# Can Recommend Ready made website



## eninja (Sep 16, 2014)

So now I am using zenfolio to advertise my work online. Zenfolio is basically a ready made customizable website for photographers.

Before I commit, does anyone can suggest a better alternative I can take a look before committing on Zenfolio?

Thank you.


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Sep 19, 2014)

I use smug mug, but it is not a advertising tool, you need to advertise separately. I think Smug gives you a bit more for your $$. There is also more support for it, its easy to upload from Lightroom using Jeffrey Friedl's plugin, or use the built-in synch in Lightroom.


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## canon_guy (Sep 27, 2014)

their needed extra verifying?Smug or Zenfolio?


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## FTb-n (Sep 27, 2014)

I also use SmugMug. Based only on a quick look at Zenfolio's plans, SmugMug appears to offer more for each subscription rate.


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Sep 27, 2014)

canon_guy said:


> their needed extra verifying?Smug or Zenfolio?


 
I don't understand the question.

Are you referring to your customers purchasing prints?

http://help.smugmug.com/customer/portal/articles/93354-where-s-my-money-


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## faidwen (Sep 27, 2014)

I use SmugMug Business. It costs a fair bit, but offers a lot of customization and sales tools. It does NOT really aid in the advertising portion, which has been mentioned already. Utilizing other avenues to drive people to the SmugMug site / domain.

Good luck!


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## pwp (Sep 27, 2014)

Check out the Squarespace custom website templates and plans. Great configurable designs and modest pricing/plans.

-pw


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## RLPhoto (Sep 28, 2014)

Squarespace or viewbook. I'm currently using a viewbook but I've been looking hard at moving to squarespace.


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## Bennymiata (Sep 28, 2014)

Try WIX.com
Huge choice of layouts and very customizable too.


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## davidson (Sep 28, 2014)

i dunno if wix is a good idea, i dunno if there is a way around it but they have very small amounts of photo storage. not very good for photgraphers


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## Halfrack (Sep 28, 2014)

You're going about this backwards - what do you need from a site?

- prints from a lab or self fulfillment? Is there a lab in the countries you're dealing with?
- digital downloads or not?
- volume of work to be up online?
- microstock sales?
- do you blog as well, or do you batch based on weddings?

From this, figure out who offers the best thing for you. I have Smug, but am mixed on it due to file size limitations. Would Photoshelter be a better match for you? It comes down to what you need, compared to others.


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Sep 28, 2014)

davidson said:


> i dunno if wix is a good idea, i dunno if there is a way around it but they have very small amounts of photo storage. not very good for photgraphers


 
Even when you pay $25 a month, they cap you at 20GB. Not a good deal compared to say Flickr.


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## colin.davis (Sep 28, 2014)

I was trying to decide between smugmug and zenfolio. I went with zenfolio
They offered fairly similar deals and features.

The tipping point on going with Zenfolio was that was of their printing partners was based in my country. So less freight costs assuming people from here are the primary buyers. Smugmug had none, so if I ordered a print, it would come from the US


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## eninja (Sep 30, 2014)

Thanks. I will try those sites you mentioned.

Currently, zenfolio is my setup.

There's is one thing I want to do, but can not do on zenfolio:

I want the subcategory pages, to look like the homepage.


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## colin.davis (Sep 30, 2014)

Hey Eninja,

You mean the same background? 
The layout is pretty flexible, I would think you can
I have the same background for my subfolders... 
Take a look. Is this what you mean? If yes, I did it a while ago, so can't remember how, but it is possible.


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## eninja (Oct 1, 2014)

colin.davis said:


> Hey Eninja,
> 
> You mean the same background?
> The layout is pretty flexible, I would think you can
> ...



Hi,

On homepage, I can have different layout, like a slideshow takes up the big part of the screen, and the link can be found on the left side. This is only one of many layout you can choose for homepage.

But then I want to create another new page, in this page I want it to have features like home page where I can have a slideshow that takes up the big part of the screen.

But zenfolio does not have this feature. All they have is, upon creation of new page. You got a blank page like "word document" you can insert some text in paragraph form, also insert photos. NO LAYOUT what so ever.

I will try smugmug later on.


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## Tabor Warren Photography (Oct 1, 2014)

I use a wordpress layout designed by elegant themes for my primary site, http://photosbytabor.com. After years of SEOing I have finally cracked page 1 of Google for practically every category. You will also find a gallery link to my other site which is through SmugMug. I use the two different sites to keep my primary site fast(er), but still display full galleries for people to view. If this is an option you were looking into, I would recommend it.

You can find my gallery site at; http://photosbytabor.smugmug.com

I hope this helps!

Cheers,
-Tabor


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## eninja (Oct 1, 2014)

Tabor Warren Photography said:


> I use a wordpress layout designed by elegant themes for my primary site, http://photosbytabor.com. After years of SEOing I have finally cracked page 1 of Google for practically every category. You will also find a gallery link to my other site which is through SmugMug. I use the two different sites to keep my primary site fast(er), but still display full galleries for people to view. If this is an option you were looking into, I would recommend it.
> 
> You can find my gallery site at; http://photosbytabor.smugmug.com
> 
> ...



I like the first one more (http://photosbytabor.com), I was thinking of more or less the same thing. Did you use smugmug for this? (i am a bit confuse) 

Thanks.


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## Tabor Warren Photography (Oct 1, 2014)

eninja said:


> Tabor Warren Photography said:
> 
> 
> > I use a wordpress layout designed by elegant themes for my primary site, http://photosbytabor.com. After years of SEOing I have finally cracked page 1 of Google for practically every category. You will also find a gallery link to my other site which is through SmugMug. I use the two different sites to keep my primary site fast(er), but still display full galleries for people to view. If this is an option you were looking into, I would recommend it.
> ...



I used Smugmug for the gallery site, http://photosbytabor.smugmug.com and pay them a ton of money each year, but I also sell enough prints that it is worth it to have them host the images.

My main website, http://photosbytabor.com I created using the ePhoto theme which was coded by a company called Elegant Themes who create themes for Wordpress sites. It is hosted through Host Gator, (who I am not thrilled with, but their inexpensive).

Cheers,
-Tabor


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## Mitch.Conner (Oct 1, 2014)

eninja said:


> So now I am using zenfolio to advertise my work online. Zenfolio is basically a ready made customizable website for photographers.
> 
> Before I commit, does anyone can suggest a better alternative I can take a look before committing on Zenfolio?
> 
> Thank you.



Didn't read to see if it's been recommended, but many web hosts have automated installation of the Wordpress CMS (ie: GoDaddy). There's a ton of photography portfolio and general use portfolio themes available, some free - some not. I own two premium themes. One I used to build the start of a site for one of my other hobbies, woodcarving, woodturning, and woodworking. The other is more photography oriented and I intend to install it soon to have my own little place to post my photos without somebody else laying claim to my copyright by use of their service.

If you want something even easier, Wordpress does their own hosting at a premium price.

There's other CMS options out there, some proprietary and hosted, some available to run on your own server (or your web host's server). Again, GoDaddy offers some of these with automated installation. I dislike GoDaddy in many ways and have had better hosts in the past, but admittedly for many people the automated installation of software is a nice feature. You can also install most of the software manually, the old fashioned way, (what I did) for maximum control.

I'm not a fan of Wix personally.

If you're willing to learn Dreamweaver and some basic code skills, there's a TON of pre-made themes that you just need to edit for content. If you're willing to learn some PHP too, you can modify an existing Wordpress theme or build your own.

I realize you're asking for ready-made options. I'm recommending more hands on approaches because I don't know that much about the ready made cookie cutter site services. You may very well find something ready made that offers you what you want. FWIW, I was actually intrigued by Zenfolio when I got a coupon for a free month or something a while back. Not sure what I did with that coupon. It's around.


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