How did you create your web site?

[paulr]

i have a few thoughts to offer on design--none on coding, which is an entirely different topic. In fact I've never met anyone who's great at both.

If your site is for marketing your work (selling prints, services, licensing, getting famous, etc.) then it's worth thinking about it as one part of a larger strategy.

It's incredibly helpful to anyone trying to remember who you are if all your materials look alike. Businesses call this "identity," but you don't have to get that Freudian about it. Just think of the advantages of having a consistent look across all your materials--website, letterhead, business card, resumes and statements, CD-Rom portfolios, etc. etc.

You'll appear a lot more serious and professional, and it will be much easier for people who kind of remember you to really remember you. They won't have the jarring experience of getting a package in the mail from you, then looking you up online and seeing something with completely different colors, type, and style, and wondering if this is the same guy.

So if you do hire a designer (or decide to become one) it's helpful to think in terms of designing a whole campaign and not just a website. In fact, it might be helpful to hire a designer just for the basics--a typeface, a logo, a color scheme, a general style--that you can then run with. Sadly, the web is full of logos that people designed themselves, and we all suffer for it!

[Marko]

It's incredibly helpful to anyone trying to remember who you are if all your materials look alike. Businesses call this "identity," but you don't have to get that Freudian about it. Just think of the advantages of having a consistent look across all your materials--website, letterhead, business card, resumes and statements, CD-Rom portfolios, etc. etc.

You'll appear a lot more serious and professional, and it will be much easier for people who kind of remember you to really remember you. They won't have the jarring experience of getting a package in the mail from you, then looking you up online and seeing something with completely different colors, type, and style, and wondering if this is the same guy.

Absolutely. It's called Branding and should be one of the first planned expenses for any serious business. Do yourself a favor and hire a good designer for that. No matter how expensive they are, it's money well spent. No, I take it back, it's money well invested.

Sadly, the web is full of logos that people designed themselves, and we all suffer for it!

Yes, and the product photos shot with p&s. People have that strange notion that they can do anything given the right, usually cheap, tools. Some people like to eat in good restaurants because of the food and service, others prefer the local roach-coach because it's cheap.

Well, you get what you pay for. In print, on the web, your computer, your car...

[Greg Miller]

Unless you already are selling a lot of images/prints, I would forget the ecommerce engine for now. Most buyers, unless they already know you and have seen your work in person, aren't going to buy via an ecommerce engine. They will want to talk to you on the phone or via email first and probably see a print. Even stock buyers will probably talk to you before ordering. So the expense and complexity of an ecommerce engine will probably not make sense.