Website/Design 101

[jml]

This is like asking "what is an f stop"? I've only used pbase to display

galleries and Collages for individual events. I need a website and have no

idea the best route to take. I'm not going to use Frontpage or Dreamweaver

etc. and sit for hours or days or weeks and do my own. Nor do I want to pay

someone a small fortune to do so. I just want a simple, clean looking site

that will accomplish what pbase and Collages does, display my work/events and

take orders for prints. So, is it better to use a site like Smugmug and choose

from their templates etc. which many seem to do. Or why not use a hosting site

like Dot 5 and use their sitebuilder? Everyday critiques are asked for here on

PN on peoples sites, it all seems so "back to the drawing board" after

receiving them. I want simplicity and easy here, and still attractive. So, I

would so appreciate not only advice but instruction on the way to go here to

get started correctly. Thanks all.

[devoted]

If you don't know what you're doing in design or search engine optimization, then hire a designer or purchase a template.

[msquarephoto]

The money spent in buying a template (Like one from Bludomain.com) will be the best money your ever spent. We got one from them. $800.00 plus $100 for hosting. So easy to use and was up in a matter of a day or two.

 

www.msquarephoto.com

[dave_thielen]

Aryc

 

Hate to tell you, but that is not a deal, by any stretch. Most website hosting companies will have free templates you can use, and the monthly rates are down around $3.95.

[jimstrutz]

Aryc, why is your site so slow? Is this typical of Bludomain? I'm not a fan of Flash sites that aren't fast, but perhaps my DSL line is having a temporary issue.

 

I bought a cheap FrontPage clone and used one of their templates. It's not great, but if you are just looking to get a decent site up fast & cheap, Microsoft's FrontPage, or one it's many clones can do it for you.

 

Or post a note on a high school bulletin board asking for assistance in designing and building a site. You might actually find a good answer to your dilemma and help a starving artist or technician.

[jimstrutz]

Oh yeah, I'm kicking myself for getting locked into $72 per year hosting for two years. Next year I'll be looking for a better deal.

[mike dixon]

Dave, hate to tell you, but Aryc's site blows yours out of the water in terms of design and the impression of professionalism it creates. If Aryc books one mid-range wedding more than you do based on the impression his site makes, he'll more than make up the $800 + $4 a month that you've saved.

 

The place to start when figuring out a site design is figuring out the kind of market you want to reach and the impression you want to make.

[www.kelvinphoto.com]

http://www.jalbum.net provide free softwares to generate web-album and I use http://www.fotoplayer.com template to allow me sell online thru paypal.

 

THEY ARE FREEEEEEEEEE!

 

For hosting, I use http://www.godaddy.com.

[susan_flewelling1]

Hey I use big folio at http://www.bigfolio.com it is $25 a month and the setup fee was I believe about $250.

 

Hope that helps you can check mine out at http://flewellingphotography.com I use the premium template Chorro Remixed.

[dave_thielen]

Mike

 

That's my newspaper's site and it gets over 20,000 vists a month, and 80% of the people that visit bookmark it.

[gene_b]

Jan, you don't need to spend a small fortune for a decent site. There are a lot of good flash templates out there you can buy that will give you a professional look. You do not need to get an expensive hosting company, you can get decent hosting these days for about $100/year. Remember that your site will also represent your graphic design eye and talent and someone looking at your site can imediately form an opinion of you and your photography skills. That said, I just had a look at Dave's site, the one that "gets over 20,000 vists a month, and 80% of the people that visit bookmark it" and I can see how one may draw the conclusion that he will show up on the wedding day with a 1.3 megapixel, 11 year old point and shoot camera. Sorry Dave, but my eyes are still hurting...

[alec_myers]

Let's rephrase the question a little bit and maybe you guys can see the irony of what you're saying:

 

Change "I need a website and I've no idea of the best route to take" to "I need a wedding photographer, and I've no idea of the best route to take". We've got all the answers here from "hire uncle Bob" to "pin a note on the local photography class wall"

 

Come on guys, designing a website is (like photography) something that requires a good eye for design and good technical skills. I can hear the posts on the webdesign forums now, about how these templates allow any old n00b with a computer to think they're a designer and how the real pros are being driven out of the market.

 

Surely you should pay a professional designer a fair wage for doing a professional job? Isn't doing otherwise just screwing over some other profession? Sauce for the goose and all that, surely?

[gene_b]

At first glance it may look like you have a point Alec but please note that I suggested Jan to buy a nicely designed template she can afford instead of paying for a similar "one of a kind" site designed from scratch just for her by a good designer. A nice site costs at least $8,000-$10,000 to build while the same site designed by the same graphics designer would cost just $200-$300 or even less as a template. Granted, there might be another photographer that will use the same template for his/her studio in Perth, Reykjavik or Vladivostok but since templates can be easily customized, the chance of her customers running into the same exact site, especially in her area are slim to none.

 

For web designers selling templates they already created is a lucrative business. There are not that many customers out there that can afford the $10k sites but they can make a decent residual income from selling duplicates for a lot less of the same site they already worked on and created.

 

Templates for graphics designers are a lot like pictures of guests we shoot at weddings that they get to buy for $10 and we are glad to sell them a dozen copies if they want. They get something very nice for what would cost them $200-$300 in sitting fees alone if they would have hired us separately just to shoot a portrait of them. So it's not really "sauce for the goose" as you call it, it's more like... gravy for the designer :)