Do you use Photobiz.com ?

Hi there!

I'm ready to create my website and I'm looking for a one-stop site and/or easiest web hosting specializing on photography websites...

I am gearing towards Photobiz, it looks like it has everything I need.. galleries, password protected sites, calendar for scheduling, lots of templates and professional looking sites...

So.. I'd like to know who uses Photobiz.. and if not, what site are you using?

Right now, the only thing stopping me from signing up with photobiz are the One-time setup fee for this, one time setup fee for that!!! So, you can either convince me and tell me Photobiz is worth it.. or NOT, and what site is

Thanks in advance!

I do use Photobiz. I too was very leary about setting up a website and finally decided to take the leap! I went with Photobiz because the rates seem very reasonable to me and it was basically a "quick fix" due to the fact that they have templates and all I had to do was thumb through them, find the one I like and add my pictures and info. Not sure how much help this next piece of info is going to be but here it goes: I've never had a website before and didn't really know what to expect as far as fee's went. I shopped around for a while and ended up going to Photobiz due to the fact that they "didn't" take a commision of each sale. Or so I thought. Once I paid the set-up fee and all, I was then told I had to pick a company to do my transactions with. (please keep in mind,like I said, I thought this all came with it because this info wasn't provided to me when I called asking questions about it). So... they recommended iTransact. (think that's right). Well, iTransact DOES charge fee's. They are minimal but still. It's a small % of each transaction that goes through. Then, i got a bill the other day from Photobiz stating that they were fixing to start charging me an additional fee because their rates just increased. Keep in mind that I just stared my website like 2 months ago. So of course I was a little upset about that. I felt as though I got "sweet talked" into this company and now that my "free trial" is up, they are going to start throwing fee's at me!

With that being said, I still love working with Photobiz. The fee's are a little discomforting but from what I can tell, every company is about the same. I liked Photobiz because they had pre-made templates and all I had to do was click a button and all my info would change with the new template. I didn't have to go back and re-add everything. It was actually pretty easy to set-up as well. It took a few days to become comfortable with adding/deleting things to my expectations, but all in all I do like them. The customer service as far as I can tell is outstanding as well! Everytime I've called, I've spoken with someone withing 5 minutes and they answered the question quickly and effectively.
Hope this info helps with your decision!

Also, here's my website if you wanted to check out some options:
www.jessicamitchellpho​tography.com

I love photobiz. Granted the initial shock of paying an enormous amount for certain things is hard to swallow but when you really think about it, it's a one time fee. No extra "You have to pay this xxx.xx every month now" you just pay for the amount of pics you want to use. What's better than that? Plus their customer service, in my opinion is top notch. I have tried other sites and photobiz is the only one that called me a few hours after making my site to say thanks and tell me that they liked the template I was using. Now I know they were serious because we talked about some of the pics on the site. Who else does that? I recommend photobiz to everyone and I won't be going anywhere else!
Check out my site too
http://www.stevenmicha​elphotography.com

I use showit and love it. www.showitfast.com. Rather than a template the whole thing is fully customisable and it's pretty easy to make things look unique. There are templates to get you started but you can change anything about them with an easy drag and drop interface whenever you like. I paid $1500 and got a lifetime subsciption which includes hosting and everything, but I think the monthly rates are around $39 or similar so probably a bit more expensive than photobiz from what I can gather.

Showit uses flash which was becoming a problem with iPods, iPads and iPhones not being able to the view the sites, however in the last week or so they've released a new mobile aspect to the product which is all done in html 5 and looks awesome on the iPhone so that niggle is no longer an issue. It's worth looking into whether photobiz sites work on an iPhone.

If you're wanting to make a business out of this you don't want to skimp on your website, you have to ask yourself how much business a cheap website is costing you.

My website is in my signature, I haven't set up the mobile part yet so don't use mine as an example, you could try www.jasmine-star.com as a mobile example (or a non-mobile example that's better than mine!).

Photobiz is dirt cheap in the world of good websites. You could easily pay $5,000 on a custom website.

And they are quick and easy... though, i'm considering leaving for that custom built website. Flash template website are not very search engine friendly.

sctbiggs wrote in post #10248337
Photobiz is dirt cheap in the world of good websites. You could easily pay $5,000 on a custom website.

And they are quick and easy... though, i'm considering leaving for that custom built website. Flash template website are not very search engine friendly.

You could easily just pay the $45 and get an HTML mirror site (which will boost your SEO)

have the html mirror site... still not the same as getting a site designed from the ground up with SEO in mind

How so?

Love Photobiz...been a big part of my business for 3 years now. Best part for me is the credit card partnership with Itransact. Solid all around without any major complaints.

Thanks guys! Well, I signed up with a cheaper site, and cancelled! You only get 1 template and boy it is sooo difficult to configure..
I just signed up with Photobiz now and liking it a lot!!