I would appreciate a check on my www.

[googillie]

Hi I am new to this. I would appreciate some feedback on my www.vicpix.net and also would like to increase traffic. Should I be linking and if so how?

[Sally - La Festa]

Re: I would appreciate a check on my www.

Hello,

This may just highlight my complete lack of education but... I was really confused! I thought the Victorian times was just a period of time spoken about in England as we had Queen Victoria....

At first I didn't get why there were the links to the different countries but I got that after. I think, just in case other people are as silly as me, you could add a line above the country links to say something like "Click below to see Victorian images available for the countires shown". Also maybe a main sentence above that spelling out exactly what it is you are doing as it wasn't immediately obvious to me.

I opened the Spain link first and didn't see the pictures as I had to scroll down for them to come up so that was also a little unclear at first as it appeared to be just a page of information at first glance.

Also I think some general menu buttons might be a good idea. I saw the printing information on each page and the contact details but it might be an idea to have this information also readily available on buttons or links at the top or bottom of each page. I think people generally just expect to see them.

In the check out screen powered by Paypal, it has your email address at the top but this is different from your email address showing on the site. I take it when you actually pay it does ask for the email address where you would like the images sent to? I couldn't go too far to check it did.

Lastly, I think the titles could be centred better at the tops of the pages.

I am so sorry - This is sounding very critical! I am sure I am not your model customer and maybe other people may 'get it' better than I did.

I also read that "these photos have visable watermarks..." I wrongly thought that because the pictures were old, they had marks on. Now I have realised you mean the red VicPic you have written. They do say though to make it idiot proof...I am hoping noone is as daft as me but maybe that line could be reworded to something like.."The watermarks shown on the images will not appear on your copies blah blah...." I don't know...

On a brighter note. I like the general look of the site. The background colour suited the images.

I am feeling a bit silly now pointing out my own errors, but maybe not many people have chosen to review because they felt aqward by not getting it either..... Again could just be me xx

[Jeffner]

Re: I would appreciate a check on my www.

Hi!

Being an avid history buff and a former antiques dealer I found reading through your site to be fascinating! What effort has gone into preserving the work of Queen Victoria's official royal photographer and bravo to you and your Dad for making the effort.

As I was reading down to the bottom of your HISTORY page I see that the menu bar overrides the last bit of text so that page needs to be adjusted.

You will lose potential customers if they have to go searching for the menu bar. I would strongly suggest that you put it at the top of each page. Maybe make them all look like your home page then put the photos below the menu? That would help prevent any confusion as to what the site is about. Or better yet, just put the content of your HISTORY page directly on your home page as an intoroduction?

On the home page the print size at the bottom is too small to read. I would suspect that quite often people with an interest in Victorian photography would be of an age demographic that would have difficulty with smallest type face sizes. Regardless, it's important to make the content as comfortable to digest as possible.

I haven't yet figured out how to measure page width on the internet but your page seems to be wider than the screen? It should be at no more than 1,000 to optimize viewing and prevent it running off the screen. If it runs off the screen it creates the need to use scroll bars at the bottom which can further annoy viewers.

I agree with Sally about the the watermarks info. Just needs to be worded a bit better.

As for linking and promoting, I just created a Facebook page and put a link on my site to refer people to it. Haven't figured out how to Twitter yet ...