So here you are; you’ve shot a couple of weddings, things are on the up and up but your broke as sin. You dumped all your money on equipment didn’t you. You should be ashamed of yourself. You can rent equipment; you can’t rent a website. Your website is one of the most important tools in your bag (next to Facebook). Your prospective clients will form their first opinion of you solely from your website. For that reason alone it must be personable, clean, professional, and unique. We’re at a point in time where the photography industry is highly saturated with new photographers trying to get a piece of the pie. You have to stand out. It starts with your online presence.

Before I start this off I will say that I have strong favoritism towards Showit for many reasons. Hopefully you will learn these reason at the end of this article. The only prerequisite to this article is that you find out who you are as a person. Are you comfortable marketing YOU, or are you more comfortable hiding within a big company? You need to know the answers to these questions before you make the leap to the website. How do you find out? FastTrack Photographer.

Domain Name – Yes it starts with a domain name. If you know this stuff already then just skip down. Remember that we we’re ALL at this point. We weren’t born with the knowledge of webmasters. A domain name is http://www.example.com OR http://example.com Pick ONE version (WWW) or the other (NO WWW) and stick with it. It will prevent headaches down the road for you. Once you have a domain name you’ll need a hosting account. Now, I’m going to stop right here and say that you don’t need any of these to start a website. Head over to http://www.showitfast.com and create a free site with a free domain name. Just remember that the domain name they give you will not be pretty; http://example.showitsites.com You can also head over to Blogger and create a free blog there, but the same catch applies; free domain name. http://example.blogger.com

Hosting Account – A hosting account is a “server” which is just another computer located somewhere else that holds all your stuff including your website. With your own hosting account, you have your own domain name so when your URL (http://example.com) is typed it goes straight to your website on your hosting account (server). With me so far? With your own hosting account you can also host your own blog (http://example.com/blog). Sign up for Bluehost and you can get a year of hosting and a free domain name for about $80 a year (affiliate link).

Website Choices – When it comes down to actually deciding on what route to choose for a website, several things must be taken into consideration. Before I begin I will say that there is nothing wrong with template sites. They show the photos beautifully, and they are professionally designed. Templates usually come “pre-built” so all you have to do is put your text and photos in and your done! The only problem with this is that that template was built to cater to the masses, not built to cater to just one person.

However if you are looking to stand out from the crowd with a website that is truly unique, then Showit is the only way to go. I’ve made my own site. I’ve had a template site. I’ve seen how Livebooks, Bigfolio, WordPress, Blogger, Portfoliositez, Wix and other work. There isn’t another platform in existence that will give you the amount of freedom and flexibility to express yourself creatively like Showit does. If you thought Microsoft Front Page was “fun” to build with (albeit not “acceptable”), then you will love building with Showit. There are also a lot of features in Showit that you will not find in any other website builder or provider. Features such as +Sites and free updates are virtually non-existent in this industries current providers. 

Don’t take my word for it though. I implore you to go and try out some free options like WordPress and Blogger. You already have a hosting account. If you listened and signed up with Bluehost then you’ll find in your CPANEL, an app called “Simple Scripts.” This will auto-install WordPress for you. Find a theme, install it, tweak it, spend countless hours on it, and your done! There will come a time though where you want something more; something better. That’s when you may decide to upgrade to something like Livebooks or Bigfolio. You pay a pretty penny for a custom site, but then you may have to pay to have further changes made.

Do you see the pattern here? After going through and exhausting all these resources, in the end there still lies Showit. It’s the best of all worlds put together. Drag and drop simplicity, easily updated, one click publish, seo compliant, unlimited client sites, widgets to interact with your visitors, etc. What are you waiting for?

Download Showit through this link and receive the entire site of HD quality screen cast tutorials from Learn Showit. ($149 value!)

It’s the fact that you can produce your vision exactly.  To completely take a vision, and turn a black screen into a photographers web presence is so completely rewarding to me.  Showit Sites does have a learning curve, but in the end the fact remains; this is one powerful piece of software that will revolutionize the way websites are built.

Today, SIS Designs reached 500 hours in the program.  Over the last 4 months we’ve built out 17 Style Groups (templates), and are currently working with photographers and travel planners on completely unique designs that are tailored to fit their individual personalities.

Your web prescece plays fundamental role in your prospective clients first impression. Personalization cannot be achieved with a template based website provider, no matter how hard one may try. In order to be noticed, work on selling and presenting online your most valuable asset; you.

Our first ad comes to us out of Houston.

To recap we have an apartment complex that holds a “quarterly photography event,” which “may” turn into a “bi monthly” gig. They want it done for free, and they want free 8×10′s for every apartment unit.

Fabulous.

I will post when the update is released, and a full review will be coming shortly thereafter.

There are literally 100′s of places who offer website templates nowadays and the problem we’re running into now is, there is no way to stand out and be unique.  Website templates are in no way wrong.  They are a low cost, ultra effective way of establishing a presence quickly. Put quite simply, they are fantastic for photographers who are just starting out.  Amongst the most inexpensive, and most impressive is Portfoliositez. They burst onto the website template scene in 2006 and since that time have rapidly become a favorite amongst photographers in the wedding and portrait industry.

However, there will come a time when your ready to have something completely custom, and personalized to fit you. With templates though, everyone who buys the template can only change the same things. All begin to look “the same,” but the colors are different. Templates won’t allow you to add your own graphics, or add your own personalized mini client sites, or completely change the way the photos are displayed.

Until now.

Enter David Jay and Showit Sites.

Showit Sites is a rich website building application, which allows users to build and deploy a Flash based website with zero knowledge of coding or html. You may remember the short review that was given a couple months ago when the app was still in beta.  Well, since coming out of beta the app has grown by leaps and bounds and continues to impress with every update that is put out.

Being a Style Group Designer, I’ve spent 100′s of hours working with the application.  All I can say is that I am glad that I have a tool that is now capped only by my imagination.  For years we have been limited by the software to produce vision, and now the software is no longer the bottleneck!

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Coming Up Next:  Your Last Stop for a Custom Blog – Flosites

Enjoy.

Your ready to start designing using Photoshop CS2.  Although, if you want to build a house with a hammer instead of a nail gun, then go right ahead.  I used to spend my days in Photoshop designing, until I happened upon Foto Fusion.  FF literally shaved my design time in half.   I could go on-and-on about Foto Fusion, but we’ll save that for a different post.  Other programs for album design include Adobe InDesign, Photojunction, and Yervant Page Gallery (which is template based).

After a typical wedding, I will have roughly 100-200 Keyframe (favorite) photos.  These are the building blocks of the couples wedding album.  The rest of the photographs from the wedding will serve as “fillers.”  The actual design process is completely freestyle, and is really based on your own creativity and personal tastes.  You have to really visualize the spread before you build it.  Each spread should have 1-2 Keyframes, and anywere from 3-7 fillers.

So how long should this take you?  I typically spend 30-45 minutes on a spread (reduced from an hour per spread using Foto Fusion).  Most of you are more than likely shaking your heads; but why?  Because it shouldn’t take that long?  Why should it not take that long to build a spread for a couples wedding album that will be passed down from generation to generation and will more than likely be around for over 100 years?  Why would you would want an album design that’s thrown together in an hour?  Sadly, this is considered the norm nowadays.  Is it fair to charge the couple $8,000 to shoot their wedding, only to invest an hour of your time designing a wedding album?  Reduce your time editing to allow more album design time.  It’s the final presentation from you as a photographer and your client’s deserve nothing less than the best.

You should already have an idea of what pictures to include, and not to include in the album.  This comes from actually opening your eyes when your shooting a wedding, and communicating with the bride and groom.  Is there a special friend of the bride?  Did the best man save the grooms life?  Is the FOB terminally ill, and this may be the last time everyone is together?  Did the MOB construct something special for the couple out of paper-mache?  Those are the important things that you need to take note of.  Those tidbits of information will make the album design process personalized to that individual client.  The more personalized your album design becomes, the more value that gets added to it, resulting in a higher priced album.  It’s like buying a CD.  The CD itself doesn’t cost much, but the content inside is what’s worth it.

Previously : Part 1-Pre-face

Never fear paddawon.

Using the Internet Sharing application built into Windows Mobile Smartphones on allows one to stay connected in the event of an emergency (albeit at roughly 75 kb/s.)

Shown: T-Mobile Dash

T Mobile Dash tethered to a laptop, acting as a modem for internet access.