Does this seem like a reasonable swap?

I have another couple questions. For those of you who have a Bludomain site: 1) If I host with Bludomain, will my address have to be something like henry.bludomain.com? 2) Why should/shouldn't I host with them?

I want to switch my site from SmugMug to Bludomain because to me, their sites seem more professional. So what I was considering doing is downgrading my SmugMug from Pro to Basic so I'd still have the images there, and then purchasing a site from Bludomain (I was leaning towards Lucille Ann, but the new Harvey site seems pretty nice too). Does this seem like a reasonable move or not? The link to my site is in my signature if you want to look at that for reference.

Thanks,
Henry

You can totally customize your Smugmug site, so why not just stay? There customer service is top-notch and they have a great forum for help in customizing.

I feel like the look of my site is too generic and I don't have the knowledge neccesary to make it special. The lack of flash is also a deterent for me.

The new Harvey site is very nice. For $200 total investment, you really can't go wrong - $100 to own the template and $100 to have them host it for 1 year.

I have the Oscar site from Bludomain. I have never had a problem with them at all. I really like the option of adding a shopping cart to galleries and have them directed to paypal or e-mail me. And the option of offering different prices per gallery is very nice. The calendar is also a nice feature.

I have only uploaded small files to the site - usually less than 200kb per file. Mine are something like 1200x600 at 72 dpi so the initial getting your files ready for upload take the longest time. If I get orders, I just upload the original file to my printer - I like having control.

I'm pretty new to this web stuff. If I buy a domain with someone like Go Daddy, can I do some fancy maneuver and not have to pay the 1 year $100 thing and just the one time outside hosting $100 fee?

Nistelrooydude wrote in post #9123722
I feel like the look of my site is too generic and I don't have the knowledge neccesary to make it special. The lack of flash is also a deterent for me.

You realize 100% flash site are not SEO friendly right.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that a splash page fixes that issue.

Nistelrooydude wrote in post #9125207
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that a splash page fixes that issue.

It helps, yes.

Ok that's fine because this will mostly be a place for me to display my photos, not offer services.

I have another couple questions. For those of you who have a Bludomain site: 1) If I host with Bludomain, will my address have to be something like henry.bludomain.com? 2) Why should/shouldn't I host with them?

I would just find a free template online and spend the money on getting a real .com domain, much more professional imo