WWWhat?
Some photographers might tell you that you don't need a website but in today's highly connected world you are not going to go far without one. If you don't know how to design a site, don't have the money to pay someone else, or don't know anyone who wants to help you out, there are alternatives. Sites like SmugMug, Zenfolio, or even a WordPress photo blog allow a budding photographer a great way to start in the wedding photography business.
What do you need from your first site?
You'll need something that can grow with you, something that is SEO (search engine optimized) compliant, something that keeps new customers on your site, and something that allows your existing customers to order pictures. A combination of options can accomplish this, for example:
• Website with a link for your existing clients to Zenfolio or SmugMug
• Blog with a link for your existing clients to Zenfolio or SmugMug
• Just a SmugMug account
I personally started with SmugMug and then developed my own site. Now I have a Blog/HTML/Flash site mix. I use SmugMug as a gallery site for my existing customers and a blog to add new content on the fly. You can start with a website but I'd suggest starting with SmugMug, Zenfolio, or a WordPress blog.
Don't Be so Smug About It!
SmugMug is an amazing tool for new and existing professional photographers alike. It's customizable interface is second only to the amount of help found in the support forums. It will cost you $149.95 for a pro account for the year but to be honest it's a small price to pay to get your wedding photography business off the ground. It's features include unlimited storage, the ability to setup public and secure galleries, customizable pricing, professional prints, protection from downloading of your prints, SEO tools, and the ability to change the look and style of the interface to meet your needs.
As I said before it also has a great forum with lots of tips on how to customize the interface. If you're going to attempt to customize you'll need some knowledge of style sheets and a bit of HTML knowledge wouldn't hurt either. However, if you just want to go with SmugMug themes then no need to worry about that. It also allows you to use SEO tools which will help to drive customers to your site. I'll cover this in more detail in my marketing article.
While some photographers use SmugMug as their sole site and online portfolio if you truly want to drive customers to your site at some point you will need to move to a website which allows you to modify every aspect of the design and SEO compliance. However, SmugMug will work great for you in the mean time and once you've designed your own site you'll still want to keep a gallery service in place for your existing customers.
Find your inner Zen
Zenfolio is a service similar to SmugMug in that it provides galleries and ordering capabilities. It has a very nice interface that is intuitive and extremely easy to use for novice internet users. Everything about the service is extremely easy. It doesn't have as much flexibility when it comes to modifying the overall design as SmugMug so what you see is what you get, but to be honest it's a very beautiful site. It also has a lot of tracking ability within the site to help you get the most out of your orders and to know who is ordering what.
The premium service costs about $100.00 per year for unlimited storage. In my opinion Zenfolio is not a good service on its own. It works great as a customer gallery where your customers can order their prints from but doesn't work as a primary site. If you want to use Zenfolio when you first start up but don't want to design a website I'd say go with a WordPress photoblog that links to Zen for your private galleries.
WordPress Blog
I've just started my photoblog and did it for different reasons than a brand new photographer would do so. I have done it because it adds more links pointing back to my main photography site thus increasing my ranking in Google. It also allows me to show off new work without updating my main site all the time. For a new photographer it would be your primary online portfolio. To show people your work and to meet SEO needs. The reason I say use a WordPress PhotoBlog is because WordPress is easily indexed by Google. I'll go into that in the marketing article. A PhotoBlog is nothing more than a template placed onto a blog that lets you have images as your primary purpose rather than words.
There are lots of photoblog templates out there but to be honest my favorite is the one I chose. I am using a Pro Photo Blog template which allows for extreme customization without the hassle of knowing html or flash. The cost is $199 so its not cheap, but it is professional. Feel free to view my site for an example. Whatever template you chose you'll still need a gallery for your clients. If you'd like to keep your branding similar, go with SmugMug. If you just want dead simple, go with Zenfolio.
Read On
Make sure to take a look at my next article on marketing which goes into some things I've learned along the way. I won't be able to cover everything because to be honest the subject could fill books but I'll cover some highlights to get you started.
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