Sites and hosting

[Ashley Daws]

So what are the options for having a professional looking website (smugmug, zenfolio....) and where do you host them (or are self hosted)?

Also what labs/printers can be used by these sites in NZ?

Time for me to get a site.

[rjd]

Mine (and my wifes) is hosted by A2 in the US, I've a huuuge amont of space/bandwidth and probably way overpay for what I need and can host/resell if I want too.

Not sure what you mean by labs/printers tho.

[Ashley Daws]

Rob, a lot of the sites provide a service for clients to order prints, so I want to know if any offer this service in NZ.

Also wanted to know if I got say Zenfolio or Smugmug do I have to host it or is it hosted by them, how do I get my URL to work with them?

[Tony]

I am using squarespace.com. I think I have paid about $250 in total. Thats 1 year of hosting in US for site (unlimited bandwidth/storage etc), local host for my domain. The domain host redirects traffic to the site host, which hides anything about their domain/hosting so the user only sees your one no matter where it is. If you dont care about having an extra host word in your url then you dont need to buy one. e.g. my domain is tonyphotography.co.nz with domain or squarespace.tonyphotograhy.com with no domain purchase/host ($45). You can always add one later if you want but for search engines it might be good to decide one way or the other.

With design you will be making a decision about time vs money (you know that already though aye, your a web guy), personally I want more time and so spent the extra $100 or so and used a host with a nice template/tools setup... personal choice I guess.

[Ashley Daws]

Thanks Tony.

Im sure I really need the facility to order prints online built into my site, that way I can give out the site details at functions for people to order their own prints in the size o f their own choosing. This kinda thing is on Smugmug and Zenfolio but I am not sure it's NZ friendly.

[smix]

Thanks Tony.

Im sure I really need the facility to order prints online built into my site, that way I can give out the site details at functions for people to order their own prints in the size o f their own choosing. This kinda thing is on Smugmug and Zenfolio but I am not sure it's NZ friendly.

If you use Zenfolio, and your customers are in NZ, it is not economically viable for them to order through Zenfolio. When I was using them for track days at Manfield, the photo labs linked with the site were all overseas based and cost quite a bit to ship, that and the shipping time would've been quite awhile. You can set up 'Custom Orders' and set up various sizes for you to send away to a NZ based photo lab to process and mail.

In the end, I just sold the digital files through Zenfolio.

There are instructions provided on the site to use your on URL as well.

Hope this helps.

[Tony]

Maybe that's a business idea itself, the printing side of things. I know when we ordered our calenders last year through snapfish we gave our post code and then picked them up the next day at a local KMART so it can be done.

[Chakkaradeep Chandran]

Hosting is cheap, but Storage is not.

I would look into options where you host in flickr or any other hosting site and pulling the pictures in your site. This way you save heaps of cash (which can be used for other purposes like buying new gear!)!

You can then use many software like Wordpress to create customer logins, flickr to share with specific customers, and a simple form (using various form plugins for Wordpress) to accept requests from customers for printing.

But yes, this will require some technical expertise to work with, especially if you want to allow clients to look only into their collection and localise the user experience (like postcode finder etc., etc.,). Also I would think is this really necessary? Because this involves clients to create an account to access the photographs, where the client is probably going to login and access the service say 3 or 4 times.

The services like Smugmug and others should provide most of the functionality but they surely wont be localised for NZ. But if all you want is to just get a Print request, then that should work isn't it?

[Russ]

quikpix.co.nz
But it looks a horrible site.

[Paul.]

i use moonfruit.com for www.paulalsop.com

i haven't quite woked out a website --> Print service, therefore am using Redbubble as an external hoster, it is probably not ideal, but i'm more interested in having a showcase of my work than on selling stuff

[BlueRose]

I used Zenfolio because I could sell the digital files easily - for local people, they bought the digital files and I got them prints supplied (accounted for potential print cost in the amt I was charging - yes came out of overall profit but a sale was a sale)

I liked Zenfolio, and they worked hard at doing improvements to make the site better and I found them very responsive and helpful when I had questions. Only reason not still with them is my site expired in Feb and I kinda had other things to worry about at the time

[rjd]

Jack I'm happy to host your site if you want, its all teh whizzy just need to point your domain at it, all php and perl etc. I dont think any ISP as such will provide direct printing facilities anyhow

[Ashley Daws]

Thanks for the offer Rob.

I went with Smugmug in the end and paid for hosting (don't need it though!), just setting it up now.

[smix]

Let us know when it's up!

[Ashley Daws]

Should be up now at www.ashleydaws.co.nz

I think I need to weed out some photos though.

CC welcome.

[mesodan]

Looks good, Jack.

I'm on smugmug too. You can customise it quite abit. The official forum can be very helpful, and its also good to look at other people's sites too to see what is possible.

[ResponseMedia]

+1 For another SmugMug user Just starting to play with the customising side of the site now.

I am loving the Lightroom plugin for SmugMug makes my life sooooo much easier and faster.
Have not really played with the Selling / Printing side yet but want to do more on that side soon.

[Russ]

There's got to be a market for some tech wizz to set up an online storage/selling site in NZ? A la smugmug etc.

[Adam]

Should be up now at www.ashleydaws.co.nz

I think I need to weed out some photos though.

CC welcome.

Not a bad start, but it doesn't scream "book me" to me

I think you need to concentrate the site on what you want to offer as a service, which I assume is events/portraiture style work. Get rid of the landscapes, nature, projects etc - That's what Flickr is for

Have a section/portfolio for fashion and one for portraits maybe?

The phrase "I'm a nice guy" is not backed up by your photo, which makes you look like some seedy back room poker player

[Ashley Daws]

Not a bad start, but it doesn't scream "book me" to me

I think you need to concentrate the site on what you want to offer as a service, which I assume is events/portraiture style work. Get rid of the landscapes, nature, projects etc - That's what Flickr is for

Have a section/portfolio for fashion and one for portraits maybe?

The phrase "I'm a nice guy" is not backed up by your photo, which makes you look like some seedy back room poker player

I think I agree about the sections mate, I will get rid of them I think. And I do need another photo, a light one to put up, just I'm ugly and don't photograph well.

[Mark Vuleta]

....... just I'm ugly and don't photograph well.

Photoshop is a wonderful thing

[Ashley Daws]

Photoshop is a wonderful thing

Even a PS guru would be hard pushed to make me look good

[duncan]

you could always hide behind a lens...

[rjd]

You dont have to look beautiful Ashley.

Just well lit and thoughtful, and not like you would steal peoples daughters and sell them for cocaine.

[Ashley Daws]

you could always hide behind a lens...

Yikes! Is that from Sarah and Aaron's party a couple of years ago?

You dont have to look beautiful Ashley.

Just well lit and thoughtful, and not like you would steal peoples daughters and sell them for cocaine.

Yeah, but it would help

Ok, I have taken on board some of the comments and tweaked the site, I'm keeping the "Personal" stuff in there though (cos I like it ).

I would like it if someone (well a few of you) could give me feedback on the photo's, I mean which would you cull and why?