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11/05/2011 04:44:29 PM · #1 |
I think I am ready to take the plunge and put my photos up on a professional website. I have spent the last year gathering photos for my portfolio and now I think I have enough to have a decent looking professional website. Right now I just post photos to a blog I will probably still post my challenge photos to a blog but I need a separate site to put the ones I want to use for my portfolio.
1. Where should I go to look for this kind of thing?
2. Do you have one and do you like it?
3. How much does the one you use charge?
4. Do your websites show up on google searches?
Here are some general things I am looking for:
1. not too expensive, I don't have a huge clientele yet and I actually don't want to get too busy with it. Right now I do around 2-5 photo shoots a month. I'd like to do more than 2 but I don't know if my schedule will allow much more than 5.
2. I need something that will sort photos into categories such as: Family, Children, Infants, Studio shots and so on.
3. I am fairly commuter savvy but not a pro, so I can handle something that requires a bit of knowledge on my part but not too much. |
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11/05/2011 05:18:25 PM · #2 |
I am not sure what everyone else is using but I am using www.wix.com Its a flash based website with free templates. I pay around $12.50 a month of their unlimited bandwidth and 2.5gb of storage. I had to purchase a domain name for $5.00 for one year from www.godaddy.com but domain name registration is a fairly easy thing to find and they all do the same thing. I am sure someone else has some better suggestions. Also try and keep your domain name free of - marks it helps serach engines find you better I believe. I had to put 2 of them in mine and have a hard time convinving serach engines I am not spam or a bogus website. If its your first website I would recommend something that had its own built in web page editor. Also wix is free but the domain name is gives you is a username.wix.com or some form of that so it doesn't look very professional on the free sites.
Message edited by author 2011-11-05 17:38:22. |
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11/05/2011 05:33:47 PM · #3 |
| I use Zenfolio. They have several pricing plans that vary according to what kinds of features you need. |
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11/05/2011 05:38:48 PM · #4 |
| Smugmug has a pro account... |
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11/05/2011 06:49:52 PM · #5 |
Or you can build your own or have someone like me do it for you ;)
www.elikatz.com
www.elikatz.com/photography
www.elikatz.com/photo
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11/05/2011 07:01:46 PM · #6 |
Another vote for Zenfolio from a former smugmug user.
For one thing, Zenfolio is 33% cheaper ($99/year versus $150 for pro). But I also like the management interface better, and it was easier to setup.
We have a user group thread with some tips (and our discount codes if you join...I'll post the link in a minute when I find it).
One big thing I like about Zenfolio versus smugmug is the way you set up prices...you create named price lists, then apply that to galleries. Smug you end up copying prices from gallery to gallery..you can't update prices easily in one place and have it automatically apply to the appropriate galleries.
Another is I was able to set up custom licenses for downloads, and price lists for those easily. In fact, just about everything can be customized, but you don't have to.
They also have slide shows you can embed.
Anyway, I think it's a pretty good option for $99 per year...(and you save if you use one of our discount codes).
Here's our user group thread
Message edited by author 2011-11-05 19:02:03. |
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11/05/2011 08:28:03 PM · #7 |
Originally posted by Neil:
One big thing I like about Zenfolio versus smugmug is the way you set up prices...you create named price lists, then apply that to galleries. Smug you end up copying prices from gallery to gallery..you can't update prices easily in one place and have it automatically apply to the appropriate galleries. |
There are three levels of pricing on SmugMug. Image, Gallery, and Portfolio.
Portfolio applies if you don't set a price plan on a gallery. Gallery overrides Portfolio pricing on a gallery by gallery basis. Image overrides both. If you don't set Portfolio pricing, then your visitors see SmugMug's default, naked pricing.
Originally posted by Neil:
Another is I was able to set up custom licenses for downloads, and price lists for those easily. In fact, just about everything can be customized, but you don't have to. |
There are basic licenses for downloads (not configurable), but you can set price lists for the various sizes and usages.
Originally posted by Neil:
They also have slide shows you can embed. |
Ditto for SmugMug, flash and HTML5.
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11/06/2011 12:13:12 AM · #8 |
| Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I will have a look at all of them tomorrow. |
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11/06/2011 10:55:07 AM · #9 |
There is no black-and-white, one-size-fits-all answer. It depends on the site's purpose, which should mirror your business purpose. Who is the audience for your site and how do they get there? What is supposed to happen after they get there? It's not enough to have a site to show off your photography. Unless you have a defined purpose, it doesn't matter how easy it is to setup and maintain, how pretty it is, how much it costs, or whether it is from a template or if it is a custom-built site.
What works for some might not work for others. Sometimes people might really loooove the features of their site, but when you start talking to them about how it's working for them and how well it's meeting their goals, you might find that beyond looooving their site, it's not really doing anything. If you are in the business of photography, then first and foremost, your site has to support your business.
Different types of photography businesses require different types of sites. As a starting point, look for sites related to the work that you do. Then look at them critically; which ones look like they are going to do the things the business owner needs them to do? Do they really answer the questions prospective clients may have? Do they really assist in the sales process? Do they pop up at the top of searches?
Even if this is just a sideline business, you want to make sure you are positioned for the future and not digging yourself into a hole. For example, say you decide to go with GalleryX because it is easy to use both as a user and visitor. In fact, it's so easy that you end up pumping tons of photos into a myriad of galleries in a year or so. Down the road, you find that, dang-it, you really need to be at GalleryY, because it is more suited to your business. All of a sudden, you're not looking at just setting up a new site, but also moving all your old stuff. Could this happen? Yes. Could it be avoided? Possibly. It just depends on how well you define your business now and how much research you put into finding the best place for your site.
Good luck, feel free to pm me.
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