TheFlyingSquirrel

Neither is better than the other, it is down to preference.
 
What do you prioritise in your device?

Ajax and jQuery are both JavaScript, the former being a way of dynamically loading content, the latter being a framework to make coding JavaScript faster and easier, jQuery also makes Ajax much easier to code (without cross browser ajax can be a nightmare).
 
If you have learnt html5 in any real depth then you should already know that xhtml is what html was prior to the release of html5 and there is no point in learning something that has been replaced.
 
PHP is a great thing to learn but it does sound like you're headed more down the front end developer route, so while it is useful to know some of the basics I wouldn't go much further if this is your intention. If you do wish to become employed as a developer then absolutely learn php, along with one of the many CMS systems that are built on it like WordPress.
 
If you want to get employed as a front-end dev then learn JavaScript. Once you have a good solid grasp of this then move onto the frameworks, jQuery being the most widely used and you should certainly study that. JavaScript takes a long time to get competent at and an even longer time to get good at it, but being able to build custom plugins rather than relying on pre-existing ones will make you much more employable.
 
Responsive development comes under html5 and css so continue to study those in greater depth also. Being able to code a responsive site now will be required at almost all agencies.

I think you should activate mobile viewports because the experience while viewing the designs on my nexus 4 isn't very good.
https://developers.google.com/speed/docs/insights/ConfigureViewport
 
The designs do seem a bit dated/bland, maybe inject some brighter colors into it.
 
Also is it possible to reduce the number of links and use visuals to navigate.

Design 1 is sound, the other two I can find issues with

div container - fixed height
 
img in div width: 100% height: auto
 
does that work for you?
 
Btw the link doesn't work for me

The options I see:
1. Pay for the software license if the revenue you will generate is worth it.
2. Reverse engineer the free version and create your own plugin.

Hi All,
 
My website is now in its nth revision, its purpose is to promote my photography services and ultimately get people to contact me.
 
The theme aims to tackle the typical photography portfolio website issues:
It is fully responsive and works on mobile, laptops and desktops It doesn't have too much colour which may distract the users from the photographs or CTA The slider doesn't overflow on any seem size. The photographs aren't so large that they distract from the CTA  
I am looking for it to come across as understated elegance, but something just doesn't feel right; it is missing the finishing touch or that sparkle.
 
The CMS is wordpress, and everything is homebrew except for the slider and contact form.
 
www.bakaraphoto.co.uk
 
Copy on portrait photographer is outstanding
 
Many Thanks,
 
BK

What is wrong with it?

Hi all,
 
That is correct, Vidahost and Tsohost both belong to the same parent company (Paragon Internet Group).
 
@ThFlyingSquirrel, welcome to the family. If you have any additional questions please do not hesitate to contact me on wahid (@) paragon (dot) net (dot) uk.

What Is wrong with the plugin you provided?

'infinite scrolling Vs pagination' is a matter of quantity over personal preference. If you know your blog will not be a massive 5000 articles all with a short leader then infinite scrolling will probably be ok. However; most blogs have a long index so using at least a short list of the most recent on the home page and an archive or archive by category is better. If your blog is known to be heading for a much longer index the I'd go for pagination without a doubt.
 
Personally when browsing blogs I like paginated content, it just makes it easier to get about if the navigation and search are well combined.

Not sure if spam after Teodora's post but....
 
CRO is the process of leverage the traffic coming to your website and ensuring they complete a number of goals or events; sales, sign ups, click a link etc.
 
An extremely effective process, CRO looks at multiple split test, multi variant testing, heatmap, click maps, mouse flows, eye tracking and so on. Integrate colour behaviour, seasonal trends and new campaigns, you can actually use the traffic you have to get more sales.
 
If you have 100 people come to your website and you have a 1% conversion rate, you'll get 1 sale per hundred. To double that number of sales, you'd have to send double the traffic. So you need to get 100 MORE people coming to your website. OR you can up the conversion rate to 2% and you'll get double the sales. Which is more cost effective?
 
Use the traffic you have, don't dream of the traffic you don't

While the analytic's code is out another thing you can try is the Google Webmaster tools - speed test report.
 
Save the data from the speed test and compare it with what your host's say when they reply to your support ticket.
 
Hopefully you won't have to move, but if you do need to move I am sure there will be plenty of help on here for that process.

I made this current theme from scratch, and am in the midst of creating a new one in my UAT environment, I have no interest in using someone else's.

Hey Everyone,
 
I have been with Webhostinguk for a while now however they changed their services, and the host is no longer serving up pages at speed which I purchased their VPS solution for.
 
On my heaviest page I get 85% Pagespeed, and 90% Yslow from GTMetrix, while my website isn't currently full optimised the statistics just seem ridiculous.
 
Page load time: 12.98s
Total page size: 316KB
Total number of requests: 41
 
What I was getting:
1 dedicated CPU Core
1 GB RAM
15 GB - I barely use one, max will be 5GB
Unlimited Bandwidth(can't remember what they said about this)
Full Root SSH Access(never used panel)
2 IP's
CentOS 6.2
 
I am paying £21 per month, what is the fastest uk(preferably mainland England)solution I can get in that price bracket? I would rather not setup my Linux server from scratch this time a round.
 
Many Thanks,
 
BK

Your scores on gtmetrix are fine, but your load times are way off, I would seriously recommend a different host.

I have one client who has a host in the US and I see load times of 2-3 seconds with similar scores on gtmetrix as yourself.

I would guess that any user waiting 12.98s for your site to load would of forgot they opened it in the first place.

I agree with Nillervision, the overall experience feels congested.
 
From the view of someone who goes to festivals and raves this is how I would make your site how fun:
Reduce the number of menu items Bring the photos down to a sidebar Make the webpage responsive Remove the search bar in the header, my friends and I never use it when go to festivals Reduce the length of the pages, so much information is below the fold Use tiles with Major Festival and a tile that says other festivals. My fellow young people and I hate sifting through text, use pictures Up the Event Calendar in the sidebar then have the options to go to the main page Remove the link above the main heading Bigger thumbnails for galleries, I want to see people having fun at first glance Contact Us in the footer Associate review to a festival page(see comment about tile based inteface) font-size is too small 11px on a desktop, imagine a mobile device, 14px and up please There is more but lets leave it at that for now

Your photos are taking a very long time to load - but it could be my internet connection - we have 3 of us online at home today.
 
On an unrelated, photography trivia note - did you see Zack Arias just launched http://dedpxl.com/ ?

This is a page I bookmarked a while ago - not sure if there's anything in there, and of course, I can't personally recommend any of these because I haven't tried them.
 
http://www.tripwiremagazine.com/2013/03/wordpress-gallery-plugin.html
Thanks for the link, I have tested most of these plugins already and none were up to the task; I will hunt around and see what I find.

The site is pretty basic. Not sure if I am a fan of the blocks to get into your portfolio sections. Seems like something more creative can be done there.
 
The loading times for the images are a concern. Desktop users need to wait a long long time. Mobile users might be showing up at your door with pitch forks and bills from their data carrier.
 
Portfolio
 
Get rid of the slideshow. Let people see everything at a glance. Don't really want to sit through a couple picture of the bathroom when I don't want to. Set up thumbnails or something and let it expand to something larger if they wish
 
Optimize your images and toss out anything that doesn't make you look like a king in your area. Im sorry but that image with the toliet does nothing towards making me want to hire you.
 
Make sure your images are now skewed in anyway. The tile for portraits seems very squished. Not good when you want to showcase your images.
 
You are giving details about how you work on portfolio pages. I would say you make a seperate page for that, and leave your portfolio for your actual portfolio.
 
Change the "Get in Touch" to something more proactive like "Hire Me"
 
About
 
This page is actually looking pretty good already. If I had any complaints it would be to give your image a little more room, possibly having it on it's own column with all the content on the right (even when the content goes below your image). Perhaps even stylize the quote a little more for dramatic effect.
 
Contact
 
To to have this visually intersting as well. The text is not well formatted english. You have:
 
"Looking forward to working with you already, the form on the page is a direct link to me as is the phone number and email address below. Speak Soon."

instead try to have it say something like:
 
"You will be contacting me directly when you call or contact me through this page's form. I am looking forward to working with you. Cheers"
 
Blog
 
Loog at paginating your articles. You are loading tons of them at once. Also considering having a article image for each one. Makes the blog a much more visually intersting place to view. Being on a photography site and seeing a blog filled with 95% words would bore me.
 
Hope this helps

Maybe, I have tested my site of my mobile internet with few delays.
 
Yes I saw, I look forward to reading his posts on the site