Why I do this I don't know because I've rarely sell anything unless I show it somewhere locally which I don't do unless it falls in my lap or someone asks for a print for a charity auction. Maybe when I retire I'll put more effort into it but monetizing would make it feel like work and less an outlet for me vs some of you make a really good living at it.
Anyway, also cross posting to Nikon forum since that's largely what I shoot these days.
Seabassius wrote:
Why I do this I don't know because I've rarely sell anything...
There are certain things in life you do purely for yourself, simply because the process of making or doing them feels fun, satisfying, and a little exciting. Great site, by the way.
Seabassius wrote:
I spent the last weekend updating and changing the layout of my website and thought I'd share. Would love feedback and see what others have done.
I just took a look at your site. It is a visually attractive, photo-centric site, and one can see a lot of your work quickly on it. I think you’ve done a good job.
Since you asked for feedback, I’ll share one thing I noticed. I’ve like to see a couple of things added to your left side menu. One might be a page about you! It doesn’t have to be extensive, but I think that visitors might well wonder who you are, what you do, and why. I think I might also add something like a “Purchase” link that briefly explains how to purchase prints at your site, whether licenses are available, and perhaps what buyers should expect in a print from you.
There’s an idea that return visits to a site a more likely if something changes on the site — perhaps a new featured photo at the top of the page, a quick note about what you are up to, or similar.
That aside, I think you have done a nice job of producing a visually appealing site.
I'd probably get rid of the "search" and "browse" options, they are cluttering and serve no real use to the average visitor. Your galleries are your default way to "browse" and should be!
I would consider adding something personal beyond your photos, if only an "about" page at a minimum. If a rando were to find this site and really liked the work, they would probably want to know a little more about you. Same with a "contact" page, I've made some great connections simply from having a means for someone to reach out.
I'm sure you've poked around my site a time or two, but I'll explain some of the reasons I made it in the first place, ranked by order of importance to me.
1) A permanent, public repository of some of my favorite shots
2) A way to connect with people both on the creative side of the community and the business side
3) A repository of opinions so that I can simply link to my exhaustive thoughts on a subject instead of rehashing 100 times
4) A way to sell prints (very small part of why)
5) A way to provide some passive income (becoming more successful than I realized it would)
The thing that drives traffic to my site passively is my blog, simply because Squarespace is very good at SEO in the background. I get about 12,000 visits per month simply from people looking for a review or opinion about something. That they see my photo galleries is a plus to me, because they would have never found my site otherwise. Very rarely, a random visit will turn into a print sale, but that's very rare. More often than not, those come from people I know or acquaintances.
Making a blog post is really no more effort than making a long FM post at the end of the day but the ROI is far higher than posting it here
I was sticking to just basic comments above, but if you want traffic (and not everyone does — for some a site is literally just a repository), changing and updating content is pretty critical. If you want people to come back frequently, they need to expect that they'll see something new if they do.
Another important thought, assuming that you are interested in generating traffic: Make sure you are very active on social media platforms. That can take the form of sharing photographs (with some comments, perhaps, along with links back to your site), but it also requires some attention to interaction on your part. That means responding to comments and "likes," commenting and liking other work that you think is interesting... and in the current times most likely building a line between your photographic online presence and any non-photographic presence that you might use to discuss controversial non-photographic subjects. (Having more than one social media persona can help.)
Selling work via a website isn't as straightrorward as some might hope. A decade or more ago I would regularly be contacted by people who did internet searches, came across my work, and wanted to license it, often for rather profitable uses. But things have changed now, and that is far less likely to happen. It is also rue with print sales, FWIW.
There's no one right way to do this, in part because there's not just one reason for doing it.
I don't 'sell' on my site, nor do I seek random SEO traffic. It's just a portfolio site to point specific people I choose to connect with, to where to go to see more.
Slideshow is an Overview, but I'd changed the overall site navigation to primarily highlight my Film/TV industry work (while the other genres are now secondary).
I don't 'sell' on my site, nor do I seek random SEO traffic. It's just a portfolio site to point specific people I choose to connect with, to where to go to see more.
Slideshow is an Overview, but I'd changed the overall site navigation to primarily highlight my Film/TV industry work (while the other genres are now secondary).
That works well for the purpose you describe. There are some striking images there.
RoamingScott wrote:
I'd probably get rid of the "search" and "browse" options, they are cluttering and serve no real use to the average visitor. Your galleries are your default way to "browse" and should be!
I would consider adding something personal beyond your photos, if only an "about" page at a minimum. If a rando were to find this site and really liked the work, they would probably want to know a little more about you. Same with a "contact" page, I've made some great connections simply from having a means for someone to reach out.
Making a blog post is really no more effort than making a long FM post at the end of the day but the ROI is far higher than posting it here
gdanmitchell wrote:
I was sticking to just basic comments above, but if you want traffic (and not everyone does — for some a site is literally just a repository), changing and updating content is pretty critical. If you want people to come back frequently, they need to expect that they'll see something new if they do.
I don't 'sell' on my site, nor do I seek random SEO traffic. It's just a portfolio site to point specific people I choose to connect with, to where to go to see more.
Slideshow is an Overview, but I'd changed the overall site navigation to primarily highlight my Film/TV industry work (while the other genres are now secondary).
Yeah, I mainly use it as a place to point people too when they ask. I'm in wealth management in my day job and we're pretty highly regulated. Even though I don't really do any "business" on my site I have to disclose on my filings. A blog and certain traffic seeking activities would just cause me more headaches than not. Mainly a place for me to see my work as a professional might and then share with family, friends, and those that ask. I do like the idea of an about page and I did think about getting rid of that search and browse like Scott mentioned. Appreciate all the feed back and thanks for sharing other sites. I appreciate looking at them.
Cliff L. wrote:
Here's mine, although I'm guilty of not having updated it or my blog for a long time. It's getting costly to maintain, so I may not bother keeping it much longer.
Are you spending a lot of money? I saw web hosting at NameCrane for 8 USD per year and premium DNS hosting at IncogNET for 5 USD per year. Some registrars charge at or near cost for domain names.
Nice job Lance, especially considering that SmugMug can get complicated for many and third-party customization can get expensive. I like the layout and mix of images - really good photography. Well done.
gdanmitchell wrote:
That works well for the purpose you describe. There are some striking images there.
Thank you for your feedback. It's tricky with the film/TV stuff because I can only post the images that were released (as opposed to the ones I may have felt were better, but were not released to the public). So I have to wait until long after the productions have been broadcast/screened before I could even do that. The concert and other images were my personal shots so I can share whichever ones I want of those.
I'd also forgotten to mention the other use on my site which is also crucial for the work I do: Behind-the scenes, private and automated image delivery. I use this only for the Film/TV producers, show-runners and publicists who are specifically authorized to access the daily Film/TV stills for their marketing.
I like the feature where I can add the email addresses of each person, and once the gallery is saved, an 'Invite' is automatically sent to each person. Then they accept it, and create their own login/password based on their email address.
Once they're in, they can access all the gallery shoots they'd worked on based on the production and download any/all them as .zip files, receiving direct download links to their emails. I can also see which gained access or not. Then, my job is done!
That new feature had saved me so many headaches compared to years before, when I had to manually email the people with specific instructions, and also check to see whether they'd downloaded the images or not. I've had some emailing my 9 months after wrap(!) asking me for links to download images. Now, I can just check in the folder settings and see who already has access (accepted the invite and logged in) or not. No more emailing/babysitting. That feature alone was worth the value of the site (that, and unlimited image storage).
Yeah, I mainly use it as a place to point people too when they ask. I'm in wealth management in my day job and we're pretty highly regulated. Even though I don't really do any "business" on my site I have to disclose on my filings. A blog and certain traffic seeking activities would just cause me more headaches than not. Mainly a place for me to see my work as a professional might and then share with family, friends, and those that ask. I do like the idea of an about page and I did think about getting rid of that search and browse like Scott mentioned. Appreciate all the feed back and thanks for sharing other sites. I appreciate looking at them....Show more →
Yeah, I totally get that. Interesting coincidence you should mention wealth management, because my 'main' decades-long career is in design/production, now creating collateral for the financial services industry/institutions. Compliance is a big part of my work with them too.
But yeah, my site is mainly for portfolio, but as I'd also added in another comment that I forgot to mention, it's also for confidential private delivery of images for the Film/TV clients. It's a different dynamic than selling, per se.
I'm also usually not a fan of leading people off of my site, but in this case, one part of my site required it for what I wanted to show -- for my 'Credits' page. I list my full list of credits on a page already, but also clicking on an IMDb icon there, takes the viewer over to my official IMDb Profile to see my Film/TV credits there and learn more about the productions. I just had to make sure that the page opened in another tab (and not in the same tab to override my site). Then, they can close that IMDb tab and still return to my site without losing it.
Nice work, Lance, with both your photos and your site!
I'm in a similar situation (your quote below). One of these days I'm hoping to come up with a clear plan for my site and be able to dedicate some serious time to putting that plan into action. Of course I've been saying that for years!
Why I do this I don't know because I've rarely sell anything unless I show it somewhere locally which I don't do unless it falls in my lap or someone asks for a print for a charity auction. Maybe when I retire I'll put more effort into it but monetizing would make it feel like work and less an outlet for me vs some of you make a really good living at it.
mcbroomf wrote:
Mine is pretty elementary, The free Adobe Portfolio (with the photo plan) as a front page then links to my Google galleries https://mbroomfield.myportfolio.com/galleries
I think you might need to copy/paste the link, or use the WWW link below
Some really cool stuff in there, I was just going through the photos of the year and the boats in the frozen harbor was striking.
Now, I can just check in the folder settings and see who already has access (accepted the invite and logged in) or not. No more emailing/babysitting. That feature alone was worth the value of the site (that, and unlimited image storage).