Wix? Hire a pro?

Bram · Feb 9, 2011

Hey guys,

Alright so business idea/awesome. Alright so i'm going to be the new football photographer for my little brothers team in September. Now what I wanted to do is to keep an individual profile for all the players so at the end of the season I can sell them a disc with their own photos on it.

I was looking for a website where I can host my photos without anybody being able to take them and their own will. So a friend recommended WIX, it's a flash website so nobody can copy the photos. Now should I do that and just keep everybody's photos seperate on the site as well as have the games best photos posted in a seperate spot?

Or should I hire a (friend) who can design me my own website for next to nothing, and I can do it on there.

Any input is greatly appreciated.

e.rose · Feb 9, 2011

Just so you know... they could *still* take the photos off of Wix if they REALLY wanted via screen shot... So don't think that's a complete fail-safe.

Bram · Feb 9, 2011

Hah yeah true she brought that up as well. I mean how many people will go through the trouble to screen shot a small jpeg image with watermark?

tirediron · Feb 9, 2011

Go for the "real" website (non-flash) version, and post relatively small, low-resolution images.

Bram · Feb 9, 2011

Yeah? I was thinking of then shooting in RAW+jpeg, so i'll have both files and i'll watermark and edit the jpeg photos and post them on my own website? Then keep the original RAW files for sales?

ghache · Feb 9, 2011

Most pro will charge you a 1000$ to create a website and they will use a 70$ template.
if you friend is welling to do it, lets go.

e.rose · Feb 9, 2011

Bram said:
Hah yeah true she brought that up as well. I mean how many people will go through the trouble to screen shot a small jpeg image with watermark?

A lot. I've seen my cousin do it on photos she had done... I forget if it was of her kid, or a maternity shoot... all I know is that there was a huge transparent C with circle around it in the middle of every shot. :er:

tirediron · Feb 9, 2011

You're not going to sell RAW images; customers want something they can print/view. I shoot RAW+JPG simply because it makes it easier to view the images on the computer and quickly separate the wheat from the chaff. I would select the images that I think are the best, process them, save a high-resolution version and then do a 'Save as' at a very low resolution and in a much smaller size. Those will be the images on your website, and when the customer says, "I'd like ...." you have it right there to send off.

quiddity · Feb 9, 2011

it's a flash website so nobody can copy the photos.

not true.

if the photos are in a folder on a server and that folder is web accessible then your photos are open to the public

Bram · Feb 9, 2011

tirediron said:
You're not going to sell RAW images; customers want something they can print/view. I shoot RAW+JPG simply because it makes it easier to view the images on the computer and quickly separate the wheat from the chaff. I would select the images that I think are the best, process them, save a high-resolution version and then do a 'Save as' at a very low resolution and in a much smaller size. Those will be the images on your website, and when the customer says, "I'd like ...." you have it right there to send off.

So after you've edited the Jpeg you would do save as on the jpeg and duplicate that into a smaller size? So essentially you'd have 3 copies of the same photo?

Ginu · Feb 9, 2011

There is no way to post a high resolution picture on a website and be sure nobody copies it even if the browser doesn't allow the user; there is always the quick and fast "Print Screen" button or programs like SnagIt which will allow screen copying.

Best solution is to use low resolution pictures and offer prints of the originals. Even this method still doesn't guarantee nobody will copy your work, but at least you know they got crappy quality.

If you have a friend who would design your website then by all means go with this as it will most likely bring you business in the future if you stick to photography and want to make money off your work.

Bram · Feb 9, 2011

Thanks alot for the responses guys looks like i'll be asking my friend here to design me something and see what we can about it.

on to the profile ideas, I want to keep single player profiles so it's been sorted by the end of the season. Also the best photos from that weeks game.

Tight Knot · Feb 10, 2011

Sorry for chiming in so late, but I use wix and am quite happy with them. It makes it a lot easier to just change things myself as I need, for example adding extra photos, or pages etc. than having to get someone else to constantly upload my stuff for me.
Wix does have a learning curve, but they have fairly decent tutorials on most everything that you would need to do.

If you would like to see a wix website in action, here is mine, www.legacy-photography.net.

Village Idiot · Feb 10, 2011

Smugmug or Zenfolio can do that easily enough, but I'm not sure how the currency conversion goes. Even better though, your customers order the photo from the gallery and it prints and ships directly to them, so after uploading, you don't have to worry about the logistics behind selling to an entire team.

It's something like $70-$150 a year in USD, so entirely not worth it unless you know you're going to make your money back and then some. But if you do, it's a great way to host and sell files.

DerekSalem · Feb 10, 2011

I don't show people my site, normally, but aside from hosting and domain registration ($60 a year) I didn't pay anything to do it.

Browse Album :: Gallery

I don't *sell* photos, but when I take pictures of events or people I direct them there and anything they want I usually just give them (or at worst sell for the price it costs to print). It was all done with Gallery3, a completely free resource. Did a little editing and whatnot but it's super simple to do anything I want with it. I could add the ability to sell via the site, comments, additional information,etc... I can basically add anything I want to the site and it's all painless.

Definitely worth looking into before spending $1,000 or more on a professional website. In addition, it would be easy to make a homepage that then *links* to the portfolio/gallery. Plus, with this site I can do it all myself (I can add/change/remove things at will), I can do *exactly* what I want with my pictures, and I have completely unlimited storage and traffic.