I just created my photo website:

http://goldenangel.110mb.com

Please check out my photos and let me know what you think.

Thank you!
Denis

oh. this is good.I like it,thank you because you introduce for me. I still remember selling my first picture: what a motivating experience that was! With time, as my portfolio has grown, so have the sales.

Thank you thuydung88

If the link above does not work, the mirror is at http://goldenangelphoto.weebly.com

A free website will never really be a good website. It looks cheap and well, it is. The links at the top lead to pages with randomness.. The "photographers" links to iStock Photo content?

You have ads on your site, thats probably NOT a good idea.

Overall its a free website, there is no real gallery, andeverything links to iStock Photo. eh.

LizardB, thanks for your comment, even if they are negative. however, some of them are simply not true. The links at the top of the page lead to two other pages, one for photographers and the other one for designers. On the photographers page I compiled a list of web sites where photographers can register to start submitting their photos. The other one compiles a lit of stock photo sites where photo buyers can register to get photos for their needs.

The photograpehrs link does not have any link to iStockphoto.

I think that you need to focus your website. What are you trying to create, an informational site for photographers to go to or a porfolio website.

Honestly, the content of your site has no purpose. I would THINK That from your "my photo site" you are trying to create a site to showcase your work. If that is what you are doing, then you are failing at that..

There is no reason that a photographer would come to your site to try and look for stock photography.. If you WANT to create a website to urge people to buy your photography, make it that way. What you should do is the folllowing

make sure your site SAYS that this is a showcase for your work and it can be purchased at iStock Photo by clicking on the image in your website. THis sentence or a version of it should me the MAIN thing on your page. No offense, but people dont nessecarily want to read ABOUT YOU, and if they did, they would click on a link called ABOUT ME. Which you can add inplace of the PHOTOGRAPHERS and DESIGNERS. If you wish to but a smaller bit of info and a picture of yourself on the main page you can do so, but dont make ABOUT YOU the focus, because people arent going to go there to find out about you, they are going to look for stock photogrpahy (right?) or is the focus of your website something else?

Then what I would do is make a much more comprehensive gallery/albums page. Create nice looking category images and the customer can click through based on category to narrow down and when they find the one they want, they can click to buy.

Then on the main page you can put something like NEWLY ADDED or FEATURED to take up some space there.

Right now its just all over the place and makes no sense what so ever. I also do see the point of going to your website. If i wanted to purchase stock photography, i would just go to iStockPhoto and search a much larger array of pictures.

The links on your PHOTOGRAPHERS and DESIGNERS pages are just about the same, but they dont really serve a purpose, unless you are trying to create an informational website for photographers and designers to come to.. which i dont THINK you are doing.

Is this making sense?

i'm sorry.. i think i mgiht have just figured out the purpose of the site.. to point people to sites who you are affiliated with in hopes on making some money.. ALL of the links in your "designers" pages are affiliate/referal links.. or atleast MOST of them are

I think it is more an issue of a business model that we are not used to seeing, in that the site isn't about selling photography or design services and instead is focused on selling the pieces as stock through a third party to designers or an affiliate model in dealing with photographers (I didn't actually look for affiliate code so that is an assumption).

-J

whoops you got the second post in while I was writing.

If its supposed to be an informational site selling links to affiliates, i think you would be better off creating a blog and writing quality content, getting some readers and followers and add your links/affiliate info there.

Unless you plan on building "hub" of information for graphic designers and photographers, which is a HUGE project, a blog is the better way to go.

I just see no reason for people to go to your site to find stock photography and those other services over the larger informational websites.

LizardB,

Thank you for your detailed feedback. A lot of what you said makes sense and I will seriously take all your suggestions to update my site. And, yes, one of the purposes of the websites is for people to sign up as referrals. i don't see anything wrong with that approach, if they already decide to contribute to stock photo sites and they hear about these sites from my website, I think it's fair that I get credited for that. I am willing to help any new contributors with their registration and submission process, even if they didn't sign up through me. I was helped in the beginning and I am willing to help others as well.

Again, thanks for your suggestions.

Good point, I do plan to keep updating the site, with informational content, for example Photoshop tips, as well as more intricate details for every site, which might save some time for future contributors. The website is my very first try at this, and I certainly have a lot to learn. That is why I appreciate your feedback so much. I will get at updating it shortly.

im glad that you didnt take my points as a personal attack. So many people do, but thats not my intention.

I think that your absolute BEST option is to create a wordpress, injader, or blogger account.. I think that wordpress or injader are the best as far as content management goes. Wordpress is great because you can add really nice themes and plugins without knowing anything about web design, and injader is great because it has loads of features like newletter builders and such.. a newsletter might be one of the top ways to get people to sign up for affilaite stuff

the thing with affiliates is that MOST people see right through them, so they arent going to take into account that you might actually be giving good information to them, they will JUST see a list of links that they KNOW you will be getting PAID to put there in some way..

The most successful affiliate marketing sites are blogs, period. You can also manage content and edit them easily without ANY web design knowledge..

My suggetion would be the following,

Sign up for a hosting account and get a real domain name (people dont take free domains all that seriously)

Install wordpress or injader

customize it with a new template/theme (one click install)

add some pages like CONTACT and ABOUT ME

and then just start writing content

You can input your ads for your affiliates in your sidebars, and do a bunch more with your advertisers like write an entire post on how great they are.. You have to be careful though, if your entire blog is based on how great your affiliates are, people will know you are trying to hock a service and they will leave

start by just writing tips and tricks posts.. THEN go into affiliate stuff after you get some readers.

If you want more indepth help on setting up a blog and marketing it, let me know. If you PM me i will show you my blog that has made me about $100+ a month so far and its only a few months old.

Thanks LizardB! I PMed you.