Designing a Photography Website - Free?

I've been looking around at "drag and drop" type website design templates like Wix or Yola. I love what they have to offer, but I'd like something that's free.

I already have a domain name and a host. Is there anything out there? I'd use their basic service, but I really want to use my domain name.

Do you want a site that will show clients your capabilities? Sell? Collect money & ship prints, or just take orders?

Free JAlbum.net - Will build excellent galleries & now has free hosting, too. A few skins incorporate shopping cart features like FotoPlayer 39-$89)., & some of those aren't free.
http://jalbum.net/host​ing/

Example skins - JAlbum skins seem easy to modify & there's a lot of help in their forums. Some subforums are dedicated to only one skin, which makes it easier to get info.
http://jalbum.net/skin​s
http://jalbum.macosxsu​pport.com/

Gallery3

any other freebies? thanks

Thanks for sharing that info PhotosGuy!

bludomain works for me so far. they just had a killer sale i got a $100 template and a year of hosting ($100) for $50 bucks. supposedly they are rolling out a new website and new templates tomorrow.

Check the JAlbum it's free but not quite drag and drop.

I highly recommend moonfruit.com

Made mine there using the web based design software. www.mattophoto.net

Moonfruit agreement... does this mean they can use your images for whatever purpose they want, without asking permission first?

8.*Intellectual Property Rights and Licences
8.1. All copyright, design rights and other intellectual property rights owned by you in any text, software, music, sound, photographs, graphics, video, page layout and design or other material which you upload or post to SiteMaker (collectively referred to in these TACS as “Member Content”) shall remain your property and, in accordance with paragraph 7.3(c), you shall not upload or post any Member Content that infringes the intellectual property rights of any party unless you have the permission of the owner.
8.2.*By uploading any Member Content to SiteMaker, you grant the Company and its successors and assigns, a non-exclusive, world-wide, royalty free, perpetual, non-revocable licence to display and reproduce such Member Content, both digitally and in print, without any duty to account to you, provided that such use shall be limited to use for Sitemaker’s promotional purposes only. You further agree that upon posting any Member Content within a private, members-only group on SiteMaker you grant the Company, and its successors and assigns a non-exclusive world-wide, royalty free, perpetual, non-revocable licence to distribute, display, and reproduce such material to other members of that group. You also grant the Company the right to authorise the downloading and printing in whole or in part of any material that you have posted to a group on SiteMaker, by end-users for their personal use.
8.3. You acknowledge and agree that all content other than Member Content, including but not limited to text, software, music, sound, photographs, graphics, video, page layout and design or other material contained in SiteMaker or information presented through SiteMaker by the Company or by advertisers is protected by ours or their copyright, trademarks, service marks, patents, or other proprietary rights and laws. You acknowledge and agree that the Company can display images and text throughout SiteMaker, including the insertion of sponsor messages into messages distributed on SiteMaker mailing lists. If you create a Member Site, you agree to display prominently on your home page or equivalent and in such other parts of the Member Site as the Company may require the SiteMaker name and logo. Content received through SiteMaker may be displayed, reformatted, and printed by you for your personal, non-commercial use only. The Company grants you a personal, non-transferable and non-exclusive right and licence to use the trademark "SiteMaker" and you undertake that upon termination of your use of SiteMaker (including if you decide to move to another host) all such rights in the trademark and all other rights granted to you hereunder will cease forthwith.
8.4. You acknowledge and agree that the Company owns or is licensed to use all intellectual property rights (including without limitation all copyrights, patents, trademarks and trade secrets) in connection with and in all versions of SiteMaker, the SiteMaker software and, subject to paragraph 8.1 above, any content posted on SiteMaker other than Member Content.
8.5. Except as expressly authorised by the Company or advertisers, you agree not to modify, copy, reproduce, republish, upload, post, transmit, rent, loan, sell, lease, licence, sub-licence, distribute or create in any way content and/or derivative works from SiteMaker, other than Member Content, in whole or in part.
8.6. The Company grants you a personal, non-transferable and non-exclusive right and licence to use the object code of SiteMaker on a single computer; provided that you do not (and do not allow any third party to) copy, modify, create a derivative work of, reverse engineer, reverse assemble or otherwise attempt to discover any source code, sell, assign, sublicense, grant a security interest in or otherwise transfer any right from SiteMaker. You agree not to modify the SiteMaker software in any manner or form, or to use modified versions of the SiteMaker software, including (without limitation) for the purpose of obtaining unauthorised access to SiteMaker. You agree not to access SiteMaker by any means other than through the interface that is provided by for use in accessing SiteMaker. Upon termination of your use of SiteMaker, the licence to use SiteMaker shall cease forthwith.

Just do a blog format, most photographers I know are moving in that direction anyway

Just an update on this from me.

After searching endlessly for a WYSIWYG editor, ended up using a really nice Wordpress template and editing it in Wordpress itself.

The theme is called "Autofocus"

Would suggest Joomla, Wordpress or similar ... quick and simple IMHO, tonnes of free templates and extensions out there for you to make your site do exactly what you want with very little effort ...

Learn wordpress, its pretty easy once you get the hang of it. Tons of support forums to learn from too.

FatNakedGuy wrote in post #11391424
Moonfruit agreement... does this mean they can use your images for whatever purpose they want, without asking permission first?

8.*Intellectual Property Rights and Licences
8.1. All copyright, design rights and other intellectual property rights owned by you in any text, software, music, sound, photographs, graphics, video, page layout and design or other material which you upload or post to SiteMaker (collectively referred to in these TACS as “Member Content”) shall remain your property and, in accordance with paragraph 7.3(c), you shall not upload or post any Member Content that infringes the intellectual property rights of any party unless you have the permission of the owner.
8.2.*By uploading any Member Content to SiteMaker, you grant the Company and its successors and assigns, a non-exclusive, world-wide, royalty free, perpetual, non-revocable licence to display and reproduce such Member Content, both digitally and in print, without any duty to account to you, provided that such use shall be limited to use for Sitemaker’s promotional purposes only. You further agree that upon posting any Member Content within a private, members-only group on SiteMaker you grant the Company, and its successors and assigns a non-exclusive world-wide, royalty free, perpetual, non-revocable licence to distribute, display, and reproduce such material to other members of that group. You also grant the Company the right to authorise the downloading and printing in whole or in part of any material that you have posted to a group on SiteMaker, by end-users for their personal use.
8.3. You acknowledge and agree that all content other than Member Content, including but not limited to text, software, music, sound, photographs, graphics, video, page layout and design or other material contained in SiteMaker or information presented through SiteMaker by the Company or by advertisers is protected by ours or their copyright, trademarks, service marks, patents, or other proprietary rights and laws. You acknowledge and agree that the Company can display images and text throughout SiteMaker, including the insertion of sponsor messages into messages distributed on SiteMaker mailing lists. If you create a Member Site, you agree to display prominently on your home page or equivalent and in such other parts of the Member Site as the Company may require the SiteMaker name and logo. Content received through SiteMaker may be displayed, reformatted, and printed by you for your personal, non-commercial use only. The Company grants you a personal, non-transferable and non-exclusive right and licence to use the trademark "SiteMaker" and you undertake that upon termination of your use of SiteMaker (including if you decide to move to another host) all such rights in the trademark and all other rights granted to you hereunder will cease forthwith.
8.4. You acknowledge and agree that the Company owns or is licensed to use all intellectual property rights (including without limitation all copyrights, patents, trademarks and trade secrets) in connection with and in all versions of SiteMaker, the SiteMaker software and, subject to paragraph 8.1 above, any content posted on SiteMaker other than Member Content.
8.5. Except as expressly authorised by the Company or advertisers, you agree not to modify, copy, reproduce, republish, upload, post, transmit, rent, loan, sell, lease, licence, sub-licence, distribute or create in any way content and/or derivative works from SiteMaker, other than Member Content, in whole or in part.
8.6. The Company grants you a personal, non-transferable and non-exclusive right and licence to use the object code of SiteMaker on a single computer; provided that you do not (and do not allow any third party to) copy, modify, create a derivative work of, reverse engineer, reverse assemble or otherwise attempt to discover any source code, sell, assign, sublicense, grant a security interest in or otherwise transfer any right from SiteMaker. You agree not to modify the SiteMaker software in any manner or form, or to use modified versions of the SiteMaker software, including (without limitation) for the purpose of obtaining unauthorised access to SiteMaker. You agree not to access SiteMaker by any means other than through the interface that is provided by for use in accessing SiteMaker. Upon termination of your use of SiteMaker, the licence to use SiteMaker shall cease forthwith.

That's quite interesting. I does appear to read that they can do what they want with the images. I say appear because I'm no expert in translating legal talk. LOL

Start with wordpress.com. They can host the blog for you for free. Upload your pics or use plugins that can tie in flickr galleries. It's pretty easy to learn. Certainly easier than building a site from scratch.

There are plenty of youtube videos that can help you with wordpress, too.