Website

[Hunter McDonald]

I have decided its time to do a website. Now I know there are tons os companies out there that have photo set ups that you can use. I am not a big computer guy so writing all my own code is out of the question. I do however want a url that is just my company name nothing else. So who does every one use? What recomondations do you have. Le me know thanks

Hunter

[Dimitry Schneider]

There are two things I can tell you a little about it:

1. Free open source CMS, e.g. Joomla
I'm not a programmer at all, but with a bit of knowledge you could do something on your own, using a free open source CMS (Content Management System) such as Joomla for example. There are thousands of different templates to choose from, hundreds of applications to add etc. It is relatively easy. Go to www.joomla.org for more information. You can make really good looking websites with this, and it is affordable. But, it might not be professional looking enough for photographers...

I have two websites right now; one is a blog about my stay abroad, so my friends can read about what I'm doing here, see pictures from trips etc. I used Joomla to do this website.
About two weeks ago, I started a new website for my photography only (the blog will be deleted in May when I'm back in Switzerland anyway), which brings me to

2. Professional website, e.g. www.livebooks.com
That's where I got mine from. They have a great tool to make an online portfolio, and other photographers use their service too. If you want, I'll post some links. Of course there are several other companies like LiveBooks - I'm just writing about the one I made personal experiences with, and their service was great!

Also, it's a question of how much money you want to spend. The running costs (URL, webspace and E-Mail addresses) are the smallest part to worry about, because this isn't expensive at all. You can also hire a working professional to "build" the website according to your wishes - they mostly charge an hourly rate.

[Cosmin Margau]

www.bludomain.com makes some pretty nice flash ones if you want to go that route and pretty cheap compared to other things out there.