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01/21/2009 11:26:25 PM · #1 |
This may be a bit long winded but please tolerate my lengthy explanation;
I want to go semi-pro and augment my income with my photography. I'd like to sell some of my "Fine Art" photos, do weddings and advertise other services such as Real Estate photography etc. There may be some other things to included and if I can have it all on one site , it would make it much simpler .... or so I think. Oh yeah, e-commerce would be real nice.
I subscribed to SmugMug for a year and liked the simplicity of their solution but REALLY disliked the ease at which I can enter their main site and peruse other photographer's images. It seems to defeat the purpose of creating a presence that is uniquely your own if they can simply shop the other aisles for fine art. I had a web person try to hide the SmugMug link but we had little success. They seem to want invite everyone to their site and that is fine, but not for me.
I like flash! Really slick but absolutely a mixture of Greek, Latin and Mandarin for myself to even consider customizing yada yada yada.
I'm really intrigued by the alternative of a BLOG versus a website as it appears to be alot more "Interactive" Is that an option many pros are considering versus the stand alone website?
Finally, I've looked at "Canned" website solutions but always fear the company may go belly up and there goes your site with it.
Any thoughts for the first steps. I already have a domain name registered so we can overlook that aspect please. Thanks! |
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01/21/2009 11:57:53 PM · #2 |
| Well not to over-simply things but.. Your first option is to hire an expert to create exactly what you want if you have the money to do so (Easiest). Second option (Which I chose to go with) is to do it your self and go and pick up a couple of books and teach yourself. I would recomend the "Missing Manual" series for Flash and Dreamweaver. Your third option is to go with one of those "Canned Websites" and make sure you can host the files on your domain's servers (Then you don't have to worry about the company going belly up). That will give you time to pursue option 2. |
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01/22/2009 12:09:34 AM · #3 |
| Thanks Justin and I appreciate the comment. I went with route one before but I seemed to frustrate a website developer before by not being 125% clear on exactly what I wanted. It got to be a bit expensive and I'd rather not go there again. You mention Dreamweaver and I've looked at that route. Why that over Frontpage?? I already have Frontage and Dreamweaver would be another investment. Not out of the question though. Would the Flash component be on top of that? I'll check out the "Missing Manual" books too. Thanks! |
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01/22/2009 12:55:43 AM · #4 |
| Frontpage may work for you. I am on a Mac and so Frontpage was not an option for me. I went with Dreamweaver because it is a little more powerful and flexible for my needs. I don't know if Frontpage has Flash capabilities or not but you can get a lot more (again) powerful and flexibility out of the full version of Adobe Flash. Are you using Adobe Photoshop? If so you may be able to upgrade to a Web version of the Adobe Creative Suite the next time you upgrade Photoshop. It will be more expensive to upgrade but it will be significantly less than buying the full version of the Web version of Creative Suite. I don't want to discourage you from using Frontpage. It may meet all of your needs. If so then you are well on your way. Good luck.. |
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01/22/2009 01:30:53 AM · #5 |
I've mentioned this before in threads, if you're going to go with Flash on your site, make sure you do a good job. It doesn't have to be anything special or spectacular, in fact usually the simpler the better, but a bad flash presentation makes a site look VERY bad compared to just a straight forward website.
Good luck! |
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01/22/2009 01:42:49 AM · #6 |
| The version of Frontpage on my system is 2003. I'd assume there is no "Flash" capabilities built in. That said, Dreamweaver CS3 appears to be the version that was just replaced. That might to the trick and it seems to have some Flash capabilites included? |
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01/22/2009 08:38:14 AM · #7 |
For canned sites many many many photogs use BluDomain - there are issues now and then but overall it seems to work. Not sure how easy updates/changes are to make.
I use GoDaddy for hosting and teh free version of //www.netobjects.com/ for my site. I've been using NOF for 10 years. It's not all powerful, but it's easy to understand, update, change, etc and works. Very WYSIWYG.
for gallery i use pbase..not a perfect solution but damn it's easy. and cheap. I think LR will do what I want but Iv'e not had time to try it out.
for sales i've used my own space and breezebrowser pro teamed with paypal. requires some 'programmin' (in plain text/html) to make it work, but it can work. I now use Instaproofs.com - free unless there is a sale. No risk and it works well.
I've started a blog middle of last year and really suck at keeping it updated. I use wordpress.com (not .org...same company but a different product). It's free and you can have web pages (and multiple blogs too - so one for each aspect of your company).
When I do mass emailings like after bridal shows there are links in there to my gallery, website and blog. EVERY click-thru is to the blog.
I'd say do a basic website and a blog that you keep updated like twice a week. If I can do once a month I'm doing good - so my blog could be soooo much more than it is.
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01/22/2009 11:34:35 AM · #8 |
Hi, Ivo, good to hear you again. I finally did register my business as “JcF Media LLC” about December 12th 2008. Now my next step is to organize my portfolio and set up a website, too. Along with creating some business cards. I did like Dreamweaver way back, along with Macromedia’s Flash 5. I have purchased the latest Dreamweaver since I liked it. I also like Adobe’s products. Please comment on my first commercial photo shoot result. Recent work: ON-Location ChristmasCard...
About the middle of February, I’ll start creating a website. I have to build a new state-of-the-art PC, since my current one’s Motherboard is inadequate and the video keeps freezing up the system uinexpectedly.
I’ll share any tips, ideas and Flash code I come up with. I’m not an expert with this software, but I have been a Database Programmer/Analyst and Applications Developer for abour 20+ years. I though about SmugMug, thanks for your view.
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01/22/2009 04:54:21 PM · #9 |
Thanks agian everyone for the responses. The path is clear and it seems I've got to defrost my brain and learn how to do this myself. On the plus side, I've become very good at Photoshop and if I can learn how to use that, I'm sure these other programs will fall into place.
Chris, I'll look into the solutions you had suggested. Johnny, thanks for the invite and I'll be knocking on your door as well. Cheers and here is to hoping my brain doesn't explode. ;-) |
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01/22/2009 07:50:05 PM · #10 |
I can see why working with a web developer is so difficult for you. Because if I was that web developer I wouldn't be happy either.
From what you said, what I read, is you want a website. Seems you want to sell services for wedding/real estate as well as sell prints.
That seems simple enough. can be done with one, two, three pages of html coding. Very simple. Can be added to any number of 'canned' sites or even on your own domain.
Yet, it doesn't seem like this is what you want. The idea of what you want is completely unclear.
You want a website presence. How do you want to make that presence? How do you want your site to operate, your visitors to navigate your site. Do you want galleries of images, or just one or two samples, do you want everything on a separate page? Do you want your images to pop up, or show on the page, you want a slide show, what exactly do you want?
You have to know what you want for someone to put it together. Thats the point I am trying to make. Granted there are many 'solutions' to creating a website, and even a website presence which are two different things. But, we need to know what you want, in order to create the best possible solution for you.
Anyway, I am a consultant so if you want to know more, send me a message.
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01/22/2009 08:04:17 PM · #11 |
SmugMug might be hard to debrand. But other services are not:
Exposure Manager
Zen Folio
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01/22/2009 08:15:25 PM · #12 |
Originally posted by littlegett:
I can see why working with a web developer is so difficult for you. Because if I was that web developer I wouldn't be happy either.
From what you said, what I read, is you want a website. Seems you want to sell services for wedding/real estate as well as sell prints.
That seems simple enough. can be done with one, two, three pages of html coding. Very simple. Can be added to any number of 'canned' sites or even on your own domain.
Yet, it doesn't seem like this is what you want. The idea of what you want is completely unclear.
You want a website presence. How do you want to make that presence? How do you want your site to operate, your visitors to navigate your site. Do you want galleries of images, or just one or two samples, do you want everything on a separate page? Do you want your images to pop up, or show on the page, you want a slide show, what exactly do you want?
You have to know what you want for someone to put it together. Thats the point I am trying to make. Granted there are many 'solutions' to creating a website, and even a website presence which are two different things. But, we need to know what you want, in order to create the best possible solution for you.
Anyway, I am a consultant so if you want to know more, send me a message. |
Well, I guess you're right, I should go sit in the corner. ;-) I do agree however that a relatively clear picture of what you want is prudent before embarking on any project. Preliminary organization is pretty obvious. The difficulty, I have found, is that it is hard get what you want unless you have an idea of what can be done. Unfortunately this is sometimes compounded with a consumer's disconnect with technology, budget, web developer's skill and or collaborative process. From what I have experienced, the final product is many times a concession from both sides as the exercise can be exhaustive. In many ways, the website is just enough to get by and little more.
You nailed it when you said I didn't clarify all the details and expectations as I didn't disclose them. I can choose to frustrate a web designer or frustrate myself with Dreamweaver. I think I'll do the latter as it will be a good skill set to possess. Thanks for your insight though and thanks for the response. |
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01/22/2009 10:13:34 PM · #13 |
If I was your web designer, my first question would be. 'What do you want?' Which would be followed by, do not think of what can or cannot be done. Do not think about technology or limits. Your job is to tell me what you want. No matter how extravagant or simple it is.
After you tell me what you want, I would than tell you what I can do, and what technology can do. Not everyone is this open, but they should be. Make sure to talk to at least two designers about what you want. Who has the portfolio to do what you want and who says they can do it?
Bottom line is that if a designer says that something can not be done, than you find a new designer. If they give you a reason that is valid for what want to accomplish, i.e. goes against what you really want, than you need to make a compromise.
anyway, thats enough from me.
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01/23/2009 02:34:30 PM · #14 |
There is nothing “really” new under the sun,
or on the internet. Many online ideas mimic the real world, and there are many more to come.
Check out the internet, then mark what you like, and even come up with ideas for improvements.
Talk over your ideas with some trusted people, if it’s a super innovation.
Bounce your ideas off of several different types of people. Pro/Amateaur/Male/Female/Age groups, etc.
Think of what strategy you want, what to lure the innocent clients with money. Think of the types of people you want to appeal to and the types of photography you want to do, one website doesn’t please all. Put yourself in the Buyers/Customers shoes and think of what they want/need/willing to pay for. Again there are many types of people as there are fish to catch.
I try to things professionally. Everything depends on Time/Money. I found a good title the other day that said is is a WorkFlow not WorkSlow.
You were speaking of sea foam, I wonder if IreneM is actually selling water drop photos.
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01/23/2009 05:47:11 PM · #15 |
Frontpage is deprecated, the new MS web editor is ExpressionWeb.
ExpressionWeb (or Frontpage) compared to Dreamweaver is like a simple photo editor compared to Photoshop. Much simpler and easier to learn, but it limits you in a lot of ways. DW is much better if you're willing to learn it. If you need PS and DW and one or two more packages, an Adobe Suite is the less expensive way to go.
There is an intermediate solution. Buy a "web page template" for photo websites. You can customize it as much as you want, and it will give you a quick start to getting your site up. You won't have to learn as much about web design. And many flash templates can be edited without your having a flash editor or knowing anything about flash. |
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