www.rustybranch.com

[kachina]

Alright, here goes. Please critique http://www.rustybranch.com and be brutally honest. I am working on a portfolio page and updates for the front page pictures. My goal is to keep things very simple and easy to use. The following edits are already planned:

1. Add events to offerings on home page
2. Update home page photos/make them the same size+add borders.
3. Add personal photos to About Us page
4. Add potfolio page - working hard to develop a portfolio worthy of posting
5. Change EM header to match main site
6. Add recent engagements sidebar.
7. Have logo redone.

In general, this is a rough first pass. Please fire away. I'm just starting out so any help at all would be GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks,
Rusty

[jamiewallace]

You need more examples of your work. This should be the primary focus of your site. If in the first 30 seconds on your site I'm not impresses by a picture I see I probably won't use your services.

Work on your text. Notice the difference in (current), "We are a simple company focused on providing excellent service at reasonable prices." and (revised) "Beautiful images with over the top customer service is what defines Rusty Branch Photography. Unlike the big guys, we take our time to get image that truly captures you. No cookie cutter here." Consider taking free pictures for your favorite English or Marketing Major to write the text for you if you struggle with it.

I actually like the logo, but it takes up too much space and makes me scroll down the page to get to what I cam to see.

Blue nav is hard to read on the black bg. Not crazy about the lines, they divide the page too much. Try only doing one, or making them a less obvious color (#333333). You might also try varying the widths, like top thin, bottom thick.

There's a broken link in the nav somewhere.

Make all the changes you have planned and re-post so we can better catch your vision for the site. Hope you take this all constructively as it was meant.

[Jay Henley]

not a fan italicized words. I also do not like white text on black ground. It is too much contrast for my taste but I know a lot of people do it and seem to like it. you have change logo on your to do list. I agree. I dont think you need the circle. Maybe just pick out a font you like and keep it simple with just "rustybranchphotography". Play around with some colors for it. Someone provide this tool the other day on forum which is very handy for picking colors that go well together. It may have been a post by Brad but I cant remember.

[kachina]

Thanks for the comments. I will attack the website next week. Much to do.

[markfh]

The sites ok but the contact form is open to hijacking.

[kachina]

How so?

[rages4calm]

Originally Posted by markfh

The sites ok but the contact form is open to hijacking.

He is right, for several reasons

You are using cgi and an old perl formmail script, formmail was never very safe to begin with.


This script could be used to test your formail if you have python
ftp://ftp.monkeys.com/pub/formmail/fmtest.pl

It is open to Anonymous Mail Forwarding meaning, I could create a http request form on my domain that request your form url and throw a few sendmail attacks out, A bit tuff to explain but you can research it pretty easily.

http://www.rustybranch.com/cgi-bin/f...l/formmail.cgi
that is your formmail in the bin

This is your formmail confused as hell
http://www.rustybranch.com/cgi-bin/f...=%3Cmessage%3E

Do not let the above info scare you :) if you need help feel free to contact me

[kachina]

Thanks guys. Always something with the Internet. Makes me want to get off of the grid.

[kachina]

Second iteration is up and running....

http://www.rustybranch.com/

I still plan to get a friend with an MBA in marketing to proof the site and I still need to load more images in the portfolio. Working on it...

[jamiewallace]

100% better.

- An all flash site will not get affectively indexed by search engines, and so many people won't find you when searching.
- More photos. Fill all the boxes.

Otherwise, raise your prices! Your work looks too good on this site for what you charge.

Great work!

Jamie

[snidow]

Did not see it before, but it looks nice now.

[kachina]

Jamie,

Thanks. As demand rises the prices will follow until available time and demand reach a good equilibrium point. I'm in the just getting started mode so I am trying to get all of the experience I can. I have some creative methods in mind to get around the search engine indexing issues. Hope to implement them early next week.

Rusty

[rages4calm]

much much better, really well done :)

[kachina]

Laurie and Carl - thanks. I put a little more work into this iteration. Time to finish out the portfolio then implement the marketing plan to see if this gig will take off.

[golden11]

Rusty - In your price list you have 5x7 glossy prints for $1 and $4.99.