Click and Print: Photography Websites

As a photographer, you are up against stiff competition when it comes to getting gigs or jobs. Newspapers, magazines, weddings, family and student photos how do you reach the multitude of people who may be interested in hiring you? Portfolios are expensive and targeting the many different segments of the population who would benefit from your services is no simple marketing feat.

By building your own photography website to showcase your work and your services, you handle all these problems in one fell swoop.

Digital photography offers you the ability to share your work with the world. Many magazines and newspapers will only take submissions in .jpeg or .gif formats. The days of negatives, proof sheets, and slides are over. Though you may still choose to offer 35 millimeter prints or other specialty photo services, digital photography is where the money is in the industry.

Lucky for you! Digital photographs take less than a minute to upload to your web host. At variable qualities, you can showcase the different styles of photography at which you are proficient. Other things you can do with your photography site include:

• List hours and services and prices. If you are only available to work at night and on weekends, list this on your site. Also, list different services that you provide including wedding photography, baby and pregnancy pictures, family portraits, student photos, pet photography, and more. Listing prices is not a requirement, but something that is highly recommended. Offering a variety of packages with the option to customize will help potential customers know right away whether or not they can afford your services.
• Special deals or discounts. Monthly discounts or special deals for first time customers, discounts for repeat customers or multiple packages can also be displayed on your photography website. They may also be a good 'time clock' incentive if they are updated frequently and set to change within a week or less.
• Offer a subscription service. Another option you may consider is offering a subscription service for your photography through your site. Many need stock photography for their websites, brochures, flyers, et cetera. Some may even need these on a regular basis. Offering one time downloads and a subscription service with a wide net of types of photography may be one way to increase your sales revenue while shooting whatever you like and increasing your portfolio.
• Order prints. Opt for a shopping cart on your site and allow those who may have just stopped by to check you out to purchase a print for download instantly.
• Commission order forms. For customized orders or packages or to set up special shoots, you can design an order form for your photography website that will allow them to be as specific as they like about what exactly it is that they're looking for.
• Offer photographic services. List and define your services in detail. Some may not even realize that they are looking for the exact photographic service that only you can provide.
• Contact info. Include everything that a potential customer may need: email address, land line, cell phone, studio address.
• Part of the community. Connect to the rest of the photography community by offering a link page: photo supply sites, framers, videographers, et cetera.
• Be creative. Show your diversity, talent, and imagination. Inspire your clients to inspire you.

Madison Lockwood is a customer relations associate for ApolloHosting.com. She brings years of experience as a small business consultant to helping prospective clients understand the ways in which a website may benefit them both personally and professionally. Apollo Hosting provides website hosting, ecommerce hosting, vps hosting, and web design services to a wide range of customers. Established in 1999, Apollo prides itself on the highest levels of customer support.

Best Website Hosting - Compare Hosting Plans and Packages

Choosing the best website hosting provider can be a challenge. The website-hosting-advisor has come across thousands of companies that offer limitless products and services for website design hosting. A couple of basic steps to follow when searching for the best web host are: 1) Free or Paid Hosting and 2) Compare Host Plans.

Pay or Not to Pay?

Website-hosting-advisor has researched a large percentage of web sites that are free and are associated with the large portals such as Yahoo and AOL. The tools these businesses offer such as email, community interest portals and photo management software are straightforward and make setting up your site easy.

What is the downside to free website hosting? BANNER ADS! Website-hosting-advisor can not say it loud enough. Typically youll have to put up with banner ads on your homepage or other ads you dont get to pick; its how these businesses can afford to set up their infrastructure for free. You have no control over ads that show up on your site. If that is acceptable for you than a paid web hosting solution of $5/month or lower may be your best web hosting solution.

Most businesses want a web site that functions as an online brochure that provides information, but not sell its products. Standard packages are ideal for this type of site. Packages that offer e-commerce, media concentrated applications for video & audio, dedicated servers, and complex business necessities come at additional cost.

A large group of low price or discount hosts offering solutions below $5 and $15 per month. Other hosting solutions start above $15, and customer service is usually the primary difference between inexpensive and higher priced hosting solutions. Clarifying expectations ahead of time can mean the difference between great online experiences or completely frustrated event without support occurrence. The extra $10 per month may be worth the piece of mind it buys for your best web site host.

Comparing Hosts

Do you know whether you need a standard hosting plan or an ecommerce web solution? Take some time and visit several hosting companys web sites. Go over plan options and see which offer the services and support that provide your best site host criteria. Because of the similarities, hosting plans can become confusing. Most major providers have Compare Plans page you can print. Its good to print out the various packages and have them in hand while you shop.

Once you know whether you need a standard hosting plan or an eCommerce solution and whether price or premium hosting is right for you, its time to shop for your best website host. Website-hosting-advisor will tell you any of the major search engines will provide a multitude of responses with a query such as Web Hosting or eCommerce hosting. You can even narrow your search with more definition. A search for Cheap eCommerce hosting will yield most companies whose solutions fall in the low price category.

J.O. Moen is author and advisor of the wildly popular information site - Website-Hosting-Advisor

Website Creation Tips - How To Set Up A Website

If you are new to the internet or you just want to have your own presence on the web you may be wondering how you can set up your first domain name and website hosting account and what tools you will need for creating HTML pages and transferring files.

The process of creating your own website may seem daunting at first but its actually very easy and its essential that you master this skill if you are serious about earning a living on the internet. Without your own website you will find it much harder to generate consistent profits and long term success.

The first thing you will need is a domain name which is very important because you need to choose a name that accurately represents what you intend to use it for. Its best to use a dot com domain because this is what people are familiar with but as they are the most popular it can be hard to find names that are available so you may want to use a dot net or dot info domain (adding hyphens between words can find available names).

When you have decided which niche you want to target its important that you find out what search terms are used by your target market because if you include a few keywords in your domain name it can help you improve your rankings in the search engines. You can buy a domain name from a company such as Go Daddy.

The next thing you will need is a website hosting account which is also very important because you need to choose a service that provides sufficient disk space and data transfer as well as supporting all of the latest versions of PHP, Perl, JavaScript, and CGI. Its best to use a service that provides multiple domain names so that you can set up new websites in the future.

With website hosting accounts now available for as little as $3 per month for 5 gigabytes disk space and 50 gigabytes data transfer there really is no need to use a free service anymore. Most companies will also allow you to upgrade your account if you ever need more disk space or data transfer. You can buy website hosting from a company such as Host Excellence.

The next thing you will need is an HTML editor which is essential because it allows you to create and edit HTML pages which are used for your website. It uses a simple "what you see is what you get" (WYSIWYG) interface which allows you to quickly and easily create pages exactly how you want them without needing to use any HTML code.

There are many free tools that you can use but if you are serious about your business you really need to buy an HTML editor called Dream Weaver which is the most advanced software application available for creating websites. It has all of the essential features and many which are not available with free HTML editors.

The final thing you will need is an FTP client which is essential because it allows you to connect to a server and transfer files into your website hosting account. It allows you to either transfer files in ASCII or binary and also set permissions using the CHMOD feature. Without an FTP client you will have no way of transferring your HTML pages into your website hosting account.

There are many free tools that you can use but if you are serious about your business you really need to buy an FTP client called Cute FTP which is the most advanced software application available for transferring files. It has all of the essential features and many which are not available with free FTP clients.

There are of course other features of your website hosting which you will need to learn how to use such as how to set up an email account for your domain and how to create a MySQL database for a blog or forum. It may seem complicated but its actually very simple and you can always get support from your host if you need any help.

This article was written by Simon Akers who is the editor of the Marketing Oasis newsletter, a free internet marketing ezine packed with tips to help you succeed and increase your profits: http://www.MarketingOasis.com

Build A Web Site: Web Hosting And Site Builders Lesson 1

I know you have read it all over, "how to build a web site in less than 24 hours and start driving sales within minutes." You don't even have to look further, they pop up any time; the internet is full of them.

I know you have seen them, remember those very convincing sales letters that promise to reveal all the secrets behind using web hosting and site builders that would drive thousands of customers into our web sites that are ready to part with their cash the moment they click right in.

That is the kind of stuff that reminds me of my childhood. Do you remember that time when we were all young and nave? So nave that grandma would come along with her bed time stories that were designed to put as to sleep because we just couldn't fall to sleep by our self.

Remember those stories? Stories about how prince "so and so" would go out of his way to become a hero by risking his life in order to save his pretty princess. And we all know how such story would come to an end...and thereafter they lived happily ever after.

I don't know about you but the simple fact is that those were just stories; in reality there is no thing like "living happily ever after" Now it's possible to be happy most of the time but then there is always that occasional...Unfortunately it's sad that some of us tend to grow into our adult life clinging onto such myths and we never want to let them go.

And that is the same thing that is happening online. In order to build a web site that will thrive and succeed online, your first step, the first 'web hosting and site builders' lesson that you need to learn and understand is as simple as it gets.

Accept the reality, stop living and believing in those myths, face the facts, come to terms with online realities and what it takes to build a web site, at least the kind that will generate some kind of revenue:

1. Building a real web site takes time.

2. Not every other web hosting and site builders deliver superb results

3. It will cost you money to build a web site that works.

There are thousands of software programs out there that would promise to build a web site for you in a matter of minutes (that is true by the way, it very easy to build a 3 page web site in a matter of minutes) and then set it up and running. That's the furthest they can get. Beyond that there is a lot more in store.

Next time you see such convincing sales copies, just stop for a minute, stand up and take a walk. And then think...Face the realities! You know what to do, Right?

Joseph Nyamache is an Author and Webmaster specializing on web hosting and site builders That work. His site is devoted on providing information, tips and ideas on how to build a web business by providing great content that search engines love and humans thirst for. Visit www.your-inforcom.com to get your Free Special Report Now!