Posted by Mike Klarich on March 5, 2008 at 2:52 AM
Just looking for some advice from those of you out there that have their own website(s). How much should I expect to pay, upfront and to maintain? I’m looking for a solution to post my pictures online and make them available for purchase.
To be honest I really don’t expect to sell many pictures; although I’d love to make a living at it (huge dreamer).
Any input on links to companies that design and host websites for photographers would be much appreciated! I don’t know much about web design so I probably can’t pull off my own design. I’d probably have to work off a template and customize it to fit my needs, maybe?
Your question is pretty general, so you might want to search NPN postings. This topic has been discussed many times.
Coppermine has some nice templates for photographers. Since I built my own site, I can't say how functional, or easy to use the templates are, but they do look nice.
Just a thought... If you don't expect to sell your work: You won't. No dream is too big, but you'll have to put a lot of time and effort into marketing yourself.to make your dream a reality.
Because I've had a number of people ask me if I had a web site, I recently decided to take the plunge and just do it. Another NPN member had suggested smugmug a few months ago so went with them and signed up for the "poweruser" account so I can customize my page a little more. The cost was only $60/year so for a beginner like me, it was a very reasonably priced alternative. I've had my site set up for about 2 weeks now and it seems very easy to use which is good because I'm not a computer geek by any means! Using one of their tutorials, I was even able to add a customized banner at the top of the page (although I may play around and change it again before I'm completely satisfied). You can check my site out at: www.naturalimagesbyangela.smugmug.com
I don't know if it will generate any sales, but sure won't know unless I give it a try. Good luck!
It is fun to have your own website. I use www.foliosnap.com which is very convenient and you don't have to know any html...they are also very helpful when you email them. Depending on how much you want to pay you can do it with or without a shopping cart. Also, one of the things I enjoy is they use google analytics and you can see whose hitting on your site from anywhere in the world...lots of statistics (some are interesting, some I don't care about). They can set you up with their web address or you can by your own domain. The cheapest set up allows you to post 90 photos/30 per gallery and up to 3 galleries, and you can change things without anyone's help anytime you want, and if you have the capability you can download your own logo (I don't). Here's mine if you want to take a look: www.geolightphoto.com. I also believe another NPN member Bret Edge uses them...you could check out his too. Also, don't expect to sell anything as said above, but it is handy to have if you want to be on email lists for submission requests from magazines looking for specific photos...this way you don't have to send any CD's, slides, or send out letters asking to be on their photographer list...just email them with your website.
Posted by Mike Klarich on March 5, 2008 at 2:07 PM
Angela,
Thanks for the reply. I just downloaded a free trial of Adobe Dreamweaver CS3. I thought maybe there would be some easy to manipulate templates in the software. Holy Cow, I'm not ready for any of that stuff. May be I'll stick to something easier like Smugmug, too.
Dear Mike,
I have used an excellent web designer who created my website and blog for photography sales. Check out the site (his name is listed on it) and make comments on my blog if you would like to do so. One suggestion: stay away from "flash" pages since they cannot be read by the search engines. Also,my web guy was able to help me with marketing strategies and techniques. I use GoDaddy to host my site and it is under $100 a year - actually I think around $60/year. Hope this helps.
Peacemaker
I use a software called WebEasy. It has nice templates, but I designed my own. the software is about $50 and I pay $15 per year for the URL and $10 per month for 2 Gig of storage and more activity than I can use up in a month.
2 Gig may not sound like a lot, but the HTML compression works wonders. I have over 450 pages with about 400 images between 150 and 200K each on the site and I haven't used 1/2 yet!
It is fun having a site. It acts like a great portfolio for potential customers. don't expect to do much in the way of direct sales, but many peripheral benefits are possible. I have been invited to several art fairs and also to place images at a museum on consignment due to people surfing my site. These have led to sales.
Discussion
8 repliesTo be honest I really don’t expect to sell many pictures; although I’d love to make a living at it (huge dreamer).
Any input on links to companies that design and host websites for photographers would be much appreciated! I don’t know much about web design so I probably can’t pull off my own design. I’d probably have to work off a template and customize it to fit my needs, maybe?
Anybody use smugmug.com?
Thanks
Mike
Your question is pretty general, so you might want to search NPN postings. This topic has been discussed many times.
Coppermine has some nice templates for photographers. Since I built my own site, I can't say how functional, or easy to use the templates are, but they do look nice.
Just a thought... If you don't expect to sell your work: You won't. No dream is too big, but you'll have to put a lot of time and effort into marketing yourself.to make your dream a reality.
Good luck!
-PB
I don't know if it will generate any sales, but sure won't know unless I give it a try. Good luck!
Thanks for the reply. I just downloaded a free trial of Adobe Dreamweaver CS3. I thought maybe there would be some easy to manipulate templates in the software. Holy Cow, I'm not ready for any of that stuff. May be I'll stick to something easier like Smugmug, too.
Take care,
Mike
I use Gallery 2 software to organize my images. With my host, I was able to install the software with the click of a mouse.
I didn't pay anyone to setup my site for me (which probably shows). My WWW link will take you to my site.
My hosting option is $10/month, but there are cheaper options with my host.
I have used an excellent web designer who created my website and blog for photography sales. Check out the site (his name is listed on it) and make comments on my blog if you would like to do so. One suggestion: stay away from "flash" pages since they cannot be read by the search engines. Also,my web guy was able to help me with marketing strategies and techniques. I use GoDaddy to host my site and it is under $100 a year - actually I think around $60/year. Hope this helps.
Peacemaker
2 Gig may not sound like a lot, but the HTML compression works wonders. I have over 450 pages with about 400 images between 150 and 200K each on the site and I haven't used 1/2 yet!
It is fun having a site. It acts like a great portfolio for potential customers. don't expect to do much in the way of direct sales, but many peripheral benefits are possible. I have been invited to several art fairs and also to place images at a museum on consignment due to people surfing my site. These have led to sales.
Good luck.