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Time for a new site, who's the best template host?
Time for a new site, who's the best template/easy build based host with shopping cart? I've checked out Wix.com and I like it, but who else is out there? What are people's experiences with these hosts? Jul 13 14 12:38 pm Link just redid ours with squarespace - am very happy with the process and the result Jul 13 14 12:46 pm Link Just looked into a bunch... I still like my home-brew site though... but something intrigued me about http://www.zenfolio.com/ Jul 13 14 12:55 pm Link I can't get squarespace to load at all, it's just a blank white page. Checking out zenfolio again now.... Jul 13 14 01:06 pm Link oh yeah... squarespace did look good too... and so does http://www.portfoliobox.net/create/phot … io-website Jul 13 14 01:17 pm Link I like zenfolio, except for one very important thing: they still use flash and haven't updated to html5 yet. Yuck! Jul 13 14 01:36 pm Link Bluehost + Wordpress Jul 13 14 01:42 pm Link I use PhotoShelter. Jul 13 14 08:08 pm Link I like Wordpress Jul 13 14 08:13 pm Link Virb for me! Jul 13 14 09:05 pm Link GoDaddy hosting & a WordPress template. Here are a couple of WordPress sites I have built for Friends / Clients all hosted on GoDaddy: http://www.danielchasephotography.com www.jmadsonphotography.com WordPress template sites under construction hosted on private server... not GoDaddy until they are completed: http://www.wnbproject-01.net http://www.wnbproject-02.net Jul 13 14 09:11 pm Link I quite like Zenfolio. Some of the templates (I think they refer to them as the dynamic ones) don't seem to jive with portrait orientated photos as the main image, unless I just don't have the patience to find an option that fixes it. http://www.marksmithphoto.ca (NSFW) Nothing mindblowing but gets the job done and the interface to upload and edit stuff is very user friendly I find. Jul 13 14 09:46 pm Link J-PhotoArt wrote: Just say NO to godaddy and wordpress... unless you are ready to pay out the ass for dedicated hosting. Jul 13 14 10:33 pm Link -JAY- wrote: I have quite a few clients that host with GoDaddy and never ever had a problem! Their pricing is excellent and Tech Support is friendly, knowledgeable and very quick! Never in years had a site go down. Jul 13 14 10:56 pm Link Jerry Bennett wrote: I didn't see any flash on their site, it's not like Wix or something. Maybe there are some other templates I have never run across. Jul 13 14 11:00 pm Link J-PhotoArt wrote: My main websites (four of them) are hosted with godaddy still... general hosting is not the issue, it's their support for wordpress. their wordpress integration is terrible. Jul 13 14 11:01 pm Link -JAY- wrote: Again, I can not speak about your experiences. Jul 13 14 11:10 pm Link I use a Wordpress theme and host it at Just Host which gave me 5 years hosting for just over a 100 bucks. Jul 14 14 03:44 am Link The high-end solution is DesignX from APhotoFolio. It was designed ground-up to be a photographer's gallery/portfolio system. I have one DesignX site as one of my main sites: http://danhowellphotography.com It has a somewhat high initial cost. I still have two LiveBooks sites as well including one ScalerSite: http://www.bridalfashionphotography.com DesignX is nice because you can make great changes in the look from your desk whereas Livebooks requires support/fees for some changes. Gallery updating is free and easy with both. When I wanted to do a simple, smaller-scale gallery for headshots and portfolios I looked at a few of the lower cost template sites and chose SquareSpace for this site: http://www.danhowell.photography It was easy to get up and running--too longer to find the selected images than to up up the site. There are a few quirks that I thought could be more intuitive, but overall it was quite easy. Jul 14 14 06:25 am Link I use a wix.com template and get my url through network solutions. www.edwoodsonphotography.com There are a lot of free options available, that I don 't use, if you have a premium account. Jul 14 14 06:52 am Link Dan Howell wrote: I like your website and your work Dan. Very impressive! Jul 14 14 08:35 am Link -JAY- wrote: Truly, this is one of the best ways to go IMO. Although I avoid Bluehost like the plague. Those guys don't know their asshole from a rubber band. I'm actually quite shocked Jay they haven't shut you down yet with the kind of stuff you shoot. They unplugged all of my websites one time because I had a BIKINI photo that looked risque'. They told me it was because their servers were based in Utah and there are very strict anti-nudity laws there. That's why I switched to Hostgator, who couldn't care less what I was hosting as far as photos is concerned. Jul 14 14 08:41 am Link I just revamped my site using www.Format.com www.interwovenimages.com (NSFW) It was very easy to set up and get up and running. Their help tutorials answered most of my questions immediately, and they proactively emailed me to answer the few remaining issues I had. I had been inches away from going with Squarespace until I read through their terms of use, which seemed overly restrictive for a nude/fetish photographer. Format's tou were very reasonable. Jul 14 14 03:04 pm Link So many to choose from! As for Zenfolio, I have flash blocker in my browser and their slide show gets blocked..... Jul 16 14 06:49 am Link I had the same issue last year, trying to find an alternative to my hosts (1&1) templates, which I couldn't stand. I asked here and was pointed towards http://koken.me/ which is a webbuilder that you plug into your existing site/host. It is free and can be customized tremendously. I have two websites, with both completely different appearances and both are at the same ISP but differently designed, utilizing the Koken software that I installed. Here they are, both on 1&1 (irrelevant) and both using Koken (relevant): www.udorphotography.com www.surrealities.net Jul 16 14 07:35 am Link Another advocate for Wordpress. All of my sites use it and I'm pleased with the look and management. www.jenniferhaggerty.com retouch.jenniferhaggerty.com productphotography.jenniferhaggerty.com Jul 16 14 07:39 am Link I've got Bluehost running wordpress - whats a good portfolio theme? Jul 19 14 08:25 pm Link I like wordpress but for a portfolio site it just doesnt seem like a good fit to me. Too much work and time wasted to keep galleries updated compared to a dedicated portfolio site like squarespace or 4ormat that automate a lot of the processes such as image resizing, drag and drop sorting, etc. Jul 20 14 04:19 am Link I use Smugmug. Jul 20 14 05:48 am Link ephopper wrote: Check out Themeforest.net. The advertise that they have over 15, 000 templates for sale. The templates are a combination of HTML, WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, PSD, e-commerce, etc. Most the of templates range in cost between $25 to $65. Jul 20 14 06:07 am Link One of these days when I have time I'll learn wordpress and re-do my site with it. Greengeeks is my host, and they have been pretty good over the years and their service has been good. I don't think they care about anything with nudity and have only got on me about using ftp space to get files to clients and then forgetting to delete them. Andrew Thomas Evans www.andrewthomasevans.com Jul 20 14 07:43 am Link Wix is ok but I'm making my next site on squarespace just to check it out. I don't like how wix compresses images but maybe they've worked on that since I last checked. Jul 20 14 11:28 pm Link Jul 20 14 11:47 pm Link Andrew Thomas Evans wrote: hello andrew Jul 20 14 11:49 pm Link J-PhotoArt wrote: I like the gallery you used for Daniel's website. If you don't mind me asking, what's the name of that gallery? Jul 21 14 12:53 am Link 22slides.com Really good interface on both ends, loads of options, and great tech support: www.jeanclaudephoto.com Jul 21 14 01:32 am Link PhotographybyT wrote: Sent you a private message with the information that you requested. Jul 21 14 01:52 am Link I have a few general question about WordPress templates. I am doing a non-photography related business site and don't think that any of the portfolio gallery solutions I currently work with would be appropriate. -If I buy/download a Wordpress template will I have everything I need in order to replace the images and dummy text with my content? It is just drag-and-drop like portfolio system sites? -Will I need to buy/download a Wordpress editor? -Are templates difficult to modify? (re. adding a banner ad or adding external links) -Or...do I need to keep searching until find a template that is exactly what I want already? -How easy are they to update and enrich as I gather more content? Jul 21 14 07:23 am Link Dan Howell wrote: The dummy content is usually installed separately if you choose. Some themes have a lot of drag and drop, including extra builders while others are just the default. All GUI driven. Jul 21 14 07:44 am Link I have used Blu Domain for my template: http://www.bludomain.com/ and I used Godaddy for my hosting. I have no complaints about either, I really like the templates from Blu Domain, nice variety and very flexible. Godaddy hosting have really been great. Tech support is great in my opinion and I would strongly recommend both. I will PM you my website address, you can look at my template I am using from Blu Domain. Jake Jul 21 14 07:54 am Link |
