Seven Easy Steps To Creating Your Own Photography Website

Having a photo business can be tough especially if the competition is stiff.  You would want to have the competitive advantage that you can get.  To do this, you would need to explore and maximize the various opportunities within your reach.

With the advent of the internet age, cyberspace became an important realm that many kinds of businesses play in.  More and more people are getting online every day.  Consequently, more and more businesses are putting up their company websites not only to create awareness for their business and to advertise but also do business.  These businesses want to tap the opportunities that internet technology is making available to them.

In the field of photography business, having your very own business photography website is one great way of promoting your photography business to billions of Netizens all over the world.  A business photography website is also a must if you want to be known and to be able to allow your clients and potential clients to see your portfolio readily.

Customers looking for a photographer to hire for their special occasions would usually compare the work or portfolio of different photographers before making a decision.  Many photographers are now posting a portfolio of their work online as there are many sites that allow them to do this.  Having your portfolio online and ready for browsing for anybody sure beats going around and showing prospective clients your portfolio.

If you want to bring your photography business to a wider audience and would want to keep up with the challenges of the times, it is high time you have your business’ photography website.  Having your own business photography website will allow you to reach out the biggest number of people online as possible.  It can also help you build your brand and your business while creating widespread awareness about it  at the same time.

Creating a website is not that easy especially for newbies.  However, with basic knowledge and a little creativity, the task may not be that daunting after all.  For those who want to create their own business photography website, here is your step-by-step guide in creating your business photography website:

Step One: Have A Domain Name.  You would need to choose and register for a domain name for your photography business website.  You can use your own name or your business name as your website’s domain name.  Your domain name is your website’s address that is needed to be typed into the web browser for people to reach your website.

You need to register your chosen domain name with a domain registrar.  You would need to prepare as little as $1 annual fee to over $14 a year for this.

Step Two: Get Web Hosting.  You would need to purchase hosting for your website.  A web host is an owner of multiple web servers used to maintain the content of your website and your website’s traffic.  There are some free web hosting services available but they have a lot of limitations.  Paid web hosting services, on the other hand, can cost you around $3 to more than $100 monthly.

You may want to sign up for a cheaper web hosting service at first while you are just testing the waters.  After all, you can always upgrade your account if you want more space for your web content.

Step Three: Upload Your Online Portfolio.  Post your portfolio online.  Bring together your best photographs and upload them to your website.  If you are not sure what to include in your online portfolio, ask your family and friends to help you out.  You can also ask for advice from other photography professionals you trust about this matter.

Remember to keep your portfolio versatile.  Your chosen photographs must appeal to a wide range of audience and to people of different lifestyles.  Your prospective clients will be, more often than not, coming from all walks of life and they usually want to see images that they can relate to.

Step Four:  Write Your Web Content.  What is a website without content?  The search for information is what drives people to cyberspace.  How will people know what you do and what your website is for without web content?

Content is very important not only in giving information about your business but also if you want search engines to find your website.  You would also need high quality content if you want to be ranked by search engines.  The higher your page rank, the higher the possibility of your potential clients finding you.

Some important web content you should not omit are your welcome message and relevant information about your photography business.  Your content will give your potential clients an idea about who you are, your craft, and your photography services so make sure to do it well.  Have somebody proofread your content before uploading it to your website.  It is very important that your content is free from spelling and grammatical errors.

Step Five: Use Website Templates.  There are web templates especially for photographers and photography websites.  These templates are very handy to have and easy to use especially for photographers who are greenhorns in this undertaking.  These specifically-designed templates can be used when you upload your content and photos.

The sites that offer specially-designed templates for photographers offer such for a monthly fee.  If you would want to have your photography business website custom made and you can’t do it yourself, you can hire a professional for this project.  There are many sites now on the internet where you can have freelancers bid on your project with due consideration for your prepared budget.

Step Six:  Advertise Your Photography Business Website.  Now that your photography business website is ready, make it known to the world.  You can maximize the potentials given by social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and others for such kind of ventures.

You can also advertise your website and your photography business by mentioning them in forums and other such opportunities.  Choose to post in forums in websites that are related to photography and those where your target market usually frequent.

For example, if you are into pet photography, you can try advertising your business in pet photography websites and other pet-related websites.

Step Seven:  Update Your Web Content Regularly.  You would need to update the contents of your website regularly to keep your visitors visiting your site again and again for new information.  You can post updates of your business activities or your business’ promos or new photographs.
Keeping your web content fresh and regularly updated is important so that search engines will love your website.  Maintaining high quality content is also a must not only for search engine results purposes but also to help build your brand favorably in the eyes of your prospective clients.

In this world where the internet and cyberspace are becoming a permanent fixture in the lives of many people, the only way to keep up with the changing demands of time is to maximize every opportunity that comes your way.  Creating a photography business website is a big leap, be it for a veteran or a newbie photographer.  There are certain responsibilities that come with having a website but a photographer often cannot afford to lose the chance of using cyberspace and all the opportunities that it offers for business.

I always include my course at the bottom of these articles via this link so you can get underway with your own photography customers when you’re ready.

…hope this is of some help,

Ray Baker