The Importance of Creating a Photography Portfolio Website
Since the popularity of smartphones and digital cameras, photography is now an activity that anyone can do. Without your own portfolio website, it can be hard to stand out from all the other amateur and professional photographers out there.
Effective photo sharing has always been a challenge. Before the advent of digital photography technology, showing friends and family your snaps meant you needed to develop film at a drugstore or lab. Early digital cameras required people to manually transfer photos to computers via a cable and then upload them to third-party photo hosting platforms.
Even the advent of social media didn’t make photo sharing immediately easier: These channels were text-heavy at first and weren’t necessarily public platforms that reached a lot of people. Today, displaying photos online can still be challenging due to privacy concerns and the ways in which social media algorithms dictate what posts are sent to users.
Creating a photography website is the best way to create a permanent, public home for your portfolio. It allows you to share your images with anyone, without relying on social media algorithms or design restrictions. With a photography website, you have control over how your work is presented and who sees your work. As a result, websites are often the first step in establishing a professional photography career or business.
While some photographers choose to sell prints of the photos they’ve taken, others prefer to use their websites as a venue to showcase their best work to attract more clients. Other photographers choose to start a website once they are more established and ready to take their business to the next level. No matter why you launch a website, sharing your portfolio online helps you build connections and add beauty to the world.
While some photographers choose to sell copies of the photos they’ve taken Others prefer to use their websites as a place to showcase their best work to attract more clients. Other photographers choose to start a website once they are more established and ready to take their business to the next level. No matter why you launch a website, sharing your portfolio online helps you build connections and add beauty to the world.
Designing a Photography Website
Your photography portfolio is your professional business card. Designing a photography website is different from designing a website for writing or other small business. Image display requires specialized templates that emphasize images over text. You may need to edit your photos before uploading them to make them look sharp and professional online.
Photographers launch websites for many different reasons. For example, a photographer might be looking to grow her business in a niche area, such as engagement or portrait photography, and will create a website that emphasizes this type of work. Other photographers can use your website as a hub for scheduling photo shoots. Some photographers view their website as an online portfolio to send to potential clients, thus showcasing a variety of photography styles and projects.
Websites for photographers are not always set up to promote services or sell tangible goods. . In fact, some people create a photography website simply because they are proud to display their art. Identifying your goals in advance will help shape the design of your photography website. For example, if you’re looking to earn some extra cash, you could set up an online store and sell prints of your best photos.
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Selling Photos and Prints Online
Selling photos and prints is part of a smart business strategy, as it can help you expand your brand and audience, while creating an additional revenue stream for photographers who they work. Your clients will appreciate being able to purchase additional prints of photo sessions you’ve done together to give as gifts. Other customers may love a photo you’ve taken and want a print to frame, or choose to license a print for an editorial or advertising project.
To sell print images, you’ll need to create a website of photography that allows you to implement e-commerce activities. Squarespace offers website templates and different subscription levels to meet the needs of every photographer. For example, its store options offer built-in checkout capabilities that calculate shipping and tax, as well as the ability for sellers to choose shipping and payment methods.
Squarespace also offers print-on-demand extensions which are useful for photographers looking to expand their business. Those extensions handle shipping and inventory fulfillment, saving photographers a lot of time. Print-on-demand products also often provide different canvas textures on which to print photos, as well as photo book options.
Selling photo prints may not be for everyone, at least. not right away.You’ll have the best luck selling prints once you’ve developed a following, a strong customer base, and a marketing strategy to a broader audience.
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