I am looking to put together a pretty simple website utilizing my own web address. I saw that Marc Adamus uses Smugmug and it is simple and clean, so I poked around their website a bit.
Looks like Smugmug has pretty simple templates which cover the basics. For $150 per year (Pro plan), they will host it and provide a general, but somewhat flexible template format.
I want to have a handful of galleries, be able to add text to my images, have a bio section, a print pricing page (no plans to use their printing service), etc. Just the basics. I don't expect to sell much from the website, so I don't want to devote a lot of time or $$ to it.
Anybody have experience with them or have friends who utilize their web hosting? Any suggestions for alternatives?
I have not used Smugmug, but I do like the sites I have visited. An alternative is to do your own with a very simple program. I used "Web Easy" which I bought at Staples for $50. My site is hosted by its partner Easysite for 9.99 per month. I pay a $15 annual fee for the domain name. I have plenty of hosting space and it is simple to maintain. While it is not as fancy as some of those by our colleagues here, I do sell a few every month and I am able to send friends and neighbors to the site to see my latest.
Every time this issue comes up, I suggest www.impactfolios.com . Lots of templates, options, everything......Super simple and reasonable prices.
Posted by Lisa Cuchara on May 13, 2007 at 11:22 AM
I love smugmug.
It is very easy to set up, easy to use, has the pro plan as you described, so you can sell.
I have had very good luck with smugmug -- and they are responsive as well. You can email and get answers, etc. very quickly.
www.TLC.smugmug.com
I also need to put a site together. I'm just starting to look around. I noticed Alice Scoggins used webstudios4.com. She referred to it in this forum 5/7/07. Her site is very smart. I wonder what the pros and cons are re: smugmug, impactfolios, webstudio4, etc.? Tim Stenning, Forks, wa
Hi,
I just put together a website last year...and used foliosnap.com...love it! Plus, you can buy your own domain...it's been very user friendly...and depending on your capabilities using HTML and gif...you can put your own logos etc. on it...but if you don't have those capabilities like me (though they do give you some HTML advice) it's still easy and looks simple but not cheesy...at least I hope so.
I recently bought a CD rom called Site spinner, by Virtual mechanics. It pretty easy to use, I didn't know anything about web design, and still managed to navigate through it. It's cheap too, only $56 on Amazon.com.
At the moment I am using networksolutions.com. Being a beginner at web design this has worked out well for me. You can opt for a counter and guestbook,plus search engines, and it is very reasonable.
You might check out ZenFolio. It costs $40 a year to host unlimited numbers of files, arranged in any manner and depth of albums you like, and they offer print services through Mpix. I don't use them, but read up on them and they look impressive for anyone wanting to quickly get a photo gallery up and running.
Discussion
8 repliesLooks like Smugmug has pretty simple templates which cover the basics. For $150 per year (Pro plan), they will host it and provide a general, but somewhat flexible template format.
I want to have a handful of galleries, be able to add text to my images, have a bio section, a print pricing page (no plans to use their printing service), etc. Just the basics. I don't expect to sell much from the website, so I don't want to devote a lot of time or $$ to it.
Anybody have experience with them or have friends who utilize their web hosting? Any suggestions for alternatives?
Any thoughts would be appreciated.
It is very easy to set up, easy to use, has the pro plan as you described, so you can sell.
I have had very good luck with smugmug -- and they are responsive as well. You can email and get answers, etc. very quickly.
www.TLC.smugmug.com
I just put together a website last year...and used foliosnap.com...love it! Plus, you can buy your own domain...it's been very user friendly...and depending on your capabilities using HTML and gif...you can put your own logos etc. on it...but if you don't have those capabilities like me (though they do give you some HTML advice) it's still easy and looks simple but not cheesy...at least I hope so.
here's mine: geolightphoto.com
Good luck...it is fun to have one.
Cynthia Spence