I need to make my own website but I don't know where to start

[Liban]

To 'develop' your own, definitely try wordpress. Play around then when you get the hang of it, buy a theme from one of the theme sites. I spent $40 on my theme and that came with support showing you how to use it. Sounds like you want your own website. That's the best way imo. Buy the domain name yourself. Setup a wordpress account (it's free) then install a theme you like to display your photos. If you want to sell your work, then look for an e-commerce theme. It can get a little complicated but you can solve all the issues by looking around. It will be a great exercise for you.

 

[Eveamlizya]

SmugMug for the website and vistaprint for the cards.

And Wal-mart to have your family portrait taken; that's really what is being said here. It never fails to amaze me how many photographers (Note, this is NOT aimed at you FantasticG) rail on about professional photography, and the importance of quality work, and how people who do things such as having their wedding album printed at Wal-mart are doing themselves a huge dis-service because the quality will be so bad, and then in the same breath will recommend these "McDonald's" solutions. If you want a website, build it. If you can't build it, hire someone (a PROFESSIONAL) who can. If you want business cards, go to a printer; a PROFESSIONAL printer. In both of these examples, as with our craft, quality costs, and quality shows.

...not everyone has the luxury when starting out... Hell, when I really first started (and this goes for the vast majority of my photographer friends), my website was Facebook and my business cards were printed from my home inkjet... You build your business to that point. If you jump right into paying for all that, you'll never make any money. Having a "professionally" designed website and "professionally" printed cards doesn't insure customers. Let's face it...(in my experience) the majority of my customers wouldn't know the difference if you held up a business card printed at one of these printers you're talking about or the card I printed myself with a design that I spent hours working on. Customers aren't paying for your website...they're paying for your work and creativity. I use wordpress for mine because I like the many different layouts you can get. Also, there's plenty of tutorials online that will show you further customization. Vistaprint is good for cards; their paper is a good weight.

 

[dustin0479]

SEO importance scales depending on where you are. If you search for photographers in my area you will see about 8 locally and they will be on the first page of the search results. As I know most several of them I can promise you they do not do any SEO.

If this is a part time gig and you have good outlets and referrals that will likely keep you busy enough, your site will just be an outlet for people to view your work, not a traffic driver.

Opinions vary..

 

[jamesbjenkins]

And Wal-mart to have your family portrait taken; that's really what is being said here. It never fails to amaze me how many photographers (Note, this is NOT aimed at you FantasticG) rail on about professional photography, and the importance of quality work, and how people who do things such as having their wedding album printed at Wal-mart are doing themselves a huge dis-service because the quality will be so bad, and then in the same breath will recommend these "McDonald's" solutions. If you want a website, build it. If you can't build it, hire someone (a PROFESSIONAL) who can. If you want business cards, go to a printer; a PROFESSIONAL printer. In both of these examples, as with our craft, quality costs, and quality shows.

I couldn't disagree with you more with regard to Smugmug. Vistaprint is crap, so no arguments there.

Smugmug (or Zenfolio, they're good too) are specifically made for photographers. They take care of so much of the backside of the site (SEO, site mapping, etc.) and the Pro option gives me 3 full service professional photo labs to offer to my clients.

If you know ANYTHING about building a website, you can get a great site through Smugmug. You have all the same tools available if you built your own site through a stand-alone host. The only difference is, the CSS, HTML AND Java are user friendly.

If you have a well designed Smugmug site, no visitor would ever be able to see the difference. You can remove all their branding via CSS. If you don't have any xpertise, there's a huge community of volunteers to answer questions and train you up. My site is through Smugmug, and when I started in 2009, I knew zero about web design. I did everything on my site myself. I'm no professional web designer...

John, I'm going to guess you have no firsthand experience with Smugmug, cause your assessment is way off.

 

[Rodz]

I have used zenfolio.com for over 6 years! No complaints and excellent service and offerings

 

[JSER]

Ok so I came across someone that just might help me get into an actual business. She is an owner of one of the salon franchises in town. While I was getting my hair cut by one of the workers we started talking. I told her I was a photographer and she asked if she could see my work and if I could leave her some cards. She says she does many grad students hairs and she will send them to me for grad photos. I didn't have cards or a website. I don't really want to tell all my potential clients to go look at photobucket for my work. I told her I would have some cards next time I get my hair cut.
Anyways I need to start developing a website but I have no clue how to do it? I can't rely on facebook anymore as it's very inconvenient to non friends. What did you guys use to make your first website?

I wanted something fast and easy click on my website and go to the company at the bottom

 

[murklemark]

These days using backed systems like Wordpress or Drupal make managing and setting up your website a breeze with only limited knowledge.

I did my site in Wordpress using a theme then applying plugins to get the extras I needed, then your able to easily manage your content and cross link with your social media.

 

[LizardKing]

SmugMug for the website and vistaprint for the cards.

And Wal-mart to have your family portrait taken; that's really what is being said here. It never fails to amaze me how many photographers (Note, this is NOT aimed at you FantasticG) rail on about professional photography, and the importance of quality work, and how people who do things such as having their wedding album printed at Wal-mart are doing themselves a huge dis-service because the quality will be so bad, and then in the same breath will recommend these "McDonald's" solutions. If you want a website, build it. If you can't build it, hire someone (a PROFESSIONAL) who can. If you want business cards, go to a printer; a PROFESSIONAL printer. In both of these examples, as with our craft, quality costs, and quality shows.

Couldn't agree more... I was reading the previous messages and noone even suggested getting someone qualified to build your own personal, creative and unique site.
Think of it the other way around... Let's say someone asks in a web-programming forum where to get good photos for a site he's building for himself, and people suggest instagram or him to go out take a couple of pictures and then photoshop them... what would you think about that?

I don't know, there are tons of great web designers out there and it's not even that expensive at all... I always prefer to give work to a freelancer rather than paying one of these big companies. I like my things to be different.

edit: just make sure to ask for good easy-to-use admin tools, so you can manage the site yourself...

 

[czach2012]

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/members/5212.htmlTirediron your website looks like a 3ed grader made it. I guess your right quality does show... I wouldn't dog on others work/quality until you can back it up.

 

[Rodz]

lol, it is perty basic!

 

[Eveamlizya]

Tirediron your website looks like a 3ed grader made it. I guess your right quality does show... I wouldn't dog on others work/quality until you can back it up.

...glad I'm not the only one that's been thinking that same thing...

Quality really is just a matter of opinion though...I'm betting Tirediron is pretty proud of his site. I'm pretty proud of how mine is turning out, but I know I still need to work on it so I'm not even making it public until I'm confident in it. A friend of mine recently did her site and I'd say she's done pretty darn good. When we were in high school she did all the graphic work for the school paper and the yearbook. Her site>>> Kourtney Allyse Photography

For me, your site should reflect your personal style or the style of photography you do. Don't just focus on what everyone thinks your site should look like...make yourself happy first or else you'll never be happy in this business. I think that goes for all businesses...

Another thing, start out just playing around with things on wordpress, zenfolio, smugmug or whatever you plan on using. Don't start out being so serious about it, just play. You'll change your mind a million times as you learn to do new things design-wise.

 

[sarahbaby]

So do I , i met a froeign friends, he said i should have a website of myself, but i do not know what content the website should be about.

 

[sarahbaby]

John, are you saying my website is not professional enough? I dont think there is anything wrong with using smugmug or zenfolio.

YOur website is good, professional, I like it

 

[Rodz]

A friend of mine recently did her site and I'd say she's done pretty darn goodWhen we were in high school she did all the graphic work for the school paper and the yearbook. Her site>>> Kourtney Allyse Photography

Is it just me or does her website display photos seem off a bit on white balance?

 

[WhiskeyTango]

Anyone have any experience with photobiz? I've seen them recommended elsewhere a few times. I'm currently using smugmug, but strictly for galleries. No professional page setup...