Website or no?

[sk66]

Just a quick look and I'd say you do some nice work. You have several options and it depends on your intent.
Do you want it for marketing? Do you want it for portfolios/customer portfolios? Do you want it for sales?
I don't think a website will ever bring much in new customers...your reputation will do that.
For simple portfolio/customer portfolios use your flickr, upgrade to a pro account.
For portfolios/sales, use a solution like smugmug.

For any/all of these you can mash up your own site but I don't see a big benefit for you. You have a blog, you have flickr. A $20 upgrade to flickr and you're done. For sales the site creation (shopping cart/php/cms) is not something easy for a beginner or even a basic web designer. (I'm way better with html and xml than php/asp)

[Lukevdp]

As a web designer that has worked with a lot of local type businesses, here's my opinion.

- Your site isn't going to bring in a lot of new business initially. Don't expect your website to be a silver bullet for your marketing activites. I see it as a an important and synergistic part of your marketing activities.

The ways your website will help

- You'll want to optimise it for search engines and make sure it's showing up for "photographer [your town]" in Google. This is a topic of its own, but basically make sure you have a google local listing, and get listed in lots of local directories.

- As a way of enhancing your image - If a prospect goes to your site and it looks really good, they then transfer that impression onto the work you do.

- As a way to facilitate referrals and exposure - I see it as an anchor for word of mouth.

I may be biased because I'm a web designer, but I would suggest getting a site professionally done rather than going with premade templates. (With the possible exception of a few of the photographer specific services I've seen). The reason is that a crappy looking website is worse than no website.

[sk66]

Originally Posted by Lukevdp

The reason is that a crappy looking website is worse than no website.

I'd say you are biased, but this I will agree with 100%.

IMO, photography services are "generally" not the same as other services....

People order a custom wound pickup from me...it doesn't mater where they are in the world......someone wants a pic taken and it matters (usually).

[daddyoproductions]

I would agree with the "get your domain name now" advice. Even if you don't use it, you have it before someone else snags it. We ended up with a .net instead of a .com because we waited too long. Don't know about smugmug cause I've never used it, but I would suggest that whatever route you take be easy and quick for you to update it so you will be able to find the time to do so. Your fam shoots are lovely!

[laurie millar]

Thank you so much for taking the time to help me you guys! It really helps a lot and I'm hoping to have something going by February.

[Yaprak]

Your work is quite good. I agree with K8et's idea about buying a domain, about $10 a year or so, and point it to your blog. This is as effective as a website and will save you money. Your work speaks for itself on your blog already. Good luck with the baby and congrats!

[mandyatm]

I am just coming to this crossroad myself. I have a blog and want to continue to blog about recent sessions, but also want to have tabs to link to galleries, prices and other information. I have a blogger blog and I am switching to a wordpress blog. I can add as many tabs as I want and even set a homepage. I love my blogger blog, but I wish that the pictures would be larger and clearer. I can do this with wordpress. A friend of mine is helping me link my domain to the blog and customize my layout.

One of your questions was about making photos web-ready - I would like to know how best to go about this also.