Need a website

Joshua907 · Jan 16, 2010

I'd like a website to start uploading a portfolio for my side biz. I live in the Bay Area, Ca. Know anyone, or any good companies? Not looking for anything special, just a couple pages for galleries. Thanks

ottor · Jan 16, 2010

I absolutely love SmugMug .. you can check out my site below for examples.. I've managed to make a couple of bucks off of it also..

Just purchase yourself a domain name (cheap!) and set it up with Smug... They have great customer service and will answer all of your questions..

just one of the many suggestons you'll receive, Im sure...

bburzycki · Jan 17, 2010

I build sites and host - Live in the Bay Area..

What do you want or hit me up offline if you want...

In many cases a mix of options out there save you money and give you want you want.

craig · Jan 17, 2010

Viewbook - Perfect Online Portfolio Websites - Photography Designer Artist Great website platforms; crummy SEO.

Love & Bass

Chris Cummins · Jan 17, 2010

You have a lot of choices depending on your budget. Anymore, I'd recommend looking for a portoflio website that has placed a strong emphasis on Search Engine Optimization first and foremost. Next I'd look for portfolio websites that look as professional as possible with Flash and are reasonably easy to update and change as you grow and get better. (No, it's not 2005 anymore, Flash portfolios and SEO can coexist.)

For a good combo of SEO and presentation I'd recommend:
Photoshelter
SmugMug

More pricey options are:
Clickbooq
Livebooks

edn · Jan 17, 2010

You might want to check out Zenfolio, they just did a major release which allows you to design your pages. It is a very simple process, and the people at Zenfolio are great. I did the free 14 day trials of both SmugMug and Zenfolio and even though they are both great, the cost of Zenfolio is a little less and to me it was easier to use. I have my site attached here you can check it out....also new updated SEO.

www.etnphotography.com

sitesires · May 24, 2010

I own a Web Design company, and have over 60 different image galleries. If you are interested, let me know, I will create you a professional site and I also specialize in SEO.

Catherine
Vice President
SiteSires.com

Browncoat · May 24, 2010

Get your own dot com and use WordPress, which is a blogging platform. The interface is very easy to use and you control all the content, not some 3rd party like SmugMug or Zenfolio. There are tons of themes available, which are also no-brainer installs...including a wide selection of photo/gallery themes.

SEO has become a buzzword for a lot of people who don't really know what it means. 99.5% of local photographers use their name in the URL anyway (bobsmithphotography.com) so don't get too wrapped up in SEO. Chances are, you'll end up doing more harm than good. For local guys, geo tagging and optimizing for local search is more important than SEO.

Chris Stegner · May 24, 2010

I agree with the Wordpress route. I have a WordPress site that I enter stories (short blurbs on the photography) on, but I then link to my Zenfolio galleries.

WordPress is very SEO friendly, as is Zenfolio. I also agree that the SEO is important, but not the end all be all on getting traffic to your site.

And by the way, if anyone promises they can get your site ranked at number 1 or even in the top 10... challenge them, because there's a million people out there doing SEO, some are crooks and many are full of crap!

Good luck and let us know what you ended up deciding.

forzabrian · May 26, 2010

Chris Stegner said:
I agree with the Wordpress route. I have a WordPress site that I enter stories (short blurbs on the photography) on, but I then link to my Zenfolio galleries.

WordPress is very SEO friendly, as is Zenfolio. I also agree that the SEO is important, but not the end all be all on getting traffic to your site.

And by the way, if anyone promises they can get your site ranked at number 1 or even in the top 10... challenge them, because there's a million people out there doing SEO, some are crooks and many are full of crap!

Good luck and let us know what you ended up deciding.

+1 for Wordpress. There are some FANTASTIC photographer templates that you can apply that look stunning.

varkgirl · May 30, 2010

+1 for smugmug! We love what they have done for our photo business!

Our main site is hosted by smugmug and then we have a blog on blogger that I have designed to look fairly seamless so you can't really tell when you've left one and arrived at the other (except for the url change)

Main site: Sarasota Wedding Photographer - Siesta Key Beach Portraits - Jason Scott Photography

Blog: Sarasota Wedding Photographer - Siesta Key Beach Portraits- Jason Scott Photography