squarespace

RalphLambrecht · Dec 9, 2021

Almost every four wheeler played it YouTube channel praises square steak space and how easy it is to create a professional website. No I don't know what I'm doing wrong but my experience is quite different. I find it extremely cumbersome and most of the time cannot figure out how to choose the temperature and how to alter the entries to make it fit my circumstances. I wonder, have you used square space and what is your experience with it?

RalphLambrecht · Dec 9, 2021

Totally wrong text above sorry; should've read: several photo related YouTube channels recommend square space as the best way to create a professional looking website for photographers. Supposedly easy to use; just pick a template and added to customize... What experience was unfortunately totally different. Template choices were rather limited and often totally unrelated to photography. One Spect editing what is cumbersome and often erroneous. What is your experience with square space?

radiant · Dec 9, 2021

These youtubers get paid for advertising Squarespace - remember that.

I personally prefer Wordpress; you aren't tied to any provider or environment. There are gazillion of themes for wordpress with high quality. I've found a bit squarespace-style theme called "birdsite" which I'm using on my site: http://kuvau.tuu.fi/

RalphLambrecht · Dec 9, 2021

vedostuu said:
These youtubers get paid for advertising Squarespace - remember that.

I personally prefer Wordpress; you aren't tied to any provider or environment. There are gazillion of themes for wordpress with high quality. I've found a bit squarespace-style theme called "birdsite" which I'm using on my site: http://kuvau.tuu.fi/

The advertising part explains a lot; I think square space sucks.

John Wolf · Dec 14, 2021

I used Squarespace for several years and found it pretty easy and very flexible. I agree that it can be confusing, especially if you have not worked with the building block model for creating sites. But once you get the basic approach, it seems clear and powerful to me.

I got tired of paying for it and finally switched to tumblr. I realized I could make tumblr function like a website. It's free and I ignore the social media aspects of it. Good enough for my modest needs.

John

DMJ · Dec 14, 2021

Exactly what @vedostuu said about Squarespace. Tubers get paid for advertising and if you sign in with their code they get a commission.
If you don't want to have your site e-commerce ready, with a cart and all the whistles, then you can just simply use html to create something similar to the link @vedostuu posted. Then you can upload the site to github, gitbucket or amazon S3 and you get free hosting. You are going to have to pay for the domain name $10 a year. You can even add a Paypal/Ko-Fi button.
Html is very simple to learn and is all text.

Tom Kershaw · Dec 14, 2021

vedostuu said:
I personally prefer Wordpress; you aren't tied to any provider or environment. There are gazillion of themes for wordpress with high quality. I've found a bit squarespace-style theme called "birdsite" which I'm using on my site: http://kuvau.tuu.fi/

I went with Wordpress when I re-built my website in 2019. I'm using a theme from Pixelgrade but there is sufficient flexibility for my needs, which seems to be lacking in Squarespace. In general I also prefer an environment online in which I can make changes as and when rather than being reliant on a subscription to a specific application provider.

Andrew Patteson · Dec 14, 2021

I will agree with John, against the prevailing mood here, and say that I am content with squarespace. I have used them for years now. I am sure I could find something cheaper, especially because I am not using any of the ecommerce modules, but I find it simpler than Wordpress and certainly simpler than coding it myself. I guess I am willing to pay for a clean look and the ease of use (for me). There are a lot of templates that wouldn't make sense for a photo website, but once you find one you like it's pretty straightforward. My website: andrewpatteson.com

John Wolf · Dec 14, 2021

Andrew, your site and your work is wonderful.

John

Andrew Patteson · Dec 14, 2021

Wow, thank you, John! And double-wow, likewise! Your vision within the square is striking. I love the unity it brings to images of very different places and different photographic approaches.

Duceman · Dec 14, 2021

I never set up a SquareSpace page, and only really heard of it through the many YouTubers who are always promoting it, especially as a way to sell prints of their photographs. That left me wondering... are they really selling any (or much) of their work via prints? If so, how much? I've had a Flickr page for well over a decade, and while I don't claim to be the best photographer out there, more than 75 of my photos have over 10k views, and never once did anyone ask for a print. Granted, they could simply be trying to skirt around Flickr rules and download without my permission, but still, you'd think there'd be at least one honest person out there if there was any market for my photos?

One YouTuber I've been watching for a year or so, who is always plugging SquareSpace, has a link on his YouTube page to his SquareSpace page; last I checked, it was dead. Guess he got tired of paying for it as well?

Duceman · Dec 14, 2021

John Wolf said:
I got tired of paying for it and finally switched to tumblr. I realized I could make tumblr function like a website. It's free and I ignore the social media aspects of it. Good enough for my modest needs.

Nice set up. I didn't know that could be done via Tumblr. Very cool.

warden · Dec 14, 2021

Duceman said:
I never set up a SquareSpace page, and only really heard of it through the many YouTubers who are always promoting it, especially as a way to sell prints of their photographs. That left me wondering... are they really selling any (or much) of their work via prints? If so, how much? I've had a Flickr page for well over a decade, and while I don't claim to be the best photographer out there, more than 75 of my photos have over 10k views, and never once did anyone ask for a print. Granted, they could simply be trying to skirt around Flickr rules and download without my permission, but still, you'd think there'd be at least one honest person out there if there was any market for my photos?

One YouTuber I've been watching for a year or so, who is always plugging SquareSpace, has a link on his YouTube page to his SquareSpace page; last I checked, it was dead. Guess he got tired of paying for it as well?

Squarespace is pretty much a drag and drop interface, and I've found it easy to use. You can set up your own web page for free as I recall, if you want to see how it works. But only you can see it until you begin your subscription.

John Wolf · Dec 15, 2021

I didn't know that about tumblr, either. The theme includes an optional code snippet that allows a static home page. The "galleries" are created using standard tumblr links with #tags appended. And photos with galleries are sorted by backdating posts in the desired order.

It would certainly be easier in Squarespace, but since retiring I'm always looking for ways to cut costs, and tumblr is free. I really like the horizontal format with my mostly square images.

John

radiant · Dec 15, 2021

May I remind of you one thing:

These commercial services try to hook you to be their income. For some reason you cannot transfer your content to other platform. Basically after awhile you cannot escape the services easily - or at all, without losing your work. I know, that all services are doing. But still; just a reminder and thing to think about. There are alternatives.

Tom Kershaw · Dec 15, 2021

vedostuu said:
These commercial services try to hook you to be their income. For some reason you cannot transfer your content to other platform. Basically after awhile you cannot escape the services easily - or at all, without losing your work. I know, that all services are doing. But still; just a reminder and thing to think about. There are alternatives.

Exactly. A WordPress installation or other open source approach can be moved between servers etc.

John Wolf · Dec 15, 2021

vedostuu said:
May I remind of you one thing:

These commercial services try to hook you to be their income. For some reason you cannot transfer your content to other platform. Basically after awhile you cannot escape the services easily - or at all, without losing your work. I know, that all services are doing. But still; just a reminder and thing to think about. There are alternatives.

That's true. But you can ease the platform change burden by replicating your site structure with local folders or stuff like Lightroom collections. Then it's just another upload. I've also used mirrored Flickr albums as the source of my site content.

And I know when I change platforms it's usually accompanied by a rethink of my content and its organization. That's an enjoyable part of the process.

DMJ · Dec 15, 2021

Nothing more portable than plain text. HTML is very easy to learn and works across all platforms and browsers. I never used Dreamweaver; a simple text editor works fine.

RalphLambrecht · Dec 15, 2021

DMJ said:
Nothing more portable than plain text. HTML is very easy to learn and works across all platforms and browsers. I never used Dreamweaver; a simple text editor works fine.

true; HTML is easy enough to learn but so is the alphabet, and knowing the alphabet doesn't necessarily turn you into a best-selling author either. knowing HTML doesn't turn you into a web designer; only into an effective coder at best.

MattKing · Dec 15, 2021

RalphLambrecht said:
true; HTML is easy enough to learn but so is the alphabet, and knowing the alphabet doesn't necessarily turn you into a best-selling author either. knowing HTML doesn't turn you into a web designer; only into an effective coder at best.

And of course, having an enlarger and knowing the basics of using it doesn't make you a great darkroom printer, but owning and using "Way Beyond Monochrome" helps go a long way to improving that.
Good luck with your web site Ralph.

DMJ · Dec 15, 2021

RalphLambrecht said:
but so is the alphabet, and knowing the alphabet doesn't necessarily turn you into a best-selling author either. knowing HTML doesn't turn you into a web designer; only into an effective coder at best.

Html is not a programming language, is a markup language for formatting text. Graphics/web designers use html to design websites, so a good option is to hire someone to design a website and then host it for free. With some html knowledge it could be easy to maintain. Squarespace and other platforms will give you templates, not good or unique design.

Best selling authors and photographers don't need well designed websites to promote their work (or don't need websites at all). For example, look at John Sexton's website:

http://www.johnsexton.com

If I had to create a website for my photography, I would do a virtual gallery instead. This year, I had some of my work displayed in a virtual gallery as part of an exhibition and it works very well. There are free options.

warden · Dec 15, 2021

DMJ said:
Best selling authors and photographers don't need well designed websites to promote their work (or don't need websites at all). For example, look at John Sexton's website:

Wow. That's bad.

RalphLambrecht · Dec 15, 2021

MattKing said:
And of course, having an enlarger and knowing the basics of using it doesn't make you a great darkroom printer, but owning and using "Way Beyond Monochrome" helps go a long way to improving that.
Good luck with your web site Ralph.

thanks Matt. I decided to give Adobe Muse another try.

DMJ · Dec 16, 2021

FYI

https://helpx.adobe.com/muse/kb/adobe-muse-end-of-service.html

radiant · Dec 17, 2021

John Wolf said:
That's true. But you can ease the platform change burden by replicating your site structure with local folders or stuff like Lightroom collections. Then it's just another upload. I've also used mirrored Flickr albums as the source of my site content.

And I know when I change platforms it's usually accompanied by a rethink of my content and its organization. That's an enjoyable part of the process.

Yes, of course you can save your photos but that is only part of your "work".

Typically you cannot transfer:
- the look of your website -> might be part of your imago. People get used to it.
- the direct links to your content -> OK, you can do some hocus pocus on the web server config for sure, but in reality - no.
- possible interaction with your audience; comments and references
- user accounts; for example if you have some services which include logging in (commenting, webshop)
- how things work; your audience have to learn new website, you have to learn new admin tools etc.

So it is a big change - and these commercial services try to make the change so big that you prefer giving them your money in future (in a way or another).

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