So... you want a website?

I can wholeheartedly recommend WebBuilder (Pablo Software Solutions) for "do-it-yourself" web design software. it's easy and powerful. In fact, the site in my signature was done entirely with Web Builder - and the support is fantastic.
 
Thank you for such a details post, obviously you have devoted a lot of time to collate the information.
I recently came across a site called fotopic.net, it looked quite good to me but being a newbie almost everything looks good. They offer a free site with basic amenities, or for a realistic subscription you can have improved facilities. I was wondering if you could pass an opinon on this site please. Trev

www.flickr.com/photos/trev4
 
Slapo

Many thanks for taking the time to write this thread and share the resources with people, Im sure it will come in very handy for a lot of folk on here

(y) :clap::clap:
 
My own sites are using Gallery2 embedded within Drupal. Mainly because I wanted to do something with my pictures that was more than just a gallery. With Drupal you can have a blog and stacks more info and with Gallery 2 you have a gallery that's easily updated. But it's a steep learning curve to get it working.

hosting is with http://fasthostingdirect.co.uk/
£19.99/year, unlimited web space/traffic/mySQL/e-mail etc.

However I have looked briefly at a Flash website hoster :

http://www.wix.com/

If you like Flash this looks pretty good and it's free but if you want adsense and no wix ads and your own URL then, as ever, you have to pay. And the more content you want to add the more it costs.
 
Exhibit Engine is another you can use if you have your own hosting. Very powerful, though complex to use.

Not much development going on at the moment. It's a one man band production though the developer is thinking about making it open source.

I've been using it for quite a while, although over the last year I've not been updating it as I tend to use Flickr as it's easier to upload to (even though EE is hosted on my home server).

Flickr's okay for the community side of things, but I'm still after an easy to use but professional looking site. I'm looking at places like pbase, smugmug, etc, but I want good controls over copyright and maybe options to purchase larger sizes and/or prints, but with a UK presence for the prints.
 
Thanks for this. In the process of building a site and it's a minefield, so this has been very useful. (y)
 
I think you have missed thge most powerfull free software out there, gallery. (www.gallery.menalto.com/). This has:

- automatic watermarking
- sell images online
- batch upload
- admin panel control

The features cannot be matched by any paid for software, and gallery is free!
 
Thanks folks :)

I think you have missed thge most powerfull free software out there, gallery. (www.gallery.menalto.com/). This has:

- automatic watermarking
- sell images online
- batch upload
- admin panel control

The features cannot be matched by any paid for software, and gallery is free!

I haven't, it's there, close to the link to opensourcecms.com. Thanks, though :)
 
I used Gallery a long time ago but for some reason that escapes me I rejected it. I think it didn't seem professional or flexible enough for my needs. I guess it's changed a lot since then though.

Went to Coppermine which was more powerful but it had a lot of bugs and things got broken on updates and their support forum has a very negative attitude if you ask for help and aren't clairvoyant enough to know all the answers to your own questions (and god forbid you don't post your question in exactly the right way!). Basically I got annoyed with their insulting attitudes and the frequent security holes, so ditched it.

Exhibit Engine did nearly everything I wanted, but it's complicated to maintain (though it's got a comprehensive admin system) and I'm concerned about the lack of ongoing development.
 
Any members here who custom-build websites for clients, with examples and costs? Or links to recommended others who won't break the bank?
 
Any members here who custom-build websites for clients, with examples and costs? Or links to recommended others who won't break the bank?

You'd probably be better off starting a new thread about it.
 
Nobody has mentioned Joomla! (the exclamation mark is theirs, not mine)

It's open source, fabulous, full of features, great for photo plugins and supported by tens of thousands of clever people for free as well.

I've used it for about 50 sites, though my only photography one is www.andreaduncan.co.uk

There are loads of free templates to give your site a professional look, but once you start playing you'll realise how easy it can be to make your own.

There is a bit of a learning curve it's true, but with a default installation and maybe a couple of days of dabbling, you'll have a respectable site.

For photo display, there's a plugin called 'simple image gallery'. It's exactly that. Upload the plugin, place your images into a suitably named folder and then just put {gallery}foldername{/gallery} into your page text to display it.

I can help anyone who wants a go with Joomla. I have the time.
 
Nobody has mentioned Joomla! (the exclamation mark is theirs, not mine)

It's open source, fabulous, full of features, great for photo plugins and supported by tens of thousands of clever people for free as well.

I've used it for about 50 sites, though my only photography one is www.andreaduncan.co.uk

There are loads of free templates to give your site a professional look, but once you start playing you'll realise how easy it can be to make your own.

There is a bit of a learning curve it's true, but with a default installation and maybe a couple of days of dabbling, you'll have a respectable site.

For photo display, there's a plugin called 'simple image gallery'. It's exactly that. Upload the plugin, place your images into a suitably named folder and then just put {gallery}foldername{/gallery} into your page text to display it.

I can help anyone who wants a go with Joomla. I have the time.



Is this suitable for new starters?

P.s. Nice format, is it a template or one you made yourself?
 
Nobody has mentioned Joomla! (the exclamation mark is theirs, not mine)

It's open source, fabulous, full of features, great for photo plugins and supported by tens of thousands of clever people for free as well.

I've used it for about 50 sites, though my only photography one is www.andreaduncan.co.uk

There are loads of free templates to give your site a professional look, but once you start playing you'll realise how easy it can be to make your own.

There is a bit of a learning curve it's true, but with a default installation and maybe a couple of days of dabbling, you'll have a respectable site.

For photo display, there's a plugin called 'simple image gallery'. It's exactly that. Upload the plugin, place your images into a suitably named folder and then just put {gallery}foldername{/gallery} into your page text to display it.

I can help anyone who wants a go with Joomla. I have the time.

I like your site a lot. Clean and professional, not to mention the images looking good and loading well. Have sent you a PM in the hope of getting some help. Thanks (y)
 
Chech out redbubble.com.Register first then put your photos on they deal with selling check it out i am on there as andysax plus some of my freinds also
 
It hasn't really been left out, it's a blogging system (or it was intended to be one).
You can find it on the http://opensourcecms.com/ website.
Jaws and dragonfly seem to be a better choice for a website that isn't just a blog, as they come in packages that feature pretty much everything what someone setting up a personal/SOHO website would usually need. The last time I checked, you needed a Wordpress plug-in for many a thing those two offer in a default complete installation.
The same could go for Drupal (which also happens to have an administration system that many newbies find too complicated, especially if they're not very used to working with computers).

Thanks for the suggestion, though.

wordpress seems very popular among my photographer friends, & is what I'm leaning towards at the minute. I will go through your recommendations with a fine comb though, massive thanks for such great advice/info!
 
Another one to throw into the mix from a different angle is by hosting your photos on your own NAS. Just bought a Synology DS-411+ II and it comes with a thing they call Photo Station which appears to be a photo hosting and blog package rolled into one.

Haven't tried it yet. I'll probably stick with Wordpress for my normal blog though interested in using this as a photo blog.

Handy thing is all my photos are stored on the NAS anyway for my own use so no uploading to external sites. For hosting at home you do need an always on broadband connection and know what you're doing in terms of router configuration and have a static IP address or use a dynamic IP service (though the Synology stuff has support for all this).
 
if anyone wants a bespoke site without breaking the bank , i'd recomend this guy (who I know off another forum) Tom sustins
 
Thanks Slappo and Mattfelix (and everyone else too many to mention) ....this is great info.
 
Great collection!
But there is one more really great Free photo sharing service!
RedBubble. They have all the same features as Flickr (Paid version) but they are 100% free.
I have my portfolio there: http://www.redbubble.com/people/tore999/
What makes it different from e.g. Flickr, is that it is a stock photo site at the same time.
 
I am looking to set up my own website (i'm in the consultancy business in a very niche area) whilst pictures are important, It would be useful to be able to have lots of tabs that can contain text. I already have a domain name.

I need something really simple and easy to be able to do this.

I like the simplicity of ClickPics but not sure if I will be able to do the above anyway it appears to be more photo-based if that makes sense.

Can anyone suggest any easy-to-use and cheap companies who will let me do this?

Many thanks,

Nick
 
I have signed up to a company called photographysearcher which builds a website for you for a minimum cost and also helps with the seo which ranks your website high in google. it is helpful if you do not have the time or know how to build a website yourself or even if you have one you can link you website to theirs and gain more traffic.

I hope this helps some of you
Thanks
Florence
 
Nobody has mentioned Joomla! (the exclamation mark is theirs, not mine)

It's open source, fabulous, full of features, great for photo plugins and supported by tens of thousands of clever people for free as well.

I've used it for about 50 sites, though my only photography one is www.andreaduncan.co.uk

There are loads of free templates to give your site a professional look, but once you start playing you'll realise how easy it can be to make your own.

There is a bit of a learning curve it's true, but with a default installation and maybe a couple of days of dabbling, you'll have a respectable site.

For photo display, there's a plugin called 'simple image gallery'. It's exactly that. Upload the plugin, place your images into a suitably named folder and then just put {gallery}foldername{/gallery} into your page text to display it.

I can help anyone who wants a go with Joomla. I have the time.

I've actually mentioned that particular site (www.andreaduncan.co.uk) a couple of times on here as an excellent example of constructing a non-flash "minimalist" site which not only looks good but also rates quite well on Google etc.

Didn't know it was Joomla! though, it just looked excellent for the purpose.

So well done on a really good site.

.
 
I built mine using Wordpress and a theme from themeforest.net

It cost £20 and involved a bit of tinkering, but was well worth it. If you don't have time/knowledge to do that, I'd suggest indexhibit or Cargocollective - both free and have some nice, clean themes.
 
theurbanclown said:
I built mine using Wordpress and a theme from themeforest.net

It cost £20 and involved a bit of tinkering, but was well worth it. If you don't have time/knowledge to do that, I'd suggest indexhibit or Cargocollective - both free and have some nice, clean themes.

What them did you use?
 
What them did you use?

Zito Theme

It obviously looks quite different to what mine is now, but the end result was only achieved using a basic knowledge of HTML and CSS, the themes in-built options, then some plugins. The important thing is, it had all of the base features I wanted (responsive, filterable portfolio, nice looking slider), the basic cosmetic stuff is easy to change.

That's the beauty of Wordpress.
 
Zito Theme

It obviously looks quite different to what mine is now, but the end result was only achieved using a basic knowledge of HTML and CSS, the themes in-built options, then some plugins. The important thing is, it had all of the base features I wanted (responsive, filterable portfolio, nice looking slider), the basic cosmetic stuff is easy to change.

That's the beauty of Wordpress.

Cheers Ben, I like it. Very simple and clean.

I think iam going to go with this theme

http://themeforest.net/item/expression-photography-responsive-wordpress-theme/2855595
 
Over the last few days I've just been redesigning my website using Pixelpost and found it almost a joy to use. One of my problems was cross-browser compatibility, what looked good in Firefox, wasn't too good in IE.

My son came up with a couple of very useful free addons that solved all my problems and have the ability to do so much more.

A Firefox addon .... Firebug (go to tools/addons and add it)
And for IE ............. IE Developer Toolbar (go to tools/manage add-ons/find more add-ons)

If looking at modifying templates, they help with identifying what does what and where to adjust for desires results .... INVALUABLE


HTH

Firebug is legend but pressing F12 on IE isn't too shabby either. Two of the most useful tools I use :)

Just a couple of quick tips for folks.

Most photography sites are dreadful. They're just galleries with no text and people wonder why they get no visitors.
That's great to show clients but doesn't contain a whole load of text for the likes of Google to grab and get you found on.
Secondly, if you do add text, add your name, google author markup and link it to your google+ account.
That way you get a nice piccie besides listings in the search engine, which increases clickthrough by as much as 50%.
If you're the only dude on the list with a pic you're the one they usually click on.

Anyhow, there you go - feel free to browse http://extreme-macro.co.uk to tell me what you think!

Thank you,
 
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