Updating my Websites

Question.

When was the last time you updated your website?

Question.

When was the last time you thought about changing your website provider.

Like many photographers, one of the first things I did when I set up my business 15 years ago was investigate photography website providers, set up a website and then I was a “professional photographer” with a “professional shopfront”.

During the subsequent 15 years I think I updated the design maybe once or twice but I kept the same provider (zenfolio) without looking at the option of switching providers despite finding & reporting problems (which were never solved).

Of course the work displayed on my site was continually updated – it is hugely important that the site reflects our latest and greatest work.

There were 2 main issues that lead to me looking at alternatives

• Zenfolio started charging for downloaded products (not downloads – which are different)
• The inability of Zenfolio to deal with Limited Editions

Both of these issues had an impact on how my business was evolving. Couple this with the fact I was using Squarespace for my (painted) artworks and Limited Edition Prints (as Zenfolio could not), I thought it was time to re-evaluate my web presence.

I have worked with many other photographers on thier websites, building sites for them using wordpress, squarespace, zenfolio and many other template sites. I always start with the question

What is your aim with the website?

There are two real aims for a photographer I think

• Online Portfolio
• Online shop

With mine (like many others), I was trying to do both and my reassessment decided that maybe that was not the best option.

Once that decision was made it was time to look at providers and to be honest (especially following a post by a colleague Neil Turner), the choice was obvious. How many of us pay for the Adobe Photography plan? Seeing as many of my posts are about Lightroom Mobile, I would guess quite a few.

That plan includes Adobe Portfolio, a platform where you may create up to 5 websites, all with different domain names.

Yes the layouts are fairly basic, but that is just what is needed for a portfolio site.

For my shop I went with the built in e-commerce platform that comes as part of my ZoHo One subscription.

So first of all – what have I lost?

• My old site had over 90k searchable and licensable images that did index on google (and hence findable). However looking back at my records, my income from this feature over the past few years dwindled to the point where I could not justify the site on this alone.
• Image Downloads linked to a license (I’m working on an alternative for this).

What have I gained?

• Simple, modern portfolios.
• An online presence that is consistent.
• Easy maintenance & updating (linked to Lightroom).
• A sizeable reduction in my outgoings. (The costs of all my sites are now included in other subscriptions).

My next post will take a detailed look at the Adobe Portfolio platform. Until then, when did you last update your site? Is it continually evolving (hint: the work should be)? Is your business image consistent (business cards, site, paperwork etc)?

As ever, let me know your thoughts…