My first site - kindly requesting a review

[ggpokergg]

Hi guys,

Kindly read the content of this post before accessing the website link, I'd appreciate it

I'm posting my website for a general review. A few things to keep in mind:

1. This is my first website, ever, not just in poker. I started learning css and HTML a few weeks ago. This website is based on the Drupal CMS, but heavily themed and modified by myself. So please be lenient
2. I realize that the content of the website is not ideal for monetization and that there are tons of other, much better subjects and keywords to rank for. The reason I chose this was to simply start experimenting with website development in general and SEO in general. The Girls in Poker idea seemed like something cool which I could dive into right away, so this is kind of my "training" platform so to speak.
3. The website is completely fresh, literally just a few newsposts so far.
4. I'm 100% open for criticism, so do not hesitate.


If you you would be so kind as to take a look at the website and provide ANY (no matter how trivial) insights, I would be in your debt.

address: Poker Girls - pictures, news, biographies, videos and more

Thanks

[Strider1973]

Great idea - here are my trivial insights:

- I would add "Poker Girls" to all the titles, for example "Vanessa Russo Pictures Gallery - Poker Girls". Use those keywords "poker" and "girls" in the title (you have about 65 characters to use in titles)
- A vote button for users on a scale from 1 to 10 would be great
- Monetize the site. Add a link to "Plays at" and add a link at the bottom of each pictures page
- I would rewrite some of the ALT texts of the picutres ("yummy" doesn't really help your SEO efforts)
- I don't like your logo - the girl sitting on the spade does not look very erotic...
- Add a favicon (go to favicon.cc to create one or find one)
- This one is not trivial: think about how you handle copyright. I don't think that you took all these picutres. And once your site is known a bit better, you will run into copyright issues for sure. You must find a solution here soon.

[3jokers]

Looks a bit like a porn site, might not be a bad thing though, but conversion will prolly suck.

I like this pic http://www.girlsinpoker.com/sites/al...achi-large.jpg do you own the rights to have it on your website?

/Cheers CJ

[ggpokergg]

Tons of thanks for your comments. Here are mine in return.

Great idea - here are my trivial insights:

Not trivial at all

- I would add "Poker Girls" to all the titles, for example "Vanessa Russo Pictures Gallery - Poker Girls". Use those keywords "poker" and "girls" in the title (you have about 65 characters to use in titles)

Thanks, I will do that.

- A vote button for users on a scale from 1 to 10 would be great

Do you mean for the newsposts, pictures galleries, or both?

- Monetize the site. Add a link to "Plays at" and add a link at the bottom of each pictures page

I will. Just wanted to leave that until the end and focus on content first. Thanks!

- I would rewrite some of the ALT texts of the picutres ("yummy" doesn't really help your SEO efforts)

Yes, I do realize that The problem I faced with this Drupal gallery module is that I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to separate the image caption from the image ALT attribute. I literally spent a few days searching, asking on the Drupal communtiy forums, analyzing the code etc., and no luck - the way it works now, my captions have to match the ALT attribute exactly. So faced with a decision on whether I should do what is more "seo friendly" or more "user friendly", I went with the latter. I will definitely keep working on this, and once I figure out a solution I will do a general reconstruction of the ALTs.

Would you say, however, that ALL of the ALTs require changing, or just some of them? Could you give one or two examples other than the Yummy?

- I don't like your logo - the girl sitting on the spade does not look very erotic...

Actually, in a way it was intended. At first, the logo was much more erotic. After paying more attention to the site, and showing it to a few of my friends, most of them (me included) agreed that the overal looks of the site was that of a "free porn - download it now!" kind of page. I wanted to avoid that, so I decided to install an element which was not that much erotic, to somehow counteract the other semi-erotic elements on the page (pictures, etc).

Do you think that was a bad move?

- Add a favicon (go to favicon.cc to create one or find one)

Awesome page, thank you very much - will do.

- This one is not trivial: think about how you handle copyright. I don't think that you took all these picutres. And once your site is known a bit better, you will run into copyright issues for sure. You must find a solution here soon.

I tried hard not to remove any watermarks from the pictures while editing/resizing them, so that no one feels hurt. I assumed that as long as the watermark (if any) is still there, no one would actually mind seeing their picture on some other place. It would actually benifit them.

Alot of the pictures don't have a watermark, though, and they probably belong to SOMEBODY (especially the professional modelling photo-shoot type pictures).

Do you have any suggestions in this area? Unfortunately I'm completely unfamiliar with how to handle such an issue.

Thanks very much for your time and input, highly appreciated.

[ggpokergg]

Looks a bit like a porn site, might not be a bad thing though, but conversion will prolly suck.

I like this pic http://www.girlsinpoker.com/sites/al...achi-large.jpg do you own the rights to have it on your website?

/Cheers CJ

Yeah, conversion will probably suck, I realize that it's still fun and probably a lot of learning will come in the process, so I don't mind for now.

As for the picture - no unfortunately, I don't own any rights to it. I actually wasn't aware that a copyright issue might be involved here, I assumed that as long as I wasn't removing any watermarks that it would be fine but I'm starting to get the feeling that I was badly mistaken on this.

[Mike]

Do you have any suggestions in this area? Unfortunately I'm completely unfamiliar with how to handle such an issue.

I don't know if this will work, but it could be possible to contact whoever took the photo, the girl (or agent / pr person) and tell them you are a fan and are interested in using their photo.

[ggpokergg]

That could be a solution Mike. What interests me is how do all those sites handle such issues? There are tons of poker sites that post pictures such as these, in most cases it seems to me that they do not own the rights to the pictures. Any idea how they are handling it?

Perhaps if I would place a disclaimer in the footer of my site, something like "I do not claim the rights to any of the pictures" and to make it clear that if anyone has an issue with any of the pictures or claims any rights to them, that they should contact me and we'll come to an agreement.

Do you think this is something that might work?

[PullMyFinger]

I am a newb here but I do know what I like on websites. You are probably playing around with the video in the left corner I'm sure. It is covering your web name. It has to move.

[PullMyFinger]

Also, I think the logo is alright.

[ggpokergg]

Hi there,

I am a newb here but I do know what I like on websites. You are probably playing around with the video in the left corner I'm sure. It is covering your web name. It has to move.

Could you specify what you mean? I cannot see it unfortunatel what browser are you using?

I would greatly appreciate a screenshot of the problem if possible.