In need of serious website help, please :(

[Shasta Lee]

Hello All,
I am losing my mind. I have a new photography business and after many hours and dollars used to create a portfolio I decided to create a website to display them like every other photographer does. Easier said than done I must say.
I must spend 3 hours almost daily trying to find visual tutorials (that help) to learn how to create a sight using Macromedia and Elements. I'm a visual learner by far, so reading books text is hard to understand when I don't know all of the technical names for each button, etc.
I have a "Coming Soon" page hosted by 2 Create a Website. I don't like their layouts and now that I have the Macromedia suite, I want to use flash and whatever I can to make it perfect. I look at other photographer's sites and am embarrassed. I'm also graduating from nursing in a few weeks, so I study constantly;:( that is when I'm not fooling around googling "how to" tutorials.
I need help with making the home page including navigation. I want it in all pictures in flash. I don't want clients to go to my site and have a slew of photos in their face. I want it professional and personal. My photography isn't commercial or flashy. I'm not at that level yet.
If anyone can offer me advice, links, anything, please do. I'm really stressed out at how long it's taking and bonbed my last exam because I search for help online so much.
Thanks Guys!

[jwhitten]

Shasta,

I am a WEB devloper / programmer and I can tell you that designing a really good WEB site takes planning, skill and patience. If you want your WEB site to reflect your personality, you will have to learn some basic skills. While Flash is a great tool, you don't need it to create your basic site. What you need is basic HTML knowledge. Create a basic WEB site with pages for your photos split out the way you want to show them.

Once you get the basics down, you can expand and add to your skills. Creating basic HTML is not that difficult and you can create attractive pages with it. Start off easy and work your way up. If you visit WEB sites you like, click on the view menu in your browser and then choose "Source". For pages written in HTML, this will open the HTML in notepad (or whatever program you have chosen for editing text files). Learn by seeing what others have done.

You can't learn to do it all overnight. Set realistic expectations for yourself and you will not become so frustrated.

Joe

[Carbone]

Shasta,

Are you on Windows or Macintosh? There are easy way to get started on a Mac.

Ray

[MikeH]

I must spend 3 hours almost daily trying to find visual tutorials (that help) to learn how to create a sight using Macromedia and Elements.

All the advice I have read for those wanting to make a living from photography is not to spend time on designing and building websites. Your time, they say, is far too valuable and should be spent instead on photography and building the business. Also, no matter how good the photography is, the website is your shop window and a poorly designed or operating site will cost you sales.

I'd recommend researching some professional photography sites and see who they use.

Mike

[rmartin]

I have spent a lot of time on my website, although you might not realize it. Mine is very minimulistic. I started by creating a banner and added things as I went along. I would highly recommend you keep an opening page very light on the graphics, with links to other pages on your site. And a page link to other websites that would be helpful to the reader but not in conflict with yours. If you can get them to link to you, that's even better. I would suggest using an image map as your home page, with the links to your other pages inside the map. Then there's always registering your site with search engines which can be daunting. Take it one step at a time, visualize, and let the changes come naturally.

[druhl]

Shasta

It's been 12 years and I still break out in a sweat when I think about nursing exams and boards and I had a great study partner (she's my wife now).

It may be too late (if you've invested significantly in your website) but have you considered something like smugmug? It allows a high degree of customization and growth.

As mentioned, my wife is also a nurse, but her real life is coaching gymnastics. As a hobby I started to photograph some practices and competitive meets. I have a long way to grow as a phtographer but still a number of parents were interested in obtaining prints of my photos. Smugmug provided a wonderful solution. I know nothing about HTML and perhaps it shows

http://www.teamfred.smugmug.com/

With a little talent and your own domain name the connection to smugmug is nearly transparent

http://photos.barackobama.com/

Smugmug handles the print and gift orders of photos you choose to make available for sale through EZ Print in Georgia. You can set custom print prices, protect your photos, make any or all galleries private or public, set up share groups via URL to direct your clients to specific sets of photos without providing them access to others and a lot more.

Good luck with both careers!

Donn

Donn

[Shasta Lee]

Windows XP

[rmartin]

If you post a link to your site, it would be helpful to know where to start

[ejdcd]

Hello Shasta,

I just ran across this forum and saw the emails about needing a serious website. I just completed a design for a professional photograher and you can view it at http://www.sbventuregroup.com/photo

If you are interested in getting a site built with galleries, flash, calendar events and also selling your photo's using your website, then send me a email at ejdcd@cox.net


Thanks from
Small Business Venture Group
Daren Johnson - WebMaster