TheModernMutt.com - New site::Critique & Questions!

[ChristopherCoy]

WOW! My eyes are burning. I've been working on my 'new site' for 13 hours now. Thing is, its not really a new site. I've used my 'blog' to seperate my pet photography, from my 'all other stuff'. I had bought the domain name months ago, but just got around to redirecting it. So my first question is...

- Is using my blog as a website with a different domain from the business name detrimental, even if its redirected? I plan to buy a subdomain template for my pet stuff in the future, but in the meantime, this is going to have to work to bring in a little fundage.

- Should I keep all of my pet 'galleries' on the blog site, or include a gallery on my main site too for uniformity?

And with that, I'd also like some critique on the site so far. Any misspellings, site errors, formatting errors, anything you think should be changed/improved, etc.

The site is http://www.themodernmutt.com

[thehatguy]

Hard to tell who you really are.

Images by Christopher Coy?
The Modern Mutt?

John

[J Eddington]

It might help if your dog images had the watermark, The Modern Mutt instead of IBCC (images by Christopher Coy) on them.
But, when I go to your web site then the dog images are on IBCC. Now that does confuse me. You should not mix the two together in the same galleries. Now if you had a tab/Gallery within IBCC that was all about The Modern Mutt that would be ok in my mind, but now it leaves it confusing. That and the fact that if I click on The Modern Mutt on the first page of the website it just takes me back to where I came from, the blog. What if instead it took me into your website but a different area designed just for The Modern Mutt? I am not sure this makes any sense. Together but seperate.

OK I found a web site that would be a good example of mixing but seperate.
http://www.fromthetreetop.com/ then they have a Muse section for Girls. You could do the same but dogs.

[ChristopherCoy]

I know what your saying Janice, but unfortunately I can't link to a specific area in the website for the dog stuff. The only way to do that, would be to buy another template, set up a subdomain website, and incur an additional monthly charge. This is why I decided to redirect the domain and use the blog as the website for now.

I am going to be going through all of the pictures, and rediting with the new watermark today. I'll also try to figure out a way to bring some uniformity to the two sites.

[debbry531]

I guess I'm just a little confused -- I think the Modern Mutt blog looks great, but are you planning on keeping the Images by Christopher Coy site dog-heavy? Right now, it just sort of looks like you have two, very different dog sites. I think it might work if you switch over your images by CC site to have your wedding/portrait/etc. work, but not your dog work (have the modern mutt site standalone as your pet site - I think Becky's Lucky Mutt is all blog-based). Then you could modify the splash page to reflect the difference - click here for dogs; click there for...

The redirect doesn't bother me at all - I probably wouldn't have noticed it if you hadn't mentioned it.

[dmcantrell]

The images on this site take a while to load (for me). Do you have the ability to "pre-load" images in your web template?

The overall look-and-feel is more "blog" and less "website". Was this your intent? For example, there is no "gallery" place where a potential client would go to see your best stuff. Well, I guess the 'categories' is kind of like that but not exactly.

[msk2193]

Originally Posted by ChristopherCoy

I know what your saying Janice, but unfortunately I can't link to a specific area in the website for the dog stuff. The only way to do that, would be to buy another template, set up a subdomain website, and incur an additional monthly charge. This is why I decided to redirect the domain and use the blog as the website for now.

I am going to be going through all of the pictures, and rediting with the new watermark today. I'll also try to figure out a way to bring some uniformity to the two sites.

Chris, I think when you set up the forwarding of the domain in your domain registration provider, there must be an area where you can select to "mask" or "hide" the domain server which allows your visitors to keep seeing the mutt name on the address line of their browser.

[ChristopherCoy]

Originally Posted by debbry531

I think it might work if you switch over your images by CC site to have your wedding/portrait/etc. work, but not your dog work (have the modern mutt site standalone as your pet site - I think Becky's Lucky Mutt is all blog-based). Then you could modify the splash page to reflect the difference - click here for dogs; click there for...

Yes, right now my intent is to remove all dog/pet galleries from the IBCC website. I want the IBCC website to be nothing but portrait and other work, and then have all the dog stuff on the blogsite.

[ChristopherCoy]

Originally Posted by dmcantrell

The images on this site take a while to load (for me). Do you have the ability to "pre-load" images in your web template?

The overall look-and-feel is more "blog" and less "website". Was this your intent? For example, there is no "gallery" place where a potential client would go to see your best stuff. Well, I guess the 'categories' is kind of like that but not exactly.

They probably load slowly because they aren't maximized for web. I need to reduce their filesize, which I intend to do when I re-edit them with the proper 'branding.'

And on the intent question, the answer is yes and no. I would prefer to have a stand along site with proper galleries, however that isn't in the budget right now as I can't incur more monthly website charges for a website that isn't bringing any any money. Once I start bringing in business, I'll revamp as necessary. However, since I had to use the 'blog' as my pet site, I wanted to make it feel as much like the profoto blog themes that are so popular, as I could. There aren't any galleries, but I'm working on that.

[debbry531]

Yes, right now my intent is to remove all dog/pet galleries from the IBCC website. I want the IBCC website to be nothing but portrait and other work, and then have all the dog stuff on the blogsite.

Well then I like it. I'd still try to link up the styles between the two sites, but it can be more subtle (i.e., a color scheme and/or common font).

[ChristopherCoy]

Originally Posted by msk2193

Chris, I think when you set up the forwarding of the domain in your domain registration provider, there must be an area where you can select to "mask" or "hide" the domain server which allows your visitors to keep seeing the mutt name on the address line of their browser.

I just clicked the 'forward' button on the godaddy dashboard, but I'll check this out and see if its an option. Thanks!

ETA: Well that was easy. We'll see if it works shortly.

[ChristopherCoy]

Originally Posted by dmcantrell

For example, there is no "gallery" place where a potential client would go to see your best stuff.

David, it would appear that I've been able to add a 'gallery' page with a rotating slideshow. It doesn't have thumbnails to scroll through, but you can click on the left or right of the picture to move forward or backward, or pause it. The slideshow does some cool stuff like slighting zooming in or out on the photos, I just haven't figured out how to work it yet.

ETA: OH SNAP!!! I just figured out that if you click the diagonal arrows, it take it to a full screen slideshow! COOL!!!

Originally Posted by msk2193

I think when you set up the forwarding of the domain in your domain registration provider, there must be an area where you can select to "mask" or "hide" the domain server

Michael, it looks like I've been able to forward themodernmutt.com with 'masking' so it doesn't show any sign of my main website.

Originally Posted by debbry531

Well then I like it. I'd still try to link up the styles between the two sites, but it can be more subtle (i.e., a color scheme and/or common font).

Now that I have the masking set, it would seem that I can completely seperate the two. However I am going to add a hidden html link to my IBCC splash page so that webcrawlers will find it. And I'm thinking about minimizing the links on my IBCC page; one for "Pet Photography" that will take you to the blog site, and one to "Portrait Photography" that will take you to everything else.

[dmcantrell]

Originally Posted by ChristopherCoy

David, it would appear that I've been able to add a 'gallery' page with a rotating slideshow. It doesn't have thumbnails to scroll through, but you can click on the left or right of the picture to move forward or backward, or pause it. The slideshow does some cool stuff like slighting zooming in or out on the photos, I just haven't figured out how to work it yet.

ETA: OH SNAP!!! I just figured out that if you click the diagonal arrows, it take it to a full screen slideshow! COOL!!!

I just read that you are using godaddy as your hosting company. That would make me assume that you are managing all your own content.

There are various different drop-in viewers available, many for free. I use one called simpleviewer (SimpleViewer Download). You can see it in action in my 3&3 Studios site in my sig line. It's, well, simple to set up and is fairly customizable. The only caveat is that you need to know how to embed it into your HTML. The download bundle comes with some nice documentation and and example generator so that you can see exactly how to use the code.

[ChristopherCoy]

Originally Posted by dmcantrell

I just read that you are using godaddy as your hosting company. That would make me assume that you are managing all your own content.

There are various different drop-in viewers available, many for free. I use one called simpleviewer (SimpleViewer Download). You can see it in action in my 3&3 Studios site in my sig line. It's, well, simple to set up and is fairly customizable. The only caveat is that you need to know how to embed it into your HTML. The download bundle comes with some nice documentation and and example generator so that you can see exactly how to use the code.

Yes, I manage all my own content on my blog. My website, which is a portfoliositez template, comes with a nice little dashboard that removes all the coding issues for me. But I've learned more HTML code in the last 24 hours than I ever thought I'd know....

I'll check out the simpleviewer! I thought I could only use WP Plugins for the blog site...

[dmcantrell]

Originally Posted by ChristopherCoy

I'll check out the simpleviewer! I thought I could only use WP Plugins for the blog site...

This may be true, I've never used any templates or anything.