Original website or start from template?

[Matus Kalisky]

Frank, you should be teaching this ...

[gnuyork]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I have made websites with iWeb, and though they can be nice, but I want something a little more "custom".

The Flikr and other free routes seem interesting. I will look into some of those ideas. But in my own viewing of other people sites, I don't tend to look past the first few images in their Flikr site. I guess I don't like how it navigates. But when I see a good photo site with stunning images and the navigation does NOT drive me crazy, I tend to stay longer, even bookmark it sometimes for future inspiration.

I guess I really need to determine the real purpose for the site. Sure, I'd like to sell some prints, but I'm not sure if that's the primary goal with the site. I really just want to establish an online gallery, that I can point someone to. I was asked the other day by a notable photographer to see my site... and I didn't have one. So I sent an 11MB slide show file of my last show in an e-mail which is probably not the best way to go about it.

[Jim Becia]

I recently put up a new website using www.visualserver.com. It's a template driven program and was very easy to use. It had most of the things I wanted in a website, the main one being simplicity and ease of use. My website is www.spiritlightphotography.com. Nothing fancy, but it works for me. As for cost, it seems reasonable enough. I had researched others, but kept coming back to Visual Server. When I had a question and called their "tech" line and got my answers immediately. Not affiliated with them, just pleased with their product so far. Jim

[gnuyork]

Jim- nice.

[Richard Wasserman]

I also used VisualServer for the same reasons Jim articulated–simplicity and ease of use. I didn't want to take on the task of designing a website from more or less scratch and liked the way ViualServer looked. It's not perfect, but close enough.

[gnuyork]

I just realized I posted this in the wrong forum. Apologies.

[Mike Anderson]

I recently put up a new website using www.visualserver.com. It's a template driven program and was very easy to use. It had most of the things I wanted in a website, the main one being simplicity and ease of use. My website is www.spiritlightphotography.com. Nothing fancy, but it works for me. As for cost, it seems reasonable enough. I had researched others, but kept coming back to Visual Server. When I had a question and called their "tech" line and got my answers immediately. Not affiliated with them, just pleased with their product so far. Jim

But real men hand code their websites. Seriously, Jim, I like your website, nice and clean and simple, which is I think important for a photography site. It seems automated or template driven site creation is very viable now.

I'd advise anyone going for an automated site creation approach to check the system's support for phone and tablet clients and such. Small touch screens are going to keep increasing in popularity as a way to access the web.

...Mike

[gnuyork]

I'd advise anyone going for an automated site creation approach to check the system's support for phone and tablet clients and such. Small touch screens are going to keep increasing in popularity as a way to access the web.

...Mike

Good point, Mike.

[Joe Lipka]

More than a few years ago I decided I wanted a web site. I took a course at the local community college and gave it a go. I am up to revision 11 on my web site and and sucks less and less the more I work on it.

Three things to note as you begin this journey.

1. Figure out what you want your web site to be before you start anything else. Sales vehicle? Promotional site? Communication to the world? Big ego trip? Whatever you want, make that decision first. That will become your web site motto. Put in on your home page so the world knows what to expect when they see your web site.

2. Navigation and operation are really important. The underlying thought is how to get the viewer to as many of your photographs as possible with the fewest number of clicks. Remember 80% of your viewers will spend less than one minute on your web site. Your job is to make the site so easy to use, more of them will stay.

3.Creating the web site it easy. Making content is hard. If you want people to keep coming back to your web site you will have to give them a reason to come back. That means the content of your website will have to be continually updated. That means you will have to add content. Adding content means that you will have to become adept at creating new work and then scan, photoshop and update your web site. Either that, or you will have to pay someone lots of money to do that for you.

Now you have something to start with. Go get 'em.

[John NYC]

snip
3.Creating the web site it easy. Making content is hard. If you want people to keep coming back to your web site you will have to give them a reason to come back.
snip

Yes, that is a major problem with most people's websites. It's one thing that RSS is great for. When there is a site I like but is not updated often, I like to put it in my RSS feeds so that I will see when it is and I don't have to keep checking. Before I did that, I would find I'd check the site a couple times to see if it was updated, and then when it wasn't, I'd never go there again.

p.s. I really like your concept of putting your content into pdfs!!!

John