Building a new site!

[Brideshooter]

I want to build a new web site. 99% of my business is wedding photography and I would like to know who I should go with for my site. I have heard a lot of negative reviews about Blu Domains customer service so I'm a little nervous about tossing them $400 for a site, although I really like there stuff. I'm not sure I want an all flash site either due to SEO and rankings. Any of you POTN members have any ideas.

[Kendoway]

It's a toss up at this point - and if you Google "Blu Domain customer service", you'll see multiple forums discussing how great they are, or how horrible they are. It looks like a love/hate sort of thing.

I've been thinking about a Blu Domain site myself, but feel a bit hesitant. I've also heard good things about Photobiz.com. Any opinions?

[dbguy4eva]

interesting. im actually trying to build a flash website... blu domain has some good ideas that i can incorporate into my design :) i'd say try building one yourself?

[nphsbuckeye]

Just buy the Adobe Web Premium Suite and let your creativity wander!

[BscPhoto]

MY Wife and I run BSC Photo & Design and we build websites. There are a few major things about flash websites that will hurt you in the long run.
Not everyones computers can read flash websites or have older versions of flash players and they might be too impatient to deal with the download.
Second. Mobile phones don't read flash websites, this has become a huge factor in web building.
Third. Search engine optimization. You want someone to type in "wedding photographer" and your state or town and be able to find you. Flash websites are basically 100% images and there is no searchable text. Google and other search engines find your website by the information that is contained in your pages. So in basically there is nothing searchable. This means that the only way someone might find your page is if they type in www.brideshooter.com and then your page may take over a year to show on google.

Send me a PM in you are interested in hiring us to build you a website.

[nphsbuckeye]

MY Wife and I run BSC Photo & Design and we build websites. There are a few major things about flash websites that will hurt you in the long run.
Not everyones computers can read flash websites or have older versions of flash players and they might be too impatient to deal with the download.
Second. Mobile phones don't read flash websites, this has become a huge factor in web building.
Third. Search engine optimization. You want someone to type in "wedding photographer" and your state or town and be able to find you. Flash websites are basically 100% images and there is no searchable text. Google and other search engines find your website by the information that is contained in your pages. So in basically there is nothing searchable. This means that the only way someone might find your page is if they type in www.brideshooter.com (http://www.brideshooter.com) and then your page may take over a year to show on google.

Send me a PM in you are interested in hiring us to build you a website.
I don't have a flash site, let a lone a website, but one can have a SEO friendly Flash site. http://www.lynda.com/home/DisplayCourse.aspx?lpk2=780

[BscPhoto]

that is for a "flash heavy" website and not an "all flash" website. You can have a flash heavy website which has lots of flash elements that can still be read by search engines, but you can not have a FULL FLASH website that is easily indexed. Sure, you can hide some HTML in there that the search engines can read, but if google finds hidden text, you will get penalized, and hidden content is the ONLY place for HTML in an ALL FLASH website.

[nphsbuckeye]

that is for a "flash heavy" website and not an "all flash" website. You can have a flash heavy website which has lots of flash elements that can still be read by search engines, but you can not have a FULL FLASH website that is easily indexed. Sure, you can hide some HTML in there that the search engines can read, but if google finds hidden text, you will get penalized, and hidden content is the ONLY place for HTML in an ALL FLASH website.
Ok, GOT it.

[Brideshooter]

You all have been really helpful, my brain is in overload.

[Mark Anthony]

Save yourself a heap of money and build it yourself.. clikpic.com is really easy and great value for anyone just starting out.. then as business grows and handing alot of money over to a company to build an 'all bells and whistles' site will be less of an issue.

Edit> and a website can be amazing without flash, it's the design, layout, colours used, content, navigation and ease of it that'll keep people on it, not loads of flash!