Prophoto or Bludomain for new portfolio and blog site

antc · 28 Dec 2010

Hi,

I have spent the day looking through various options for a new website. I currently have a portfolio website (hasnt been updated for some time) and a seperate blog site. I would really like to have these integrated into the same place.

There are also a number of other things I am looking for from the site such as -

galleries
Slideshows
embed video
integrated blog
ability to sell images (not necasarily straight away, could be added later)
password protected client galleries
social media integration - facebook/twitter
good seo

What are peoples thoughts on which is best for what I have in mind? How many of you have one or both of the two products I am looking at and how do you find them?

One thing that I have come across with my research is that flash based sites (talking bludomain here) cannot be read properly by google in terms of the flash based content so apparently this hurts your google rankings? But I also read that google has been modified to be able to read flash content as well, so not sure which of the two statements there is true?

antc · 29 Dec 2010

Anyone?

Dman · 29 Dec 2010

I've used both.

Trust me when I say, go with ProPhoto. It will cost you more for what you want, but it's worth it.

I went with BD back in February, loved the site and how it worked, yet enquiries dried up, I soon realised that sales were none too clever either for shoots I'd done. The BD uploads were soft and too small, clients couldn't get a good feel for the images and BD did them no justice.

In November, I went to a ProPhoto site and got a Zenfolio gallery for the sales side of things. It was the best thing I'd done all year. The Zenfolio gallery meant that people could view full page slideshows and much better quality images on smaller images. My sales within the two months that I've had it have tripled, if not quadrupled. The Wordpress site is a hell of a lot more SEO friendly and although I wasn't doing too badly with the BD site, that was all due to the splash page which isn't ideal.

So, I ended up paying for the ProPhoto site plus the Zenfolio gallery, but this came to around £200 I think and is well worth it. I also recommend going with Vidahost for the hosting, very cheap and unbelievable customer service. I know a few other TPers use them, they're UK based as well.

Basically, Wordpress/Zenfolio tick every box on the list you've made. If you want any other info then feel free to PM me, but don't make the same mistake I did. A nice flash site looks great but can have serious implications in the long run. ProPhoto sites may be very common these days, but they work, and that's all you want them to do.

antc · 30 Dec 2010

Dman said:
I've used both.

Trust me when I say, go with ProPhoto. It will cost you more for what you want, but it's worth it.

I went with BD back in February, loved the site and how it worked, yet enquiries dried up, I soon realised that sales were none too clever either for shoots I'd done. The BD uploads were soft and too small, clients couldn't get a good feel for the images and BD did them no justice.

In November, I went to a ProPhoto site and got a Zenfolio gallery for the sales side of things. It was the best thing I'd done all year. The Zenfolio gallery meant that people could view full page slideshows and much better quality images on smaller images. My sales within the two months that I've had it have tripled, if not quadrupled. The Wordpress site is a hell of a lot more SEO friendly and although I wasn't doing too badly with the BD site, that was all due to the splash page which isn't ideal.

So, I ended up paying for the ProPhoto site plus the Zenfolio gallery, but this came to around £200 I think and is well worth it. I also recommend going with Vidahost for the hosting, very cheap and unbelievable customer service. I know a few other TPers use them, they're UK based as well.

Basically, Wordpress/Zenfolio tick every box on the list you've made. If you want any other info then feel free to PM me, but don't make the same mistake I did. A nice flash site looks great but can have serious implications in the long run. ProPhoto sites may be very common these days, but they work, and that's all you want them to do.

Thanks Dave! Excellent post summing up a number of things for me. You have answered a few concerns I had with bludomain sites, although I hadnt noticed the potential photo quality issues. Photos seem fine for example on Raymond Linns site and thats with bludomain as far as I know.

I agree also that prophoto ticks all my list options too. I guess in terms of them being common thats kinda good and bad. From what I read and have seen they can be customised quite a bit? Would you agree with that? I wonder how easy it would be to customise with limited web skills? Guess these skills can be picked up and learnt along the way though.

One site I have seen which pretty much 90% made be think pro photo is the way to go is the following - http://hofferphotography.com/

Really like what hes done there.

Do you have a link to your site so that I could have a look?

Thanks again!!

DemiLion · 31 Dec 2010

Some form of customised front end with a Zenfolio back would be my thought as well.

What Zen currently lacks (ie the blog and embedded video) can easily be hosted on your own site, and then you just integrate with it for the rest. It has a good mesh with FB allowing you to host your portfolio on a Page, and the Pro level offers all of the sales and password protection that you'll need, with the slight exception of a Pro Lab, which is on the way.

If you are even vaguely tech savy, it's not that hard to set up your own Wordpress site (which is essentially what ProPhoto are offering). There are plenty of guides on the net as to how to achieve most things with it, and you could download both the WP software and XXAMP to your PC in order to have a play with them if time isn't that pressing.

In the long run it may be better getting to know how the software works, so that you can upgrade it yourself as and when needed.

Dman · 31 Dec 2010

antc said:
Photos seem fine for example on Raymond Linns site and thats with bludomain as far as I know.

They're ok in the galleries, but in the client area they're soft. I'll send you a PM later today with links to a client gallery in both BD and Zenfolio, then you'll see what I mean.

antc · 31 Dec 2010

DemiLion said:
Some form of customised front end with a Zenfolio back would be my thought as well.

What Zen currently lacks (ie the blog and embedded video) can easily be hosted on your own site, and then you just integrate with it for the rest. It has a good mesh with FB allowing you to host your portfolio on a Page, and the Pro level offers all of the sales and password protection that you'll need, with the slight exception of a Pro Lab, which is on the way.

If you are even vaguely tech savy, it's not that hard to set up your own Wordpress site (which is essentially what ProPhoto are offering). There are plenty of guides on the net as to how to achieve most things with it, and you could download both the WP software and XXAMP to your PC in order to have a play with them if time isn't that pressing.

In the long run it may be better getting to know how the software works, so that you can upgrade it yourself as and when needed.

Thanks some very interesting thoughts there that I will have a hink about. Much appreciated!!

Dman said:
They're ok in the galleries, but in the client area they're soft. I'll send you a PM later today with links to a client gallery in both BD and Zenfolio, then you'll see what I mean.

Look forward to seeing that! Thanks very much