how to build a photography website
TRANSCRIPT
Hello Photographer!
Welcome to Video Mozek
In this presentation, I will show you step-by-step what
you need to do to build a photography website from
scratch.
1.INTRODUCTION
Why Do You
Need a
Photography
Website?
WHY YOU NEED A PHOTOGRAPHY WEBSITE?
We are experiencing an incredible shift in human and
media relations. The internet is the perfect place for
starters, medium sized and professional showcase their
work and live in constant balance.
A website it’s a must for every business nowadays. And
you, as a photographer, should really see yourself as a
business.
Nowadays, the costs of creating a website are extremely
low, and you should start creating one by spending less
than 5 dollars per month!
WHY YOU NEED A PHOTOGRAPHY WEBSITE?
Famous photographers already have their own website
and it is the best way to showcase your work.
Having your own photographer website makes it easy for
you to build your own brand, work as you want, connect
to clients and be found more easily around the web.
Also, new and rising photographers are discovering the
power of internet and are working their way up to the top!
Don’t be left behind and let me show you how to create a
photography website
WHY YOU NEED A PHOTOGRAPHY WEBSITE?
You can build a website for:
▸ Market your personal brand as a photographer
▸ Market your photography studio brand
▸ For your personal portfolio
▸ For you studio portfolio
▸ Sell your work directly to interested clients
▸ Etc.
2.SETTING UP
YOUR WEB
HOSTING
ACCOUNT
The first step
into building a
photography
website
SETTING UP YOUR WEB HOSTING ACCOUNT
1) Your first step is creating and setting up your
web hosting account. Go to Bluehost.com and
choose “Get Started Now”
Bluehost offers great quality service such as high-speed page loading, amazing
customer support and it is a brand already known and trusted in the market.
SETTING UP YOUR WEB HOSTING ACCOUNT
2) Done that, it is time
to pick the plan that
best suits your needs.
Choose the starter plan
if you’re just starting out
or the plus plan if you
want a more robust
foundation for your
website.
SETTING UP YOUR WEB HOSTING ACCOUNT
3) Now it’s time to give name to your newborn photography website! Choose a
domain name that best suits your needs, brand and aspirations. Bluehost.com
plan offers a single free domain, so you don’t have to worry about having
to buy one. It’s yours! :)
(If your domain is already registered, Bluehost will suggest you other domain
names.)
SETTING UP YOUR WEB HOSTING ACCOUNT
Tips for crafting a good website domain name:
▸Prefer shorter domain names. Names between 7-13
letters perform better. But there is no right or wrong here
▸They need to make sense and be easy to remember
▸They must contain a strong brand name
▸Avoid symbols such as *, /, #, etc. on your domain names
SETTING UP YOUR WEB HOSTING ACCOUNT
4) Fill up your information, choose additional services you
may like, put your payment information and choose
submit!
Create a password you’re sure you won’t forget and we’re
done here.
5) After completing the web hosting set up, you’ll be emailed
with your credentials and you’ll be ready for the next step:
Installing WordPress!
3.INSTALLING
WORDPRESS
Giving your
photography
website the
platform it needs
INSTALLING WORDPRESS
1) Go to Bluehost.com and click on the tab “Login”. Done
that, enter your login credentials that were sent to your
email and log into your Bluehost account.
1) Go to Bluehost.com and click on the tab “Login”. Done
that, enter your login credentials that were sent to your
email and log into your Bluehost account.
INSTALLING WORDPRESS
2) Click on the website tab, inside your CPannel.
INSTALLING WORDPRESS
3) Click on the “Install Now” button and go to the next step.
When the next screen appear, click on the “Install” green button
again.
INSTALLING WORDPRESS
INSTALLING WORDPRESS
3) Click on the “Install Now” button and go to the next step.
When the next screen appear, click on the “Install” green button
again.
INSTALLING WORDPRESS
4) Choose the domain you’ve just registered and click on
“Check Domain”
INSTALLING WORDPRESS
5) Mark both
checkboxes “Show
Advanced
Options” and “I
Agree to…”. Now,
Give Your Website
a name, your email
and choose a
password.
These will be your
WordPress website
login credentials.
Done that, click on
“Install Now”.
INSTALLING WORDPRESS
6) Your download is almost ready! Go to the next step.
INSTALLING WORDPRESS
7) Once your installation is completed, you must see this orange bar.
Click on the “view credentials” button.
INSTALLING WORDPRESS
8) You will be redirected to your installations screen. Click on the View button.
Then, you will have all the information you need to access your
WordPress dashboard. Go to the next step.
INSTALLING WORDPRESS
9) Click on your login link and type your credentials to access your account.
INSTALLING WORDPRESS
10) We are done installing WordPress!
Now you’ll need to login into your WordPress Dashboard, but wait! We’ll cover it
in the next section. Now, time for the next step: Installing a theme.
4.INSTALLING A
THEME
Giving your
photography website
the look your brand
needs
INSTALLING A THEME
After installing WordPress, it is time to give your photography website the look
you want. Before we continue, you should know a few things.
Just like anything in the world, there are free and premium themes available for
WordPress. Premium themes are far much better than the free ones, of course.
My personal opinion: you should really invest your money and buy
yourself a premium theme.
Premium themes are a must when it comes to a photography website, so you
really should buy one, especially when it’s so cheap (most themes cost less
than $60)
(I’ve included a bonus at the end of this content with my favorite places to find premium
WordPress themes)
INSTALLING A THEME
1) Login in your WordPress dashboard using your credentials from
the previous step.
INSTALLING A THEME
2) This is your WordPress Dashboard. This is the place where you
will control everything about your website: create pages, create blog
posts, upload videos & images… Everything will be done here.
INSTALLING A THEME
If this is your first time, you might get a little intimidated by the
dashboard. However, there is no need to panic: the dashboard is
pretty intuitive and you must be able to learn it in less than a day.
INSTALLING A THEME
3) To change the
actual theme
(which is a mess)
and install the
theme you’ve just
bought, you should
go to
“Appearance >
Themes”.
INSTALLING A THEME
4) Now you can change to other WordPress default themes, browse
through free themes or install your premium WordPress theme. Click
on “Add New” to add a new theme.
INSTALLING A THEME
5) Upload the .zip file from the theme you’ve just bought and click
on “Install Now”. After that, just wait and after the installation is
done, activate your theme!
6) Your WordPress site is now set up and and ready to rock! Be
proud because you now have your own photography website and
the possibilities are endless.
5.WHAT TO DO
NEXT?How to manage your
photography website
UPDATE ALL OF YOUR PLUGINS
WordPress is one of the most customizable CMS on the market right
now and most of its functionality comes from the 39,000+ plugins
available for it.
On the other hand, installing a lot of plugins can reduce your
page load speed time, crash your website and even be a door for
hackers.
That’s why it’s very important to update all of your plugins.
Whenever a plugin has an update available, you should see a
message from WordPress notifying you that updates are available.
Just click on the notification and choose the update option.
UPDATE ALL OF YOUR PLUGINS
SETTING UP YOUR HOMEPAGE
Whenever you build a new WordPress website, the default homepage
of your site is set to be your latest blog posts (if you have a blog) and
it can be messy.
You need to change manually to what we call a “static homepage”.
Your homepage will vary depending on the theme you’ve chosen for
your website. In most cases, there is a readme.htm file that will
guide you through the process step by step.
If you’re using a free theme that does not teach you how to do it, go
to “Settings > Reading” and change to your desired page by
selecting “a static page” and by choosing your desired page.
SETTING UP YOUR HOMEPAGE
CHANGE YOUR GENERAL SETTINGS
WordPress comes with some messy default general settings. In order
to change that, just go to “Settings > General” and change
everything you want. Custom it your way!
Give your photography website a name, choose a sublogo, try to put
keywords that identify your work as a photographer. Use your
creativity and do your stuff!
CHANGE YOUR GENERAL SETTINGS
CHANGE HOW YOUR PERMALINK LOOKS
WordPress default permalinks are 100% mess. I bet you don’t want
your links to look like
www.yourphotographywebsite.com/99s88523nd88.
In order to change that, you must go to “Settings > Permalinks” and
change the option to “Post Name” or “Custom” if you want a
certain customized permalink.
CHANGE HOW YOUR PERMALINK LOOKS
DOWNLOAD IMPORTANT PLUGINS
There are certain plugins you should download that are “a must” to
every WordPress website. I’ve listed here all the plugins that I
personally consider almost vital for every website to succeed.
DOWNLOAD IMPORTANT PLUGINS
▸ Yoast SEO: Higher the chances of getting your movie or service
found on the web. SEO is what we call Search Engine
Optimization and should be a must for every filmmaker
▸ Google Analytics by Yoast: Connect with your Google Analytics
property and get the stats of who is visiting your site
▸ Akismet: Protect your website from spammers and others threats
▸ Post Tags and Categories for Pages: Adds the tags and
categories functionality for your blog. Makes it easy for you to
organize your content.
▸ TinyMCE Advanced: Powerful text editor.
▸ Wordfence Security: Protect your site from threats and hackers
6.WHERE TO FIND
PREMIUM
THEMES
The best places
to buy your
photography
website themes
ENVATO MARKETPLACE (THEME FOREST)
If you’re a photographer, chances are you’ve already heard of Envato & Theme Forest. There
are a lot of amazing themes for photography website, especially under the Photography and
Photographer categories.
MOJO MARKETPLACE
MOJO Marketplace is the partner of Bluehost.com. It offers some pretty impressive WordPress
and has some good tech templates. You should look for photography and photographer website
templates and find some good stuff too!
ELEGANT THEMES
Elegant Themes is a WordPress Theme Marketplace recently new that is already
shaking the market. Some experienced users claim that it offers the best cost-benefit
relation. Elegant Themes offers a more classic and clean templates. If you like a more
clean and elegant approach, this could be a great site for you.
BONUS.HOW TO UPLOAD YOUR
PHOTOS TO YOUR
WEBSITE
How to upload your
amazing photos to your
website
UPLOADING YOUR PHOTOS TO YOUR WEBSITE
As a bonus content, I’m going to show you how to upload your photos
to your photography website.
Uploading your photos to your website will store than in completely
HQ and full resolution.
1) Login into your WordPress Dashboard with your previous login
information
UPLOADING YOUR PHOTOS TO YOUR WEBSITE
2) Go to “Media > Add New” on your WordPress sidebar menu.
UPLOADING YOUR PHOTOS TO YOUR WEBSITE
3) Drop your files or click on the “Select Files” button. You can either
choose to upload a single file or select multiple ones. It’s your choice!
UPLOADING YOUR PHOTOS TO YOUR WEBSITE
4) Wait your files to upload and you’re done! Now, check your
WordPress website gallery and you should see your files uploaded
UPLOADING YOUR PHOTOS TO YOUR WEBSITE
5) You can now embed your fotos on your posts, organize them by
galleries, themes, photoshoots, etc.
THANK YOU!I hope you’ve found this presentation helpful. I’ve tried to sum up
the best practices for creating a photography website. Leave a
comment if you’ve found it useful and helpful!
Thanks for your time.