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Hello all. Pretty new here. I was interested in peoples opinions on the importance of having a personal website. Wether it's worth paying monthly etc for something professional or building your own and keeping costs to a minimum. As i’m very new to this im prefering the 2nd option, any suggestions welcome.

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As said before what do you want the website to do?  Really important to specify that and the either build one or not

 

Personally, as someone who built and now maintains six websites I would not be without them, virtually every day they give a return.

 

 

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Mine is with Zenfolio... http://www.philcrean.com

 

At the moment they have an offer of 20% off(I also get 20%), if you use the following referral code: 7JM-KK3-ENZ

 

They're pretty good and do what they say on the tin!

Nearly all of my private commissions, and some commercial/editorial jobs come through the website.

I couldn't survive without it!

 

Phil

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I guess it would primarily be for showcasing my photos, not necessarily to sell, it's only something i’ve recently considered noticing most photographers have them. Just something simple and elegant that i can use to direct people who show an interest, maybe business cards. 

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I operate 3 websites one of which is a photography one.  I use Piwigo, which is free.  You can set it up to sell prints if you want.  Web space cost varies.  I use justhost.com if you want to check them out.

Jill

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On 04/06/2018 at 13:13, Jay D said:

I guess it would primarily be for showcasing my photos, not necessarily to sell, it's only something i’ve recently considered noticing most photographers have them. Just something simple and elegant that i can use to direct people who show an interest, maybe business cards. 

I use Zenfolio, which I have found very good. There are endless ways to alter it to suit what you want, or you can just go for the default options. Quick to set up. Can be used as a showcase or for selling. I can give you a referral code too for 20% off but I see someone has beaten me to it. (H5B-YB8-S6X)

 

www.sallyanderson.co.uk

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Not important at all IMHO - and thats said had having one for about 10 years.

 

I think one is needed if you planned to offer additional services but for stock - a waste of time. For stock sales - a complete waste of time based on my history of sales. 

 

If I were to be starting now I would agree with Crypotoprocta - go for a cheap/free solution.

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100% agree with the cheap/free solution. Wanting to really focus on Stock, i do think having a seperate area might be useful if only to show strangers if needed when trying to get their portrait and personal projects, but it’s not something i want/need to take up much time. I shall definitely look at Myporfolio etc. Appreciate all the advice.

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It's not difficult to do your own if you're reasonably savvy, mine (http://www.tonycharnock.co.uk/) is adapted from a template bought online for £18.00. The main cost is the hosting, I'm with Fasthosts, costs £5.29 p/month plus vat for storage, email services, etc.
IMHO, websites don't have a lot of value if you only concentrate on stock. Mine is a selling tool - it pulls in several commercial assignments a year, provides contact details if a regular client has lost them - but doesn't even mention stock. Buyers looking for stock photos are fairly unlikely to search my site before they search Alamy.

 

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Yes, it is easy now with all the 'off the peg' sites where you can build your own from templates. My first website was built way before any of those sites existed, or indeed, any web design programmes such as Dreamweaver which I use now. My first site was built by me, by writing the HTML code into a blank document as that was the only way then.(In the old days). I certainly wouldn't do it now but my little knowledge of HTML comes in handy sometimes for 'tweaking' a few things. While I don't sell prints directly from my site, only from the galleries that represent me, it's an essential window for my work and as an interface for communication but as has been noted, not necessarily useful for everyone. 

Pete Davis

http://www.pete-davis-photography.com/

http://peteslandscape.blogspot.co.uk/

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23 hours ago, geogphotos said:

What I find most useful is:

 

* being able to direct possible new agencies to my website

* using it as a means of approaching those from whom I want permission/access to shoot stock - a kind of validation that I am legit

 

As stated above direct sales for me are as rare as hen's teeth but then again I don't do any active marketing.

 

I do think about rejoining BAPLA but really for a one-man-band it is very pricey.

 

You’ve hit the nail on the head with the word Validation, that’s my main reasoning...validating i’m legit to people in general rather than trying to make direct sales or get commissions which i’m not really interested in. Thx 😉

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8 minutes ago, geogphotos said:

Jay, not relevant to this thread but I see something wrong with the rollover when I look at your three correctly captioned images

 

I0000agIFOnQv69s.jpg

 

How do you mean Rollover? What could it be? 

 

Just checked and it shows my 1st 3 images ok. So i’m at a loss but interested if i’ve done something wrong here. Not sure why theres only 3 images when as of yesterday there should be 7 now 🤪...

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1 hour ago, Jay D said:

 

How do you mean Rollover? What could it be? 

 

Just checked and it shows my 1st 3 images ok. So i’m at a loss but interested if i’ve done something wrong here. Not sure why theres only 3 images when as of yesterday there should be 7 now 🤪...

 

Update. My latest 4images have appeared making a grand total of 7. Geophotos, if you could check them for me when able and see if theres any issues i’d really appreciate it. 

 

Thx Jay

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