Hey folks,

First of all a little disclaimer:

I am not a professional designer as you guys, so please be honest, but don't be too harsh with me. I spend a lot of time digging into Wordpress/ Elementor and decided to build everything from ground up by myself. Its my very first attempt,

Some parts are not even finished. As the Logo is still bad. The navigation panel looks ugly, and lots of pictures missing. I still work on the point to adress the customer more. But thats another story for now.

I already asked for some advice on other parts of the Internet, and sometimes the reactions where okay, and sometimes I got some harsh critics, that everything is messy and I should choose a Style and go on from there.

For now I think there is some potential in it and with every step it becomes more appealing. To me.

_____________________

The url is: mediacolonia.rf.gd

(sorry for the TLD, its a freehoster right now, I will move as the project is ready.)

 

My goal as a videographer is to make the people watch my demo Reel and contact me. My main idea was to make less content as possible, as most websites are overfilled with text and information.

I do feel, that the overall idea goes in the right direction, but there's no real structure or guidance. What can I improve here? Can I get any advice how to make the whole experience more user friendly?

Or maybe similar websites for some inspiration?

 

Thanks four your time and your effort.

 

Edited July 21, 20251 yr by euphorion

If somebody wants a video they will research and find someone like you and pay you to make the video.

If somebody wants a website that will research and pay someone to build the website.

Stop trying to build your own website. Sorry to be so harsh but there are so many things wrong it's difficult to know where to begin. The main problem is it's all about you. nobody cares about you. What a potential client wants to know is if you can film their event, fashion show, advert, concert, promotion...

Show me examples of your work. Not that demo reel, it tells me nothing and jumps about so fast I can't see what's happening (and I hate the music). Slow down. and make the demo reel the focus of the homepage.

You also need to consider your marketing plan before building the website. Are you going to rely on paid promotion, SEO, direct marketing, referrals, social media? Each of these will dictate the design, structure and content on your website.

And you need lots and lots of content on the site. Make videos and tell stories.

And I expect to see your address and telephone number on every page

 

15 hours ago, fisicx said:

Stop trying to build your own website. Sorry to be so harsh but there are so many things wrong it's difficult to know where to begin. The main problem is it's all about you. nobody cares about you. What a potential client wants to know is if you can film their event, fashion show, advert, concert, promotion...

Show me examples of your work. Not that demo reel, it tells me nothing and jumps about so fast I can't see what's happening (and I hate the music). Slow down. and make the demo reel the focus of the homepage.

 

As I wrote before, Its true! I do not adress the customer enough and there is way to less information about what I deliver. I will work on that specifically!

Thanks for your comments on the Reel too. Other people didn't liked the music too.

I will strongly concider to look for other music, and as others sad to shorten the video. And yes, I will thing about the pacing too.

But....

Sort out your marketing plan before doing anything to the site. Everything is wrong: the colours, font, working, images, structure, calls to action and everything else.

If you tell us about your marketing plan we can properly advise on what to do. 

Ok. let me sort out some things on the website and than come back again. (you can see the progress live.. in case you want.... ;-) )

Right now I try to implement a bit more structure and care to adress the customer more. This will take some time.

 

But for now I can say. My goal is to reach possibilities to shoot image video, live events, and events of all sorts.

 

Edited July 22, 20251 yr by euphorion

Create a better demo reel. Put the demo at the top of the homepage.

Use a white background for the whole page.

Use a simple sans-serif font - arial is fine.

Write about the type of work you want to do.

Add your name, picture, address and phone number. Make sure you have a clear call to action.

Go out and make videos!

21 hours ago, fisicx said:

Create a better demo reel. Put the demo at the top of the homepage.

Use a white background for the whole page.

Use a simple sans-serif font - arial is fine.

Write about the type of work you want to do.

Add your name, picture, address and phone number. Make sure you have a clear call to action.

Go out and make videos!

Look, I really appreciate the time you put in this. But its not that helpful telling me to break everything down.

I mean I got your point. you kinda trying to prevent one more useless website on this planet, and engaging me to spend my time better. But hey, Its not that I do all this for fun. I have my plan and my vision. maybe its not what you expect, but first of all I have to enjoy what I'm doing, not everybody else. Sure, these guys pay the bills, but the whole Idea of this "brand" is to kinda represent myself as a person, not just a random guy doing videos.

I have really LOW interest in tiktok, that just not my audiance, but sure, I will focus on social media. Of cource, I am not living under a stone.. Please stop telling me 5 times to work on the reel. I will do that. I know that. and you do not have to encourage me to go out, Its raining for days now, and if there are possibilities, I have my focus on that too. But as I said before. My goal is to make all of this step by step, I just cant do everything at once. And I am here for a proper help for this website, but most of time I spend to explain why I continue to work on this website right now.

If you dont like the whole concept. OK. got it. I do see the value in your words. And I read your paper on your website. Lots of good knowledge. Some of that I can adapt, and for others I just dont have the deeper understanding, nor the time.

 

So, as you can see, I spend the day to make proper Updates. Maybe there is some light at the end of the tunnel ;-)

I used to maintain a videographers web site. We built 3 versions of the web site over the years, the one that really worked was a minimalist design with minimal but adequate information.

The first site had a lot of information pages (too many), the better site had I think just 5 pages;

• Home page (example film, who they are, what they do)
• About (including bio, qualifications, and well known clients) 
• Portfolio (showcase the best work)
• News (combined with case studies because they didn't add news very often)
• Contact (address, phone, email)

I suggest doing a web search for something like "best videography web sites", you might find some inspiration there.

14 hours ago, euphorion said:

So, as you can see, I spend the day to make proper Updates. Maybe there is some light at the end of the tunnel 😉

I can see you are doing updates but you are going in the wrong direction.

The demo reel needs to be the focus of the homepage. Put it at the top of the homepage and drop the hero image

Get rid of the background colours - they are a distraction.

You might not like tictok but if you target clients are looking for help you need to use it.

And whilst you creating a brand is admirable it's less important than learning all about marketing.

Note also: most people use a phone to view websites - even for business. Because you use elementor the layout and structure on a phone is very poor. 

 

12 hours ago, BlueDreamer said:

I used to maintain a videographers web site. We built 3 versions of the web site over the years, the one that really worked was a minimalist design with minimal but adequate information.

The first site had a lot of information pages (too many), the better site had I think just 5 pages;

• Home page (example film, who they are, what they do)
• About (including bio, qualifications, and well known clients) 
• Portfolio (showcase the best work)
• News (combined with case studies because they didn't add news very often)
• Contact (address, phone, email)

I suggest doing a web search for something like "best videography web sites", you might find some inspiration there.

Thanks for your comment!

I would say thats in line with my thoughts.. I try to keep the website clean without to much information on the front. Information about my gear is hidden from the front page. 

I will try further to make the whole experience more appealing by reducing the amount of Information. Maybe ditch the last accordion box and make the text size smaller.

As fisicx wrote I will think about the colors too. Right now I still enjoy the idea, of not having the same white background like everybody else. 

Maybe you have any suggestions or recommendations, like similar websites with same approach?

thanks. 

Edited July 24, 20251 yr by euphorion

5 hours ago, fisicx said:

I can see you are doing updates but you are going in the wrong direction.

The demo reel needs to be the focus of the homepage. Put it at the top of the homepage and drop the hero image

Get rid of the background colours - they are a distraction.

You might not like tictok but if you target clients are looking for help you need to use it.

And whilst you creating a brand is admirable it's less important than learning all about marketing.

Note also: most people use a phone to view websites - even for business. Because you use elementor the layout and structure on a phone is very poor. 

 

I will concider to move the video in the first place. After I introduced these boxes I feel more flexible to move them around.

I will think about ditching the colors. I will ask around and  watch there reactions. Maybe I do som A/B testing. Right now I really enjoy not having a white background like everybody else..

And yeah, this thing about the poor mobile view is something I cant change right now. I try to, but for now it is what it is..

Edited July 24, 20251 yr by euphorion

2 hours ago, euphorion said:

I will concider to move the video in the first place. After I introduced these boxes I feel more flexible to move them around.

Look at other videographer sites and see what they do.

2 hours ago, euphorion said:

I will think about ditching the colors. I will ask around and  watch there reactions. Maybe I do som A/B testing. Right now I really enjoy not having a white background like everybody else..

The site is not about what you like. The site is not for you, it's for potential clients. And they will prefer a white background.

2 hours ago, euphorion said:

And yeah, this thing about the poor mobile view is something I cant change right now. I try to, but for now it is what it is..

Stop using elementor. Learn how to use wordpress blocks.

Google scores your site 48/100. The recommended 90/100 as a minimum. You page load speed is over 10 seconds. It should be under 3. 

1 hour ago, fisicx said:

Look at other videographer sites and see what they do.

The site is not about what you like. The site is not for you, it's for potential clients. And they will prefer a white background.

Stop using elementor. Learn how to use wordpress blocks.

Google scores your site 48/100. The recommended 90/100 as a minimum. You page load speed is over 10 seconds. It should be under 3. 

Most websites I found are way to complicated or were a total disaster. If I am somewhere in between, a good start for a very first website ^^... okay, jokes aside. I understand you, and thats why I will showcase the website to everybody. lets see what other people say.

Yeah, and that thing about elementor.. I knew before its a heavy application. But I had zero knowledge before, and needed some confidance. Elementor is pretty comfy..but I concider to rebuild it 1:1 in gutenberg.

The pagespeed is bad. I know. I think one main reason, is something totally missbehaving with the fonts, like the font "orbit" is loaded over 100 times. dont know why.. and most pictures I use, are just place holders, and not optimized. I think after cleaning up, the page will run better. hopefully.

Edited July 24, 20251 yr by euphorion

23 hours ago, euphorion said:

Most websites I found are way to complicated or were a total disaster

In your opinion. What you don't know is how well they convert.

When you do launch make sure you use an analytics package to see how people use the site. Heatmapping is also a good way to see where people click.

Try different themes. But remember (and this is really important) the site is not for you. It's for your potential customers. Keep it simple, focus on the demo and other videos you have made and include all the necessary calls to action.

Don't bother with adding fonts. Nobody cares.

Hey,

statics already installed. I really try to keep it simple. As you see I sized all the big headers,  put everything in line.

To me it seems much cleaner than in the beginning. All pictures are missing for now but everything else is finished. I plan to port the whole page next week to a paid hoster hopefully with a speed increase.. and we see further. maybe its time to recut the demo... ^^ 😛

 

 

This is what I see:

I have no idea what you do - no titles or taglines.

Why do you have the URL in the hero image? This adds no value.

What is the purpose of the hero image? Why do I need to see an animation of some random carrying a camera?

Why the horrible font?

3 hours ago, fisicx said:

This is what I see:

I have no idea what you do - no titles or taglines.

Why do you have the URL in the hero image? This adds no value.

What is the purpose of the hero image? Why do I need to see an animation of some random carrying a camera?

Why the horrible font?

okay... you have any tag line recommendations? The URL is expected to be kind of a tag line.

The purpose is to promote the name, and to show of this random guy (me.) and the video is a visual stimulus.

And really, I like the font. why not. retro archaic style.

Edited July 27, 20251 yr by euphorion

The purpose of the site is to generate leads.

The URL is not a tag line. A tag line would be something like: 'Event Videographer in Köln'

The video is not a visual stimulus. A potential client only carers about what you can do for them. Which is why you have the demoreel at the top and examples of your work below.

I'll say it again: the site is not about what you like. It's about meeting the needs of your visitors.

Which also means testing different fonts. 

10 hours ago, Alexjack3693 said:

"I help brands tell their story through cinematic, story-driven video."

Yuk.

Marketing dross - it might just work is your target belives this sort of thing but for everyone else it's just ********

Just to let you know, I am still active and still figuring out, whats the best solution for me.

I ported the website, and optimized the windows sizes, the first pictures were published and I am working on speeding up the whole thing. Its getting better..

new domain as expected is: media-colonia.de

 

thanks for taking your time

15 hours ago, euphorion said:

Just to let you know, I am still active and still figuring out, whats the best solution for me.

It's not about what's best for you! It's about what's best for your clients.

If you want a fast site stop using Elementor, all those plugins and multiple fonts.

GTmetrix scores you F - a performance score of 9%. There are 156 server calls on a homepage of 3.5Mb!

A properly configured site will be around 500kb with fewer than 20 server calls.

The sticky header overlays the content. Look at your contact page

Sorry to be so negative but it's not getting any better. The fundamental issues still exist in that it's a site about you not about meeting the needs of the client.

To be honest, I'm not sure how to replicate my elementor pages into Gutenberg. Yesterday I had a look into Gutenberg blocks and it seems a bit complicated. Elementor worked straight out of box for me. But its true, sometimes I do experience some lag and therefore I would port the whole project. But right now I'm not sure if I am able to. (I know you simply want me to just to kick the BG colors aso.. But I am still stick to it as long I feel to move on..)

 

And speaking about content. I am still working on it. And yes, its true, it's still too much hustle about me. I am still researching how to maintain a better overall customer experience.

 

Edited August 7, 20251 yr by euphorion

6 hours ago, euphorion said:

To be honest, I'm not sure how to replicate my elementor pages into Gutenberg. Yesterday I had a look into Gutenberg blocks and it seems a bit complicated. 

Gutenberg no longer exists. They are just blocks. And there are loads of plugins that extend the types of blocks you can use.

The layout of your page is unimportant. All that matters is the content. Your page layout is far too busy and complicated. Keep it simple.

6 hours ago, euphorion said:

And speaking about content. I am still working on it. And yes, its true, it's still too much hustle about me. I am still researching how to maintain a better overall customer experience.

The better overall customer experience is to have a single colour background (ideally white), a standard font, standard navigation, lots of examples of your work and a way to get in contact.

Stop trying to be edgy, clever and exciting. This is what YOU want. Your customers don't.

I've done what you are doing many times during testing and every time I've taken a more minimalist approach conversions have improved along with higher ranking on Google.