| Sign in: |
| Members log in here with your user name and password to access the your admin page and other special features. |
|
|
|
|
|| SportsShooter.com: Member Message Board
Online portfolio web hosting
Justin Sorensen, Photographer, Assistant
 |
Fairmont | MN | US | Posted: 11:07 PM on 05.09.08 |
| ->> I'm looking for a good web hosting site to post a portfolio. Something with the tools to build the site online without extra software preferably. Any ideas appreciated! |
|
Ryan Miller, Student/Intern, Photographer
|
Corning | NY | USA | Posted: 1:51 AM on 05.10.08 |
| ->> www.livebooks.com |
|
Rick Rowell, Photographer, Photo Editor
|
Vista | CA | USA | Posted: 8:12 AM on 05.10.08 |
| ->> www.bludomain.com |
|
Harrison Shull, Photographer
|
Fayetteville, WV | Asheville, NC | | Posted: 8:18 AM on 05.10.08 |
| ->> www.neonsky.com |
|
Charles Ludeke, Student/Intern, Photographer
|
Columbia | MO | USA | Posted: 1:13 PM on 05.10.08 |
->> www.carbonmade.com
It's _much_ cheaper than LiveBooks. |
|
Mike Carlson, Photographer
|
Bayonet Point | FL | USA | Posted: 4:25 PM on 05.10.08 |
->> Not to hi-jack the thread as this can help answer the OP, but in similar postings on this message board others have recommended http://www.sitewelder.com
Anyone have any good/bad/ugly thoughts about this service? |
|
Delane B. Rouse, Photographer, Photo Editor
|
Washington | DC | US | Posted: 10:39 PM on 05.10.08 |
->> Wow...carbonmade is easy!!!
http://delanerouse.carbonmade.com/
Charles gets a +1 today!!! I even marked you informative.
D |
|
Patrick Fallon, Student/Intern, Photographer
|
Columbia | MO | USA | Posted: 11:19 PM on 05.10.08 |
->> Not to threadjack or advertise, but should mention for any other students interested that livebooks has the http://www.livebooksedu.com package, only $99 a year which includes hosting.. I recently signed up to do referrals and you can get a 30-Day free trial with code: 11726 Message me if you have any questions or concerns.
-Patrick
www.patrickfallonphoto.com |
|
Dan Root, Photographer
|
Portland | OR | USA | Posted: 9:14 AM on 05.11.08 |
->> I use Sitewelder. They are awesome people, and they always answer the phone and have always been there to answer any questions. My two cents.
Dan |
|
Mike Brice, Photographer
|
Toledo | OH | USA | Posted: 11:23 AM on 05.11.08 |
->> If you are a student, the $99 Livebooks deal has to be the best investment out there to showcase your work in a professional manner and start building you SEO.
Just save your pennies for when you graduate, and need to purchase the full version. |
|
Charles Ludeke, Student/Intern, Photographer
|
Columbia | MO | USA | Posted: 2:16 PM on 05.11.08 |
| ->> Thanks Delane. I'm not sure why people keep promoting LiveBooks, when CarbonMade is free and gives you 5 projects with 35 images. |
|
Mike Brice, Photographer
|
Toledo | OH | USA | Posted: 3:12 PM on 05.11.08 |
->> Livebooks is a full-featured web site that does a little bit more than CarbonMade.
CarbonMade is nice, but I don't think it is comparing apples to apples. |
|
Patrick Fallon, Student/Intern, Photographer
|
Columbia | MO | USA | Posted: 3:53 PM on 05.11.08 |
| ->> How do the carbonmade sites fair with google results? Livebooks has the mirrored html site for this reason. Also, if you have the edu, you can upgrade to a pro site for %15 off when you graduate. |
|
Michael Granse, Photographer
|
Urbana | IL | USA | Posted: 8:38 PM on 05.11.08 |
->> I followed the link to Delane Rouse's Carbonmade site, and this seems to load quite a bit faster than most of the Livebooks sites that I have visited. There was a very short pause and then the front page appeared, and switching between sections was quick and nearly seamless. I am wondering, however, if Carbonmade sites have to include "Carbonmade" in the URL or if these can be integrated into an already established domain? I would also be curious about integration of a Photo Shelter search feature.
Most of the Livebooks sites I have visited begin with a message telling me to wait and then a progress bar giving me a visual estimate of how much waiting I am about to do.
Going a bit deeper into such sites, there is typically a wait while switching to a different section of the site and then more waiting as that part of the site is "built" on the screen. When that is nearly complete, there is often an additional navigation system that starts building and more waiting, and switching back to the previously visited section often involves a similar wait.
I have a fast internet connection, so I would imagine that with a slower connection these wait times would be even more noticeable.
Livebooks, Carbonmade, and the other services named in this thread have in common that they all look much better than my current website, which is way overdue for a complete overhaul. My new site will likely use one of the services discussed in this thread. Thanks for the information! |
|
Brad Mangin, Photographer
 |
Pleasanton | CA | USA | Posted: 8:42 PM on 05.11.08 |
->> I love my newly redesigned website that the Livebooks folks have worked very hard on:
http://www.manginphotography.com
...and Google LOVES my site- thanks to the folks at Livebooks. Just do a Google search for "sports photographer" and see! |
|
Charles Ludeke, Student/Intern, Photographer
|
Columbia | MO | USA | Posted: 12:11 AM on 05.12.08 |
->> Yes, Michael, you can redirect your own domain to your CarbonMade site.
Google searching is fine, Patrick. |
|
Justin Sorensen, Photographer, Assistant
|
Fairmont | MN | US | Posted: 1:13 AM on 05.12.08 |
| ->> Thanks everyone for the great info. I used carbonmade to post a portfolio, it was very easy, most of all, free! The drawbacks are having "carbonmade" in the domain, and a little more control over the image display would be nice, but for the time and money invested, it's a good deal. It'll serve it's purpose until I can find something with more creative control. |
|
Patrick Meredith, Photographer, Assistant
|
Austin | TX | USA | Posted: 11:20 PM on 05.12.08 |
->> Carbonmade is a very, very simple way to throw some images online VERY quickly. I posted my stuff online if anyone is interested... :)
www.meredith-photo.com
I'm curious to see the project Thad Allender is working on for WordPress. The carbonmade is fun for today though...
http://www.sportsshooter.com/message_display.html?tid=28826 |
|
Delane B. Rouse, Photographer, Photo Editor
|
Washington | DC | US | Posted: 11:30 PM on 05.12.08 |
->> Charles/Patrick-
Ho do you redirect your domain (delanerousephotography.com) ro a carbon site (http://delanerouse.carbonmade.com/ ??? |
|
Mike Brice, Photographer
|
Toledo | OH | USA | Posted: 11:32 PM on 05.12.08 |
->> Brad,
Nice face lift to your site. Looks great. |
|
Patrick Meredith, Photographer, Assistant
|
Austin | TX | USA | Posted: 8:52 AM on 05.13.08 |
->> Delane,
It is pretty simple really. It is a -bit- different with each hosting company, but this should give you a general idea.
http://help.godaddy.com/topic/165/article/424 |
|
Charles Ludeke, Student/Intern, Photographer
|
Columbia | MO | USA | Posted: 4:34 PM on 05.13.08 |
| ->> Great site, Patrick. I'm glad others are finding good use of CarbonMade. |
|
Phil Hawkins, Photographer
|
Fresno | ca | usa | Posted: 11:45 PM on 05.13.08 |
| ->> Ditto neonsky.com the BEST! |
|
Patrick Fallon, Student/Intern, Photographer
|
Columbia | MO | USA | Posted: 12:00 AM on 05.14.08 |
| ->> How does the masking effect search engine results in google? This is a pretty important part of having a domain. |
|
Patrick Fallon, Student/Intern, Photographer
|
Columbia | MO | USA | Posted: 12:01 AM on 05.14.08 |
| ->> Oh and Brad.. thats sick! Above Sportsshooter too? Haha |
|
Brad Mangin, Photographer
|
Pleasanton | CA | USA | Posted: 12:55 AM on 05.14.08 |
->> Mike- thanks for the kind words about my redesign- I am very pleased with it!
Patrick- thanks for checking out the high Google ranking I have thanks to the smart folks at LiveBooks. VERY important to be able to be found on the Internet if you are a freelancer who needs to pay bills and buy expensive gas in the Bay Area :-) |
|
Josh Lehrer, Student/Intern, Photographer
|
Rochester | NY | USA | Posted: 1:14 AM on 05.14.08 |
->> I'm in this same spot here, does anyone have experience with quphoto.com? It's either that or livebooks for me.
Thanks
JL |
|
David Wasinger, Photographer
|
Oshkosh | WI | USA | Posted: 10:24 AM on 05.14.08 |
->> Josh -- I've set up my site with qufoto.com. Its been a few months so far and don't have many complaints. The biggest one is the upload of your photos. No FTP access, so you have to do every photo by itself. So the bigger the portfolio, the longer it will take.
However, for what it is, I think qufoto is great. It's price, look, feel, work well for what I was looking for (something quick, and easy that looked professional and had an economical price tag). It's easy enough to change things and edit images, image order, or look of the site.
http://www.davewasinger.com
FYI, I also bought my domain myself. qufoto will do this for you by default, but I wanted total control over it. I got it through iPower (http://www.ipower.com) |
|
Darrell Miho, Photographer
|
Temple City | CA | usa | Posted: 3:27 PM on 05.14.08 |
->> http://www.bigfolio.com
i just finished my site...well, 95% of it.
http://www.darrellmiho.com
if you subscribe to the philosophy of "less is more" then this might work for you. clean amd simple designs that look great and are reasonably priced! easy to set up and good customer support. |
|
Carlos Delgado, Student/Intern, Photographer
|
Erie | PA | USA | Posted: 4:26 PM on 05.14.08 |
->> I use bigfolio.com also.
No big complaints. Easy to use uploading interface. Templates look great and standard templates are reasonable priced.
However I talked to a customer support person asking if there were any templates with captioning capabilities, and I was told there were none... and that I would have to put text in with the file in photoshop (which is retarded).
Darrell: which template are you using since I see that you have some text at the bottom of your photos?
Thanks! |
|
Jody Gomez, Photographer
|
Murrieta | CA | USA | Posted: 1:03 AM on 07.11.08 |
->> I stumbled on this thread and took a look at Carbonmade for something quick and dirty. Great call Charles!
Here's my Carbonmade site http://jodygomez.carbonmade.com/ if anyone wants to give some feedback, I'd love it. Obviously it isn't something permanent, but it will do until I figure out how to make the changes I've been planning to my website.
:~) |
|
Brad Mangin, Photographer
|
Pleasanton | CA | USA | Posted: 1:57 AM on 07.11.08 |
->> Jody- one very simple, quick and easy fix I think you should make when you finalize you site is to make sure all of your images are the same size. For instance- all of your horizontals should have the same width and all your verticals should have the same depth.
I am super anal about this kind of stuff on a website and believe your finished product should be as perfect as possible and look like you really put some thought into it. You do not want your finished site to have images that are all different sizes as this makes you look sloppy.
Now is the time to work out all the kinks.
Good luck. |
|
Patrick Murphy-Racey, Photographer
|
Powell | TN | USA | Posted: 8:43 PM on 01.11.09 |
| ->> www.bigblackbag.com is AWESOME!!!!! |
|
David Brabyn, Photographer
|
Ron Erdrich, Photographer
 |
Abilene | TX | USA | Posted: 11:53 AM on 03.31.09 |
| ->> Question for you, Brad, and everyone else; What's the average pixel size of your pictures? I've been going with 700 pixels on the long end. Too small? Too big? |
|
Brad Mangin, Photographer
|
Pleasanton | CA | USA | Posted: 11:59 AM on 03.31.09 |
->> Ron- my horizontals are 920 pixels wide as this is the format of my liveBooks site. If the crop doesn't work and my pictures are more squarish then they are not quite as wide.
If you look at my site it will make more sense:
www.manginphotography.com
Thanks and good luck! |
|
Ron Erdrich, Photographer
|
Abilene | TX | USA | Posted: 1:12 PM on 03.31.09 |
| ->> Are they shorter for verticals as well, Brad? |
|
Ron Erdrich, Photographer
|
Abilene | TX | USA | Posted: 1:13 PM on 03.31.09 |
| ->> Never mind, I see what you mean. |
|
Mike Doran, Photographer
|
Petaluma | CA | U.S.A. | Posted: 1:19 PM on 03.31.09 |
| ->> I use this www.zenfolio.com there prices are reasonable and you have several options. |
|
Grant Blankenship, Photographer
|
Macon | GA | USA | Posted: 2:35 PM on 03.31.09 |
| ->> I'm thinking Photoshelter Standard Account. Why should I use any of these other services instead of Photoshelter? |
|
Jeff Mills, Photographer, Photo Editor
|
Columbus | OH | USA | Posted: 3:39 PM on 03.31.09 |
->> On a slightly different note, I've always been intrested in getting everyone viewpoint on why they do if they do several different styles of photography.
Say if your a sports photographer but also do weddings for example.
Do you really want to have both a sports and wedding portfolio on your site ? Or is it preferable to have different websites for your different offerings ?
In the case of wedding photography, it seems more sites are elegant and stylized to best showcase the wedding photography.
Is a seperate gallery of "sportraits" really going to fit in well ?
In this economy people are really having to branch out to make ends meet, but on the other side of that, trying to have several high quaility and client targeted websites is a pretty costly as well as time consuming matter.
So whats everyone do ? How can you make yourself marketable to editors and art directors for your commercial or editorial work but still attract wedding planners and brides and grooms as well as the senior portrait market ? |
|
Grant Blankenship, Photographer
|
Macon | GA | USA | Posted: 8:06 PM on 03.31.09 |
| ->> OK, how about cheap domain registration? |
|
Return to --> Message Board Main Index
|