website creation??

[maxwax13]

Hi everyone, I have been trying to get a website together for awhile now. But always get held back because of short funds. I want something that is simple and slick. I think the flash websites really stand out better. Is it worth buying a flash template for $100? Or does anyone have any experience and in creating websites that aren't too costly?

Thanks, M

[tlc]

depends on mac or pc? i used rapidweaver (for macs) for a while - very affordable and very easy to build a site= however i was somewhat limited and branched out and eventually purchased a bludomain template, they arent $100, but they are worth it. i dont have time to sit and design anything anymore. and being able to use a bulkloader is wonderful and password client viewing is excellent.

[mizuno]

So you want a really nice site, but really cheap?

Good luck. :)

In my pretty extensive experience, you generally get what you pay for.

[liza]

I feel your pain. I bought one of the flash templates which really isn't too bad, but can't quite figure out what to do with it yet. I'm going to enlist the aid of my fiance's son, who is a web design student. You might try the same.

Good luck.

[LeesaB]

try bigblackbag.com

I used them, and I am very happy with them...not as "pro" as some, but good enough...cost is not alot.

Let me know what you decide..I think I can save you money and you me, if I refer you, but check it out first and see if it is something you like or not.

[*Mike*]

If you can adapt a template from here - you'll get a pretty good bang for your buck. Template Monster (http://www.templatemonster.com/) is where many of the simple and cheap templates on the net originate. They do have ones for photogs - both flash and html. Take a peek.

[PIXI_666]

Flash sites are generally not the best, only because not all people on the internet have the time to let it run through it's bits n pieces - it might be 'flashy' but at the end of the day people want to see your work prices maybe what products you offer maybe a blog blah blah....they wanna get to know you...

I went through magic dust who are based in melbourne, i LIKE my site - people may disagree but whatever! They charge very low prices and i think all up i paid around $500 AU.

Then they give you software to do any changes whenever you want as often as you want - you can add anything to it and do whatever you want to it. Personally it was the best i could do for the price i wanted to pay!

It's a suggestion but check out their site :)

Del

www.magicdust.com.au

[AMeyer]

BigFolio does standard templates in the $250 range - www.bigfolio.com (http://www.bigfolio.com)

[david lee]

Is it worth my time to learn Dream weaver and create my own web site or should I just pay a pro?
Would love some advice on this please.

[kiwinvan]

If you already have dreamweaver, why not give it a go?
I built my own site and I'm fairly happy with it (for now). It was VERY time-consuming though as I didn't know anything at all about computers when I started. I know they say time is money, but when I started 2 years ago and had tons of time and no money :lol:

On the other hand, if you have to go out and buy dreamweaver and you're not computer savvy then I'd say put that money towards hiring a pro or at least check out a template.

Nowadays I don't have so much time and I still don't have so much money, but if I could afford to outsource any part of the business it would be the website.

[jjmucker]

ive recently just finished building my website, and like some folk on here. i have very little experience with web design or HTML code.
i used a program called sitespinner and started from scratch. ok, its not the most fancy website in the world but that is not what i was looking for in the first place. IMO a nice clean easy to navigate website is better than all that flash jazz :D

in saying that though, the flash do sites look amazing.
maybe in a few years when i have real money to spend on a great looking site instead of spending a fortune on camera gear then yeah, i would like a website to be built by a pro for me, until then. this one does me :D

[abolit]

you may want to take a look at www.flashpalette.com
They have the web templates specially designed for photo portfolio and wedding galleries.
But be carefull with the one for $150. I tried this one and found some bugs in the menu that navigates your wedding galleries. I pointed this bug to the guys and they said they were aware of this bug but this product is still for sale. I don't know what they are thinking... They don't have a customer service phone number. So, it's impossible to contact them.

Those for $400 and up look good so far...But again...Who knows...

[Banbert]

Whether you build it yourself, buy a template or get someone to do it all for you make sure your SEO is sorted as part of whatever deal it is your getting.

Too many people make nice sites with not much concern for SEO and if your doing that then I am fraid your missing out on a shed load of free enquiries from organic search engine results.

If your a famous photographer or already have an established business working mainly from referals then its less important but when your starting from scratch and your prices are low then a professional looking site, good SEO and a decent price will get you plenty of enquiries and then its upto you to close the deal.

Remember that a good web designer isnt necessarily good at SEO, just be careul when stumping up your cash to make sure you know exactly what your getting.

[jjmucker]

too true banbert. ive been chopping and changing mine almost everyday which i dont think is helping much. im not sure how long it takes for things like this to happen but ive searched google,yahoo,msn, you name it and nothing is coming up for my website.
i dont expect things like this to happen overnight but i just hope ive done this whole SEO thing correct on my site

[Banbert]

too true banbert. ive been chopping and changing mine almost everyday which i dont think is helping much. im not sure how long it takes for things like this to happen but ive searched google,yahoo,msn, you name it and nothing is coming up for my website.
i dont expect things like this to happen overnight but i just hope ive done this whole SEO thing correct on my site

When youve signed up for webmaster tools on google you will be able to see your sites crawl rate (on google at least), you will realise then that its quite a long haul for SEO. If you keep a very brief log of your changes and what your current ranking is for a few of your key search terms then in 6 months time you will be able to see how far you have come.

When we started last year we were waaaayy down the list for our key search terms wheras were top of the first page for our key ones now but it does take time and quite a bit of effort, dont expect to get to the top overnight.

If you havent already registered at Photolinks then thats a good link to have to your site that will help towards your ranking, its an old site and has a decent page rank for what it is, free to register and you get a proper link to your site as well .... plus its not some front for hard selling SEO like many of them are, found too many of those this last 8 months !!

http://www.photolinks.com/

..

[tlc]

too true banbert. ive been chopping and changing mine almost everyday which i dont think is helping much. im not sure how long it takes for things like this to happen but ive searched google,yahoo,msn, you name it and nothing is coming up for my website.
i dont expect things like this to happen overnight but i just hope ive done this whole SEO thing correct on my site


do you have statcounter so you can at least see when the googlebots are crawling your site?

[jjmucker]

do you have statcounter so you can at least see when the googlebots are crawling your site?

im not sure i have a stat counter but i have recently installed google analytics. is this what your talking about or something else.
thanks

[Jaime]

If you have LightRoom, you can use light room very easily for both stand alone and slideshows if you prefer.

[tlc]

im not sure i have a stat counter but i have recently installed google analytics. is this what your talking about or something else.
thanks


no. go to statcounter.com, you can observe all your traffic. its very helpful, especially if your running ads, and what have you.

[jjmucker]

no. go to statcounter.com, you can observe all your traffic. its very helpful, especially if your running ads, and what have you.

that statcounter is pretty damn good. im positive it gives even more info than google analytics. do you know if the code only has to be placed on your homepage or, like google analytics, it has to go on every page on your site?

thanks

[tlc]

that statcounter is pretty damn good. im positive it gives even more info than google analytics. do you know if the code only has to be placed on your homepage or, like google analytics, it has to go on every page on your site?

thanks

i place it on every page.

[photosbyterrysimmons]

I built my own using SiteBuilder which is part of AT&T Yahoo's hosting package. Had some templates that worked for me. Nothing to win any awards on but I like it and so does everyone that replies. Some complain about the music so maybe I will go take it off for awhile.

www.photosbyterrysimmons.com (http://www.photosbyterrysimmons.com)

[asysin2leads]

This is not aimed at anyone here, but is just a general statement. I think that far too many people are more concerned with satisfying themselves with a website than making it viewer-friendly. They want to add all the bells and whistles and don't think about how easy it is to navigate. I think the biggest mistake people make in creating websites is adding auto-play music to their site. The first time they view the site and forget to turn the speakers down, you've turned them off to your site. I know, I know, you put that little "mute" button on their, but when they're at the office and the music blasts and it embarrasses them, you're done. Trust me, it's happened to me. Both in viewing a site and designing a site. I've seen some really nice flash and .html-based sites from photographers. Then again, I've seen some real crappy ones, too. I think that the KISS method applies to websites. Keep It Simple Stupid. Again, this is NO WAY directed at anyone here.

Take this simple test.
Does My Website Suck? (http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/does-my-web-site-suck/does-my-web-site-suck-checklist-part-one.html)

[jkloef]

I definitely still have some things to improve on with my website but I use yahoo to host my site and as far as statistics go they give quite a lot of info...but I have never used anything else. Am I missing something by not having something like statcounter on my site? What are the benefits?