Website

Do I really need a website?

If you are just starting out establishing your web presence, a blog is the first step. A blog can be created and hosted free of charge on such platforms as Wordpress and Blogger and both systems or easy to use and look good. It can take literally minutes to set up a blog and get going and a few hours to get into the swing of it. How you run a blog will be discussed on the next page of this course.

Once you get a portfolio website set up, it is ideal if you get your blog integrated with your website forming part of your total web presence. So in the long run your blog should maintain the look and feel of the other parts of your site. You may start with a free blog on a platform, but as you build your website system, you will probably want your blog customized to look like the rest of your web site and sitting on the same URL.

At Africa Media Online we have done this with our main site sitting on our primary URL and The African Media Entrepreneur blog powered by Wordpress sitting on a derivative URL (look at the web site address bar on the top of your browser to see how the URL changes). Both the main site and the blog look as though they belong to the same web site.

Figure 2: The African Media Entrepreneur blog

Read more about blogs

Where does a website fit into marketing?

Rosh Sillars likes to explain your online marketing by comparing it to the solar system. He sees your website as the sun at the centre of the solar system. All your other online marketing is directed towards this point because it is on your web site that the conversion to sales actually happens.

Where your website is the Sun, your blog is like the earth moving around the sun. In your blog you give some insight into who you are, your personality.

The inner planets are content-sharing platforms like Flickr, YouTube, Vimeo and Audioboo where you present the content that you are generating - photos, footage and audio - and where people can see what you are producing and interact with it.

Finally, the outer planets which potentially reach the most people, are the social media platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter where you share what you are doing on a daily basis.

Figure 1: Your online marketing campaign can be compared to a solar system with your website as the sun

Elements of a photography website

There are a number of elements that can make up successful photography website. It is probably helpful to think of your website not as a single system but as an ecosystem, a composite of a number of systems that you build together over time. These can include:

• A blog
• A portfolio system
• A media management and sales system
• A content management system

In all likelihood you will start with one of these systems and then build it up over time.

A blog

If you are just starting out establishing your web presence, a blog is the first step. A blog can be created and hosted free of charge on such platforms as Wordpress and Blogger and both systems or easy to use and look good. It can take literally minutes to set up a blog and get going and a few hours to get into the swing of it. How you run a blog will be discussed on the next page of this course.

Once you get a portfolio website set up, it is ideal if you get your blog integrated with your website forming part of your total web presence. So in the long run your blog should maintain the look and feel of the other parts of your site. You may start with a free blog on a platform, but as you build your website system, you will probably want your blog customized to look like the rest of your web site and sitting on the same URL.

At Africa Media Online we have done this with our main site sitting on our primary URL and The African Media Entrepreneur blog powered by Wordpress sitting on a derivative URL (look at the web site address bar on the top of your browser to see how the URL changes). Both the main site and the blog look as though they belong to the same web site.

Figure 2: The African Media Entrepreneur blog

Read more about blogs

Portfolio system

The next step in building your website ecosystem is to add a portfolio system. A portfolio system is the kind of website system that majors on showcasing the best of your images. If you are a photographer majoring on assignments or selling fine art, then a portfolio system is the element of your website that you should start with.

Such a site can be custom developed. Although this will get you the results you want, it can be costly. There are also now a whole host of prepackaged systems out there that do this well. Livebooks was one of the first such systems, but has some competition from the likes of Wix and NeonSky. What is great about these systems is they know how to design beautiful looking sites that have impact and very importantly, they are search engine optimized, putting a lot of time and effort into making sure your site is near the front of the queue on search engines like Google.

If you want to do assignments, sell prints and create books, then a porfolio site may be all you need. Whether you are getting a site custom developed or you are selecting a pre-developed system, look for the following characteristics on your portfolio site:

Images display at brilliant quality

Some systems designed without consideration for the technical aspects of an image may dull images or over compress them. Get a system or a web designer who understands images. Your pictures must look good. That is the main thing.

Simple, neat and appealing to the eye

The most critical thing about a portfolio site is that it should present your work beautifully. It should also get straight to the point. Editors want to see your images, they do not have time to browse around clutter hoping to come across a link that will allow them to see your images. Avoid using 'Flash' front pages. Anything that is slow to load will be turned off. Your site is not there to impress fellow photographers, it is there to grab the attention of editors, gallery owners and others in the market that you want to reach quickly. Flash is not supported by all browsers and does not score well with search engines.

Ability to manage the site yourself

At the bare minimum you want the ability to upload images and create galleries. You do not want to be dependent on the web designer to perform these basic functions.

A media management and sales system

If your web site is the place where you are driving all your traffic and it is the place where sales transactions actually take place, then it is worth being ready for those transactions.

Let us think briefly about what you are trying to do here. There are two primary ways in which buyers can license images from you. Firstly, by assigning you to produce new work for them. That transaction on your web site is taken care of by your portfolio system.

Secondly, they can license work that you have already produced. That transaction is what is taken care of either by referring them to your stock agency, or by having your own media management and sales system.

There are a number of these systems on the market. Perhaps the best known is the US based Photoshelter system. At Africa Media Online we have developed the MEMAT system which is now in its third generation. If selling licenses to existing images is the core of your business, then such a system may be all you need. It may be the place to start, ahead of creating a blog or setting up a portfolio site.

Photographers who make the most of media management and sales systems

In our experience of almost a decade of providing such systems to photographers, those photographers who really benefit from such a system are those who have three fundamentals in place:

Large collection online

Firstly, they are highly dedicated to consistently building their collection of images online - you will only see a worthwhile return every month if you have in the region of 3,000 quality images or more online

Marketing

Secondly, they are dedicated to marketing their website through various means, driving traffic to the site

Turn around on queries

Finally, they are either highly available and have engaged with how they run the site themselves, or they employ someone to do that for them. While your site may have e-commerce allowing the buyer to purchase online for themselves, over 90% of sales tend to happen offline, so you need to be available

If you do not have those elements in place, it is probably worthwhile channeling these sales directly through to your stock agency where there are dedicated staff to respond speedily to requests. Stock sales are in large part about immediate availability and that usually means someone on the end of a phone line or responding to sales requests within half an hour. It is those who respond first who get the sales.

What to look for in a media management and sales system

If you are up for running your own online sales, then you do need to look for a system that has:

• a good search function that enables potential clients to search your images

• lightbox functionality where clients can save images they are interested in

• the quality of the image display needs to be good

• a simple, neat set-up that is appealing to the eye

• no 'flash' front pages, even though they are favoured by photographers

• a way of ordering, purchasing and downloading images

• the ability to upload images

• the ability to edit the metadata in your images online

• the ability to create galleries

• the ability to build a database of clients and manage them

• the ability to download high res images yourself

Some database sites may only allow you to upload low resolution images and if a client wants to order an image, they need to e-mail you to get it. This kind of site can only be used for managing a stock photography business if you always have someone available to check e-mails and supply orders the same day.

Content management system

The final type of website system that is worth knowing about is called a Content Management System (CMS). You would add a CMS to your website if you are wanting to generate lots of fairly static information pages. This site, Shutha.org, runs on an open source CMS called Drupal. At Africa Media Online we use Wordpress as a CMS for sites such as The African Media Entrepreneur and The Digital Heritage Manager. Wordpress is not just a blog system, but can also be a full CMS. And there are other sophisticated open source CMS' out there such as Joomla.

If you are selling printed products, running training, providing digital darkroom services or selling wedding photography packages, then a CMS may be an important system to add to your website ecosystem.