KB: Making a website? Advice needed

Moved from the Open Talk forum by rovhazman

I'm not very satisfied with Flickr anymore and I would like to start my own personal photo website. Nothing complicated. Just a site where I can show my photos in a good format and plenty of them.

I know nothing of making websites so I would like to know some of the basics, get a few good suggestions, examples etc.

I think more of our members would be interested in this.

Could anyone give me some tips or advice?

Thanks a lot!!

Edited by rovhazman - 02 October 2013 at 16:09

Leo,

One simple solution is to use Jalbum. You can use their software to publish to your own domain or you can (for a fee) publish to Jalbum's site. Its easy. An example is Vitor's site here: Vitor's Portfolio
Sometimes your domain host (such as 1and1 which I use) may provide software for building a site. I use software called WordPress, which is really blog software, but can also be use for site building. WordPress I also have my jalbums here. My site is not very well developed as I have limited time, but maybe you can see some of the possibilities by checking it out here: Kelly's WordPress Site

Hope this helps a little.

Regards,

Kelly

Edited by AudioDoc - 01 October 2013 at 23:59

There is a number of steps that should be taken:

1. First, register your domain name. There should be a registrar in the Netherlands that does this, should you want to have a ".nl" domain. You can also choose to register a ".com" domain in the US, if you don't mind the NSA snooping into your communications.
2. You must choose an internet hosting company. Some of these companies may provide a software gallery; if you choose one of these companies, they will probably have a tool for customizing the picture gallery in the way you want. In this case, depending on the size of your picture collection, you will have to check with the service provider if it is possible to allocate more storage for the site you'll plan to host.
3. On the other hand, you can choose also to "roll your own server"; however, you will go far with this as long you have some intimacy with computers and operational systems. The advantage of this approach is your total control over your server; the disadvantage is that the burden of the maintenance of the server will fall entirely over you. If you're not used to manage computer servers, this can be a real PITA.
4. If you choose to "roll your own", the best cost-benefit option would be choosing a hosting company which offers VPS (Virtual Private Servers) which runs some version of Linux. I like CentOS because it's based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux and can use most of the existing software repositories for it. An option for this system could be Torqhost; they're based in Estonia and I've got a VPS with them at €36/year, running latest release of CentOS with 2 virtual processors, 2 GB RAM, 100 GB HD, with a transfer limit of 2TB/month.

This is the general schema of things. Should you want the gory details, please write me. But basically, it's your experience with computers which will determine the route you should take.

What Paulofessel said plus:

On the tech side, I am using Wordpress and Gallery2 embedded and the xtreme skin for G2 and Atahualpa for Wordpress. Its easy and it works and is unbelievably configurable. G2 is old these days but on the flip side its robust and proven. My site has a particular look because that suits me but this setup could be made to look however you wanted depending on how its configured. I have found this to be a reliable setup for some years now.

I use jalbum for DVD's but wouldn't use it for a website.

Hosting using a shared managed server is a cheaper option to rolling your own server and having done both I would recommend finding a good hosting option.

Getting back to making websites, I use WP + Atahualpa + a core of security and other plugins as the basis for all the websites I make. Understanding Atahualpa (any theme config really) gives you the ability to really make your site look the way you want. Setting it up the way I have allows you the ability to blog as well if that's important. If not, use a photoblog theme. You can easily swap themes and experiment. Its easy and its fun.

Here's some photo themes: http://techably.com/wordpress-photoblog-themes/10567/

Some are free some are paid. This will give you an idea of whats possible. Search on free wp photoblog themes and wee what pops up.

If you want to experiment at home, installing WAMPserver puts what you need for a dev website on your PC: http://www.wampserver.com/en/

This means you can tinker on your PC, try a few things and get a feel for it.

Good luck, have fun.

Edited by rovhazman - 02 October 2013 at 02:23

You may want to look at Zenfolio too.

Their offering ranges from very nice standard templates to a highly customised photo website. Pretty straightforward to use and plenty of guidance available.

If you have a domain name then the this can be directed to your Zenfolio site with no visible reference to Zenfolio if you want.

They also have a blog facility and other customised pages available.

Mine in link below if interested.

Nappa wrote: The only problem with your own website is getting traffic to it where as Flikr generates it's own internal traffic to view your work. Web site optimisation is time consuming & / or expensive unless you rank high in search engines you will receive little traffic to your site. I also use 1&1 but at present my web site is closed.

Flickr does nothing to promote your photos; it's entirely on you. You could put the same effort into your own website and look more professional. The most traffic-driving thing on my site are my instructional blog posts on simulating long exposures, and modifying the 35-70mm lens to be higher than 1:1 macro. That said, the purpose of mine is to merely showcase my work to people I give cards to or tell by word of mouth. Strangers viewing it is less relevant to me.

For people wanting to sell prints or offer services like weddings or portraits, Flickr won't help you there. You're drowning in a sea of other photographers, and you don't have any way to officially declare your offerings. For those, it's definitely better to have your own site, though most gigs are acquired by word of mouth anyway.

darosa wrote: ... I think more of our members would be interested in this. Could anyone give me some tips or advice? Thanks a lot!!

Looked at it, then decided that smugmug or zenfolio were much easier to use than trying to reinvent the wheel.

The latest templates zenfolio have look very nice to my eye, and the 'shopping cart' is pretty hasslefree.

I also liked the customisation of it, and being able to 'hide' some albums from public viewing (or password protect them). For example, sessions I do with disabled kids can be viewed privately by parents and without any attention.