I need to set up a website, anyone have any tips?

[Jake2k]

I need to get off my ass and set up a website, print business cards, and just get things rolling already but I have no idea where to start. Any of you have any info that could help me get started? I'd like the site to be a online portfolio as well as a place that I can host private galleries for clients. I appreciate and help you can give me

[96whiteknight]

I'm sure DD. will be able to help you out if he ever signs on.

[XtremeSaturn]

I use word press for my site layout. There are a million themes you can download and if you know some php or html you can go in and customize it a little more to fit what you are looking for. Editing is so simple and it's a lot easier to get ranked higher with google because they offer a lot of SEO tools. I use the tags and try to use wording on my blog that people would search for other than your standard Tampa Photographer that you have to pay to be on the front page. I've noticed google picks up my pages within a day in some cases for specific venue's I've shot at.

I'm looking to upgrade to a smugmug account next year where it will let me keep the look of my site rather than a generic one they offer just to add a little more branding to myself. You can upload, password protect, and have them print them out and ship them to your customer. I currently have a coppermine gallery that I password protect and is pretty simple to get around. It's not a long term deal.

J Patrick Dean Photography

[Luc1f3r]

i was going to say exactly what xtreme did, WP if you don't want to deal with actually building a site and smugmug is probably the best site for offering direct purchasing and event/private galleries.

[Jake2k]

I looked into Smugmug awhile back and it looked pretty good, does anyone know if the private galleries give the client an option to select or comment on an individual shot? I ask because I charge per edit and I will need a way for them to select the photos they want.

[Luc1f3r]

smugmug lets them order through the site, just post up all edits and they buy the one they want?

[TampasOriginalSoarer]

dont get flash, make sure its mobile device friendly..

[sfr002]

dont get flash, make sure its mobile device friendly..

Don't get an Apple get a real device

[TampasOriginalSoarer]

iOS device was not the reason behind my comment. this was:
Flash Disadvantages
In terms of usability, Flash sites are similar to sites built in frames, in which visitors cannot bookmark individual pages. This prevents visitors from being able to locate and re-visit specific pages of interest and may prevent a conversion or sale. Also, your visitors may not have the latest version of the Flash plug-in installed or may not have any version at all. This forces your user to download and install software they may not want in order to properly view some or your entire site.

Flash sites are also slow to load, depending on your visitor's connection. Not everyone boasts a lightning-fast internet connection and some Flash-heavy sites can take a minute or more to load!

Flash-based sites are hard on SEO, as they hide the content you want the search engines to see within the Flash file. The more real estate of your website that you have locked up in an animation or Flash movie, the less there is to be found, evaluated and indexed by the search engines.

[sfr002]

Agree I was just joking. You also can't right click save as with flash lol