Hello all...
I wanted to take the time to introduce myself, and I am new to the Drupal Atlanta Group.
My name is Paul Abell, and I am an Atlanta based sports and entertainment photographer; I am not a developer, so I hope I am not asking too much of anyone here.
As a photographer, I am looking for a better way to showcase my work and hopefully generate better SE results. After a lot of thought, I am looking to create a base Drupal site... As it stands now, I want to keep my Livebooks based portfolio which I have setup up as a subdomain: http://portfolio.abellimages.com.
From a structure standpoint, I thought this would be a good solution...
http://abellimages.com (landing page and a complete Drupal based site that provided clear content about my work)
• http://portfolio.abellimages.com (interactive, visual portfolio that is coded in Flash and driven by liveBooks)
• http://archive.abellimages.com (this is my photo archive, though I am making some changes)
• http://abellimages.com/blog (blog... I am not a big blogger, but I do see the need in doing this regularly for SEO)
Would any of you be willing to share your thoughts and ideas on if this is something I should do, and if so, how should I approach it.
Thanks for your help!
Paul
Comments
If you've got time...
... you might consider dropping by the Coffeehouse meet-up going on tonight. It's very informal, several folks from various backgrounds and levels of expertise to swap ideas with. It could be a good place to network, get some ideas and suggestions, and maybe even find someone to help you out.
http://www.meetup.com/drupalatlanta/events/21306641/
Wish I would have had time...
Unfortunately, this evening would not work out... I have spent the day lost in all my site problems.
I know there are talented people here that can help... I would loved to have been able to attend.
Thanks,
Paul
I might be able to help a bit
I'm not quite sure I understand the purpose and structure of your archive site. My advice would be to simplify, simplify. One good Drupal site could serve as your landing page and blog obviously. Then you could link to your livebooks portfolio in individual posts because I do see the attraction to flash: it looks great. But as you probably know, flash is not very SEO friendly. :-) However, Drupal IS.
I highly recommend that you come to the next general ADUG meeting, where you will find many people who can help you get started.
BTW, as a former pro photographer, I have to say: very nice work.
Thanks Kent...
Kent:
After several years of struggling with search results, I decided to take control over my sites again... I want a Drupal based site for my personal site, as well as my Abell Images site. At this time, I feel the need for two sites, but I am sure others with a much great background and ability can direct me if this is wrong.
For the structure of the sites (AbellImages.com & paulsabell.com), I want them to have the exact same look... I want a home page that appears as a landing page. That page should have basic information about Abell Images and below that it will have links to each of my sites: Flash Portfolio Site, Photo Archive, Chick-fil-A Bowl Archive, Blog, etc... All of my External sites are setup as sub-domains: archive.abellimages.com, portfolio.abellimages.com, etc... As of now, I have an Archive site which will eventually house all of my sports & entertainment work... I have to keep that separate from any personal portrait work, etc. that I sell prints of etc... Therefore, I have a another abellimages.com subdomain that will be used for that.
Essentially, the Abell Images home page is a portal for all the external sites; the menu atop the main page, I want to have sub-menus as a drop-down menu (i.e. Our Services: Sports & Action Photography, Entertainment Photography, Portraiture, etc.). I do not see a real need in having a lot of fancy sidebars, etc.. I want this site simple, yet affective in search engine results.
I have been playing around with Acquia Drupal, and I am getting the main pages laid out... The overall look is the basic skin that comes with it... I know the exact look I want, so the overall design will be very clean & simple.
NOTE: As I move forward with this, I will have to make a determination on wether I will keep my ProPhoto WordPress blog or create a blog from the Drupal App... I am open to any ideas and suggestions that anyone might have... In the end, I want my site to be well done, professional and easy to update; the idea of having a blog in WordPress and a site in Drual is not something I really want... Still, I may have to do this in phases. My core area of importance is developing an Abell Images site that is much friendlier in SEO.
I am definitely going to come to one of the meetings, though I am sure I will not know a single soul and be in way over my head... YIKES!
Thanks,
Paul
Just a bunch of noobs
Don't worry, we are all just a bunch of noobs. Keep an eye on twitter and you will figure out who people are pretty quickly. Whatever you do, don't miss the meetups.
To get better SEO
Good SEO requires text. There's no way around it. Since you have mainly images, you need to look at a way to embed comments or a description of each image on same page that hosts the image. Captions and alt text are also important so that Google images can link descriptions to the image content. Hosting your images in a non-flash environment would GREATLY improve your Google image results, but will also be more challenging to implement. (although not really that bad for an experienced Drupal developer)
The best thing to do is come, network, and learn. We have members of ALL levels, so you'll fit right in.