the web it's still plagiarism Hammy and unless you have permission from Pete you might want to do something about it.

In this case you might be legitimately blaming the web designer :o

(it might also give you a legitimate "out" ;) )




I paid the designer for stock photos so dont know if i can use them as i only paid not purchased, So dont know wether I have the copyright or they do.

Chances are that those which haven't been stolen have been licensed under the 'standard' licensing model from one of the major stock distributors, in which case the person who paid the money for them should be free to use them once (and once only) for each purchase.

[hammy]

I have had no control over the website whatsoever, I have had one photo removed already due to plagiarism which now leads me to believe that they never paid for the photos in the first place and also backs up my theory of dismissing them. Peter if you read this please accept my apologies and their address is http://www.hodephdesign.com/.

[hammy]

Chances are that those which haven't been stolen have been licensed under the 'standard' licensing model from one of the major stock distributors, in which case the person who paid the money for them should be free to use them once (and once only) for each purchase.

So I have the right to use them??

[Vectis]

So I have the right to use them??

I'm speculating Hammy. Generally this is how it works, yes. Web designer pays for a 'standard licence' from Shutterstock or wherever which allows them to use it on a single commercial project, then bills the client accordingly.

I'd advise you to find out from the designer under which terms and from which sources the images were obtained, and take it from there.

Or buy yourself £30 worth of credit on Shutterstock and download a bunch for yourself :beer1:

[hammy]

Or buy yourself £30 worth of credit on Shutterstock and download a bunch for yourself :beer1:

Well to be honest I bought the name and its in my name (if that makes sense) and im going to point it now to the site I designed (even though its not ready) but I`m not having plagiarism on my hands, Going to try and get my £200 back but dont see any hope in it.

Shutterstock account opened, I can have decent looking pics on site till I learn how to take a good photo.

[BVD]

Hammy, you may be able to minimise exif data by just ticking a box in the software you use to resize the images.

I use Photoshop and that is what I do when I save as a jpg.

It's not a big deal leaving the data in there but I and most pro Togs will minimize it leaving just the copyright info in there.

Steve

[thex-faders]

I personally would try and use a slightly darker shade of gray for all of the text as on my lovely HD monitor there is a lot of white and the text can become hard to read.

Once you have your images sorted out, try and get one image on each page, on the right of the text, that explains that page. Picture tells a thousand words.

Also, on the home page, from a legal perspective can you write "I truly promise to make it a night to remember for you and everyone there." ?

Thanks Tom

[DazzyD]

I personally would try and use a slightly darker shade of gray for all of the text as on my lovely HD monitor there is a lot of white and the text can become hard to read.

Once you have your images sorted out, try and get one image on each page, on the right of the text, that explains that page. Picture tells a thousand words.

Also, on the home page, from a legal perspective can you write "I truly promise to make it a night to remember for you and everyone there." ?

Thanks Tom

It's the body text that got me, too. When I opened your site, my laptop screen was at such an angle that I couldn't see any body text at all. It wasn't until I tilted my screen (by quite a margin, actually!) that I saw there was text there after all.

[Matty12]

It's the body text that got me, too. When I opened your site, my laptop screen was at such an angle that I couldn't see any body text at all. It wasn't until I tilted my screen (by quite a margin, actually!) that I saw there was text there after all.

:agree:

[thex-faders]

Also, it is recommended by some, not all, website designers that you have a text version of your telephone number available as Google etc will add this to maps listings.

However it does slightly increase the likelihood of marketing calls etc. So up to you really.

Tom

[surround sounds]

I agree with most of the comments but £600 for a website with no control over it seems expensive to me..

[hammy]

Lucky I only stumped up £200 for it which I will have to take a loss but hey ho tomorrows another day, I have now turned to an advertiser on the MDD forums, Thanks for all the input folks :beer1:

[Vectis]

Not sure if it's related (or something you've changed) Graham but we've been getting connection timeout errors for emails sent to dj at hammysweddings dot co dot uk from NAD today... might want to check it out. :beer1:

[Matty12]

I agree with most of the comments but £600 for a website with no control over it seems expensive to me..

Not really thats what I paid. :)

[surround sounds]

Not really thats what I paid. :)
Really..I pay a lot less that that and got full control of website.

[Wayno]

Not really thats what I paid. :)

Did you really pay £600 for a 6 page website that doesnt even sit on its own domain? (just an extension of your web deginers domain)

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

Did you really pay £600 for a 6 page website that doesnt even sit on its own domain? (just an extension of your web deginers domain)

More money than sense is a phrase that is coming to mind here...;) :D

[DJ Paulie]

I have a suggestion for hammy and anyone else who might want to look into cutting down spam emails. There's a little free program called web email cloaker http://acme-web-design.info/free-web-email-cloaker.php Although it doesn't say, it works with Win 7 as well. I've used the simple HTML cloak for the last 5 years and it's really cut it down.

I expect someone will pick holes in it though ! But as a simple way of cutting spam I've found it works.

[hammy]

Not sure if it's related (or something you've changed) Graham but we've been getting connection timeout errors for emails sent to dj at hammysweddings dot co dot uk from NAD today... might want to check it out. :beer1:

Will sort that now Martin


More money than sense is a phrase that is coming to mind here...;) :D

I think so :D


I have a suggestion for hammy and anyone else who might want to look into cutting down spam emails. There's a little free program called web email cloaker http://acme-web-design.info/free-web-email-cloaker.php Although it doesn't say, it works with Win 7 as well. I've used the simple HTML cloak for the last 5 years and it's really cut it down.

I expect someone will pick holes in it though ! But as a simple way of cutting spam I've found it works.

A bit off topic methinks

[hammy]

This one for the level headed guru`s.
I received this email today off the web building company.



Hi Graham,

Hope you are well and had a great Christmas and New Year.

Its just a reminder email regarding the balance owed for the website.

Would you be able to clear this off this week please?


Regards.



They dont even know that the name isnt even pointing to the site anymore.

How do I reply legally telling them where to go.

[Marc J]

How do I reply legally telling them where to go.

This all depends on what your contract with them was, and if they were in breach of that or have supplied what they were contracted to supply. Legally you may find you are still due the balance.

[hammy]

Well all resolved, After a lengthy chat with the designer I will now be staying with them, I also have control over the site and pictures that appear :D .
It is a nice site and it was a bit of not understanding each other.