Best site to start a photography website business

epackard88

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I've been trying to do some research on starting a photography website but there is so much with websites having there name in the domain I haven't been able to find one that doesn't. Anyone have any suggestions?
 
ZENFOLIO:

A great place for photographers to display and sell work. Different packages, good pricing and excellent service.
You can use your own domain name (purchased separately).

I have a separate domain name and separate main website, but I use Zenfolio for my galleries and sales. I also use the partnership theyhave with Mpix for client printing. See my signature link and you can see how I did it and matched the theme in the galleries to my main (separate website).

Again, you can use just Zenfolio but have your own domain name (ie yoursite dot com)
 
I use BluDomain and I love it! Lots of affordable layouts to choose from and VERY user friendly. Plus its just one fee a year, no worries about having to pay monthly hosting fees.
 
Hi all, I am using both BluDomain and ProPhoto4 (wordpress) hosted on the same servers as my BluDomain Template site. I agree that BluDomain have some great sites, and if you do host it with them my experience of Support has been absolutely fantastic. On the negative side of this is the prospect of spreading your venture name through Organic search engine results, hence this is why I now use ProPhoto. Prophoto allows me to capture a lot more traffic than I could have ever achieved with a flash based site it also is totally customizable, as a result I am finding that I am slowly switching over to hosting the entirety of my presence on Wordpress, there are quite a few templates available for wordpress and I didn't experience any problems setting up or administering them, there is a learning curve (doesn't everything have one?) however in the long term I feel that it will lead to a more central marketing strategy by doing so. All in all this is exactly why I have joined this community, we all have views and ideas that can help others, I need a lot of help!
 
a business should not have a free website - unless your work is terrible
 
There are lots of free sites out there, and it really depends on your level of experience and how much customization you want as to what would work best for you. Many of the template sites will give great results, as long as you work within the limits of the template. Most allow you to add your own domain name for a small charge. For more customization getting a custom site will give a much more professional look, along with better search engine optimization, which will make it easier for potential clients to find your site which, for most people, is how they will gauge how successful their site is.
 
Check out http://www.photoshelter.com/ and let me know what you think. :] Found out about it through Chris Owyoung... It looks pretty sweet and even though I don't have it yet, I'm already sold, haha.
 
I've been trying to do some research on starting a photography website but there is so much with websites having there name in the domain I haven't been able to find one that doesn't. Anyone have any suggestions?

What kind of "photography website"? A forum? A shopfront? A portfolio? You want to start a "photography website business"? Does that mean you want to sell "photography websites" to people? If you don't know how to communicate what you want, it doesn't really sound like you're ready to do much of anything.
 
I'm in the midst of launching a stock photography site and the sites discussed here are of interest to me (Zenfolio, BluDomain, ProPhoto4, etc.). My question is do these sites cater more toward serving an "event" (e.g. wedding) photographer or a site that strictly sells stock photography (or both)? I'm also considering a buying a commercial script like those offered by ktools (PhotoStore : Sell Photos Online : Online Photo Proofing and Sales for Photographers). The commercial script is a one time purchase, the sites discussed on this thread are yearly or monthly, which is another things I must consider and would like input on. My venture is in its nascent stage and I would welcome your thoughts of the various options, both pro and con, I have before me. Thank you, Marcos
 
Hostgator for hosting (they called me to confirm my order, I felt so special)

Wordpress, Joomla, Drupal, or just go balls to the walls barehands style; ultimate control.
 
I use weebly, its cheap and has a drag and drop system. Many many templates that you can choose from, and you can create an unlimited amount of pages. It is free to get started but to access much more options then you would have to pay for pro, which you are paying for a website to begin with. If you don't like their templates you can create your own using CSS or HTML. I know a little CSS so I found a template that I liked and then customized it from there.

christianjanderson.com

Hope this helps.
 
Christian, can you be so kind as to post your website link? Thanks, Marcos

I use weebly, its cheap and has a drag and drop system. Many many templates that you can choose from, and you can create an unlimited amount of pages. It is free to get started but to access much more options then you would have to pay for pro, which you are paying for a website to begin with. If you don't like their templates you can create your own using CSS or HTML. I know a little CSS so I found a template that I liked and then customized it from there.

christianjanderson.com

Hope this helps.
 

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