Designing a webpage - Advice wanted!

[ap.photo]

I have at least one website that I built approximately 15 years ago and that, except for updates of images to more recent ones (including a new version of their logo) and updates of text content, basically is unchanged because I was careful about these kinds of issues. v

Please share your website - thanks.

[ap.photo]

http://www.LetPicturesTalk.com

Very nice page, simple and it looks like a blogsite.

Any web designers out there who are willing to help me jumpstart my page?

Thanks, AP.

[paulabrahams]

I haven't read through every reply on here and I'm probably a bit late to the party but I'll add my thoughts on this. BTW, I'm not a pro photographer but I do know some about web sites. Here's a few thoughts.

Paying for Pro Services:
Pro sites are designed and maintained and hosted by professional services, either in house or 3rd party. I would recommend this once you make money with your business. This gives you the peace of mind to concentrate on, getting clients and taking photos. If you have the money and want to just shoot and have someone else look after your web presence, just do it.

Doing it yourself (the hard way)
If you don't have enough time to dedicate to understanding and working a wordpress site, don't do it. Once you have it figured out and up and running you'll need to pay for add on modules to do all thats needed. Plus you will need to learn and understand the web to the level of a webmaster. Not an easy task and always a challenge.

Doing it yourself (easier and safer)
Taking all this into consideration and trying to find a solution that best compliments your BUSINESS NEEDS, I have to say that design, though important, should not be the first consideration. It needs to be simple and easy to function. First and foremost you need commercial tools to operate an online business. Some of the sites already mentioned would serve you well, Zenfolio, Smugmug... etc Easy to set up and serve the photography industry with great design and commercial functions.

You need a place to host your photos and fullfil orders, do this the easy way not the hard way. Smugmug is for photography like Wordpress is for bloggers.

SMUGMUG/host images/commercial plugins (pay per year options) (you can use a domain name)
Social Network:
Facebook/personal/pages
Google/plus/local places/
Youtube/ yes you can use the tube to showcase images
and any other Social Networks you find useful

Use the same name throughout all of these sites.

There a hundreds if not thousands of websites by photographers, only a few make any money from their actual websites. They do well because they are known photographers and have built up a network of personal recommendations. Of course if you become somewhat famous, people will look for you.

DOMAIN NAMES:

I see annapervertaylo.com is reserved, was that you? If so, remember to get the hyphen version as well. If not you, get .NET version but not before you set up a site..... this is the easiest way.

I would set up a site first, not reserve a name first, only because its easier to set up DNS with an existing site rather than the other way around. You can still do it the other way, if you need help just ask.

I'll use my own name as an example. Paul FG Abrahams

I'd set up a Smugmug site first then pay for a Domain Name, paulabrahamsphotography.com (for me paulabrahams.com & net is taken, I might consider .biz)

Facebook = Paul Abrahams (I already have this)
Facebook Fan Page = paul abrahams photography
Google plus profiles = paul abrahams
Google Biz Page = paul abrahams photography
Youtube = I already have PaulFGA
Twitter = I have PaulFGA.

As you can see the importance of getting your own name is like a piece of real estate.

Use a catchy sub title or whats known in the biz as VPP - Value Pre-Selling Proposition or tag line.

Check out SMUGMUG if you haven't already Pro is about $150 per year which is peanuts to a working photographer.

Example SMUGMUG site www.gustavofernandez.com/ A great looking site, pretty easy to set up and maintain... its a no brainer if you ask me. I would do things a little differently, his testimonials and social networking links are buried in his site. I'd have them on the home page and forego the flash. He has no VPP.

If I can help just ask

[dan marchant]

During and after the classes I learn how to work on my site and I did the following. http://www.LetPicturesTalk.com

Hi Ronny,
Wordpress is a great system, I use it for my website too. I hope you will accept the following creative feedback in the positive manner it is intended. I notice that you are using quite a large number of different fonts on your site (five different ones just in the header alone). It is generally considered poor design to use a multitude of different fonts because it lacks visual cohesion. You generally get a much better overall style if you restrict yourself to just a couple of fonts per page - usually one for titles and headings (in different sizes) and another for content. Your readers are better able to recognise the purpose of a particular piece of text (it is a heading or it is content) and as a result feel more comfortable.

[Shelly Leduke]

I was going to recommend Zenfolio, too. A friend of mine uses it on many levels - he has public photos that are for sale to anyone, but he also has link-access albums that he uses for things like high school sporting events, where the photos are only visible to parents and students who have the link. Some of his albums are completely private and only he has access to them.

[ap.photo]

I was going to recommend Zenfolio, too.

Do you have a link to your friends page? Did he/she design this from scratch?