Hello, I'm new to this forum and am looking to establish a professional looking web presence with a blogsite. I would like a place where potential clients can view my work and book my services and for established clients to select from proofs, purchase prints and other products etc.

I've searched archives, reviewed websites and other forums for two days, looking at photographer's websites/blogsites then made a long list of potential website design companies. A company that provides professional looking templates to choose from will do for the time being.

Making a choice is confusing since some do not provide full service etc. But those that do (such as Pictage) seem to have some customer service issues or else they do not offer a format that looks professional to me (like SmugMug). But perhaps I'm not seeing the whole picture.

Of the ones that only get the client through the view of proofs stage, where do I go to provide the rest of the services for the client to actually make their purchase of prints and so forth? If it is a separate step then how do I connect that other service to my site?

Of the 20+ on my list, Photobiz.com appeals to me the most at this point.

I want good customer service for me as well as my clients, would like to be able to easily change things like colors, fonts, layout etc if I decide I need to do that without charges each time.

I want the website and blog to be able to be easily accessed between each other. What irritates me with some photographer's web and blog sites is that you get stuck on one or the other and can't get back to the other area without having to start from scratch. I'm not sure if that is the fault of the photographer's design of the site or whether that is a shortcoming of the template features.

I also don't know if I should choose to host the pages somewhere else or stick with the company that provides the web page design. Simplicity for me is going to have to be the key since I know little to nothing of the technical aspects of how to put something like this together, etc.

I like the blogsite idea so as to be searchable and have potential to drive business and traffic to the site etc.

Any thoughts/opinions/comments would be very much appreciated.

Thanks

Debbie

After a very unpleasant experience with BluDomain, I'm having a good experience with BigFolio. After the unpleasant experience, I decided to prioritize customer service and BigFolio is living up to their reputation in that regard.

Best of luck,
Lori

Thanks! I did finally notice that bigfolio offers blog sites in addition to flash sites. I guess Photobiz does not. Any others out there that offer that too?

I initially thought the blog part of these photographer's sites was provided by the flash website companies. But some look like they were created separately with something such as wordpress or blogsite.

Ideally, I'd like to have a unified look between the two and wonder how difficult it might be to achieve that if I design the blog myself?


Debbie

i currently have 3 sites up and running with blu and i really like them a lot - i get wonderful customer service and their templates are just beautiful. i also host with them and have only had one disruption this past year which was not their fault.

i bought the blog template from pro photo and i love it. there is a link somewhere on this site about pro photo.

showit sites

livebooks

Showit Sites.

The best priced, the best options, no cookie cutter sites...

I have photobiz and like it a lot. There are some limitations as far as customizability with them but their customer service is AMAZING!

BIGFolio BIGFolio BIGFolio!!!!

haha

Can you tell how much I <3 them?

Ok, so every time I think I've made up my mind (and I'm ususally pretty decisive on things once I have enough information to make a choice) I find myself vacillating on this. I think it's because I still am not real clear about the blogs versus the websites and how they get linked etc.

So I decided to try (what the heck) establishing my own blog via blogsite. Mostly I just have a title up to see if I like a particular format and will have take some time to familiarize myself with how to do it. But I think that would still be the case if I paid for a template made by one of the choices on my list because I have to compose my script and what images to include, etc.

Since I'm just starting to do this I don't really want to spend a ton of money on something I'm just not certain about yet and havn't decided whether it is something I could just do myself. Eventually, the thought is to have a custom site but I don't need that right now nor want to spend that kind of money.

But the flash website portion of my online presence, for sure I want that.

Thanks to the members who have replied with input - really appreciated.

Debbie