Websites for Photography Business

megevans · May 17, 2007

I would like to start a website for my photography business. Can anyone tell me what hosting services you have used? I've heard a lot of people like smugmug. What are some others out there that are good? I want something that looks professional, that can hold a lot of images and is fairly easily to put together.

Thanks!

mikernak · May 17, 2007

101sitehosting.com

Awesome support, awesome service.... have never let me down!

Alpha · May 17, 2007

Hosting and design are very different animals. I use Aplus.net for hosting...they have an immense amount of space and bandwidth for $8 a month. Design is a different story. You will always fall short using a pre-made template. It's well worth it to find a competent web-designer to work with, though it may set you back a few hundred bucks.

dewey · May 17, 2007

mikernak said:
101sitehosting.com

Awesome support, awesome service.... have never let me down!

That place is a HUGE ripoff and support is awful.

motcon · May 17, 2007

MaxBloom said:
Hosting and design are very different animals. I use Aplus.net for hosting...they have an immense amount of space and bandwidth for $8 a month. Design is a different story. You will always fall short using a pre-made template. It's well worth it to find a competent web-designer to work with, though it may set you back a few hundred bucks.

^ what he said ^

smugmug is horrid. the servers are sooooo slow.

gtkelly · May 17, 2007

Finally something I know about.

Hosting just gives your site connection to the internet. If a start site is included it won't be something you would be proud of. If you find a price unusually low it's a sign they're cramming 60-80 sites on a single server and performance will be horrible. I've found the lowest reasonable prices for a decent hosting arrangement (no frills) to be somewhere around $15 a month. This gives you redundency and decent bandwidth. You might luck into a good situation chearper. Just remember - there are a lot of sites that promise way more than they can deliver.

Web designers can be good\bad. I've been working\managing in this space for about 10 years and have seen it all. Like photogs, the better ones will be more expensive and backed up with work. Cheap and right now may not give you what you want.

Since you're a photographer you probably have a pretty good eye for color and space. Grab a design package (Macromedia Dreamweaver- wait I think Adobe bought them - is pretty straightforward) and give it a shot. It's not rocket science and I bet you could come up with something pretty decent yourself. If you want to do online ordering, payment, fulfillment that's another story - get an expert there. Too many security concerns. Normal presentation of text, formatting, etc is not very difficult at all.

If you have any other specific questions pm me and I'll help as I can.

fluidphoto · May 19, 2007

I use www.media72.co.uk/hosting. They are cheap and I have never had a problem with them. They also designed my web site, its a small company so you get better service and care over the bigger firms.

megevans · May 19, 2007

I appreciate all the suggestions and info you've all given. Thanks!

NoelNTexas · May 21, 2007

I am a web-designer using HTML, CSS, Flash some Mysql and php. I know several good hosting companies at very decent rates. If you are interested in a web designer, I will help you out or design it for you. I do charge =P but I will offer very reasonable rates for people on the forum. You need to design a logo if not done already, register a domain name, locate your sever host, figure out how many pages you would like your site to have, ie. Home/Portfolio/About us/Rates/Contact so on so forth. How complex do you wish the site to be, are you wanting something like a flash site, or maybe just a flash intro. Template style, or more advanced. Of course budget has alot to do with that also. The programs I use when designing are Macromedia Dreamweaver, Flash and Fireworks 8.0. Photoshop CS2 Illustrator CS2 CorelDraw9. Blender,3dstudio max and Maya (for higher paying customers).

niccig · May 21, 2007

I use dreamhost, or rather, my husband does, and he hosts my site from his account. He also did my webpage. As for webdesign, bludomain has some good templates, or craigslist just about ALWAYS has graphic designers in the "barter" section. I bet you could find someone willing to trade webdesign for your photography services if price is an obstacle.

danalec99 · May 21, 2007

Couple more options for designs

BluDomain
BigFolio
liveBooks

rancher · Jul 21, 2007

Guys,
I use Ipower for my hosting company only, for all my clients website, I can help you with anything or any type of site you need for your photo business.

We can help you setup your domain, ebusiness or anything else you wish.

Good luck,

www.PontchartrainPCServices.com