website where?

[thekid17]

what are some names of sites that you use to create a website besides intuit and others alike. i want something you start from scratch and create everything thanks guys.

[Pmolan]

Smugmug is pretty easy to start out with. This one is pretty good.

http://www.photographybyross.com/

[FlyingPhotog]

I'm on Zenfolio which just had a major overhaul allowing for much more customization yielding a very strong (IMO) presentation. A little URL re-direct coupled with custom logos/graphics you can import and away you go...

[Hikin Mike]

I use 'Notepad ++' to design the site and 'FileZilla Client' to ftp it. You can't get any 'from scratch' than that! :)

[themadman]

I use Zenfolio and rather like it.

[SwitchBlade]

I use 'Notepad ++' to design the site and 'FileZilla Client' to ftp it. You can't get any 'from scratch' than that! :)

You can, Vi. Not that I'd ever recommend that to people though.

Something I've noticed with template sites from various providers here is when someone throws a site up for critique and people look over and make suggestions to be told "I can't alter that".

This may be easy and cheap for the newbies but means you end up with a site that can resemble many other photographers out there. If you all look the same then you don't stand out and people forget you.

Now you can learn to code yourself as Hikin Mike suggests, I'd class the basic parts of HTML and CSS as easy to learn, but then I've been coding since I was 11. Whether you can fashion something that looks good and shows off your images in the best light with those tools is a different matter to being able to use them though.

Lastly if you are earning enough money then IMHO it's a sensible business expense to pay a pro to make you a site from scratch to your design. Yes it costs but it's the way to get an awesome site. If you go down this route draw up how you want the site to look and feel in photoshop and have ideas of how you want navigation and stuff to work. It makes the pros job far far easier than saying "I want a site".

I know two local wedding photographers, one uses Joomla with a template for his site, one has had a pro put it together and pays the pro to do regular monthly updates on it. On photography I'd say they aren't far apart but the guy with the pro site really has an awesome showcase for his photos whereas the template site feels dull and lacklustre. That first impression helps.