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New venture Website, Looking for feedback

Jaden Jones

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Hey everyone, I made some changes if everyone could jump back and let me know. The phone number is pending.
 
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rwhyan

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Hey everyone, I made some changes if everyone could jump back and let me know. The phone number is pending.
Just to name a few:

- Nav bar font too big on desktop
- You should have a CTA below your headline
- Homepage has very little text, tell about your services
- Your dealer, motorsports, and private pages go to Squarespace instead of staying on your domain

I don't think your website is that important. Get some clients.
Then hire a web developer to make a better site.

You site could use a lot of work but it's not worth doing now.
 

NMdad

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I don't think your website is that important. Get some clients.
Then hire a web developer to make a better site.

You site could use a lot of work but it's not worth doing now.
Agree. Get clients; if no one is interested, then there's no reason to spend another minute on the website.
 

NC Bidniss

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Hey everyone, I made some changes if everyone could jump back and let me know. The phone number is pending.

Making progress! I think your next bit of work needs to be creating a page with your portfolio. I also see you went with my "catch-all" email idea!
 
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Jaden Jones

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Just to name a few:

- Nav bar font too big on desktop
- You should have a CTA below your headline
- Homepage has very little text, tell about your services
- Your dealer, motorsports, and private pages go to Squarespace instead of staying on your domain

I don't think your website is that important. Get some clients.
Then hire a web developer to make a better site.

You site could use a lot of work but it's not worth doing now.



CTA?
 

NC Bidniss

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Just to name a few:

- Nav bar font too big on desktop
- You should have a CTA below your headline
- Homepage has very little text, tell about your services
- Your dealer, motorsports, and private pages go to Squarespace instead of staying on your domain

I don't think your website is that important. Get some clients.
Then hire a web developer to make a better site.

You site could use a lot of work but it's not worth doing now.

I wholeheartedly disagree. A good website/webpage is crucial to any business in the modern age. If someone wants to know about your company, one of the first things they will do is look up your website. While I think starting to find clients now isn't a bad idea, it is more likely that those clients will be secured if they have a website they can dig into before they hire. This is especially true for content providers.
 
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U

User62861

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Not sure why there is a big logo in the middle of your website...rather don't put anything.

Make that navigation font smaller.

The font on main page banner should be different...less ''Arial'' looking.

Try to build consistency in font usage. If you take a look at your font in the logo and that banner...seems like two different companies...One is bold and sporty the other one is formal and ''boring''.

Consider updating logo. The current design could give you problems on the web and print. It's a good idea but final delivery isn't good enough. You have spacing issues and quality issues, especially on the right side.

Looking unprofessional will separate you from charging premium.

If you need more detailed help, feel free to ask.
 

rwhyan

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I wholeheartedly disagree. A good website/webpage is crucial to any business in the modern age. If someone wants to know about your company, one of the first things they will do is look up your website. While I think starting to find clients now isn't a bad idea, it is more likely that those clients will be secured if they have a website they can dig into before they hire. This is especially true for content providers.
Obviously a website is important for businesses in todays age.

I'm a web developer. Websites are important.

But talking to prospects is FAR more important initially than building a website. Thousands of businesses run without websites.

OP needs to validate his idea. OP needs to get clients first. Having paying clients is the foundation of the business, not having a website.

Then, as I said, he can develop a better website.

But ultimately, building a nice website before getting any clients is action-faking. Waste of time.
 

NC Bidniss

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Obviously a website is important for businesses in todays age.

I'm a web developer. Websites are important.

But talking to prospects is FAR more important initially than building a website. Thousands of businesses run without websites.

OP needs to validate his idea. OP needs to get clients first. Having paying clients is the foundation of the business, not having a website.

Then, as I said, he can develop a better website.

But ultimately, building a nice website before getting any clients is action-faking. Waste of time.

Good point. Like I said in an earlier post, though, he needs to add a content portfolio. As a web developer, you understand how important it is to be able to show potential new clients your past work. Nobody will hire someone to create content on a whim and a promise. While I think building a big, perfect site is "action-faking" like you said, I do think that there are some elements that should be added to help get the ball rolling. Adding these elements would not be time consuming, and would help @Jaden_Jones get the clients. Maybe a website isn't the best place to start, perhaps a Youtube or Instragram page is better.
 
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rwhyan

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Good point. Like I said in an earlier post, though, he needs to add a content portfolio. As a web developer, you understand how important it is to be able to show potential new clients your past work. Nobody will hire someone to create content on a whim and a promise. While I think building a big, perfect site is "action-faking" like you said, I do think that there are some elements that should be added to help get the ball rolling. Adding these elements would not be time consuming, and would help @Jaden_Jones get the clients. Maybe a website isn't the best place to start, perhaps a Youtube or Instragram page is better.
Agreed that OP needs a portfolio.

But at this point he can walk into businesses with his photos and videos (which OP posted earlier) and try and get clients on board.

I'm thinking about it this way: what is the one thing that will move OP's business forward?

Making a website? Or getting clients?

Does OP really need a website at this point to get clients? (No)

What OP needs is to validate his idea. Does anyone even want his service?

I 100% agree he will need a website, Instagram, etc. to showcase his work. But that is not what he needs right now.

Right now he needs clients. Right now he needs to talk to people to see if people want his service. He can do that without a website.
 

NC Bidniss

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Agreed that OP needs a portfolio.

But at this point he can walk into businesses with his photos and videos (which OP posted earlier) and try and get clients on board.

I'm thinking about it this way: what is the one thing that will move OP's business forward?

Making a website? Or getting clients?

Does OP really need a website at this point to get clients? (No)

What OP needs is to validate his idea. Does anyone even want his service?

I 100% agree he will need a website, Instagram, etc. to showcase his work. But that is not what he needs right now.

Right now he needs clients. Right now he needs to talk to people to see if people want his service. He can do that without a website.

Printed photos? Videos on a thumb-drive? Sent through email?

I think we are both on the same page here, but you're pretty adamant about no website/social media. My point of saying that OP needs one of those is to make that content, on which we both agree is important, easy to deliver to potential clients. I'm not at all saying that approaching potential clients is wrong, in fact I totally agree that it should be the primary focus. However, does it make more sense to carry around a printed portfolio of work, or to have a conversation and hand the client a business card with links to all the relevant content?

Social media takes minutes to setup. Adding a portfolio page to the website takes an hour at most. There is no reason why OP should not take advantage of these tools to help sell the service. However, if the focus is 100% on the website or social media pages, I think we can both agree that is the wrong approach.
 

ProcessPro

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I think you're off to a good start. Your website is modern and attractive. However, there are some things missing. First of all, it isn't clear what product or service you provide. I can assume that you provide photos and videos of cars for a fee, but that's it. Your website should be very clear about the precisely what you provide to the market.

You also need more actionable elements front and center in your site. Rather than displaying the buttons "dealers", "motorsports", and "private", you should display things like "services" and "our portfolio". Your ultimate goal is to get people to call or email you, and your website does not set a clear path to that goal, other than a slightly transparent, small "contact" button. It would be best if you set up an RFP form built into your contact page rather than simply listing your personal emails. Also, you should setup a "catch-all" email for your primary form of contact. Something like "info@racelinemedia.ca". You also don't have any phone number listed, and I would recommend that you do. Answering services are cheap if you need a good way to screen calls.

Another point: where are you? People looking for your service aren't going to want to fly someone in from 1,500 miles away, but rather find someone closer. Your website makes no indication of where you are or the areas you service. Perhaps you wanted to be vague, but I would advise against that.

Lastly: what value does your service add? Why should someone hire you? It would be a good idea for you to be able to answer that question before people even get the chance to ask it. Provide evidence that your service adds value to your customers above "our work looks neat", and you will find it much easier to gain clients. Lets say I owned a car dealership. If you could show that your photos/videos can increase my sales volume by 10% and/or allow me to sell my cars for 10% more, I could do a simple calculation to determine what my ROI would be if I paid for your service. If your service costs me more than it's worth, then there's no reason for me to hire you.

Altogether I think you're on the right track. Keep in mind that the industry you are entering is highly competitive. To be competitive in any industry, you have to at least be cheaper, better, or more convenient/faster. If you can't provide your service in any of those regards, you need to change something or quit altogether. Good luck!

You captured all that I could think of and more. Good feedback.
 
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Jaden Jones

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I wholeheartedly disagree. A good website/webpage is crucial to any business in the modern age. If someone wants to know about your company, one of the first things they will do is look up your website. While I think starting to find clients now isn't a bad idea, it is more likely that those clients will be secured if they have a website they can dig into before they hire. This is especially true for content providers.

This is how we feel, while we do have some clients already, they are people within our industry, a website would help us branch out.

Also for those asking, we do have a portfolio on our blog site www.Apex.reviews
Not sure why there is a big logo in the middle of your website...rather don't put anything.

Make that navigation font smaller.

The font on main page banner should be different...less ''Arial'' looking.

Try to build consistency in font usage. If you take a look at your font in the logo and that banner...seems like two different companies...One is bold and sporty the other one is formal and ''boring''.

Consider updating logo. The current design could give you problems on the web and print. It's a good idea but final delivery isn't good enough. You have spacing issues and quality issues, especially on the right side.

Looking unprofessional will separate you from charging premium.

If you need more detailed help, feel free to ask.

Ill take a look at this stuff thanks.
 

jesseissorude

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@Jaden Jones I'm late to the party, but hopefully this helps. I used to get on live calls with clients and analyze their sites with them, so I've probably done this hundreds of times.

I shot you a video (11min): Screen Recording 2019-03-14 at 09.44 AM.mov

Going back and looking at the thread, looks like people already touched on a lot of this. My biggest concern would be "How am I supposed to take action once I'm interested?" More details on that in the vid.
 
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Last edited:

Jaden Jones

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@Jaden Jones I'm late to the party, but hopefully this helps. I used to get on live calls with clients and analyze their sites with them, so I've probably done this hundreds of times.

I shot you a video (11min): (messed up the audio, redoing)

Going back and looking at the thread, looks like people already touched on a lot of this. My biggest concern would be "How am I supposed to take action once I'm interested?" More details on that in the vid.

That would be awesome, my hope would be that people would call or email us, but maybe we need something more, like a contact form
 

jesseissorude

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That would be awesome, my hope would be that people would call or email us, but maybe we need something more, like a contact form
Just fixed the vid.
But yeah, contact form would be my first solution
 

Jaden Jones

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Updated again, fixed some font and spacing issues, also added contact form. Added more info to private page as well
 
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FastNAwesome

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I'll just throw in my 0.2c for what it's worth:)

The photo is professional, and nice choice for having a headline over it.

The headline seems ok for someone who already knows you and just wanted to check out your website. For other visitors - maybe it's not saying enough? What service do you specifically provide, and how do they benefit from it? Purely for illustrating the point:

"We make stunning photos and videos of your cars that will make your ad stand out"
"Sell your cars easier with professional photos - our team will come to you anywhere in {location}"

If you'll be using advertising to bring visitors to your website, you can make different pages to specifically pitch various offerings you have.

My impression is you don't have a sales funnel thought out. I mean, your page says what you do (sort-of vaguely too)....and then right after it is the contact form, and that's it. But nothing on the screen looks particularly enticing or interesting to make me click/scroll.

If I had a photography business, one of the primary things would be galleries of representative photos, which would be fast and easy to browse, even on mobiles. And when I look for a visual artist (whether photographer or designer), their portfolio is the first thing I wanna see, before I even care to read any text about them.

Using some sort of tracking and analytics (which you don't seem to do now), could help you better understand how visitors interact with your website, and make more educated decisions about what to change.

Hope none of this sounded harsh, just my style of talking:)

Much luck with your business!
 

Jaden Jones

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I'll just throw in my 0.2c for what it's worth:)

The photo is professional, and nice choice for having a headline over it.

The headline seems ok for someone who already knows you and just wanted to check out your website. For other visitors - maybe it's not saying enough? What service do you specifically provide, and how do they benefit from it? Purely for illustrating the point:

"We make stunning photos and videos of your cars that will make your ad stand out"
"Sell your cars easier with professional photos - our team will come to you anywhere in {location}"

If you'll be using advertising to bring visitors to your website, you can make different pages to specifically pitch various offerings you have.

My impression is you don't have a sales funnel thought out. I mean, your page says what you do (sort-of vaguely too)....and then right after it is the contact form, and that's it. But nothing on the screen looks particularly enticing or interesting to make me click/scroll.

If I had a photography business, one of the primary things would be galleries of representative photos, which would be fast and easy to browse, even on mobiles. And when I look for a visual artist (whether photographer or designer), their portfolio is the first thing I wanna see, before I even care to read any text about them.

Using some sort of tracking and analytics (which you don't seem to do now), could help you better understand how visitors interact with your website, and make more educated decisions about what to change.

Hope none of this sounded harsh, just my style of talking:)

Much luck with your business!

Thanks so much for your input, you will never come across harsh when your meaning to help. I do have google analytics setup but im still learning. I will pass this on to the guys though and see what we can implement.
 

Ed Kalski

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As i mentioned before, I have partnered with a friend to help him launch his business idea. We have now completed all the legal stuff and are looking to start booking work. Since this is our first website, I wanted to get some feedback before we proceed. Because we will be targeting businesses, I really want us to look professional. I am looking for feedback from the group as I know everyone will be brutally honest with me.

Raceline Media|Automotive Photography|Calgary
Have you thought about having some articles on site to raise more interest of the visitor and to maybe get some free traffic from the search engines. Your site looks good, it's just kind of sparse. Maybe some articles on what professional photography can mean to the private individual. Perhaps on how the time of day can make a difference, etc. And how the car when photographed by an expert has a better chance of being sold faster or for more money than it would have otherwise.
 
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minivanman

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Personally, although some things have changed, I don't think it is a site that will entice anyone to buy your service. Are you scared of your own photos? Put 627 pictures on the site. We need words and lots of them. Make each page have 500-700-2300 words. It seems as though you think Google charges by the word and by the picture. You say there are pictures under a link that you gave..... you need to put pictures on your site, not a review or what ever that is that you posted a link to. Honestly, as far as the website goes right now..... it's really worthless until you have it LOADED down with pictures. Wait.... you are in the photo business aren't you? Just asking because there is NOTHING on your website that leads me to believe you are.

Let's say you are a kid going to a toy store..... do you want to walk in to a bright, colorful store that has hundreds of toys all over the store with happy music playing or do you want to walk in to a store that has 2 toys on the shelf, shades pulled down, 1 dim light and an old fat man named Herbert sitting in the back? Right now, your website is the toy store with 2 toys on the shelf, shades pulled down, 1 dim light and an old fat man named Herbert sitting in the back.

I'm just being honest. Really easy to fix though. Prolly take 30 minutes.
 
G

Guest61362

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Is this still ongoing?

You are selling car photos services- at the moment there is a photo of a Lambo in bad weather surrounded by Bentleys and another two photos of some close up (engine bay?) and another car.

Visitor tuned in for What's Init For Me might just leave because:
- There are many other sites
- There are Instagram accounts with super nice pictures
- There are general photographers who do lets say weddings and can shoot your car as well
- They have an Audi and figure Lamborghini pictures will be too expensive
- Where are the other pictures?
- They can do it on iPhone without any help

What about starting with very good pictures/videos and posting them on already easy to use (and responsive - you don't have to worry about HTML, CSS, paddings, margins and such) platform like Instagram or Facebook.

Building a portfolio.

Feature your car filming skills on a video with credits (and that Instagram @User which you can later redirect to website) and leverage video views to the Instagram.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1rgr6rumn8


Who knows what happens next? Somebody might just DM you because of those nice photos or somebody else wants to feature his or her car on your stream.

THEN you can start building a proper website to have Control.
 

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