Web templates & webhosting

[oceanrhythms]

I am in in the process of deciding on a some web design templates and choosing a web host.  Since I am not too web tech design savy, I will probably use a web template.  Does anybody have suggestions on websites offering web templates and web hosting.  Two different sites are ok.  

One of the best ones I have found is:  http://allwebcodesign.com/setup/signature.htm

This link takes you to some of the templates the offer.  Above the upper left template you will see other pages for "artists & photographers".  What do you think?  Do you have favorite web templates?  Any red flags with going with a template compared to custom design?  Do you have a favorite web host?  I have looked at some those sites suggested in posted replies in previous LL postings.  Maybe you can help me complete my research before making a decision.  I would like to avoid as many hassles as possible.

John

[feppe]

I am in in the process of deciding on a some web design templates and choosing a web host.  Since I am not too web tech design savy, I will probably use a web template.  Does anybody have suggestions on websites offering web templates and web hosting.  Two different sites are ok. 

One of the best ones I have found is:  http://allwebcodesign.com/setup/signature.htm

This link takes you to some of the templates the offer.  Above the upper left template you will see other pages for "artists & photographers".  What do you think?  Do you have favorite web templates?  Any red flags with going with a template compared to custom design?  Do you have a favorite web host?  I have looked at some those sites suggested in posted replies in previous LL postings.  Maybe you can help me complete my research before making a decision.  I would like to avoid as many hassles as possible.

John
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Many pros and semi-pros seem to be happy with smugmug. I use ExposureManager for my site (link below) with one of their ready-made templates with minor tweaks. Those are the only two I have really studied, although I've never actually used smugmug.

There are also some very nice free flash-based galleries out there. And don't forget that Lightroom creates ready galleries - all you have to do is upload them via FTP. Although visually appealing, I chose to forgo Flash due to limitations with search engines and the fact they break web UI as they don't use the same UI as your browser.

The main limitation with ready-made templates is that your site might end up looking like a million others out there. Also, customization is difficult and limited with templates. But I think it's a great first step for us who don't know HTML and don't want to learn it.

[Mike_L]

I have been very happy with www.sitewelder.com

mike

[wolfnowl]

I like the Lightroom galleries - and there are many free web galleries you can download for Lightroom.  I also like JAlbum (www.jalbum.net) and there are a host of skins you can use with it as well.

Mike.

[mikeseb]

Smugmug is decent--especially their e-commerce features, which are great for presentation,sales, and fulfillment of event photos, for instance. I have hosted my site with them for two years.

Their biggest drawback is that, if you DO know some HTML/CSS, Javascript, etc, and want to do a bit of customization, it is very difficult to work around their templates. They are not sufficiently transparent with your files to make this easy. I suppose that's to keep the uninitiated from fouling things up, or to protect proprietary information.

For whatever reason, it's got me in the process of moving my site. I'm planning to build mine around a photoshelter archive back-end, and using SlideShowPro to build galleries of work to display on the homepage. (I know just enough coding to MAYBE pull this off, but I can't spring $3k for a LiveBooks site at this point!)