Creating my own website, URGENT HELP!

ThornleyGroves · May 30, 2009

Okay, i am about to buy a domain name. I have never created a site before, however me and my friend are creating a company, where we go out to clubs and take photos of people, give them a card and then they go home and get their photos of the internet. We will also specialize in club promotion, and clubs will pay us for this. Moving on, i have a few questions i would like to ask and would greatly appreciate it if someone could respond as soon as possible.
I'm planning to make it a bit like tilllate.com Worldwide - Events, Pictures, Spotters, Venues - Welcome to tilllate.com as it is the same concept

1) After buying the domain name how do i design my site?

2) In order for every photo that has been uploaded to get a watermark, how do i set this.

3) How can i make my site user friendly

4) And lastly about how much money is spent on this?

Rere · Jun 4, 2009

Hi there,

I bought a Dreamweaver program, took some online web-constructing courses, and bought many DW books on the subject. I'm still studying and plan on building a second site now that I understand more.

Building a site is no easy task, and you need to learn how to do it right if you want something of quality that you can maintain yourself. Sure, you can go to a hosting company and use their templates, but you are not going to learn how a site works and how to operate it.

You can't get something for nothing. So my advise is to either hire a professional web designer, or do the necessary work that has to be done before you get into it.

You can also find plenty of free articles about building sites (especially Dreamweaver sites) online. Just do a Google search.

Whatever you do, Good Luck!

jnanoka · Jun 5, 2009

1) After buying the domain name how do i design my site?
Ans: There are many ways to do so. From coding pure html pages, using web designer tools like Dreamweaver, using CMS software, or even hiring some web programmer. For me, I used one CMS software called Drupal. You may visit drupal.org for more details. It's not difficult to learn how to use it, but to be a drupal expert is another story.

2) In order for every photo that has been uploaded to get a watermark, how do i set this.
Ans: Usually, I used Photoshop to add a watermark. However, there are lots of choices. Go to google and type "add watermark to photo" might help.

3) How can i make my site user friendly
Ans: If you use Drupal (like I did), you'll find your site is user friendly.

4) And lastly about how much money is spent on this?
Ans: If you implement it yourself, obviously, the cost is just time not money. (Believe me, it's not difficult)

Hope this help!
If you have any question, just post here or PM me.

PS. I don't have any affiliate with Drupal.

Sachphotography · Jun 24, 2009

Hey... check out the following sites
Free CSS | Free CSS Templates, Open Source CSS Templates and CC CSS Templates
Free Adobe Photoshop, Flash, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, Fireworks, Bridge, and Golive Video Tutorials :: Welcome to Tutvid.com
between the two sites you can have a nice site in half a days work. good luck. check mine out if your interested.

musicaleCA · Jun 24, 2009

Or if you don't want to deal with all that, try SquareSpace. I've heard only good things (and will be using it to set-up my own website...when I get around to it...). If you don't know a single bit of HTML and CSS, then that might be the route for you. You'll still be able to dabble in the coding of the site but their templates are very good and the GUI allows for a fair bit of customization.

If you use Lightroom there's an awesome donationware plug-in called Mogrify that will do watermarking for you, and a whole bunch of other neat things. I highly recommend it.

All that said, if you're building a company around this, hiring a web designer is not a bad idea either. Those guys charge quite a bit though (I know one or three), and you should pay close attention to the quality of their work. (And with that may come some graphics work too, which you'll either have to do yourself or hire another designer.) That's all if you don't want to dive into the nuts and bolts of web design (and a bit of caution; like programming, web design can turn into a nightmare fast if you don't know what you're doing >.< ).

Guido44 · Jun 24, 2009

I'd recommend Smug Mug.com. I host with them. Smug Mug is specifically designed for photographers.

They have a Help Forum that has excellent support. Just click their HELP button at the top of the page and search for what ever help you need.

Be prepared to invest a bit of time to get to know your way around. If you're willing to work hard at it, you'll get what you need.

I like being able to sell photos online. You'll be able to do the same if you like. Set your own prices.

You can easily "block" people from 'right clicking' and stealing your photos.

Good Luck.

Dan

musicaleCA · Jun 24, 2009

Guido44 said:
You can easily "block" people from 'right clicking' and stealing your photos.

Except anyone with a little IT knowledge can bypass that JS-type of "blocking" with minimal (that is no) effort. Just sayin'.

Guido44 · Jun 24, 2009

If that's all you have to add, why do you even bother ? Just sayin'

Andrew Sun · Jun 24, 2009

musicaleCA said:
Guido44 said:

You can easily "block" people from 'right clicking' and stealing your photos.

Click to expand...

Except anyone with a little IT knowledge can bypass that JS-type of "blocking" with minimal (that is no) effort. Just sayin'.

Screen shots also works, in fact there's too many ways to rip things from anywhere - especially online.

Also, I disagree with blocking the right click function, it's not only a non-effective way to protect images, but it just irritates people in most cases. There's people who would like to see the dimensions, or to check the format of the pictures with no ill intention and disabling right click can be one of the most annoying things. That's from my knowledge and experience anyways. I think everyone should keep this in mind, it won't annoy your visitors.

Cool G5 · Jun 24, 2009

You can use a CMS to help keep the management part simple. There are some scripts available which you can install to make a photo gallery on your site. Example : Flash Gallery

Good Luck

Guido44 · Jun 24, 2009

Also, I disagree with blocking the right click function, it's not only a non-effective way to protect images, but it just irritates people in most cases. There's people who would like to see the dimensions, or to check the format of the pictures with no ill intention and disabling right click can be one of the most annoying things. That's from my knowledge and experience anyways. I think everyone should keep this in mind, it won't annoy your visitors.

I hate to sound like the big pessimist here but, I figure if someone is right clicking on my photos, they're likely ... ok possibly, trying to steal my images anyway. So ... needless to say if I'm annoying them .... my only regret is that I'm not there to see it - first hand. But that's just me.

With my particular site (Smug Mug) if someone wants to see the camera info they can left click on the image and click on the blue letter " i " .

Dan

musicaleCA · Jun 24, 2009

You know, this issue really deals with the same dilemma in the video gaming industry with DRM. Do you protect your work with something that might very well get in the way of your paying customer? Well, most say yes, but some companies (like Stardock) say no, that's just silly. To each their own, but I'm of the opinion that if I put something on the internet, I better be ready to see it stolen, and if somebody really wants to steal it, they will, no matter what I do.

That and it prevents the odd person from making one of my images their desktop wallpaper, say. And that kind of use I'm thrilled about. (If that's all they're going to do, they probably wouldn't have bought a print anyway. Then again, maybe if they see it enough they'll say "Hey, I'd really like that one on my wall." Maybe.)

LokiZ · Jun 24, 2009

ThornleyGroves said:
1) After buying the domain name how do i design my site?

2) In order for every photo that has been uploaded to get a watermark, how do i set this.

3) How can i make my site user friendly

4) And lastly about how much money is spent on this?

1) Notepad.exe (free)[steep learning curve], Alleycode (free) [steep curve but easier then notepad], SiteSpinner ($50.00) [Easy as using a word processor in most cases]

FTP software Filezilla (Free)[like a remote version of explorer.exe once setup]

That is just what I have settled on.

2) This would be done through your image editing software more times then not. like someone said (Google is your friend)

3) Keep it simple. Get opinions. Stick to what works on other sites opposed to hidden functionality .

4.) The price of you software + the amount it costs you for traffic through your site depending on the popularity + the cost per month for space. The last two will change as you grow, but if you grow your income should easily cover the cost to run the site.

As far as the security goes for images the simplest form, while not 100% secure, is to keep your finished goods away from two evil places...

A) keep them away from your screen, you can't print/screen what you can't see.

B) keep the files away from the cashe until you have the cash!

The only thing you should be putting up on the site for display are dpi crippled harshly resized images that they may at best get a poor quality wallet sized print from.

Some domain hosts and some outside companies will help you set up a "virtual store Front" to get you started many base them on paypal as well.

Good luck!

Jeff Colburn · Jun 25, 2009

Take a look at my Articles page at The Creative Cauldron - Home and you'll find about 30 articles on website design that I wrote when I had my website design business.

Have Fun,
Jeff