Re: [CanonDigital SLRs] Website Development for Photography

Hi Nick, 
I think it is about time you get your website up and running,
I was in your shoes a few months ago, I had a website that was done by me,
but regardless of the efforts I've put in it, it was missing something, it
wasn't the clear cut professional looking the way I wanted, some close
friends also gave me their sincere advice that it wasn't up to the level.

I wanted a flash website, gallery, client area for proofing and I thought
even for a blog, 
Got few estimates from few web designers, and the cheapest was between 5000
to 7000$  

I was about to drop the idea and stick to the old site when I stumbled upon
http://www.creativemotiondesign.com/
They already have the templates, you purchase, upload the pictures and
should be up in running in few days.

Now it is not as easy as it may look, but it is the best I could after
couple of weeks of researching,
Here is the pros and cons,

Pros: 
1. The templates are already made, so all what you need to do is to upload
your pictures.
2. They send you an administrative access to your website so you can update
as often as you would like you '' no one is charging you for updates ''.
3. When purchasing, you can add shopping cart, blog, html mirror and more.
4. They give you a month trial, so you chose your template, play around with
it, upload your pictures, it is a real scenario, and the good thing is, if
you decided to go for it and purchase, all your edits are kept, and you
don't lose anything of your work, and you go online '' you go online only
when you purchase '' but via a private link, you can see how it is going to
look like when it goes live.
5. They have custom Email services, so you can have
[EMAIL PROTECTED] and tons of addresses.
6. Now the best thing about their Email, is that it is powered by google, so
you have all the googles option and protection AND you beside the pop3
access, you have a WEB access as well, so you can view your mail form any
computer, your web access is customized, so it is going to be mail.nick.com
and there you go. 
7. Their shopping cart is neat, where you can upload your pictures, have a
password made and delivered to the client, set your prices, and simply send
your password to your client, then they can pick and chose.
8. You pay the first year for the template and hosting, next year you pay
for the hosting only, and you keep the template as long as you want, you
only pay for the template again, if you decided to use another one.
9. There are other stuff but this is mainly it.
Cons:
1. The template are pretty much static, so the template you chose, are the
template you gonna have, can't add bars or section, but if you find a good
template that should do it.
2. Flash websites are not search engines friendly, I am sure you know about
that, there are ways to tag your pages .. But this is a different story
3. You still have to design your own logo and company name, as jpegs or gifs
and then upload them, I suggest you do it, I tried getting it done by a
designer and she asked for 500$ :D which is more than it costed me to do my
entire website with hosting.
4. They don't fulfill printing orders, they only email you the details and
you do it. I actually find this as a positive thing, as I'd love to do the
printing my self, maybe include my business card, promotions '' didn't do
that yet '' and so on
These are the main things that comes to my mind,
Check my website www.sphinxphotography.com  <www.sphinxphotography.com>
In the client area enter the password: sodfa    it will show you a sample of
ordering forms, in the upper right corner you will find (Ad to cart) click
it and try picking few pictures and sizes,  and submit the order :) don't
worry I wont charge you. It is few pictures that I took in a party and
uploaded them for testing, not the best pictures so don't judge me lol

My web mail address is mail.sphinxphotography.com, you will see only the
outer interface, when you log in, it is going to look exactly like any
google mail. 

So sorry for the long mail, this community helped me allot, Its my pleasure
to try and help back.
All the best, and please keep me updated,
Cheers, 
Kind Regards,

Ameed El-Ghoul,

(514) 996-0910

[EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>

www.SphinxPhotography.com <http://www.SphinxPhotography.com>


From:  Nick Vettese <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To:  <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date:  Thu, 6 Jan 2011 06:15:10 -0800 (PST)
To:  canon20d <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject:  [CanonDigital SLRs] Website Development for Photography

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> Other than Zenfolio and Smugmug type sites, has anyone tried to develop their
> own site?  
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> What tools did you use?
> Did you use a scripting language, program, or site to build it?
> Did you piece together the site from different tools?
> Did you sit and build from scratch?
> 
> Thank you,
> Nick 
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