Devoloping a Web page

[Elitephoto9]

I've be doing photography for 30 years now, WOW hard to believe, anyway I start using digital about 2 years ago and I think I've spent more money on equipment than I ever spent on film.* Well any way the one thing I can't* build is a Web page.* Does anyone have any good advice? It has to be easy, yes easy. I also use Mac.
Thank you
Roger

[Scotty_R]

Originally Posted by Elitephoto9

I've be doing photography for 30 years now, WOW hard to believe, anyway I start using digital about 2 years ago and I think I've spent more money on equipment than I ever spent on film.* Well any way the one think I can't* built a Web page.* Does anyone have any good advice? It has to be easy, yes easy. I also use Mac.
Thank you
Roger

Roger, building a website can be easy or it can be extremely difficult, depending upon how you want to present your work.* I've always been a "form follows function" kind of guy and I think that the most effective photography websites are those that are simple in design and navigation.* After all, the function of the site is to present your work to the viewing public; the form (getting around, clicking on a thumbnail to see a larger version of the image, returning to the home page or a child page of the home page, etc.) should never overwhelm the function.* The site should be quiet (yes--quiet), calm, clean, easy to navigate--almost transparent to the images themselves.

Now, with all of that said, here's how you do it.* If your a Mac user and you've been digital for two years, then I bet you have a copy of Photoshop--preferrably version 7 or CS or CS2.* Now, go out and buy yourself a copy of Adobe GoLive CS and along with it buy Adobe's Classroom In A Book for GoLive CS.* GoLive is an HTML editor and it makes building a site almost a matter of child's play.* There is NO need for you to hire a designer etc., etc., etc.* You can do this yourself with just a little bit of reading.* After all, if you can take and manipulate a digital photograph that is saleable, then you can build your own website.* Trust me.

Just remember, keep the design very simple for the viewer to navigate--show off your images, not your HTML skills.* Follow this link... www.adobe.com/golive.* Have fun.

[photosbymorgan2]

Hello,

You can take a look at my web site http://www.photosbymorgan2.com

I originally did the site with Claris Home page but that program is no longer.

I did find a nice program called NVU that is graphical and works well. That is the program I used to redo my site and I am a Mac man also.

[danwolfgang]

As was already said, you can do this the hard way or the easy way. However, my approach is a bit different from Scotty's.

Doing it the easy way, I'd tell you to pick out a domain name ("elitephoto9.com") and host. For hosting, I use HostPC. You can get both hosting and domain name for under $20/year. Then install something like Gallery to display your pictures. Use Photoshop (or similar) to make your photos a web-friendly size and upload through Gallery. Ta-da! A web site, full of your photos!

Going this route, you won't have an easy way to sell photos (like an online shopping cart), however it'll only take 30 minutes to get a website completley setup and running. If you're interested in doing other things--like writing about photography techniques or whatever, Gallery could be supplemented with something like WordPress. There are boundless options--many of them much more complex than this.

If I can help more, I'd be happy to.

[Kevin Barrett]

Originally Posted by Elitephoto9

I've be doing photography for 30 years now, WOW hard to believe, anyway I start using digital about 2 years ago and I think I've spent more money on equipment than I ever spent on film.* Well any way the one think I can't* built a Web page.* Does anyone have any good advice? It has to be easy, yes easy. I also use Mac.
Thank you
Roger

Consider a SmugMug account. You can select a Pro Option that is easy to setup, maintain and most importantly... Mac Friendly.
BTW: I do not work for SmugMug, but I am considering this option myself.

[Alice Morrison]

Domain names are cheap at www.godaddy.com, something like $8. Find free domain names using www.nameboy.com.

Once you have a domain name, you can approach a host of your choice. There are MANY out there these days. Something like www.emaxhosting.com offers the first month free and as little as $6 per month thereafter. Hard to beat that.

To create a web page, you have a wide range of choices. Something like FrontPage is easy, and you can use it to upload your site immediately to a host such as emaxhosting.

[Mr. Pickles]

I got a Smugmug pro account, and I recommend it, and I don't work for them either.

As for the cheap domain registrations go, I think places like GoDaddy sell you the domain, but they actually still own it. Unless I got something mixed up...

As for webpage software, I use CoffeeCupp's software. it isn't free, but it is fairly cheap, they have a lot and it does a lot. It can do text based coding, or graphical coding as well. They have a bunch of products that work with it that do all the jazzy jazzy stuff too.

[Alice Morrison]

Originally Posted by Mr. Pickles

As for the cheap domain registrations go, I think places like GoDaddy sell you the domain, but they actually still own it. Unless I got something mixed up...

Mixed up. You own it.

You're not buying domain names *from* GoDaddy; you're buying domain names *through* GoDaddy. If someone owned the domain name you wanted to buy, you'd pay up big, or you wouldn't get it.

[ellette]

Yet ANOTHER point of view. You'll be innundated because everyone really does it differently.

I am tolerably ok with my website though I think I will totally change it up before long just because I love to re-arrange things (furniture, everything).

Anyway, what I think works best is to start out with a pad of paper and a browser. Look at a bunch of different photographers' websites. Write down or sketch what you like and don't like (be sure you don't forget which column is which! ). Then, step away from the computer and try to decide what you want in your website. Draw it out. Decide what pages you will need, how you want to navigate, the colour scheme that will work best with your artwork, everything like that. Then, you can do as I did and teach yourself HTML well enough (and there are TONS of free code sites that teach you how to do stuff as well as some great books out there) that you can produce the website you want. Or...pay someone else to do it for you.

Flash is typically entirely too overused with photographer websites for some reason. Too much flash will send a user away. Frames, like I have on my site can be ok or a pain (you can decide for yourself which mine is) though they can make it hard to get top billing on a search engine unless you shell out to be bumped up. Don't mention that your site is best if viewed in some screen size. Don't use blinkies or animated gifs...that just screams that you don't have anything special on your site so you are trying to dress it up. Don't let the site overpower the art, but you also want to have it show it off. Sort of like when you are matting and framing a picture...some pictures would do best with a double white matte , some need a black and a white one, and some actually do look best with colour, though almost all look best with a simple black frame...again there are exceptions. It is a matter of finding what sets off your work best, think of the website as an art gallery or as a frame for your pictures and go from there.

DO DO DO DO DO get your own domain name. Using something like www.someplace.com/category/you is horrible. You want it short enough that people will remember it, and it is best if you don't have to compete with someone else that has the same name...like theartstore.com vs. artstore.com or artstore4.com vs. artstore.com. Chances are people will remember the artstore.com and go there thinking it is your place if they don't have it written down in front of them so you can lose business that way. Another reason to buy a domain name is so that you don't have to deal with adds. Those can really turn off people.

Sara

[M. Worthington]

Sara's right on all counts, IMO.

Hey, Sara, do you know that the "bogus" link you provided actually works?

[Kevin Barrett]

Or you can go to betterphoto.com and have them do all the work for a reasonable fee. All you have to do is update the content and
post your pictures etc.

Kevin

[ellette]

Oh good grief! : I suppose I should have tried it before I posted it, but I never thought there would be anything there. Sort of like the email null@void.com, just watch someone end up using that for their real email addy.

Sara

Originally Posted by M. Worthington

Sara's right on all counts, IMO.

Hey, Sara, do you know that the "bogus" link you provided actually works?

*

[Mr. Pickles]

Alice,

Concerning the "mixed up" domain comment. I think i am correct. If you "buy" a domain from some places (GoDaddy too maybe), you are paying to "lease" it really. They own it. It seems like they keep it for one extra year too. So if you "buy" a domain for 2 years, then it will not be turned back into the pool for three years.

Might want to check with some of these places.

[Alice Morrison]

Mr. Pickles,

No, no. Godaddy is a *registrar,* just like Network Solutions and about a million other places that you can license domain names through. You're correct that you actually lease a domain name; but you're not leasing it from an owner, as you would lease an apartment, for example.

Godaddy doesn't own any domain names; they're a conduit, a licenser. How could any one entity possibly own all the domain names? You can come along and say, "I want the domain name www.x2dioi-euix-oi.com." No entity actually already "owns" that name.

Here's something we all might find helpful:

"You don't own a domain name, you license it.

Legally, you only own a license to use the domain - you do not gain title to it. However, for all practical purposes, the end result is the same. As long as the name has nothing to do with someone else's trademark or legal right to own the name, you own the domain name that you registered through us. Pay special attention to the "Organization" field when registering your domain name - the "Organization" field becomes the Registrant, the party to which the domain name is legally licensed.

In addition, unless you hand the role over to someone else, you will also be the Administrative Contact for your domain, which means that you are the person who can speak on behalf of the organization for which the domain name is registered. You should be able to answer non-technical questions about the organization's plans for the name. You should also be able to represent the organization regarding use of the name.

We recommend that you familiarize yourself with the respective Terms, Conditions and Policies issued by the Registrar. This agreement should list some of the conditions by which your domain name will be maintained and highlight their policy name disputes, including possible trademark infringement issues."

http://www.domainsforbeginners.com/

http://www.domainsforbeginners.com/h...ths/index.html

[cophotoguy]

Once you get your domain name ("elitephoto9.com") find a host that has free templates to create your web pages.
What kind of photo editor do you have?
Are you looking to sell your pics on line or just show off your stuff?

Steve

[dbphotos]

My 2 cents...

If you can build a website yourself, design the look and feel of the site and then add your photos with PhotoShop, Gallery (free) at gallery.sourceforge.net or* SimpleViewer (free) at http://www.airtightinteractive.com/simpleviewer/, etc.

If you don't know how to build a web site here are some ideas that cost a bit:

If you're looking to sell your photos, you want to go the professional route and here's some I'd recommend:
Digital Railroad @ http://www.digitalrailroad.net//Refe...id=1&dtr=False
pBase.com @ www.pbase.com
smugmug.com @ www.smugmug.com

If you just want to show it off to your friends and family, you can go the free route through some place like www.bravenet.com, www.flickr.com

David

[Elitephoto9]

I'd like to thank everyone for their suggestion. Everyone had great ideas and suggestions and I'll try them all, Thank you. I'd also like to say thank you for reading through my poor grammar and mis spelling.
Have fun
Roger