p.2 #1 · Wordpress vs Squarespace for a photographer?
I built my site in WordPress and purchased a "theme" for photographers. It works. It is fine for my photography. In short, I am very happy. You be the judge.
www.TravelThroughPictures.com
However:
1) You WILL need help. I did and I am old IT guy but it was not easy. WordPress is made to be really cheap and easy IF SOMEONE HELPS YOU set it up and get going. Otherwise, you will be lost.
2) Once the site is built using a theme and basic configuration settings, it is really fast and easy to add pages and photos and does not take much skill. The issue is really all in step one above.
3) Pictures are heavy loads and your host will never deliver a fast website for you. I use HostGator, but Go Daddy is fine also. They are really good hosting sites but will be a performance dog. You will then need to set up a content delivery network (CDN) to dole out your pages and pictures. I use Amazon. Again, you will have tons of trouble with this. You will need some help. I did it myself but I will tell you, it is not easy. Once done, Amazon just charges a small about. I pay under $20 a month for Amazon CDN services.
4) All the features (plugins) that you can think of, posting comments, sign up for a newsletter, etc etc. is super easy with Wordpress as these are basic functionality that is free. However, as system updates occur, such as to WordPress itself, or your theme, or a plugin, sometimes the stuff breaks and you need to fix it. In short, I view all these plugins that you are thinking of as part of the initial setup and you definilty will need help. Good news: for those that understand WordPress, what you want to do is super easy.
5) Mailists etc. are best managed by something like MailChimp, what I use for my mailing lists and newsletter. MailChimp allows you to set up a newsletter with its own graphics tools and then it is easy to make modifications and send out another one. There is a MailChimp plugin for wordpress that will put their email address and information directly into MailChimps lists. Again, you will need help setting this all up.
6) When you buy your theme, ensure the vendor has an ecommerce add on that can turn your site into one that sells your stuff.
Summary: IF you have someone savvy enough to help, WordPress is a great, powerful, and super cheap way to go. You will have a cool, unique website. Otherwise, you are probably should avoid any of these types of infrastructure and look at one the sites specifically for photographers and just pay them money. Seriously, WordPress was designed to be easy..... for the young and tech savvy. I can work it but I will tell you, it was a challenge.
Peace
Bruce in Philly
www.TravelThroughPictures.com
p.2 #2 · Wordpress vs Squarespace for a photographer?
@Sharona - I'm using the Pacific template. I built a site for another business using that template and thought it was clean and elegant for portfolio use. Blog feature works really well, too.
I also really like that Squarespace has a portfolio app for iPad. You can quickly sync all the images on your site to the iPad or iPhone for offline use.
I previously had a portolio site using A Photo Folio. That was back when there weren't affordable, fully featured template sites like Squarespace for 8 bucks a month. The A Photo Folio site looked nice, and it was great that you could really fine tune the spacing, fonts, etc.
The bummer was that it cost $1000 up front and $17/month. And there were technical glitches and things broke a few times per year. And the support was a bit curt at times. And you still have to suffer with Wordpress for your blog.
p.2 #3 · Wordpress vs Squarespace for a photographer?
@Joe - Thanks! I agree that the integrated blog feature is a plus for Squarespace. I just found that I wasn't a good blogger, so didn't use it as much as I thought I might have in the beginning. I didn't know about the app! I need to look into that for my other site if I decide to keep it.
Since that's text heavy and gets a lot of traffic, the Wordpress plugins for security, spam management of comments and other extensions are really nice.
It's easy to get a nice simple presentation, and adding/removing photos to the galleries is super fast and easy. I used to do my own page by page editing, but it took hours to do a simple update of 15 images or so. I then went to a database driven site inside my HTML shell, but Squarespace makes it so much easier than even that. I really like it.
p.2 #6 · Wordpress vs Squarespace for a photographer?
It doesn't have to one or other either. Some have combined both Wordpress and another site successfully. The thought that the WP site for blogging, some galleries, improves SEO (supposedly) and then link to another site for the portfolios or buying prints. It can be seamless. I currently use Photoshelter and might add the WP front-end too for blogging/stories. Here's a good article on that capability.
p.2 #7 · Wordpress vs Squarespace for a photographer?
That is the one drawback of Photoshelter for sure. You also can integrate a Tumblr blog with Photoshelter's tool. I don't blog much, if at all, but I do wish it was built in to Photoshelter, as Squarespace is. As it stands I used Tumblr, and have blogged exactly one time, lol. So for me Photoshelter is still working well.
p.2 #8 · Wordpress vs Squarespace for a photographer?
I've used Wordpress and I now use Squarespace.
Squarespace is certainly easier and offers a more user friendly experience with no coding necessary. It also offers hosting and support, which Wordpress templates usually do not offer.
It is however more expensive, so that's the tradeoff. But I was spending many hours tinkering with (not to mention purchasing) more Wordpress templates than I can count but my time is worth more than the $80/year I pay for Squarespace, which only hosts my "portfolio" (my blog is hosted by Exposure.co which has another annual cost).
Also if you just do a quick Google search you will find Squarespace coupons for like 20% off a year subscription.
