Photographers Websites... Advice needed...
Discussion
I've been using Clikpic for the last few years as hosts for my website but as my annual subscription has run out now I'm looking at other options.
Whilst Clikpic is good (and fairly cheap) I'm a bit limited on their templates and while they keep stating they will be adding more, they seem to be very slow at developing them.
Are there any other alternatives out there that have a template based system thats easy to use. I'm not great with websites and the creation of, so any tips or advice would be helpful...
Whilst Clikpic is good (and fairly cheap) I'm a bit limited on their templates and while they keep stating they will be adding more, they seem to be very slow at developing them.
Are there any other alternatives out there that have a template based system thats easy to use. I'm not great with websites and the creation of, so any tips or advice would be helpful...
Hmmmm... with respect to the two previous posters, Coppermine is probably very clever, but good luck getting it to look nice. Photium looks better but still not brilliant.
My route would be as follows - get a hosting account from Register1 (www.register1.net) and then either make something yourself (which you probably aren't up for although it really isn't as hard as it sounds) or get a copy of Photoshop Lightroom which will output SimpleViewer galleries (demo here: http://www.airtightinteractive.com/photos/ ) with a single click. It will also output a basic (but decent looking) HTML gallery as a lot of people (on here) seem to dislike Flash.
Or, just use Flickr and then set up a simple "homepage" like mine (www.binaryimage.net) which routes people to Flickr and shows a preview of latest shots with a simple Flickr widget.
My route would be as follows - get a hosting account from Register1 (www.register1.net) and then either make something yourself (which you probably aren't up for although it really isn't as hard as it sounds) or get a copy of Photoshop Lightroom which will output SimpleViewer galleries (demo here: http://www.airtightinteractive.com/photos/ ) with a single click. It will also output a basic (but decent looking) HTML gallery as a lot of people (on here) seem to dislike Flash.
Or, just use Flickr and then set up a simple "homepage" like mine (www.binaryimage.net) which routes people to Flickr and shows a preview of latest shots with a simple Flickr widget.
I tried Coppermine but found I couldn't customise it enough for my liking. In the end I opted for a simpleviewer gallery page linked to from a plain old html home page. It took me a good few hours but I'm pleased with it (for now)! Happy to give you some pointers if you're interested. www.fromthenorm.co.uk
bramley said:
How much do these template sites cost out of interest? I got my site done for around £350 iirc, albeit at mates rates.
i just visited your site and our corporate firewall (microsoft ISA on win server 2008) detected port scanning.its set to std settings, like half the worlds corporate networks.
thus I couldnt see your website, 350 quid down the drain it would seem as like lots of others, i couldnt actually see anything other than a firewall warning stating your site is looking for ports.
Thanks for all the idea's so far... I will have a look tomorrow at some of the options.
To the poster asking about fees, my old Clikpic template based site costs £35 per annum, but that price limits you to only 60 photo's in total. You have to pay more if you want extra slots for photo's and other more advanced features. The next level i think is £55 per annum for 120 photo's total.
To the poster asking about fees, my old Clikpic template based site costs £35 per annum, but that price limits you to only 60 photo's in total. You have to pay more if you want extra slots for photo's and other more advanced features. The next level i think is £55 per annum for 120 photo's total.
bramley said:
How much do these template sites cost out of interest? I got my site done for around £350 iirc, albeit at mates rates.
I use Photium for my site. There are three levels; Light, Standard and Advanced at £80, £150 and £185 per year. Advanced gives you up to 2000 on-line images, password-protected portfolios, slideshows etc. Support is excellent, with responses to queries often within a few minutes.If (like me), you know little of website design and management, services like these can get you "up and running" very quickly (Photium offers a 30-day free trial to test the facilities). The drawback is lack of total flexibility in design.
Ed_P said:
I use Photium for my site. There are three levels; Light, Standard and Advanced at £80, £150 and £185 per year. Advanced gives you up to 2000 on-line images, password-protected portfolios, slideshows etc. Support is excellent, with responses to queries often within a few minutes.
If (like me), you know little of website design and management, services like these can get you "up and running" very quickly (Photium offers a 30-day free trial to test the facilities). The drawback is lack of total flexibility in design.
Wow, £185/yr for 2000 images? That's really expensive. Obviously they are recouping their initial setup costs over time which is fine, but Flickr will give you unlimited storage for £25/yr and a register1 VDS account is only £50/yr. I suspect, also, that the reason support queries are dealt with quickly is because it is a one-man band with few clients - which doesn't bode well for longevity.If (like me), you know little of website design and management, services like these can get you "up and running" very quickly (Photium offers a 30-day free trial to test the facilities). The drawback is lack of total flexibility in design.
miniman said:
Wow, £185/yr for 2000 images? That's really expensive. Obviously they are recouping their initial setup costs over time which is fine, but Flickr will give you unlimited storage for £25/yr and a register1 VDS account is only £50/yr. I suspect, also, that the reason support queries are dealt with quickly is because it is a one-man band with few clients - which doesn't bode well for longevity.
I agree that the costs are high, but for me, the integrated on-line and off-line ordering facilities with PayPal/credit card options was important. It's how I run that part of my business. I recouped my first year's costs very quickly, from customer orders. It's certainly no Flickr though, with regard to user numbers! I did though Google "powered by photium" to get a list of sites to review when I was considering Photium. There's a considerable number. Fair point about the support too. I'm taking a bit of a gamble I know, but having prompt support is important when you're a total website novice.It suits me and I'll stick with it for the time being. I can see that it certainly wouldn't suit everybody though.
Ed ...
miniman said:
I suspect, also, that the reason support queries are dealt with quickly is because it is a one-man band with few clients - which doesn't bode well for longevity.
I'm a one-man band with few clients but have been running my own business since 1991!A few years ago with Photobox you could dial a normal number and speak to Stewart, who would answer things day and evening. Then it outgrew itself and got big and useless.
DucatiGary said:
bramley said:
How much do these template sites cost out of interest? I got my site done for around £350 iirc, albeit at mates rates.
i just visited your site and our corporate firewall (microsoft ISA on win server 2008) detected port scanning.its set to std settings, like half the worlds corporate networks.
thus I couldnt see your website, 350 quid down the drain it would seem as like lots of others, i couldnt actually see anything other than a firewall warning stating your site is looking for ports.
As for £350 down the drain - how did you reach that conclusion? I've had lots of positive feedback on it, no-one else has to my knowledge had any problems viewing it and I had an £825 wedding booking from it last night so I'd hardly call that £350 down the drain
350Wedge said:
Thanks for all the idea's so far... I will have a look tomorrow at some of the options.
To the poster asking about fees, my old Clikpic template based site costs £35 per annum, but that price limits you to only 60 photo's in total. You have to pay more if you want extra slots for photo's and other more advanced features. The next level i think is £55 per annum for 120 photo's total.
Ah ok, I thought you were looking for a more 'commercial' website rather than what now sounds like more of an online gallery for all your pics.To the poster asking about fees, my old Clikpic template based site costs £35 per annum, but that price limits you to only 60 photo's in total. You have to pay more if you want extra slots for photo's and other more advanced features. The next level i think is £55 per annum for 120 photo's total.
It's not an area I know anything about, so for that reason, I'm out
bramley said:
DucatiGary said:
bramley said:
How much do these template sites cost out of interest? I got my site done for around £350 iirc, albeit at mates rates.
i just visited your site and our corporate firewall (microsoft ISA on win server 2008) detected port scanning.its set to std settings, like half the worlds corporate networks.
thus I couldnt see your website, 350 quid down the drain it would seem as like lots of others, i couldnt actually see anything other than a firewall warning stating your site is looking for ports.
As for £350 down the drain - how did you reach that conclusion? I've had lots of positive feedback on it, no-one else has to my knowledge had any problems viewing it and I had an £825 wedding booking from it last night so I'd hardly call that £350 down the drain
Thanks for all the advice and opinions....
What i'm after is something that i can use to show off my photo's but also have the option to sell prints as well if i want. The Photium seems a goood alternative so i'll look into that. Good option to have a 30 day trial.
Will look at flikr and others too....
What i'm after is something that i can use to show off my photo's but also have the option to sell prints as well if i want. The Photium seems a goood alternative so i'll look into that. Good option to have a 30 day trial.
Will look at flikr and others too....
I set my own up using zenphoto and added an option to buy pictures with a paypal shopping cart.
You can take a look at www.sailpics.co.uk
You can take a look at www.sailpics.co.uk
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