Moving from Zenfolio to Wordpress

[DavidBloor]

Pretty much as the title really.

My subscription is coming to an end I am not that inclined to renew it to be honest. I signed up mainly for the client proofing so is there something out that comparable in Wordpress?

 

[EdwardL]

I've been a supporter of Zenfolio for 3-4 years but in recent weeks I've spent many an hour looking elsewhere. The final two straws came when they decided to charge 7% for self-fulfilling an order (I pay them an annual subscription!) and now the new shopping experience is really off-putting for me. It's too big and bold and brash. Not what my customers like and not reflective of my character. Sales have dropped recently as a result.

I suspect I'm going to have to design my own site as all the others I've seen so far (Squarespace, Instaproof, SmugMug and so on) are not the designs I want - they're great for photographers who want to display photographs like an exhibition but my business model doesn't work like that. To date Zenfolio has been the only company that can show thousands of photographs in a boring but easily navigated website that also has a shopping cart. What they have done recently is not how I want my business to look like and I'm unable to change it.

Luckily for me I renew my sub in March so I have a few months to explore other possibilities. One site I have looked at more seriously is WebFlow but for me, I think it's back to more html and css learning and creating another one using Dreamweaver (Adobe subscription).

 

[andrewc]

photodeck, or photo shelter may offer templates which are more to your liking

or stylist.

 

[Deleted sulking member 63079]

I've been a supporter of Zenfolio for 3-4 years but in recent weeks I've spent many an hour looking elsewhere. The final two straws came when they decided to charge 7% for self-fulfilling an order (I pay them an annual subscription!) and now the new shopping experience is really off-putting for me. It's too big and bold and brash. Not what my customers like and not reflective of my character. Sales have dropped recently as a result.

I suspect I'm going to have to design my own site as all the others I've seen so far (Squarespace, Instaproof, SmugMug and so on) are not the designs I want - they're great for photographers who want to display photographs like an exhibition but my business model doesn't work like that. To date Zenfolio has been the only company that can show thousands of photographs in a boring but easily navigated website that also has a shopping cart. What they have done recently is not how I want my business to look like and I'm unable to change it.

Luckily for me I renew my sub in March so I have a few months to explore other possibilities. One site I have looked at more seriously is WebFlow but for me, I think it's back to more html and css learning and creating another one using Dreamweaver (Adobe subscription).

You could use Wordpress with a WooCommerce install?

I believe migrating from Zen to Wordpress might be pretty manual though, as I don't think Zen offer the option to export content.

 

[EdwardL]

You could use Wordpress with a WooCommerce install?

I believe migrating from Zen to Wordpress might be pretty manual though, as I don't think Zen offer the option to export content.

I think I might have found an alternative: Shootproof - just on a trial version I've sold more off this than Zenfolio, am paying no commission on the sales and (at the moment) the monthly subscription rate is cheaper. I had a look at Wordpress and it's not out of the question at all. Thanks for the thoughts.

 

[petersmart]

Not what my customers like and not reflective of my character.

I just looked at your photos Edward and my critique - superb!

Good luck for your new website.

 

[EdwardL]

I just looked at your photos Edward and my critique - superb!

Good luck for your new website.

Thank you, Peter - love comments like that! Very kind of you but there are plenty of better photographers than me.

Re the new website, there are faults with Photoshoot (as there are with Zenfolio) and I don't think any provider will be 100% perfect unless one is prepared to pay probably a good four figure sum to a web designer. 2-3 years ago Zenfolio was top class but this year they are not listening to their paying customers with the changes they've introduced. Many moans on their forums about the new shopping cart system and how sales have dropped and the result is many of us are looking elsewhere now.

 

[g4jsg]

I use Wordpress, I have done for over 10 years now, and woocommerce is really good, there are lots of plugins to give you added features for woocommerce too.

My tips on using Wordpress are:

Choose a wordpress web host, so they perform auto WP updates and most offer cache plugins too.
Protect yourself from hackers, WordFence is a great plugin to do this.
Hide the login page, it makes it more difficult for hackers.
Use ReCaptcha on all forms and login pages.
I great web builder theme is Themify, it makes wordpress into a drag and drop builder like squarespace.

 

[AndyG123]

We run a very successful e-commerce website which is based on WordPress in my day job. We have www.voxpanels.co.uk using (betheme) and another one in the making at the moment. Which is www.mbcladding.co.uk/mbdecor (using flatsome theme) really the amount of plug-ins the possibility is endless.