Posted by Dan Borzynski on August 3, 2011 at 6:16 PM
I am probably going to be finding myself building a photography website for one of my friends in the near future, for someone without a lot of money and even less technical skills. Longterm, I also don't want to be doing the maintenence and updates of the site either.
We will be needing to select a web hosting company based on teh following criteria (and more or less in order of decreasing importance):
- FREE(!)
- Easy to use template design, preferably a drag and drop design/update/revise
- A reasonable amount of bandwidth and storage. Reasonable is relative and poorly defined, I know.
- Future upgradability - more storage, bandwidth, possibly e-commerce, and she is willing to accept a small cost for this in the future.
- In an ideal world, no ads and a personal webaddress (www.mysite.com rather than www.bignamelesscompany.mysite). With free being the highest priority, this ain't going to happen, but I can ask.
Something like Flicker is not an option. She's looking at this as a way to promote her work and I'd prefer to see it as well presented as possible given the free and non-technical requirements.
I'm looking at Wix.com as one option. Other thoughts appreciated.
Dan,
In my viewing experience, FREE=the site visitors being pummeled with advertisements and the subscribers being subjected to an endless stream of come-ons.
The issue that appears with Wix is that the site is Flash-based. This means tens of millions (and growing) of iOS devices won't see anything. That matters to the point where Adobe just released a working version of an HTML5 development environment. A couple of years late, but it looks promising.
I would recommend that your friend simply subscribe to a site like Smugmug or Zenfolio. They fulfill all the other requirements you listed. I've been with Smugmug for seven years and have zero issues and zero complaints from clients, friends, and family. The lowest fee is about $50 yearly, but I can provide you with a code that will save us both a few shekels. Uploads are very easy and it is template driven, though you can CSS and have a good time. And it is HTML5 friendly.
Another alternative is your friend using the free webpage capability that many broadband access providers offer and have her upload only heavily compressed jpegs. Usually the interfaces for site maintenance are basic and geeky.
And a third is to see if you can build a slideshow front end to a free Dropbox-hosted repository. Only 2GB but that may suffice for a while.
Hope this helps.
ME
Posted by Dan Borzynski on August 4, 2011 at 12:16 AM
Micheal -
Thanks. I've been trying to work the Smug/Zenfolio angle but without a lot of success. I can't say that I am real thrilled about your FREE equation - you're right about that and I really don't think it gives the impression she wants to present, much less should present.
I'll check into the broadband webpage access. That might work for her and I didn't think of that.
You should look at SmugMug again. There is a $40/yr rate for basic which does most of what you want for beginning and NO ADS. Then, the $60/yr rate will give her more options. Lastly, comes the Pro option at $150/yr which covers EVERYTHING she will need going forward. $150/yr is not bad at all for the ease of use, customer support, sales handled, printing handled, templates galore, personal domain name (have to buy that elsewhere, I think), no ads, and customizable out the yahoo. I have been using them for years and have over 11,000 images in my site - all for $150/yr!!!
PLUS, she can use (for more dollars) their backup system to insure another depository for the safekeeping of her images. You can make public galleries and private galleries with passwords. You can customize each gallery for pricing and/or use a standard pricing guide for all galleries. Set up is EASY if you are not customizing all by yourself and not using SmugMug's customizing features (although SmugMug's customizing features ARE easy to use). They have a support system next to none. They have an affiliated website designed to help the user customize their websites with tons of tips. You can add another user(s) to have privileges to work on her galleries. Their printing companies give you a 100% satisfaction guarantee (I know this for a fact as I have used it to make a customer happy and a continued customer).
They have tie-ins to all the major social networks. They have Atom and RSS feeds. There up-time has to be one of the best in the business. Many of the custom features you would want are simple clicks in their menus options. They use your image embedded keywords and ITPC data...or you can add them online in their system and apply them to a whole series of images. You can even keyword each gallery itself.
They have a ton of "gifts" that people can buy with your images on them. There are statistics you can bring up on the number of views you have of all your images shown in multiple ways so you can see what images are drawing the most interest.
You can set the image size people can view all the way up to original without you having to supply different size images. You can protect images so they cannot be downloaded with right-click. You can make galleries that the public will never know are there.
There are many more options available that I have not mentioned here!
Later on, she can have her site customized so that no one would have ANY IDEA that it is hosted by SmugMug. I truly believe this is one of the best values out there.
How can most folks NOT afford all the capabilities SmugMug has to offer? These guys and gals know what they are doing and they are very responsive to user requests - I have had probably 10 or more suggestions implemented by their programming staff.
I have heard and seen photographic websites that have cost thousands of dollars that have no comparison to what SmugMug offers.
No, I do not work for them or gain any benefit for writing this unless you say I suggested you sign up with them like a previous writer said. And I really don't know what I get for it if you use my name!!!
Anyway, you and others should take a serious look again at what SmugMug has to offer. Like I said earlier, if you get the site fully customized, there is no way in the world that anyone would know you are using SmugMug (if that is an issue for you).
Troup Nightingale
Southeastern Photography
http://www.southeasternphotography.com --- a SmugMug site NOT customized beyond what SmugMug offers online
Take a look at Big Black Bag. It hosts my site and you can look at it as well to see what their product can look like. Not free but very reasonable 'cuz I'm poor. JR
Dan, now you've got me curious about your issues with Smugmug and Zenfolio. Or is it your friend's unwillingness to pay?
ME
Posted by Dan Borzynski on August 4, 2011 at 11:36 PM
Price is the key - she is broke.
Given my personal experience in marketing my own work, I suspect that I'll just pay for a Smugmug or Zenfolio site for her because that is a huge step up in presentatation from the free options, but this will probably start at least a small argument I'm not looking forward to.
Actually, I'm planning to revamp, upgrade and move my personal site and both of those places are getting serious look, but I can also afford to toss a lot more money at doing it right. She can't and I'm probably going to be making the decisions for much of it.
Discussion
6 repliesWe will be needing to select a web hosting company based on teh following criteria (and more or less in order of decreasing importance):
- FREE(!)
- Easy to use template design, preferably a drag and drop design/update/revise
- A reasonable amount of bandwidth and storage. Reasonable is relative and poorly defined, I know.
- Future upgradability - more storage, bandwidth, possibly e-commerce, and she is willing to accept a small cost for this in the future.
- In an ideal world, no ads and a personal webaddress (www.mysite.com rather than www.bignamelesscompany.mysite). With free being the highest priority, this ain't going to happen, but I can ask.
Something like Flicker is not an option. She's looking at this as a way to promote her work and I'd prefer to see it as well presented as possible given the free and non-technical requirements.
I'm looking at Wix.com as one option. Other thoughts appreciated.
Thanks
In my viewing experience, FREE=the site visitors being pummeled with advertisements and the subscribers being subjected to an endless stream of come-ons.
The issue that appears with Wix is that the site is Flash-based. This means tens of millions (and growing) of iOS devices won't see anything. That matters to the point where Adobe just released a working version of an HTML5 development environment. A couple of years late, but it looks promising.
I would recommend that your friend simply subscribe to a site like Smugmug or Zenfolio. They fulfill all the other requirements you listed. I've been with Smugmug for seven years and have zero issues and zero complaints from clients, friends, and family. The lowest fee is about $50 yearly, but I can provide you with a code that will save us both a few shekels. Uploads are very easy and it is template driven, though you can CSS and have a good time. And it is HTML5 friendly.
Another alternative is your friend using the free webpage capability that many broadband access providers offer and have her upload only heavily compressed jpegs. Usually the interfaces for site maintenance are basic and geeky.
And a third is to see if you can build a slideshow front end to a free Dropbox-hosted repository. Only 2GB but that may suffice for a while.
Hope this helps.
ME
Thanks. I've been trying to work the Smug/Zenfolio angle but without a lot of success. I can't say that I am real thrilled about your FREE equation - you're right about that and I really don't think it gives the impression she wants to present, much less should present.
I'll check into the broadband webpage access. That might work for her and I didn't think of that.
PLUS, she can use (for more dollars) their backup system to insure another depository for the safekeeping of her images. You can make public galleries and private galleries with passwords. You can customize each gallery for pricing and/or use a standard pricing guide for all galleries. Set up is EASY if you are not customizing all by yourself and not using SmugMug's customizing features (although SmugMug's customizing features ARE easy to use). They have a support system next to none. They have an affiliated website designed to help the user customize their websites with tons of tips. You can add another user(s) to have privileges to work on her galleries. Their printing companies give you a 100% satisfaction guarantee (I know this for a fact as I have used it to make a customer happy and a continued customer).
They have tie-ins to all the major social networks. They have Atom and RSS feeds. There up-time has to be one of the best in the business. Many of the custom features you would want are simple clicks in their menus options. They use your image embedded keywords and ITPC data...or you can add them online in their system and apply them to a whole series of images. You can even keyword each gallery itself.
They have a ton of "gifts" that people can buy with your images on them. There are statistics you can bring up on the number of views you have of all your images shown in multiple ways so you can see what images are drawing the most interest.
You can set the image size people can view all the way up to original without you having to supply different size images. You can protect images so they cannot be downloaded with right-click. You can make galleries that the public will never know are there.
There are many more options available that I have not mentioned here!
Later on, she can have her site customized so that no one would have ANY IDEA that it is hosted by SmugMug. I truly believe this is one of the best values out there.
How can most folks NOT afford all the capabilities SmugMug has to offer? These guys and gals know what they are doing and they are very responsive to user requests - I have had probably 10 or more suggestions implemented by their programming staff.
I have heard and seen photographic websites that have cost thousands of dollars that have no comparison to what SmugMug offers.
No, I do not work for them or gain any benefit for writing this unless you say I suggested you sign up with them like a previous writer said. And I really don't know what I get for it if you use my name!!!
Anyway, you and others should take a serious look again at what SmugMug has to offer. Like I said earlier, if you get the site fully customized, there is no way in the world that anyone would know you are using SmugMug (if that is an issue for you).
Troup Nightingale
Southeastern Photography
http://www.southeasternphotography.com --- a SmugMug site NOT customized beyond what SmugMug offers online
ME
Given my personal experience in marketing my own work, I suspect that I'll just pay for a Smugmug or Zenfolio site for her because that is a huge step up in presentatation from the free options, but this will probably start at least a small argument I'm not looking forward to.
Actually, I'm planning to revamp, upgrade and move my personal site and both of those places are getting serious look, but I can also afford to toss a lot more money at doing it right. She can't and I'm probably going to be making the decisions for much of it.