Hosting on your own website

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Dr4ke

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Simon
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I'm considering building up a portfolio online to start breaking into the business, but I'm only starting so will only be doing free sessions to get practice for the short term.

For this reason I don't want anything expensive, what are some good domain hosts that are fairly cheap so I can start building my website?

Some examples of photography websites you have made would also be useful
 
There are several well known photography hosting websites, a quick google comes up with quite a few. I went with zenfolio, it's quite easy to produce a website on it. I dont have any website building experience so it was perfect for me. You can have galleries, blog, extra customised page and a shopping cart to sell your images. A basic website is £25 a year. I'm thinking of soon upgrading to the £50 a year package for unlimited storage (backing up final images so I have offsite storage, I'm currently thinking about image backup and storage procedure in case the worst did happen) and having my own domain name. My website is a work in progress.

http://robcain.zenfolio.com
 
Hi Rob, thank you for that. Could I ask how much storage you get with a website like that (for £25 pa?

Also; I notice you are from Bedfordshire - me too !!
 
Dr4ke said:
Hi Rob, thank you for that. Could I ask how much storage you get with a website like that (for £25 pa? Also; I notice you are from Bedfordshire - me too !!
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It's 2gb first year and an extra 1gb per year. One of the reasons I went for it was the upgrading. It helping not having to move to another provider and have to redesign a whole website just to upgrade or add additional functionality. Where about are you in Bedfordshire, I live just outside Bedford.

If you go to http://www.zenfolio.com and click on pricing there is more info there.
 
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Thanks for that :-) what did you search on google to bring up all the different domain providers?

I'm in Biggleswade
 
Dr4ke said:
Thanks for that :-) what did you search on google to bring up all the different domain providers? I'm in Biggleswade
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I just googled photography hosting websites. I also did a search one here too. A friend of mine was already using zenfolio and recommended it when spoke to him about it.
 
You have an internet connection already & it must come with 'free' web-space. Why not just use that? If you feel that you need a domain name you can buy that separately (& cheaply) and point it to whatever you've posted up already. Or have I lost the plot?
 
droj said:
You have an internet connection already & it must come with 'free' web-space. Why not just use that? If you feel that you need a domain name you can buy that separately (& cheaply) and point it to whatever you've posted up already. Or have I lost the plot?
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There are very few ISPs that still offer free hosting space.
 
Thanks all :-) I'll look at all suggestions to see what fits best!
 
Dr4ke said:
Thanks all :-) I'll look at all suggestions to see what fits best!
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I think it's important at this point you really look at your requirements, too many people decide they want a website without really understanding what they actually want.

An online portfolio is a simple thing to achieve without spending any money.

An online 'presence' for customers can also be had very effectively using social media.

If you are planning to launch a 'business' you should carefully choose a web platform, there are many options and they vary greatly, but only a few of them will fit with the way you want to run your business and how your business will be seen by the outside world.

I will bet of you scoured this site for all the times this question has been asked, all the people that ignored these points disappeared without trace, or had a serious rethink later in order to survive.

It's as complicated a decision as any and you need to consider:
budget
your skills
your target audience
e-commerce requirements
Is SEO important
your business 'image'

5 years ago, the world was full of clickpic and fancy flash websites, we have moved on a long way since then.
 
You could use WordPress.com. They host everything, all you need to do is add a photo blog theme and you're good to go. Doesn't allow you as much customisation, but it is very easy to get up and running.
 
Depends on what your after, we have our site built in wordpress, but the back end system so people can purchase items and view photo's and comment on them is done in Zenfolio.

Also remember you get what you pay for. If you do it for free, its probably going to look a little poor. Buy the best you can afford and decide what type of features you need.

Want a site that looks good and shows off your site? Then you can use something simple.

Want a site where customers can log in, view and comments on photography options, then pay for them are 2 very different things. What is the main aim of your website?
 
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