Posted by Brian Monk on January 11, 2008 at 12:13 PM
Hi y'all -
I want to put together a website. The person I spoke with today told me he charges $5000 (5K!) to put a custom one together. While I'm certain it would be great, I dson't have the budget. I would like to have a gallery online, and sell my photography.
Is this difficult to do? Could anyone point me in a direction (other than, "Good Luck!" or "Go to Hell!")!
Thanks!
Posted by Mitch Erwin on January 11, 2008 at 1:21 PM
Brian,
The easiest and most cost effective for you are numerous - if you want to take the time, and expect some frustrations if you are computer illiterate like myself,. You'll see many posts of photo sharing sites like zenfolio, smugmug, etc. There are numerous software packages out there too. Webstudio 4, which comes to mind, that you can pay and download off the net and drag and drop text, pictures etc.
The easiest would be smugmug in my opinion. I am biased though somewhat as this is how I have mine set up. It is pretty easy. They have excellent customer support and I received huge amounts of help with the html with their forum participants and moderators on digital grin.
Also look at 7 posts down for more suggestions!!!!
If you do have some computer literacy check out the post a little further down titled "Webpage design". Lots of suggestions for programs there. Those programs will allow you to design some nice galleries, but usually you'll need some serious skills to put together a safe shopping cart (if that is what you want).
If you're set on someone to design a site, you might check out http://www.jessespeer.com/. I don't have any experience with working with Jesse, but I like his website and his prices seem more resonable than 5K.
Cheers and good luck,
Alex
Posted by Jesse Speer on January 12, 2008 at 2:16 AM
Thanks for the mention Alex.
My website is powered by Jack Brauer's "WideRange Gallery" software. Jack is an NPN member and regular. We collaborate to build custom photographer websites from scratch (less than $5K). Jack can also build other types of websites, at a range of prices ...
I'm glad Jesse piped up and confirmed that $5k is pretty whacky. I'm working with a web designer on a site right now, and even at Alaska prices we're going to come in way under that figure, even including features a lot more elaborate than you're contemplating.
Whether doing it yourself or hiring someone, it helps to know as much as you can about exactly what you want and what's available template-wise. Both canned programs and a designer will ask you confusing questions and want decisions.
It also pays to browse your competition and their sites (other photographers). At this point you're dealing with a blank slate, and the choices you make affect not only the price, but the appearance and function of your site. Remember also that either you or someone you hire will have to maintain and update the site, right down to adding new photos regularly to keep it "fresh" and keep people coming back. Then we get into the whole world of security, security updates, spam filtering and more. Think of your site as a living organism you are going to have to feed, clean up after, pet, play with, and yes, even discipline.
Posted by Ed Cordes on January 12, 2008 at 1:14 PM
As far as Ecommerce goes, you can easily set up an account with PayPal to have email invoices sent. On my site the buyer clicks on a link that sends me an email with their order. I send back a PayPal invoice for them to pay with. They don't have to be a PayPal member and can use Visa, MC, or AMEX as well as PayPal. You only pay as you go, so costs are controlled.
If you're selling prints, but not making them yourself, check with your print lab. If they work with LabPrints or a similar provider, your job just got easier. LabPrints and it competitors will host your portfolio and work directly with your lab to fill orders. We're using LabPrints for other things right now, but the ease and effectiveness of that system is leading our charge toward a web site.
Basically your web site gallery button is a link to them for portfolio review and print ordering, if I understand it correctly. It's not a cheap software program by any means (and to re-emphasize: there are other similar ones), but we are really happy with all the other services we have used so far.
Posted by Jim Caffrey on January 12, 2008 at 4:09 PM
Brian:
I came across a web based program while completing my website. It's called Lightbox Photo Gallery. The link is www.lightboxphoto.com. The price starts at around $700 I think. You can upload as many images as you want, and your site will be customizable to a degree. I'm thinking about switching my site over to it soon. It is totally PayPal compatible. Hope this helps.JC
Posted by Adam Schallau on January 13, 2008 at 12:28 AM
Lightbox has got my vote.
Posted by Wim Reyns on January 13, 2008 at 6:46 AM
I'm also for lightbox photo gallery, I've build my website based on it and it's a great peace of software.
Posted by dan elster on January 13, 2008 at 10:50 AM
www.impactfolios.com....if you can post an image on NPN, you can build a site w/ impact!
Posted by Bret Edge on January 21, 2008 at 3:04 AM
I'll submit my vote for www.foliosnap.com. It's a simple point-n-click interface that allows a fair degree of customization w/o having to know any code. Reasonably priced (starts at around $20/month), too. Their customer service is among the best I've found in any industry.
Posted by Tim Mulholland on January 22, 2008 at 12:13 PM
I had a similar quandry about three years ago. I went to a designer and felt that the cost was outrageous. And, I had the time to learn, so I did. I used Dreamweaver, had a reasonable amount of computer skills prior, and spent about a month creating my first site. It's simple and basic. For ecommerce, folks can contact me directly or I can now send them through my PhotoShelter account and stay out of the way.
Also, if you already have your domain name and host, you also might consider Coppermine. I've been looking at it, but don't know enough about it to recommend it or not - anyone else know about Coppermine?
I can't speak for other web sites, but I've been using Smugmug for the last three years to host both of my websites (http://www.naturestocklibrary.com and http://www.christinacraft.com)
My naturestocklibrary.com site is run completely 100% off of Smugmug. If you look at the hompeage, etc., you'd never know you were on a third party site. You can completely customize the look and feel (although it may be helpful to hire someone with some HTML knowledge to help you out at least for the intitial design).
The benefits of Smugmug (at least for selling nature stock) are:
* You can customize/brand your website - or simply use their templates, which are also nice
* You can sell digital downloads for any price you like.
* You can sell digital prints through Smugmug. Their printing service handles all of the orders, payments, printing, delivery, etc.
* You can have your own domain/website name
* You have unlimited storage space -- meaning you could host terabytes of images on the site and not be charged any extra money. I store all of my images on Smugmug and this is my primary backup in case something happens to my files at home.
* You can password protect certain galleries or simply make them private... meaning on you can see them. That way you can store images that you may not want to sell... but that you may want to access at any time. You can also give a password protected site to a client to share uploads/FTP.
Downfalls:
* The contract for digital downloads only covers royalty free... however, you can simply display your images, write that they are rights managed, and ask people to quote a file name and ask you directly to sell the image rights managed.
* The printing service is very efficent and they offer great customer service. The only downfall is that there is no premium paper... i.e. Fuji Crystal Archive Supreme (they use simply Fuji Crystal Archive paper which is a bit thinner). Therefore, you can't sell super duper high quality prints.. .but you can sell archival quality, well done prints.
If you don't like Smugmug's ordering/printing service, you can attach your own PayPal account to Smugmug and take print orders directly (meaning you print the files and handle delivery... or meaning you take the orders to sell your work either rights managed or royalty free).
P.S. I pay $150 USD per year for my Smugmug account and it is worth every penny. I have not spent another dime on my web design (however, in a previous life I used to run a web team for high tech companies so I had the knowledge to do my own design).
I suspect your designer was also charging for the programming that would support your galleries (doing a database is very intensive and goes beyond HTML)... Smugmug does all of this for you. If you do hire a designer, they should only charge for actual design and the HTML for your homepage... not programming. This should seriously decrease any bids you get for the job. If you want to have a professionally custom-designed homepage, I would expect to pay someone no more than $300-$500 for that kind of work. If you are happy with the Smugmug template, you can simply added a header across the top and added a navigation map in HTML. A designer shouldn't charge any more than $50-$100 for a banner.
www.naturestocklibrary.com - an example of a completely custom-designed site with a unique homepage design
photos.christinacraft.com - I simply created a header on Smugmug with links and it looks fine.
Posted by Benjamin Glatt on February 12, 2008 at 9:15 PM
Check out my website. Tailored just how I asked, and was running in less than a week. Definitely a lot cheaper than 5k. They have a big server which means you can upload high quality photos. Here's there site, pinnacleinnovations.com. Check 'em out.
Posted by Mel Ladewig on February 20, 2008 at 6:27 PM
Also, if you already have your domain name and host, you also might consider Coppermine. I've been looking at it, but don't know enough about it to recommend it or not - anyone else know about Coppermine?
I use Gallery 2 which is simmilar to Coppermine. I haven't spent much time to customize it and haven't set it up to do sales yet. I like the look of this product better than coppermine from what I've seen so far.
Discussion
17 repliesI want to put together a website. The person I spoke with today told me he charges $5000 (5K!) to put a custom one together. While I'm certain it would be great, I dson't have the budget. I would like to have a gallery online, and sell my photography.
Is this difficult to do? Could anyone point me in a direction (other than, "Good Luck!" or "Go to Hell!")!
Thanks!
The easiest and most cost effective for you are numerous - if you want to take the time, and expect some frustrations if you are computer illiterate like myself,. You'll see many posts of photo sharing sites like zenfolio, smugmug, etc. There are numerous software packages out there too. Webstudio 4, which comes to mind, that you can pay and download off the net and drag and drop text, pictures etc.
The easiest would be smugmug in my opinion. I am biased though somewhat as this is how I have mine set up. It is pretty easy. They have excellent customer support and I received huge amounts of help with the html with their forum participants and moderators on digital grin.
Also look at 7 posts down for more suggestions!!!!
Hope this helps!
If you do have some computer literacy check out the post a little further down titled "Webpage design". Lots of suggestions for programs there. Those programs will allow you to design some nice galleries, but usually you'll need some serious skills to put together a safe shopping cart (if that is what you want).
If you're set on someone to design a site, you might check out http://www.jessespeer.com/. I don't have any experience with working with Jesse, but I like his website and his prices seem more resonable than 5K.
Cheers and good luck,
Alex
My website is powered by Jack Brauer's "WideRange Gallery" software. Jack is an NPN member and regular. We collaborate to build custom photographer websites from scratch (less than $5K). Jack can also build other types of websites, at a range of prices ...
http://www.widerangegalleries.com/
If you don't want something custom, I'd probably go with Smugmug - or something similar.
Whether doing it yourself or hiring someone, it helps to know as much as you can about exactly what you want and what's available template-wise. Both canned programs and a designer will ask you confusing questions and want decisions.
It also pays to browse your competition and their sites (other photographers). At this point you're dealing with a blank slate, and the choices you make affect not only the price, but the appearance and function of your site. Remember also that either you or someone you hire will have to maintain and update the site, right down to adding new photos regularly to keep it "fresh" and keep people coming back. Then we get into the whole world of security, security updates, spam filtering and more. Think of your site as a living organism you are going to have to feed, clean up after, pet, play with, and yes, even discipline.
If you're selling prints, but not making them yourself, check with your print lab. If they work with LabPrints or a similar provider, your job just got easier. LabPrints and it competitors will host your portfolio and work directly with your lab to fill orders. We're using LabPrints for other things right now, but the ease and effectiveness of that system is leading our charge toward a web site.
Basically your web site gallery button is a link to them for portfolio review and print ordering, if I understand it correctly. It's not a cheap software program by any means (and to re-emphasize: there are other similar ones), but we are really happy with all the other services we have used so far.
I came across a web based program while completing my website. It's called Lightbox Photo Gallery. The link is www.lightboxphoto.com. The price starts at around $700 I think. You can upload as many images as you want, and your site will be customizable to a degree. I'm thinking about switching my site over to it soon. It is totally PayPal compatible. Hope this helps.JC
Also, if you already have your domain name and host, you also might consider Coppermine. I've been looking at it, but don't know enough about it to recommend it or not - anyone else know about Coppermine?
Good luck,
Tim!
I can't speak for other web sites, but I've been using Smugmug for the last three years to host both of my websites (http://www.naturestocklibrary.com and http://www.christinacraft.com)
My naturestocklibrary.com site is run completely 100% off of Smugmug. If you look at the hompeage, etc., you'd never know you were on a third party site. You can completely customize the look and feel (although it may be helpful to hire someone with some HTML knowledge to help you out at least for the intitial design).
The benefits of Smugmug (at least for selling nature stock) are:
* You can customize/brand your website - or simply use their templates, which are also nice
* You can sell digital downloads for any price you like.
* You can sell digital prints through Smugmug. Their printing service handles all of the orders, payments, printing, delivery, etc.
* You can have your own domain/website name
* You have unlimited storage space -- meaning you could host terabytes of images on the site and not be charged any extra money. I store all of my images on Smugmug and this is my primary backup in case something happens to my files at home.
* You can password protect certain galleries or simply make them private... meaning on you can see them. That way you can store images that you may not want to sell... but that you may want to access at any time. You can also give a password protected site to a client to share uploads/FTP.
Downfalls:
* The contract for digital downloads only covers royalty free... however, you can simply display your images, write that they are rights managed, and ask people to quote a file name and ask you directly to sell the image rights managed.
* The printing service is very efficent and they offer great customer service. The only downfall is that there is no premium paper... i.e. Fuji Crystal Archive Supreme (they use simply Fuji Crystal Archive paper which is a bit thinner). Therefore, you can't sell super duper high quality prints.. .but you can sell archival quality, well done prints.
If you don't like Smugmug's ordering/printing service, you can attach your own PayPal account to Smugmug and take print orders directly (meaning you print the files and handle delivery... or meaning you take the orders to sell your work either rights managed or royalty free).
Hope this information helps.
I suspect your designer was also charging for the programming that would support your galleries (doing a database is very intensive and goes beyond HTML)... Smugmug does all of this for you. If you do hire a designer, they should only charge for actual design and the HTML for your homepage... not programming. This should seriously decrease any bids you get for the job. If you want to have a professionally custom-designed homepage, I would expect to pay someone no more than $300-$500 for that kind of work. If you are happy with the Smugmug template, you can simply added a header across the top and added a navigation map in HTML. A designer shouldn't charge any more than $50-$100 for a banner.
www.naturestocklibrary.com - an example of a completely custom-designed site with a unique homepage design
photos.christinacraft.com - I simply created a header on Smugmug with links and it looks fine.
I use Gallery 2 which is simmilar to Coppermine. I haven't spent much time to customize it and haven't set it up to do sales yet. I like the look of this product better than coppermine from what I've seen so far.
Mel-