Websites

Anyone having luck with a website (Wix, Squarespace, Wordpress) that protects images as well as monetize? And is somewhat intuitive and a solid photography showcase?

Thank you...

Strange that nobody's responded, Steve.

I'm just an amateur and no expert on websites but IMHO the various platforms are just 'technology'. Which one is best suited to you depends on things like:

- the (potential) monetary value of a website

- the types of photo's you take

- who your (potential)customers are and how you aim to make contact withe these

- what your vision is of your 'brand' (not only photos but website and text styling etc.)

- how much time and energy (or money) you want to invest in setting up a website that projects your brand (and allows for further development)

As an amateur, I don't know much about monetizing. I have some experience with Wordpress which comes in 2 flavors:

- a site hosted at Wordpress.com (which I wouldn't recommend)

- Wordpress hosted on your own 'website provider' (which I would)

Wordpress has a vast amount of 'plugins' which - if hosted on your own site - you can make use of. A site at WordPress.com comes with a limited set of plugins which you can't extend.

I don't know a great deal about Wix or Squarespace. From what I've read on the web, Wix/Squarespace are great for getting things up and running quickly. They require little investment in learning time. The downside is that they are less flexible than something like Wordpress which has a slightly longer learning curve (weeks/months).

My advice is to talk with someone who is 'business and website savvy) about what you have in mind and what the options (and costs/benefits) are. She/he can advise you what you can probably learn to do yourself and what might be better to hire in as a service.

Mike

As for "protecting" your images, there is nothing you can do that totally prevents someone from stealing your images, other than not posting them anywhere. When you view an image on your computer, it is copied from the web server to your computer. From there stealing it is easy.

I agree with mikemorrell above about Wordpress as a good vehicle for a photography website. But once you have a domain and host, there are lots of options for putting up a website.