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Archive 2017 · Are Personal Websites Dead?

  
 
David Baldwin
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Are Personal Websites Dead?


Not sure if this is the correct forum for this on FM, but I am increasingly wondering:

Are personal websites for photographers obsolete, I have one, but most people I used to link to have moved to social media or one of the photo hosting sites. Anyone else out there still running their own site?

If you do have your own site do you still do links to other photographers, or do you have a shopping cart button instead?

I'm not trolling, this really interests me. Thanks.



Aug 02, 2017 at 12:49 PM
Herb
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Are Personal Websites Dead?


I have a smugmug website I use. I liked it for so many reasons...

1) Ease of building - was very easy to build my site. Another member of FM had a site also from SM and shared with me her site. It was exactly what I was looking for and the ease by which to build it and get it up and running really appealed to me as I went forward. I had tried a different web site builder, one that was more geared to blogging and while that might have been good for me as well, it was just a bear to get it like I wanted.

2) Like I wanted - Sounds like it would be easy to obtain but was difficult with the other program i tried. I wanted something that was easy to share my photos with family and friends. This was it.

3) Easy to set up folders with or without passwords that would limit peoples ability to download my photos. I can easily pass the password onto my son for instance and he can download anything he wanted but would stop other people that I didn't want the access to.

4) If I decided in the future to sell prints the checkout offering was appealing, however I have read reviews where people commented that the checkout was less than fun to experience. I haven't set that up, but figure by the time I do perhaps SM will have this be a more appealing experience for customers. Also I would be able to have my own domain name by which to draw customers. I haven't optioned this part, but it is there for future expansion for me.

Not sure if I answered your question....but there are my thoughts of what I did and why.

https://herbturner.smugmug.com

regards, Herb




Aug 03, 2017 at 02:17 PM
rdeloe
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Are Personal Websites Dead?


+1 to smugmug websites. It's fairly easy to use and the tech support is good. I also like that I could make it "mine", rather than being a feed on Instagram or whatever.

www.robdeloephotography.com

Unfortunately, in the cold light of day, personal websites like mine are probably just one step up from leaving your photographs on the front hall table and hoping that visitors to your house will leaf through them! I do it anyway because I do get some visitors who contact me, and I appreciate the feedback and connections that sometimes result.



Aug 03, 2017 at 02:22 PM
Herb
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Are Personal Websites Dead?


Previously I had all my photos on the computer and my wife couldnt get a chance really to see them. My first attempt was a NAS with its own web address but it was clunky and really SLOW. Smugmug fits the bill where my wife as well as my son and others can easily see the photos.

I dont know how many photos are up on the site as I tried to remove many that were duplicates....but they go back to 2000 when I first really got serious about digital photography.



Aug 03, 2017 at 03:23 PM
dmcphoto
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Are Personal Websites Dead?


If you sell your work people expect you to have a website on your business card. I purposely don't sell anything online, but at gallery show openings and events like arts festivals people will ask for your website if they want to see more of your work.


Aug 03, 2017 at 03:57 PM
Herb
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Are Personal Websites Dead?


dmcphoto wrote:
If you sell your work people expect you to have a website on your business card. I purposely don't sell anything online, but at gallery show openings and events like arts festivals people will ask for your website if they want to see more of your work.


which you can do with smugmug.......just saying



Aug 03, 2017 at 04:43 PM
redcrown
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Are Personal Websites Dead?


I've had a Smugmug site for years. I post a few teasers on Facebook, with a link to the full gallery on Smugmug. That works very well. The Facebook post gets a dozen likes and maybe a couple comments, while the Smugmug gallery then logs hundreds or thousands of hits.

Works much better than the old way, which was sending e-mails to potentially interested parties. Plus, more and more people are learning about the poor quality of Facebook images.

Only negative is that Smugmug just raised my annual subscription 20% and tried to soft sell it by saying "only $0.99 per month increase." However, it was the first increase in years. Well, not the only negative I guess - 78% of my Smugmug hits are from phones. Grrrrr, full frame, 30+ megapixels, great attention to detail, just so it can be viewed 4 inches tall.



Aug 03, 2017 at 04:49 PM
dmcphoto
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Are Personal Websites Dead?


Herb wrote:
which you can do with smugmug.......just saying


Sure, no argument there. I should have quoted but I meant that as a response to the OP "Are personal websites for photographers obsolete...".



Aug 03, 2017 at 07:26 PM
thenoilif
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Are Personal Websites Dead?


Websites alone are not enough anymore but they are still an important part of any creative entrepeneurs marketing strategy.

The site should act as the base for telling your customers who you are. A lot of this comes from the aesthetics of the site. The design should be a reflection of you, your style or creative vision, and your personality. This is why I think template style sites are not the best way to go unless you're just using it as the base structure and can do a bit of web design on your own or hire someone to do it for you. As for smugmug, these are the type of sites that I generally avoid because they are too generic and overcrowded, too, it makes it difficult to stand out.

In the past, it helped if you could have a blog on your site, this helped to allow people to get to know you. These days, this has morphed into vlogging. Videos are now so important in promoting yourself because most people no longer take the time to read much of anything from their smartphones.

If the site is your business base, then social media is just that, media. It's the tease. Use IG, Flickr, fb, youtube to upload all of your media and then just link it to your site.



Aug 03, 2017 at 08:03 PM
Doc4659
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Are Personal Websites Dead?


After several years of Smugmug I made the switch to Zenfolio. Similar to Smugmug but easier to setup and use, IMHO.
I use social media to drive people to my website, they click on the picture in Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, etc. It takes them to my website to view it.

Once there, I've kept the number of items available to purchase limited to a couple styles of prints, sizes of prints available and options for framing and mounting options.

Good luck with whatever direction you decide to go.




Aug 04, 2017 at 08:33 PM
npolta
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Are Personal Websites Dead?


I defienitely don't think personal websites are obsolete. I follow a lot of people on social media, but head to their websites to see their best stuff since everything is compressed on social media.


Aug 07, 2017 at 12:53 PM
CanadaMark
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · Are Personal Websites Dead?


I think what a lot of people do is use hosting from a site like Smugmug, and then direct it to their own personal domain. That way you get powerful gallery features, but at www.yourname.com or whatever.


Aug 08, 2017 at 10:28 AM
Pavel
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · Are Personal Websites Dead?


Personal sites take a bit more effort than things like Smugmug, but I think that they help distinguish the caliber of the photographer if well done. No matter how one does it, Smugmug and other canned solutions are fine for sharing easily but they are the worst solution if your goal is a higher level of excellence and differentiation.

But of course that statement pre-suposes that one has the abilities to put up a higher than average website. I don't have neither the skills nor the passion anymore to host my own stuff, even though I have several domains, so Smugmug, Flickr and other such places are fine by me, for my aims at this point in time.

But no, not even close to dead.



Aug 12, 2017 at 02:14 PM
artificialyello
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · Are Personal Websites Dead?


Do you want to hang out, have a showcase or offer a shopping cart?

I have opted for a wordpress.com (as free as you want it to be) blog. No shopping cart but a contact form for those that might want to republish, I'm not a pro though... It can be found easily with a search on my "real" name. ;-))



Aug 13, 2017 at 02:49 AM
CanadaMark
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · Are Personal Websites Dead?


Pavel wrote:
Personal sites take a bit more effort than things like Smugmug, but I think that they help distinguish the caliber of the photographer if well done. No matter how one does it, Smugmug and other canned solutions are fine for sharing easily but they are the worst solution if your goal is a higher level of excellence and differentiation.

But of course that statement pre-suposes that one has the abilities to put up a higher than average website. I don't have neither the skills nor the passion anymore to host my own stuff, even though I have several domains, so
...Show more

The Smugmug sites directed to personal domains can be fully customizable - they aren't simple templates unless you choose that specifically.



Aug 14, 2017 at 11:30 AM
Pavel
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p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · Are Personal Websites Dead?


CanadaMark wrote:
The Smugmug sites directed to personal domains can be fully customizable - they aren't simple templates unless you choose that specifically.


Thanks for pointing that out. As is obvious, I did not know that.

Still a template is no bad thing for the most of us.



Aug 14, 2017 at 03:44 PM
CanadaMark
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p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · Are Personal Websites Dead?


Pavel wrote:
Thanks for pointing that out. As is obvious, I did not know that.

Still a template is no bad thing for the most of us.


No problem - I believe you need their most expensive account to do that as well.

I am a template guy myself



Aug 14, 2017 at 03:53 PM
Chumma
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p.1 #18 · p.1 #18 · Are Personal Websites Dead?


I like playing with computer code although I'm not a programmer. So I created a website basically from scratch writing code and bought the cheapest hosting service from Godaddy.com. But it loads very slow.

Here it is:



http://chummanet.com/




Aug 14, 2017 at 04:24 PM
Jeffrey
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p.1 #19 · p.1 #19 · Are Personal Websites Dead?


I've had a personal image website for about 20 years. It has changed and been replaced with new a few times. I believe that if you are a professional or want to act like one, you need to make your own independent and serious statement. I avoid digital dumpsters like flikr, but also use some social media, mostly FB groups, and that's fun, but I still direct viewers to my site from many places as well as my business card.

See www.jeffreysipress.com. Thanks. Your comments are welcome.



Aug 16, 2017 at 11:15 AM
Pavel
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p.1 #20 · p.1 #20 · Are Personal Websites Dead?


Jeffrey, your site requires flash, so it won't work for me.


Aug 16, 2017 at 12:36 PM





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