Questions about a doula network website

[Stacie]

I bought the domain www.chicodoulas.com. I want it to be a simple site where families can find all our local doulas in one place. A few of us have our own sites, and there will be links. Also, I believe we can all get ourname@chicodoulas.com for an email address. I want a small profile, a picture, and our specialty services included, plus email and website info. It would also be a nice place to list other things offered for pregnant families, like prenatal yoga CBE, etc., but I don't want to get too extreme, kwim?

What I need from you guys:
1) How many pages should I have? What pages? Title examples? I am firm on wanting either "about us" to list doula profiles, or maybe change the tab to "doulas," I don't want too-long-tab titles, kwim? I also want a general "contact us," page for basic doula info, although specific douls info will be directed to a specific doula.

2) What else? How does the first page look? It's rough, but I wanted it up there as I contact local doulas to let them visit the site.

3) Other ideas for me? Has your community done this? I would welcome anything you have to offer!

[ctowndoula]

We have a local referral site. I am not sure it if what you thinking of, but you can take a look.
www.birthworkers.com

[UtahDoula]

Our local site (originally designed by my dh, but I've been doing some rather clumsy meddling with it lately):

www.utahdoulas.org

Another one my dh did for another local doula group:

www.gabirthnetwork.com

And another one I know of:

www.coloradodoulas.com

Those should help you get some ideas for what can be done.

[AussieDoula]

I just wanted to say that I think sites like these play an important role in presenting a united front to potential clients, and showing that we really are interested in helping families choose the right support for them. Not to mention providing a non-competitive environment for local Doulas to reach out and educate their community as one strong voice.

[emmabella]

Way to go! The design is cool. I really love all the pictures!

I think maybe "Meet Us" instead of "About Us" would better describe that section. Sounds like maybe you need a "Resources" tab at some point that would have all the local referrals, book recommendations, links to helpful sites etc. A "how to choose a doula" page (not sure what a short tab for that would be LOL) with questions to ask a potential doula, etc would be cool.

The front page looks kinda "piece-y" to me. I think the problem is you have alot of font sizes and weights going on. It's best to have one "title" font (maybe 14px, bold, accent color) and then one standard text size throughout (10px, no bold, black or dk grey). Also, the right sidebar could have a darker background color to separate it more visually (like a light orange or grey?). Right now my eyes have no direction... they don't know what to look at first. The content on home page is awesome though!