Websites: Need advice on where to start.

[ZoneIII]

I guess I can't put it off any longer and I have to build a website. In the past, I didn't need one to market to my specific customers but, more and more, people ask me for my website address and its embarrassing to have to tell them that I don't have one. The problem is that I don't know where to start and what little I have read about building a website intimidates me. I have decided that I would be better off setting up a website through a business that specializes in building and hosting photographers' websites so that I don't mess up or miss something important. On the other hand, I want to be able to control the overall look and feel of the website. I don't want it based on a cold template that many other photographers are using. A quick internet search came up with many businesses that specialize in building and hosting photographers' websites, which is great, but deciding which one to go with is a problem. In short, I want experts to handle the technical side of building the site while I have creative control over its look, feel, and navigation. Also, I want a website with reasonable fees, of course. I would appreciate any recommendations and suggestions APUG members could provide about this. Do you have any such service that you can recommend?

 

[Vaughn]

I Googled "what not to do websites" and found several websites with good suggestions on what not to do (and what to do). Might be a good place to start -- that and finding websites that look and act the way you want your website to look.

That way when you contact web designers, you have some idea of what you want, don't want, and what to look out for.

Vaughn

 

[wfe]

Try bludomain.com, they are Flash templates but are also very configurable.

Cheers,
Bill

 

[filmnut]

I friend of mine who is a web designer, built a site for my car club, that is very nice. Look up McLaughlin Buick Club, and check it out.
If you want his name, PM me.
Keith

 

[Pinholemaster]

Get Apple's iWeb part of iLife '08 (79 bucks) and do it yourself.

 

[rcoda]

I designed mine using FrontPage and Photoshop.

And a friend of mine's at http://www.prioritynature.com/

 

[Joe Lipka]

I took a course on Dreamweaver at the local Community College. As a student, you are eligible to purchase the educational version of all the software you need at a price much lower than anything you can buy retail. If you have some desire to learn how to do this, it's not really hard. There are three things you will have to do.

Figure out what you want your website to do and how people should navigate through it. (There is absolutely no technical knowledge needed for this part of the job.)
Then you have to prepare the content of your website. (This means some form of photo editing software, scanning and engaging in activities that are the anathema of APUGers worldwide.)
Use some form of software to design your website.

These three tasks are listed in decreasing order of mental efforts and time. Yes, you need to take a very large amount of time and thought about what you really want your web site be and how to navigate through it. Lots of time spent figuring out what you want to do actuallly makes it easier to construct once you get to making your web design come to life.

Don't forget you will have to update your site, because you will take better pictures and want to share them and because you will get better in making your web site.

I am now working on the fourth or five version of my web site. I should be done in another month or so. Incubation is an important part of the process.

 

[rcoda]

Hey Joe:

My best friend from high school lives in Cary, NC... Mike Argento... do you know him? He owned a deli for a while (Glaxo before that).

 

[Joe Lipka]

Hey Joe:

My best friend from high school lives in Cary, NC... Mike Argento... do you know him? He owned a deli for a while (Glaxo before that).

When we moved to Cary 21 years ago, the population was 37,000. Now it's about 120,000. Short answer is, probably not.

Not every place in North Carolina is Mayberry.

 

[rcoda]

When we moved to Cary 21 years ago, the population was 37,000. Now it's about 120,000. Short answer is, probably not.

Not every place in North Carolina is Mayberry.

Funny... we grew up in Mayberry (aka Pompton Lakes, NJ)

 

[toadhall]

Get Apple's iWeb part of iLife '08 (79 bucks) and do it yourself.

The first decision is whether you want to do it yourself, or hire someone to do it for you. If you wish to investigate doing it yourself, and use a Mac, I'd suggest Sandvox instead of iWeb - faster loading for the user, and less 'canned' in appearance.

 

[sdivot]

Take a look at Visual Server (www.visualserver.com). It's geared towards artists, specifically photographers. It's easy to use. No fuss, no muss.
Check out my website www.scdowellphoto.com
Steve

 

[ZoneIII]

Sorry I didn't comment on the responses I received. I was away for a while and when I got back, I forgot.

Anyway, I think some misinterpreted my original question. I don't want to build the website myself. It's not that I couldn't do it - I was a software engineer for thirty years, but it's just that I don't want to spend the time learning all the stuff that will be necessary or make mistakes that will make the site less effective. I did some research and I kept finding more pitfalls that I could fall into so I finally decided that I would prefer to work with someone who builds websites. I know there are businesses that specialize in building and hosting websites for photographers. I have checked a couple of them out and they look pretty good but I posted the question here to get recommendations or feedback from people who actually set up a website this way. Of course, I want as much say as possible in the design of the site and how it's navigated. That's very important to me. But I don't want to get into a big thing learning how to be a webmaster. I rather be shooting pictures and leave that to someone experienced in producing websites for photographers.

So, back to my original question: Can anyone recommend a business that will fill my needs as described here, not software that I would use to build a website? I know there is an APUG member who does do this but, even with the little research I did, I found his services might not meet my needs. Also, it seemed to me that I would be very limited in my input if I used his services and the websites I did check out that he built and hosted were a bit bare bones for my tastes. As I mentioned above, I learned of many pitfalls that a beginner could make all along the way when building a website. That makes me wonder about all the other things I don't know so I rather leave it to someone who does this for a living. Sometimes it just pays to let a pro do something.

 

[Ralf]

... so I rather leave it to someone who does this for a living. Sometimes it just pays to let a pro do something.

I do web-design for a living for ten years now, mostly Flash stuff. My rates are rather obscene, but would not apply to a fellow APUGer, of course. I'm not looking for business here, but feel free to PM me if you want more details.

To help you with your questions, it would be necessary to know what exactly you expect your site to be like. Do you have any links, along with comments from you, what you want and what you don't want your site to look like? What functionality do you expect? (Editing stuff yourself, adding new pictures, HTML or Flash, et cetera.) Give some more details and we could point you in the right direction.