skidooman Loc: Minnesota

Lot's of comments posted by wedding photographers in this forum, but when I look for websites in profiles I'm not seeing any links. I like to view others work for inspiration, ideas and just plain curiosity.

I see Bkyser's and mine. Anyone else care to share their work?

If I missed anyone I apologize in advance.

jrushphoto Loc: Flint, MI

www.jimrushphotography.com
Always looking for creative inspiration as well! Love to see the fruits of those that labor at this as a passion.

Cdouthitt Loc: Traverse City, MI

Some people have their website under their user profile. Click on a user name and sometimes you'll find it there.

skidooman Loc: Minnesota

Yep, that's where I always look. It's the reason I posted this, as there are none (or very few it would seem). Thanks.

bkyser Loc: Fly over country in Indiana

Actually, my website embarrasses me. Between trying to rebrand ourselves (long story) and changing web hosts, and being a complete hack when it comes to web page building, I just cringe when people look at ours right now.

I have watched probably 100 videos on how easy it is to do a wordpress site, and set it up so it looks closer to our old site, but I still just don't get it.

skidooman Loc: Minnesota

Mines a zenfolio site. If it wasn't so simple I'd have troubles :) Don't be too hard on yourself.

skidooman Loc: Minnesota

Thanks for sharing Jim, good stuff.

jrushphoto Loc: Flint, MI

Thank you.

bkyser Loc: Fly over country in Indiana

We have our own domain, and not sure if I can point it at a Zenfolio site or not. Frankly, everyone says that wordpress is "idiotproof" I've proved them wrong. This idiot knows how to screw it up.

greg vescuso Loc: Ozark,Mo.

I just started on one, made one with smug mug and then zenfolio and now I'm working on one with wix and this building site seems to have a lot more control, but I still haven't finished it yet. If any one has suggestions for web building sites I would appreciate it.

bkyser Loc: Fly over country in Indiana

do you have your own web domain? If so, who is your web host? Don't go by me, because I'm an admitted idiot, but moving from webs.com as a carrier to hostgator was the worst decision I've made. Others (who aren't idiots) seem to love it, it is cheap, but cheap doesn't help when you can't do anything with your own webpage. (me, not them)

greg vescuso Loc: Ozark,Mo.

When I get it finished I will, and most likely use Wix for the host and see how that works.

jaysnave Loc: Central Ohio

Steve, you have a nice website. I like others am floundering with a website. Currently I have a Smugmug site which I have littered with 1,000 plus pics of Weddings, Events, etc... It is more of a photo sharing site rather than a collection of best images and marketing tool. I will be moving forward on one over the next few weeks and will be glad to share when I get it together. I will be watching this thread for advice.

One question, I do company events as well as occasional sporting events. There will not be a sit down with clients but I would like to be able to offer downloads and prints online through a relationship with a lab. Is that best done within the website or perhaps a link to something like shootproof?

Rongnongno Loc: FL

Wordpress sites are blogs not a web site per say.

If you use 'as is' and as 'intended' w/o customizing it it is ok.

I have selected to pay the piper and have a web software developing tool that is rather expensive but much more flexible than anything else in the market.

Other than that you may want to try Adobe 'Muse' even if I found it rather limited due to it's 'flat' web site approach and lack of both menu and intra search. That thing feels like it was rushed to the market and is far from being mature.

I have tried many before falling back to my current software (I used it a few years ago).

In any case the keys to success are:
1) Content (limited, quality is not equal to quantity)
2) Navigation (organization)
3) Intra site Search
4) WEB presence (publication on search engines)

skidooman Loc: Minnesota

Thank you for commenting on my site. It's a constant work in progress. Seems I'm rarely satisfied with it. Anyway, I do events on occasion also. Father/Daughter dances, military balls parties and such. It has been my experience that on site printing usually generates more income than simply providing a gallery of images for people to visit and hopefully order from. Having said that, I do generate some income doing it that way, and printing on site is not always an option for a variety of reasons.

My plan through zenfolio allows unlimited storage. I can take images at an event, hand out my business cards with a password on the back of it (I print labels and stick it to the back), and leave the gallery up for a pre-determined length of time for folks to visit. The thing I don't like about doing it that way is zen/vendor takes their slice of the pie, and then the added shipping cost that gets tacked on by Mpix when they ship the image out. If I charge say $20 for an 8x10, by the time it's all said and done it could cost the client upwards of $30 or more to get their print(s). In my mind, that's a bit of a sticker shock.

The other way I'll do it is have them fill out an order form, print them myself and mail them out myself. Time and labor intense, but I make a bit more $$ doing it that way. But I do spend my time, and wear and tear on my printer, cost of ink and paper, postage and so on. For me it depends on the event and what the organizers are after and what will work out best for both of us.

I prefer to do it through my website if I need to. I should add I can offer downloads through my site also.