Template website ?

[David Anderson]

Hi,
I'm thinking of changing over to one of the DIY website templates with hosting ect. with a view towards managing
everything myself.
Thinking along the lines of Zenfolio and Prosite.
One feature I would like is private galleries or some other way of sharing recent jobs with clients.

Anyone have any comments on those two or suggestions for others I should look at ?
Obviously I'm not in IT so everything needs to be pretty simple..

Cheers.

[john beardsworth]

I don't use it myself but have pushed a few people towards ZenFolio. They weren't too confident tech-wise but are still there. A second factor is that if you use Lightroom, there's a ZF plugin which simplifies the process of uploading and managing pictures.

[KAHA]

Hi,
I'm thinking of changing over to one of the DIY website templates with hosting ect. with a view towards managing
everything myself.
Thinking along the lines of Zenfolio and Prosite.
One feature I would like is private galleries or some other way of sharing recent jobs with clients.

Anyone have any comments on those two or suggestions for others I should look at ?
Obviously I'm not in IT so everything needs to be pretty simple..

Cheers.

Hi David,

I'm currently using 4ormat it's a fairly simple drag and drop easy to use interface, is IOS & Android phone/tablet compatible,
has password protected pages and galleries for sharing with clients, good customer support, social network integration,
built in image based blog, highly customizable, SEO Integrated Search Engine Optimization, HD video support and images
automatically resize to fit any screen.

Best of all I think it's highly affordable at $129 USD a year.

Hope this helps 

[HSakols]

Why not just shop around for a host and domain name.   Then use something like Juicebox.  I've never used it, but it looks slick.  http://www.juicebox.net/  I guess you might pay just as much as zenfolio but you will have more control.

[tom b]

1 billion smartphones shipped worldwide in 2013.

Three years ago I changed jobs and stated to do the daily trip into the city. It was only then that I realised just what an impact that smartphones have made.

I like Livebooks user interface but I realised that there was a passionate hatred of their use of Flash. I went to their site recently to see how they are managing with mobile sites what with Steve Jobs rejection of Flash.

The site has a page with information on their [url=http://www.livebooks.com/products/mobility]mobile offerings.

They offer:

Finger swipe supported
Image rotation supported
Images size automatically to suit detected device
Built with HTML5
Full contact information
Choose the portfolios you want to show
Easy content management
Integration to other web sites

I'm not plugging Livebooks but I'm just pointing out that if I were to design a website today it would be entirely different to the one I designed three years ago based on my iPad/computer. Like it or not you really have to have a site that works well with a computer and with a smartphone. Website design has become just that bit more complicated.

Cheers,

[rgs]

All three of the sites in my sig below are WordPress but I link to a ShootProof site for sales. ShootProof works really well for me. I pay a small yearly or monthly subscription and they handle all of the sales without charging a commission. When a sale is made they charge credit card fees and, if it's fulfilled by one of their labs (Bay Photo, ProDPI, WHCC), they also add the lab fees. If it's a self fulfilled order or just a digital download, I only pay any credit card fees. Because there are no commissions, I can also use the site to offer free downloads to my real estate clients as well as use the site for a gallery and to give free downloads to friends and family. The client pages can be private or public with or without passwords.

Overall ShootProof works better for me than Zenfolio of SmugMug without paying both fees and commissions. Visit either my Myrsphoto site (follow the "Online Ordering" link) or my Singular Image site (got to the Gallery page) to see how well ShootProof integrates with my own sites.

Before making your decision, I encourage you to look into ShootProof.

[David Anderson]

Thanks for all the suggestions ..

After shopping around some I've gone with Portfoliobox.
Most of the decision centred around the page design and the fast support I had after asking a couple of questions during the free test.
Like all the rest that I looked at, it's not perfect but I found it easy enough to get started even though I'm no expert in IT.
(sh*t-house at IT in fact..  )

Price wise it's under $100 a year and IMHO, all the sites are pretty cheap for what you get compared to having an individual managed website.
That said, if you spend the money you can get exactly what you want from a good designer.

Only time will tell if it's the right decision..