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Website Help

Katie Bishop

New member
Hi guys,

I was wondering if you'd be able to help me. I'm looking to start up a website as I'm starting to get more photography work, and I want to start getting a bit more professional. But I'm unsure where to host a site. Heard loads about Wordpress, but I have no idea about the technical side of things. Would I be okay trying to figure out WP, or should I go for something like this that has a WP package?

Also, if I have a website, can I stick up the likes of my Flickr/Twitter on their as well?

Sorry for the barrage of silly questions, this is just a side things I'm a bit unsure about.

Any help would be massively appreciated!
Kate
 

Jerome Marot

Well-known member
Wordpress is a content management system. In plain words, it is server software that allows you to add pages to your site and organizes them. Its primary use is to run a blog: you write an article every day/week or so, dump the text and pictures in the system and the system keeps everything organized by date, title and keywords.

Wordpress can do other things than blogs. There are other content management systems than Wordpress, etc...

Where to host a site is a different question. There are many firms running server centers and they usually allow the customer to choose the content management system they want to use.

What I would advise is to start a demo blog on blogger for a month or so. Blogger is free (served by google), relatively easy to use and would allow you to practice a bit before you start a real web site. You would then understand how this kind of system works and be better prepared to choose your future system.

Where about in the world are you situated?
 
Hi guys,

I was wondering if you'd be able to help me. I'm looking to start up a website as I'm starting to get more photography work, and I want to start getting a bit more professional. But I'm unsure where to host a site. Heard loads about Wordpress, but I have no idea about the technical side of things. Would I be okay trying to figure out WP, or should I go for something like this that has a WP package?

Also, if I have a website, can I stick up the likes of my Flickr/Twitter on their as well?

Sorry for the barrage of silly questions, this is just a side things I'm a bit unsure about.

Any help would be massively appreciated!
Kate

Hi Kate,

I have 2 websites and both were created on Wordpress. Funnily enough, I'm also on 1&1 but that is not necessarily because they are the best but I've been with them for about 8 years now and satisfied and they are not very expensive... a business package is about 12-13 us dollars and includes 3 websites, domains are paid as long as you keep them, and unlimited bandwidth.

I did not install Wordpress through them, but it works well. Installation is simple, one way or another.

Now, if you have no experience with Wordpress and have no experience with any type of blog etc., I agree with Jerome get a blogspot or something that you can learn a bit about posting.

If you want to try Wordpress, and want to have a nice website that has drop downs and social media etc., you will want to install a theme, there are both paid for versions and free themes available for wordpress . Both will work, but you will want to exchange what is there with your own graphics etc., if you truly want to make it your own and you will have to learn how Wordpress works and how the hierarchies in it work also. Most times these themes do not come with instructions at all.

There are many plugins available for slideshows, for cutting out spam, for forms for comments etc., There is a lot to deal with while setting up especially if you are not very computer savvy. Once you have it figured out, though, it is quite easy to keep up and to add to. It can be very confusing for someone that has no knowledge of how wordpress works at all - I know from personal experience, that my portfolio website was such a pain to get up. The second one, was a breeze because I now knew what I was dong.

There are many sites that are more of the drag and drop style such as smugmug, flickr etc., I used to not like them, but they are starting to look really nice. There is a cookie-cutter aspect because they are all created with a similar formula, but for someone just starting out, you may want to try those first. There are also many people putting up their portfolios on 500px, behance.net etc., which is also something you may want to take a look at.

Now, I would also like to add, that most people that show their photographs online do not sell them through their website. Of course they make them available to be bought but usually, this is mostly a presence online. When you have your work in a gallery, clients will bring home your business card, look at your website, see your works and then most probably buy through the gallery. I sell this way. People like to find you online, as to them that makes you legit. I only get 1-2 requests per year about buying online, and they have never panned out. I do, however get messages from people that have bought my work through the gallery and have left me messages through the website.

Good luck with your endeavors.
Maggie
 

nicolas claris

OPF Co-founder/Administrator
Very good advices there.
We're used to built websites for our client and I can tell that there is no absolute rule. I would follow Jerome's and Maggie's advices…
Using Word Press is one of the way you could go, here is an example of what can be done with a "responsive" theme bought (cheap) from Nero.
Responsive means that it will automatically adapt to smartphones, tablet and computers monitors, to see the effect play with your browser's low right corner to change the shape of the presentation.
 
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