Site changes in store

I know, I know. I've said this before... I'm making changes to my site. Seems like every 2 years I'm saying the same thing.

Well, I've been self publishing my own site for years now. One of the many hats that must be worn as a self employed photographer. As I have come to learn, true success needs focus. And to focus one must delegate tasks to others who are better suited to them.

One of these tasks I am giving up control of is website design. I am deciding between two hosted solutions, and will have a decision made within a week. Shortly there after going live.

So, keep your eyes tuned in for these changes. When this is done, my site should look more polished and be updated more often. I also hope to have my blog published under the sites domain to keep everything together.

Speaking of the blog: I plan on setting aside time to work on it more frequently. Here's to good intentions.

New Website Content

Finally! I have updated my Website . There are now 4 galleries of images, and a new home page. I am plugging away to finish other parts of the site.

I still need to put up galleries for Fine Art, and Documentary work. I also need to complete the About page. Hopefully all this will come in the next few days.

More Site changes in store

It truly is never ending. Just when you think you have something under control -BAM- you realize that your master plan to rule the world flops because your (seemingly) simple web site does not like to render across all browsers!

So there I was, happy that I just needed to get a few more galleries posted to my site when a friend told me that things were not displaying properly in her browser, Safari. Than I look a bit closer and where one thing appears right in IE, it does not in Fire Fox. And vise-versa.

I had decided to stick with simple html (with a little bit of JAVA) I wanted the site to load as quickly as possible, to view well on all browsers, and be something simple enough that I (not being a web designer) could update and change easily. And to be able to do all this with out having to buy any software. Oddly enough, the problems that I have come across so far are not caused by JAVA, but rather by the html code.

I had plans to start learning and using css when this happened. In conjunction with these findings I also learned that using frames puts up a road block to web indexing services (those things that catalog the web and allow search engines to show my site in their lists of results). So here I am now, contemplating buying software. I can not afford to pay a web designer at the moment, add to that that I am a control freak, so I need a web authoring package.

I will be looking into several, but if anyone has any suggestions please pass them along. I am still going to put up 1 or 2 more galleries while I iron out this mess. But things will be changing, again, real soon.

Time Keeps on tickin'

I have said it before, and will say it again: Time just seems to fly by! My goals where to blog once a week, and have my website fully functional by the end of February. Well, my site is coming along. I should be posting a few more galleries today. As for the blog, well, I have missed 2 weeks now.

The past few weeks have kept me busy busy busy!! When deadlines loom for clients the blog and website take a back seat. But this week should allow me some more time to work on them both. So please visit often this week to see new blog posts and additions to my site.

www.embergerphoto.com

Well there it is..... and has been for 5 years, lingering on the web in one form or another. I have had some sort of web presence since 2003. It has changed and adapted to meet my needs the whole time, but never has it been a great marketing tool. Why? Because every so often, when I have a slow period, I start to work on it again. Get so far, get busy again, and allow it to flounder in it's then current, unfinished state.

I plan to change that, more or less, in the coming weeks. I plan on having a fully functional website up and running by the end of February 2008. What does fully functional mean? Here is a short list:

1) Full portfolios of the range of work I do
2) A page for the sales of certain types of images
3) A complete contact/info section. (with any luck I will have a form to request qoutes, and book jobs etc...)

Well, that is about all I need the site to do. After it is up in that state I will work to diligently maintain it. The one thing that may still change on a regular basis is the basic site design. I plan on having it functional by the end of this month. But it may take a few more after that to really refine it's look. From it's global layout/design, to the way I present my portfolio.

I am ultimately after functional, easy to look at, easy to navigate, and FAST to load. Please feel free to comment here with your opinions about what works and what does not.