Advice needed on finding a good DIY website for Photographers

[Mollymarty]

Hi, I have a blog which has served me well, been a photographer for over 10yrs but always been employed by someone, now I'm starting out on my own I need a good website that has:
a really good client login/private gallery area,
lots of cool templates
has the option of sourcing your own print house and not one of theirs
has the abitlity to upload a lot of photos
and - above all else - easy enough to get to grips with at a good rate!!
I've tried Photoshelter on the recomendation of a colleague but I found their site difficult to use especially when inputting pricing profiles for clients.
I'm not a computer novice but I need web stuff to be user friendly. I'd like to know if anyone has maybe had success with Photoshelter or a similar 'big name'?
Thanks for your time!

 

[inspectedpanic]

Hi Mollymarty, I would take a look at Prophoto4 themes, they sit on wordpress, are simple to setup and allow you to customize absolutely everything. I use this and as a main portfolio sight I am running with a Bludomain ready made template. I host the wordpress Prophoto element up on the same servers as my Blu domain site. hope this helps, not sure if you have tried Photobox, my experience of them has been pleasant thus far, easy enough to set up an e-commerce side to your sight and link out to it. I have heard a lot about smugmug however with no pricing/printlabs over here it kind of puts clients off. hope this helps a little, if you need any further help just shout.

 

[BadPictures]

I use smugmug and it is pretty easy to set up and offers most of the items that you use. However, it does not offer the option to use your own print house. They only offer these two: help.smugm…cles/93270-two-print-labs I use someone else for most of my printing, but I've sold a few photos through smugmug and the customers were pleased with the product, for what it's worth.

 

[mjhoward]

I've just started using zenfolio earlier this month. You should check it out, they have 14 day free trial. You'll notice that it has all of the things you want and it also keeps track of your sales taxes for you They also give you the option to set your own rates but you must provide a Federal Tax ID (at least for here in the states).

Use this code and you'll get 10% off any zenfolio subscription: WZA-A71-U2R

 

[Joey_Ricard]

ZENFOLIO - similar to Smugmug
I have used both.

I have a separate private domain as my main pages and use Zenfoilo for the galleries. I have matched the scheme together with my own design.
I also use the partnership that Zenfolio has with Mpix for printing.
Absolutely perfect for me in every way. Easy to set up and use.

You can use Zenfolio as a stand alone without the use of separate domain or private site in front.

You are more than welcome to check out my site and see how I did it. Or PM me for details or questions.
Link in signature.

 

[peterbuzzrain]

Hi Mollymarty!

What blog platform are you using? Wordpress self-hosted, Blogger, Typepad? I'm asking this because you could maybe expand your blog into a fully-featured photography website by adding a portfolio and some other stuff.

The thing is that your blog's content - especially if it's relevant to your photography - is gold for SEO. So, maintaining your blog content and if possible, the URL structure it uses, would definitely help with your new website.

Buzzrain - Websites for Photographers That Want More Clients