BradfordHi Bradford, Please can you take a look at my gallery and suggest ways of improving it,do i need to register a name for it? host it seperatly? anything from design to turning it into a membership site.I haven’t been able to get back to you bcos i have been packing up for our relocation soon.Here is the gallery link. http://blogbytyna.com/Gallery/index.php
First off…
i have been packing up for our relocation soon
I hope everything goes well! Travel is fun and exciting, but it can also become a headache. Lets hope for the former!
Well Tyna, I most certainly have some suggestions and take them or leave them, I hope they help! Especially since I feel you are a gifted photographer, I hope that my recommendations help! Lets start with…
do i need to register a name for it?
The short answer: No. The long answer: Depends on what you want to do with it. How do you feel about the photo gallery? Do you feel it is an important part of your website? Do you feel that it has a “life of its own”? More importantly, do you WANT it to have a life of its own completely seperate from your Blog? If so, then definately!
host it seperatly?
Well, that highly depends on your webhost. It looks like you have it hosted on a CPanel server, so if your host allows you an Add-on Domain or not. If so, then you can quickly and easily setup the new domain with very few changes to your gallery or hosting account!
turning it into a membership site
Well, this depends on what you would like to do with the photos and what kind of membership you mean. If you mean to turn it into a “paid membership site” where people pay to see your photography, I wouldn’t recommend that route unless the gallery is already exceedingly popular, though I would even be careful with membership then. I would most definately do advertising, however I could see adding a paid membership feature to the site allowing people to utilize your photos on their websites or in print. Sort of a “royalty-free stock photo” gallery where people pay you to remove watermarks from your images and use the photos.
If the type of membership you are looking to do is to allow people to register on your site and post their own photos, that can most certianly work, however you’ll want to be careful with it. Spam is one thing, but image Spam can get pretty…well…not very pretty at all. 
It would probably be best if you moderated all of the photos that get posted if you go with a membership of this type. A few things to consider though:
- What types of photos do you want others to post?
- Will the gallery have a primary focus?
- What types of visitors are you looking to attract?
These questions are very important when deciding on membership and membership rules. They are also very important in choosing your domain name, should you decide to host the gallery on its own domain.
Lastly…
suggest ways of improving it
and
anything from design
- First and foremost I would change the template/theme. It is too…”gray”. It gives off a very somber mood.
- Use a lightbox! Lightboxes are GREAT ways to make a photo gallery more…”flashy”. See: http://www.huddletogether.com/projects/lightbox2/ I manage a Vet website and chose to use Gallery2 for their gallery. I utilized a lightbox for displaying the large versions of the photos. Check it out when you click on a photo in the gallery at: http://kernroadvet.com/gallery/v/august_openhouse/
- Link your sites together in a more “prominent” fashion. While your Blog links to your photography website and photo gallery, it is almost difficult to find the links. Even on a large monitor (I am running in 1680×1050), after one full page scroll the links are at the bottom of that scroll. I really like your navigation for http://www.tynaezenma.com/ and think that you should use similar navigation to navigate between all three sites/subsites. Now, I wouldn’t use the image example I have included below, but I threw together a very quick photoshopped idea. Maybe include three options…”Tyna Ezenma Photography”, “Blog By Tyna” and “Tyna’s Photo Gallery”.
If you don’t mind, I’d like to offer a few quick suggestions regarding your blog as well.
- Your right side ads are bugged in Firefox. See:
- Your RSS feed is only slightly “noticable” and I think it would be good to emphasize it more. Maybe something along the lines of…
I hope these suggestions helped!! Now…do YOU also have a question for The Edge? Just drop me a line through the comments and I’ll see what I can do!
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You have mentioned RSS feed buttons, are there do’s and don’ts for the buttons? I have seen different colors and shapes on various sites and I was just wondering. Also, how do I add the email subscription button and or link - if you noticed on my site the button has a reflection effect.
Mostly you will want to make sure that your RSS button is plenty noticable. There aren’t many “do’s n don’ts” really, just making sure to have one. I highly recommend using a feedburner feed.
Brad,I am so pleased with your answers and will do something about them,I rated it 10.The membership is more of the second type you mentioned.I will ask more questions later.
Thanks Tyna! I am glad you found them helpful! If you have any friends who could benefit from critiques or have any website-related questions, please do not hesitate to send them over to The Edge.
Sure thing Brad,I will do that without you asking.
I have complained about the RSS button to my website designer he said that it goes with the blog design,if its darker might look more noticeable as suggested by one of my readers.What do you think? About the right sidebar being bugged in firefox what do i do about that?
I think that making it darker might be a good way to go as well. Yes, you want your theme to “flow”, but you need your RSS button to “pop” as well.
I’d test it in IE first, but I would find the .oio-zone-position definition in your CSS and change:
margin: auto;
to:
margin: 50px auto auto;
If it doesn’t work in IE, let me know and I’ll cook up a workaround for that.