Update / Rebuild photography website advice

[Steve Sherman]

Greetings,

I've been told by many that my 13 year old website needs to be redone.

http://www.steve-sherman.com/index.cfm

Suggestions on templated or pre formatted web sites and which one seem the most user friendly ??

Thx in advance

SS

[jp]

Except for your portfolio galleries, any of that could be done real easily with a variety of Wordpress themes. If you don't mind your portfolio looking more like a blog than thumbnails, that would be easily done.

Looks like you are using cold fusion at the moment, which limits your choices for webhosts. WP is pretty universal and available for all price points of hosting services.

[Tin Can]

Steve, your site is very nice on a computer, meaning desktop and laptop but is not optimized for iPod/iPhone.

Younger users use only cell phones and computer ownership is falling.

Yet most old folk still prefer a computer.

I do.

[agregov]

+1 on making your site responsive for mobile! For example, I'm unable to see larger images from your Portfolio on my iPad.

Wordpress is great if you want to run your server somewhere as that's how you can use some of the best templates. If you want less tech infrastructure headaches you might look at Squarespace or Adobe Portfoilio. Squarespace has more features and template options. Also, you can set up commerce pretty easily if you'd like to sell things directly from your site. Positive about Adobe Portfolio is it's included as part the Photoshop/Lightroom subscription plan. So, you pay nothing.

Everything on Squarespace and Portfolio are mobile ready out of the box, you have to do nothing special to set up. Pretty sure you can try Squarespace for free for 30 days. If you subscribe to Adobe Photoshop, you're already free. Personally, I'd probably start with Squarespace even if I had an Adobe subscription. It's a strong product.

Squarespace template examples:
https://www.squarespace.com/websites/?category=portfolios

Adobe Portfolio template examples:
https://www.myportfolio.com/layouts

[EdSawyer]

Wordpress is nice, pretty full featured and easy to use, but security can be a headache if you don't keep up with the latest versions and such (presuming you manage the hosting yourself). You can still do cutting-edge work in ColdFusion, if desired, and actually it's easier to implement some things using it since it's by Adobe and plays nice with a lot of their tech (like PDFs for example.)

[HMG]

You have to be careful about blanket statements regarding Wordpress.

Certainly it's forte is blog style websites. But many themes are available that provide a great deal of flexibility for varying types of websites. Some are free and others cost a bit. As most things in life, the free ones tend be be more limited. Many/most handle the desktop vs. mobile transition well. Well managed themes (again, hard to get something for nothing) will provide security updates. I can't comment on how effective they are.

It can be daunting to find the theme you like. One approach is to find a website design you like, then use one of the online "wordpress theme finder" tools to see if it's a Wordpress theme and, if so, which one.

Managed hosting is so cheap, it's hard for me to understand why anyone would do it themselves unless they enjoy doing it.

[Michael Rosenberg]

Steve,

I really like the package/template provided by Photium (see my web site). It is easily customized, easy to upload and manage images. It looks good on tablets and phones. Several of my friends use it. They are very quick to respond to requests for help. I think the prices are very reasonable.

Mike

[Steve Sherman]

Thanks for the comments, I have spent many more nights than I want looking at different templates. I maybe limited to what some friends have and recommend as this whole internet topic is daunting to me. Several friends have built Word Press sites for e commerce and that is the direction I want to go with some type of mechanism to allow videos to be watched for a premium over a limited number of views. Way beyond my abilities of interest level.

Thx all !

[BetterSense]

What exactly is "managed hosting"?

[jp]

What exactly is "managed hosting"?

All hosting is managed to some extent... From managing actual server equipment with every hosting provider, so you don't need a potentially insecure server in your basement or bathroom.

I think of managed hosting in this case as someone manages the CMS security updates. E.g. if I use Godaddy's wordpress install, their systems management keeps it up to date with security updates. Another host I use requires me to update it, which might be good for reliability but bad for security.

If you're interpreting marketing speak for "managed hosting", ask questions or dig deeper to determine what they actually mean.

[EdSawyer]

the issue with someone else handling the core WP updates is that they pretty much always need to be synchronized with updates to the theme, so unless you update them at the same time, you risk breaking the site if you update the core but the theme is not updated as well. If you manage the updates yourself, you can control when that happens. My current favorite WP theme is Enfold.

[Tobias Key]

I really like Format. Lots of well designed, modern themes, and it's easy to switch between themes. Designed with photographers in mind.

Lots of examples of sites here

https://www.format.com/spotlight/photographers

[HMG]

In my case, I choose whether and when to apply the WP updates (I don't know if that's the norm). It allows me to test after applying. I'm notified of any theme updates at the same time. There are also plug-in updates to consider.

[faberryman]

If you chose WordPress, go with a theme that has a long track record. Some templates are no longer supported and "break" when you update WordPress beyond the version they are tested for.

[Sal Santamaura]

...I've been told by many that my 13 year old website needs to be redone...Suggestions on templated or pre formatted web sites and which one seem the most user friendly ??...


Steve, your site is very nice on a computer, meaning desktop and laptop but is not optimized for iPod/iPhone.

Younger users use only cell phones and computer ownership is falling.

Yet most old folk still prefer a computer...Randy's right. I'm far from young, and I like your Web site just the way it is. :) Merely update the time-sensitive pages, such as workshops, etc. that have already happened, and the format will be good for another ten years.

Of course, no one ever became wildly successful basing their marketing approach on my preferences. :D

[chris_4622]

Steve,

Check out Wix.com. Many templates for photography, automatically builds the site for mobile at the same time. It's easy to build the site. You'll have to host it there though. You can add e-commerce too, though I would consider other methods for payment.

[DennisD]

If you chose WordPress, go with a theme that has a long track record. Some templates are no longer supported and "break" when you update WordPress beyond the version they are tested for.

The above is extremely important if you are going with a Wordpress site ! (Based on personal experience.)

Also, FWIW, our business has 4 Wordpress sites. Last month the 3 sites residing on godaddy servers were hacked badly.
We installed something called "sitelock" on each Wordpress site.. It cleaned up the problem. However, the ongoing cost of this add-on protection is significant. Godaddy was not very helpful in resolving the problem, but they were very eager to sell the sitelock add-on.

The 4th Wordpress site, not on a godaddy server, Was not hacked. Kind of makes you wonder.

Highly recommend SQUARESPACE
User friendly, many templates, easy setup, wired for mobile devices.
Tech support (by email) is excellent and very responsive.

[rjphil]

HI Steve - I redid my site with Squarespace and am very happy with the results. It takes a little getting used to the way you can customize your pages, but is worth it. Take a look here -www.rjphil.com

[seezee]

Except for your portfolio galleries, any of that could be done real easily with a variety of Wordpress themes.

+1

[lindsaywood1991]

I can't able to open your website, It's good that you build through wordpress platform.