Is it worth making a photography website

[robwatson]

Well, if i was to make a pucker site, would I gain anything from it, i.e. can I sell files online? Presuming yes, how can I actually make the site? Is there a special place where you get a free domain for example?
(Sorry, Im a complete beginner to making money)

Alternatively, if i was able to get some prints done, where could I take them to try and flog them?

[Cam Monroe]

Is it worth making a photography website?

If you have to ask us this question.
Then, I'm sorry to say
No...It's probably not worth your time, and effort, to build a page.

Instead spend the time out taking pictures, until you are ready to start a thread saying....
I NEED a web presence for my photography.....where do I start?

[Camdixon]

I am an active Web Developer, and have developed CMS websites in Joomla for local clients.

I would say I agree with Cam above, because I've dealt with clients who weren't "sure" if they were ready to really handle and develop a website. They eventually just had to decide Yes or No, because developing one isn't the problem. It was the individual person/business deciding if the timeliness of the website was right for them personally.

As an amateur photographer I do not sell my photos online, but I would assume that unless you have a decent sized portfolio developing the code for someone to view only a few photos (at this time) is not worth the effort.

Ultimately no one can tell you if a website is right for you or not, and it depends on which direction you would like to take your photography/business. When you decide that you are willing to pay the money to develop a website then I would advise you do so (unless you plan on building this yourself. I would advise against this if you are new to computers, because there is an extremely good reason why we charge the amount that we do to build a website)

By the way, Domain Names are not free. They cost about $10.00 per year to buy and keep a domain name for a website. Average cost of a hosting server is about $5.00 - $10.00 per month. Building the Website and updating the pages (aside from uploading new pictures, which is easy) is the expensive part. To have and maintain a website you will need all of these elements.

If you have anymore questions I would be happy to answer them.

~Cameron

[theArchitect]

Dot TK - Renaming The Internet give away free domain names although they are usually considered a bit unprofessional in web dev circles.

[robwatson]

Thanks so much for replying so fast and in such a detailed way; you've given me lots to think about! The world of the world wide web suddenly appears more daunting than first perceived.
I'll spend a little more time just taking shots and enjoying myself and I'll put some thought in where I'm actually going with my photography.
Once again, thanks

Regards, Rob

[GadgetRick]

Well, your question, although seemingly simple enough, is far from a simple question.

One thing most, "photographers," whether pro or amateur, do these days is run out and start a website. I must have a website, right? The problem I've seen with this is too many photogs are forgetting what their actual product is. They spend time, effort and (sometimes) money on creating the slickest website around. The problem with this approach is, what is your product? It's not the website, it's YOU and what you can do with a camera.

The other thing about pros having a website is, on one hand, you need a web presence just in case someone stumbles on you online and decides they want to hire you. However, that's not the way 99.9% of pros get their business and it's certainly not the way most people show for a photog. Word of mouth is more important since this is what gets you the bulk of your customers.

I'm not saying you shouldn't (or should) have web presence. What I'm saying is, don't have a web presence just for the sake of having one. Now, before I started earning money doing this, I was putting photos up on Picasa Web Albums. It's free (I did spend $20ish for a year) to expand the storage space, it's extremely easy to upload and manage photos there, extremely easy to share photos online with people and just about everyone can get to it from just about anywhere. It is just an online gallery (although people can order prints through them although you can't earn any money on them) and it works wonderfully.

When I decided to start earning money at this (fairly recently), I decided to find something which would allow me to sell photos online for a profit. So I looked at the various companies offering this service and settled on one. Most of them are reasonably-priced (around $100-$150 per year) and most give you unlimited space to upload photos. Most also allow you to set the pricing on prints and the labs they use to print handle all of the shipping, etc. However, if you're not making money at this, then I'd say you don't need to spend the money.

Why don't you explore the many free options of having a web presence before worrying about a website? Facebook is an excellent way to share your work (create a fan page, it's free). Twitter, to a certain extent, can help you share your work as well. Use Picasa as well. You can still sell your prints but it'll be a more manual process for you--you'll take the order, send the file(s) to be printed and deal with the shipping in some way (some labs will drop ship it for you I believe). Once you've built enough business doing this, you can then look at something else.

In short, don't get a website just for the sake of having a website. Have an idea in mind of how you'll use it to help market what you're doing.

[davehodg]

I just wrote something along these lines:

Web sites for photographers | Dave Hodgkinson Photography

If you have no purpose, then the answer is: "no". If you have goals, then choose the model that suits your purpose.

[pixel2k4]

Thank you for your insight on this. I too am new to photography and had questions about getting started with a web site. I now believe in searching for the direction I want to take my photography instead of just 'going with the flow.' Thanks again!

[Parry]

I've had a web-site for about 5 years... for the 5 years before that i had a web-site for my band, when the band split, i had the web-space for other completely random things, then just over a year ago, so started doing photos... my web-site is now for me to share my photos with friends & family... if further down the line, i decide to start trying to market my photographs/photography skills, I'll set up a separate web-site just for the business

[psyche89]

Hi,
I recently had to design a website as the final project for a digital art class I took for fun. Here are the results: R. Clark Photography

Making a site, especially like the one I made, is fairly simple. You can basically just design the whole layout in photoshop, use the slice tool to determine where the links/layout images need to be, and save it for web devices as images and html. Then you can open it up and make quick adjustments in dreaweaver or other web design software.

There are tons of tutorials all over the web. Here's a great tutorial site: Dreamweaver | Layers Magazine and here are the instructions for the display that I used in my gallery: Lightbox 2

Hope this helps some. A website is a great way to display your work for family and friends, or to market a business.