My new website...

[White Noise 2]

Dear all,

Please check out my new website at www.alphadogmusic.biz Feel free to provide sensitively phrased comments, criticisms and suggestions... followed by tummy rubs.

Ta.

Ed

p.s. Yes, I'm aware that I should change my forum avatar from White Noise to Alpha Dog.

[White Noise 2]

Really? No suggestions? Nothing? Wow. I am so Money.

[V o n h ö g e n]

Originally Posted by White Noise 2

Dear all,

Please check out my new website at www.alphadogmusic.biz Feel free to provide sensitively phrased comments, criticisms and suggestions... followed by tummy rubs.
Ta.
Ed
p.s. Yes, I'm aware that I should change my forum avatar from White Noise to Alpha Dog.

Hi Edward,

Please, understand that I have no intention whatsoever to offend you, but I think you deserve a better website than this one, frankly. Your resume is quite impressive, and it would be nice if your website would reflect this.

First of all, I wouldn't use an iWeb template, if I were you. The internet is full of iWeb sites, many of them aimed at family and friends. It just doesn't have a professional look.
Secondly, why don't you use your real name? Your name (Edward White) is a great name, easy to pronounce and easy to remember. Your name should at least be on the opening page.
Why isn't there any mention of the country you live in? To UK citizens, it may be clear right away, but since your business is part of an international market, it would make sense if you'd mention it.
Then there are a few minor points which could be improved, like the white background and the navigation bar at the top of the page. "Biog" may be misread as "Blog", so you might want to change that to "Bio" or something similar. The "Cutting Room" doesn't have any introduction to the video presented, so maybe you could add some text here. Or you could simply rename it to "ShowReel", 'cause that should be clear enough to most people, I guess.

I hope my comments didn't offend you, but I think the quality of your current website doesn't match the level of quality of your work. Please, feel free to ignore my comments, I may be completely wrong about this.

- Jerome Vonhögen

(As you can see, my name contains what some of my American friends call a 'silly symbol'. Your name doesn't suffer from that European 'problem', so make use of it!)

[Dean]

Hi Edward,
I have to agree that the site looks terrible and clashes completely with the level of your work and projects,you really need a professional to design a site that suits you also I agree that you should use your real name.

tummy rub,

Dean.

[Andrew Sigler]

I couldn't agree more and for the same reasons. You ARE money! You have huge talent and great credits and a really cheap looking site. Get a designer to make your logo, or fire the one that made the 'Alpha Dog' one.

Black and White!?!?! Really?

Unless you are working with other composers, it's more common (and recommended) to use your name for your business. If my name was Edward White, it's what I would use...

You have 'blog' spelled 'biog'...and it's not a blog!!!! It's your bio! Aha, you have 'bio' spelled 'biog'! Either way, a web designer would likely catch that one...


Edward, people hire you because you are a pro at what you do. And what you do is not web design. Get a designer and get that site looking as good as the music sounds.

-Andy

[fongi]

Hey Ed, I have to agree with Hoketus, when you open the website you get this black and white side with a dogs foot print, looks kind of cheap, you deserve better. Chris

[White Noise 2]

Wow. Thanks for the comments guys!! Much appreciated. No offence taken whatsoever. You know, I think you guys have all made really good points...

... good points that it will now seem like I'm ignoring, but I'm not. It's more like I'm trying to give you a sense of why I made the choices I did, because it's not like I didn't think of these things... mb I just need to consider them a bit more, maybe not. I certainly want to give this web presence a bit mroe of an evaluation before making any definite decisions...

Black & White - I really just wanted to keep things very very simple. I hate it when you go to composer websites and it looks like somebody threw up all over them. Simple is, in my view, better. Clean lines - get the information. Done. As someone said, music is what I do. I'm not touting a design business. I used to have an amazing website that cost a shed load of money. I got one call from that website and it was from someone who wanted to know who I got to do my website... Not really a justifiable business expense. I'm not pushing a web business. The web is not my first point of contact with clients. I'm not running an e-commerce site. The phone and face-to-face is how I get work. The web is there as a back up business card. It's where I send people if they don't have a copy of my business card or show reel.

Edward White.com? - Don't get me wrong, I like that name - it's my name, it's just that with a second name beginning with 'W' I traditionally end up way at the bottom of any composer listings so 'A' gets me right at the top. People never scroll down beyond B or C. You want to get good credits and be invited to pitch - be at the top of the list.

iWeb templates - Mmm. I'm not sure... The only reason you know I did it in iWeb is that I left my "made on a mac" Apple logo there... with pride . Here's the thing - I just needed somewhere that people can a) checkout music, resume, video showreel etc. and b) get my contacts online. I believe the credits/resume, music and video reel are the draw here. Not the font.

It's been a really interesting excersise to go through. Universally, composers have been very down on the 'look' etc of the website. Contrastingly, I've had very favourable responses from music commissioners because there is no clutter - they don't get distracted by the pretty pictures. Yep, it's lean, no frills etc. We'll see - if I suddenly change it in a month or so, we'll know I was wrong. Which I'm happy to be by the way...

[White Noise 2]

Oh, and Bio reads like B.O. - body odour. That can't be good. Biog - as in 'Biography' seemed clearer although it could seem like blog, I agree... might change to resume... accept it isn't a resume is it? A resume is like when, who, what, format etc. Ah this is too complicated, I have a commercial pitch to write...

[Sp3ctre18]

@Hoketus, people are just weird liek that. It's not a funny symbol; hey, we use dots on our i's and j's. In fact, it USED to be part of english. We used to have the o with two dots in the second o of "cooperation," for example.

@Ed

If you want to be professional, you want professionalism to show in all aspects. I have to agree with much of what was said here. It may be like your business card, but your actual business card you carry in your wallet should also be professional, right?

Color, simple, fine, don't have much of a problem there then.

Bio? I'm a little confused there. No offense, but sounds like you're making up your own contractions because you don't like existing ones. Well you can't do that lol. People read Biog and they think it says blog, only to find it's not a blog. Then they also notice it's mispelled. Now they wonder who they heck made this site. Bio is Bio. No one's going to read it like Body Odor, everyone knows "Bio." If you perosnally don't like it, then type it out and say Biography.

Website name, that's up to you, so I won't say anything there. BUT, you need you name on their. Home page. Definitely.

Made on a mac; yes, take it out. Looks like advertising or a family website were you want to express you love of macs. Again, just for the professional, serious look.

You need that profesisonalism in your navbars too. "What's the score"? "so let's talk"? "cutting board"? I have no idea what a cutting board is in this btw, i'd have to look it up. If you want to keep things simple, keep these simple as well. This is giving more of that triyng to be "fun" atmosphere.

Another thing I need to add: FONTS. That pic on your main page may be like your logo, and if you've it enough and you're happy with it, find, then stick with it, it's always up to you anyway. In fact, I don't the font for ALPHA DOG is bad, it's ok. But the paw is very simple, like a stamp, that kind ruins it. However, where it's REALLY bad, i'm sorry to say, is that handwriting-like font. it's completely out of place, and especially for an important page with CONTACT info, you want someting simple and easy to read. You know, even me with me good, young eyesight... I cannot figure out if that's "Croydon" or "Craydon." Sometimes i think it's an "a" but then i think.... no, I think that's the stick of the "y".... Confusing. What happens with people who don't have the best eyes?

My reactions were something like this:

home page: "hm, noob composer probably. dog paw, handwriten font... lol, made on mac. conversational navbar"
next page: "random logos? wonder if he has permissions for all of these.... wait, is this showing stuff he HAS done, or is he trying to indicite "i'm good enough for any type of stuff you want scored"? *reads* No, that's not telling me anything. This page looks like a simple "who am I, what I can do... bio sort of thing."
next page: Ok, onto blog. Well this looks better...woah, nice... no way.... he's done all that? This site is just so not him.
next page: Q icon overload! Gah, no i don't want to upgrade Quicktime, LATER! Oh shoot, it's trying to load EVERYTHING. Luckily I got DSL. Poor dial up ppl.
Cutting room: random video. ok, no description, so not watching. (clicks anyway) 6:41. Yeah, i'm not watching jsut to figure out what it is.
Ok, final page. EYE STRAIN!!

ok, sorry if I sound harsh, but that's what went through my mind. And yet, i'm nice about it, AND I kept going cause I was checking it out for you. Had I come across your page, I would not have gone past "whats the score," unless i was feeling interested. Other people however, even IF interested, will be looking through many sites, many people... they'll see the first page, and move on. Because they'll jsut think, ah, he's a nobody, can't even get someone to do a good website.

The ONLY way they can find out you're someone serious, with big, impressive credentials and achievements, is if they get to your bio page. Some people may be smart and will ignore the homepage and go for bio. Well there's no bio. They see "blog." Oh, so it's just some blog? Moving on....


Your website may not be you main form of finding gigs, for contact, etc., but you have to realize it COULD be. You want to look professional. Professionalism is not about fancy or colors, as black and white can be very professional. Your content is GOOD, thet stuff you have looks fine, but your layout doesn't show that you are someone special, someone worth noting.

I'm sure i don't have to tell you this, hopefully you have some understanding of business and all that, but part of looking professional is that you don't want to show anything quick, unplanned, sloppy, etc. (general statement, not referring to your website). If people can see a good, well-laid out, carefully planned and professional looking website, then even if just UNCONSCIOUSLY, they feel they can expect the same from your music. It's just part of human nature.

ok, i need to get to my own music now. Hope you understand what we're telling you here and are willing to make some changes. Because of your website, I did get the wrong impression of you at first, but now i have a better of who you are and everything, nice to have on the boards, congrats, good luck, but please... you deserve a better website.

[Sam_Dillard]

One thing I might change is that on the jukebox section, having everything as quicktime files is a bit annoying as everything has to load up simultaneously and can bog down viewers with slower connections. I'm all for a clean looking site, but this might be a bit too clean hehe. The 'Biog' doesn't really bother me, I knew what it meant. I can see people's reasoning about the spelling though.

I also built my own music site, I wouldn't exactly call it 'clean and professional' but it is somewhere between personal and professional, I just prefer to have a bit of my personality show through. In the end all that matters is that it gets the point across I would say... "Hey, here's who I am and what I can do" and there will always be some people who like it and some people who do not. Unless you are a webmaster extraordinaire... which I certainly ain't hehe. And I am way too poor to pay such a person to build a site for me.

Good luck with everything,

-Sam