Setting up a web site

I want to create a web site for my photos. In reading some of the topics it seems that many folks use SmugMug as a host. I've also heard about Photoshelter. Are there other prime hosts? Can folks identify some of the dos and don'ts about getting started. Thanks.
Mark

I have this question also. I'm interested also in a host with which you can start displaying photos only and then switch easily (key word) to selling them at some point. And the do's and don'ts would be awesome.

I met a photographer at Paynes Prairie who said Zenfolio is the best. I do, very embarrassingly (because I didn't know how much I needed to learn), have a Smugmug account, but I haven't done anything with it including uploading new images since I joined NPN. If something else is better I'd love to know.

I use Smugmug. The website is pretty good, no real complaints, except that it has that typical Smugmug look. I have no knack for messing with it - no HTML skills whatsoever. Within the limits of the templates, I can customize it OK. The print labs Smugmug uses are better, than any others I've found on the web.

Another alternative is ZenFolio. I have no personal experience with them.

I use Zenfolio and like it better than Smugmug (which I tried for maybe 6 months). Zenfolio just works better for me.

I am a fan of Zenfolio too - lots of choices and options to make a very personal site.
See what you think of my site -

Sandy

I did a trial membership on SmugMug, had Photoshelter for a year then settled on Zenfolio http://jimbullard.zenfolio.com. It seemed to provide the most value for my $$$ and it was the easiest interface to use when setting up my site. I can see where Photoshelter would be a good solution for event and wedding photographers, also stock photographers who are marketing their own images directly but I'm just selling photos to hang on the wall. Photoshelter is overkill for that IMO.

I'd recommend to the real n00bies out there starting off with a blog (google's blogger or wordpress are two great choices). It allows you to constantly throw up images that can be keyworded for google searches and you can get exposure by linking up with other blogs. Since I've had my two blogs (for about a year now) I've had a major increase in traffic to my sites and a few times a month I get requests to purchase images or use images for various things. Without these blogs I would miss out on a lot of opportunities.

I think there are distinct advantages over having just a website, especially when starting out because it can interest more than people who just like pretty pictures. I have a lot of birders that follow one of my blogs in addition to photographers, nature lovers and others. Plus, it's easy for your viewers to see if you have updated or added anything new - where websites often look very stale even if you add new content because it's often buried.

Another advantage to a blog is the ability to display photos that you might not think are great but are interesting or exciting for you. Whenever I photograph a new species or a locally rare species I can display the photos even if the quality is poor. Some of these images are still wanted by publishers or others to document the rarities. You wouldn't dare put up poor quality photos on your pretty website.

I hope to have a website in the future but for now the blog route is working excellent with over 2,000 unique viewers/month.

- Luke

I have no direct experience with them myself, but one other source worth checking out is livebooks.com, particularly if your preference is for a clean, uncluttered presentation of your work. They have a lot of templates that you can use as-is or, for a fee, have customized to your preferences. For a couple of examples you can check out benhattenbach.com (the website that turned me onto livebooks; a wonderful showcase of wilderness photography) and bretedge.com (another livebooks site, this one by an NPN member). I'm not sure how well livebooks has integrated options for viewers to purchase prints, etc., but their templates are pretty nice and the prices seem reasonable.

Luke, you have some interesting comments about using a blog . . . I'd never considered that and it's probably a good option for folks to consider.

I've been very happy with Photium. Easy to customize and work with. They have a 30 free trial, so you can start playing around for free.

I tried a number of them and ended up settling for smugmug. I wanted to have some input in how it looked and smugmug is so very user friendly in helping you to customize. There was a discount around for flickr users too, may still work. You just put flickr in the discount button. Zenfolio was another contender but preferred smugmug. Livebooks was too expensive.
Melody

As you are just getting started, the philosophy of "just do it" may help. Use Smugmug, Zenfolio or Wordpress as they will enable you to get up with ease.

The critical factor is getting started. Later, you can experiment and analyze as you seek enhancements.

Pick the one that seems to fit your personality best. Make it a fun project.

Bill Brennan

Wow, that's great advice, Bill!

From the standpoint of someone who went through this some years ago and finally settled on a completely custom built site, from a purely aesthetic view I believe Photium offers the best looking site. No matter how you try to customize a Smugmug site they all end up looking like a Smugmug site.

I just switched to smugmug, and have found it to be user friendly, and when I was setting it up and had questions, they were answered rapidly, and in terms I could understand. As I am marketing both art and weddings, I was looking for a site that loaded rapidly and had no down time (as of yet). My toss up was with Zenfolio and smugmug. Both seem easy to work with. Good luck, and feel free to e-mail me if I can help.
Bob

I had a custom built site -- problem was unless you are a programmer yourself, that is only as good as the supporting IT folks. Mine weren't very responsive and I eventually "fired" them. I had a site at IFP3.com for a while. It is a totally flash-based site and is nice, but I got tired (as did my viewers, I am sure) of waiting for those animated spinners to do their thing while things loaded on the site.

I ultimately looked at zenfolio and smugmug and settled on smugmug. I found smugmug much easier to customize.

Bill, I am confused about your answer. I have a couple Wordpress blogs. Is that what you are talking about, or does Wordpress also host photo websites?