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Author Topic: Recommendations for website creation/hosting services sites?  (Read 6198 times)

Dinarius

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I'd like to set up my own website using one of the online services - Wordpress, Photoshelter etc.....

The only stipulation is that I have to be able to use my own domain name.

I just want a few galleries, contact, about, a page for links to clients' sites and, maybe, a blog.

I'm reasonably computer literate.

There seems to be a lot of choice out there.

What should I be considering?

Thanks.

D.
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Go Go

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Re: Recommendations for website creation/hosting services sites?
« Reply #1 on: July 28, 2011, 10:12:43 am »

Hi D,
You might want to consider a combination of the above as an option.
PhotoShelter is useful to me in the handling of files to my retoucher and to my client.
NeonSky, hosts my portfolio, about me, pricing, etc .
I personally believe that you can't have too many web pages out there.
Ultimately your call though...

cybis

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Re: Recommendations for website creation/hosting services sites?
« Reply #2 on: July 28, 2011, 10:46:52 am »

I'm using inmotion hosting, great customer support and reliable.
Also, take a look at Drupal, it is an open source CMS (Content management system) with a huge support community. Drupal is free and allows you to (relatively) easily build a site as simple or complex as you want. I found this book very helpful to learn Drupal.
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Craig Murphy

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Re: Recommendations for website creation/hosting services sites?
« Reply #3 on: July 29, 2011, 10:50:31 am »

If I was to do my website again I'd either go with http://aphotofolio.com/ or www.livebooks.com with a lean towards aphotofolio.
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CMurph

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Re: Recommendations for website creation/hosting services sites?
« Reply #4 on: August 02, 2011, 06:01:47 pm »

i have been with live books for a while and love the service....never been down for a minute, the edit suite is perfect and they just came out with the scaler which lets the viewer use the entire screen...the behind the scene ftp stuff is central in my daily workflow....highly recommended....they are working on new iPad sites and lightroom/aperture integration right now...
but there are other great service out there as well i am sure...
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RFPhotography

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Re: Recommendations for website creation/hosting services sites?
« Reply #5 on: August 24, 2011, 11:34:38 am »

I know I'm a few weeks behind on this but here's what I've done.

My entire site is on the Wordpress platform.  It's evolved over the years from being 'just' a blogging platform to where it is now which is much more a CMS platform.  The availability of plugins to enhance functionality is terrific and any that I've used are free.  My site is hosted by HostPapa.  They're a very good hosting company and I've found their reliability to be terrific and their service/support is very good.  The nice thing about HostPapa is that they permit the installation of WP on their servers.  I've talked to other hosting companies about this and they either go 'huuh, wha?' or say something like 'well, i guess it should work.....'

You can pay for hosted service through WP but it's quite expensive.  With HostPapa I get unlimited bandwidth and storage which is good for a content rich site like a photography website.  When you pay for hosting they don't charge you for the domain and renewals.  The basic service is under $100/year.  You can add ecomm for a little higher price.   

There are a ton of themes available for free to use with WP.  I installed a canned theme then modded it to look the way I wanted.  There's now nothing left of the original theme in terms of the colour scheme and much of the layout.  I did the same thing for a site I recently built for a client.  Installed a very generic theme then modded it for him.  I'm not a programmer so can't write a site or theme from scratch but I can mod something to change the look. 
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Steve Weldon

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Re: Recommendations for website creation/hosting services sites?
« Reply #6 on: August 24, 2011, 06:56:31 pm »


Rant over.


Wow.. did someone spill milk in your HTML today?

These are things you're supposed to keep inside, but not say out loud..  ::)
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arildah

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Re: Recommendations for website creation/hosting services sites?
« Reply #7 on: August 25, 2011, 02:38:49 am »

Anyone have experience with Zenfolio as a business platform, including selling prints over the web?

The yearly expense, even for the most expensive solution (Premium business - $250/year), seems negligible, but what I´m most interested in is their level of customer support, technical help, etcetera. The premium business plan removes all zenfolio branding, so if I find a template that works, it would be great. I already sell a few largeish prints (40x60cm max) every once in a while, but that´s quite a cumbersome and slow process, in which my customer has to contact me, and then in turn I send him/her a selection of my favourites, then they decide, and only then do I get to order a print, wait for two-three weeks, and by then, the customer will have his/her print delivered in person.. Needless to say, this is inefficient like all hell.

So, any opinions/experiences on Zenfolio would be highly welcome!
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