Please Destroy Me

[roblok]

Well,

Finally got my new website up and running

http://www.roblok.com/

Please take a gander and shoot me some thoughts.

Right now, my thoughts:

Not sure who I'm selling to or what my market is.
Created this site just to show anybody (Cruise Ships, Casting agents, Festival Organizers, Theater Owners, My Mom)

Photo Gallery needs work

Video needs work

Feel free to add your criticism (good, bad or snarky)

THANKS!

Rob Lok

[roblok]

bit of a problem with my server. Everyone else getting a blank page when you click on my link?

Thanks

[gav]

I'm not having any trouble viewing the site.
As someone who looks at a lot of performers sites for booking acts, I have to say to everyone What is the point of an 'enter site' page ? You have a good picture on it, but when i click on a link to go to someones site, I want to go to their site, not to a page that asks me to enter their site. Your home page should be the first thing that comes up and that picture on your entrance page should be on it.
It looks very professional but maybe a little too serious looking for a comedy stunt circus show. A design that is more playful would suit a clown better.
The video link should be a lot bigger, and I suggest you host your video on Vimeo as it looks a lot better(less cheap and trashy) than youtube.

[Marcus Wilson]

Make your video easier to find.

[BRYANDANGEROUS]

Looking good

Hey Rob,
The site looks good, I agree about the landing page comment and I would suggest you embed your videos from you tube so that the link doesn't take the buyer off your page then oops now they are surfing you tube for an hour and forgot why the were looking at your site in the first place. Also when you embed them make sure you turn off the related videos. Glad to hear from you.

[Moira]

Dorrington may have offered his praise with a punctuation error (its'), but I would not reproduce it.

It looks like you meant to say "more weather broadcasts" rather than "enough weather broadcasts."

[roblok]

Thanks

Hey Everyone.

Thanks for the input

Regarding the Splash Page/ Landing Page. Yea, I agree. The original idea was to open with the reaching out photo and then you can either click on the RIGHT HAND for Chinese site and LEFT HAND for English site. Both appropriately labeled, of course.

My web guru got a bit lazy with that but I'm hoping to get that fixed when I head back to the States.

Yea, I'm having a bit of schizophrenia with the website. On one hand, I don't want it to be too clown-y since I'm pitching it to casting agents for film and television in Asia, where being a clown just won't help. On the other hand, I'm pitching my comedy show where...well, being a clown sure helps a ton.

Gotta find the right point in the middle.

Bryan, I'll have to figure out the embed issue. I don't have the technical know how on this stuff but I will once I meet up with my web guru in NYC.

Thanks again everyone! Please keep the notes coming!

[roblok]

Thanks Moira

Will fix!

[Evan Young]

things don't seem well defined. I'm not sure what to look for or how to find what I'm looking for. Right now I go there and it's like a human interest story. I learn about this guy who is doing interesting theatrical stuff and I get to like him, but I'm not seeing what he can do for me. I don't see what you want to sell me anyplace except the video page, and I think your videos are too long.

Don't muddle around in middle ground. If you want TV work, set up a sight for TV work, or at least another option on the splash page. Keep your message clear and focused for your target venue. the message needs to be "this is my product/service that is perfect for you, and it is good, and here's why, and here is how to contact me".

[martin ewen]

It works for me, not too many choices, nor too few, you cover all the bases well.
The photopage threw me, I must have had my cursor right at one side, it took a sec before I worked out how to control the Carousel of photos.
The previous or highlights give you depth, usually one of the first things people look for to see if you have any history, you cover that well.

I had trouble with your vids, don't know why.
I disagree with Gav re the importance of vimeo Vs youtube, there may be a difference but a vids a vid i n my book. If your content is less important than the format in selling you then as far as a casting persons concerned you're borderline anyway.

You need to fix your vids up, the first one I got a quicktime symbol with a picture of you stiltskipping under it. Good idea to have something to look at while something potentially downloads but even though the pic interested me, [I use stilts, I've skipped, the pic looked like you were standing on a chair] even so I'd taken the pic in with interest and still nothing had happened. You need to fix that pronto.

apart from that just with a cursory dip in and out, not really pouring over it, it's, with the vids fixed more than adequate designwise. Nothing too spectacular but as I say all the bases covered.

Bear in mind I'm no expert.
my sites a hamfisted minimalist hodgepodge. But I know that.

on edit, take my general encouragement WHATS HAPPENED TO ME?
and evans spot on direction about tightening your focus and you have a damn good beginning.

[Evan Young]

If you do use vimeo, try using their new html5 player instead of flash. That way it has a chance of working on iphones and on people's computers who aren't up to date with flash. it's still in beta testing though cuz it just got rolled out a couple weeks ago.
I still think youtube is the way to go. It's more recognizable and viewers will be more comfortable with it, and it works on mobile devices because it's html5 instead of flash.

[roblok]

Revamp!

Hey Gang

Thanks again for all the feedback!

I'm pretty new to the whole web designing hub bub but I managed to fix a few of the pages on my own

Hope it works a bit better and helps sell what I'm trying to sell

now all I need is to figure out what that is!

bwhahahahahah

[roblok]

Okay,okay...

I tried to listen to all the feedback from this thread

Also looked at websites of successful acts to see what works with them

PLUS what limited web skills I have

I put together this revamped website

http://www.roblok.com

QUICK QUESTION: Is it good to have technical riders, promo photos, promo blurbs ready to download on your website?

I was wondering if I should put that in

Thanks everyone!

[Evan Young]

I tried to listen to all the feedback from this thread


QUICK QUESTION: Is it good to have technical riders, promo photos, promo blurbs ready to download on your website?

I think so. It can save you some time advancing the show, and clients like easy access to things they need. If you don't make high rez photos available for download people will try to use the low rez ones on the website. Also, when you make the high rez gallery, make it so that they can't grab the thumbnail photo (put a clear layer on top of it or something). We had SOO many clients use the low rez thumbnail photo instead of actually clicking to download the full rez image.... some people are just not savvy with these things.
http://www.showoffshow.com/promo/index.html <-- for an example of what we did

[roblok]

up up and away

Thanks Evan

Downloads are up and running!