I need to make my own website but I don't know where to start

[Kbarredo]

Ok so I came across someone that just might help me get into an actual business. She is an owner of one of the salon franchises in town. While I was getting my hair cut by one of the workers we started talking. I told her I was a photographer and she asked if she could see my work and if I could leave her some cards. She says she does many grad students hairs and she will send them to me for grad photos. I didn't have cards or a website. I don't really want to tell all my potential clients to go look at photobucket for my work. I told her I would have some cards next time I get my hair cut.
Anyways I need to start developing a website but I have no clue how to do it? I can't rely on facebook anymore as it's very inconvenient to non friends. What did you guys use to make your first website?

 

[TheFantasticG]

SmugMug for the website and vistaprint for the cards.

 

[The_Traveler]

or zenfolio.

 

[12sndsgood]

I'm using Zenfolio as well. but you might want to take a step back and look at everything involved with the business side of things before just throwing up a site and taking money.

 

[Robin Usagani]

my website except the blog is 100% zenfolio. They even have blog but I dont use it.

 

[2WheelPhoto]

I'm using Zenfolio as well. but you might want to take a step back and look at everything involved with the business side of things before just throwing up a site and taking money.

^^^that

 

[AceCo55]

Smugmug is very customisible ... it may feel daunting at first but there are some fantastic volunteers who help people out with coding to get that personalised look. You can create both public and private galleries, password protected galleries and depending on account type, it can automatically add your watermark if you are wanting to do that.

 

[Kbarredo]

does smugmug put my name in the domain name first. I just don't want people to have to remember smugmug.com/barredophotography/blah you know what I mean?

 

[Robin Usagani]

I think both zenfolio and smugmug do but you probably want your own domain.... like imakickassphotographer.com or something.

does smugmug put my name in the domain name first. I just don't want people to have to remember smugmug.com/barredophotography/blah you know what I mean?

 

[sandraadamson]

My website www.sandraadamson.com is hosted by hostmonster.com. They charge around $75US a year and you can build your site to suit your needs. Mine was designed by me from ground up actually going thru a design change right now some tweaking left. If you want help I'm more than willing to help I love web design as much as photography-my newest hobby. Mine is built for SEO maximization too.

www.sandraadamson.com www.sandraadamson.blogspot.com

 

[tirediron]

SmugMug for the website and vistaprint for the cards.

And Wal-mart to have your family portrait taken; that's really what is being said here. It never fails to amaze me how many photographers (Note, this is NOT aimed at you FantasticG) rail on about professional photography, and the importance of quality work, and how people who do things such as having their wedding album printed at Wal-mart are doing themselves a huge dis-service because the quality will be so bad, and then in the same breath will recommend these "McDonald's" solutions. If you want a website, build it. If you can't build it, hire someone (a PROFESSIONAL) who can. If you want business cards, go to a printer; a PROFESSIONAL printer. In both of these examples, as with our craft, quality costs, and quality shows.

 

[Robin Usagani]

John, are you saying my website is not professional enough? I dont think there is anything wrong with using smugmug or zenfolio.

 

[KmH]

does smugmug put my name in the domain name first. I just don't want people to have to remember smugmug.com/barredophotography/blah you know what I mean?

First you have to rent a domain name. Then you can set up the domain DNS settings so SmugMug is not part of your web sites URL. Until then SmugMug has to be primary domain.

 

[IByte]

As above get your domain, its an anus trying to get .coms or .net, since they are the most popular. As you web sight is concerned get a decent looking template, there is nothing wrong using, a template, while you find or make your own site. Business cards should have made since you became a photographer.

 

[DiskoJoe]

Word Press has lots of nice layouts too. You would need someone that knows a little web design to customize it but the results can be very nice. They have some really nice layouts for photography websites.