Website design. I need a web designer and ideas. I live in Rhode Island.

[cimino55]

Hello,

 

This will be my first website for wedding photography and I need some clarification or maybe an

explanation of some 'Do's and Don't's' regarding site design.

 

I was more into landscape photography and product photography, but then someone asked me to shoot a

wedding. That was 2 years ago, and I have shot 5 since. I like doing it, and all the pressure associated. I

like having to get the shot. So, I have many people interested in my work and I give them my card, and

then they ask, "Well, can we see your work? Do you have a website?" I have to reply, 'No, not yet." I just

feel like I don't even have a business without a website, but as a perfectionist, I wanted a killer website.

I've since realized that it takes money to make money, and I've decided to invest some money into making

a site, or better stated, having someone make one for me.

 

I want this to be a wedding site, and I want to highlight my best work, and what I can do for the clients in

photoshop, because they all ask about the black & white thing with the colored rose..yada yada. I want

them to be able to search the wedding by the couple's last name, put in a code, and then have access to

all ther pictures. At that time, they can order prints, maybe through paying by Paypal or some other way.

 

Any ideas for a first site. I want simple and easy, and I have $1500 to spend, maybe $2000 at the most.

If you live in Rhode Island, shoot me an email, or close to Providence, RI...say even as far as Boston. I'd

like to have someone creative make my site, and get a few ideas from my friends here at Photo.net.

 

Regards,

 

Adam

[trunfio]

Well, you'll probably find out about this sooner or later... check out:

 

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00LeDi&unified_p=1

 

My personal opinions about flash sites is that it's intrusive to resize the web page to a user and to remove browser elements (e.g., navigation bar) or open a new page.

 

I have no desire to shoot weddings at all, but for events (even weddings) you can have your pictures hosted at many lab sites (biggest are collages, pictage, or any labprints lab). i use millers exclusively for everything and have been super happy. they also do event hosting. whcc also gets high marks and i just wasn't happy they posted their price list publicly. otherwise, you can't beat their prices and quality.

[michelle a.]

I always get excited when I see another photographer from RI....! I'm in the Hope Valley/Richmond area and I'd really love to network with other RI photographers. So send me an email if you're interested in meeting with other RI photographers!

 

I'd suggest looking into bludomain.com.... This is where both of my recent sites are from, (wedding and portrait) and they have been fabulous! It's my understanding that they are having a sale right now, so check them out!

[ellis_vener_photography]

if you are usign a MAc there's IWeb which is very good and built into Ilife which has come wit hmnew MAcs for awhile now.

 

Kirk Tuck http://www.kirktuck.com --a commercial photographer --uses it to build and keep his website fresh. I'm starting to use it too.

 

There's also livebooks.com

 

I am very wary these days about websites that are over designed. You want a site that shows off your work to your clients , not the designer's handiwork.

 

Since you are in or near Providence surely there are some talented RISD students worth taking a chance on.

[cimino55]

Michelle,

 

Sure, we can network. Send me an email: cimino55@hotmail.com

Ellis, thanks for the advice. I do own a Mac. I'd like to just build my website myself, then I

know what I want will be actuated. Ellis, one more thing. I've really done a lot of travel

photography with my Contax 645, would you integrate that into the whole site, or is that

just too much. The thought of making two websites seems silly, but I've got to scan about

10 more 645 slides before I can even get started. What do you think?

 

Adam

[ellis_vener_photography]

Using iWeb you do build the site yourself. There are some templates built into iWeb but you don't have to use them. Before you plunge in really do a lot of storyboarding: thinking about and then working out about how you want the site to appear and how you want it to work.

[lindsey_tropf]

First of all, your landscapes are absolutely breathtaking!

 

As to the ordering process, unless you *want* to fulfill the order yourself with your own

processing and such, there are some great options available that will allow you to put up

galleries (password protected if they want) from which the customer can order with your

prices-- they take a comission and cost, fulfill the order for you, etc.

 

http://www.shutterfly.com/professional_photo_gallery/index.jsp Costs $99/year for the

basic "pro" service. There are others that will allow you to pay by event, or handle all the

credit card orders for a % and you fulfill the orders, etc. Many can be set up hand-in-hand

with your website and personalized to match.

 

If you want to save your money and get something more basic, you could always send me

an email and we can talk about making a nice, clean HTML or editing a flash template

(can't create my own, just modify :P).

 

Good luck!

[cimino55]

Well, I've been looking at Bludesign. I see some Flash templates that I like, but it doesn't look

like I can integrate a payment schema into the site. I'd like to just wake up one morning and

magically have money from prints in Paypal or some other intermediary, and then have

coffee...

 

I guess my biggest concern is: Do I integrate all of my travel photography into a dual portal

site, and then have weddings in the other portal. Ah, decisions...decisions...

[lindsey_tropf]

Their flash templates are really nice... their list of websites they have done is huge! Seeing

how amazing your landscapes are, I'd think it would be worth devoting an entire other

section to that :) Some of their designs were for dual-entrance sites that would work for you.

Also, after flipping through some of the sites they designed, it seems that they have also

linked to sites like Pictage, Shutterfly Pro, and other such storefronts for the ordering

process.

[neilambrose]

<p>As a suggestion, why not Inquire at the RI School of Design? For your budget of $2000

you'll be able to find a postgrad design student who will produce a site far better than you

can ever get with a template, and they'll have the depth of design knowledge and technical

skills to advise you properly.</p>

 

<p>Don't even contemplate making your own unless you're a web designer. Home web

packages are easy to use and have encouraged lots of people to design and build their own

sites, but in the end the final results usually speak for themselves. A bit like DIY wedding

photography :-) </p>

[stephen_murray1]

As Michelle mentioned I use Bludomain.com, one of their newer templates number 35 (the one I?m currently using) has a shopping cart built in, and the payments can either be received through Paypal or having an invoice sent to you. They are also having a sale this weekend, so be advised.

 

BEWARE though, not too many here like the flash sites and they will definitely let you know that ;)

[lisa_berry___northampton_m]

my husband is a web designer from RISD who makes freelance sites within that budget.

you can check out our sites and if you like them, feel free to shoot us an email.

www.bipedalarts.com www.johngberry.com

[russ_konrad]

<B><I>"BEWARE though, not too many here like the flash sites and they will definitely let you know that ;)</B></I>

<P>

If you are aware of the search engine limitations and are willing to live with less web exposure because of those realities - flash sites are fine.

<p>

Personally - I want to use every possible advantage to promote my business. If you think that you don't need more web exposure - go ahead - use a flash site and rely on word of mouth and other advertising methods to promote your business.

<P>

In fact - I encourage ALL my competition to use flash sites. It just makes them much less likely to be found if anyone uses a google, yahoo, etc. search for a photographer in my area!

<p>

Cheers!

[lindsey_tropf]

Correct me if I am wrong, but it is very easy to add in keyword and description Meta-tags

into the HTML with your Flash website. The keyword tag will define keywords that search

for your site, and the description defines what the search engine will (hopefully) show as

the snippet of text for your page when you are searched.

 

Now these don't affect your placement, but my host sent me an email saying "Your site

uses Macromedia Flash. Search engines, and our tools, cannot read text contained within

Flash files, so make sure you include "normal" relevant text on the page as well.

The amount of text content on your page is small. Remember, how well a site is ranked

depends greatly on the content of the page. We highly recommend using as much

keyword-heavy text as possible, in sentence form, on your page to provide the relevant

information required for effective search engine placement. The more information your

site provides to the search engines the better it will do. Use this content to make your

page unique and give search engines and users an idea of what your page is about."

 

So I'm debating shoving some nice text that matches the background color behind my

flash or way at the bottom and hiding it... thoughts? :P

[trunfio]

keywords don't help that much. the more text content the better the hits.

[lindsey_tropf]

So then what of using the same text but in HTML format "hidden" on your page so that it is

"seeable" by search engines?

[trunfio]

here's a better solution:

 

1. if you must have a full flash site, offer a non flash alternative.

 

2. if you can, it's probably more advantageous to integrate the flash into the html pages. size the flash at 100% instead of resizing the window.

 

that's my 2 cents.

[lindsey_tropf]

Good thoughts. It'll definitely be worth having two versions... and I never resize/open new

window/remove browser when making sites-- irritates me when I have that happen to me

too :)