Starting a business  -- Need some advice

[Don Hardcastle]

Hey guys,
Need some input here. I have started a photography business. Sending my first client to print today, wish me luck.

Any way, I am borrowing an idea from Killboy. I plan to put up a website that will allow my clients to log in to thier page, choose the photos they want and then msg me with what photos they want based on pre-defined packages. I will then send the photos to a local photo shop were my clients will pick them up and pay for the prints there, at my discount.

They will review thier proofs online. I will get paid for the sitting fee in the beginning and then my clients will pay for thier prints.

So, having said all that. Where is a good place to host a website? I will have to have pay someone to help me set up the site. I don't know how to do all that stuff.

Any inputs would be greatly appreciated.

Don

 

[rubber2burn]

Don't have any advice for you Don Just want to say Good Luck with your new venture

 

[Don Hardcastle]

Adam,
Thanks for the words of encouragement. My other business venture is going well. I own a security company. I hire and train bouncers in clubs. It looks like it is going to take off.

I am trying really hard not to have to work for anyone when I retire next year.

Don

 

[shortBoarder]

I've been hosting with Dreamhost (www.dreamhost.com) for the past few years with very few problems. They're pretty cheap, give you far more disk space and bandwidth than you'll probably use, and have been good with the tech support when things go awry.

For what you want to do in regards to client areas, you should check out a web app called Gallery. It allows you to set up separate albums with comments for each photo. (and maybe a check-box, although I'm not sure about that) You can give each of your clients a separate login/password, and each individual client will only see the photo albums that belong to them.

Best of all, it's a free program, and on most hosting companies (dreamhost included) you can install it through the control panel that you control your site with. There are two caveats:

- If you're not comfortable with a few technical details such as logging in using ssh, changing .access files etc., you'll want some help setting up Gallery and your site. This shouldn't take a lot of time at all, but there are a few details you should take care of, i.e. not allowing Google, Yahoo et.al access to your client areas (you don't want you client photos to show up on Google Images, right?)

- Customizing Gallery to have an interface look and feel that is customized precisely to your needs is a bit more complicated. Gallery comes with a number of pre-designed templates that will probably work for you, and putting your company logo on the templates is pretty easy, but real customization involves toying with a lot of code, and is a far more involved project.

 

[shortBoarder]

btw - here's some sample sites using Gallery: http://gallery.menalto.com/gallery

In fact, the .org uses it

https://www.hayabusa.org/gallery2/main.php

 

[BusaWhipped]

Alot of the photographers don't manage the delivery of the photos themselves.  They use online services for that part of the buiness. I would suggest paying for the service while you are getting started.  It will probably be cheaper than building your own right now, and you can use the time you save by not having to do this work to focus on expanding your business.

This is a popular one:
PhotoReflect

You will still want to have a site to showcase your business.  This is where I'm hosted.  Very reasonable rates.
Site5

There are a bunch of tools available to create your own site.  If you want to farm that out should be able to find a place that will do a basic site with links out to your storefront for a few hundred $$$.

Good luck with your businness

 

[Don Hardcastle]

shortBoarder,
Thanks for the info and links.

Dennis,
One of the thing I am trying to get away from is the impersonal aspect of having your photos delivered like photoreflect does. I have a very good deal with a camera shop here. There are 6 stores in the state, all owned by the same person. One of the sons manages the store that I deal with. I get photo tips and all my equipment there. They are allowing me to pass on very good deals to my clients.

Don

 

[razorshark]

if you need any graphics, web design help let me know...

 

[Mr Bogus]

PM me, I will give you a spot on one of my servers.. I will send you a coupon code and a URL (these are proper web servers located in a data center in Dallas)

Between me and Razor, you have a free site

 

[ThunderJohn]

Good luck I hope to retire and not have to work hard some day....

 

[rubbersidedown]

PM me, I will give you a spot on one of my servers.. I will send you a coupon code and a URL (these are proper web servers located in a data center in Dallas)

Between me and Razor, you have a free site

well thats pretty f'n cool.

RSD.

 

[Mr Bogus]

Hey if Frosty can give out a brake bleeder, I can probably muster some server space for a new biz startup

that first year can be tough on cash flow

 

[proud dad]

Hey Don!

This is proud dads wife. I am a professional photographer. He asked me to come read this thread and offer up advice. I don't usualy offer up much help to anyone in my market area but you are way down in Arkansas so what the heck, huh?

Check out these places in the web, full of advice and inspiration.
pro4um.com
ilovephotography.com

My site is designed by bludomain. They have amazing interfaces especialy designed for photographers at varying prices. They provide hosting or you can host elsewhere. It's not cheep but really the best sites out there for photogs. You need to own your domain name and it is pretty easy to maintain once the setup is done. I just recently bought a new interface to get set up during the winter (slow months for biz for on locaion photogs in Indy) But, you can see my current one at www.marciralphphotography.com

Oh, and I hope you are charging a whopping session fee if you aren't making a dime on prints. You will burn out fast that way my freind! Good luck!

 

[Skywalker]

Don, go google Microsoft Office Live and check it out.  I just put up my 1st ever web page with my own domain and did this in about six hours.  You will get a very nice web page all for free and you can check mine out if you like. Turned out great for free.  Never done a web page before and I'm sure you can do it as well.  www.coloradohigh.net  

Mike
aka Skywalker

 

[rubbersidedown]

Hey Don!

This is proud dads wife. I am a professional photographer. He asked me to come read this thread and offer up advice. I don't usualy offer up much help to anyone in my market area but you are way down in Arkansas so what the heck, huh?

Check out these places in the web, full of advice and inspiration.
pro4um.com
ilovephotography.com

My site is designed by bludomain. They have amazing interfaces especialy designed for photographers at varying prices. They provide hosting or you can host elsewhere. It's not cheep but really the best sites out there for photogs. You need to own your domain name and it is pretty easy to maintain once the setup is done. I just recently bought a new interface to get set up during the winter (slow months for biz for on locaion photogs in Indy) But, you can see my current one at www.marciralphphotography.com

Oh, and I hope you are charging a whopping session fee if you aren't making a dime on prints. You will burn out fast that way my freind! Good luck!

fixed link,click me

 

[Mr Bogus]

marciralphphotography.com nice site for the most part... not a big flash site fan myself... they need to change text color so it can be seen.

For the most part, if you are a business and need a site, it is typically better to let someone with experience do the site. As it reflects your professionalism, it needs to be spot on. There are a ton of options for a DIY site and they work but it requires that you know how to set up good ad copy, graphic combinations etc..

There are a few "hobbyist" built sites that work and look good but IME they are rare.

We provide at least 50 "click to install" web programs (everything from complete sites, photo albums, blogs, retail stores, billing systems etc) and they are effective but all need tweaks and that is where a pro comes in. They can do it in short time and do it right..

Just hard to find a substitute for that skill on a website...