What do I need to know about getting a web site?

[mitchell]

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I want to get a web site for my photos.

 

Aside from the look and price, are there other important factors in choosing a web site service?

 

A service I looked at said they were theft proof, but testing this, I found that I could easily lift an image though I won't say how here. But, I wonder if any web site can insure theft proof images? Are small size and watermarks are the only answer?

 

Does anyone here have experience selling prints on line?

 

Has anyone used one of the on line print selling services instead of doing it oneself?

 

If I have a show in a gallery and sell prints through them, can I sell the same image by myself online?

 

How can one increase viewer hits?

 

Thanks in advance for any advice and experiences.

 

Best,

 

MItchell

[ndjambrose]

Lots of questions. Here are a few answers.

 

Web site - think about this in three parts: hosting; support/customer service; quality site design. You have to get the first two from the same provider, but the third you can get from a source you prefer. Look for flexible hosting options, easy contracts with favourable and low billing terms, good round the clock support and a decent technical platform from your provider. Look for good quality visual design and understanding of user experience from your site designer. Worry less about the technical quality; a site that uses latest W3C standards but that looks and feels rubbish will be of no use. But you can get away with a site that has deprecated coding standards if the perceived quality of experience is high. Ideally you'll have a designer who can do both, but you'll need to pay realistic fees. Or you can use a template site like bluedomain or livebooks.

 

There's no such thing as theft-proof images on a website. Anyone who tells you there is hasn't the faintest idea what they're talking about. Images are designed to be loaded and viewed by browsers; they can be downloaded by people in the same way. The only way to stop an image being stolen is making it undesirable - either by being watermarked, or of unusable quality. Watermarks can be touched-out and images of unusable quality are pointless.

 

Prints are sold online by lots of providers. A quick google will find you plenty - see smugmug for example. The better ones do complete fulfilment service; you provide them with a corrected and profiled high quality image; they take the orders and print and deliver to the customer.

 

Whether you can sell your own editions outside of a gallery is dependent only on the terms you have with the gallery. Most photographers who exhibit will sell their own work too but usually in an edition not available through the gallery to avoid conflict of interest.

 

Increase viewer hits by having compelling content updated regularly. Make sure that your site is advertised to the people who will find it interesting. Syndicated marketing can help, but so can can informal stuff like networking and special interest sites.

[wda]

Mitchell, getting myself a website was my New Year Resolution for 2008. It took me six months and that was merely to launch date. Adding new material and refreshing its content is an ongoing commitment which you ignore at your cost.

 

I think the first priority is to define, quite precisely, what is the purpose of your site. It sounds as though you want one as a route to on-line print sales. I can't help you there because that was not my priority. However, it remains a possible development. Others will be able to help you. Set your goal and don't get side-tracked.

 

Research site providers and study the quality and diversity of presentation. Spend time looking at as many photographers' sites as you can. Bespoke site designers cost serious money. I short-listed three potential hosts before choosing Photium who, I thought, offered a good service at a reasonable price. Furthermore, a month's free trial allowed me discover the very timely and helpful support available. I suggest whomsoever you choose to host your site you try it for the free trial period. It gives you a good feel for the subject. Don't underestimate the time taken to learn how to use HTML code, edit and populate your portfolios.

 

Regarding image theft, I think you should accept that once your material is on-line it is accessible to the world. The biggest safeguard is the fact that your displayed images are low resolution and quite small. Good enough for further web use, but not for quality artwork or publication. Watermarking is a deterrent, as are statements reminding viewers that you own the copyright of images displayed which should be respected. However, nothing is going to deter a determined thief. Most viewers are just ignorant of copyright and presume that everything on the Internet is Royalty-Free! Do your best to disabuse them.

 

I hope that helps a little. Do let us know how you proceed.

[stuny]

Mitchell -

 

I can put you together with the man who redid my site, if you like.

 

For hosting I use Domain Names and Web Hosting by IPOWER

[mitchell]

Thanks so much David and Ambrose. Very helpful.

 

David, beautiful fall images. Great color.

 

Ambrose, I really enjoyed your website. Great feeling of spontaneity and warmth. I really the way you alternated color and B+W according to the image.

 

Best,

 

Mitchell

[jaapv]

It is a lot of fun getting your website together though

[Overgaard]

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I would say purpose(s) as the first thing to define.

 

Then think out a structure that will work for (all) the future so that the site can be expanded and improved, rather than redone.

 

My own website THORSTEN OVERGAARD official homepage - Danish feature writer and photographer was designed in 1997 as 1) a java menu and 2) a template. All pages on the site follow the same template, which mean that if one decide to change colors, types, etc. on the site, one change the template, and all pages are changed in one go.

The menu is simply the organizing for the viewer of all the files assembled on the server - kind of. And the menu is "floating" on the pages, where and how is defined by the template.

 

There's also lots of page management systems, making it easy to use templates and easy to update. However, if those systems change dramatically or cease to exist, so does your page.

 

If one anyways decide to go with "packages" I might recommend Uber - Free Custom Photo Galleries, Slideshows, Blogs, and Websites which allows slideshows, blogs, etc. and is ever-developing. And it's free why it could be a great way to draw experiences.

 

As for 'secure' pictures, that would mean flash. But that also rule out keywords which make pictures hard to find. I would have no problem having ordinary JPG files lying, include the text file saying copyrighted file, and eventual add a watermark if it's important that no one steal the images.

 

For image sales, I would go with one of the new micro-payment sites such as iStockPhoto or PhotoShelter

[jaapv]

A 900 pixel-wide web image doesn't print to any form of quality anyway. The only stealing would be for web use, and that is a dodgy business, as the perpretator is likely to be found out.

[ndjambrose]

...As for 'secure' pictures, that would mean flash...

 

Umm. In what way will using a flash site make an image secure?

[Overgaard]

You can always - and easily - make a screen dump and fix it up in PhotoShop. So it really doesn't matter.

 

But I've found that if you put copyright info in a (JPG) picture file, Google will index the keywords, but will not show the picture in picture results. Which mean one will risk people searching for certain terms and easily steal a picture.

On the other hand, if one buying a picture, use Google picture results to find it, he or she won't find it either.

 

I don't think one should design the world and the web to suit dishonest people. They're not a majority, though it's the ones spoken and written most about in the media ;-)

 

By the way, check out TinEye Image Search which allow you to keep an eye for who's using your pictures (still a Beta but for sure a future player)

[Guest stnami]

Mitchel.It is a highly competitive field selling images at a profitable margin, there are many out there that are willing to give stuff away for free and it is good stuff to boot. No get rich here unless one is lucky. Think about it........... how many images are downloaded every day. If profit is your sole aim and advertisers can see your site as usefull to them then it becomes a nice earner.

As far as a site is concerned I let someone else to look after mine etrouko Imants Krumins

The other site which is slide shows I host and look after myself as I need the simplicity of slide shows only

Untitled Document

Get yourself a great monitor hit print screen and bang you have stolen the image . good enough for the web ...watermarks look crap. Not many people see a need for the prined image . Editors of magazines and major sites are not interested in the hassle of stealing images as they have a huge pool to choose from at very cheap prices these days. Going to court for a image is just a waste of time for them.

[Guest DuquesneG]

Very helpful information. I've been itching to put a website together...my main obstacle is laziness though

[wda]

Very helpful information. I've been itching to put a website together...my main obstacle is laziness though

 

Make it your New Year Resolution!

[mitchell]

Thanks again for all the useful replies.

 

I haven't yet looked at all your websites, but I will.

 

I think initially I'm not going to set up to sell prints, but wait and see what the response to the website is.

 

I'm now thinking that I'll try out making my own website with LightRoom 2, as I do most of my work in LR. Any thoughts or experiences with LR's Web Module?

 

Thanks,

 

Mitchell

[Agent M10]

My site is a Livebook site. It is basically a template with some wiggle room for different fonts, etc. Rob Haggart, of A Photo Editor, has started a new website template for photographers that looks to be somewhat cheaper.