Feedback for a beginner (please be KIND)

Hi guys. I'm not sure whether this is the right place to post this so I apologize if it's not!

I'm am a professional translator and I'd like a website where my clients can read more about me and my qualifications. I'm a beginner at Photoshop and, since my needs are extremely simple, I decided to make it myself.

I'd like to make it clear that my livelihood will not depend on this website at all, so don't worry about advising me to hire a professional. The gigantic majority of translators don't even have a website, so this will just be an unexpected plus. Let me stress this again, since people on every forum I posted completely ignored me and kept telling me to hire a professional: I expect perhaps 15 people a month to visit the site, it's really not worth paying for a professional. Literally if I had pure text and nothing else it would already good. I realize my design is far below what a professional could make. However, the way it is already would be good enough for my needs, so if I manage to improved it with your help it will be even better!



Here's what I have so far:
My preferred, no footer version:


And one with a footer:



Ok, so I am quite happy with the general scheme, but I think many things could be improved.

1) Do you think the lack of a logo or even just my name (José Guedes) at the top will affect the overall look and impact? Please keep in mind that I expect the gigantic majority of visitors to be clients who got the link from me personally, not people who just Googled it, so they will have a general idea of who I am already.

2) Should the bottom part have dividers? I tried actually separating the 3 sections (About/FAQ/Contact) as well as using dividers of other kinds but nothing seemed to work, does anyone have any ideas? Or do you think it should stay like this?

3) Is a footer necessary? I think I recall reading somewhere it's good for search engines, is it true? I only added one because of that, I think it looks much cleaner without it

4) Globe or no globe?

5) Any tips regarding the fonts? I only used Open Sans and Helvetica, I think. Also, are there any drawbacks of having only images and no text on the website? For example, instead of actually writing "In this section... blah blah blah", would it be bad if I simply used an image instead?

6) What about the color scheme? I think I kind of like something along those lines

7) What color should I make the chat bubble? I don't like the current one, but it's the best I managed. 100% white just seemed too boring

Thank you so much and sorry for the long post!

 

1) Although they may be familiar with you, from a professional standpoint, I think you should include your name.
2) Keep it the way it is. Looks nice and simple. I think adding dividers will make it look congested.
3) I love clean and simple. That being said, no.
4) I think the globe really works with what you are trying to get across.
5) The font works. However, I would reconsider using red with the numbers. It's a bit hard to see.
6) Color scheme works well.
7) Maybe yellow?

 

Thank you so much or you kind reply! I will take all your points into consideration, and will keep working on it! Thanks!

 

Thanks so much for your comments Sarah!

Ok, so this is what I have so far after changing it based on all comments I received here and other places. The file upload form is just a placeholder for now

 

Thanks a lot Sarah, I will see what I come up with!

This is what will happen once the person clicks "Next" (not finished, I'm probably going to remember a few more fields to be added and am going to reorganize all fields). What's the best way to add animations to the design? I'm thinking of the box expanding and sliding to the left once the person clicks next, how could I do that? I program in C++, so I can easily create a program that does that with regular words.

EDIT: changed what's under Contact for all pages

 

Haha thanks!

 

Hi guys! I made some very major changes that I think vastly improved it, please tell me what you think. Which version?



First version:
http://jg-translations.com/version_2.png

Second version: